OV: The Original Vampire (Book #1) (7 page)

But, he rebuilt and erected himself back to father a second later and was at a bar laughing with friends. Josie was a little girl playing with toys in the corner. There was nothing she could do but scream to get his attention:

“I’m over here, dad!” The adult Josie yelled out.

“Face him!” Vinnie yelled. This time his voice came from somewhere else. He was inside her mind. They were now traveling together in their subconscious. Vinnie could see Josie struggling with her life experiences and tried to distract her.

“Look at this.” He said, as he went from a twelve year old boy with a bowl haircut
to a fifty year old wearing glasses; but he always looked impeccable with his Adonis features.

Josie recognized him and ran over and held him. The background was black, as their subconscious united and their memories began to unify.

“Let’s go see your dad.” He said.

“I already have.
Still a jerk.”

“No, this is different. Let’s go.”

A tunnel formed out of the darkness, as they walked up and down the timeline of events.

“Where’s your memories?” Josie asked.

“I’ve had a few lives, and each one cancels the other out.” He said.

They walked, ran or flew, whatever they wanted, because they were in the subconscious where dreams and nightmares gave birth. Josie played a little with flight before Vinnie grounded her:

“Here’s where he is.” Vinnie said.

Josie’s face dropped. They were standing in a crater-like hole in the Earth. There was trash everywhere and old decrepit mobile homes, trailers, and live-aboard boats. There was black smoke bellowing out of fire pits and chimneys of trailers. The smell was so toxic that one breath of it ceased the lungs and blacked out the victim.

“
Oh my God!” Josie said, as she grabbed Vinnie’s arm. The most vile looking, soot covered individuals sat around the bluish-green toxic flames. They were crying, belching and laughing in unison, it sounded like a demonic bird call. It made no sense and frightened Josie.

“What’s happening Vinnie?”

“That’s torture in fast forward. Their lives were wasted on earth and have no meaning now, so they pretend to laugh and cry, but it’s useless and they know it. But, fast forward won’t allow them to rest, they have to keep laughing and crying and belching for eternity. They have no extra lung capacity to carry on normal, meaningful conversations.”

“What’s the point of seeing this?” She asked.

“He’s here.”

“Whose here?”

“Your dad.”

They walked down the embankment to the main fire pit. Men laughed and vomited and spat blood into the fire. Her dad was paralyzed with laughter
. He had tears running down his cheeks. So many tears had run down his skin over the years, that his flesh was rotten and gangrene. He looked up and saw Josie. He couldn’t get up, so he tried to speak where he was:

“He.
Op. Jos.” He said, in-between his coughing, puking, snorting, laughing and crying.

Josie looked away. She tried not to cry.

“Go ahead, tell him what you think.” Vinnie said.

Josie walked a couple steps towards him. The other fire watchers turned to watch her
, as their necks snapped from the vertebrae. The sounds these people made were so terrific that Josie plugged her ears.

“Dad, you are a bastard and you deserve to rot here.” She said. He watched her, trying not to vomit.

“What you did to me was horrific. No girl ever deserves this.” Josie said. Her dad trembled and convulsed. His tears were pink of blood and saline.

“But, I will always love you.” She choked from the smoke and walked
back behind Vinnie and held onto him. She was close to passing out.

Her dad found a piece of cardboard from an old beer box and tried to write. There was an explosion from an adjacent trailer. A man ran out with blood pouring from a severed arm. He laughed as the blood drained his complexion to a deathly white.

Josie’s dad handed it to Vinnie who passed it to Josie. She was done talking and grabbed Vinnie’s hand and pulled him towards the trail.

The note read:

      
I know I hurt you immensely. Love is the biggest prize of the World. Too much regret. Help me to help you. I want you to have my cabin. 50 paces east of mile marker 28, near Joyce. I love you so much Josie.

Vinnie walked with Josie down the trail. She is lethargic, as he picks her up onto his shoulders and she falls asleep.

She awakes on the mossy bed at Storm king. They now have a new destination to reach. The Northwest Peninsula is one of the most serene places in the world, yet Josie is tormented. All the destructive actions she took in the past now made sense. She was acting out her pain, but at the time she thought she was being rebellious and cool. The only thing rebellious did was take her further away from the truth.

The sun started to rise on the horizon, as they climbed under a giant root ball of a tree to sleep. When they awoke the sun was down, as bats and mosquitos played in the air. They had to get off the mountain and make it twenty miles to Joyce without being seen by the police.

It had been several weeks since Josie had taken the flat and safe tourist trail, which led back to the ranger station at Storm king. She felt and stunk like an animal. There were only two cars in the parking lot. It was dark. Giant moths hit the orange street light above their heads.

They walked to Hwy 101 and watched the headlights come at them. Vinnie watched to see if there were any police lights on top of cars. If the car was not a cop, Vinnie stuck out his thumb. Josie’s hair was becoming dreadlocks, as they looked disheveled and nobody stopped.

An old man stopped and picked them up. He was driving a Volkswagen Beetle. Vinnie sat in back with an old blue healer. The dog wore a smile and was panting with a giant tongue. There was drool dropping from his tongue onto the seat. Can’t Buy Me love played on the radio. Vinnie commented: “Ah, the Beatles in a Beetle.” Everybody laughed, as the overall feeling was of the carefree Sixties.

The man drove 45 mph while telling sweet stories of the past. Josie had wished her past was as happy. Newer cars passed the VW, as it symbolized how fast and impatient modern times were. The man was heading to his cabin on East Beach. Little bungalows and cabins had been down there since the 20’s. Lake
Cresent had a magnetic quality that attracted artists and writers. The old man had an inner-peace that symbolized his tranquil surroundings. Vinnie and Josie were secretly jealous of his contentment.

He dropped them off, still on Hwy 101, but closer to their destination. They patted Henry, the dog, and got out. The old man tried handing them five dollars, but Vinnie shook his head. The VW putted away, as they were left in the middle of nowhere under the stars.

They stuck out their thumbs and waited. It was late, the only traffic would be drunks and psychopaths.

“Well, this is lame.” Josie remarked.

From the darkness came a voice: “Is that you Vinnie?” the voice from the other side of the street asked. Josie jumped back. Vinnie looked over and spotted a black figure sitting on the guard rail.

“Who’s that?” Vinnie puffed up.

“Blake. Blake Foster.”

“Blake?”

“Yeah, the Gateway, Fifth dimension, you taught me. Well, not in person, but you know. . .” He said.

“Right.
Okay. Where you going?” asked Vinnie.

“Forks.
We’re all going there. Loggers been cuttin’ enough.”

“Wait here.” Vinnie whispered to Josie. Vinnie walked over to Blake, so he doesn’t have to yell anymore.

“What’s happening there?” Vinnie asked.

“We got them running. Someone burned down a wood mill, burned a few
trucks. . .We got tree huggers climbing the trees, fuckin’ hippies, so they can’t cut them. Hey, you want some?” Blake pulls out a piece of foil and some Draksblood.

“
This is pure. We don’t even use that shitty trucker speed anymore.”

“No man, onto bigger things.” Vinnie said.

Blake chased the dragon with a straw. He inhaled so much smoke that when he blew it upwards it looked like a smokestack.

“Fuck those fuckers, man. They killed my ole lady.”

“What! What happened?” Vinnie asked.

“They burned the house we were
squattin’ in. My ole lady was hiding in the closet when they torched it.”

“Why did they do that?”

“Loggers tole the fire department the wood was rot, so they come burn it down.”

Blake started to breath hard: “Fuckers, I’ll kill them!” Blake screamed into the night.

Indian Valley on 101 was the main thoroughfare for logging trucks full of cut trees, and they worked 24/7. There were giant chunks of bark all over the side of the road from the cut trees. It was a sad reminder that thousands of trees were being transported each day to wood mills and freighters heading to China.

“
Woah, it’s okay Blake. They’ll stop soon, you’ll see.” Vinnie said.

“I’m sick of it. Hearing all those trucks day and night, piercing the serenity of Lake
Cresent with their fucking Jake Brakes!” Blake yelled. The Draksblood was making his body prepared for war by tricking his mind into giving his body vast amounts of adrenalin.

There was a rumbling sound in the distance, and it was getting louder. There was a whining noise along with the rumbling that came from the turbo of a large diesel engine, it sounded like an evil torture machine being wheeled on steel wheels. Blake knelt down and pounded the ground with his fists:

“They will pay, Fuck! They will pay!”

Suddenly, a logging truck came around the bend towards them. The bright headlights blinded Vinnie, but missed Blake because he was kneeling on the ground. The whooshing and whining
of the evil torture machine was rumbling down the highway towards them going seventy miles an hour. The air sucked into the front grill of the truck as it came closer.

“Fuck this. This is for you Vinnie!” Blake jumped like a frog from his sitting position and flung himself into the air, right as the truck passed. There was a loud thud, a shriveled cat fight sound, then silence, as the truck left exhaust, dust, and Blake’s decapitated body. Josie shrieked from the other side of the road, at the same time Vinnie could see again. She ran over.

“What the fuck! Oh my God!  Oh no!” She collapsed in the middle of the road. Her head was resting on the yellow line. Vinnie acted fast and pulled Blake’s body down into the ravine. Josie awoke and turned her head, to where her cheek was resting on the asphalt. She was looking in the direction the truck went.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“Where?”

“That round thing down the road?”

Vinnie started to run down the road. He was going to get whatever it was out of the road, but before he could get to it, a car came. It hit the round object as it drove past. It sounded like an empty plastic jug. Vinnie ran over to pick it up. It was Blake’s head. The skin from his forehead was ripped off and one eye looked like raw hamburger.

“It’s just a big piece of wood.” Vinnie yelled back. Josie stood up in the middle of the road, as she contemplated everything and was finally deduced to praying, then she sobbed.

They began the long walk over the mountain to Joyce. It was a desolate road at night. It was so quiet, they could hear the rippling waves of the lake and once in a while Jake Brake’s from logging trucks mile away.

They walked past Log Cabin Resort, it was closed for the winter, happy couples had stayed there and some even tied the knot, but it seemed dead. They walked up the road to a sharp corner and found the creek near the road that indicated the entranceway to Bud’s cabin (Josie’s dad.) They used a jagged deer trail that almost went straight up a rocky crag. When they reached flat ground the trail was only about six inches wide. Vinnie had to hit the blackberries with a stick. They hacked away at the foliage for an hour until they came to a field of tall grass. Little yellow and blue flowers sprinkled among the tall grass added color to the overall scenery.

At the edge of the field on the other side was an old cabin. Its wood was almost black from years of rain. Lime green moss lined the tops of the windows, like green icing on a gingerbread house. The front windows were cracked and there were antlers hanging on the door. The windows were either curtained
, or a gray film clouded them so you couldn’t see in. A couple steps were missing, as they walked up to the door. Vinnie knocked. The black door knob was tiny and wouldn’t turn.

Vinnie pushed on the door and it creaked open. The wood floor was worn away by the windows and there was a path from the loveseat to the kitchen. There were small black and white photos of unknown people on the wall. Josie looked around like she was a private investigator.

She walked back to the bedroom and gasped. Vinnie hurried over and looked over her shoulder. There were faded color posters of women naked with giant patches of pubic hair covering their genitalia. The posters were reminiscent of the Seventies.