Chapter 14

It’s now the following evening, about a half hour after sunset. Nathan drives up to my house in his car, with Diana beside him in the front seat. I get in the back and we drive off toward Main Street.

Less than ten minutes later, I step inside the Bouncing Casket. Diana and Nathan remain outside. Most of the patrons are my living former classmates, who still attend Sangreville High in the daytime. Loretta is among them. Undead members of the nighttime classes are also here. Jimmy Manetti is among them, and so is Mr. Goodbite.

I’m dressed in a zipped open jacket over a light blouse, full length slacks, and flat soled shoes. I carry a clear plastic bag in my right hand, and the arrow I’d been shot with in my left. All my classmates, both former and present, along with members of the Casket’s staff, look startled and deeply troubled, at what the plastic bag contains. Roxanna Morgan does not; but she hasn't noticed me yet.

I approach Roxanna, who’s seated alone at the same table where I spoke to her on Monday night.

Was that Monday? It seems so long ago; but it’s such a short time.

She has what looks like root beer in a glass in front of her, with a straw sticking out. She’s nonchalantly tapping on an app, which has her full attention. She doesn’t notice me, or what’s in the plastic bag, until I come right up to the table, stopping directly across from her.

I speak. “Good evening Roxanna.”

She looks up from her app, and is startled. She begins trembling.

She asks, “You’re alive?”

“No Miss Morgan.” I extend my fangs. “I’m undead.

“I am undead.” I repeat. “But my older cousin Paula is not, any longer.”

I now place the clear plastic bag, which contains the decapitated head of my cousin Paula Sheridan, the Staker Vampire of Sangreville, on the table in front Miss Roxanna Morgan. Miss Roxana Morgan, the hostess of the fang bang we’d all attended on Saturday night, now trembles even more.

I speak, “Her head was found today, deep inside the Demon’s Gateway Cavern. The rest of her was nearby. The arrow you shot her with was still sticking out of her boobs.”

Roxanna anxiously looks around, at all the patrons and staff; who are keeping a very safe distance from us.

“That wasn’t me.” Roxanna’s voice trembles. “I’m not the one who shot her, or you.”

“I heard your voice!”

“But I wasn’t alone. There were other people beside me.”

“That still makes you an accomplice to the murder of Paula Sheridan and the attempted murder of me, Elaine Harris!”

“No it doesn’t. It wasn’t murder.” Now the girl speaks calmly. “It was a pair of human sacrifices, performed on the grounds of a Place of Worship, Consecrated to Vampirania. That makes the act a Constitutionally protected religious ritual. That is a legal activity for which no one, including me, your former classmate Roxanna Morgan, can be prosecuted."

I hear Loretta call out, from a safe distance. “’You can get away with anything you want when you’re living on a hellmouth’ Elaine!”

I turn toward her. “I haven’t gotten away with anything Loretta!” I display my fangs. “And neither will she!” I point to Roxanna.

“Be careful Miss Harris.” Roxanna speaks calmly.

I return my attention to her.

She says, “You don’t want to stir up the wrath of Vampirania again, do you? You are now a vampire, and you are now one of hers.”

“No I am not! I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and only Him shall I serve!”

Now Roxanna is startled. “You are? That’s not possible!”

I say, “’With God all things are possible’. I’ve prayed to the Lord about you Roxanna, and I received an answer. He said, ‘Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.’”

She sneers. “There’s no way I’m fleeing from you Elaine Harris.” She points at the plastic bag on the table, containing Paula’s head. “Or from that really gross piece of rotting flesh.”

I tell her, “The Lord also told me, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary:

"’If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’

“That’s from the Bible.” I add. “Romans 12.”

“Yeah right.” She laughs. “Like you’re gonna dump burning coals on my head?”

“I’m not. I won’t lay a hand on you. All I have to do is feed you, or give you something to drink. Then God will do the rest.”

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She looks skeptical. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

Now I lift up the arrow in my left hand, with its head still stuck in the cross I’d been wearing when I was shot.

“Do you recognize this cross Roxanna? I was wearing it when you shot me. This arrow of yours cracked through this cross, then went through my breastbone and punctured my heart. I was dead and on my way to Hell.”

I hear the other patrons murmuring.

“But God had mercy on me. I woke up in the morning, and this arrow was no longer inside me. Its head was inside the cross, like it is now.”

Now Loretta calls out. “Oh come on Elaine! Do you expect anyone to believe that crap?”

“She does!” I point to Roxanna. “She was there.” I ask Roxanna, “You saw me lying dead, with this stuck straight between my boobs, all the way into my heart. Didn’t you?”

She nods. “That’s just what I saw.” She looks at Loretta. “I don’t understand why she’s no longer as totally dead as her cousin Paula.”

I speak to everyone. “God Himself has shown me His mercy. Whatever I ask for in His Name, I will surely receive. I ask not to be overcome with evil, but that I will overcome evil with good.”

I point to the glass on the table in front of Roxanna, “I think I’d like to pay for that root beer you’re having. Then we’ll see what happens.”

Loretta calls out, still standing at a safe distance. “I’d like to see that myself!”

Roxanna now smacks her open hands down on the table. “Oh forget it!”

She jumps up out of the seat, and glares at me. “I’ve had enough of this!”

She turns and stamps angrily away from us shouting. “You’re the ones who ought to get burning coals dumped on all your heads!”

Then she goes out the door.

Miss Roxanna Morgan is gone from the Bouncing Casket. Everything is now a lot calmer inside the teen hangout, as it usually is on weekday nights.

I repeat, “’Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.’”

I go over to the cashier, and pay for Roxanna’s partly consumed glass of root beer.

I wait about five minutes. Then I step outside, through the same doorway as Roxanna, into the mild evening air, under a clear starry sky.

To my left I hear a woman groaning. I turn to see what’s going on.

About halfway between the entrance to the Bouncing Casket and the street corner, Roxanna is gripped tight in Nathan’s arms. He has his mouth against her throat, and chomping his fangs deep into her neck, gulping down her blood.

Diana stands beside them, holding a sharpened wooden stake, that she’d found on the top shelf of the closet in her sister Paula’s room.

Roxanna makes a final sigh. Nathan lets go of her and she collapses to the sidewalk, where she lays on her side lifeless, with a pair of bite marks in her neck.

I walk up to him and Diana. He looks angry. So does Diana.

I ask, “This wasn’t a fang-bang biting, was it Nathan? You didn’t stop when you reached a measured count of one thousand ten, did you?”

“No.” He growls. “The one who murdered our Enforcer of the Truce is now dead!”

A glaring Diana kneels beside Roxanna and rolls her body over onto her back. She rips the front of the dead girl’s blouse open, exposing her boobs. Then she raises the sharpened stake saying,

“I’m making sure she stays that way!”

Now she rams the stake down hard, straight between Roxanna’s boobs, into her heart. Then she pulls the sharpened weapon out, and stands up, with blood dripping from the stake.

“My sister’s killer will never come back from Hell.”

I say, “Where burning coals are being dumped on more than her head?”

“Diana!” Loretta calls out behind us.

She and most of our living and undead classmates who’d been inside the Bouncing Casket, have now come outside. They stand a safe distance away from the three of us.

Loretta asks, “Are you the new Enforcer of the Truce?”

“I’m not sure.” Diana tells them all. “If I am, I can’t do it all on my own. I’m gonna need a lot of people’s help. Both living and undead.”

Nathan says, “You know you’ve got mine.”

Loretta tells her, “And mine.”

Mr. Goodbite says, “Me too.”

Jimmy Manetti adds, “And mine.”

Now my cousin looks at me, “How about you Elaine?”

I hesitate. I’ve said I don’t want the job, ‘cause I wouldn’t know what I was doing. I can’t tell people that now.

Diana tells me, “You say God brought you back to life. I’m sure that means that He’s gonna give you all the ability you need, to accomplish anything you want from now on.”

“Right.” I nod. “As long as the work of enforcing the Truce is shared, it shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, we’ll have to speak to the Truce Commission and the Town Council, to get their Official Backing. That shouldn’t be any problem either. Let’s talk to Mr. Driscoll. He’ll let them know what we’ve decided.”

“Mr. Driscoll?” Now Nathan says “Right.”

He calls out, “Hey! Everyone here who’s an undead student! Let’s not be late for class!”

All my vampire classmates nod and begin hurrying off in the direction of Sangreville High. Diana, Nathan and I get in his car. Loretta waves good-bye as we drive off. We leave Roxanna lying totally dead and ignored on the sidewalk; another dead Hellmouth girl, with blood on her naked boobies, and a deep gory gash between them.

We spend the rest of the night attending Mr. Driscoll’s class at Sangreville High.

Now it’s morning. I’m home. I’ve been home for hours. The day has begun. Everything outside the kitchen window is getting brighter. This day the sky will be clear and sunny. But I won’t be going outside into the sunshine this day; or any day after this, from now on.

My Mom has gotten up and we’re having breakfast at the kitchen table. At least she is having breakfast.

“I’ve already eaten.” I tell her. “It was the pig’s blood that you provided for me. Thank you, Mom.”

“You’re welcome Elaine.”

I tell her, “Some important decisions have been made. I, Elaine Harris won’t be the new Staker Vampire of Sangreville.”

“That’s good. You said you didn’t want to be.”

“My cousin Diana Sheridan has taken the job. That’s the right choice. She knows what she’s doing. I wouldn’t.”

Mom nods. “She is a good choice.”

“But I will be one of the people who assist her in enforcing the Truce. I don’t know how good I’ll be at that.”

Mom smiles nervously. “At least it’ll give you something useful to do.” She chuckles, also nervously. “Keep you out of trouble.”

“Maybe; or it might get me into more trouble than I can imagine.”

She stops smiling. “I think you’ve had enough of that, haven’t you? Maybe you should stay away.”

“Mom.” I say, “From now on, the words ‘You can get away with murder’ won’t be more than just a figure of speech here in Sangreville anymore.”

She asks, “You heard me say that? You were conscious?”

I nod. “From now on; the Truce Enforcement Squad will do more than just monitor fang bangs. When it’s necessary, we will also be this Town’s Vigilante Squad.”

“Vigilantes? Vampire vigilantes?”

“That’s ‘Staker Vampire Vigilantes’. No one will ‘get away with murder’ anymore Mom. Last night, Roxanna Morgan didn’t. Me, Diana and Nathan saw to it. After this, there will be a lot fewer kids having ‘accidents’ at fang bangs.”

Mom asks, “Is it the blood of Roxanna Morgan’s that you’ve ‘already had’ for breakfast?”

“No. I resist the devil and he flees from me.”

We are quiet for a while. Then I speak.

“Listen Mom.” I tell her, “I have accepted Christ as my Savior, so all my sins are forgiven, and I have no guilt before the Lord. His undeserved, total forgiveness is extended to all sinners, who accept Christ as Savior; including me."

“Amen.” She says, “’The scandal of God’s Grace.’ Praise the Lord.”

END OF STORY