Melabeth the Vampire (7 page)

Carrie smiled, and said. “I would like nothing better. Not that I ever need to sit.”

I laughed. “Me too; I could stand forever, or it feels that way. It is all most impossible for me to describe.”

Carrie walked around to the bottom of the staircase, and then started up to where I was standing. The closer she got to me the more solid she became. I moved into the loft area as she followed behind me. I took a seat on the edge of one of the beds. That’s when I noticed Carrie looking at her hands with this strange look on her face.

“What on earth. I feel like I am alive, almost like I could touch something.” Carrie said.

She looked solid enough to me, so I encouraged her. “Well, try to pick something up.”

“Okay.” Carrie responded.

She walked over to one of the end tables. She reached down and picked up an old pocketknife. She rolled it around in her hands and opened and then closed the blade. She looked over at me and said. “I have never been able to pick stuff up; with all my concentration the best I ever been able to do is move something.” Then she got all excited and started with high-speed questions. “Do you think I will be able to wear new clothes? I have been wearing this outfit for a year, not that I stink or sweat. Do you think maybe I could leave this cabin with you? Would you let me come if I could? Do you think I will disappear during the day?”

I cleared my throat loudly; then she stopped and I said. “I am not sure if I have any answers for you, Carrie, but maybe we can figure out something together. And if you can come with me, you’re welcome to.”

“Thank you, Melabeth.” Carrie said. Then she jumped over to me and gave me a hug, which was the strangest hug I have ever had. She felt solid, but at the same time she had no life to her. She pulled away and gave me a sheepish grin. I knew then that I had made my first friend.

On the way over to the cabin, Jim and Dave were playing some music in the car. I have never heard of any of the songs. Most of them were country, which I didn’t care for much. The DJ on the radio said. And now for a new song, from Garth Brooks, Friends in Low Places.

I guess you can say that all my friends are in dead places.

Carrie and I stayed up all night talking about everything; also, we did some experiments to see what she could, and could not do. Then, as soon as the sun crested, she disappeared, right in front of me. I laid down on one of the beds in the loft; I was tired. As I rested my head against the pillow, I thought about all the things that me and Carrie did and talked about.

We both shared our experience of being murdered. After that wonderful conversation, we lightened the mood and talked about movies and music. I guess I have missed a ton of stuff.  Go to find out the picture on that boy’s blanket was from a movie called Star Wars. Carrie said, it was a must see; also, I guess when I said that I wasn’t afraid of no ghost Carrie had started laughing, because I was quoting a movie called Ghostbusters. The president of the United States was George Bush, and he just took office from Ronald Reagan, the actor? That’s hard to believe; I will have to check up on Carrie’s information; she might be unreliable.

We spent a lot of time discovering her abilities. She was still unable to go more than 100 yards away from the cabin. The further she got away from me, the less solid she became; the strongest she got was in the back of the cabin. It only took a minute for Carrie to realize she was the
strongest when we stood over the spot where the men had buried her body.

At first, I thought maybe this was why there were no more ghosts at the cabin, that the men had buried the rest of their victims further away. Carrie informed me that all the victims were buried behind the cabin because these men were sooo lazy. So it didn’t make a lot of sense to me why she was the only victim haunting the men, and why she was not at peace now.

I promised Carrie that I would sleep here and see if she returned the next night. I don’t know why I promised, seeing as I need to get back to California, but she is my only friend. I hope she doesn’t come back. I hate to leave her at this cabin all alone, and it was obvious that my vampire power somehow gives her power to feel and touch again. How can I take that from her? Well, I need to get sleep; with rest, I will be able to think clearer. Hopefully, I will be able to work all this out tomorrow night.

I woke up around three in the afternoon. The clothes I had on seemed fine. Now that I don’t sweat, and my skin has no oil; changing clothes seemed optional. I woke up with an idea on how to deal with the mess downstairs. So I zipped down the staircase. I looked down at the two dead bodies. I didn’t want to leave a trail. I had to make this seem to be an easily solved case for the police. If cops were half as lazy as my father used to tell me they were, I have an idea.

I picked up the shotgun and I shot Jim’s dead body on the floor, then I laid the shotgun next to Dave’s body.  I went over to my bag and took out the gun that I had stolen. I stood next to Jim’s body and fired four rounds into Dave’s body. Then I stuck the gun into Jim’s dead hand. Now this probably would not work if I left this cabin the way it was.

My thinking is that, first, they will link that gun to the house I broke into. Second, I will dig up some of their victims behind the cabin. My hope is that the cops will realize that these men were kidnapping girls, then raping and killing them. Also they will think they have been robbing houses in the area. This insures that they will pin every unsolved crime on these guys.

If I am right, the cops will not really care to solve their murders. After all, these are the bad guys. So they will come to the conclusion that they got into a fight over moving the dead girls’ bodies and killed each other. Case closed.

Part two of my plan; I really didn’t look forward to. I found a shovel behind the cabin in a little storage locker. Soon I was digging in the spot that Carrie pointed out the night before. It didn’t take long to find her bones around her mud-stained rags. Her feet still had her cowboy boots on; also I could see shredded pieces of her jeans.

If it wasn’t for my sunglasses, I wouldn’t be able to see anything, it was a bright sunny day with few clouds and no wind; it was also very cold. As I looked across the ground, it didn’t take me long to find three more graves. One of the graves was real obvious, I think, because it was dug recently. I would have never found these graves if the snow hadn’t melted here.

Here I am now standing over four dug up graves; the bodies were at different stages of decomposing. Carrie and another girl were nothing but bones; one of the other girls still had flesh around her bones. The girl that was buried in the newest grave had just started to decompose. I
could still clearly see her face and her red hair; none of the girls were more than three feet deep.

I don’t think these guys worried too much about anyone coming around and finding them, and, most likely, because this was a hunting cabin, it wouldn’t have raised any alarms to smell rotting flesh.

I shoved the end of the shovel into one of the mounds of dirt and dusted off my hands. I looked at Carrie’s remains one more time, and a thought came to mind. What if I picked up Carrie’s bones and put them in a bag? Then maybe she could come with me.

As I bent over to collect Carrie bones, something caught my eye as the afternoon sun shone down on Carrie’s remains; I could see something shimmering from her neck. I got down on my knees to get a closer look; it was a necklace. I reached down to grab it.

When I touched the necklace, it shocked the tip of my fingers. “Ouch” I said out loud. It was more of a knee jerk reaction, because it really didn’t hurt. It felt like static shock but somehow different.

I reached down again, this time ready for the shock. It shocked me again, but this time I didn’t pull back. It really wasn’t shocking me as much has tinkling the tip of my fingers. It almost felt like a low voltage of electric current was going through the necklace.

It took me a minute to work the chain around to undo the clasp, and then I was able to slide the chain out without disturbing Carrie’s bones. Once I got the necklace off of Carrie’s neck, I stood up and walked into the cabin to wash off the dirt, so I could get a better look at it.

After washing the necklace off, I went up the stairs to the loft where I took off my sunglasses, there were no windows up in the loft. I could see a lot better without all the blinding light. The necklace was silver, and the chain had thick links. The pendant was silver and shaped like a half gallon glass milk bottle.  On each side were carved markings. The markings looked as if they were glowing green.

It was really a striking necklace, and from human eyes they may see it as a pretty piece of jewelry with strange green symbols on it. With my eyes, I could see or maybe feel the power coming out of this piece of jewelry.

In fact, it would surprise me if this were not the reason for Carrie’s predicament. A cursed necklace comes to mind. When she reappears, which I am sure she will, I will have to ask where she got this from.

I put the necklace around my neck and grabbed my bag. It was only a few hours before dark. If I am right, I don’t need to wait for Carrie; as soon as the sun goes down, she will reappear right next to me. If she is attached to this necklace, then I am giving this necklace power; all I have to do is wear it. I will have me a friend to keep me company.

I headed back down the dirt road where the men had taken me to the cabin. I traveled at least five miles through the forest before I came to a small country road. On one side of the road ran an old barbed wire fence bordering a field. I have to say this was beautiful country; the sun was starting to set so everything had a red tint.

I laid my bag on the ground and sat down on a fallen tree; I figured I would wait here for Carrie. Hopefully, I am right about this necklace; otherwise, I will have to walk back up to the cabin. I will find out in a few minutes.

As soon as the sun went behind the trees, Carrie faded into existence right in front of me. She looked, at me then spun around confused; then I said. “Well goodnight to you, Carrie, looks like you will be following me around for awhile.”

Carrie looked at me, and then said. “Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, or aunt. You figured out how to free me from the cabin. So how did you do that? And where are we going? And do you think I will ever pass over to the other side? Or do you think I am stuck here forever? Or maybe I still have unfinished work; do you think that’s it?”

I laughed at her. “I don’t know about unfinished work, more like unfinished questions. I think it will be nice to have you with me, I think, to answer just a few of your ongoing questions. You will need to tell me what you know about this.” I pulled the necklace out of my shirt and showed it to her.

This also was the first time I realized something else. When she reappeared as a ghost, she was dressed and looked just the way she did when she had died. Only one thing was different, no necklace.

Carrie’s eyes opened wide. “Well, I wondered where that was; that’s my necklace. Where did you find it? I thought those guys stole it and hocked it or something. Was it in the cabin? Or did you find it in one of the men’s pockets? Oh, wait, I bet it was in a drawer I couldn’t open. Wasn’t it?”

Boy, she was going to be hard to get used to. I stuck my hand out in front of me holding one finger up and said, “And, if you stop asking the same question in different ways, I would be able to tell you. I found it on your dead bones, which I dug up. Before you go off into a parade of questions, I would like to start walking. To answer one of your early questions, we are going to California for a little R and R which stands for Revenge and Retaliation.”

Carrie jumped up and down in excite
ment, and then she squealed out, “California, I have always wanted to go there! Do you think we will see movie stars?”

This is going to be fun, I thought sarcastically, and then I looked at
an overexcited Carrie and said, “Let us start walking; grab my bag and carry, it Carrie. Then you can live up to your name.”

She gave me a look, then crossed her arms over her chest and said. “Why should I?”

I gave her an evil smile, and said,  “Figures, another question, Carrie you’re attached to this necklace. Wherever this necklace is, you are. If it is near me, then I give you power to become solid. Or I could toss this into the woods, and you could haunt the forest for the next thousand years, unable to touch anything, with no one to talk to. Or you could pick that bag up, choices, choices.”

Carrie dropped her arms fro
m her chest in defeat, and said, “Wow, you’re mean.” She then went over and picked up my bag. As she tossed it around her shoulder, she continued by saying, “Better to be a slave than alone; okay, Melabeth, after you, but I have a few questions for you.”

Well, don’t that figure.

So we walked down the old country road talking. I will admit to myself only that I was really enjoying Carrie’s company. After about 2 hours, or 4235 Carrie words, we finally walked to a major road, where I was sure we could hitch a ride to Grand Junction. From there, I should have enough money to get both of us a bus ticket to LA. If I go during the day, I wouldn’t have to buy Carrie’s ticket.

The only concern I had was that I was already hungry again. I will have to try to feed on someone without killing them. I guess, if I think about it. I had to eat three or four times a day when I was alive. I shouldn’t be shocked that I have to eat every night. Too bad there was no drive through Blood Banks. I did get to hear the story on how Carrie came to own this necklace, and boy did it make me think.