Death Without Parole #1, Page 2

  Chapter 2

  THEN

  The first thing Patrick noticed was wetness. A warm, sticky wetness. He'd been sound asleep, but a couple things had woken him up, the wetness being one. Mandy and Patrick were sandwiched around their son Mikey, all three of them crammed into their full size bed. Patrick had been trying to convince Mandy to get a queen size for years, but she refused, stating that their room was too small for a queen sized bed. That wasn't true. Patrick had done the measurements himself and they could fit a king sized bed in their room if they wanted. Of course, they would have no room for anything but the bed. Nightstands and dressers were a sacrifice Patrick was willing to make. But, unfortunately, Mandy wasn't willing to make the same sacrifice.

  Uncomfortable as they were, Patrick secretly enjoyed having Mikey in the bed. It kept his growing boy young. Mikey was getting too old, too fast. He was losing interest in hugging his "old man", so Patrick didn't mind when Mikey snuggled up to him out of fear at night. Patrick's only son had always had trouble with nightmares and being afraid to be alone in his room after dark. It definitely wasn't uncommon for the little guy to sneak into their bed. Patrick always woke up when the kid covertly climbed in, but he never let Mikey know that. Or Mandy for that matter. At first he thought the wetness was urine, that maybe his son had wet the bed or something. But then Patrick noticed something else, the second thing that had woken him up, a noise.

  It was a suckling kind of sound, and it was coming from within a foot or two of Patrick. Creepy didn't begin to crack the nut of explaining the noise. Patrick had said his wife's name, but got no response. Then he'd tried to shake Mikey to stir him, hoping to wake only him, knowing that once Mandy knew the boy was in bed with them she would want him back in his own bed. Patrick began to get worried when Mikey shook far too easily, far too limply. Propping himself up on his left arm, Patrick reached back and flicked on the light. Then everything in his world went straight to hell.

  Right away Patrick saw blood, lots and lots of blood. It didn't take long to realize it was Mikey's, and that the suckling was coming from Mandy. His wife had a hand, with nails much longer than normal, covering their son's face, tilting his head up and away, her mouth buried in his neck. She wasn't suckling his blood, she was drinking it. Patrick stared in horror, his mind and body frozen in shock. Mandy's eyes popped open and Patrick gasped when he saw his wife staring back at him with coal-black eyes. She let out a hiss, exposing a mouth that was crammed full of sharp, jagged teeth. Then she lifted herself up and quickly lunged at Patrick. The force of her body colliding with him drove him backwards and off the bed onto his back on the floor. Landing on top of him, Mandy threw her head back, letting out a screech before burying her face in Patrick's neck.

  At first it hurt as the uneven, protruding fangs cut and flayed their way through the skin and muscle of his neck. But once that part was over, and Mandy began slurping the blood from Patrick's neck, he felt himself begin to calm. The pain stopped, or at least he felt numb to it. He could feel Mandy's tongue hungrily twirling around inside his neck, lapping up his blood as it ran out of his jugular like a faucet. Feeling weaker, he knew it would be done soon.

  He didn't know how, but obviously Mandy had become some kind of monster?a vampire it seemed. When Mikey had crawled into their bed, she had done to him what she was doing to Patrick. That thought broke his heart, but at least he would see his son soon. As he closed his eyes and waited for the world to go black, Patrick heard a small voice come from the doorway.

  "Momma, Daddy?" It was Isabella, Patrick's daughter. Fear filled him again as he looked past the monster that used to be his wife at the small form of Isabella in the doorway. With all the shock and intensity of the past few minutes, he'd forgotten about his little girl.

  "What are you guys doing on the ground? What is wrong with-" As she noticed Mikey in bed, lying in a pool of his own blood, she let out a scream. The scream finally brought Mandy out of her bloodlust as the vampire snapped its head and attention away from Patrick's neck to the little frightened girl. No, Patrick thought, not again. Mandy quickly got to her feet and jumped onto the bed then flung herself at Patrick's only still-breathing child.

  Energized by the immediacy of the situation, Patrick forced himself to his feet and used the adrenaline jolting through his body to run and dive at his possessed wife. Wrapping his arms around Mandy's waist, Patrick drove his full weight into her, tackling her to the ground just as she was about to reach his little girl. As the vampire struggled underneath him with unbelievable strength, Patrick knew he only had seconds before she was free again. Looking at Isabella, he ignored the heart-wrenching agony he felt when he saw the despair and terror all over her face.

  "Isabella, go. Go now. Run to the neighbor's house and tell Mr. and Mrs. Jackson that your mom has gone crazy. Tell them she killed Mikey, and that she is probably going to kill me. Tell them to call 911. Go now. Hurry! I love you baby, now please, go!" She shook her head, tears pouring down her face as she began sobbing.

  "Daddy, no?I don't want to go without you! Daddy!" Mandy let loose a blood chilling shriek as she swiped at Patrick with her left hand. The nails sliced through his face, opening up more wounds for blood to spill from. That got Isabella moving as she gasped and took off running. Hearing the front door fling open and slam the against the wall next to it, Patrick relaxed a bit knowing she was out of the house and would soon be in the safety of their neighbors' home. Reaching out, he grabbed hold of the bedroom door and swung it shut. Then he let go of Mandy and stood up, putting himself between her and the door. Quickly scampering to her feet, the vampire cocked its head at Patrick as he spoke.

  "Alright, it's just you and me now. You are not going after Isabella, do you hear me. You will have to go through me if you want to." Swaying back and forth, Mandy continued to stare at Patrick. A glimmer of hope sprung up inside of him. Maybe his wife was still somewhere inside of the monster in front of him.

  "Honey, what you did to Mikey, it, it wasn't your fault. I can help you?let me help you. Like I said, the only way to get Isabella is through the door behind me. And to get there, you will have to go through me. But you don't have to?honey, are you in there?" No sooner did Patrick ask the question than his wife gave him an answer. Hissing, she lunged at him, spearing Patrick and driving him backwards and through the door. As splinters and shards of wood exploded everywhere, Patrick once again landed on his back. This time, he didn't let Mandy land on top of him.

  Raising his knees, he used Mandy's momentum to fling her up and over top of him, into the hallway wall. Letting instinct take over, he grabbed a large wood shard and did what his mind told him to do. Every vampire movie Patrick had ever seen had told him the same thing. If you wanted to kill a vampire, you had to stab the bastard in the heart with a wooden stake. The broken piece of the door would have to do.

  Turning back to face Mandy, he barely had time to raise the shard before she was on top of him. The pointy, jagged end of the wood ripped through Patrick's wife's chest, burying itself in her heart. As the vampire grabbed the protruding shard with both hands, Patrick watched through tears as the love of his life fell backwards against the wall, and then slid to the ground. Slumping to the side, Mandy relaxed and became still. Patrick gasped when the vampire features faded from his wife, her true eyes now gazing blankly and glossily back at him, blood leaking from her now human mouth. Falling to his knees, he began to break down. Crawling towards his dead wife, he sat next to her and took her limp form in his arms, cradling her. The he sobbed like a child.