Chapter 15 - Revenge of the Autumn People - Unwelcomed Guests

 

                                         Chapter 15 – Unwelcome Guests

It was nearly seven o’clock. The sun descended over the foothills surrounding the little town of Dusk Thorne, Colorado. The storm had moved on and, even though it had been a brutally hot afternoon, the cooler air in the new breeze moving down the alley and up the street carried the crisp promise of autumn.

The breeze was not only cool against the skin, it was tinged with the scent of damp leaves and earth. I could smell wood smoke in the distance through the open window. Someone, several blocks away, was firing up their wood stove in anticipation of a cool September evening.

The neighborhood was silent except for the creak and slams of screen doors down the street, as children came inside for supper and the occasional pickup that motored by the Little Pine Cemetery on the way to the Hungry Hobbit for a bite to eat, or The White Point Theater to catch a weekend showing of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

I could hear voices buzzing downstairs in the basement. I woke up slowly. My ears detected furniture being shifted in a room off the Dining area. I sat up from the couch, stretched and looked outside. I saw Knuckle Butt packing his landscaping tools into the back of his old truck, presumable to go home. I touched my wounded shoulder. There was no soreness. I rose to get a mirror from the downstairs bathroom, down the hall from the kitchen.      

“It’s gone” I exclaimed twisting my head in an uncomfortable position. I held a hand mirror at various angles, then amended my initial statement. “Well, very nearly gone.” I announced as I returned to the living room and parked my rear back on the couch again. It was sore from the ride back to the house.

After that bumpy and cramped ride under a tarp, in the back of Knuckle Butt’s old pickup truck with Peck reciting bawdy limericks, I had calmed down long enough to change back into my human form. I felt my face. My beard was a bit longer and I needed to shave lest the world think I had decided to go ‘full hermit’ with my appearance.  

This was generally the case after I changed back. My nails would also need to be trimmed, and I would need a haircut again as it had started to touch my collar and grown over my ears. Alice might be willing to do it. She had done it before. Barbers get suspicious if you drop by once a week. While I wasn’t in the closet about being a werewolf, or what Alice called my “Bruno” side, I didn’t like waving it in the faces of others.

I had returned from the bathroom. Peck flew in from the kitchen and perched on my couch staring at Chester. Chester had stalked in from the basement and, in turn, was staring back at the raven. Chester’s eyes were fully dilated. His striped tail whipped back and forth.

“Doc, do something about that fuzzball. He’s giving me the creeps.” Peck implored.

“Peck, you’re being a poor houseguest.” Dorthy admonished. She rose from a leather reclining chair in the living room and gently moved to examine my shoulder.

“What did you say was gone?” Dana asked. She had come out of the room off the dining room that I had hopes of transforming into an office for writing and perhaps tutoring.

“Kyle had a nasty run in with a zombie. It bit him on the shoulder. I had been treating the wound, but it looks like it has almost completely closed.” Dorthy replied.

“Cool! Bet you will have a wicked scar. Can I see it?” Naydene said, as she helped Dana find a place to bed down for the night. She had come out into the living room with pillows and a blanket.

“Don’t touch it.” Dorthy said sternly. “It isn’t unusual for a werewolf to heal rapidly after a transformation. But this is rather remarkable. The wound was infected with flesh eating bacteria living in your father’s mouth when he bit Kyle.”

“On second thought, I’ll help make up a cot for Miss Dana.” Peck flew over to Naydene’s shoulder.

“Care to give a bird the grand tour?” Peck seemed very curious about our old house. Or, perhaps, he was just trying to ditch Chester.

Dana, Peck and Naydene retired to Dana’s new sleeping quarters. Chester looked disappointedly at Peck leaving with two new bodyguards.

“Later cat!” Peck laughed.

Dorthy huffed and stretched. She must have fallen asleep watching over me while I napped, I reasoned. She seems a little fatigued but still moved pretty good for a woman who has survived over two centuries.

“That wound will still require my salve until it closes completely.” The old necromancer advised.

“Dorthy, did you waste Jacob Hornsby’s wish on little ole me?” I asked.

“No, apparently your metabolism was just a bit sluggish. It finally threw off the infection with a little help from folk medicine. I’m saving that wish, for now.” She smiled.

“Back at the carnival, when we were in the tent with Frank, you told me to put him down.” I began.

“He was pointing a gun at you Kyle. I know you think that you are tough customer, but even a werewolf wouldn’t survive several shots to the chest at point blank range.” She replied.

“I didn’t care. I could have snapped his neck even if he did get those shots off.” I said, I could feel some of my anger returning.

“I know. But you both would have died Kyle. I have concluded that your difficulty navigating “The Change” from human to werewolf might have something to do with your anger towards Frank.” Dorthy added.

“Even though I didn’t want to let go of his neck, I did.” I said slowly. There was an unspoken question in my eyes.

“Yes. Because I didn’t just ‘tell’ you to drop him. I ‘compelled’ you to do it. It was magic.” She said simply and quietly.

“You’ve never done anything like that before. How…is that possible now?”

“Peck was there. He is my Familiar. When he is nearby, he can both amplify and focus my powers. I don’t usually compel people to do anything, but I’m not sorry I did that. You were confused and out of control.”

“No, I’m glad you restrained me or whatever. I wasn’t aware that you were doing anything to me at the time. It seemed like I had just, somehow, changed my mind about Frank. But you changed it for me. As easily Petey channel surfs with the remote control when he is looking for entertainment.

Downstairs, in the basement, I heard Alice whispering to Petey.

                                                             *      *      *

“Gadzook’s Gravy Bowl! He’s awake. This is bad.” Alice said in hushed tones

“So what? Just go upstairs. He is probably wondering where we went.” Petey whispered back.

“Damn that Naydene. She was supposed to be a decoy, and now she is helping some visitor Doc brought home settle into a room for the night.” Alice fumed.

“She was supposed to be a decoy. What’s a decoy?” Billy asked.

“A wooden duck.” Said Petey and then snickered.

“She looks nothing like a duck. She can’t pull that off. How would that even be possible?” The little ghost was still confused.

“She was supposed to take Doc and Knuckle Butt out back to talk landscaping with them and stall until we hid the money. Then he decided to take a nap. And who knew he was going to bring home a guest.” Alice complained.

“You know full well that we weren’t supposed to go down into the tunnels.” Petey’s southern drawl had started to get on Alice’s nerves. “All we had to do was stay put until Doc and the others got back.

“There was something creepy down there. It was watching us. I heard it laughing.” Billy whispered.

“One creepy thing at a time, Billy. Doc’s going to blow a furry gasket when he finds out we have a jumbo leather bag full of bundles of cash.” Alice was starting to speak more rapidly. “Petey, find some place to hide this money.”

“Oh, I know! What about in the tunnels where we found it.” Petey snarked. “You know the ironic part of this adventure? Not only did we disobey Doc, but we also can’t even spend that money. It first needs to be sent back down to Xerxes Louisianna to be laundered. I say we put it back where we found it. It doesn’t belong to us.

“No. We aren’t going down there again without back up. Billy is right. There is something down there.

“Yeah, a Giant Head.” Billy said in a shaky voice.

“Will you forget about the Giant Head. I need you to be a lookout in the kitchen. Turn invisible and warn Petey if anyone tries to go downstairs.”

Billy floated up nose-to-nose with Alice. “Anyone?”

“Yes! Anyone.” There were worry wrinkles forming on her forehead.

“Even you.” Billy suppressed a smile.

“I swear, sometimes I think you are too stupid to live.” Alice glared at the little ghost.

“Hey, hurtful!” Billy said loudly.

“Shush! It is just a saying…a manner of speaking.” Alice retorted.

“Still offensive.” Billy turned his back with arms folded while floating in the air.

Don’t make me get the vacuum cleaner out.” Alice said menacingly. Billy had confided in Alice once that he was terrified of vacuum cleaner noises. Something about the frequency disrupts poltergeist thought patterns and makes them flicker like a bad light bulb.

“I’ll tell Joe you were being mean to me.” Billy smirked.

“Joe! Tarnation’s Tailgate! He’ll be home soon. I completely forgot. Alice’s face turned chalk white.

                                                  *      *      *

Meanwhile just a few blocks from Oak Street a grey 1982 Pontiac Phoenix pulled up to the curb and two blonde figures emerged.

“Front wheel drive, smooth ride. Not too shabby. I like it.” Lucian remarked.

“This isn’t the company car we came in.” Lukus made this observation while trying to steady himself in a vacant lot. Both brothers were intoxicated. Neither of them should have been behind the wheel.

“No, we stole this car, remember.” Lucian pulled a pack of More cigarettes from his jacket pocket. “You lost the keys someplace between the toilet and the back door of the bar. I had to pick the pocket of a rather odd smelling gentleman so that we didn’t have to hitchhike our way back here.

“Oh, right! He smelled like Brut aftershave. I should have just hypnotized him or bitten him and made him my servant. He could have driven us around for the rest of the night.” Lukus was now slurring his words.

Lucian gave him a sidelong glance. “How many times do we have to have this conversation? You are not…You know what? Never mind. God, you are really drunk.

It was true. They both were. A few drinks at the “Pair ‘O Dice” club had turned into a two-hour binge, complete with the Twins hogging the karaoke machine for a full hour and singing Hank Williams songs. Lukus accidentally found out that he and his brother Lucian could both do passable Hank Williams imitations one afternoon on the train listening to country western tunes on the radio while outside of Omaha headed towards Kansas.

In the bar Lucian was so drunk he started to yodel and got a standing ovation.  The harmonies were dead-on even if one or the other of them would lisp occasionally because of his fang implants.

“Those things will kill you.” Lukus pointed at the cigarettes.

“According to you, we are immortal.”

“Oh yeah. I sometimes forget. What’s with the cigs? I mean, why smoking, anyway. I always wanted to ask.” Lukus sat down on the curb. “Do you think it makes you look cool? I’ve never seen any vampire movies where they smoke, even if they are supposed to be immortal.

Lucian spent a large amount of time smoking before their act. Truth be told, he was addicted to cigarettes again. He got hooked every seventeen years and withdrew behind the Great Mist during their long period of unconsciousness.

“Cool? You know who looks cool in the movies?” Lucian challenged.

“Stallone?” Lukus replied.

“Stallone is a midget who mumbles his lines on screen.” Lucian sneered. “No, Eastwood! Clint Eastwood. When he was doing the spaghetti westerns his director was searching for a tough guy look. A gunfighter look. A look that said ‘don’t mess with me’. One day he stopped by a cigar shop and bought a pack of those little cigarillos he smokes in his films. They made his stomach sick, but the director said that the face that he made was exactly what he was looking for.” Lucian lit up the cigarette with a gold plated lighter.

“Where did you get the lighter?” Lukas asked.

“Same place I got the car keys.”

“You do look like Eastwood when you smoke those things. You’ve got the eye squint down.”

“So, what now? Lukus rubbed his own eyes.

“We go over to check out that Seer that Josiah is curious about.” Lucian announced

“Under the pretense of giving away free opening night tickets?”

“Naw. Maybe it’s the booze talking, but I see no reason to be subtle anymore,” He opened his coat and revealed a shoulder holster with a large semi-automatic luger in it. “If she is there, she is coming with us.” Lucian stated. “We’ll probably get a raise in salary for demonstrating our initiative.”

“We’ve never seen her before.” Lukus declared, as he flicked open his switch blade.

“The Boss saw her in a vision. She has bright red hair. Can’t be too many of those in this neighborhood.”

The Twins made their way to Oak Street with determined steps.