Vampires in Devil Town (14 page)

Seventeen

The three of them sat around the table sipping their coffee. The storytelling finished, Rachel took her hands away from Rain’s. She didn’t have to open her mouth to give Rain the past. It was there, fed through her. Jacob had simply looked around the coffee shop while Rachel transported Rain back to that Halloween night.
  One he remembered very well.
  Sipping her coffee, Rachel said, “After the nail was removed, the hand healed immediately. And ever since then, I’ve been able to do things... move people’s minds. Transport them. Heal things.”
  “I’ll say,” Rain said.
  “How’s that cut on your foot?” Jacob asked.
  Rachel slipped off the too large Converse (she had a shortage of shoes at his house), turning it so Rain could look down and see that the cut she had inflicted was completely gone. Gone also were all the minor cuts and scratches that had blemished Rachel’s face, legs and arms.
  “But,” Rain said, “why was Jacob there?”
  “Me,” Jacob said. “I was out there to kill myself.”
  “Jesus,” Rain said.
  “Rather fortunate now that we look back on it though. I was going to douse myself in gasoline, hang myself from a branch and, if that didn’t work immediately, I was going to blow my brains out.”
  “You were serious about it?”
  “Yeah. Remember when I told you there were other reasons we didn’t keep guns in the house?”
  “Yeah, but...”
  “Well, we’re all here now,” Jacob said.
  “What happened... after?” Rain asked.
  Rachel, already somber, grew more so, leaning her head down to inspect the wood on the table.
  “Jacob and I both changed. I already told you about mine. I can do more than just give people visions. I can use it as a weapon.”
  “Torment them,” Rain said.
  “I guess, yeah. And Jacob has these wild hallucinations.”
  “Most of them don’t make much sense. Maybe on some symbolic level, like what I saw on the TV last night.”
  “What about... the other guys?” Rain asked.
  “Steve didn’t fare so well. Physically, he was probably better off than me. Or
should
have been better off. But, mentally, he was gone. I’ve never seen him since that night. He’s been in Signal Point...”
  “The insane asylum,” Jacob said.
  “I was trying to be polite about it. But, yeah, he’s been there since that night and I just can’t bring myself to go visit him. Don’t even know if I’d be
allowed
to visit him.”
  “What about the police and stuff? Surely you went to the police?”
  “We did,” Rachel said. “Jacob and I both went in and filled out the whole crazy report and neither one of us have ever heard anything else about it.”
  “That’s crazy,” Rain said.
  “About as crazy as you going on a yearlong killing spree with a half-wit and never coming close to being caught,” Jacob said.
  “The Devils have a way of doing things,” Rachel said. “Like maybe you’ve wondered why we didn’t call an outside newspaper or contact some authority outside of Lynchville?”
  “Kind of.”
  “Well, we did. And you call them and they listen to you like you’re not a crazy person and then they hang up and you wait for the story to appear in the Bryton paper or something. You wait for a reporter to call you. You wait for something to be on the news. Hell, like maybe even one of those investigative journal pieces? And nothing happens. I’m guessing that, as soon as they hang up the phone, they have no recollection of ever speaking with anyone. And, yeah, maybe we could go there in person but something tells me that, even though I leave Lynchville nearly every day to go to work and school, if I was to ever leave with the hope of going somewhere and telling them our story, I don’t think it would let me out.”
  “That’s fuckin crazy,” Rain said. “And I’m sure it’s true. Have no doubt.”
  “On the bright side,” Jacob said to Rachel. “It looks like they’ve come back.”
  She wanted to throw her coffee in his face.

Eighteen

Silence wrapped itself around them. It was the kind of silence made quieter with the knowledge that something should be said. They all knew that. Rain sipped her coffee and stared absent-mindedly around the cafe. Jacob drummed his fingers against the worn table. Rachel stared into the dregs of her cup.
  “So,” Jacob said finally. “What are we going to do?”
  “I don’t know,” Rachel said. “Do you have any ideas?”
  “Ideas about what?”
  “I don’t know. Ideas about how to wipe your ass. What do you mean, ‘Ideas about what?’”
  “I guess it seems simple, doesn’t it?”
  “It’s never seemed simple.”
  “Yeah.” Jacob took a sip of his coffee, now cold.
  “What about you, Rain? Do you have any ideas?”
  “I think we need some plan of attack.”
  “A plan of attack is good,” Jacob said.
  “So let’s use what we know about them...” Rachel began.
  “And,” Jacob interrupted, “remember that everything we know about them might be wrong.”
  “Right. Well, if it
is
them, we know where they should be. Out on Barker Road. Bones took us to the same place last night we were two years ago.”
  “Except we might not be able to see where they’re staying. Their house,” Rain said. “I mean, I didn’t see it last night. Did you?”
  “No,” Rachel said. “Besides, we
might
not be talking about the same people. It would be one
huge
fucking coincidence if it wasn’t, but it is a possibility.”
  “True,” Jacob agreed. “So I think we need to get there during daylight. That way, if we
can
see the house, if it
is
visible, we can try to get in and do some exploring. I know for a fact their powers are not nearly as strong during the day. Whatever they are, you have to admit there is more than a little vampire in them. There’s also maybe a little human in them and anybody who operates mostly at night has to sleep sometime.”
  “Yeah,” Rachel said. “I’d be the first to agree with you on both counts.”
  “I’d probably be the second,” Rain said.
  “Okay. So what do we do when we get there?” Jacob said.
  “Do you want to know what I think we should do?” Rain asked.
  “Well, that is kind of why we’re having this little pow wow here,” Jacob said.
  “I think we should burn the fucking place to the ground.”
  “Oooh,” Rachel said. “I like the way this girl thinks.”
  “So we need to make a stop at the gas station,” Jacob said. “I have one of those big five gallon things. If it is off Barker Road then we won’t have to deal with trying to carry it all that far. And I think it’s safe to say that I’ll have a lighter. I don’t think a little fire is going to be the end of them but I guess it’ll be a good place to start anyway, burning them out of house and home.”
  Rain took a sip of her coffee and said, “I have to tell you guys I’m scared out of my fucking mind.”
  “How so?” Rachel said.
  “Well, you just both seem so casual about this. These people are powerful. I saw what they did to Bones. I saw how much he
wanted
that to happen and it makes me kind of worried about what will happen to us if they’re that destructive towards someone who just wants to be one of them. They almost got to me. I mean, Bones wasn’t afraid of anything, but as much as he admired these people, I have no doubt it was just as much fear that made him do the things he did. How is it possible to destroy one of these things?”
  Jacob ran his finger along the rim of his mug, looking at Rain. “Rachel and I have thought a lot about this over the past couple of years. My brother, James, left to find out about the Devils. He was convinced they were behind what happened to Rachel. Hell, by the time he left, he even blamed them for Mom and Dad’s deaths. I haven’t heard from him since but Rachel and I have a lot of theories based on our past experience with them. And just things pieced together from what James told me before he left.
  “First of all, you have to stop thinking about destroying them. I’m not really sure you
can
destroy them. Whatever they are, they’re definitely not human. Think of them like a parasite. A parasite has to feed off the living for survival. There is no other reason for that parasite to destroy human life other than the sake of survival. Plants and animals, what you think about when you think about parasites, are incapable of evil or morals or anything like that. They’re merely trying to survive. I think that is why the Devils do the things they do. And I don’t think they are all malevolent. I think some of them have found ways to exist without sacrificing humans. Although, they may not be as powerful. I think those are what you would call ghosts.
  “So think of the Devils, in their raw form, as spirits. The most powerful ones, like the ones that undoubtedly controlled Bones, are ones that are able to infest a human body and keep it alive, maybe even rejuvenate it. They are capable of insinuating themselves into your thoughts and making you do things you would not otherwise do. But their power is, more often than not, confined to a certain area. This is where their house comes into play. Whatever that structure is, it is not just an ordinary ‘house.’ It’s more like a portal. How else can it move from California to Lynchville? And I think if you were to go down into that house, you would find yourself looking upon a different world entirely and that would probably give you some kind of clue as to how the Devils operate.
  “The less powerful ones, of which there are many more, are capable of typical ghostlike activities, showing up in strange places to give people a little fright. I don’t think their mind control is any more powerful than giving a person the occasional nightmare or two.”
  “I don’t know if this is helping or just making me more scared.”
  “Basically, my point was for you to not really think about destroying them. Rather, it will be like we are pushing them back or keeping them at bay. I think that’s all we can hope for, right now.”
  “Yeah, but they
are
here for a reason. All of that stuff that you said about them being like parasites is kind of wrong because these people clearly
can
think and they are very capable of evil and they have to know what they’re doing is evil.”
  “You’re right,” Jacob said. “They did come here for a reason and it is our goal to make sure that whatever the reason they came stays just out of their reach.”
  Rain looked down into the emptiness of her cup. “They came for you and Rachel, didn’t they?”
  “I’m afraid they did. Maybe more Rachel than me. In fact, I think they might just have come for all of Lynchville.”
  “Why?”
  “Because they like it here.”
  Rain jumped across the booth when Stoop tapped his fingernails on the table. No one had even seen him approach. He was, as usual, dressed in head-to-toe black, looking more like someone dressed for a funeral rather than a bookstore and coffeeshop proprietor. He was well over six feet tall and looking up at him was kind of like looking at the ceiling.
  “And how are you all this afternoon?” he asked.
  “We’re... really good,” Rachel said.
  “Is there anything I can get you?”
  “More coffee?” Jacob asked the table as much as Stoop.
  The girls nodded their heads. They were certainly having a two cup discussion. Stoop craned around to face the boy behind the counter. “More coffee, please, David.”
  “Sure,” the boy said.
  “Well, just let me know if there’s anything you need.”
  “Thanks,” Rachel said. “We will.”
  Stoop turned to leave, his black overcoat trailing out behind him.
  “That guy’s creepy,” Rain said.
  “He’s a good guy.”
  “He needs to dress a little less scary. I think he was wearing eyeliner.”
  “That’s just the way he is. He’s always dressed exactly like that. Why change now?”
  “Good point, I guess.”
  David brought over more coffee in a pitcher and went about refilling their mugs.
  “I’m still scared,” Rain said after he walked away.
  “You
should
be scared,” Rachel said. “The point is... no amount of talking is going to make any one of us any less scared. Some strange shit is happening and it’s just going to get worse until somebody decides to do something about it. I think we have to be those people. I don’t think anyone else in this town is any more equipped mentally to deal with it than we are.”
  “I guess that’s what I’m afraid of. Is it all mental? I have these visions of like some violent showdown. I don’t think you can just destroy these people with your mind.”
  “No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. But there is nothing that can prepare us for whatever that violent showdown is going to be. We just have to do it. We have to try and stay one step ahead of these people. Besides, you’ll be amazed with what you can do if you’re a little bit scared.”
  “I guess,” Rain said.
  “Your life has changed,” Jacob said. “And there’s no going back to your old life. That’s a scary thought too.”
  Their conversation died down. Two teenagers came into the cafe and sat down near the window. Jacob was too lost in his own thoughts to pay any attention to their conversation but he had seen the looks on their faces when they came through the door. They looked scared. Or at least the tall skinny one looked scared. And Jacob had thought Stoop looked scared also. Maybe everyone just looked scared to him now. Maybe he was the one who was truly scared, only he didn’t feel that. He didn’t feel that at all. His life, with the exception of Rachel, had become so dreary the past couple of years he almost welcomed this little adventure looming in front of him. And he was happy to see the two girls shared his conviction. Until they had shown up last night, he had thought he had reached the point of madness, the final bend in the road. If Rachel and Rain hadn’t shown up with an account of their evening, he would have acquiesced to all of Dr. Bettermore’s wishes. He would have started taking the pills. He would have tried to get a job. He would have decided to give his battered mind a little bit of rest. But now he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that and he found that thought refreshing because it wasn’t something he wanted to do in the first place. Let Dr. Bettermore have his sane little world of perfect mental hygiene, Jacob would take his own world filled with vampires and demons and he would take that world because it was a world that offered hope. With so much terror in front of him, there was also the distant promise of angels. And that promise, ultimately, was what Jacob thought he needed.

Nineteen