THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

“Hello?” Brin said as she walked up to the RV.

It was tipped over on its side and covered in snow. She had seen correctly—a little girl was cowering and crying next to the overturned vehicle.

“My name is Brin. Can you hear me?”

The girl didn’t answer. She looked confused, like the RV accident had left her in a state of permanent shock.

She was pale in the face, but thankfully without any red in her eyes. Brin took a few steps closer.

“Do you need help?”

The girl said nothing. She had tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Was anyone else in the motorhome?” 

The girl nodded.

“I’m so sorry.”

The girl finally locked eyes with Brin. She looked cold and famished, like she was in need of a jacket, a hot meal, and a friend.

Brin put her hand out. “You need to come with me,” she said. She knew that little room remained in Ash’s Beetle, but the girl was little; they could fit her inside.

“Hmmph,” the girl finally said as stumbled over to Brin. It was more of a grunt than a word. Brin tried to ignore it.

“Can you speak?” Brin said. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Hmmph,” again. The girl started moving faster. Brin would’ve run back to the car if a red glow appeared before her, but alas, the girl’s eyes were normal. Brin felt safe.

She looks sick, Brin thought. She needs a hospital. Maybe in Bridgeport. Maybe they have a place.

The girl kept stumbling toward her. She was just a few feet away now.

Brin prepared herself to hug and comfort the poor girl, when a loud shout from behind turned her around.

“Goddammit, Brin!” Lavender shouted, marching at top speeds, a heated demeanor on her face. Ash stood to the left of the car, his arms crossed, like he had tried to stop her from escaping the vehicle. “We already saved your stupid vampire boyfriend. Now we’re sitting here for minutes on end while you talk to some stranger. Let’s go! I’m not gonna die out here because you’re being a dumb, inconsiderate bitch!” 

Lavender grabbed Brin’s arm, but she shook it away. “What did you call me?”

“Let’s go!” Lavender said. The popular cheerleader, up until now fairly pleasant, was finally showing her true colors. “Let’s go, or we’re leaving without you!”

“Ash wouldn’t leave me here.”

“No,” she said. “But I would!”

“This girl needs help!” Brin shouted, trying to ignore the fact that Lavender had threatened to leave Brin and Ash behind. “We can’t just leave her here!”

“You don’t know her! She could be another freaking vampire for all we know! Come on!”

Lavender grabbed Brin’s arm so tight that she couldn’t escape. She tried to pry herself away, but Lavender was stronger than she let on.

“Let go of me!” Brin shouted. “Let me—”

Lavender let Brin go, by kicking her in the stomach, sending her down against the snow.

“Hey!” Ash shouted in the distance. “What the hell was that!”

“This is all your fault,” Lavender said, ignoring Ash, her hands pressed to her sides. “If it weren’t for you, Chace would still be alive.”

Brin was in shock. She couldn’t believe it. All this time, she thought the feisty Anaya was the villain of this adventure. But it had been Lavender all along.

“Paul and I,” Brin said, “we saved you guys...”

“Shut up, you bitch!” Lavender screamed. “You get in the car right now or I’m kicking your little faggy Ashley friend in the balls and leaving you both here to die, just like Chace, just like—”

Lavender didn’t get a chance to say Sawyer’s name; instead a scream erupted from her lungs so loud it echoed all the way back to Bodie Ghost Town.

“What…” Brin didn’t know what was happening.

Lavender hunched over, her mouth agape, and she turned to her right. The little girl was hopped up on Lavender’s back, sinking her teeth deep into her neck.

“Oh God!” Brin shouted.

“Get her off me!” Lavender shouted louder. “Oh my God, it hurts!” 

Brin wanted to help her. But she could only sit and watch, as Lavender grabbed the girl by her hair and pulled her head away from her neck. The girl took a small, gory chunk out of Lavender’s neck before Lavender flung her hard against the snowy ground and started racing toward the car.

Lavender looked ready to faint, but Brin rushed up to her quickly and grabbed her arms. Brin took one look back at the little girl to see that she wasn’t just licking the blood off Lavender’s flesh; the girl was eating the flesh.

“What the hell—”

“Get in the car!” Ash shouted.

Brin kicked Lavender into the back and then fell into Paul’s arms in the passenger seat, as Ash turned on the ignition and sped back down the road.

“You OK?” Dylan said to Lavender.

The girl snapped. “Do I look all right, you piece of shit? Owwww!” She had her hand slammed up against her neck. It was a small flesh wound, and the blood wasn’t dripping down her shoulders as much as Brin thought it might. But Brin knew it was an unsanitary turn of events, to be sure, and that the wound didn’t mean good things.

She peered up at Paul, selfishly thankful Lavender had walked over to chastise her, because if she hadn’t, she would have been the one with the chunk out of her neck.

“Is she gonna turn into a vampire?” Brin whispered softly to Paul.

He shook his head. “No. There wasn’t enough time to suck the blood out.” He looked in the back seat to see Anaya checking out Lavender’s wound and trying to calm her down. Paul leaned his face toward Brin’s, their lips almost touching again. “The weird thing is… that little girl didn’t look particularly interested in her blood. She looked interested… in her flesh.”

Brin shook her head. “Whatever. I’m just glad the death toll is still two, and only two.”

“Yeah.” Paul didn’t look too confident about his following statement: “She’ll be fine.”

“She’ll be fine,” Brin repeated, and she rested her head against Paul’s neck, of all places, as Ash pulled out onto the US-395 freeway and started heading back to Grisly, Nevada.