We Only Come Out At Night Read online

  Nadia said, "Wait. There he is."

  David emerged from the shadows at the edge of the parking lot and walked towards us, his hands jammed in the pockets of his jeans. Saul took the van out of gear and I slid the back door open. David faked a smile for us as he climbed in. "Hey, guys."

  "Hey," I responded, with a forced smile of my own. As soon as the door closed, Saul pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road. We didn't even turn on the radio. Each of us just looked out the window, watching the lights and the signs flash by and listening to the tires hum. Out of the corner of my eye I could see David looking at me like he had something to say, but I ignored him. I didn't want to talk. All I wanted was to go home and go to bed.

  It just didn't seem real. I don't think it had really sunk in for any of us yet. It's strange how quickly you can get used to the concept of living forever. I didn't want to look at Michael's seat. It seemed to prove with its emptiness just how wrong we all were. It mocked us. For the umpteenth time that night, I bit back tears. I know they wouldn't care if I cried, but it's a habit I've got. I don't know.

  ***

  I'd never been so relieved to get back home. We drove under a graying sky into the garage. Saul pulled the van perfectly into its space and set the brake. We all filed into the elevator, Nadia, then David, me, and Saul. God, it was strange with just four of us. None of us said anything. David kept looking at me, but I didn't respond. I couldn't get over the fact that Mikey just wouldn't be there anymore. I couldn't even really say he was dead, because he had always been dead. So he just wasn't there anymore. Mikey was gone.

  Nobody played any video games that night. All I wanted to was get back to my room and be alone. I just needed some time to try and digest everything that had happened. But as soon as I get to my room and close the door, as soon as I pull off my shoes and flop onto my bed, there's a knock on my door. "What?" I tried my best to sound disgusted, because I was.

  "Paul?" It was David. He hesitantly pushed the door open and took a half-step inside. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He stood there like a little kid or a lost puppy or something, hands bunched in his pockets, looking awkward.

  If I had known what David wanted to talk about, I would have gotten up. I would have listened. I would have done something. Instead, in my most irritated tone, I said, "Dude, I really just want to be unconscious so this night can end. Is it really that fucking important?" I remember I emphasized "fucking." David looked hurt. He averted his wide dark eyes, first down, then to the side.

  He said, "No, I guess not. Not really. Sorry to bother you." He backed out of the door, and added quietly, "Goodnight." before he left. To tell the truth, I didn't give it another thought. I had too much else to think about. By the time I woke up, he was already gone.

  ***

  That day I dreamed I was alive. I was thirteen again. I was at my mom's house, and David had come over after school. My mother had fixed us a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk, but I realized that the glasses weren't filled with milk, but with blood. For some reason, in the dream, I'm the only one who's shocked by this. My mother smiles down, all motherly like, and David drinks his glass, getting a big red blood mustache. In the dream it really scared me, and I asked my mom why she was feeding us blood, and she didn't know what I was talking about. Then the glass started to leak, a slow puddle spreading across the table, then pouring over the edge and soaking the carpet. It spread faster and faster, until I had to jump up to avoid it. The glasses broke, and blood began to fill the house like rising floodwater, soaking my pant legs. Suddenly I realized it was my mother's blood; I could see it pulsing from two punctures on her neck. David turned to face me, and said, "You're my best friend."

  And then I woke up.

  "Paul!" Saul said loudly, and pounded on my door. "Wake up. I need to talk to you."

  Like I said, I woke up. Saul didn't wait for a reply, he already had the door open. I sat up. "What's up?"

  "David's gone. He's taken one of the motorcycles."

  I looked at the clock. It was barely after sunset. "He must have just left."

  "Yes. Did he talk to you? Did he say anywhere he might be going?"

  I shook my head. "No, he…tried to talk to me. Maybe he just needs to be alone for awhile."

  "He should have told me where he was going."

  "Come on, you aren't his dad, he doesn't have to tell you where he's going all the time."

  "In fact, he does." Saul looked serious and resolute. And by that I mean more so than usual. "I am the patriarch," he said, "there are certain rules."

  "I hate it when you pull that patriarch shit on us. Like it's the middle ages or something."

  "Patriarch shit?" Saul stared me down. "In the middle ages I would have been honor bound to behead you for that little remark. And David too, for that matter."

  I rolled my eyes. "Give me a break, Saul."

  "There are many of the ancient customs I disregard, but the ones I keep I keep for a reason. It's easy to feel invincible, but you must realize our position is delicate. David could destroy us all."

  "Grumpety grump-grump," I replied. "I still think you're overreacting. He'll be back, and everything will be cool. David isn't dumb."

  "I suppose we will see."

  "Yeah, I guess we will. Do you want to go look for him?"

  "If he doesn't want to be found, we won't find him. We may as well go hunt. I'm hungry." I was too, to tell the truth. You can go a day or two without, but you start to feel it.

  "Okay. Is Nadia up yet?"

  "No."

  "I'll go see how she's doing. Can we take the Pontiac?"

  "Yes."

  "Can I drive?"

  "No."

  Sometimes Saul was a bastard.

  I went down the hall and knocked gently on Nadia's door. "Nadia? Hey, are you in there?" I heard a muffled reply from inside. "Can I open the door?" She said yeah, and so I did.

  "Hey." She was sitting up in bed, wearing a too-big Marilyn Manson t-shirt. She hadn't taken her makeup off before she went to bed, and and she had been crying, so her face was smeared all to hell. I noticed a half-empty bottle of gin on the nightstand.

  "How are you doing?"

  She sniffed and wiped her nose with her wrist. "Well, my boyfriend just died, but other than that I'm doing okay. Thanks."

  "Can I do anything?"

  Nadia smiled a little bit at that, and said, "No, but thanks again."

  "You up for some hunting?"

  "No, I'm not hungry. You two go on. I kind of just want to be alone."

  "Okay, if you want. We'll be back in a few hours. Love you, Nadia." She smiled, again, and didn't even make the obligatory joke about bringing back some take out.

  I found Saul in the garage, warming up his black Pontiac GTO. Now that's the kind of car a vampire should drive.

  ***

  That night was kind of strange, but also, I hate to say, kind of cool. Saul is—well, he's just cool. With everyone else around, it's sometimes like dealing with a bunch of monkeys. I don't know how he puts up with us, to tell you the truth.

  Once I asked him why he even made us, of all people. He said that at his age, the greatest risk is losing touch, failing to adapt to changing times, becoming an antique. "To fully understand an era, one must understand its youth." That was how he put it. That's why he hangs around with kids like us. I guess otherwise he'd be wandering around in frock coats, saying "thee" and "thou" and stuff.

  But anyway, Saul's like a block of ice. You feel cooler just sitting next to him, rolling down the parkway in a souped-up sixty-five GTO. Listening to Janis Joplin, of all things. Saul loved Janis.

  Maybe you ask yourself, Why don't we kill bums? Who would be easier to find and less missed than street people? You want to know why? I'll tell you. Would you want to put your lips on some smelly bum's neck? Hell no. I mean, come on. That's just gross.

  Drug dealers, that's another story. Number one, next to the fact that sometimes they shower, is
that nobody is surprised when they disappear. Two, they always have either drugs, money, or guns, all of which are cool. Three, they'll follow you just about anywhere if you flash enough cash at them. In this case, it was just to the back seat of our car. It only took a minute in a dark parking lot to finish him. He had a Glock pistol, a big wad of cash, and some crack in little baggies.

  After we drank our fill, Saul cut the drug dealer's throat to hide the bite marks. We rolled him out onto the highway, and his crack along with him. After that, just because it feels good to drive around on a full stomach, we took the long way back. Saul put on some Led Zeppelin. He says that in all his years on the earth, some of the best music has been made in the last seventy. I'd rather listen to some Smashing Pumpkins, but then you knew that.

  Chapter Six

  Surprise, surprise, David was back. When we pulled into the garage an hour before sunrise, there was his motorcycle, parked with the rest. I looked at Saul and said, "Told you so."

  Saul didn't reply. We took the elevator upstairs. When we stepped into the room, David and Nadia were sitting on the big couch, looking like we had interrupted their conversation. David stood up and faced Saul, his mouth open, whatever he meant to say stuck in his throat. Saul didn't say anything either. David looked pleadingly at Nadia.

  "Just tell him!" she said.

  "Tell me what?" Saul asked.

  "Saul…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run. But…I did something stupid." Saul raised an expectant eyebrow in reply. "Last night, after we split up, I met someone."

  Saul let out a deep breath. He sat down in the recliner. "Let's hear it."

  David's story came out all in a flood. "Her name is Angeline,” he began. “Okay, last night after we split up, I went walking west, and I found another party. A house party. I mean, I was pretty freaked out over Mikey," I nodded at this, and he continued, "so I wasn't really in the mood, I probably would have gone right on by, if it wasn't for her. She was sitting out on the porch railing, looking bored, just the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. She had this white dress, it was all low cut, with these straps that went around," David traced imaginary straps across his t-shirt, "I swear she looked like a magazine cover. Like Cosmo, or something. Anyway, this guy was trying to talk to her, and she looks at me as I go by and says, 'hey, do you have a light?' And the other guy pulled out a lighter too, but she took mine. So I had to stay and talk to her, you know? She said her dad is really strict, and she had to sneak out of her bedroom window to go to the party. I say how did you climb out the window in that dress, and she flashes this wicked smile, and she says, 'I took it off.' And boom. I was in love. I know that's stupid. I know I just met her and everything, but she just made me forget about… about everything. We had some drinks and then we made out for a little while, and I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere more private. She smiled again, and she said she knew just the place."

  Saul interrupted "Did you tell her you were a vampire?"

  "No. Not then."

  "Did you mean to feed on her, or change her?"

  "No," said David. "I hadn't thought about the vampire thing yet. I kind of forgot about it. I, well, I just didn't think. I saw her, and my brain stopped working. You know? Anyway, you know where she took me? To a damned church." Saul smiled at that. "And I said, hey, that's pretty kinky, but I think they lock the doors at night. And she pulls a key out of her purse, and punches a code into the alarm box, and the back door swings open. I asked how the hell she could do that, and she said, 'It's easy when your dad is a minister.'" Saul nodded, the hint of a smirk on his face.

  "Well, of course it was, like, romantic and everything, we lit some candles and drank from a flask she had, and we sat under the altar and then we, like, you know, we had sex. After that, we were laying there for a while, talking about stupid stuff, and after a while I got to thinking about how cool it would be if she was a vampire. And once I started thinking about biting her, I just couldn't get it out of my head. You know?"

  I did know. The urge for blood isn't like anything else. It's like a cross between your urge for food and for sex, but more so. When you have a human neck next to you, sometimes you start thinking

  about all the blood inside it and you just get weak in the knees. You want to whine like a dog.

  "And all of a sudden, she started talking about wouldn't it be great if we could just be together, just the two of us, no responsibilities, no parents. And the funny thing is, that's exactly what I was thinking, and I told her so. She said, 'I wish it could just be like this forever.' I said I could make it happen. She pressed herself up warm and tight against me, and she said, 'Oh yeah? How?' I said, I'm a vampire. She giggled and said, 'Shut up.' I said, no, really. I can make you a vampire too. She smiled at me and said, 'Okay, how does that work?' I said, I bite you on the neck and then you live forever. Like me. She arched her neck back and made these bedroom eyes at me and said, 'Okay then, let's do it. Bite me. Make me your vampire bride.' And I said, are you sure? and even as she said yes, I was biting her. I couldn't help myself She said, 'What—' and then she screamed once, short, and she fought me, then she relaxed when—you know. I nearly took it all. I nearly killed her right there, but I remembered. I stopped myself. I cut my wrist for her to drink." That was how you made a vampire. You drank their blood, and they drank yours. We'd all done it. "She didn't really understand what was happening, but I got her to drink some before she, you know. Before she died."

  Saul said, "So, you did turn her. What did you do then?"

  "Well, I kind of, you know, I sobered up. I realized that I needed to do something with her until the next night, so I dumped her in one of the storage closets. About that time I remembered to meet you guys at the Exxon station. I knew I fucked up, I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to try to take care of it myself."

  Saul nodded. He said, "That's why you left in such a hurry this evening. You had to get back—"

  "—Before she woke up. Yeah. I'm sorry about that, I just didn't have any time."

  I said, "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about yesterday?"

  David nodded. "Yeah, but it's no big deal."

  "No, I'm sorry. I'm an asshole."

  "No big deal."

  Saul asked, "What happened then? Tonight, after you ran."

  "Okay, well, you know how Angeline's dad was a minister? well, since his daughter has been missing since that morning when he found her bed empty, there are missing person signs tacked up all around. And when I get to the church, just as it's getting real dark, they're having a fucking prayer meeting for Angeline's safe return. A candlelight vigil. Her dad set up a little podium with a P.A., where he's asking God to bring his child back and all that stuff. There's this whole crowd of people, each with a candle, clustered all around the front steps.

  "So I went around the back. I figured since people were in the church it would be unlocked. I was wrong, but I just forced the knob and went in anyway.

  "Angeline was right where I left her, laying on some choir robes in the supply closet. That section of the church was all dark and quiet, so I carried her out and laid her down on a couch. I sat with her and waited until her eyes opened. She looked up at me and asked, 'Where am I?' And I answered, the church. She said, 'Oh, yeah.' Then all of a sudden, she sits straight up. 'Oh, shit! what time is it? I have to get home before the morning or I'm fucked!' I try to be gentle, I tell her, it's Sunday, not Saturday. She stares at me for a second, and says, 'What? Did I sleep all day?' I say, sort of. Then she goes, she starts getting angry, she says, 'Oh my god, did you drug me? did you give me roofies?' I didn't know what to tell her. I thought, you know, she understood. I thought she understood me."

  When David got to this point, it was like he'd cast a spell. No one moved. Only David spoke. It was like we were around a campfire or something, and you couldn't see anything but the fire and faces hanging in the dark. As he spoke I saw everything he said in my mind.

  David, who had been looking down at his feet
the whole time, looked around at all of us, cleared his throat, and continued. "Then she says, 'Why does my mouth hurt?' And I said because your teeth are growing. And as soon as I said teeth, her hand goes right to the spot where I bit her. Of course she doesn't find anything. Just smooth, cold skin. She says, 'David, this isn't funny. What the fuck is going on?' And here we are, in this moldy old church rec room, and I say, well, I'm not sure how to say this, Angeline, so I'll just say it. You're a vampire. She laughed. 'Shut up,' she says, 'Seriously.' No, really, I tell her, I'm a vampire. When I bit you last night, I made you into one. 'Shut the fuck up,' she says. 'You need to get out of here, you weirdo. I'm going to call my dad.'

  "Angeline, I say, wait. I'm not joking, I swear to God. Watch this. I bit my own arm, and she watched as the cut disappeared. She starts to tremble, and says, 'You didn't, what, there's no such thing as a vampire!' and so then I said to her okay, whatever. Cut yourself, and see what happens. She says, 'Fuck you.' I say, well then, are you hungry? And she thinks for a second, and says, 'Yeah, I am. Figures, since you kept me here drugged all day.' I say, what are you hungry for? She shuts up. She can't quite put her finger on what she's got a taste for. Burger? I say. No. Chinese? No. Mexican? Uh-uh. How about some blood? She thought about it for a second, and then she burst into tears. I think that's when she started to believe me. She cried for a long time, there on the floor next to the couch.

  "I felt like shit. I knew I fucked up, I knew it since last night. I've just been thinking to myself in my head, all day long. I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up. I said, Angeline, I'm sorry. I thought it was what you wanted. We can be together now. Forever. She just looks at me, stops crying for a second and glares. 'Fuck you,' she says. 'Fuck you, David. What the hell are you? What the hell am I? What did you do to me?' I say, it's not that bad. You'll like it after awhile. You never get hurt, you never grow old, you never die. 'She says, and I kill people and drink their blood?' I say, well, yeah.

  "Angeline stands up slow, looking at the crucifix on the wall above the couch. 'We're in a church,' she says, 'I thought vampires couldn't go in churches. They're unholy.' I answered her, no, that's just superstition. Go ahead and touch it. It won't hurt you. She reaches out, tentatively, and touches the cross, runs her hand slowly down it. She sees that nothing happens, then she starts crying again and runs from the room."