OV: The Original Vampire (Book #1) (20 page)

Josie’s foot hit a rock as she fell forward, but the speed of the fall placed her hand in his. “Yes, you did it!” He yelled.

They climbed the corner of the gravel car to the front face. There was a large hole built into the structure, as they climbed into it. There were only awkward angles where they could sit, so they knelt down.

All of a sudden, the light outside went pitch black and the engine of the train rumbled like an avalanche. Josie yelled over the noise, “We must be in a tunnel!”

“Yeah!”

The rumbling sound was massive, as the supply of oxygen was replaced by diesel exhaust. Vinnie pointed to Josie’s shirt and motioned to have her pull it over her nose and mouth.

“Crap! Are we going to die?” She yelled, before pulling her shirt over her mouth.

“No!” He yelled back.

Then, the rumbling got twice as loud, as they both looked up from the entrance of the hole and saw a huge train headlight pass the other direction. It was another train and the sound and exhaust fumes doubled. The deafening noise paralyzed any chance to communicate. Josie prayed for the first time since childhood.

Vinnie uncovered his mouth for only a second and yelled, “Hold on, we’re almost through!”

Josie’s ears rung and every other breath she took
was smoke-filled and caused her to gag. She spat into her shirt. It was too toxic to lower her shirt to spit.

Suddenly, the ringing in her ears created a purple, vibrating line behind her eyelids. She focused on it. Her ears seemed to have closed off the sound, as she experienced euphoria. Maybe she was dying, or maybe it was a natural defense of her body producing endorphins, but summarily she forgot where she was.

Her eyelids projected intense white light. It was a sterile bright room of white light. Then, a black figure stood in the middle. They walked forward, as the appropriate colors replaced the black with the tan color of skin, the brown color of hair, the dark red of the lips, and it became Mezrolly:

“Are you ready to die?” She asked Josie.

“Actually, yes.”

“You’re a fancy girl, ready for any situation?”
Mezrolly asked, as she sat down on a throne-like chair that appeared out of nowhere, and began filing the heels of her pumps down to spikes.

“Yes.”
Said Josie, as she clenched her fists.

Mezrolly
stood up and slowly walked towards Josie. She had that evil grin saved for bad girls who flirted behind their boyfriend’s backs.

“Let’s see what you have learned since our hot night together.”

“That was lame.” Josie sneered back, as Mezrolly did a front kick, which made her shoe stick below Josie’s right shoulder. The spike of the heel planted itself into her skin, like a Medieval flesh wound.

“Oh, you bitch!” Josie pulled
Mezrolly’s leg like a gymnastics bar and pulled on it while thrusting her own leg into the cheek of Mezrolly. Mezrolly grabbed Josie’s foot and spun her onto the ground. Mezrolly then sat on top of Josie, “Remember this position? You were so good to me.”

“You’re sick. Get off now you wench!” Josie twisted her torso until
Mezrolly hit the floor. Josie got up and stood over her, “Why do you hate me so much?” Josie asked.

“Incest does that to a person. I have a really nice view of your crotch by the way.”

“What, how in the hell are we related?

“Don’t you remember?
Of course not.”

“And, why did you wave at me in the park when we were little
, if we were sisters? asked Josie.

“You were in denial, shock or something. Anyways, you had a type of amnesia after what dad did to you.”

Josie spoke dumbly with shock, “I don’t remember you being my own sister?”

“Essentially, we tend to block out memories, some of which we don’
t relate to trauma.”

“What happened to your perfect husband?” Josie fired back.

“Chalk one up for the impressive divorce rate in America.”

“Every time I see you, you’re totally different. Aren’t you comfortable in your own s
kin, Mezrolly? Or are you just some fake ass bitch?”

Mezrolly
raised her foot and stepped down towards Josie’s face. Josie spun out of the way and stood up. They were facing each other.

Josie somehow changed the channel and she was now seeing Vinnie sitting around a fire with a few flannel wearing guys. She could hear the conversation, but it sounded like it came from a tin can.

“I think we should kill some ducks for dinner, Gus.” Vinnie had a country accent.

“Sounds good Vinnie, after we load up the truck with the firewood.”

Josie looked at all the cut wood on the ground and realized they had cut it. She had a sinking feeling that Vinnie was one of the loggers. She screamed, “No!” and awoke.

The black and blue smoke of the exhaust slowly got sucked out and was replaced by light. Vinnie was nearly unconscious on the floor. He slowly opened his eyes, which were sealed nearly shut by soot, saw the light and thought it was the coming of an angel.

Josie cried away the soot, like cheap mascara, as she opened her eyes and saw the love in Vinnie’s eyes.

“Oh baby.” She hugged him as the train shook them over the tracks.

“It’s okay. I’m going to climb to the roof and see where we are and get some air.”

He peeked his head out of the hole and followed the ladder up with his eyes before he climbed. He managed to get to the top of the gravel car. The train moved at a bearable speed, where the wind and the motion of the cars were manageable. The lyrics, “Ride the snake, his skin is cold,” flashed through is mind, like a stock ticker on the New York Stock Exchange.

When he stood on the metal roof, he could see the last engine unit ten cars ahead. He looked around and saw the trees and open fields. Humanity forgot about the land next to railroad tracks and the view from the tracks were of virgin land and not seen by many.

He looked around and turned back to see how long the train was, that’s when he saw a dark shimmering figure in the distance. The figure jumped one car to the next, closer to Vinnie.

“Remember me, Vinnie? I’m your brother.”

Dios went to jump to Vinnie’s car when Vinnie grabbed Dios’ throat in midair and held him over the gap between the cars. There was nothing underneath, except blurry train track.

“What are you doing here?” Vinnie said sternly. Dios couldn’t speak because Vinnie’s hand had cut off his air. His face was violet. Dios held up a vile. It had pink crystals at the bottom.

“What’s that?” Vinnie asked. Again, Dios couldn’t speak, but pointed to his throat. Vinnie threw him down onto the rooftop.

“I heard you like this, right?” Dios asked, as he showed it to Vinnie, “You think you created this, huh? That’s a lie also, a big lie!”

“That’s useless to me. Go back home, I mean a friend’s couch if you have any left. and shove that up your ass.”

“Heard you got a new girl, are you going to let me go on a test drive?”

“You’ll be flying through the air on the test drive I’ll give you.” The train sped up and rocked.

“Vinnie, my man, you know we share everything, what’s a little warm beef action? I heard she took on four guys at a
kegger.”

Vinnie did a roundhouse kick that blinded Dios and flattened him. He got up seconds later and rubbed his cheek.

“Oh come on, bro, let me ride that train of yours.”

Vinnie spun around with a backhand that pulled the jawbone out of Dios, which snapped back in like a rubber
band.

“
That one kind of hurt; okay, can I get sloppy seconds when you’re done with her? Come on.”

Vinnie lunged forward with both hands punching, like a jackhammer. Each punch rocked Dios’ head back until he fell back and hit his head on the adjoining car, then ricocheted off the sides of the cars until he was ejected onto the ground, coming inches away from being beheaded.

Vinnie ran to the ladder and climbed down and back into the access hole, “We gotta go!”

“Why?”

“Dios is here!”

“Dios!?”

“Yes.”

They ran to the roof, “We’re moving too fast!” Vinnie yelled through the wind. They both looked over the edge. The track whipped past.

Vinnie looked towards the Caboose. There was a bloody head looking over the top at them. It was Dios. His hair was wet, probably from blood.

“We have to go, now!”

The train lunged towards another tunnel. Vinnie didn’t see it coming because he was watching his brother.

“Get down!” Josie screamed. The tunnel acted like a blow dryer when the train entered, as hot exhaust crippled their senses.

“Shit!” Josie’s voice echoed off the walls.

“Vinnie!”
Dios yelled from the last car.

Vinnie crawled up to Josie, “Jump to the right, as soon as you see the light.”

“I can’t see, Vinnie.”

“Trust yourself, when you see light!”

The train jetted out of the tunnel, as Josie rolled off the roof and flew through the air. Vinnie followed, like they were tandem free-fallers, only there was no parachute. They hit the ground and rolled into the tall grass.

“Stay down.” Vinnie whispered. Josie felt broken and whimpered.

The train flew past, as Vinnie saw the profile of Dios, crouched down, covered in blood, like a wounded black panther.

The train disappeared, as the sound of metal wheels on metal track, turned into grasshoppers and frogs.

“Josie, are you okay?” Vinnie knelt down.

“Yeah.”
Her voice was muffled by the grass.

“Come on.” He turned her over. She had a line of blood exiting the corner of her mouth. He kissed her and became instantly high. “Since this is technically a kiss, I will let you do that.”

“Do what?” He smiled.

“I know what you’re doing. I can taste the blood in my mouth.”

They slowly French kissed. The scene looked macabre, and any onlooker would have fainted. Vinnie became hard by the delicious red elixir of her rare blood, as she reached down and stroked it and pointed it in the right direction. The pain from the fall evolved into intense pleasure, as they writhed on each other.

They complimented the others’ orgasm by having their own, as they lied in the tall grass and devised a plan.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere.” Josie said.

“This is where it gets tricky.” Vinnie said, “Are you ready for the biggest leap?”

“Yeah, what do you mean by biggest leap?”

“You have to be right by your past, completely retired from worry and anxiety, and
be able to concentrate without one interruption for up to an hour.”

“Wow, yeah I’m ready.” Josie pulled on her pants.

“I know we’ve been through a lot and I know we’re meant to be, so don’t worry about us.”

“Of course not,” She kissed him, “Let’s go.”

Vinnie rocked back and forth on the ground, as Josie lied down. She closed her eyes and focused on ‘shutting off’ each body part, starting from the feet up. She counted to ten for each part, and once she reached ten she made it invisible. No thought was associated with it.

Instead of the normal spirals of light, she was standing in the middle of a cyclone. The cyclone was as large as the face of the earth she stood on. Her hair blew wildly. She couldn’t see past the moving wall made of anonymous matter and debris of the cyclone. She tried finding Vinnie.

“Vinnie!”

He was nowhere. She looked up and noticed that she could peer right into space, even the stars seemed to be moving along with the cyclone. Along with the images of the stars she saw Bud,
Daira and Tom. They smiled or cried, depending on the memory she associated with them.

“I love you Dad!” She screamed towards the sky. The air of the cyclone became very cold, as she huddled on the earth’s floor, “I won’t die! I won’t die!”

The wind died down as she noticed that the tall grass was gone. Instead of grass there was burnt ground, like a forest fire had blazed through and left nothing behind. She stood suddenly naked. Her hair was bright red. Little dark fox-like creatures ran around her. They were silent with red eyes. Josie didn’t speak. She watched everything play out like a movie.

There was a giant mountain to the North. Even though he stood miles away, she knew Vinnie watched her. He was in the Gateway. He couldn’t come closer, which made Josie think she wasn’t in the Gateway.

“I need to get out of here.” She spoke to herself. Suddenly, all the words that she ever spoke showered her with confusion. “Me. Me. My. I. I.” echoed ad infinitum. Josie covered her ears, “What the hell?!” She yelled. Again, her words flew at her like angry birds, “Hell, hell, rage, shit. Hate! Hate!” It reminded her of Bud’s Tourette-like speech in purgatory.

Josie thought for a moment, “Okay, love me then!” She yelled. The pressure in the air lightened, as words flew at her, “Love, love, love. Me. Like you.
Like.” She shook her head. It seemed obvious now.