B006P1R39O EBOK (16 page)

Slipping on her jacket, she reached out to open the door, but thought better of it. Alec lived several blocks away. She’d probably get there a lot faster if she called a taxi. Kathrina took her phone out of her pants pocket and tried to dial the local cab company. She’d taken a cab the other night so the number was already programmed into her phone. She pushed redial, but a message popped up on the screen indicating that there was no service.

Kathrina wrinkled her forehead in confusion. She’d never had this problem before.

Giving up, she went to the house phone that was on a table near the fireplace. She picked it up and put it to her ear, but there was nothing. It too was dead.

Fingers of fear wrapped around her throat - cutting off her air - choking her until she was struggling just to get oxygen into her lungs.

Kathrina willed herself to be calm. There had to be some kind of logical explanation. Even within her strange existence, there was still a sense of order and reason.

She would never find out what was going on if she sat in a corner like a scared rabbit, waiting for someone to show up and give her an explanation.

Her footsteps sounded hollow as she walked down the street. The city was as silent and deserted as her house had been. Kathrina pulled her phone out to check the time, but it was dead. She couldn’t even get it to turn on now.

Damn! Why didn’t she wear a watch?

Kathrina couldn’t imagine that it was any later than 10:00 PM. She hadn’t been gone that long, yet the streets were empty.

That wasn’t normal for New Orleans. There should be sirens, the sound of cars, people shouting or laughing - just the average noise pollution that you could expect from a big city. But there was nothing.

After walking several blocks, she still hadn’t so much as seen a car drive by. Kathrina turned onto a street with several lampposts. At first she felt some relief, but she quickly noticed that the light from the lamps almost seemed to be smothered by darkness - like the shadows were alive and were somehow able to eat away at the light.

Kathrina walked faster. The sooner she could get to Alec’s place the better.

A few moments later she turned into Alec’s circular driveway. His car was there, but the windows were dark.

He was a vampire and it was night. There was no reason to believe he’d be home. Maybe her sisters had gone out with their guys.

She knew the explanation was more to make herself feel better, but she held onto the thought anyway.

Kathrina knocked on the door and waited.

No one came to the door and she heard nothing from inside. Again she knocked, this time louder.

“Hey it’s Kathrina!”

Still no one came.

Kathrina reached out and turned the knob to see if it was locked; it wasn’t. Pushing the door open she stuck her head inside. “Is anyone home?”

The house was dark and as silent as the grave. Obviously no one was there.

Now what?

Kathrina eyed Alec’s car. Did she dare take it without permission?

She tried the car door and it opened easily.

Alec always locked his car.

Kathrina slid into the driver’s seat and felt above the visor for the keys. They weren’t there.

Just as she was ready to give up and get out of the car, she glanced down and saw the keys dangling in the ignition.

Finding the keys should have made her feel better, but instead she was even more perplexed. No way would he have just left the keys in the car unless something was wrong.

Taking a deep breath, Kathrina turned the key and the engine came alive. After a quick glance over her shoulder, she eased the car out of the driveway. Once she was on the road, she put the car in gear and started driving. She wasn’t even sure where she was going.

The Quarter was the logical choice. If they had decided to go to a club, that’s where they’d be.

As she drove into the city, Kathrina’s confusion began to turn to terror. There was not a soul in sight. The streets were completely deserted. Her mind flirted with the idea of an apocalypse - 2012. It was as if someone had come down and lifted all of the people from the face of the earth, except for her.

On the next block she saw the lights of a gas station and sped up. Kathrina pulled the car next to the building and got out. Walking around the front, she peered through the windows.

It too looked deserted.

When Kathrina pulled on the door it opened. The bell that was fastened at the top of the door jingled to alert the attendant that there was a customer in the store. She stood there and waited, but no one emerged from the back of the store like she thought they would, or at least hoped.

A small portable TV was on the back counter behind the cash register, its screen filled with white snow, the speakers emitted fuzzy static. On the counter was a button and below it was a sign.

Ring For Service

Kathrina stepped to the counter and hit the button hard. She waited, but didn’t really expect anyone to come and help her.

Though her head was a jumbled mass of confusion, she was thinking straight enough to realize that she was in a lot of trouble. The entire city had vanished and she’d been left alone to figure out what was going on. Even if she knew what had happened to everyone, she doubted it would do her a lot of good.

Kathrina saw a phone sitting next to the cash register and picked it up. She wasn’t too surprised when there was no dial tone.

“Hello Kathrina.”

The sound of the male voice nearly made her heart stop beating, and for just an instant, she thought it might have.

Kathrina swung around to see who was there and her heart jumped into her throat. She felt frozen in time - unable to scream - incapable of uttering a single word. She was trembling so violently that she was forced to grab the counter to stay on her feet.

The creature stood only a few feet away. It was smiling at her with rows of sharp - jagged teeth. She wasn’t even sure what the creature was, but it most closely resembled a court jester, if a somewhat grotesque one. Kathrina couldn’t make out its features; they were hidden by red and black face paint. It wore a purple and gold suit that looked as if it came right out of the Middle Ages.

A costume you’d see during Mardi Gras. That’s what it was, she decided.

“Now don’t be frightened of me Kathrina,” it said in a deceptively soothing voice. “I won’t hurt you.”

The jester took a step toward her. “You’re all that I need … all that I want.” It was singing the words as if they were the lyrics to a love song. The song was followed by manic laughter.

“Where is everyone? What have you done with them?” Kathrina yelled. She was absolutely certain that this creature was responsible for everyone being gone.

“Nothing angel … nothing at all,” he said in a singsong voice.

“You’re lying!” Kathrina’s voice shook.

The jester moved closer to her and Kathrina stepped back, ready to flee out the door at the first opportunity.

“Not so,” he hissed. As he spoke, the air between them was filled with a putrid odor that reminded her of a rotting corpse.

“What do you want?” Kathrina’s fear was so devastating that she was in danger of falling into complete hysteria.

“Why you silly girl … you know what I want.”

Kathrina shook her head violently.

He giggled. “You’re not so innocent are you? You let him touch you in your no no places … didn’t you Kathrina.”

“Shut up!

The jester was leaning so close to her that she could feel the heat coming from his mouth. “You even want him to do it again, but I can do it better.” He smiled, showing her his gnarly teeth.

Kathrina’s face twisted in disgust. “Get away from me.”

She’d finally figured it out. This was some kind of nightmare. She must have fallen asleep at some point and now she was dreaming. It was the only explanation that made sense.

The room filled with malevolent laughter. Kathrina’s hands flew to her ears in a futile effort to block it out.

“You’re not dreaming you stupid girl. This is real.”

Though she was covering her ears, she could still hear the jester’s words. Then it dawned on her that she wasn’t hearing him with her ears. His voice was in her head.

The jester’s hand shot out to grip her wrist, his touch so hot that she was sure her skin was on fire. It was then that Kathrina saw the long claws on the thing’s fingers. They were dirty - yellow claws that were at least four inches long. Whatever the jester was, he wasn’t human.

“Do you know what he really is … your vampire lover?”

Kathrina whimpered as pain shot through her arm and up into her head.

“Look,” he snarled. “Look at what he is.”

He forced her to turn around and look at the little television screen. She saw Luciano. He was baring his fangs and his mouth was full of blood. The scene changed; now he was in a bed with red satin sheets.

No, her eyes had played tricks on her - the sheets where white, but they were covered with blood. There were two women on the bed with him, their bodies tangled in the ancient dance of mating. He was biting at their necks, and then their breasts. Blood seeped from their wounds.

Kathrina wanted to close her eyes, but her body had a will of its own. She could not look away or shut her eyes to block out the macabre images on the screen. Luciano held his hand above the head of one of the women and Kathrina saw a vapor seep from his victim’s nose and mouth.

“He is stealing their souls,” the jester laughed. “That is what your lover is.”

“This isn’t real!” Kathrina was finally able to take control of her body and she jerked away from the monster.

The jester placed one of his long claws above her breast and slowly ran it down her bosom. The fabric of her shirt parted as if it were made of paper.

Kathrina yelped when she felt his rough hands cup the tender flesh of her breast.

The jester’s mouth spread wide in what passed for a grin.

* * *

She heard screams - piercing unrelenting screaming. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew the screams were hers. The bright fluorescent lights were like needles plunging into her eyes. There were hands on her arms, holdings her down as she tried in vain to fight against the aggressor.

“Calm down … please. No one is going to hurt you.”

The voice she was hearing wasn’t the jester’s voice, but still the mind numbing terror would not recede.

“Did somebody call an ambulance?”

This voice belonged to someone else. It wasn’t the same person she’d heard a second before. That voice also didn’t belong to the monster, though she could still hear the jester’s sinister laughter echoing through her head.

“Kathrina!” Nicole cried out.

The room was swaying back and forth. She could see several figures standing around her, but they appeared to be like shadows.

“Kathrina … it’s Nicole. You’re okay now.”

The sound of her sister’s voice was comforting, but Kathrina could not stop trembling. Suddenly her body began to convulse.

“Call an ambulance! Please!” Nicole screamed.

“They’re on their way.”

Kathrina wanted to tell Nicole that she was okay, even if it were a lie. She hated hearing that fear in her sister’s voice, but she couldn’t make her mouth work. Her tongue felt swollen and dry.

A moment before the heat had been stifling, almost to the point that she could not breathe, but now she could feel a cool breeze against her skin. It was like getting splashed with icy water.

The shadows were gone and she could now see Nicole’s concerned face near hers. Kathrina stopped fighting against the hands that were attempting to hold her down. Looking around, she saw that she was still at the gas station, but there were several people standing around her.

She saw that she was sitting on the cold - dirty linoleum of the gas station’s floor. Standing directly behind Nicole was a young man that Kathrina guessed to be in his early 20s. He was wearing a gray shirt with the name Ted embroidered on it. He had curly blond hair and gray eyes that reminded her of storm clouds. The boy would have been handsome if it weren’t for the pimples that marred his face.

The gas station attendant stared at her as if he were looking at a freak in the sideshow of some traveling circus. But he wasn’t the only one. The hands that held her down belonged to two police officers that were standing to each side of her. There were a couple of other people near the door, they stood frozen in place, dumbfounded by what they were seeing.

Sarah was standing next to Nicole, staring at Kathrina in disbelief. Her sister was still wearing her pajamas and slippers.

“Where were you guys?” Kathrina gasped. “I was looking for you.”

“We’ve been home all night,” Nicole told her.

Kathrina shook her head. “No … I was there. No one was home.”

Alarmed, Nicole looked over at Sarah. A silent message seemed to pass between the two sisters.

Nicole turned back to Kathrina. “What happened to you? How did you get hurt?”