Sissy the Vampire Hummingbird Slayer

Sissy the Vampire Hummingbird Slayer

  by

  HL Montgomery

  Copyright © 2009, Helen L. Montgomery

  This book is offered for free and as such, may be shared freely as long as writing credit and contact information are left intact. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidences are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead or existing in some weird half-life is entirely coincidental.

  a world with tiny emerald speed demons

  I was attacked by hummingbirds on my way home from work today. You know what they are. Tiny emerald speed demons. People used to hang out jars of red sugar water for them. They don’t any more. They’ve learned better.

  A lot of things have changed over the years but not the aggressive nature of hummingbirds. I’d just come out of the office when they swarmed over the top of the building and were all over me like stupid on a chicken. Tiny wings blurred and neck feathers flared bright as the thumb sized creatures buzzed me. A needle-like pain in my thigh was the first clue that I’d been struck. The second clue was the iridescent bastard I saw hanging there with his beak buried in my flesh to feed.

  Oh, did I forget to mention? Hummers don’t go for nectar these days. They’ve learned to prefer the taste of blood.

  With an angry shriek, I swung my purse at it. It darted away before I could connect but I took out a couple others on the fly as I took off running for my car. It was a fairly long run, too, because I’d been late for work that morning and had to park at the far end of the parking lot. Meanwhile I was taking a lot of hits from these guys. I swing a mean purse though, and by coupling a wild counter-attack with a chaotic advance, I managed to break free of most of them by the time I reached my car. Bleeding from a hundred tiny puncture wounds, I opened the door while trying to sling off a die-hard who’d clamped onto my finger with a grip like razor‑wire. When slinging didn’t work, I made a fist and smashed him into the back window before jumping inside to safety.

  One of the little pee-wees accidentally got inside with me. I began to smile, his buzzing antics amusing now that I had him alone, without backup. If he hadn’t already realized his mistake, he’d learn soon enough that the tables had turned.

  Outside, the tiny army regrouped. Hordes of angry hummers hovered about the car, glaring through the windshield at me.

  “Well, well. Looks like I’ve got your buddy.” I grinned at my audience. “Would you like to watch what I’m going do to him?”

  They beat wildly at the windows while he whirred frantically here and there trying to escape. I rummaged around and came up with an aerosol can of windshield de-icer and on his next pass, I let him have it. Several fly-bys later, I’d soaked not only the passenger seat but the bird’s lovely plumage, too. The alcohol in the de-icer cut through the protective oil on his feathers, clipping his wings rather effectively, I thought, and he fumbled a landing. Chortling wickedly, I picked the little bugger up by his head and dangled him in front of me.

  “Here, now, you don’t look so big and bad. I ought to pinch your head off.”

  The tiny bloodsucker twisted in my grip and emitted a squawk.

  “What?” I said, cupping a hand to my ear. “You don’t care for that plan? Okay, I’ve got another one.”

  I have a Tupperware container I keep in the floorboard of the car for storing auto insurance papers, winter survival gear, CD’s, stuff like that. I dumped the contents out and dropped him in, setting it on the seat where all his pals could watch. I pulled my lighter out of a pocket and struck the flint, brandishing the resultant flame at my diminutive, bedraggled prisoner. He chirped a birdie profanity at me and tried to drag himself away.

  “You little hot-shots think you’re so tough. You think you can jump anybody you please,” I said, flourishing the torch at the bird. He dripped ponderously away from each thrust. “Well, pay attention who you’re messing with next time. I can take that aerosol can and turn it into a flame-thrower, so—”

  The bird apparently decided he’d had enough of either my lighter or my bluster and tried to fly away, something I hadn’t anticipated. Bad mistake on both our parts. One wing-tip brushed the flame and poof—instant fireball. I jerked my hand back from the conflagration as the reek of burning feathers and sizzling meat filled the confines of my car. I grabbed an old towel and beat the fire out. Too late, both for the bird and my container. He’d fried to oblivion and nearly melted a hole in the plastic. The hummers outside went nuts.

  I cranked the car and turned the air conditioner on high to help clear out some of the stench, then shook my fist at the little devils outside.

  “Anyway, as you can see, I don’t appreciate being messed with. And don’t you ever forget it!”

  Apparently they had no intention of forgetting anything. They zipped around the car as I drove out of the parking lot and into slow moving traffic. They beat their wings against the windows. Their throats flashed like angry red beacons as they stared in at me, demented expressions etched on their cross-eyed little faces. It was embarrassing. They stayed with me for three stoplights until I got up enough speed to outdistance them. It was a pleasure to see them dwindling in the rearview mirror…those that hadn’t ended up plastered against the grill of the car behind me, that is.

  I reached my apartment complex without further incident and pulled up in front of the garage. The door opened when I pressed the button on the remote control clipped to the sun visor, until about halfway up when it suddenly reversed direction and started to close.

  I hit the button a second time. It rose several feet and then mindlessly about‑faced and trundled back down again.

  I snatched the remote from the visor and aimed it point-blank at the door. Mashing the button repeatedly, I argued with it electronically until it opened enough for me to roll in underneath. I shook my head, parked in my assigned stall and switched the car off. Seemed like life was getting stranger every day, like I was living in a Harlan Ellison story or something. I got out of the car and headed for the foyer, glumly noting that my Honda was speckled with hummingbird crap.

  I heard a low groan coming from the foyer ahead of me. As I rounded the corner, I saw Sal Osseo lying there on the floor in front of the door.

  I only barely know Sal. He seems to be a nice enough guy; I’ve just always been reclusive. At any rate, it was sort of a shock to see him lying there like that. His legs were crumpled like an accordion and his back looked twisted. He had raised up on one elbow and was trying to reach the doorknob.

  “Hey, Sal, whatcha doing, lying down there like that?”

  He sighed heavily. “Trying to get into the building. Guess you might help me with that?”

  “Sure, Sal. Having trouble reaching the door knob?”

  “You could say that, yeah. Just a little trouble.”

  I eased past, careful not to bump him, and opened the door, watching with horrified amusement as he crawled through. He panted and groaned the whole way.

  “Thanks, Sissy,” he said as he crawled over to the elevator.

  My name’s not Sissy, but I let it go. He lay there for a moment staring up at the elevator call button.

  “Going up, Sal?”

  “No, I’m going down.” He rolled his eyes. “Of course I’m going up. We’re in the garage, for godsakes. Nowhere to go from here but up.”

  “Well, gee, Sal, you don’t have to get testy.”

  I pushed the button and waited to see if the elevator would work today. Finally the silence grew uncomfortable and my curiosity got the better of me.

  “So, Sal,” I ventured. “What happened to yo
u?”

  “Thought you’d never ask.” Sal shifted his weight as if settling himself more comfortably and twisted around to glance at my ankles. “I tried to kill myself a few nights ago. Jumped off my balcony. Of course, it didn’t work. It just sort of twisted my back and crumpled my legs up. Been laying out there for the last three nights. Kept calling for help, but nobody ever heard me.”

  “Wow, that’s a shame. Why were you trying to kill yourself?”

  “I’ve tried a few times already. A couple of months ago, I tried poison. See?”

  Sal rolled over on his back and pulled up his grass-stained shirt. There, in the middle of his pasty-white belly was the most god-awful ruin I’ve ever seen. A half‑healed hole in his guts big enough to put my fist through, had I been so inclined. I turned away, squeezing my eyes shut.

  “Oh, jeez, Sal, cover that up. That’s gross! Don’t be showing it to people. What’s the matter with you?” I stabbed a finger into the call button a few more times. As if awakened from a deep slumber, the light behind it flickered dimly.

  I don’t know. This used to be a nice place. Now nothing works right anymore and people crawl around with their guts hanging out.

  With an unnerving thump, the elevator arrived. The door slid open with a raspy whine and Sal started to crawl through.

  “Hey, Sissy, hold that door, will you? I don’t move as fast as I used to.”

  I obliged, holding it open until he’d squirmed inside.

  “Oh, that’s good!” he sighed. “So nice to be on carpet for a change.”

  I got on behind him and said nothing, figuring Sal might not enjoy having carpet burns all over his elbows. The elevator door wheezed shut and with a lurch, it began to rise.

  The ride up to the third floor wasn’t as long as the wait but when the door opened, I discovered we hadn’t quite made it all the way to third. In fact, the elevator was about a foot shy of having gotten there. For me the step-up wasn’t that much of a problem. But for Sal—

  Old Sal was game, I’ll admit. He was trying to make it. I shook my head again and with one hand on the elevator door to hold it open, I reached down and caught hold of the back of his belt.

  “Here, lemme give you a hand.” I tugged at his lower body and half carried, half shoved him up onto the floor.

  “Ooh, ouch, hey, watch it—whew! Thanks Sissy, I appreciate the lift up.”

  “No problem. Hey, Sal, look at this,” I said, climbing out into the hallway. “Somebody left a grocery cart sitting here. Guess you can use it?”

  Sal’s face lit up like a kid a Christmas. The cart, supplied courtesy of the apartment complex for residents to use and then never return to the garage for the next person to use, was of the variety that had a big basket up top and a large child-storage area below. He clambered into the child storage area. I raised the basket so he didn’t have to scrunch over so far. He did a triple-take when he turned to thank me and saw me for the first time.

  “What happened to you?”

  I must have looked a mess. I expect a hundred tiny puncture wounds can to that to a person.

  “Don’t ask,” I said, wheeling him away down hall. “You live in apartment three-twenty, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, this is it right here. Hang on, let me see if I can find my door key.”

  He squirmed around in the bottom of the cart, searching his pockets and leaving me to wonder why someone committing suicide would bother take their door key with them. But he had, and grunting with effort, he reached up and unlatched his door.

  I made a three point road turn with the cart and backed in. I had a little trouble getting it over the door-frame with Sal’s weight on it. He tried to help until I rolled over his fingers. Finally, with much creative cursing on my part and reams of unnecessary direction from my passenger, I got him pulled inside. I wiped sweat from my forehead, performed another three point turn, and pushed the cart into Sal’s den.

  I came to a halt as soon as I saw the hummingbirds. They were everywhere.

  There must have been hundreds. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands! The furniture crawled with them. They perched on lampshades, curtain rods, picture frames, the lop-eared antennas sprouting from the back of an ancient television. At any given moment, at least fifty were buzzing slowly through the room, searching for a place to light.

  It looked like the town’s entire hummingbird population now populated Sal’s apartment. I heard Rod Serling’s voice whispering in the back of my mind.

  “Sal,” I said, “why’s your balcony door open?”

  Sal cleared his throat. “I must’ve left it that way when I went out to jump.”

  “You didn’t close it behind you?”

  “You’ll understand, I’m sure, that I didn’t expect to be coming back.”

  “You thought to take your door key,” I pointed out.

  “Okay! I’ll admit, maybe I wasn’t thinking too clearly at the time.”

  One of the hummers saw us. With a shriek, he launched himself directly at us. Immediately the air turned green with hummers following suit. I hunkered down and flung my arms over my head for protection. As I did, my elbow hit the basket on the cart and sent it crashing down. It landed with a clang and a loud “Ouch!” from Sal.

  I was wishing I had time to be sorry that had happened, but birds had covered me like a down comforter. One somebody had stuck needles all through. Screaming obscenities I’d learned from a sailor boyfriend a few years back, I shook off as many hummers as I could and began swinging my purse again. Birds went flying in directions they had not intended. So did Sal’s face when I accidentally whacked him.

  I don’t understand how a man bent on committing suicide could be so vocal about getting smacked in the chops with a purse. Speaking of which, I was finding to be about as helpful against this barrage of birdies as a fly-swatter would be against a mad swarm of killer bees. While Sal bellowed about being hit in the face, I swam through an emerald cloud of hummingbirds to a bank of light switches, flipping each one until I found one that spun up the ceiling fan. It whirred gently to life, catching a few, but not enough to make a difference. Obviously, whoever had designed the ceiling fan hadn’t designed a very efficient weapon. I needed something more.

  That’s when I noticed a strange thing. Sal was sitting helplessly in the bottom of his cart, clutching his head in his hands and wailing something that sounded like “Chernobyl!” But never mind that. The strange thing was that the birds weren’t attacking him. Not a single one of them. His caterwauling must have been fending them off. I wondered if wailing “Chernobyl!” at the top of my lungs would help me. I could feel my iron level dropping under the assault. Instead, I dashed through the room and hit the “on” button on his stereo receiver and cranked up the volume, hoping the noise might drive the hummers back out the open balcony door.

  I should have guessed Sal’s stereo would be tuned to National Public Radio.

  A subdued conversation between an NPR moderator and a member of the local Audubon Society emanated from the woefully under-used Polk speakers as I ran into the kitchen. In the den, Sal whimpered “Exxon Valdese!” while I dashed past the gas cook-stove flipping on burners. Hummers swarmed after me as I skidded into fighting position between the stove and the sink. Those that I relocated with my purse never recovered from the blast of heat and flames I sent them careening through with my deadly backhand.

  This was more like it! I sent scads of the little devils tumbling straight to hell. It would have been quite fun to watch the tiny flaming explosions under other circumstances. But at this rate, I’d be drained of blood before I got them all. Besides, they were catching on to this tactic and countered by flanking me. What I needed was a diversion. I created a small one when a swing of my purse knocked a blender off the counter top. It struck the floor about the same time a faint hope struck me.

  “Weapons testing in the sixties!” Sal cried.

  “Hey Sal!” I shouted over NPR while maintaining a steadfast d
efense. “What’ve you got in the refrigerator?”

  Through a shifting peacock-colored cloud, I saw him angle his head curiously at me.

  “Surely you’re not going to eat at a time like this?”

  “Dammit, Sal! I’m being sucked dry in here!”

  He thought for a minute.

  “Well, my last dinner was supposed to be liver and onions. Then, somehow, I just couldn’t stomach the idea.”

  That made sense to me. I imagined the headlines on the front of the Weekly World Sun: Man With Gaping Stomach Wound Attempts Suicide Rather Than Eat Meal Of Liver And Onions.

  As Sal recommenced his howling: “—mercury in our streams! Three-legged frogs!—” I snatched the blender off the floor and plugged it into an outlet by the stove. Sweat mingled with rivulets of blood as I pawed through items in the fridge and came up with the package of liver. Working as fast as I could while swatting hummers away, I filled the blender with water, hacked off a chunk of liver, tossed it in, and turned it on. Presto! Blood soup! The blender splattered the walls with what I hoped would provide a tasty change from human blood.

  “Come and get it, you little bloodsuckers!” I shouted.

  It worked better than I’d expected, creating a sufficient diversion. The stink of raw blood drove the hummers into a feeding frenzy. They fought each other for position. Thousands were drawn to the feast, giving me time to ransack the contents of the cabinet under Sal’s sink. While Sal lamented “migrating ozone holes!” and the blender began to suck up hummers, I came up with treasure.

  I can imagine Sal, a man who eats liver and onion while listening to NPR, as being a very organized type of person. The type person who, at winter’s end, brings in the car’s winter survival kit for summer storage. And he was. For there, under the sink, was a three gallon container with candles, matches, flares, etc., all those things you might need if stranded in a sudden blizzard. And sitting in the cabinet beside it…a large aerosol can of windshield de-icer.

  In the den, Sal wailed, “Vampire hummingbirds!”

  Yep. That’s what they are. Vampire hummingbirds. And maybe the environmental disaster that re-wired their tiny bodies to thrive on blood had also rewired the way their tiny minds worked. Maybe they’re telepathic, too. How else to explain an unprecedented attack such as this? Especially considering what I’d done to one of their own not an hour before.

  Ignoring a new hypodermic jab, I popped the plastic cap off the can of de-icer. I pulled my lighter from my pocket. Careful to aim the spray nozzle away from me, I flicked the lighter open and struck the flint. You can always count on a Zippo. I held the flame to the front of the nozzle, and depressed it.

  Whoosh! Instant flame-thrower. It was spectacular! The three foot tongue of flame blasted a picture from the wall. The recoil flung my grip on the can up and over my shoulder like the recoil from a 9mm pistol. Startled, I dropped the lighter. The flame went out. Birds withdrew questioningly, hanging uncertainly in the air.

  I grinned at ’em.

  With a Rambo-like scream of defiance, I re-lit the flame-thrower and began sweeping the kitchen. It scorched the front of the refrigerator. Blasted refrigerator magnets. Seared the counters. Sautéed the chopped liver. Toasted cookbooks. Detonated a roll of paper towels hanging from a holder on the wall. Burning ash mingled with scorched feathers, drifting to the floor amidst dozens of fried hummers.

  The survivors fled the holocaust back into the den, screaming tiny birdie screams of terror. I ran screaming after them. Sal screamed when he saw me.

  I raked the retreating hummers with the flame-thrower. They plummeted to the floor in flames. Carpet smoldered where they crashed. Burning birdie bodies crunched underfoot as I rousted the invaders. There was no escape from my flame-throwing prowess except through the open balcony door. Panicked by my powerful advance, the hummers seemed to have forgotten it. What a shame. They dropped by the score for that mistake. I wreaked havoc on them, swept hell through their ranks. Curtains burst into flame at the touch of the flame‑thrower.

  “Oh!” Sal cried. “Oh, my curtains! You’ve caught my curtains on fire!”

  A lampshade went up in a fiery inferno as hummers died.

  “Oh, no! My new lamp!”

  The sofa smoked from the heat of my revenge as I decimated the enemy. Throw pillows went up in raging glory, taking out more of the foe. The soft cloth covers on the Polk speakers flared brilliantly. Decorative candles turned to slag. Burnt hummers fell like black hailstones.

  “My apartment! My things!”

  I stumbled over something behind me. It was Sal, crawling as fast as he could across the floor. He was holding a fire extinguisher in one hand. He pulled the pin and began tracing my trail of destruction with destruction of his own. Many more hummers fell as I trapped them between death by fire and Sal’s stream of CO2.

  Suddenly, without warning, my flame-thrower petered out. The Zippo burned my fingertips. Sucking my breath between my teeth, I dropped the lighter and tried to fling off the sting as I investigated the can of de-icer. Was it clogged? I turned the can upside down and pressed the nozzle. Air shot from it. I turned the can rightside up and pressed the nozzle. Air shot from it. I shook the can. It was empty.

  “Thank God!” Sal cried.

  The buzzing of hummers took on an ominous undertone of interest. I smiled weakly at the several hundred birds still left alive.

  “So, you guys ready to talk surrender?” I asked. The humming grew vengeful as I rapidly rethought my options. “Truce, maybe?”

  Guess not. Understanding that I was now weaponless, my antagonists regrouped and swooped after me. I turned and ran squealing into the bedroom area of Sal’s apartment.

  “Oh, no! Don’t go in there!” Sal despaired. “It’s the only room you haven’t destroyed!”

  I had hoped to find sanctuary in the bathroom. But before I could shut the door and lock them out, they soared in like tiny fighter jets and started dropping little bombs on me. I jumped up and down swinging my fists at them. They stayed effectively out of reach. I raged uselessly as hummingbird crap rained down on me, then I spun to a crouch and jerked open the cabinet door under the sink.

  Aha! I grabbed a bottle of cleaning ammonia. Instantly half the hummers broke formation, forsaking the aerial assault to form an opposition to force me away from the cabinet. I managed to snag a jug of Clorox before the sword-beaks won. I charged out of the bathroom, back through the den where Sal lay sobbing softly and into the kitchen again with kamikazes hot on my tail.

  They thought they had me on the run.

  I grabbed a bowl of fruit from the counter, dumped the fruit, and dashed into the den with the remaining hummers in hot pursuit. I dropped to my knees in the center of the room, fumbled the cap off the ammonia and poured a fair amount into the bowl. While hummers dive-bombed me from above and applied sophisticated knowledge of bayonet usage from below, I wrenched the cap off the jug of Clorox.

  Dammit! It had never been opened. It was sealed tight with one of those seals it takes a pocketknife to break. Screaming like a karate master, I stabbed it with an acrylic thumbnail, ripped the seal away, and splashed Clorox into the bowl with the ammonia.

  The resultant fumes hit me immediately. My nose started running. So did my eyes. I coughed and gagged and fumbled to my feet, backing way from the bowl.

  “My eyes!” Sal wailed. “They’re burning! They’re burning!”

  With their maniacally fast metabolisms, the gas was hitting the hummers hard. The ceiling fan helped dispense the noxious gas through the room. I knew Sal and I didn’t have much time. I stumbled into the bathroom, grabbed a couple of washcloths, and soaked them with tap water. I held one over my mouth and nose. It helped me to breathe easier and so I hurried the other one out to Sal.

  “Argh! No! Keep away!” he screamed, flinging his hands across his face when I tried to help him.

  “It’s a wet washcloth, Sal! You need to breath through this!”

&n
bsp; I practically had to stuff it up his nose before I got him to hold it in place. Covering my nose and mouth with my washcloth, I hooked my arm under his arms and across his chest, and dragged him out to the balcony and fresh air. I dropped him with a thud and closed the balcony door. Covered in sweat, blood, and hummingbird crap, panting with exhaustion, coughing sporadically as my lungs tried to clear themselves, I peered in through the glass as the last of the hummingbirds descended slowly into death.

  “Wow, Sal, that was really something,” I said between ragged breaths.

  Puzzled by his lack of response, I turned to check on him. He had curled into a fetal position, rocking gently and sucking his thumb. He was making weird mewling noises. I figured he was upset because I hadn’t given him his chance to really commit suicide.

  I seem to have gained some notoriety from this event. It took a couple hours for my lawyer to get me out of jail for what Sal claimed was vandalism, destruction of personal property, assault with intent to inflict bodily harm, assault with intent to kill, and I don’t know what all kinds of charges. Upon finally being released, I found the press hanging around outside the courthouse waiting for me. Everyone wants an interview! The local newspapers, the TV stations, the radio stations. The interview with Trent West from Z-Rock 109 might be fun; he’s kind of cute. I might even become famous!

  I finally managed to break free of the microphones and cameras and reporters-in-my-face and go home, where I called my friends and told them all about it. They’re calling me “Sissy the Vampire Hummingbird Slayer.”

  You know, I sort of like that. Do you think it will stick?