The Traveling Vampire Show

An eager look in her eyes, she said, “Wait right here.” Then she swung around and trotted to the back stairs. She hustled up them, pulled open the screen door and entered the kitchen. The door banged shut.

Rusty and I looked at each other.

I nodded.

We split.

Ran like hell around the corner of the garage, cut across the neighbor’s yard, made it to the sidewalk and didn’t stop running till we reached Route 3. Panting and drenched with sweat, we stopped by the side of the pavement. I walked in slow circles while Rusty bent over and held his knees.

When he had his breath back, he straightened up and grinned at me and shook his head. “Good man,” he said.

“Yeah, well.”

He patted me on the back, and we walked up Route 3. On both sides of us, the woods were tall and thick. Though the sunless afternoon made the road ahead of us look gloomy, in there among the trees there was hardly any light at all.

After a while, Rusty said, “Bet she never thought you’d ditch her.”

“I know.”

“That’s why it worked.”

“Yeah.”

He patted me on the back some more. “I can’t believe you did that to her.”

I glowered at him.

“Just kidding, man. It was brilliant.”

“I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”

“Blew that one.”

“If she’d just listened to reason…”

“Ha!”

“I tried to talk her out of coming.”

“You did your best. Anyway, she had no business butting in like that. Not to mention threatening to tell on us. Serves her right.” Rusty chuckled softly.

“What?” I asked.

“Just thinking about the look she must’ve had on her face when she came back out and we were gone.”

“It’s not funny.”

The humor left his face. “Just hope she doesn’t decide to come after us. I wouldn’t put it past her.” Scowling, he looked over his shoulder.

I looked back, too. The road behind us was deserted, at least to where it curved out of sight about thirty feet away. “Maybe we’d better hurry,” I said.

We picked up our pace.

Every so often, we glanced back.

I felt lousy about ditching Bitsy.

I told myself that she had no business going with us in the first place. She wasn’t really one of us and we might be running into trouble. If things went bad, she could hardly be counted on to take care of herself. Saving her would be our job and we didn’t need that sort of responsibility.

Still, I’d tricked her. I’d betrayed her. I’d probably broken her heart.

I almost wished she would show up just so I could stop feeling so guilty.

Because of the twists in Route 3, we couldn’t see very far behind us. Bitsy might’ve been back there, closing in. At any moment, she might come hustling around a bend, jiggling and waving.

I half expected it to happen.

Every so often, cars went by. We stayed along the edge of the road, walking single file, and ignored them. Though most of the people in the cars probably recognized us, nobody called out or stopped. With any luck, we might not even get talked about; it wasn’t as if we were doing anything interesting, just walking.

By the time we were about halfway to the Janks Field turnoff, Bitsy still hadn’t appeared. Maybe because we were walking too fast. So I slowed down.

Rusty gave me a grateful look. Our fast pace had been rough on him.

We kept glancing back every so often. Rusty, I’m sure, hoped he wouldn’t spot Bitsy on the road behind us. I didn’t want her with us, either, but I might’ve been relieved to find her coming along.

When we finally reached the dirt road leading to Janks Field, I stopped and looked back toward town. There was a fairly long stretch before the first bend. Staring at the empty lanes, I realized this was where the sheeted man had come gliding toward us last Halloween night. The memory gave me a little shiver up my back.

What was he doing out here that night? I wondered.

Who was he?

Where is he now?

I almost expected to see the sheeted figure in its silly bowler hat and not-so-silly hangman’s noose come drifting up the road toward us.

Would it be as scary on a summer afternoon?

Maybe even scarier.

What if he’s just on the other side of the bend?

To stop myself from thinking about it, I said to Rusty, “Maybe we’d better wait here for a few minutes and see if Bitsy turns up.”

“Are you nuts?”

“What if she is coming after us?”

“All the more reason to get going.”

I shook my head. “And leave her alone out here? We’re two miles from town.”

He gave me a disgusted look. “She knows the way home.”

“But she might keep on looking for us. If she thinks we’re somewhere just ahead of her, no telling where she might go.”

Rusty sighed. “She probably never came after us at all. She probably went straight to her bedroom, crying.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “But let’s at least give her five minutes or something to catch up. In case she…”

“Hi guys.”

Rusty flinched and gasped, “Shit!”

Even though I recognized the voice, I jumped. A moment later, warmth and relief spread through me. I turned and searched the deep shadows of the woods alongside the dirt road.

“What’s up?” Slim asked, stepping out from behind a tree.