Fatal Bargain (13 page)

I just hope he doesn’t drive too fast when they speed away from the mansion, thought Lacey. I just hope they catch Kevin and take him with them. They have to do that. My parents have to have one whole child.

“Take me,” she said to the vampire.

In a businesslike way she said to the rest, “Hurry on. There’s no time to waste. My brother is down there. Take him home with you. Get going.”

T
HIS TIME IT WAS
for real. They would go. She would stay.

The others touched Lacey. Stared. Rested a hand briefly on her shoulder. But they did not hug or kiss. They were too stunned. Too fearful.

“But we won’t remember you!” cried Sherree. “I have to remember you! I want to be a better person. I want to have you to go by.”

Her gift to me, thought Lacey. I accept. If she were permitted to remember, she would remember me, and be a better person for it.

But they won’t remember. They will walk out that door and not remember. All their lives, as they go on in safety and joy, it will be because of me. And they won’t remember.

Lacey thought of herself as dead, lying in a cemetery, but with a blank stone because nobody remembered. She was just a granite slab to mow around.

She did not cry. She had made her decision. It felt firm and right to her, though sad.

She thought of the days in which we honor the vanished: Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Presidents’ Day. I never honored anybody, thought Lacey. I just went to the sales at the department stores.

I forgot them. I live because they died.
And I forgot them.
As I will be forgotten. As I will forget myself.

Lacey felt that being forgotten was worse than anything.

To be good, and do right, and yet disappear with the rising sun.

Bobby cleared his throat. “Lacey?” he said.

She managed a smile.

“I wish we could go out. I always wanted to go out with you.”

Lacey was amused. Bobby actually believed that it would make her feel better to know that he, Bobby, had considered her as a date. Not asked, of course. Not actually phoned. But taken it into his mind.

“Thanks, Bobby,” she said, being just a fraction sarcastic.

Athletic swing intact, Bobby turned to leave.

Roxanne whispered, “Oh, Lacey! I guess I should have volunteered. It’s all on you. It’s so unfair.” She tried not to cry.

Lacey could have been mean. She could have said, Yes, you should have, you rotten person!

Lacey wanted to say it. But even though nobody would remember, and the words would be erased as if they had never been spoken, she did not say anything mean.

“It’s okay, Roxanne,” said Lacey kindly. “Just be sure you get Kevin.”

Roxanne had a task to do now, and it strengthened her; Roxanne was a girl who needed a purpose. She moved quickly toward the door.

Zach did not get close to Lacey. He gave her a sort of salute. She understood that he was eager to forget, that Zach, too, knew he should have volunteered, should have fought, should have remained steadfast against this vampire. Zach was practically leaning down the stairs, getting himself out the dining room window, so ready to forget that it might not work for him; he might be the only one to remember.

What will be worse? thought Lacey. It will be terrible to forget…but to remember: To remember all that you could have done and didn’t…perhaps that will be worst of all.

Randy gave her an awkward pat with his bunched fist, the way boys greet each other. It was hardly the motion for a date to give the girl he was leaving behind. He knew it after he’d done it, and was upset, and did not know what to do next.

He’ll never know what to do next, thought Lacey. He’ll be one of those people that’s always a social nuisance. But he tried. He’ll always try.

She hugged Randy, and only Randy.

Randy was deeply moved, even thrilled.

She was a human sacrifice who accepted him, Randy, for her last human touch in the world.

Zach was not leaning toward the door in order to forget. He was leaning in order to remember. Zach’s well-ordered family used many Post-it notes on refrigerator doors and medicine cabinet mirrors and car dashboards so that they would forget nothing in their busy lives. He had, of course, a thin pad of adhesive note squares in his pocket and a tiny pencil, so he could jot down important thoughts and destinations.

To be sure he did not abandon Lacey here, Zach had written instructions to himself.

Call Police.

Call Fire Department.

Call Mr. and Mrs. James.

Lacey is in the Mall House alone. Get her out.

Zach would have been crushed to find how low an opinion of him Lacey had formed.

Sherree liked simple solutions.

When Sherree was depressed, she made no attempt to solve her problems. She just went shopping.

When Sherree felt less successful and less interesting than other girls in her class, she made no attempt to study harder or develop hobbies. She just put on her favorite music and danced.

She was not in a position to go shopping tonight.

Nor did dancing seem like a solution to Lacey’s internment with the vampire.

There were only two other things on earth that interested Sherree: boys and cars.

The boys had been spectacularly unsuccessful at rescuing anybody.

So Sherree thought
car.

She would drive the Land Rover right up the porch and into the house. A Land Rover was the kind of vehicle that could knock down walls, weak ones, at least, and this house was destined for that anyway. It would surely distract the vampire to have a car driving into his home. Sherree would lean on the horn and attract lots of attention and people would come and finish the rescue for her.

It would be very exciting.

Sherree had always wanted to drive in a demolition derby, and, of course, she belonged to a family where the slightest scratch on a car sent them into frenzied phone calls to the body shop, so this was a childhood dream come true.

Randy had a different view of the situation. He had brought a camcorder and, stupidly, left it in the Land Rover. But the point was, the camera was there and waiting for them. He was sure that vampires were afraid of having their pictures taken.

He would advance on them, holding his camcorder like a shield before him, and film them, and they would flee.

Lacey would be his forever.

Lacey.

How brave she was.

She could have been one of those pioneers who, deciding to cross the Rocky Mountains come hell or high water, had pushed the family’s belongings in a handcart, and carried the babies on her back, and brought with her the seeds to plant the first garden.

No wonder the vampire was pleased that Lacey had accepted the offer.

She was the only one in the room worth having, even by a vampire’s standards.

Randy thought about his and Lacey’s future together. He didn’t care what the vampire said; Randy would forget nothing. And Lacey would not forget, either; Randy would be her hero, and she would adore him.

Randy thought of the dates they would have, and the way she would look up to him.

Roxanne held the hammer back in her hand. Her mother was Irish, and paid close attention to any troubles in Northern Ireland. When those guys attacked one another, they liked to smash kneecaps. From what she had heard, this was a painful and lasting way to cripple somebody. The vampire was now fully fleshed out. Roxanne would kneecap him.

Roxanne pretended to walk toward the door.

She shifted over a little, though, getting closer to the vampire even as Randy was hugging Lacey good-bye.

Her hand tightened on the hammer.

She was wildly proud of herself. Violence! That was what would work. Lacey was being kind, but kindness, in the end, would only lead to her destruction. Roxanne would use what television had taught her to use: a weapon.

Bobby swaggered.

He tried to take up a lot of space. He flexed his arms and fingers as often as he could to warm up. He didn’t like the fact that this heavy action he had in mind had been preceded by such weakness on his part, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

He had Lacey to save and he had revenge to take.

And he was, Bobby knew for sure, the only one with a workable plan.

He would rip the cloak off the vampire.

The cloak was obviously part of the creature, and in some way his powerful, protective part. And yet it was separate. The vampire liked to uncover only his teeth and his hands and parts of his face. Bobby would shred the thing.

Even if it did not destroy the vampire, which Bobby was sure it would, it would give everybody lots of time to run out while the vampire tried to save himself and wrap himself back up.

Strength and determination flew down Bobby’s veins and arteries and coursed through his muscles. Bobby felt like a giant, a linebacker, a soldier for hire. There was nothing he could not do.

Lacey ran a hand down Randy’s chest.

Randy’s chest swelled with pride. He had never felt so strong and so needed. I’ll save you, he thought, careful to give no hints. He must not let the vampire know what he was up to. The vampire might try to foil him. The vampire might even rush the “event” along, giving Randy little time to save Lacey.

Lacey put her head against Randy’s chest, and Randy nearly melted. He was so distracted, he nearly forgot his master plan.

“Don’t worry, Lacey,” he whispered. “Everything will be all right. I promise.”

Lacey looked up, gave him a gentle close-lipped smile, and stepped away from him.

The vampire’s fingernails were weightless.

They scraped over Zach’s clothing, dipped into his pocket, and removed his notes.

“You won’t need these outside,” said the vampire softly.

He chuckled. He was enjoying himself.

Oh, it had been a night to remember, all right. But the one who would remember, the one who was having the most fun, the one who was playing the longest game, was the vampire.

Zach could not believe he had been noticed.

Had been stopped.

“Go,” said the vampire to Zach, and the word was so intense, so meaningful, that Zach could do nothing else.

He went.

The doorway was open. It was possessed by nothing. Zach did not stumble. Zach did not falter, and his feet found the way in spite of the darkness.

Then the vampire caught Sherree’s hand. Her clenched fist fell open at his touch and she whimpered when he took the car keys. “No,” she blubbered. “See, I need the car keys. I took them from Randy because I need them.”

“Don’t worry,” said the vampire. “Once you are out of the mansion, you will forget why you needed them. You’ll hunt for a while, all of you feeling in your pockets to see who has them.”

The vampire, still holding Sherree’s hand, tossed the car keys out the open tower window.

“Eventually,” said the vampire, “you’ll see them in the grass. You’ll wonder why Randy dropped them there, and what took the five of you so long to see them.”

Randy thought: How will I even be able to open the Land Rover? I have to have the keys!

He willed himself to remember that the keys had been thrown into the grass, so that he could find them quickly, open the car, grab the camera, race back inside, scare off the vampire before the vampire could…

“It would be a waste of your energy,” explained the vampire. “Although you are welcome to try. We aren’t afraid of having our picture taken, it’s just that we don’t show up on film, Randy. So it’s an ineffective threat.” The vampire smiled widely. His teeth hung cruelly and he scraped them along his chin, as if sharpening them. His eyes left Randy and traveled eagerly over Lacey.

“Time for you to go,” said the vampire softly to Sherree and to Randy, and Sherree and Randy found themselves going, obeying, as if they were possessions of the vampire in the same manner that the door had been a possession of the vampire.

The door was open.

They went through it.

Only Roxanne and Bobby stood between Lacey and the vampire now.

The vampire is horrible, thought Roxanne. He’s horrible. He has no right to stage things like this, so we can’t beat him back. But I have a hammer, and steel isn’t stopped by vampires, steel isn’t camera film or car keys, steel will break his bones.

Roxanne swung the hammer back, savoring the heft of it, looking forward to the crunch of bone when she hit the hideous creature. She threw herself forward. The hammer swung through the air and made contact with absolutely nothing.

There was nothing there.

She fell forward, her own velocity carrying her right into the vampire, and still there was nothing there but stinking evil. She fell onto the floor of the tower and the vampire gently retrieved the hammer from her hand.

How can he react so gently to us, thought Roxanne, when in a moment he will show total violence?

“It is my way,” said the vampire to Roxanne, “to damage human bodies, but fortunately, humans cannot damage my body. It’s time for you to go, Roxanne. There is the door.”

She was on the floor.

His eyes fixed on her and his teeth leaned toward her and she scrabbled toward the door, not quite crawling, not quite getting up.

The vampire watched with satisfaction.

Bobby took advantage of the vampire’s distraction and hurled himself at the vampire. His fingers wrapped solidly on the cloak and he ripped and tore with all his football player’s strength.

And nothing happened.

He swung there, as he had swung in the doorway.

And through the hideous fibers of the rotting cloak he saw what would happen to Lacey.

“The cloak doesn’t come off,” explained the vampire. “You could rip for eternity, and you would just hang in the wind.” The vampire walked toward the door and deposited Bobby on the other side. Bobby’s fingers unwrapped. His feet found the first step. A queer wind blew him forward, escorting him down the steep stairs after the others.

Already his mind was vague, his thoughts muddy, his words slurred. “Hey, you guys,” he said. Nobody turned to answer him. All five simply staggered down and across, and found the window, and struggled to get out.