“Sometimes I feel like we should be driving the Mystery Van,” Louise remarked, letting her hand hang out of the passenger door window. They’d decided to take Lee’s car today. Less noticeable. Better mileage. Gabriel and Danny were in the backseat.
“I wish we could,” Lee agreed. “It would be a lot easier to tear off a rubber mask at a haunted fairground.” He paused, “do I have to drop my glasses and come up with a corny catch phrase if we do?”
Danny cringed in the backseat, shifting a little to give Gabriel more room. Five minutes on the road and their leader had fallen asleep as if he hadn’t been running on hyperdrive before they got in the car. Maybe that steak wasn’t enough. “Do you two need to get a room?” he joked.
Louise glanced back over her shoulder, “looks like you two will need one pretty soon. Gabe!” She shouted, immediately realizing how loud she was and giving Lee an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
He flinched, “that’s okay. I didn’t crash.” His eyes quickly scanned the rearview mirror as he made his turn into the parking lot of a boarded-up gas station. Maybe not the safest area to leave his car, but better than keeping it on the side of the road and risk having it towed later. “I think Gabe needs to take a vacation,” Lee remarked. “He’s acting insane today. A hangover doesn’t turn you into a narcoleptic.” Their leader in the backseat was completely oblivious to the rest of them, his head resting on Danny’s shoulder.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Louise agreed, slowly unbuckling her seatbelt. “I’m not sure he knows the meaning of the word ‘vacation’. I don’t think he’s taken a day of since--” she paused thoughtfully, “well, I mean, since we met. Even when we were dating.” It felt weird talking about him while he was sitting in the backseat sleeping, but Lee was honestly a little worried. Gabriel just wasn’t himself today.
“Hey,” Danny nudged Gabriel off of his shoulder, “wake up. We’re here. Gabe.”
“Huh? What?” Gabriel jumped, jerking away from him, “was I sleeping?”
Louise craned her head over the side of her seat to look back at him, “yeah, you pretty much turned Danny into your own personal body pillow the second Lee started the car. Are you sure you want to help scan the area today, Gabe? You don’t look good.”
Lee could see what she meant. He looked pretty pale. “Maybe you’ve got the flu. Or…” he trailed off, a terrible thought striking him at that moment. “When you killed that ghoul the other night, do you think maybe you got infected?” They hadn’t had enough experience with ghouls first-hand to pick up on the starting signs of infection, but in their line of business anything was possible.
Gabriel scowled at each of them in turn, unbuckling his seatbelt and shoving his door open, “I just drank too much. Had a few bad dreams. Get off my ass, alright?”
“You’ve been acting like a jerk all day, and you’re freaking us all out. I’m not putting up with it. You can go with Lee today, because I’m taking Danny!” Louise snapped right back at him, surprising everyone. Today was Lee’s turn to train the newbie.
“Fine. I’m having an off day, I’m sorry. Do whatever you want.” Gabriel’s apology didn’t sound too sincere, and before Louise could reply, he was stomping off across the parking lot.
“Gabe! Gabriel!” Lee shouted, popping his trunk before he hopped out of the car, “we need to grab some kits!” He hastened around to the back of the car to snatch out two satchels and toss them over his shoulder. “Louise, Danny, you guys take the other side of the block, alright?” He told them hastily as he gathered their satchels and slammed the trunk closed.
“Yeah, go catch up to him. We got it.” Louise took the bags and passed one to Danny after she closed her car door.
“I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a very long day,” Lee told her, kissing his girlfriend on the forehead before he took off after Gabriel, tossing his car keys back to Danny to lock up.
“Gabriel!” Lee shouted, jogging out of the parking lot and across the street to catch up. For a guy who just woke up a few minutes ago, he sure was fast. “For god’s sake, slow down!” Lee exclaimed, taking a deep breath once he’d finally managed to grab a hold of Gabriel’s shoulder. “You’re acting really weird. We all care about you, and we weren’t trying to make you throw a temper tantrum!”
Gabriel spun around, “I wasn’t throwing a tantrum!”
“Yes,” Lee leveled his eyes at Gabriel, handing him one of the satchels, “you were. Just stop for a moment and go over what just happened in the car, and ask yourself if any sane or normal person would behave like that. Storming off in an area that has not only had three murders within the last three weeks, but frankly isn’t that safe to begin with.” He gestured around him at some of the dilapidated buildings and clustered walls of brick along one side of the street that may have been a warehouse once, but now only stood as a testament to the skills of local graffiti artists.
“Goats.” Gabriel replied.
“I--what?”
“Goats. Three murders, and a few goats. That’s what the last report Chuck wrote down said.”
Lee shook his head, “I think he was just being a jerk, Gabe. He was drunk when he wrote that las-”
“Goats!” Gabriel slapped his friend on the shoulder, his mouth forming into a wide grin, “don’t you get it, Lee? Goats. Goat meat. There’s a butcher shop down the street.”
“Gabriel, for god’s sake, that place was shut down three years ago. There’s no-”
“No, man, I mean I can smell it. Goats. C’mon!” Then, without so much as one reasonable explanation for anything he’d done at all from his cranky morning, to his disgusting table manners over breakfast, and his hissy fit in the car, Gabriel was running down the street again. Lee couldn’t hold back a deep groan as he took off after him.
His lungs were burning by the time he managed to catch up to Gabriel, yet again, coming to a stop in the empty parking lot of the aforementioned butcher. Like the gas station they’d left his car in, the windows were boarded up, but far more thoroughly. This wasn’t a rush job. Some of the windows even had tarps stapled over the boards to seal out what Lee assumed was rain or moisture.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Then the smell Gabriel had mentioned finally struck him, and Lee had to cover his mouth as they approached the building together. It was like a barnyard after all of the livestock got struck down and left to rot in the mud and piss. If this was what it smelled like now, he could only imagine how awful it must have been to shop here when the place was actually open.
“Gabe, I don’t think this--” Lee turned towards the other hunter only to catch sight of him trying to pry off one of the boards sealing up the front door, “what are you doing?” He demanded, alarmed. “This is illegal!”
“We’ve done worse,” Gabriel replied with a shrug, managing to get the first board off with surprising ease before dropping it to the ground and dusting some of the dirt and bits of dust from his hands. “It’s not just dead goats in there, Lee. There’s something--someone moving. Can’t you hear it?” He ripped open the satchel Lee had given him and pulled out a hammer to get to work on the other board, which had several more nails in it.
“No, I can’t!” This was too much. Everything was going wrong. They weren’t following any sort of plan or strategy. Today was just supposed to be simple investigating and talking, now Gabriel was committing a crime in the name of--in the name of what? An ill-conceived action plan? Bad smells? He wasn’t exactly sure what sort of logic his friend and semi-boss was following, but Lee was absolutely convinced now that Gabriel needed to go to a doctor, unless this was something no sane doctor could even handle.
Once the last board had clattered to the ground, Gabriel was grasping the door handle, “come on,” he nodded at Lee. “Ladies first.”
“That’s not funny,” Lee informed him seriously, striding over towards the door with a reluctant sigh. “Fine, I’ll go inside and look around with you if you insist, but after this, we are leaving. There’s probably an alarm just waiting for us to set it off.” Not likely, given the condition of the place, but you never really knew.
Gabriel winked, already seeming to be in a way better mood than when they’d left the car. At least that was something of an indicator that he wasn’t too sick. Physically. For all Lee knew, it was about to get worse. It definitely did when Gabriel yanked the door open for him, and he had the air knocked out of him after a vicious creature dive-bombed Lee from the ceiling.
Yellow, dripping fangs snapped at his face as he struggled to shove it away, claws digging into Lee’s shirt and very nearly shredding any fabric it came into contact with. A long tail snapped around, thwacking the side of the doorframe as Lee stumbled towards the wall trying to put every ounce of strength into dislodging the creature while still trying to preserve his nose from being bitten off. It all happened so fast, he hardly had time to register when Gabriel grabbed the thing and tossed it to the ground.
Lee’s poor face was intact, though his shirt and chest had borne the brunt of the damage, and his glasses had fallen off in the struggle, one lens having shattered upon impact with the shadowed linoleum floor.
“Judy,” a voice hissed from the darkness, “come!”
Kneeling down to scoop up his glasses, Lee shoved them onto his face, squinting through the one remaining good lens to try to make out the thing on the floor before it skittered away, having lost interest in himself and Gabriel. From what he could tell, it looked like--
“Chupacabra,” Gabriel stated with a knowing laugh. “I knew it. You owe me a beer.”
“I never said I’d buy you a beer for nearly getting me killed,” Lee tried to glare at him, though he was sure the effect was somewhat dulled by his already haggard appearance.
There was the sound of a match being struck, and Lee managed to make out a figure illuminated in the dark, lighting an old kerosene lamp. Then another. A third.
“Judy, is that any way to treat visitors?” A pale hand scooped up the creature, its owner stepping out of the shadows cast by the lanterns, “good evening, gentlemen.” The man that stood before them was pale, very pale, vampire pale. Long fingernails scratched down Judy’s back, the creature arching into the touch like a dog, “what brings you to my humble abode?” Pale blue eyes closed for a moment as the man took a deep breath, “interesting.” His eyes locked on Gabriel as he scented the air again, “very interesting.”
Interesting? What did it mean by that? Lee could never understand much of what monsters seemed to be talking about when they showed up to dispatch them. The kind who only spoke in riddles were the worst.
Gabriel grabbed Lee’s shoulder, “back up, I don’t want you getting hurt,” he advised him.
As much as Lee would like to argue the point, his vision was compromised right now, “I’m right behind you,” he replied as Gabriel released his grip and stepped forward.
“You’re the one killing off the locals,” Gabriel stated. He didn’t need to ask. It was painfully obvious, now that Lee got a better look at their surroundings. Within the sparse areas of light from the lamps, rotting body parts littered the ground. Thank god Danny wasn’t here to see this. He wasn’t ready. Dear god, Lee didn’t know if he was ready for something like this himself.
“Not all of them, only a few here and there, I do need to eat, after all.” He replied, setting Judy down, “come now, surely you can understand, what with your--condition.”
Gabriel slowly reached into the satchel he’d slung over his shoulder, not making any sudden moves to set off the little monster or the vampire in front of him, “condition?” He repeated, “what are you talking about?”
Keep him talking, Lee wanted to urge. As long as the monster kept talking, they’d have more time for Gabriel to get at one of his weapons.
The vampire laughed, tossing his head back, “oh, my dear boy, you don't know, do you?”
They weren’t very far from the door. Lee wondered if he could distract him, lure the vampire to the sunlight. Before he could even pursue the plan, though, Gabriel had yanked his hand out of his bag with a start, biting out a few curses. “Shit! Lee, what the hell did Louise pack in this pack? It burned me!” He looked back up at the vampire, holding out his burnt hand to Lee, “hand me a stake from your kit,” he whispered, while his free hand grasped the gun he kept holstered under his jacket for emergencies. “Know what?” He demanded, “you going to make some joke about living like it’s some kind of weakness? You sick fucks are all alike.”
“Life is necessary, for me, for you, but unnecessary with regards to humanity except to serve us.” He shook his head, “ahh, to be young again.” He said wistfully, “you’ll understand when you're older.”
Lee yanked a stake from his bag, making a mental note to address whatever ill-timed prank Louise had paid on Gabriel, before he handed it to him, “here.”
“Thanks.” Gabriel held the stake and the gun level, edging further into the room, “you’re insane,” he stated flatly, “so let’s get this over with. Go on. Make the first move.”
The vampire sighed, “I'm not some idiot fledgling that will just attempt to go in for the kill, no, in fact, I think I'll take my leave. I'm going to enjoy seeing you again, to see what you become. It will be a fascinating show.” With one gesture, the vampire sent his little monster barreling towards Gabriel, who shot off a couple of rounds trying to stop it, while the owner dodged past him and knocked Lee to the ground as he took off across the parking lot. Unscathed. Unburnt.
“He--he’s not turning to ash!” Lee shouted, spinning back to face Gabriel, who’d managed to kill the thing with surprisingly little effort.
Gabriel looked back over at him, a little dazed, “what?”
“It’s the middle of the day, and he didn’t ash! He was a vampire, wasn’t he?” This wasn’t good. This was very bad. They’d never had the chance to test whether or not the legend about bloodsuckers and sunlight was true, but finding out when they both very well could have had their throats ripped out was more than a little terrifying.
“Well…” Gabriel trailed off, not seeming to have much to add. He knelt down to the thing at his feet. “Lee. I think this is a Chupacabra.”