Damon (38 page)

He nodded, then bobbed his head from side to side. “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Do you have a brother?”

Damon knelt down and squinted at the body. “No. No brother.”

I took a careful step closer. I didn’t want near that corpse, but I’d noticed something else. The man had Damon’s scars, like lash marks across his chest, where he’d once taken a razor blade to himself on a bad night of anger and despair. I held the flashlight with both hands to keep the beam steady. I’d traced those scars dozens of times. I knew those scars. “Why is he like that? He’s exactly like you.”

“Yeah, weird. Let’s keep searching.”

Damon stood and tried to maneuver around me on the ledge, but I stopped him. “Damon. This is a dead body. We have to do something. We have to call the police.”

He tilted his head back and made a sound of annoyance. “No. No police. They’ll come in here. They’ll mess everything up.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off that dead man there, sitting there, dead, with Damon’s face. I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. “Why does he look like you?
Look
. He has a head wound. And he has two holes in his neck.”

“Yeah.”

“My god. He’s staring at me. He’s staring right at me.”

“Let’s go farther in,” Damon said. “We need to keep moving.”

Damon tried again to turn me around but I couldn’t tear myself away from this unbelievable situation. Irrationally, I wanted to touch the man and see if he would wake up.

“We have to tell somebody.” My voice came out distant and automatic. “His family must wonder where he is. Why does he look like you?”

“He doesn’t have any family. Let’s go.”

“How do you know that? Who is this man?”

Damon shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“He’s dead! It matters!
Jesus
. He looks just like you. He has your scars. He’s been bitten. Damon!”

“Maggie,” Damon said, taking my arm. “Forget about him. He doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Did you kill him? What’s happening? Tell me what’s happening.”

“He shot himself.”

There was nothing on the body – no clothing and no gun. His hands rested casually at his sides. He had Damon’s scars on his wrists. I shined the light all around the ledge. “There’s no gun.”

Damon took the revolver from the back of his jeans and laid it next to the dead man’s hand. “It’s there. It’s okay.”

“That’s the same gun you pointed at me? Is that true? How do you know that? Did you take this gun?”

Damon left me and hopped his way back down. I hurried after him, moving carefully down each level. When we stood on comparatively steady ground, away from the body, I grabbed his wrist. I needed to feel the warmth of his skin and the pulse of his heart. I needed to feel the scar there – still there.

I looked into his eyes, eyes with life and sight. “You need to help me, babe,” I told him, my voice and body shaking uncontrollably. The cave was cold, but this kind of chill rattled my bones. “I need help. Is my dead body in here somewhere? Are we dead?”

Damon took his gaze off the surrounding darkness and finally seemed to notice me. “I was here. He said I could take his blood. He looked me in the eye and pulled the trigger. He didn’t die right away. He said he couldn’t stand life anymore. Granddad was dead and I couldn’t take it anymore. Wandering around lost and alone. I had no one. I scare people and they keep blaming me for things I didn’t do. The police wanted me again. They were going to lock me up, just like Dad. I couldn’t let that happen. I thought David would die when I became Damon, but he didn’t. He wouldn’t die. His memories wouldn’t die. I had to end it, finally. I needed peace.”

“Damon….”

He smiled dreamily. “I saw the red beast. I saw it. Right before I died. I really saw it. An alien vampire. It’s real. It’s here in this cave.”

“Damon….”

He blinked and took my arm. “Let’s go. He’s empty. We need to move on. We have to find the portal to our home world. It’s all here. We have to find it.”

But I wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t move. The moment I’d dreaded for ten years had finally come. I couldn’t fight it any longer. No more excuses could be made. I was crazy, just like my mother. Heredity had finally grabbed me in its heartless arms, and would eventually squeeze the life right out of me.

“Damon, I’m going crazy. I’m seeing you lying there dead and standing here alive. That’s crazy. It’s happening. It’s happened. I’ve gone crazy. Help me!”

He gave me a kiss on the forehead and whispered in my ear, “I’ll get us home, baby. I promise. We’ll go home and everything will be beautiful.”

“Are you a ghost? Are we dead? What’s happening? How is this happening? Who are you?” I pointed toward the ledge. “Who is he?”

He gave me a reassuring smile and took the flashlight from my hand. “Vampires don’t like artificial light. I’ll be right back. Stay here.”

I stayed behind, rubbing my arms against the cold, wondering how much air was in this place, trying not to think about that ledge, and watched the golden glow follow Damon around the large room.

From somewhere near or far I could hear a rumbling sound, almost like a giant creature snoring beneath my feet.

I started pacing off my worries, and tried to appreciate the mystery and wonder of the cave, but we weren’t experienced enough to be in here alone. We didn’t have any supplies. There was a dead body in the room.

Damon moved off, having found a passageway, and left me alone in total darkness.

“
Damon
,” I complained, heading off after him. But somehow, I’d lost my direction and walked straight into a rock wall, knocking myself half-silly.

“Damon!” I called, feeling the slippery rock blocking my path. I’d landed against a large stalagmite. I stepped to the side and a space opened before me, but I took each step gingerly, keeping my hand stretched out in front of me, counting my steps.

“Damon!” I yelled. “Don’t you dare leave me here with a dead body! I can’t see!”

I’d walked a dozen paces when my boot slipped on wet rock and the floor disappeared from under my boot, sending me wildly off-balance. I tried to fall backward and land on the solid floor, but my seat landed on another slanted, slippery slope and I went forward down a slide, unable to catch hold of anything, unable to stop the rush forward. Blind in total darkness.

The slide ended and I fell over the edge of a black cliff, falling into nothingness that never seemed to end… until it did. I didn’t land in water or anything reasonably soft. I landed on solid rock, falling forward and tumbling head over heels to a stop. I landed hard against a wall and lay there, stunned, and possibly broken to pieces.

“Maggie!” Damon yelled.

I opened my mouth to respond, but I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t move. I was paralyzed.

“
Maggie
!” Damon screamed. “Don’t be dead, oh god…. Where are you? Wake up!”

I put my hands on the floor and slowly pushed myself up to a sitting position, amazed my arms had worked.

“Where are you?” Damon called. His voice was hollow and scratchy. I looked up but couldn’t see him.

“Let me see the torch,” I said. But he couldn’t hear me. I could barely hear myself.
Let me see the torch, Damon.

He held the torch over the opening and at last, I could see his face above me. He wasn’t too far away, not nearly as far as I’d thought. I put my legs under me and stood, finding a rough impression for support with a groping hand.

“Are you hurt?” he asked. “How bad are you hurt?”

“You can drop a rope down,” I called upward.

“I don’t have a rope. Maggie, don’t move. You might be on a ledge. Hang on just a minute. Don’t move.”

“Toss me the flashlight.”

The light vanished from up above and I stood very still, trying to listen. The rock earth rumbled all around me, again bringing to mind the idea of a giant creature in the cave with us. I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face, let alone anything that might have been in the cave with me. Creepy, crawly things. Or worse, unearthly creatures with fur and fangs – just waiting for us to be alone. Or even worse, I might be standing on the very edge of a ledge, with a mile-long drop off right in front of me. I’d seen too many movies to be in a situation like this. My imagination ran wild in every direction. I began to think the cave itself was a creature wanting to eat me.

“Damon! Where are you?”

Damon’s glowing face appeared over the edge of the opening. “Here, catch,” he called. He was lowering the torch down, preparing to drop it.

“Forget the torch,” I yelled at him. “Give me the flashlight!”

But he dropped the torch, anyway, and I caught it with a wild flair, trying to keep the flames away from my hair and clothes.

I turned, illuminating everything around me. First, with relief, I saw there was no ledge, and that I was alone with only some rocks. Relief turned to horror, though, when all I saw were walls. Walls enclosing me, shooting up toward the sky in every direction. Nothing but a circle of rock, caging me inside a small space. I was trapped at the bottom of a well.

“Damon!”

“I’m here,” he said from so far up above. He was miles and miles away now. “Don’t panic.”

“I’m not.” My voice was too shaky to be convincing. “I’m okay.”

“Are you hurt?

“I don’t know.” I couldn’t feel anything except the terror raging through my body. I tilted my head back and tried to see him in the darkness, lifting the torch high over my head.

He was lying on his stomach reaching a hand down. I rushed forward and tried to reach his hand. Even when I jumped, we didn’t come close to touching.

“Take off your jeans and hold them down. Maybe I can reach them and you can pull me up.”

In a moment, he lowered his jeans over the side. I leaned the torch against the wall and was able to reach a leg. He pulled and I tried to climb but soon he started slipping forward, so I let go.

“I can’t brace myself,” he said. “It’s slippery up here. There’s nothing close enough to tie on to. My god, Maggie.”

“You have to go get a rope,” I told him. “Go back to town and get a rope. Or, get some help. Find the police or forest rangers or someone. Or, no, go up the road to Pawpaw’s. They’re closest. See if they have a phone.”

“Okay,” he said.

A fresh wave of horror passed through me when I realized I would have to be left alone down here for… hours, maybe. Damon had to get out of the cave and hike back to the car. Then he’d have to find help, and they would have to make the journey back. I would be down here alone for hours.

Provided Damon didn’t forget about me entirely. That was also a risk. In the time it would take to get help, he might forget I even existed. He might go off in search of the secret village where our snarling, furry, blood-drinking ancestors lived.

And I would be left in pitch-blackness. The torch was burning lower and lower and Damon would need the flashlight to get out of the cave. “Give me the lighter.” I could burn my own clothes if I had to but I wanted the lighter for backup, just in case.

“I lost the flashlight,” he said.

I held the torch higher, needing to see his face. I was instantly angry and my voice came out calm and flat. “You did what?”

“I had to get rid of it. The vampire doesn’t like artificial light.”

I didn’t care about the goddamn vampire anymore. I wanted out of this cave. I wanted to see the sunlight and breathe fresh air.

I wanted to punch Damon right in the face.

“Okay,” I said, taking a good, long, deep breath. “You’ll have to take the torch.” I couldn’t even take his lighter in case the torch burned out. “Here, catch,” I called to him. “I’ll throw it as high as I can.”

“No, keep it,” he called.

“You have to be able to see to get out and get help. If you get lost, we’ll never get out. We’ll both die down here.”

“Just hold it up so I can see.”

I was already holding it as high as I could. “See what?”

Then I was the one to see, Damon crawling over the edge of the pit, lowering himself down to arms length.

“Damon, don’t!” I yelled.

But he let go and fell, landing on the floor beside me. He stumbled backward, finally sitting down against the wall.

I dropped the torch and rushed over to check on him. His teeth were clenched but he nodded that he was all right. Once I saw he was alive, I didn’t care about any injuries he might have. Panic took over and I grabbed him by the shirt as he stood, hopping on one foot.

“Now we’re trapped!” I yelled at him, shaking him. “We’ll never get out! What is
wrong
with you?”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and held me firmly. “It’s all right,” he said in a calm voice. “You found the portal. This is where we needed to go. This isn’t natural. It’s manmade. It’s alien-made. It’ll lead us out.”

“No,” I moaned. My legs gave way and I plopped down in despair.

Damon picked up the torch and shined it around, the light of confidence fading from his face as he absorbed the death walls all around us.

“This isn’t right,” he muttered with a shaky voice. “It’s not written this way. This pit leads to the portal.”

“No one knows where we are, Damon.”

He limped over and sat beside me, pulling me into his arms. “Just rest a minute and we’ll get out,” he told me with a soothing voice, stroking my hair. “I know of a way. I’ve been down here before. Just let me rest a minute. We’re on the right track, baby.”

I knew he was lying, and he knew he was lying, but it was the nicest lie anyone had ever told me. For the next few minutes, I could believe we would survive.

“You know what?” I told him. “None of this is real. We’re dreaming.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s a dream.”

“I mean, there’s a dead man up there with your face. That can’t be real. How can that be real? Not unless you have an identical twin brother and you both have identical scars.” I laughed softly as I truly began to believe myself. “That can’t be real. We’re dreaming.”

He held me tighter. “Yeah, this is just a weird dream.”

“But, your dream or mine?”

“Same thing,” he said.