Escape (3 page)

            Her eyes locked onto another disturbing sight. Next to the pub was something like a whorehouse that was just opening for business. Numerous seductive looking women and men wearing suggestive clothing were emerging from the front door. They appeared normal, perhaps a little pale in this moonlight, but normal and possibly human.

            Amelia took a bounding step forward, sighting a man that seemed to take notice of her. She opened her mouth to speak and ask all of her questions, but the man gave her a slow toothy grin and she realized that this man was no human. As he bared his long fangs, she knew that he must have been a vampire. No wonder his skin was pale.

            Amelia’s face wrinkled with disgust as she held her own throat and stepped back onto her side of the street. The man noticed that she didn’t seem interested any longer and turned away to attract more prey.

            Amelia turned to run in the only direction that there seemed to be no monsters, but she paused when she heard a cacophony coming from the opposite end of the street.

            She swiveled her head around to see a hoard of little gremlin-like children running, shouting and tossing a ball amongst themselves. There must have been eight or nine of these little goblins prancing down the street, not caring that Amelia was staring at them with her mouth gaped wide open, both in shock and fear.

            The children were wearing everyday, normal clothing that children would wear, but their faces were grotesque with boils, wrinkles, demonic eyes and purple skin. They even moved like children, despite their appendages being slightly stubbier.

            One child didn’t catch the ball when it was their turn and the toy went flying off to the other side of the street. The ball hit one innocent bystander in the head and it fell to the ground… along with the head.

            The man’s severed head made exclamations of frustration mingled with general sounds of displeasure and pain. The rest of the man’s body was turning around wildly, as if searching for its lost head. His clothes were tattered with strips fluttering from his limbs as he moved about. The skin of the head and the body were a gruesome ashy color. Amelia could just barely see his face from where it lay on the ground. His eyes were sunken in with dark circles around his lids and much of his features were unrecognizable due to the mass of scars that had accumulated there.

            “You horrible imps, put my head back!” his head shouted from the middle of the street. 

            The children all laughed at the great joke, grabbed the ball and ran without helping the man, almost trampling over his head.

            Amelia watched with horrified fascination as the man’s body continued to struggle to find its missing head.

            “Hey, lady!” she heard the head call. Looking down, she could see the clouded eyes of the decapitated head look right at her. “Would you mind giving me a hand here?” it asked.

            Normally, Amelia was always ready to lend help to those in need. But she couldn’t bring herself to move. She was fixed in that spot on the sidewalk and all she could do was shake her head, eyes wide with fright.

            Petrified with fear, she looked between all these things she had witnessed, wondering what she had put in that spaghetti sauce to bring on this kind of hallucination.

            She didn’t want to talk to anyone anymore. She knew exactly where she was. Hell. This had to be hell or some form of it, if it were not a dream or a nightmare. All she knew is that she wanted to go home.  

            Without taking a second thought, she ran as fast and as hard as she could down the street, trying to retrace her steps back to that tunnel, holding back her hysteric sobs and urges to scream at every new terror she came across. There had to be some way get home. There just had to be.

            Unknown to Amelia, she was being carefully and curiously watched, not only by the creatures she was running from, but one that she didn’t see at all.

            A young woman, dressed in all black leather with a red velvet cloak draped around her shoulders, stepped out from a shadowed alley from where she was watching this strange affair with piercing, violet eyes. She stared thoughtfully down the path that the stranger had taken, then nodded in surreal understanding.

            The cloaked woman pulled up her hood to mask her face and traveled back to the place she resided. On the farther side of town, the houses were not as closely packed, but still coincided with the same architectural style as the rest of the buildings. Her home was a modest one. The exteriors of the houses were nothing like the inside, which had been renovated to accommodate modern standards of a livable home.

            She walked in and strode to the very back of the house, past the kitchen and living room, to come to the back bedroom. The appliances and furniture were a bit old fashioned, but in working order and gave off a mid-twentieth century contemporary ambiance that was homey and likeable.

            Without any consideration for anyone else who may have been in the room, the lady flipped on the bright ceiling lights and stood at the foot of the bed with her hands on her hips.

            The covers on top of the bed stirred and groans of protest came from underneath.

            “Connor, how can you still be in bed?” Esmeralda asked with a playful grin, her eyes dancing with amusement as they always did. “It’s the middle of the night.”

            “Because, it’s still dark outside,” came a deep, husky voice from under the sheets.

            “It’s always dark outside, you can’t use that excuse.”

            “Why don’t you join me under here? It’s nice and comfy.” More stirring ensued, but Connor still refused to leave the safety of the bed. His tone was laced with sarcasm and she knew that his invitation was nowhere near sincere.

            Esmeralda pursed her lips to contain a laugh and rolled her dazzling lavender eyes before taking the edge of the comforter firmly between her long fingers and yanking it off of the bed to expose a man, wearing only pajama pants. A cry of displeasure erupted from Connor’s throat.

            “If you don’t get up, I’m going to make you get up,” the woman threatened. Esmeralda shed her cloak and let down a head full of wavy, voluptuous, long black hair.

            Connor rolled over, and hugged the pillow tighter between his strong, muscled arms. “I’d like to see you try,” he replied with a yawn, baring a set of remarkably sharp canine teeth. Esmeralda stared nastily at him, knowing he had won this battle.

            She hissed viciously, bearing her own set of vampire fangs, then wandered into the kitchen, turning on all the lights as she went to brighten the cottage.

            Connor lifted one of his eyelids sleepily and watched her leave with taciturn sapphire eyes. As she poured two cups of coffee, he reached down and pulled the comforter back up onto the bed to shield himself once more from the world.

            “Don’t even think about it!” Esmeralda shouted from the kitchen counter. She was out of sight, at least out of visual sight, from the bedroom but she still knew what he was doing.

            Connor growled and threw the blanket back onto the floor in exasperation. “Can’t I get away with anything around here?” he grumbled as he pushed himself up from the bed and scratched his ruffled head of ebony hair that featured uncanny silver highlights.

            “That’s what you get for living with a psychic vampire,” she replied, bringing in a tray that held the two cups of coffee. She set it down upon the bed and joined him as he rubbed the sleep dust from his eyes.

            “That was a rhetorical question.” Connor picked up his own mug and sipped the scalding liquid without difficulty, as did Esmeralda. Connor looked around his dirty room that was littered with laundry. “I bet you’re going to say I need to clean up, too, huh?”

            Esmeralda only drank her portion of coffee and didn’t answer. It was only when she noticed Connor was glaring at her, waiting for a reply that she decided to snap back. “Oh, I thought that was a rhetorical question.”

            “You know, I ought to smack you around for all the crap you make me put up with.”

            Esmeralda knew Connor really didn’t mean it. He was just grumpy. He was always grumpy and she learned to ignore his snide remarks.

            Esmeralda grinned wickedly, leaned forward and kissed Connor on the cheek. “Yeah, but you know you love me anyway.”

            Connor scoffed and sat his mug down. “Yeah, sure I do,” he mumbled half heartedly before glancing at the digital alarm clock on the dresser that was half covered by a dirty sock. “You should have been back an hour ago. What kept you?” he asked.

            “I decided to work an extra thirty minutes today,” Esmeralda said whimsically as if it were nothing new. She stood up from the edge of the bed and walked into one of the spare bathrooms that she had claimed for herself and began to dress down.

            “And the other thirty minutes?” Connor asked, closing his eyes and wishing he could go back to sleep, leaning his head to one side lazily.

            “Well, it’s a funny story actually. I was walking home and I saw this strange girl wandering around in the street. She looked lost, but ok at first. Then, she ran into Greg. You remember him from your martial arts class?” Esmeralda paused, waiting for Connor to respond with a grunt of affirmation.

            “Well, she took one look at him and ran away screaming. It was the oddest thing. Most people like the way he’s been cleaning his scales lately. I wouldn’t think that he would strike so much fear into that little girl.

            “Then, she ran into Mr. Heart’s antique store, but she didn’t stay in there for long. She came out looking just as frightened. And to make matters worse, she ran straight through Robert on the sidewalk!”

            Connor didn’t show it, but he was thoroughly entertained by this story so far. “I did that about a week ago. He wasn’t happy.”

            “And he wasn’t happy this time either. But, he just yelled at her and kept on walking. Then, Kendra and her friends came in for a street landing and that scared the girl, too. She saw Matt’s pack coming down the street, Fiona’s brothel, and the kids from Twenty-first Street playing around. She even saw poor Mr. Johnson’s head fall right off after an accident involving a rogue ball.”

            Connor rubbed his palm over his jaw and chin that was covered in black stubble and thought about what she was saying. It seemed peculiar that a girl would go through all that and be frightened. She must not have been from around here. Something seemed wrong about it.

            “Anyway, I wanted to keep an eye on her and she ran right out of town. I read her thoughts and she definitely isn’t from around here. She’s from some place where there’s something called a ‘sun’ and ‘horror movies’. She decided she was going to try to go back home. Although, I doubt she’ll be able to. I’ve never heard of anything like it. So, I was spending some time just watching her and making sure she wasn’t going to get herself into any trouble. She’s somewhere in the woods now.”

            Esmeralda came back into the bedroom in her black, silk nightgown, braiding a section of her hair. When looking at Connor’s contemplative expression, she stopped and stared.

            Connor glanced up to her and tightened his jaw. “What?” he asked with a sneer.

            “You’re curious, aren’t you?”

            “No.” Connor settled himself back into a comfortable spot. “Why would I? She doesn’t belong here, obviously, so what else is there to do?”

            Esmeralda gazed at him calmly and smirked. “You want to go after her and see who she is,” she stated with a sly grin.

            Connor didn’t answer. What was the use when she could read his thoughts? There was no arguing with her, but he could throw a pillow at her. She giggled and threw it back, hitting him in the face.

            “Well, if you want to go after her, let’s go while I’m still awake. I’m just as curious as you. Come on!” Esmeralda said excitedly, prancing back to the bathroom to put on something suitable for travel.

            Connor grimaced and plunged his face into the pillow. He really wished that vampire would stay out of his thoughts. He could never get away with a lie around her. 

 
          Connor shuffled through town, his hands shoved into the pockets of his tattered jeans. He was in no mood to go anywhere, much less to find this stranger. He never stopped muttering his complaints from the moment he had shrugged into his leather jacket on the way out the door.

            Esmeralda, on the other hand, was giddier about their trip to the forest. She wore a long, flowing, brown beaded skirt with a turtleneck sweater to match and her own black leather jacket over it, all topped off with a pleasant smile, while Connor’s lips were puckered into a scowl.

            It wasn’t a lie that he was curious about the young woman’s sudden appearance, but he didn’t want Esmeralda to tag along. She was more of a nuisance nowadays than she used to be, and her presence set Connor at a constant state of edgy discontentment.

            They walked a ways through the low-lying dense fog until Esmeralda skipped towards a large burrow in the side of a sloping hill on the edge of the path. She bent over at the waist and peeked inside the dark, shrouded hole and turned back to him with a toothy grin.

            “She’s in here, Connor!” she cried out, obviously not caring if the girl inside heard or not. Connor took his time in joining Esmeralda at the mouth of the burrow, then squatted and peered inside for himself.

            Surely enough, past the dark recesses of the burrow’s shadows, he could see the silhouette of a lady’s figure inside, shivering and sniffling with her knees hugged tightly to her chest.

            “Come on out, dear. We won’t hurt you,” Esmeralda called encouragingly to the girl, her words echoing in the void.

            “Go away!” the young girl cried back. The fear was so tangible in her voice that Connor almost began to feel sorry for her.

            “You heard her, let’s go,” Connor said quickly, then turned to make a run back for town. Esmeralda grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back to the opening of the burrow before he had any chance to rise from his knees.

            “Oh, no you don’t,” Esmeralda scolded, then looked back into the burrow. “Sweetheart, we don’t want to hurt you. We want to help you. My name’s Esmeralda, and this is Connor. We’re friendly. Everyone in this town is. We didn’t mean to frighten you. Please come out?”

            There was silence in the burrow for a moment, and then some slight rustling as the girl turned over onto her hands and knees. “As long as you promise not to eat me!”

            Connor snorted a laugh at the absurdity of the idea.

            “Cross my heart, I promise not to eat you. Don’t we, Connor?”

            “I can’t guarantee anything… Ouch!”

            Esmeralda smacked him in the head at his sorely untrue comment. “He promises. Now, won’t you come out?”

            After a period of debating, Amelia crawled towards the exit of the burrow, her eyes red and puffy from crying and tearstains evident on her dirty face.

            She stood up once she emerged from the hole and straightened out her clothing, which was still thinly coated in dirt. She looked upon the two strangers and took a shaky breath to compose herself.

            At first glance, she almost wondered if they were human like she was. The lady was a bit pale, but the guy looked completely normal and strikingly handsome. No fangs yet, no overgrowth of hair or obvious signs that he was a creature of any kind.

            Esmeralda smiled warmly to her, but Connor only stood off at a distance, his arms crossed over his chest as if he were angry. He refused to look at Amelia and stared off into the grey forest.

            “See, we won’t hurt you. What’s your name?” Esmeralda asked. Her words were sweet and smooth, like a balm to her rattled nerves. She had the most mystical, hypnotic eyes. Amelia was almost afraid to stare into them too long for fear of being put in a trance.

            “Amelia,” she muttered nervously.

            “That’s a very nice name.” Her smile was just as sweet as her voice. “Well, as I said before, my name is Esmeralda and this is Connor. I’m a psychic vampire…”

            As soon as she said the word “vampire”, Amelia wanted to crawl back into the tunnel. She staggered a few steps back, eyes wide as her hands groped for the weeds that framed the hole.

            “Oh, no, no. I’ve never killed anyone. So, you have nothing to worry about.”  Esmeralda held out her hands in plea to Amelia. She could read plainly in her eyes that what the vampire said was the truth. Amelia straightened up, her eyes shifting between the two of them.  

            “And what’s he?” Amelia pointed to Connor.

            “Oh, thank you for referring to me as a ‘what’ and not a…” Connor looked at Amelia for the first time and the words he had planned to say froze upon his lips. He looked her up and down briefly, and then shook his head sharply to snap him out of his daze, turning his eyes away. “…not a ‘who’,” he finished.

            Connor’s behavior was not lost upon Amelia and she wondered what it could have possibly meant, if it meant anything. His eyes gave her the impression that he was both confused and intrigued. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t keep his eyes away from Amelia. Soon, he stopped trying.

            Esmeralda glanced sideways at Connor and knew exactly was he was thinking, whether he knew it or not. She grinned, not bothered by it at all. “He’s a demon, Amelia. But, don’t worry he won’t hurt you either. He may seem all tough, but he’s a real teddy bear.” Esmeralda poked Connor in the ribs playfully and he recoiled with a snarl.  

            “A demon?” Amelia asked skeptically. “I thought demons were like little red impish-looking things that flew around with horns and pitchforks.”

            As Connor rolled his eyes at her comment and his irises suddenly darkened from a light blue shade to a devilish red. Amelia stood her ground, but her knees began to shake, as she felt trapped under his glowing glare.  

            “Oh, quit it. You’ll scare her!” Esmeralda pleaded, slapping Connor’s shoulder. He only budged a bit, but his eyes wouldn’t avert from Amelia’s. He didn’t even blink. It was a haunting gaze that sent chills through her veins.

            “He doesn’t scare me,” Amelia said boldly. It was a lie, as her pounding heart could testify to. She felt this odd impulse to stand up to him, to prove that she wasn’t frightened, even though she was.

            Connor growled at her angrily, revealing his glistening fangs, and then let his eyes change back to normal. Amelia gulped down the pool of saliva that gathered in her mouth and turned her attention to Esmeralda, though she could still feel his probing eyes upon her.

            “Well, why don’t you come back to town with us? We can talk more there and maybe get you something to eat?” Esmeralda offered cheerfully.

            Whatever their intentions may have been, a warm house and a plate of decent food sounded like heaven to her. This may have been a trap to lure her back to town where she could be devoured by the rest of the monsters, but this was a nightmare after all and maybe such a traumatic experience would make her wake up.

            Amelia nodded in agreement and they all set out for town, the two ladies in lead with the irritable Connor following.

            Once back at their cottage, Esmeralda heated up some leftover chicken fingers, along with pouring a glass of soda for Amelia as she waited at the dinner table. Amelia thought it extremely odd that even in this monster town, they seemed to have all the comfort and conveniences of what she had back home. She thought it even more odd that a vampire and a demon would have chicken fingers to eat. Or perhaps they were actually human fingers disguised as traditional chicken fingers. But, this was her nightmare so she must have created them herself.

            Connor was leaned against the doorframe that separated the bedroom and kitchen, his arms still folded over his chest and eyes focused attentively upon the two girls. She had never been under such intense scrutiny before and it was unsettling.

            “So, where exactly are you from?” Esmeralda asked, setting the plate and glass down in front of Amelia before sitting across from her. She propped one of her elbows on the table to hold that curious head of hers as she waited expectantly for her guest to tell her everything.

            “I thought you said you were psychic?” Amelia quipped before she bit into one of the chicken strips daintily, hoping not to find a fingernail amongst the meat.

            “I am and I already know the answer. Only, it doesn’t make much sense. Also, I know that Connor is dying to know the answer as well, but he’s too shy to ask.”

            Connor grunted from his place in the threshold and turned his eyes away before Amelia had a chance to meet his stare.

            “Ok… I’m from a town called Saxondale. It’s in the state of Florida, which is in the United States of America, which is then in North America on the planet Earth… But, I guess you guys know nothing about those places, right?” Amelia took a sip of her drink cautiously, half expecting it to be laced with blood or some strange chemical. Surprisingly, it tasted just like the soda back home, so she took a bigger slurp to quench her thirst.

            “Nope, I’ve never heard of those places. Have you, Connor?” Esmeralda asked Connor, as if she had planned the question before the conversation had started.

            “No.” The way his lips formed around the word made his entire face wrinkle with disdain. Amelia wondered how he could be so angry.

            “So, where am I, exactly?” Amelia asked, eating her chicken fingers with more confidence now that she discovered they tasted just like the chicken back home.

            “To be exact, you’re in the town of Flagler, in the country of Augustine on the planet Somniatis. We don’t know how you got here, Amelia. Could you tell us?” Esmeralda seemed to find this whole thing rather comical. By now she had assumed that Esmeralda and Connor were an item, so it made no sense how this bubbly vampire could tolerate a grump demon like Connor.

            Amelia took a deep breath and then told them everything about being at home, then in her basement, falling through the hole and ending up in the burrow. Between the part about falling through and awakening in the tunnel, Amelia didn’t know what happened.

            “This sounds like a case for Sir Jedalf. He’s our resident wizard, so he should be able to explain what’s happened to you,” Esmeralda said, looking up and down the girl’s blouse. “You wear such strange, bright clothes. Is that a custom where you come from?” she asked.

            Amelia glanced down at her apparel and shrugged. “I guess it’s my custom, but not everyone wears the things I wear. At least, no one my age does. They wear what you wear.” Amelia finished off her third chicken finger, and then took another swig of her soda.

            “Pray, what is your age?” Esmeralda asked.

            “I just turned eighteen. How old are you?”

            “Five thousand, three hundred and twenty-two.”

            Amelia nearly snorted her soda from her nose. “Excuse me?” she exclaimed.

            Esmeralda repeated herself. “Why, is that old where you come from?” Her head tilted inquisitively.

            “That’s older than a lot of stuff! How can you be that old and look so young?” Amelia asked in astonishment, examining her features for any sign of wrinkle or aging.

            Esmeralda only shrugged. “Well, here, you’d be just a baby. Everyone around here is kind of frozen in time… Or, rather, we live forever. I don’t see too much of a point in keeping track of my age, but it’s nice to know sometimes.”

            Amelia only shook her head in amazement and ate the last of her chicken. “So, how is it that the food isn’t any different here?”

            Esmeralda asked for clarification.

            “This drink and these chicken fingers taste exactly like they would where I come from. Why is that?”

            “I’m not sure. I guess the two worlds are different in many ways, but still alike as well.”

            “The two worlds are nothing alike,” Connor piped in with a sour tone. The two girls looked at him as he glowered off to the opposite wall, his stare was even more bitter than before.

            Amelia gazed at his posture, his focused frown and set jaw. He was fuming, but at the same time, he was hiding something. Amelia didn’t know what it was, but she wanted to find out. He didn’t seem like a monster. He looked interesting, as if he was some kind of unsolved puzzle that was begging her to piece it all together. He was like an enigma, as strange and wondrous as this world she was dropped into. Amelia felt drawn to him in more than just a few inexplicable ways.

            After a moment of waiting, Esmeralda sprang back to life and looked to Amelia with a thrilled expression drawn across her face. “I just had the most brilliant idea! If, by some chance, Sir Jedalf can’t figure out a way to send you back, would you like to stay with us, Amelia? We have a spare bedroom and you can share my bathroom. It would be nice to have another girl around the house.”

             Amelia didn’t know whether to feel flattered or uneasy about such an offer. They seemed nice enough, but she would have preferred home to this.

            “No!” Connor barked from his post, causing Amelia to jump from her reflections. “She doesn’t belong here! She has to go back and if she can’t then she’s not our responsibility! She will NOT stay here, Esmeralda. Is that understood?” Connor stood up straight, holding arms at his sides with his hands clenched tightly into fists. His eyes blazed a fiery red once more, but the whites of his eyes became as black as his hair and his face darkened with fury. Amelia began to quake at the sight and she could hardly breath.

            Esmeralda stood up from her chair and her eyebrows shadowed over her slowly reddening eyes. Her lips pursed together in defiance and Amelia could feel electricity in the air as a silent battle waged in the room. The vampire and demon had their eyes locked upon one another. It was frightening, like when two parents had their first big fight in front of their child, but Amelia knew this could not have been the first time these two butted heads.