Impending Doom Read online

  Chapter Five

  1

  Gracey let the screen door slam behind her as she carried the box of pizza out to the table on the porch.

  “Jesus, Gracey!” Mr. White exclaimed, standing up from the table. “Don't you care about my parents' house? This is very special to me and you know it. How do you expect that door to last if you keep slamming it like that?”

  “I'm sorry, babe, but I only have two hands.”

  “Well next time ask me to get the door,” he snapped, sitting back down and plopping a piece of pizza on his plate.

  The sun had just set behind the mountains and the wind nipped at their bones, sending chills down Mr. White’s back. The mood became less intense and more relaxed as they discussed the dinner party that would soon take place. The entire town burst with excitement and gossip. Nearly everyone of importance was invited.

  Gracey went off on how the Dyebukos invited everyone of importance except Preacher Nelsen and his wife. Everyone was curious to why that was, most thought the invitation blew away in the wind, others thought that maybe the new family had something against the preacher, and others did not even care. Gracey talked to the grocery store owner, but he did not see any of the new family come in to buy food. It was that fact that made the curiosity of what type of food there would be grow immensely in the small town of Riverwolf Pass.

  Mr. White was helping Gracey clear the plates and pizza box from the table when they heard it. It was a noise... a very peculiar noise... one of scraping and clawing. It startled Gracey at first, and then they both recognized the sound.

  “Damn raccoons!” Mr. White banged his fists against the table and then shook it out, ignoring the pain. “I never have liked them. They sound like monsters that have come to eat you in the night.”

  Gracey then rested a hand on her fiancé’s shoulder and told him to settle down. He complied and soon they talked about the dinner party again. They talked of the dinner party until they arrived at church later that night where all word about the dinner party was held off until after the service.

  2

  Thelma, Peter and their son Gerald sobbed all through dinner. They were not going to church that night, which was a first. There was no word from Kurt. Talk of the dinner party hosted by the Dyebukos was brought to a standstill in their household. Whereas normally, Thelma wouldn’t have been able to quit talking about it to save her life. Gerald saw it coming, he knew that all this sneaking out would not ever amount to anything good. He was saddened, not exactly by his brother’s disappearance – he never did like his brother – but by his mother’s distraught and saddened behavior. Gerald was fully aware that his mother had no idea of Kurt’s sneaking out or bad boy reputation until now. Peter, on the other hand, did not know what to make of the situation, and was trying to hold strong for his wife and son.

  There was a knock on the door, and Thelma was the first to jump up and run to it. No doubt, her hopes were high that it would be Kurt. Her face fell when she saw a complete stranger standing there at the door.

  “May I help you?” she asked, doing her best not to break down into tears.

  “No. I am here to help you. I do believe I have some reassuring news about your son, Kurt,” the lady said.

  “Really? Oh, thank heaven! Please come in,” Thelma invited her and they all sat down to coffee at the kitchen table.

  3

  Ivan walked home with a skip in his step and a smile on his face. It was dark, and normally that would bother him, but tonight it didn't. Latianna let him kiss her, and not just once. She liked him. She seemed to understand him, and she felt what he felt. He too felt trapped, and he talked to her about that. He felt like he knew her better than he knew anybody, and he felt like she knew him and listened to him more than anybody else did. He divulged that why he read horror novels was to remind him that his life wasn't too horrible, that there could always be worse. She said she understood. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could put a damper on his bad mood…

  Darkness surrounded him as he walked down the dirt road. Normally he would have driven to her house, but he did not like driving on that winding road. So, earlier that day he'd walked. The walk home was not that bad either, twenty minutes at the most. He was already half way home when he passed over the train tracks. He felt tempted to take the shortcut home, the path through the graveyard.

  Normally, Ivan would have been terrified to walk alone, at nighttime, through the graveyard. But, then, he was feeling safe, loved, cared for and adored. Nothing could scare him...

  He made his way up the winding path that cut through the graveyard. He heard a scuffling noise off in the distance.

  “It’s not going to work this time, Chad,” Ivan said with a smile, proud of himself for not jumping. There was no reply, but Ivan was not about to let himself fall into a dither. His best friend had already scared him enough times in his life, making fun of him for reading horror novels. Ivan was not about to let him do it again. Besides, Ivan was not about to let anything ruin his marvelous mood.

  “Get out here, you won’t believe what just happened,” Ivan said excitedly, looking around for his best buddy. Earlier, he had promised Latianna that he would not speak a word of their relationship to anyone. She'd said to him that her parents would be furious if they found out. Ivan knew all too well that his parents would not be too pleased with him either if they knew. So therefore, Ivan had promised to keep their relationship a secret, just as long as both of them knew they were together and loyal to each other.

  They made plans to spend the entire day tomorrow together. Ivan planned to skip school, and Latianna’s parents would be over visiting in a town not too far from Riverwolf Pass. The Dyebukos had old family friends that lived in the neighboring town of Newland. Latianna was sure her parents would be there all day and would not notice that she was gone... just as long as she was home before dinnertime.

  Ivan’s mind spun with ideas of what to talk about all day long. There was so much to talk about; adventures, feelings, plans, the dinner party of course. Oh! everything was just going to be grand tomorrow. Ivan could hardly wait.

  The leaves that were rustling suddenly stopped and an odd screeching noise replaced it.

  “Chad, knock it off,” Ivan said, shoving his hands in his hoodie pockets, not wanting to admit that he was a little bit spooked. He walked with his head down, a little more rapidly now. The cold, bitter wind wrapped its arms around Ivan, reaching down and touching his bones with its sharp freezing cold metal knife. A growling noise came from behind a gravestone.

  “Okay, Chad. You can stop now,” Ivan said, strongly.

  “Hi,” a voice came from behind him. It made him jump. The voice was not Chad's... it didn't belong to Chad at all. He turned to see Alice standing there behind him. He knew this girl from school and even scored a date with her once, although, it had been a one night thing. Ivan did not remember seeing Alice in school that day, but that was not a big surprise, she skipped out a lot.

  “Hey Alice,” Ivan said, walking by, not even thinking for one minute that it was odd seeing her there, in the graveyard. His thoughts were elsewhere.

  “You wanna date?” she asked, winking.

  “No thank you, Alice,” Ivan replied and kept on walking.

  “Oh come on, don’t go away so fast, come here and look at me. I’ve changed,” she said with a sneer. Ivan sighed and turned to face her. He jumped, tripping over a gravestone behind him. He stood up quickly. He stared at her for the longest time, rubbing his eyes to make himself believe. The light from the moon was just enough to make out her features. They were very different features than he last remembered her having... gruesomely different.

  4

  Latianna showed back up at her house just after dark. That happened to be just a little bit on the late side.

  “Were we not clear with you that you needed to stay here all day long? Did we give you permission to leave the house? What do you expect us to think when
we found out you were gone? No note, no explanation, just plain gone!” Mr. Dyebuko yelled. Latianna thought that yelling was highly unnecessary. She was sixteen, almost seventeen. She could take care of herself! She took care of herself all day long while her parents were out of the picture. Not to mention, she'd arrived back home just after sunset; it wasn't as if she stayed out all night long without an explanation. She went away for only three house at the most. Besides, her parents could not have been home long before she'd returned.

  “I’m sorry father,” Latianna said, knowing that it wouldn't do any good to argue her case.

  “Your mother went to Thelma’s house all by herself because of you. You were supposed to accompany her, but what happened? Oh yes, we couldn’t find you.”

  After a lot more yelling, her father sighed and sat down in his comfy plush chair that sat in the den.

  “Where were you anyways?” he asked, looking his daughter straight in the eyes, looking at her in a way that made her want to squirm out of her skin.

  “Don’t look at me that way,” she protested.

  “What way? A concerned way? A way that lets you know that I will know if you are lying to me? Or the way that lets you know that I know you were up to no good?”

  “I wasn’t doing anything bad, papa,” Latianna said firmly, tears about to take a stroll right down her face.

  “Don't you lie to me,” her father yelled. He raised his hand and smacked Latianna's cheek, causing her head to whip violently to the other side. Her neck cracked and the tears continued to make their way down her baby soft cheeks. She looked at her father, clenching her fists and biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from screaming out in pain.

  “What were you doing, Latianna dear?” her mother asked, running her hand down her daughter's arm. Her voice was more soothing than her father’s was. They both hated her equally, her mother was just better at hiding it. Latianna looked down at the ground, her feet delicately placed in her white boots that matched her white dress, which now had stains on it from lying on the ground with Ivan Harvey.

  “Latianna,” her mother prodded, the simple word of her name pierced her like a knife. She had to tell her mother. She had to tell her father, though, she really did not want to. She knew she had to. She wanted to lie, but they would know… they always knew… there was no escaping it. There was no other choice but to tell them, or else her father would hurt her again. She knew from experience that if she pissed him off twice in one week, her face would not be the only thing that he would bruise.

  5

  Ivan Harvey made it home late, but safely. The last part – the safe part – he only managed by the skin of his teeth, but he had managed it. He saw his mother in the kitchen making hot chocolate. His little sister sat at the table drinking a mug full of what he assumed was hot chocolate.

  “Ivey’s in trouble, isn’t he mama? Ive, you’re in trouble.” Ivan bit his tongue and held back from screaming at his sister for calling him Ive and Ivey again. He knew very well that he was in trouble, and he was smart enough to know that yelling at his sister wasn’t going to help that situation out much either.

  “Yes, indeed he is,” his mother said, entering the room and handing a mug of steaming hot cocoa, with little melted marshmallows on top, to him.

  “Look, I’m sorry I’m late,” Ivan said, pushing the hot chocolate back away from him. After what he just experienced, he did not want anything to do with anything... except a phone call to his best bud, Chad. Nobody else would believe Ivan about what took place that night in the graveyard on his way home.

  “Where were you, Ivan? Look at me! You’re not going to just walk away from this,” his mother said, grabbing Ivan’s arm.  Ivan sighed and sat down. His mother looked at him and Ivan knew she had instantly noticed his black eye. Though, it was more purple than black.

  “Ivan what happened to you? Did you get in a fight at school?” she asked. Then, her eyes nearly shot right out of her head when she saw the scratch marks he bared on his arms. They had recently stopped bleeding, but there was not a scab there yet.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you what really happened,” Ivan stated.

  “Try me,” his mother said, looking him in the eyes. She crossed her arms and gnawed on the inside of her lip like she did when she was really pissed.

  “Oooh, Ive’s in trouble, yes he is. Ive made mamma mad. Oooh,” Christina said, gripping her dolly in her hands, bobbing up and down in her seat.

  “Christina, it’s time for you to go to bed,” his mother said, dabbing Christina’s mouth with a napkin.

  “But mama-” hot chocolate dripped down her shirt.

  “No. No buts. Go climb in bed and pick out a book. I’ll be there to read it to you in a minute.” There was something in how his mother only spoke short sentences that made Ivan squirm in his seat. He felt like snakes were withering around in his body.

  “Yes mama,” Christina said, slowly trudging off to her room, looking back a few times.

  “Go!” her mother demanded, and that was when she raced up to her room without another word.

  “Now what happened, Ivan?” his mother asked once Christina was in her bedroom with the door shut. They both knew her ear pressed against the door as close as it could possibly get. But, they also both knew that she could not hear them, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Look, I got in a fight with this guy at school and I didn’t want to come home and get dad all riled up, so I waited until I knew he went to work the night shift,” Ivan lied. That was the best lie he could come up with on such little notice. He thought it might work, too. Maybe, just maybe…

  “Ahuh, and I guess you forgot that your father went on a business trip this morning and won’t be back until Thursday?” his mother asked, looking at him with a stern demeanor. Ivan bit his cheek and looked down at the ground, unsure of what to say. “And who was this boy?” she asked curiously, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

  “I’d rather not say. Look, I can fight my own fights. I won the fight and he won’t bother me again,” Ivan said, placing a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “I’ll be okay, mom, don’t worry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I'd like to get a shower, then I have some homework to do before I get some sleep,” Ivan said standing up.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” his mother protested. “Come back down here,” she said when Ivan was half way up the stairs, on his way to his room.

  “Mom,” Ivan said, long and drawn out like, hoping against hope that she didn't see through him.

   

  “Ivan, I’m not okay with fights and you know that. There will be a repercussion if it happens again, do you hear me?” she asked. Ivan nodded, relived that she actually believed him. He had nothing to worry about; he did not plan to get into fights. Then again, he hadn't exactly planned for some lunatic girl in the graveyard to attack him on the way home.

  “Yes ma’am,” Ivan said, and went over and hugged his mom. He could not remember the last time he actually gave her a hug. Her arms comforted him and it felt good. Even if she didn’t know exactly what horrors he’d experienced that night, she could tell that something was wrong and different. Her nurturing motherly side kicked in, and hugged Ivan with the caring and love that he needed.

  Ivan then kissed his mom on the cheek, grabbed his backpack and went up the stairs to his room. He showered while his mother read to Christina into her bed. When he heard her leave Christina’s room, going down the stairs - and was absolutely sure that she wasn’t going to come back up - he ran over to his backpack that laid on the chair in the corner of his room. He rifled through the books and silly-bands and old pieces of notebook paper, finally finding his cell phone. He dialed Chad’s number and listened to it ring a couple of times. Please pick up, please pick up, please, please, please, please pick up the phone! Come on Chad, answer already! He silently begged. Finally, Chad answered.

  “Chad!” Ivan exclaimed. “You won’t believe what just happened to me.”<
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  “What? Does your upper lip have a little more peach fuzz than last week?” Chad jokingly asked.

  “No, dude, shut up,” Ivan demanded. “This is important.”

  “Really? Okay, okay, sorry, I’m listening now,” Chad said. Ivan could tell he was serious.

  “Monsters have come to Riverwolf Pass,” Ivan said with eyes as wide as a bush baby’s.

  Chad burst out laughing. Ivan groaned, he should have expected as much with Chad.

  “I’m serious. A vampire attacked me tonight in the graveyard,” Ivan said once the laughter had died down enough for Chad to make out what Ivan was saying.

  “And just what were you doing in the graveyard after dark?” Chad asked, restraining himself from yet another hysterical laughing fit.

  “I was walking home from the old Lovehart Mansion,” Ivan explained.

  “Oh really?” Chad asked with a tone of false curiosity. “And just who is this vampire? The new girl in town? Or did she already change someone?” Chad asked, incapable of helping himself from another laugh attack.

  “The new girl is not a vampire; I’ve seen her out in the sun,” Ivan protested.

  “Did she sparkle?” Chad asked, cracking up again.

  “I’m serious, Chad! Alice attacked me in the graveyard!”

  “Alice as in 'skip school each day Alice?' Alice as in 'flirt with every boy in sight Alice?' Alice as in 'she'll go to third on the first date Alice?' Alice as in 'the biggest boobs in Riverwolf Pass Alice?' I'm pretty sure that Alice isn't smart enough to become a vampire... she'd probably burn up in the sun, wondering when she was going to start glistening and attracting sexy vamps.”

  “God, Chad, you are such a jerk! Do you have no respect for women? You just tore her to shreds... but yes, that's the Alice I'm talking about,” Ivan said almost too soon and too loud. He heard his sister stirring in the other room, but it quickly halted.

  “I have respect for the girls who deserve... Alice doesn't ask for any respect, so why should I give it to her?”

  “Whatever,” Ivan replied with a heavy sigh. “Can we get back on subject?”

  “Yeah, sure... Did you nail her?” Chad asked.

  “Whaddo you mean did I nail her? She was a vampire, Chad,” Ivan snapped, wanting to reach through the phone and smack Chad upside the head.

  “Yeah, I bet it’d be pretty killer to sleep with a vamp chick.”

  “Shut up Chad,” Ivan said. He was getting annoyed with his friend. “Don’t you understand anything? She tried to kill me; she tried to sink her fangs into me,” Ivan said, pulling his legs up close to his body, wanting to curl up inside of himself at the thought of it.

  “Ivan chill, she's gone now... you didn't kill her did you?” Chad asked.

  “No, I couldn't kill her. I had the perfect moment too, but I just couldn't bring myself to kill her,” Ivan wailed. The thought that she might still be out there tormented his mind.

  “Was there anyone else there, Ivan?” Chad asked.

   

  “Yeah, a guy... I couldn’t see him that well. He was one of them though. I just know it. Chad, you have you to lock your windows tonight,” Ivan said, his heart was ready to beat out of his chest. “Please, be safe, lock your windows.”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure thing, Ivan,” Chad said.

  “You can’t tell anybody,” Ivan said, nearly screaming, if anyone else knew, God, they would lock him up for being crazy. Sure, he knew she was a vampire but who else would believe him? Chad didn't. Ivan could tell Chad didn't by the tone of his voice.

   

  “Okay, okay, Ivan chill, I won’t tell anybody. Although, I think your horror book and movie obsession has gone a little bit too far, Ivan. This is real life. Vampires do not exist in real life, Ivan. You’re scaring me.”

  “Good, you should be scared,” Ivan said. He heard his mother moving around downstairs. “Just lock your windows. Don’t forget. I have to go. Bye,” Ivan said, and slammed the phone shut.

  “Ivan?” his mother called as she walked up the stairs. Ivan turned out the light and crawled into his bed.

  “Ivan, I heard voices,” his mother said as she opened his bedroom door. Ivan did not stir. “Oh, you must have been talking in your sleep,” she said sweetly and shut the door as she went back down the stairs.