Blood Ever After, page 22
“Because in the daylight we can see them,” he said, silver breastplate glinting as he looked about. “I know you wankers think nighttime is the safest, but that’s why God determined me boss, not you dipshits.”
“This is freaking sick,” Brett said, twirling the flick knife around. He threw it in the air, watched it twirl, caught it again. Wham! Hannah slapped Tyler’s ass, squeezing it a couple of times. “Once we get back to the house, we’re going to make a plan, Tyler, and then all will be okay.”
Except it wouldn’t be.
For it was at that moment that everything changed, and Tyler’s world turned to darkness.
It was then the Deaija finally made His move.
They reached the house that evening.
On the journey back, Brett tried tripping Tyler while Tyler tried climbing over a fence, causing him to slide back down and land on the dirt. Tyler shoved the smaller boy a couple of times, the kid releasing a couple of thin-armed punches right into Tyler’s guts.
Now, out front of Mrs. Webb’s home, Nelson pointed and laughed at the old two-story house before them. “Ha ha, look at this place. This is the biggest shit-hole I have seen in my life.”
Wham! Nelson slapped Hannah’s ass, who tripped forward over one of the old toys among the grass. Wham! Brett had stepped forward, whacking his sister’s ass also.
Inside, the house was dark. In a serious voice, removing a silver plate from his arm, Nelson said, “Alright, fuck-wits, lock all the doors, check all the windows. I call the shots round here now. This is my home from this point.” He looked around, pointed to the kitchen. “Tyler, go make some food. Charlotte, you go sort out those dishes. Hannah, you go—”
Hannah marched up to Nelson, pushed him so that he stumbled and nearly tripped on his prosthetic, then reached over and grasped his balls. “Honey, you try telling me what to do, your balls will be lodged so far up your own ass you’ll be farting out testes the rest of your life, ya long-haired shit-bag.”
Later that night, Charlotte and Tyler stood gazing out the glass doors of the upper-level guest bedroom. Before them sat the balcony, and beyond this, the driveway running up a gradual incline. The room itself was dusty, but well kept, an organ sat in the corner.
“I missed you,” Tyler said, looking over at the girl. They soon looked out to a stary night sky. The air was cool, even inside, and the trees out there budged ever so slightly left, and right. Charlotte shivered. Tyler almost placed an arm around her, but then didn’t.
She looked up at him. “I thought you had died. I thought you had been taken over by the Deaija, and that you’d passed away like all the other people had.” Her teeth now chattered too, the girl placing her arms around her chest.
Tyler dug his hands inside his pockets. “I guess it’s fate that we meet again, isn’t it.” He looked back out at the stars. Saying something so corny felt awkward to him, but the truth was that he believed it to be correct. Surely it was fate they had met again.
Some shouting from downstairs.
Her eyes widened, “Quick,” she said.
Brett’s forehead was scrawled up, lips pursed. He caressed that tennis ball, aiming it in the direction of Nelson, who stood wearing a Metallica Fade to Black T-shirt and khaki pants. Nelson had both a glum look and slightly cheeky grin on his face, as though finding this situation sad and humorous simultaneously.
“Look, Brett, I know you don’t wanna leave, mate, but it’s the only way.”
Brett threw the ball at Nelson. It missed his head, slamming against the wall, bouncing off into the living room. It rolled to a stop between two of the portable lights set up in there.
“Screw Ocean Bay. We got better chance of being picked up here, we do. Why don’t we just stay here till the pigs come? They said they’re coming for us. Why do we have to leave? Why?”
Hannah hands on his shoulders, messaging them, Brett’s Nardo Wick’s shirt coming down over his knees. She ran a hand down his back. “Brett, it’s our best chance.” She peered over at Nelson, who couldn’t quite meet the girl’s eyes. “It’s really the one thing we agree upon,” she muttered toward the man who ran a hand through his hair.
“Off me, loser,” Brett said, whacking his sister’s arm away.
Tyler sat across from Hannah.
Hannah dealt the next set of cards. Tyler picked up his set, looked at them.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” he said.
Hannah nodded. “Brett don’t wanna follow Nelson’s plan and head to the bay.” She placed her cards down, looked out the security windows showing a shadowed woods out the backyard.
“He’s attached to this place, you know. Just like all young kids, they don’t like movin’ away from the places they grew up.”
Soon Charlotte took a seat beside them at the dining room table. Only a single portable lamp shone through the dim rooms.
“Couldn’t sleep either?” Tyler said.
With tired eyes, that dark hair slinking over her shoulder, she shook her head. “I kept hearing those noises, so far away now.” She blinked her attention back to the present, slapping the table. “Come on, deal me some cards.”
Hannah dealt her some cards. The three looked at their cards, before each placing one down in the middle. Soon Hannah stood, her singlet thin and loose, stomach taut and strong. A slightly saddened look sat upon her face. “I don’t think I’m going to win, Tyler. I think I’ll just go to bed instead.” She reached out, touched Tyler’s hand, before turning and walking toward the hallway.
“Hannah …,” Tyler started, but the girl continued walking into the darkness.
Charlotte and Tyler played cards together late into the night, but Tyler didn’t stop thinking about Hannah the entire time.
Friday, Hannah and Tyler walked past the houses.
Tyler pointed right.
“Look,” he said. “All the bodies … the ones that were on the road when I first arrived here … they’re all gone. W-what’s happening there?”
Hannah had a strained look on her face as she walked. No hint of a smile sat on it. Her white singlet writhed about in the breeze, her nipples clearly evident beneath it. Her muscled shoulders and taunt stomach glinted in the morning light. “I don’t know do I? Does it look like I understand the supernatural abilities of this heap-a-shit?” A body lay further up ahead. Hannah walked up to it, kicking an old, leathery rotten hand. “All I know is that if I see another one of those things … living, that is, I’m going to kill it.” She glared back at Tyler. “Kill it or be killed by it.”
Tyler caught up to her. The street gave way to Windle Laneway. “Why do you speak like that, Hannah? Why do you speak as though you should die soon? I know….” His voice trailed off. A cool breeze rattled the leaves of the trees above. “I know what happened was … I just can’t imagine it, but—”
A snarl in the distance, up ahead.
Hannah’s hand whitened as she clasped the hunter’s knife. She looked back at Tyler. “You stay here, Tyler. This is not for the scared.” She wandered off.
In a coarse voice, Tyler called, “I’m not scared. Don’t you know I am not scared?”
On the way home, they walked with large bags in each of their hands. Packs of rice and cartons of long-life milk poked from the tops. A stony look sat upon Hannah’s face. Afternoon sunlight coated the houses. “You know, you could have told me you were in love, Tyler. Why’d you lead me on like that, pretending you was single?” She stared at him, those blue eyes almost orange in the sunset.
Tyler shrugged. “W-wasn’t pretending. I am single. Whoever said I was in love, anyway? Are you talking about Charlotte?”
Glaring up ahead once more, Hannah said, “No, I’m talking about Nelson, Tyler.” She shook her head, exchanging her shopping bag from one hand to the other.” One of the milks slipped out in the process, bursting out over the tiles. She ignored it, shaking her head. “’Course I am talking about Charlotte.”
She stopped, her shoulders slumping. She still stared ahead, but soon lowered the bags to the ground, then turned, pulling Tyler’s shirt so that Tyler came within inches of her.
Sunlight bursts into Tyler’s eyes. Crows whistled in the trees above. “Look, if you like the girl, just tell her. Life is …” She looked into the distance, still holding Tyler’s shirt. Her shoulders rose and fell with her breathing, and although a sadness glinted in her eyes—a sadness Tyler had not seen before Hannah’s mother had died—there was almost a sense of strength and vitality within her, radiating more than the sun burning into Tyler’s eyes.
“… it’s so short, Tyler. Take it from me.” Those dark eyes met Tyler’s again. “If you love someone, tell them…. Or risk losing them forever.” She released Tyler’s shirt, picked up her bags, and started off toward Windle Laneway.
Tyler peered now and then at Charlotte. There she sat on the couch, staring at the TV screen. Nelson sat at the dining room table, the large map sprawled before him. Tyler stood up, heading over to Charlotte. But that crippling, nauseating fear swept through him, and a sickening taste throughout his mouth. He now felt he was struggling to breathe, and turned, and in his mind walked further and further up the bank, away from that river.
Jordi, who stood at the shore, a reed slung over his brown, chubby body, said, “Coward, Tyler. You’ll always be a coward. That’s why you can’t enter the water anymore. It represents everything you fear, the way you can’t move on. You don’t know what’s in here. and so run scared.” Jordi now pointed at him. “And you’ll always be scared, Tyler, unless you can take that step.”
Frowning, Tyler stared down the bank at his brother, Jordi’s shoulders still dripping. “What do you know? Had you not died, I wouldn’t be this way anyway, J.” Tears clogged up in Tyler’s eyes. “You screwed my life up, man. This is all your fault. This is all your fault.” He continued walking further up the bank, arms weak and hands sweaty. He stopped at the ridge, moonlight beaming down, taking a breath before turning around. “Had you not left us, Jordi … none of this would even have happened. I would be with Mom and Dad and you right now and everything would have been just fine. Everything would have been just fine.”
Jordi frowned. “What do you mean none of this would ever have happened? Are you saying you don’t think … this …” His hand swept out before him, as though something lay before them on the bank that no one could see. “… you don’t think this is real? You think it’s all fake? Or that it’s all set up, just for you, for some reason?”
Tyler gritted his teeth, twisting back away from his brother, shaking his head. He put his hands over his head. “I ain’t know what’s real and what’s fake anymore,” he said. He shook his head, now heading to the woods beside the river.
“Tyler …,” Jordi called, the night sky thick above. Tyler took a deep breath, before once more stopping and turning. He didn’t look down to his bother as Tyler stood among the long weeds now.
In a softer voice, Jordi called, “I want you to know …. It …” He cleared his throat, his voice having choked. “… it was nothing to do with you, or Mom or Dad either, Tyler…. They were personal problems … things I….”
Tyler took a couple of steps closer to the bank. “What personal problems? What was so troubling that you couldn’t tell me or Mom or Dad?”
But the boy’s skin was changing, coming over with a green hue. Jordi gazed at it, his face first worried, before that trademark cheeky smile returned. Jordi started stepping back toward the river. “I’m being called for an important task, something which is going to help you, Tyler. Something that will save you.” Jordi was pointing at Tyler, but still walking backward toward the water. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Tyler, but not how you see me here, something far more real, Tyler….”
In a rough, angered voice Tyler called, “You leave Jordi alone. Don’t do to him what you did to the others. You leave him alone. He doesn’t need to come back, not like this. Leave my brother in peace, you sick bastard. Leave him alone.”
Leave him alone, Tyler said, sat once more upon the dining table, staring out that window to the woods out the backyard, wondering when, and if, his brother would come seeking him soon.
Chapter 19
Friday, all barring Charlotte set out toward the local hardware store.
Tyler walked behind, albeit, shaking his head. Hannah walked up front, staring back at Nelson who walked in his armor. She waited for Tyler, and when Tyler caught up, whispered in his ear, “Holy shit, the Tin Man’s got the nicest ass in the world.” Wham! She moved forward and slapped Nelson’s ass so hard the axe came slipping out of his hands. Nelson turned, reefed off his mask and glared at the singlet wearing girl. Brett was cackling, holding his thin stomach.
“You do that again and I’ll put you in the ground just like all those other things round here. Got it?” He feinted stepping toward Hannah.
By the time they’d reached the city center, morning sunlight beamed over the old, weary buildings.
“It was working when I got it,” Tyler later said to Nelson. Nelson didn’t give him the dignity of glaring backwards. He was staring up at the tools in the hardware store. “Well, it doesn’t now, cocksucker. Here, hold this.” He threw Tyler a set of tools, which Tyler tried grabbing, then dropped them on the ground hopelessly.
In the morning sun, heaving from the back, Nelson was pushing out the large trailer from the open terrace of the gardening section. “Steer it, fuckin’ steer it, Tyler,” Nelson yelled, sweat rolling down his face. Wham! Once more Hannah slapped Nelson’s ass. Nelson released his grip on the trailer, pulled his glove off and staggered back toward Hannah.
“Look, woman, you might think you’re all high and mighty coming off the back-end of the woman’s movements, but you touch my ass one more time—”
She bellowed laugher, reached behind him and grasped onto his butt-cheek. “Shit, sweet-cheeks, you been workin’ out, or what?” Wham! Nelson stumbled forward from the slap, landing inside the trailer they’d been pushing. Wham! Brett had come from behind, whacking Nelson when he was down. Tyler burst out into giggles, Slap! Hannah had come behind him, whacking him, and now breathed in his neck, “Oh I’d do the both of you little limp-dicks in one go, I would, if you weren’t both such pussies.” Thunk, she shoved him away.
Soon they had returned home. The white lights bloomed throughout. Charlotte stared at the map before her on the table. She looked up at Nelson. “You think this will work? You think we can get over to Ocean Bay?”
Nelson nodded. He stood, leaning over the table toward Charlotte. Tyler noticed his arm was a little closer than Tyler would have liked it. Stay back from her, man, stay back from my girl. Hannah stared wide-eyed at Nelson while he spoke. She whispered to Tyler, “Look at the hunk teaching Charlotte, Tyler. Ooh, I’d love to do him.” She grasped Tyler’s manhood as though hoping, it seemed, it were someone else’s.
“Simple case of physics. If we replace the battery with the solar-powered one we got today, it should technically run from the sun’s heat.” He pointed to an image of a solar panel attached to the trailer. It was a sketch Nelson had done overnight. Large, bulging muscles showed on Nelson’s arms as he leant there. “It will then go all day, once fully charged.”
Charlotte nodded. “And you’ve seen this happen before? Seen it actually work?”
Nelson was silent a moment, then looked off to those woods through the security windows. “I’ve got a way of making things work that shouldn’t,” he said, his face solemn. “Come on,” he said, looking back at Charlotte, his voice growing lighter.
Later that evening, Tyler stood downstairs in the garage, Nelson’s frame partially concealed by the ATV he lay beneath. “Spanner, Tyler.” Tyler reached over, handed the man the spanner. Nelson shuffled himself out, looked up at Tyler. There was grease over his face. He held the tool back toward Tyler. “That’s a wrench, dip-shit.”
Later, Tyler lay in Hannah’s room, with Hannah. They slept beside each other. Hannah was running her hand down Tyler’s back. Tyler had lost his own room to Charlotte, and Nelson now slept in Mrs. Woods old room. “Oh Tyler, I’m so in love. I don’t think I’ve ever been in love with anyone quite so much before. Do you think he loves me, Tyler? Do you think he loves me?”
Tyler ran a hand down Hannah’s back. “I guess so, sweetheart, I guess he could. I don’t know.”
Soon the two were snoring as they lay side by side. When Hannah awoke again in the darkness of the bedroom, she shook Tyler, waking him up also.
“Tyler, one day we’ll be free, and you me and Nelson will be running around in fields, chasing rabbits, you know what I mean, Tyler, know what I mean?’ She closed her hand around his firm butt-cheek. Tyler nestled into her, nestled into the girl who he imagined had long amber hair and sweet soft shoulders.
“Yeah … yeah I know what you mean … one day.”
Hannah, now sitting up in bed, stared a few more minutes outside that window.
“When they come for us, Tyler, know that everything will be okay. Know that everything will be okay, my princess.”
She stared a few moments more, before burying herself back beneath the bedsheets. There she writhed up against a closed-eyed Tyler, pressing her lips against his cheek. “Everything will be okay, sweetcheeks, everything will be okay.”
There she lowered her hand, until she grasped something warm, and hard, and deep into the night the two pressed their bodies against each other, both imagining they were wish someone else, but both happy enough to be with each other, also.
Disaster struck the following morning at exactly 7.16 am.
Tyler had been in the kitchen preparing some toast. He planned to give Hannah a nice breakfast, to make her feel better about the fact Nelson didn’t appear too interested in her.
He heard footsteps heading down the hallway as morning sun filtered through the kitchen window. Soon came the banging of the boxing bag from the basement, Nelson’s grunts sounding beneath the bassy music.
