Be Back Later, Mother

Be Back Later, Mother

by Shane Benavides

Brian stood on the steps leading up to his house, looking at the multiple windows that stared outward, waiting to greet whoever happened to come up the drive. Not that anyone other than the servants ever showed up. He looked at the surrounding landscape that decorated the front, knowing his Mother had paid an exorbitant amount of money to make her yard look better than any other on the block. She wanted people to know she was rich.

He glanced back at the doorway but quickly turned away. His mind flashed back to his Father, lying in a bed in a room at the back of the house. He remembered how his Mother had treated him like a burden. He was the reason they were so wealthy and, now that he couldn't earn her any more money, she avoided him as much as possible. She had nurses on staff to tend to him 24 hours a day and only showed interest in him when it was absolutely needed. She had considered him dead before they officially found out his cancer was terminal.

Brian thought about this and a small smile formed at the edges of his mouth.

Another flashback took him to the last time he had a friend over. His Mother had gotten violent and smacked around his friend Eli and him for being too loud. It was only 6pm but she had told them to shut up and go to bed. Eli's parents had found out and tried to press charges but all his Mother had to do was throw some money at them and they stopped. That was her solution to everything, just throw some money at it and it'll all work out. He thought about how Eli and his other friends stopped coming around. None of them wanted to be around him while he was at home and his Mother always wanted him home.

He thought about how alone he had felt and it made the smile grow a little wider.

He thought about his first and only girlfriend, Tina. He had stayed late after class several times to hang out with her, knowing how much it angered his Mother. He couldn't chance taking her home but didn't want to just leave her right after school got out. All it took was one too many times and she showed up at his school, tracked them down to the nearby park, and another scene had ensued. She had even grabbed Tina by the hair and threw her to the ground. His Mother had seen them kissing, and it had pushed her even further over the edge. Teenager or not, she would not allow him to be involved in any kind of relationship. That incident had cost him Tina and left him an even bigger outcast, a complete loner. Nobody wanted to hang out with the kid whose Mother could pop out of nowhere and attack them at any moment. He became nothing but a joke.

Thinking of how his Mother's actions had made him such a loser almost made him giggle.

He pulled out his wallet and quickly counted how much money there was. He was about ten short of $300. He glanced back at the house, at the front door, at the note taped there. He then looked around, nobody ever noticed him so he was sure nobody had seen him arrive home.

He snuck around the back and left his neighborhood, heading for downtown. He was going to have fun tonight while he could and wouldn't worry about the note or what it said. Let one of the maids or other servants find it.

Someone else could be the one to find out that whoever wrote it had abducted his Mother. That they knew about all of her bank accounts and how much she was really worth. They could read through the usual stuff you'd think to find in a ransom note. They wanted money, didn't want to involve the police, and - assuming it all went well - they'd return his Mother safely and unharmed.

He thought about what it said but all he got from it was that tonight he was free. This made him genuinely happy, something he hadn't been in a really long time.

Maybe he'll worry about it tomorrow but, for tonight, he had no responsibility. He'd go by the little grocery store where Tina worked and, if she would give him another chance, he would finally take her out on a proper date.

He looked back towards the house and couldn't resist a small wave and then whispered, "Be back later, Mother...you might not be, though." Then he happily walked away, a bounce in his step that had been absent since before his father had passed away.

Waiting for Sunset.

Waiting for Sunset

by Shane Benavides

Evan sticks his hand out the entrance to the cave and watches as his skin starts to burn almost instantly. He pulls it back inside and examines it, rubbing his fingers together and watching the ash fall away, knowing that the skin below the burns has already healed. He should take this time to think and starts pacing back and forth in the shadows, just out of reach of the setting sun.

He's impatient to begin his hunt, though, and grits his teeth as he remembers the scene that he woke up to. Knowing that his safe haven, his home, had been invaded and that someone had... he doesn't let himself think about it, he needs his head clear. A mistake he's unaware of was probably the cause of the situation he's now in, losing his temper wouldn't help matters.

A slight breeze stirs up the scent of the human that was here and he growls in anger. For a second it threatens to overwhelm him, knowing that he can't do anything until the Sun has set behind the mountains in the distance. He walks back down the stairs and into the crypt hidden below. Two coffins are all that occupy the small, dark room.

He walks to the one on the right side, once again taking in the burns that cover the inside of the coffin and the charred stake resting on the bottom. His anger surges beyond his control and, even though it's only in control for a brief second, it's enough time for him to toss the coffin into the wall, smashing it into a pile of splinters, burnt cloth, and ashes.

The sight of the coffin in ruins stops him and he bends down, picking up a handful of the scattered ashes, and is overcome with grief.

"Stephanie..." Her name escapes his lips, a mere whisper in the darkening crypt but all that he can bring himself to say. Stephanie -his wife, partner, and only friend- is gone. Lost forever. He has no idea who was responsible but he would find them and make them pay.

Another breeze shifts the air around and, again, he catches the faint scent of the human. His mind registers that it's not the fading scent of a human long gone but of a human that is no longer human. Before he can fully process what this means, a sharp pain shoots through his body. He feels the stake entering from behind but doesn't have time to react as it slides home, piercing his heart. His last thought is that he finally gets to rest and doesn't have to endure decades, or even centuries, without his beloved Stephanie.

---------------

Jackson watches as the male vampire burns from his punctured heart outward, his limbs and body becoming nothing more than crumbling ashes. He then sits back against the wall, breathing deeply and wondering why the female couldn't have been as easy.

Standing, he climbs back up the stairs, amazed at how silently he can now move. He rubs the bite marks that the female vampire had given him, pissed at himself for allowing her to bite him and infect him with the virus that he's spent his entire life trying to get rid of.

He sticks his hand out the entrance to the cave and watches as his skin starts to burn almost instantly. He pulls it back inside and examines it, rubbing his fingers together and watching the ash fall away. He's amazed to see that the skin below the burns has already healed. He needs time to think and starts pacing back and forth in the shadows, just out of reach of the setting sun.

Awaiting the Day

(Really short vampire story)

Cortes gazed out over the nearby rooftops. It was still a while before sunrise and he had made his decision. He just wished the day would begin soon so his life could end; just a second was still too much time alone with his own thoughts. He tried to think of other things, things besides Lujuana and Kiyo. He thought of the view from the rooftops in Casares, where he had grown up. This miserable little city could not even compare but he had long ago decided that he could never go back. So much had changed since then, both good and bad; although a lot more bad than good. He decided not to linger on either too much because it always led towards the bad and today was special, today it would all end. Throughout the night he had come to a decision and that decision made him the happiest he’d ever been in…well, it had been too long. It would all start by climbing up to the roof and watching the sun rise. He felt the warmth slowly creeping through the city as dawn approached, the chill air of the night losing its crispness. He felt a pang of fear, merely instinct he told himself, and continued to watch the brightening sky to the East. As the sun finally burst over the horizon he felt pain as the first few layers of his skin turned instantly to ash and slowly started to blow away in a soft breeze. Whatever it was that made the sun destroy his kind started to work on the next few layers, burning deeper (he doubted it was simply the UV rays. He’d been under UV bulbs several times and hadn’t felt any discomfort whatsoever). The pain was excruciating but he relished it. The end was so near.

Time seemed to slow and his mind flickered through his life, all 95 years, despite his earlier decision to try and repress all thoughts. It had been troubled, that much he was sure of. He had slaughtered Lujuana, the woman he loved, when he had first been changed. Untrained and let loose by a master he would never meet. He went ravaging through Spain during the civil war and ended up in the Philippines during World War II always hiding, always hungry, and constantly alone. That was until he had met Kiyo while hiding in the United States. She had taught him how to control his hunger but he was left devastated by the memories of what he had done earlier never completely forgiving himself. Through Kiyo, he found out how few of his kind there were left (thinking, for a long time, that they were the only two). He found out how they had been hunted down and slaughtered throughout the ages because of mistakes like the ones he had made, letting his hunger take control. She had helped him move on despite being unable to forget. His memories that never faded with the passing of time. Now she was gone. He was alone again and it was his fault, now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

He felt the pain slice deeper, starting to tear into vital parts, and was back in the here and now. He wanted so badly to close his eyes and lay back to enjoy his death but the view was so beautiful. He didn’t want to miss the first sunrise he’d seen since 1936. The sun crept slowly but surely upwards, taking his life along the way. To where, he did not know, did not care. As larger pieces of his flesh began to break off and vanish in the breeze, he lost consciousness. Within a few seconds the pillar of ash that had once been a happy and loving husband turned desolate and lonely monster blew away in the increasing breeze. Nobody below in the city would ever know that he even existed. Francisco Cortes along with his anguish and all his woes was no more.