THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Brin tried not to feel scared. She was the first to stand back up and move forward.

“Wait!” Dylan reached out for Brin. “Where are you going?”

“Just… stay down.”

“Brin… is that…” Anaya, for the first time, appeared interested in discussing something besides herself or the movie. “Is that a person?”

“Stay down, and don’t move,” Brin said.

It only took her ten seconds to find the window, but it felt like an eternity, like a slow-motion glide across a dusty old mansion. She had to maneuver around the desks, past the chalkboard, past the clutter that blocked her from the edge of the window. She leaned forward, as the red glow started to dissipate.

She had thought it before, and she knew it now: this wasn’t one of the evil bloodsuckers.

It was him.

“What are you doing here?” Brin whispered.

Of course he didn’t respond. The young vampire who had saved her life didn’t seem to recognize that she had said anything. Instead, he tilted his head forward and brought his right palm up to the window.

Brin furrowed her eyebrows. “What are you…”

He stared at her. She didn’t know right away, but soon the truth came to her: he wanted her to do the same.

Brin turned around. Anaya and Dylan were standing close together, both looking on in fear and confusion.

She turned back and pressed her right palm against the window.

She couldn’t believe it: she could feel a connection.

First Brin felt a spark go off in her hand, and then she saw something that couldn’t possibly be real. She had seen the red glows in the eyes of these strange creatures. But she had never seen the glow in any of the hands.

Brin tried to pull her hand back. She couldn’t; it was glued to the window. The figure stared at her, without a smile, without a frown, but with intense focus, as streams of red light passed between his palm and hers.

No pain ensued, but she wanted to start screaming, anyway. She didn’t know what he was doing to her.

Am I gonna die?

“Stop,” she said. She tried to pull back again. She couldn’t budge. “Stop this!”

He pulled his hand away from the window and she flew back five feet or more, the top of her head smashing against the nearest children’s desk.          

“Oh my God! Brin!” Dylan rushed forward and jumped down to her level. “Are you OK?”

“Is she dead?” Anaya said.

“She’s not dead! She’s breathing!” He moved his face closer to Brin’s. “Come on. Wake up. Wake—”

Brin leaned her head back and transformed her face into an awkward scowl. He didn’t know what she was doing, until she moved her head forward and sneezed so violently that Dylan was nearly blown off his feet.

“Whoa,” he said, as Brin stood up all by herself. He rubbed his aching arm and stood up along with her. “Do you need any help?”

“I’m fine.”

“What the hell was that?” Dylan said.

“I… I don’t know.”

“You have to know!” Anaya shouted from the back. She marched toward the other two. “Brin, what are you not telling us?”

“Anaya, calm down.”

“I will not calm down! What is going on here? Who was that guy? And what the hell happened to the others in our group?”

“I don’t know, OK?” Brin said. “I don’t have all the answers.”

“But you know something! I can tell!”

As Brin and Anaya started arguing yet again, Dylan turned around and walked to the same window Brin had her hand pressed up against. He stepped over all the clutter, with difficulty, and tilted his head forward. He looked out the window, but didn’t see the mysterious figure. He didn’t see anything unusual.

Anaya got up in Brin’s face. “Chace didn’t go to get help, did he?”

Brin sighed and shook her head. “No.”

“Where did he go? Why didn’t he come back with you?”

“Something… something happened. A few miles from here.”

“What happened?” Anaya stared at Brin with increasing animosity. They both forgot Dylan was even there. “Are you telling me he’s in danger?”

Brin took a step back and shook her head. “No. We’re in danger.”

Dylan turned around and gave Brin a look of terror, even though he hadn’t yet seen the red glow. But Brin and Anaya did. It didn’t just softly bounce off Brin and Anaya’s shoulders. The glow encapsulated the entire room.

Brin turned to the window, as did Anaya.

“Oh my God,” Anaya said. “What…”

“Oh no,” Brin said.

Dylan stared at the two in confusion. They stared back. He realized, bringing his eyes down to the ground, then up to the ceiling, that either a red atomic bomb had been dropped outside, or another one of those strange creatures was making himself known.

“Dylan!” Brin shouted. “Get away from the window!”

“What?”

He heard the loud growling noise from outside. He thought he’d turn around to greet a bright-eyed set of ferocious wolves.

Dylan turned around. There wasn’t one of those spooky red-eyed creatures. There were several. There were twenty or more.

Some were men. Some were women. There was even a trio of vampire children. 

“Oh my God!” he shouted. “Oh my—”

A loud shriek from the center figure enveloped not just the schoolhouse but the entire ghost town. Brin and Anaya slammed their hands to their ears, as the enormous glass windows burst into a thousand pieces.

Dylan screamed as ten pale arms reached forward, grabbed him by the head, and pulled him out into the black, scary night.