Frostbitten: The Complete Series (54 page)

Tarun nervously looked back at the coliseum full of criminals.

“Tarun, the Indian from India. Is it pretty in India?” the bearded man asked.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Think I’d like it there?”

“Yes.”

“How you know that? You don’t even know me.”

“I think everyone would like it there. It’s the greatest place on the planet.”

The bearded man cracked a smile again before returning to his dead stare. “So why’re you here then?”

“I made some mistakes.”

“I don’t mean here in the slammer, I mean here in the country.”

“I know—I made some mistakes. Have you ever heard someone say that
the grass is greener on the other side?
”

“I’ve heard that, yeah.”

“Well—It’s not always true.”

“You got some green grass over in India?”

“The greenest.”

“Hm,” the bearded man said as he thought. “I’m tryin’ to remember what the color green even looks like. It’s kind of like blue, right?”

“Kind of like blue, yeah,” Tarun said.

“All we got here is grey and orange.”

“I noticed.”

The bearded man looked down at the ground and returned to his thousand-mile stare.

“What’s your name?” Tarun asked.

“Peter,” the man said without looking up. “Peter Riley.”

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE
BEST FRIENDS & WORST ENEMIES

Brittany had always been the type of person to hold on to everything. She would never throw away a gift, a souvenir, and she would especially never throw away a photo—a memory. More than anything, she cherished her happy memories. She didn’t have anything else.

Megan knew this all to well; not just from a lifetime of extremely close friendship, but she knew this because, the night Tarun was incarcerated, Megan broke into Brittany’s house and went through her drawers.

She wasn’t doing it in a malicious way: She was simply waiting for Brittany to return home. Bored, she decided to go through Brittany’s old photos—a trip down another’s memory lane.

Brittany had always kept all of her photos in a number of old shoe boxes. Megan started with the oldest. The two best-friends were in nearly every photo together—Birthday parties, memorable sleepovers and school events—everything was chronicled in Brittany’s memory boxes.

The heart warming reminiscing was quickly shadowed by regret. One little mistake ruined not only Megan’s life, but Brittany’s life too. Not to mention the regret that lingered inside her heart—the regret she felt for abandoning Brittany at the worst possible time.

And for what?

Brittany’s box of happy memories stopped around the time she’d made that awful mistake, when she turned Brittany into a vampire—when she herself became a vampire. There was only one other picture dated after that fateful night:

A picture of Kane and Brittany, laughing in the library—the photo she’d taken just a week before. Megan’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of the photo. She knew that face—she knew Kane all too well.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Hanna!” Brittany’s voice called out from outside of the house.

Megan scrambled to replace the boxes of photos into their rightful drawer.

Slam!

The front door of the home shut and the sound of Brittany walking through the house became louder and louder as Brittany approached her bedroom. As Brittany walked into the room, she didn’t notice her old best friend sitting in the corner.

Brittany stretched out her back and took off her coat, letting it fall onto the ground next to her bed. She grabbed the base of her blouse and then pulled it over her head, leaving her in only her lacy black bra. She exhaled deeply from her long day.

“Hey,” Megan said softly, in an attempt to not startle her friend.

Brittany jumped back and quickly covered her chest with her hands. Her eyes went wide and she let out a little
whelp
before seeing who was in her room.

Megan sat still with a smile as Brittany’s initial shock wore off. Brittany’s tense body began to relax as she recognized the blonde beauty sitting in the corner.

“M—Megan?” Brittany asked.

“Hi.”

“What—Where—How did you get in here?” Brittany asked. Megan opened her mouth to answer, but Brittany skipped ahead to the next question—the more important question: “Where did you go? Why did you leave?” Brittany asked.

“I’m sorry,” Megan said simply.

“Sorry? Where did you go? Tell me.”

“I made a mistake, and I’m sorry.”

Brittany stared at Megan for a moment in a state of silent disbelief. “I needed you…” she said. Her eyes began to well up with tears.

Megan stood up and walked up to her friend. With open arms, Megan hugged Brittany tightly. “I’m back now,” Megan said. Megan couldn’t help but begin to tear up herself.

Still hugging her friend, Brittany wiped the tears from her eyes. “Don’t leave again.”

“I won’t,” Megan said. “Unless you come with me.” Megan smiled as she released her friend from the tight hug.

Brittany wiped the second wave of tears from her eyes and then looked her old best friend up and down. “Oh my God, I hate you,” she said.

“I’m really sorry, Brit.”

“No—You’re still so pretty. You’re still a million times prettier than me,” Brittany laughed.

Megan smiled. “I’d take your body over mine any day.”

“You’re so full of it.”

Megan smiled and began to walk around the room. “So your place… It’s different.”

Brittany looked down at her feet. “It’s like the Adams Family in here. I hate it.”

Megan picked up a jar of Brittany’s rat blood. “Is this… Rats’ blood?”

“Yeah, it helps with the—”

“—The cravings?” Megan said. “Yeah. I used to keep jars of it around my bed too. It smells rancid though.”

“I know.”

Megan continued to look around the room. “Pentagrams, incense—the works,” she said.

“Like I said—I live in The Adams Family house.”

“You should get a sunstone. It works better than all of this stuff,” Megan said.

“I had one—It went missing.”

“Have you heard about the vampire community over in Europe? They’re making a lot of advancements in this kind of stuff: figuring out the science behind it, taking it out of the stone ages.”

Brittany laughed. “Community? Until this week, I thought I was the only vampire on this planet.”

“I’ll put you in touch with some people. This rats blood thing is
so
last decade,” Megan smiled.

Brittany laughed. “You always were the
trendy
one.”

“Speaking of which—your wardrobe is
so
last year.” Megan and Brittany both started to laugh.

As the laughter died down, Brittany looked into Megan’s eyes and smiled. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

The two hugged again. Brittany placed her face on Megan’s shoulder. Then, she noticed something under Megan’s shirt—a large patch of ruffled skin, harsh to the touch.

“What is that?” Brittany asked, releasing Megan once again.

“What?”

“On your back—Is that a scar?” Brittany asked.

Megan turned around and took her shirt from the base. Slowly, she pulled her shirt up to her shoulders, revealing a massive scar—covering her whole torso. She was completely disfigured.

“Oh my God—Megan!” Brittany said in shock. She placed her hand on her mouth in an attempt to contain her shock.

From Megan’s neck to her knees, her body was covered in horrible burn scars, healed over with rippling scar tissue. There were only small patches of clear skin.

“At least I’m still alive, right?” Megan said softly as her smile dissipated.

“What happened?” Brittany asked.

“Well—I guess you could say, this is why I’m back in Snowbrooke,” Megan said as she let her shirt fall back into place.

“What do you mean?”

“James died. He was killed.,” Megan said—her voice cracking as she held back her emotions.

“Megan—I’m so sorry.”

Megan walked over to the bed and took a seat. She looked down at her hands and began to fiddle her fingers nervously. “I shouldn’t have left Snowbrooke, Brit. I shouldn’t have left you.”

“What happened?” Brittany asked as she took a seat next to her old friend.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED
LEFT FOR DEAD IN NIGHTFALL

“There’s a little town on the northern tip of the East Coast; it’s called Nightfall,” Megan said. “It’s beautiful—the most beautiful town you’ll ever see. It’s in a little valley, between two tall, steep mountains. The mountains are so steep, they almost curl over the little town. Because of them, the town is almost always in shade, except for a few days a year.

“Nightfall is even more north than Snowbrooke, so you would think it would be absolutely freezing—between the shade and the location—but it’s actually not. The mountains are positioned in this perfect kind of way, that the wind is pushed right over head. You can’t fly into Nightfall, or around it because the wind above the town is so strong that it will actually pull a plane down into the mountainside. But somehow, there is never the slightest breeze.

“The town is below sea-level—Far below it; It’s almost a half a mile below sea level, as a matter of fact. So all of the heat comes from the Earth’s core. Can you believe that? It’s actually deep enough that the heat from the Earth’s core is stronger than the heat from the sun. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no tropical paradise, but I don’t think the temperature ever drops below freezing—at least it didn’t when we were there, that I can remember.

“James said he knew about it from some old Cottage Country Magazine that his dad kept in his workshop. James said that he always wanted to move there—even before he turned. It’s really beautiful, Brit. The whole town is always lit up with these warm orange lights that spiral up the valley. During Christmas, they go and put red and green filters over all of the lights. It’s mostly older people that live there, people who like to keep to themselves. There’s no internet or cable. Apparently there’s a bunch of lead in the mountains that mess with cell tower reception. It’s nice though, having no internet or cable. I thought it would be miserable, but it was actually
so
relaxing.

“Maybe we could go there together one day,” Megan said with a smile.

“It sounds amazing,” Brittany replied.

Megan looked down at her lap as she prepared to tell the second act of her tale. “That night—That night we changed you, the police somehow got James’s name. His picture was all over the news. That drifter—A security camera got a picture of James grabbing him. The police raided his house, and took his whole family in for questioning.

“We hid for days. James wanted to leave for Nightfall, but I wanted to wait for you to come home. But every day, the police were closer to finding us. They raided my house, and they raided the Quick house.

“We had to leave. I tried desperately to find you, but you weren’t anywhere. No one had seen you for days. We all thought you’d gotten yourself killed.

“So finally, we left. We snuck out of the town, got on a train, and made our way across the country. It took us two whole months—hiding in the worst places: Caves, old hunting cabins… We did some horrible things to stay hidden, things I’m ashamed of. At the time, I thought we had no choice, but you always have a choice. Remember that, Brit: You always have a choice.

“We made it to Nightfall. It was as beautiful as all of the pictures. It was even more beautiful, but I’ve already told you that.” Megan laughed. “Within a month, we had an apartment, and we had jobs. Jobs, Brit! Can you imagine that? Being able to have a job, like a normal human? It was so relaxing there; the thirst was rarely a problem. I don’t know why, but there were only a few times that it got really bad: seeing blood. As you know, it’s tough when someone bleeds, but we both kept to ourselves. It was like being human again.

“The stars were so incredible in Nightfall. Every night, at three in the morning, when everyone else in Nightfall was asleep, I would go out and just watch the Milky Way float by. It was so beautiful; I never missed a night.

“I don’t know what happened—I really don’t know how it happened, but James’s old ‘
wanted’
poster made its way to Nightfall. I still remember this day: we were in a grocery store, and there was this old lady staring at us. She followed us around the whole store with these big judging eyes. Finally, as we were leaving, she lifted her arm up and pointed right at James and yelled, ‘murderer!’. After that, everywhere we went, heads turned. Remember that old movie,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
? Remember the ending? It was like that. The news got out, and investigators poured into the town.

“We had to leave our little apartment. We ended up hiding in an old warehouse on the edge of town. The warehouse was empty; it just had a bunch of old rusty farming equipment in it. James never left—never. We just hid there, hoping that after a year or two, everything would just blow over. And it was starting to—the police left, and all of the wanted posters were pulled down. James started growing a beard and putting on as much muscle as he could—hoping that no one would recognize him when he finally came out of hiding.

“It had been nearly six months since I’d heard anyone mention James’s name. The local newspaper even claimed that they’d caught James a few towns over. Things were looking up, it was finally starting to seem like we would get our lives back.

“I was working at this little clothing store. Our clients were mostly older ladies. The clothes were pretty cute; Lots of floral dresses—mostly floral dresses.” Megan smiled. “This guy came in, a younger guy, just a teenager. I was in the back, folding clothes, when I heard him for the first time. He was asking people if they’d seen James. He had pictures of James—lots of pictures. I don’t know where he’d gotten all of them. He was going from shop to shop, house to house, asking everyone in the town.

“I followed the kid around town. I listened to him talk to people about James. He knew everything. He knew so much; far more than the police before him. The kid was there for weeks—unrelenting. Despite what everyone told him, he knew that James hadn’t been caught. Somehow, he knew that James was in Nightfall.

“The kid starting coming into the clothing store almost every day, to talk to me. I thought that he was just a teenager with a stupid crush. He brought me flowers. As far as he knew, I was single; I never talked about James, I was still keeping that a secret. The kid asked me out on a date. I don’t know why I agreed—I thought it would lead him off my trail. I should have just said
no
. He seemed like a nice enough kid. He told me that he was in town looking for an old friend, but when I asked James, he said that he’d never heard of him.

“It was July. Between the tenth and the twentieth, the sun passed straight over Nightfall. The town held their ten day long ‘Sun Festival’ while James and I stayed inside. I booked the time off of work, and told my boss that I was going on vacation. I’m such an idiot—God, I’m such an idiot.

“Kane went into the clothing store and asked for me. My boss told him I was out of town. I don’t know what happened—God, I’m such an idiot, I ruined everything…”

“What happened?” Brittany asked.

“I went out to watch the stars. It was the middle of the night—I didn’t think it mattered, I didn’t even think at all, to be honest. I went over to the little park, across from the warehouse and sat on the swing—just like I had done every other night. I watched the stars go past for an hour. There was a meteor shower: The peak of The Delta Aquarid Shower. I can still remember it vividly. I was swinging and looking up when I heard the hum…

“The hum?” Brittany asked.

Megan looked into Brittany’s eyes as a solemn silence fell over the room. The icy wind whistled against the boarded window. “His car… That old Mustang.”

Brittany’s heart stopped and her face flushed. It was the reaction that Megan was expecting.

“He pulled up, got out of his car. He told me that my boss told him I was out of town. I told him I was home early, but you know how
bad
of a liar I am. He could see right through me. I didn’t think anything of it, but he knew more than I thought he did.

“The next day—The next day, everything ended. As the sun was right above Nightfall, he made his move. He set fire to the warehouse back entrance; the one that backed into the woods. He went around the building, breaking all of the windows and knocking the boards down, filling the place with sunlight. He waited by the only other exit with his crossbow. As the fire spread, we were running out of hiding spots. The old warehouse rafters started to fall down when the fire spread to the roof.

“He’d set us up. He’d spent a lot of time planning that attack—more than just one night. I think he knew just days after he showed up in Nightfall…” Megan said. Tears began to fall from her eyes.

“Megan—I—I’m so sorry…” Brittany said, still in shock from the reveal.

“James and I knew we had no choice. We had to make a run for it—through the sun, past Kane. We were going to run straight towards the woods. It was a far run, around the whole building, but it was the only option we had. James counted: Three, two, one…

“James never ran to the woods. He went straight for Kane. It all happened so fast. He took a stake in the gut, but managed to tackle Kane to the ground. Kane held him back long enough for the sun to burn him up—but James held Kane long enough for me to get to the woods.

“I did my best to cover my face, but the rest of my body was burned—completely incinerated. I shouldn’t have survived. I honestly have no idea how I survived. I blacked out for a day—maybe longer, I don’t know. I woke up right where I passed out. I guess Kane never followed me. Even he probably assumed I was dead; the chance of survival was virtually non-existent, after all.

“I crawled back into the warehouse, which was in shambles after the firefighters were through with it. There was an old cellar in the warehouse—That’s where I stayed until I could walk again. I was stuck in there for a year. A year is a long time, Brittany,” Megan said, biting her tongue. “A long time to think—a long time to plan.”

“Plan what?” Brittany asked.

“Revenge.” Megan’s eyes became dark. She’d thought about killing Kane every single day for years. Every day, she became more and more determined. “I’m going to kill him. I’m not just going to kill him, I’m going to make him wish that I would kill him. He’s going to regret everything he did to me—to James. To the others. You wouldn’t believe how many others he’s killed, Brittany.”

“Megan—I’m sorry that all happened, but you’re home now. Let’s just try to move on—maybe we can go to Nightfall together and restart. Don’t risk your life for revenge.”

“I’m sorry, Brit, but this is something I need to do. I’ve come this far, and now I have to see it through to the end.”

“Come this far?” Brittany asked.

Megan looked down at her feet in silence for a moment. “I did what I had to do. It was the only way. I only picked the worst people.”

“The worst people? Megan, what are you talking about?”

“I didn’t know his real name—In Nightfall, he was John. I didn’t know where he was from, or where he went after Nightfall. The only thing I knew was that he hunted vampires. So I brought the vampires to Snowbrooke. I had to make headlines. I needed to get his attention—and I did. I got his attention.”

“Megan—Please don’t tell me…”

“They were all slime balls, Brittany. They all deserved what they got—Rapists, pedophiles, drug dealers… The first one—The philosophy professor—do you know what he did when he got home? Do you have any idea what that man was doing behind closed doors?”

“Megan…” Brittany said, still in a frightened astonishment of Megan’s secret.

“Child porn, Brittany. He traded child pornography over the internet. His own niece—the sick bastard. Then there was the archaeology prof. He was purposely failing the girls he knew would put out for a passing grade. He was targeting the desperate ones. Then there was that TA kid: he went to every college party with a pocket full of ecstasy. He probably date-raped two dozen girls—all kids.”

“You killed them? Megan—You don’t kill people!” Brittany cried.

“Wake up, Brittany!” Megan said. “These people belong in Hell. These sickos are the real reason people are afraid to leave their houses. It’s not the
Vampire Killer.
”

“I can’t believe you…” Brittany muttered.

“Oh—Don’t act like such a perfect little princess. I watched you kill the English teacher, Brittany. And I know you killed that little English kid. And for what? Because he was trying to take advantage of you? That’s nothing. The ones I killed make that British kid look like the Pope, Brittany.”