Chapter 13 #2
Billy shook his head. Even if he wanted to guess, his voice was jammed in his throat.
He backed toward the bed, the sound of his pulse booming in his head.
The door handle rattled and began to twist slowly.
Red-hot terror flooded his body. Whatever was on that side of the door looked like his mother but wasn’t his mother, and it was going to eat them with those fangs.
“Let me in, little piggy, let me in,” the mother thing sang. The door rattled again. “Don’t make me break the door, Billy.”
The color drained from Lottie’s face. Clutching her teddy against her chest, she began to cry.
One good kick and the lock would break. Springing onto the bed, he heaved against the wooden window frame. It jerked in grunting movements and finally slid up.
The mother thing started pounding on the door.
Bang, bang, bang.
“Little pig, little pig, let me in.” Her voice turned colder.
It was a story she used to read to them; he used to love the book.
Not anymore. Now it was just some fucked-up nursery song, and Billy was terrified.
He felt a scream rising up from the bottom of his stomach, lurching into his chest, burning through his lungs.
But when Lottie cried out, sobs racking her tiny body, Billy bit the scream back down.
“Lottie, get out,” Billy whispered harshly, yanking at her arm, dragging her toward the window.
“I’m scared.” Her bottom lip trembled, tears rolling down her face as she crawled over the bed painstakingly slowly, the teddy clutched to her chest like it was a buoy thrown out to save her.
“Go, go, go,” he urged.
Bang. The door rattled and the wood splintered. Bang. It cracked as it shook on its hinges.
Billy stared at the door, eyes wide. It wouldn’t take much more.
“Billy,” the monster said. “Open the door, sweet little piggy. Don’t be a naughty boy, or I’ll have to eat you all up.”
He shoved a half-clambering Lottie out of the window.
Startled, she cried out and landed with a thump on the grass.
He heard the lock snap, and when he swung back, long fingernails—no, not fingernails, Billy realized with horror, they were black claws—appeared around the edge of the door. She tapped them on the wood.
Tap, tap, tap.
Billy threw himself out of the window, landing on his stomach onto the grass. It took the wind out of him and scraped his knees, but he had no time to think of that. He leapt to his feet. Lottie stood trembling, immobilized by fear.
Grabbing her hand, heart thumping, bare feet pounding, he pulled her toward Mack.
The dog started barking again. Mack would protect them; all they needed to do was get over the fence.
He let go of her hand, ready to lift Lottie up.
He didn’t see her, he didn’t hear her, but he felt her behind him.
He froze, the hairs on the back of his neck rising to the sky.
Billy turned around slowly, placing himself between the monster and Lottie as best he could.
The monster mommy was staring at him, but there was no compassion or love in her eyes. The red lipstick smeared around her mouth was wet and glistening. It wasn’t lipstick at all, he realized. It was blood.
Billy knew for sure then what she was. In fact, he considered himself somewhat of an expert on them. He had watched Twilight and The Originals, after all. Lottie had watched them too. As if the understanding struck them at the same time, Lottie whimpered.
Billy did the only thing he could think of—he kicked the monster hard in the shin.
He heard a crack as a flare of pain shot up his toes, just as another sharp pain exploded in his arm.
He cried out and looked down—her hand had seized his arm, her claws sinking into his skin.
Resisting was pointless; she would tear him open like a rotten peach.
“Billy, why do you always have to be so fucking naughty,” his vampire mother sighed.
She leaned closer, her breath stinking of something sweet and rusty …
blood. Her teeth, white and sharp, hung from beneath her lips.
Her eyes were as black as train tunnels.
Her claws cut into his skin, sharp as razor blades, causing blood to trickle down his arm.
Billy would have screamed then, except terror had stolen his voice.
His bottom lip trembled and his eyes burned with tears, but he battled not to let them fall.
He knew from the movies that she wouldn’t be able to resist the blood, and he was about to die—horribly.
Her nostrils flared as she breathed in his scent.
Closing her eyes, she tilted her head to the sky, just like she did when she had her medicine.
He lost the fight, and tears slipping down his face, he whimpered, “No, Mommy.”
Mack pounded on the fence like a rabid dog, so hard a fence paling cracked. The lights from next door came on and washed across the backyard.
Billy sucked in a breath and shouted, “Lottie, run!”
Lottie ran toward the back fence. The wrong fucking fence.
The monster opened her eyes and looked at Lottie as she tried to scramble over. Her muscles shook as she tried to pull herself over the top.
“Lottie, it’s pointless running. I can catch you now. I can catch anyone now,” the monster said.
Lottie paused briefly, halfway curled over, then her pink knickers flashed as she disappeared over the fence.
“Mommy, Mommy, please.” Billy choked on a sob, embarrassed when he felt warm piss run down his legs. “Don’t hurt us.”
A flicker of emotion crossed his mother’s eyes, and the black began to fade back to brown.
The neighbor’s voice trembled as she shouted, “I’m calling the police!”
Crack. Timber flew as the fence broke and Mack streaked through the yard. Billy’s mother released his arm. Billy covered his bleeding limb with his hand and staggered backwards. The dog stopped beside Billy, his hackles raised, snarling and growling. The vampire shifted her gaze to the dog.
Billy kept backing away. “Stay back or the dog will bite you.” His voice came out shaky.
The neighbor shouted, “I’ve called the police. They’re on their way. You better get out of here.” She peered through the fence and let out a breath of relief. “Leah, what in God’s name are you doing to those children, girl?”
A low snarl slipped out as his mother bared her fangs.
The woman’s face paled, and she cried out as his mother moved in a blur of speed that wasn’t humanly possible, before her fangs tore into the woman’s neck. Crimson sprayed across Billy’s face like spring rain.
The neighbor’s mouth gaped open, and his mother’s throat bobbled each time she swallowed as she drank the woman’s blood.
Growling and snarling, Mack charged, seizing hold of his mother’s leg and yanking. His mother didn’t release the woman. Instead, her hand clenched into a fist and pummeled Mack’s head.
And Mack’s head—
It caved in like a watermelon smashed with a rock.
Billy screamed as Mack made a terrible pained sound and staggered a few steps, before he collapsed to his side, panting and whining.
Billy couldn’t help Mack or the woman now. Tears blurred his vision as he sprinted toward the back fence where Lottie had run, pain striking through his toes with every step.
He leapt, and using his fingers, he hurled himself over the fence and landed on his feet. It felt like a knife was jammed up his foot. Biting back a cry, Billy ran, hobbling as fast as he could. He stopped abruptly. His gaze hooked on Lottie’s teddy, discarded on the ground.
Lottie wouldn’t go anywhere without her teddy.
The vampire was fast—had she somehow made it to his little sister before him?
The world crumbled in all around him, and for a moment Billy couldn’t see anything at all but a black blur.
Somewhere in the not-too-far distance, people were shouting, but he could barely hear them over a sudden roar in his head.
Slowly, the layers of the world peeled back.
Billy’s fingers trembled as he reached for the teddy and held it to his sodden face.
She couldn’t be dead, not Lottie. She was too sweet, too little.
She couldn’t be dead. She was the only one who truly loved him, she needed Billy …
but the truth was, Billy needed her too.
She was all he had left in this world. A sob racked his chest. In a numb daze, he raised his head.
He saw Lottie sitting on the grass, her hands wrapped around her dirt-scraped knees, rocking back and forth, whimpering.
Relief flooded him as he ran to her. “Lottie,” he whispered. “We have to go, come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her roughly to her feet. He handed her the teddy as they ran down the side of the house toward the lights coming from houses on the street.
A dark shadow exploded in front of them. Billy and Lottie slammed to a halt.
What used to be their mother blocked their path. The moon highlighted the blood dripping from her chin and splattered across her top like some grotesque Halloween mannequin.
He pulled Lottie into his arms, held her tight, her teddy nestled between them.
“Close your eyes, Lottie,” he whispered, his voice breaking. Billy squeezed his own eyes shut. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I love you, I love you,” he repeated over and over. Lottie sobbed, her tiny frame shuddering against his chest as they waited to die.