RORY

“Jack and I continued our journey after the insanity that was Part. Where we were going or why, I did not know, but I was afraid to ask. Jack was not a normal person, and I knew that despite my young age. He scared me in a way that is difficult to explain, but he really was the only thing that kept me alive at that time.

“We traveled north toward the town of Rory, and on the way there, we met James. James was funny and a little cocky, and I liked him, but Jack merely tolerated him. I remember James because he was nice to me and because I think he irritated Jack.

“James stuck with us for obvious reasons…We were pursued that whole time by a cabal of vampires. They couldn’t best Jack, and I think they were afraid of him, so they followed and waited. They tried to get at James and I several times, and they never stopped their hounding…until we reached Rory.

“They wouldn’t enter Rory, and I know now that their hesitation was a bad sign. Rory itself was a ghost town of abandoned buildings with charred ones roaming around like mindless roaches, and though those walking corpses were bad in themselves, they were not the reason the cabal would not pursue us into Rory. No, that was because of Le Maison de L’araignée Rouge and the woman who ran it.”

---

Maria was dragged to the side as James grabbed her and pulled. He shielded her with his body as the bad man came down to try and snatch her away. The bad man was overconfident, though, and he was swatted out of the air like a bug as a sharp and flaming piece of broken plank impaled him through the chest. He screamed as he burned up like so much tinder, and he was a cloud of drifting ash before he even hit the ground. The embers of his remains scattered over them, and James brushed the hot specks out of his short and curly black hair.

Jack picked up another burning piece of broken board and waited before them. They heard the cat calls and insults rain down from above, but the bad people could not budge Jack’s firm resolve at never being baited.

One of the bad men landed in the distance, careful not to come too near the roaring bonfire Jack had built before the sun had gone down. Two others landed next to the bad man, a young Asian woman and a white woman who was slightly-older than the Asian woman, and they stood with arms crossed and red eyes, those glowing eyes on nothing else but their intended prey.

The young Asian woman had on a faded jean jacket complimented by a low red top and jean shorts, and her white shoes looked clean and well-kept compared to the state of Maria’s own footwear. This woman had short wavy black hair that would have made her look pretty if it weren’t for her blood red eyes and her sharp teeth.

The white woman next to her was dressed in black jeans and a blue tank top, and her curly brown hair was tied back in a short pony-tail, and she stood out because of the well-toned muscles on her arms. She, too, had good shoes, blue cloth with spotless white strings, and Maria wondered how these bad people kept their clothes looking so nice.

Their leader, however, was a tall, bald, black man dressed in a military coat of some sort; Maria couldn’t really tell if it was green or grey in the flickering of the bon light. This man was the scariest of them; he wore black cargo pants held up by a big leather belt with a metal skull for a buckle, and his big black jackboots had rounded metal tips on the toes. He was scary to begin with, but his eyes and fangs made him look even scarier. Maria cringed at the sound of his deep voice, and she huddled behind James, who took up a defensive stance behind Jack.

“Come on out, little ones!” shouted the scary black man. “You there, young sir! Help a brother out, huh? You can hang with us from now on…and not with that…freak.”

James shook his head no and smiled. James had dark skin like the leader of the bad people, but James was not bad. He was nineteen and on his way to Pinkton where his family was supposed to be. He always shared his food with Maria, and if he found candy, he gave it to her. Maria liked him, even if Jack really didn’t.

“Can’t do that!” yelled James in firm resolve. “I prefer living!”

“You can’t run forever!” yelled the Asian woman.

Jack took a step forward, and the two bad women took a step back, but their scary leader did not budge an inch.

“Neither can you,” replied Jack in his rough voice. “You’re wasting your time here. Keep moving.”

“Or what!” demanded the older white woman.

Jack responded by flinging the burning plank of wood in his hand. The fiery missile soared straight and true, but the bad people scattered before it hit them. They disappeared up into the night sky with nothing but the sound of laughter floating down to mark their presence.

They waited a few tense minutes before Jack finally turned and sat down before the fire. That was the signal that they were safe for the time being, and Maria breathed out a sigh of relief over this much needed development.

It had been like this for the last three nights. These bad people would not leave them alone, and Maria had been tired of their pointless attacks after the first time it had happened. James called them “vamps,” but that word meant nothing to Maria. All she knew was that these “vamps” were bad, and that they had taken Paige, and that Paige was probably dead now. She had not particularly liked Paige…In reality, she had been scared of the bald teen girl, but that did not mean she had wanted Paige to die. That was not something she had wanted at all.

Maria fixed her attention upon James, but the happy-go-lucky young man just grinned and shook his head.

“They’re persistent,” grinned James. “I’ll give ’em that.”

James had survived on his own for a long time before Maria had met him. He was dark-skinned with short curly black hair and a wide grin, and he had an interminable happy disposition that Maria liked. Jack did not like him, but Jack didn’t like anyone except Maria, and she was unsure if he even really liked her all that much. Nevertheless, without Jack, Maria would have died, so she was grateful for the tall and slender man in black for protecting her. Why Jack kept James around was a mystery even to her, but James was still useful in his own way, so there was that.

James was a professional scavenger, and Maria wanted to learn everything he knew about surviving out here in the wasteland. His clothes consisted of a forest-green shirt with various patches in places where it had torn, faded blue jeans that had seen better days, and of course, a rugged pair of nice brown hiking boots that he had picked up from somewhere unknown.

James had told Maria several times that her clothes were old and tattered and that she needed new ones. Maria’s old print dress was faded and torn to where its original color was hard to discern, and her shoes were mere tatters of leather held together by pure imagination if anything else. James had told her they would keep an eye out for good shoes and clothes, as that was something Maria sorely wanted and needed.

Maria’s mind, however, was on the quick dialogue before her. She followed the conversation as best she could, but she was only six, and there were a lot of things she didn’t really understand yet.

“They’re vermin,” grunted Jack. “I’d hunt them down, but that would leave Maria unprotected.”

“Thanks for the concern over my well-being, Jack,” smiled James.

“I don’t care about you,” said Jack bluntly.

“I know,” laughed James. “Good Lord, but you’re a piece of wood! You should lighten up, man! Take that stick out and breathe a little.”

“You’re a fool,” replied Jack.

James shrugged and sat back on his hands. Maria sat on his lap and looked up at his smiling face, but the young man’s attention was still firmly on Jack.

“I may be a fool, Jack, but I’m a happy one,” said James calmly. “You need a little spring in your step…just saying.”

Jack said nothing and merely sat. Maria knew he was on guard; she knew when he was concentrating on watching out for any of the bad men and women. Even so, her own attention was on James. She tugged on his dark-green patchwork shirt, and he looked down at her with his broad smile.

“Yes, ma’am?” he asked. “What may I do for you this evening?”

“Can you tell me another story, James?” she asked.

She really liked his stories. She knew he would give in to her persistence; her small, white, cherub face was smudged with dirt, but it was framed by the matted black curls upon her head, and this combination, along with her wide, dark-blue eyes, made her hard to resist…and she knew this. She knew she could get him to give in; she’d done it before.

James looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding his head.

“Let’s see,” he said slowly. “Ummm…You’ve heard the one about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves…What about Rapunzel?”

Maria had heard that one before, and she wanted something new. She wanted to hear as many stories as possible before there were no more stories left to tell. She was afraid James would leave them…Their path was dangerous, and Jack was dangerous, and grownups knew Jack was dangerous; it was obvious to anyone with eyes. Nevertheless, she wanted James to stay with them as long as possible, and she wanted new stories in the meantime.

“You told me that one already,” she said firmly.

“Well, doggonnit,” said James in mock unhappiness. “Most kids like to hear the same story over and over again…but not you, huh?”

Maria shook her head no. She really wanted something new, and she wouldn’t settle for less.

“How about…” said James thoughtfully. “How about the Princess and the Pea?”

“A princess had to pee?” asked Maria.

James guffawed at her cluelessness, and it took him a moment to settle down. Maria didn’t know what was so funny, but she looked up at him with pleading eyes, and he snorted out a short laugh before shaking his head no.

“A pea…P…E…A…” he said slowly. “A pea is a type of vegetable. You eat it. It’s not the same as going pee…That’s P…E…E.”

“Oh,” said Maria thoughtfully. “Okay. I haven’t heard that one.”

“Does she die at the end?” asked Jack.

“What?” asked James. “No!…Jesus…What the hell, Jack?”

The tall man in black said nothing and simply stared into the fire. Maria knew he didn’t like James, but he didn’t ask for James to leave, so he obviously liked him a little, right? Even so, Jack’s taste in stories wasn’t slim…It was non-existent. He didn’t care about such things, nor did he pretend to. No, Jack was honest in everything he did, even if what he did wasn’t very nice.

Maria yawned now that her adrenaline and fear had died down somewhat. She was used to these sudden and vicious attacks by the bad people, but James said that wasn’t a good thing. He had told her she should be scared because of how bad these people really were.

“You look tired, Princess,” said James thoughtfully. “Maybe you should just get some sleep. Jack and I will make sure the fire doesn’t die down.”

“It won’t,” said Jack firmly.

“Oh?” asked James curiously. “Do you have more wood?”

“No,” said Jack firmly.

“You’re going to get more?” asked James. “I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“No,” said Jack gruffly. “Stop talking. You’re annoying me.”

“Whatever,” scoffed James. “You’re just waiting for me to fall asleep so you can leave without me.”

“No,” replied Jack.

“Really?” snorted James. “And why’s that?”

“You’re useful,” said Jack.

“Can’t argue with you there,” smiled James. “Of course, I don’t know you that well, but you sure can hold off those vamps, so that’s something new. Never seen ’em scared of anyone before.”

“They’re vermin,” said Jack. “Disposing of them is no more difficult than stepping on a roach.”

“Uh, huh…” said James cautiously. “Most people would disagree with you.”

“Most people are food,” said Jack roughly. “Now shut up.”

“If you say so, Jack,” shrugged James. “I don’t see why Maria travels with you and doesn’t just stay with more pleasant folks. You’re not exactly the toast of the town.”

“Because she is needed,” said Jack.

James screwed up his lips and peered down at Maria as if wondering over something. She wasn’t sure what was going on in his head, but she wanted to know. She liked James.

“What do you think, Maria?” he asked.

“I like Jack,” said Maria firmly.

That was true, but that didn’t excuse the fear she had of him. Jack was terrifying in his own way, and Maria was glad he was firmly set on protecting her rather than…other things.

“You shouldn’t,” said Jack in blunt reply.

Maria had already known he would say that, but James raised his eyebrows at the odd statement.

“Hmmm,” he said thoughtfully. “And why’s that, Jack?”

“It doesn’t matter,” replied Jack. “Go to sleep, Maria. Humans need sleep.”

“Yeah, they do,” said James cautiously. “That statement’s a little weighted, but…I’m not going to argue with you…Jack’s right, Princess, you need your sleep. I’ll turn in, too.”

“Can I sleep next to you, James?” asked Maria.

She was used to sleeping with no one but her raggedy and tired old teddy. James, however, looked a little iffy over the request, but she really wanted to sleep next to him anyway.

“I…don’t know about that, Maria,” he said cautiously. “That kind of looks bad to other people.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Jack. “No one cares out here.”

“I care, Jack,” said James. “As much as I like Maria, she isn’t my kid…It…doesn’t look too good.”

“The only thing you need to fear out here is me,” said Jack. “You are not a threat. If you were, I would have killed you by now.”

“Don’t kill James!” said Maria in frantic reply.

She wanted James to stay with them. She really liked James, and if Jack wanted to kill him, he could easily do so, and Maria didn’t want James to die. That scared her more than the constant attacks by the bad people. James, however, quelled her fears almost immediately. He shook his head and grinned down at her in complete confidence.

“He’s not going to hurt me, Maria,” he said firmly. “I’m useful, or so he says. Who else is going to tell you stories at night?”

Maria was not entirely convinced. Jack was not exactly nice, but he was the only one out here who could watch over her and protect her from all of the bad things that prowled in the night, and she couldn’t lose that security. She’d already be…dead…if Jack hadn’t shown up when he had.

Jack was tall and slender, but he was the scariest person Maria had ever met. He wore black soldier armor and a “battle mask,” as James had called it. It was the same type of mask the soldiers had worn during “The Great War,” something James had mentioned but would never expound upon.

The mask had changed over time, as had Jack’s hair, and they had always changed while Maria was asleep or otherwise out of it, like when she had been sick.

The first mask had been all black with a black visor and steel bands across it. Jack’s hair had been black back then.

The second mask had been all black with individual goggles across the eyes, those goggles only connected by the mask. Jack’s hair had been dark grey then.

Now Jack’s mask was all black, of course, but there were glowing red lines across it, glowing as if lit up by some inner light, and the eyes for the mask were red glass beads that were just large enough to cover real eyes, and those glowed, too…His hair was still dark grey, though. That hadn’t changed this time.

Even so, Maria had never seen Jack’s face because of that changing mask, but she was quite certain she didn’t want to. Bad things happened when Jack took off his mask.

He’d originally worn a long black duster, then a tunic, and now he wore black shoulder pads over his dark, dark-grey armor, those pads strapped to his chest plate. In fact, his new chest plate had two metal oval nipples affixed to them, something James had said was “like Batman armor,” whatever that meant.

But no matter what Jack wore, whatever he wore only made him look more imposing, and the long grey hair that reached down to his shoulders was the only indication he was a person at all…and Maria wasn’t entirely sure he was.

She looked up at James and pulled on his dark-green patchwork shirt.

“Please, James?” she asked. “Please, let me sleep next to you?”

James sighed and shrugged.

“I can’t argue with that dirty little face,” he smiled. “All right…but don’t get used to it.”

“Good,” said Jack roughly. “If the vampires attack, they’re more likely to grab you.”

“Thanks, Jack,” said James with a shake of his head.

“Don’t say that, Jack,” pouted Maria.

She did not like it when he said bad things.

Jack was not like other people, and there were times when Maria wondered deep down if she should be going “north” with him. He continuously and constantly dragged her “north,” but where “north” was and what was there, she did not know, and that bothered her even more than if she did know.

Jack was not normal, and there was something wrong about him…It was a pulling at the back of her mind, a whispering in the dark recesses there, and she did not like that at all. Still, she had not given up on him yet…She did not know why, but she knew Jack was the only person…or thing…that could protect her anymore.

James laid his right hand on her little shoulder and gave her a playful squeeze.

“Unfortunately, he’s right,” he sighed. “If one of us does get grabbed…I’d rather it be me.”

“Good,” said Jack gruffly. “Now shut up. I need to listen.”

James shrugged and rolled his eyes.

“We love you too, Jack,” he snorted.

“No, you don’t,” replied Jack.

James guffawed and shook his head again. He turned his attention upon Maria and smiled, but she wondered why he was so happy all of the time. He was happy even when the bad people came for them.

Naturally, she had to ask, as it was only the proper thing to do.

“Why are you so happy all the time, James?” she asked.

“Why not?” asked James. “I remember things the way they used to be, but those days aren’t coming back, so there’s no point in crying over spilt milk, as my grandma used to say. I’d rather die happy than live a sad life. Besides…there’s still people like you, Princess. You can make anyone smile.”

She thought about this and decided it was true, but for one exception.

“Except Jack,” she whispered to herself.

“Hmmm?” asked James. “Did you say something?”

Maria yawned again and shook her head no. The black curls of her hair were matted and tangled, and when she shook her head it felt like there was a stiff board up there, but she did it anyway. She did not want James to worry about anything she said, and for the moment, he didn’t.

“Let’s lie down, Princess,” said James.

He stretched out his arms and let forth a great and deep yawn.

Maria laid down as if some signal was sent to her brain. She yawned one more time, clutched her knapsack tightly, and was asleep before she knew it.

*****

Maria awoke after being picked up. Jack lifted her up into his arms and started walking, James already in tow. She was tired and stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, but she was always tired and stiff from sleeping on the hard ground, and that usually wore off as the day went on.

Dawn’s light was shining over their little part of the world, and the barren scrub she had become so accustomed to was giving out to grass and broken stretches of road. Old and dead cars littered the landscape as they pushed forward toward wherever, and though Maria did not know where they were going, she was sure it was better than where they had been. Anywhere was better than where they had been.

“What’s up ahead, James?” asked Jack in his gravelly voice.

“There’s a town called Rory up this way,” said James matter-of-factly. “You can see it in the distance. I don’t know who lives there, but it’s got houses and shops, so it’s got to be better than here.”

“There are no towns left,” said Jack bluntly. “It has the dead, if it has anything at all.”

“That’s a negative attitude, Jack,” said James. “You’d be better off giving a smile now and then. Have a little hope. It’s better for you.”

“You’re a fool,” said Jack firmly. “The world has ended. This is just cleanup.”

“Eh, whatever,” replied James. “To be honest, I always thought mankind would reach for the stars one day. Go cruising around the Milky Way and be shaking hands with a bunch of aliens. I never put much stock in the Apocalypse and all that. That’s what the old shows were for…Just fiction, I guess. Never really believed in that super virus kills off nine-tenths of the population crap…Nope. I definitely never thought nuclear weapons would be the end. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.”

“They never do,” said Jack. “People never think the end comes for them until it’s already upon them. Then it comes, and they either die or go insane. Humanity is a waste, nothing more.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” said James. “There really are good people out there. Can’t say I’ve seen too many of them, but…you know. I think people have shown even more of their good side now with all the monsters roaming around out there. All these monsters coming out…makes me wonder where they’ve been all this time.”

“In Hell,” said Jack.

“I don’t even know if Hell exists,” said James thoughtfully. “I mean, you have to look at it objectively. There are thousands of religions out there, so the idea that one religion and only one religion ushers in the end doesn’t really make sense.

“Hell is kind of a Christian idea, isn’t it? I mean, what do the Buddhists or the Hindus or…or the Jewish people believe?…My ancestors were from Africa, and they practiced ancestor worship before the Christians or Muslims came along…or maybe it’s all tailored to each area…Hmmm…I never thought of that. Maybe it’s like a pick and choose buffet of nasty, all based on the beliefs of that area.”

“Everything is based on belief,” said Jack.

“Riiiiiight,” said James doubtfully. “And I’m a badass because I believe I am…Hah! I don’t think so. Nah…I don’t buy that. Of course, I still wonder where these monsters came from. I’ve seen vampires and zombies, and I’ve heard about werewolves down here…but those are all like…movie monsters. Those are like things that came from a studio, you know?”

“Belief is power,” said Jack grimly. “It is why I exist.”

“Really?” asked James. “And who believes in you, Jack?”

“Children,” said Jack.

They didn’t say anything after that, and they walked for a bit before any conversation picked up again.

Maria looked over Jack’s shoulder to study James’ pleasant and thoughtful face. His skin was dark, darker than the people Maria was used to when she had lived in Shame. Maria wondered why that was, and her curiosity got the better of her.

“James?” she asked.

“Yes, miss?” smiled James.

“Why is your skin so dark?” she asked.

James smiled and shrugged.

“Because I wear my bad thoughts on my skin,” he said happily. “That’s why I don’t have any in my head.”

“Oh,” said Maria.

She thought about this for a moment, but it disturbed her a bit.

“Does that mean all my good thoughts are in my skin?” she asked fearfully. “Does that mean I’m a bad person, James?”

James snorted out a laugh and shook his head.

“Nah,” he smiled. “You’re good through and through, Princess. I was just joking. My skin is dark because it’s dark, just like your skin is light because it’s light. It doesn’t mean anything. You know how dogs and cats all have different colored fur, and they may all look a little different? They’re all still dogs and cats. The color of your skin is just the color of your skin. It’s just a different color…like those crayons you have.”

“Crayon?” asked Maria. “What’s a crayon?”

“Those little wax sticks you draw with,” said James.

“Oooooh,” said Maria. “My color rods.”

“Yep,” smiled James. “I always thought color rods were just in the eyeball, but it looks like you draw with yours. Does that mean you see in black and white?”

“What?” asked Maria. “No…I see colors.”

James laughed, and Maria knew he was joking again.

“Those ‘color rods’ of yours are called crayons,” he said with a nod. “Didn’t anyone tell you that?”

Maria shook her head no. There were a lot of things she didn’t know and a lot of things no one had told her, but James didn’t mind. He just shrugged and grinned back at her.

“My mom is gonna love you,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Really?” asked Maria.

She liked the idea of meeting James’ mom. She was probably a really nice lady.

“Yep,” said James in short reply. “She sure will. That’s a fact.”

Maria fell silent as she digested this pleasant news, and they walked on a bit further before she decided to ask something else. There was one question that bothered her, and she needed to know the answer to it.

“Why were you down here, James?” she asked. “Why were you down here when your family lives up there in Pinkton?”

“Oh…” said James hesitantly. “That’s a real funny story. Maybe not something you should hear.”

“I want to hear it,” said Maria.

And she really did, and James obviously knew this, so he just shrugged and sighed.

“It’s not that interesting,” he said quietly. “I was down here visiting my aunt and uncle and my cousins when…never mind. It was for summer vacation. Let’s leave it at that.”

“What happened to your aunt and your uncle and your cousins?” asked Maria.

James’ already dark face darkened even further, but that strange expression vanished as he smiled in return.

“Never you mind that,” he said firmly. “They all went to a better place…I just…couldn’t go at the time.”

“Oh,” said Maria.

They did not speak for some time after that. Maria sensed a heaviness upon her new friend, James, because he wasn’t talking, and Jack never spoke unless he had to. Other than that, it was really boring and hot, and Maria got tired of being carried, but they couldn’t move as fast if she had to walk, and she really wanted to get to this new town of “Rory,” so she decided to be patient for once.

But It took them all day to reach Rory. There were weathered-looking houses in the distance and the semblance of a road, but Maria was still fascinated with the look and feel of it all. Yes, it was all beat down, and yes, some of the houses were nothing more than burnt piles of rubble, but it was strange how she felt when she saw them. It was as if some memory came bubbling back to the surface of her mind, but it was ragged and fractured, and she couldn’t quite grasp it. It was frustrating but fascinating at the same time, and she wondered what it was like to actually live in one of these houses.

“Are those houses, James?” she asked.

“Yep,” replied James firmly. “People used to live in those. Some still might.”

“You’d better hope not,” said Jack gruffly. “They will not be friendly.”

“Oh, come on, Jack,” scoffed James. “It can’t be that bad. You’d think people would stick together, considering the state of the world.”

“People are animals,” said Jack gruffly. “They eat and sleep and copulate and deficate like any other animal…and they hunt and kill their own kind when resources are scarce. That is the law of the beast.”

“Soooo optimistic!” smiled James. “You were obviously a motivational speaker before the war.”

“No,” replied Jack. “I was not.”

James let loose his signature guffaw but then stopped a moment later. The sky had darkened considerably; the sun was going down, and they had not yet reached Rory.

“Damn,” he said quietly. “Sun’s going down.”

“I know,” replied Jack.

“We…may be in trouble,” said James. “I don’t know why…but those vamps won’t leave us alone, and there’s got to be more than three of them. Yeah, you’ve killed two so far…”

“And I’ll kill the rest if they try anything,” replied Jack gruffly. “They will not touch Maria.”

“That’s great, Jack,” said James, “but we’re also a target.”

“You’re nothing but food to them,” said Jack, “…and I am not a target. They want Maria, not you. You’re just a bonus.”

“Why?” snorted James. “Adults have way more blood.”

“They don’t want her for her blood,” said Jack.

“Oh, really?” asked James. “And what do they want her for?…Wait…Wait, wait…Forget I asked.”

This worried Maria more than if the bad people had just wanted to eat her. Old Nan had told her way back when about how some people were bad and how they liked to do bad things to kids…like what had happened to Paige. She was going to ask James about this, but she thought better about it…She really didn’t want to know. She hugged Jack tightly as he carried her, and James picked up on her reticence.

“What is it, Princess?” he asked.

“Nothing,” lied Maria.

“Ah,” said James quickly. “Don’t you worry about those vamps. All we have to do is get to a house, anyway.”

“Why?” asked Maria.

“Evil cannot enter a home uninvited,” said Jack. “James knows this…or he’d have been slain a long time ago.”

“Slain?” asked Maria.

“Don’t worry about it, Princess,” said James firmly. “Once we get to one of those houses, those vampires won’t be able to get near you. They’ll probably give up after that.”

“No,” said Jack. “They will not.”

“Jesus, Jack,” sighed James. “You could at least lie once in a while.”

“I don’t lie,” said Jack firmly. “I don’t need to.”

“I noticed,” sighed James.

They continued to walk toward the nearest house. They were nearing Rory now, and even in the half-light of the setting sun, Maria could see the promise of safety just ahead.

“We’re almost there,” she breathed.

“Yes,” replied Jack.

The last rays of the sun flickered out as the great yellow-and-orange orb descended past the horizon. They trekked forward without any light, and Maria was glad that Jack was carrying her, because she would not have made it five feet under these conditions.

A light flared on behind them as James flicked on his flashlight. He rarely used it, and he wouldn’t let Maria play with it. He said it needed “batteries,” and she didn’t know what that was, but it was obviously important, so she wasn’t allowed to mess with it.

They jogged full on and full out, or rather Jack and James jogged, and the thought of that many J’s in her mind made Maria stop and puzzle over that verbal quandary. It wasn’t like she was doing anything active except holding onto Jack, but sometimes her fear caused her to panic, and that had just been relegated by the J-words she listed off in her head.

“They’re nearby,” stated Jack.

“What!” exclaimed James. “How!”

“They were obviously waiting up ahead,” grunted Jack. “That is how a hunter hunts.”

“Wonderful,” huffed James, but Maria seriously doubted he meant that in a good way.

They headed toward the nearest house, but it was only a few moments later when Maria heard that tell-tale swooshing noise and laughter from above. Jack, however, stopped and stood still, and James nearly ran into him.

“What the hell?” breathed James.

“Shut up,” said Jack firmly. “Wait for a moment.”

The three bad people who were after them flew down and landed ten feet away, effectively blocking they’re progress forward. Maria knew they were not stupid, though; they would not get too close to Jack.

James kept his light on them, but they didn’t seem to care whether he did or not.

The bad man in the military coat, the big mean black man, chuckled and shook his head. His look turned deathly serious a moment later, as did his tone.

“Hand her over,” he said firmly.

“No,” said Jack.

“Really?” said the leader. “You’ve just got it all figured out, do you? Damned lapdog…Never mind. I’m not talking to you, freak. I’m talking to the little one there…That’s right…You, little girl. You need to come with us before it’s too late. We won’t hurt you…In fact, we brought someone you know, and…she really wants to talk to you…Maria.”

Maria did not know how this bad man knew her name, but she found out a moment later. The big black man stepped aside to reveal a fourth person. Paige stepped forward into the light, but she held up her right hand to keep the glare out of her eyes. Maria was surprised to see her; she had honestly thought Paige was dead.

Paige was sixteen and used to be pretty and nice when they had lived back in Shame, but then the boys had gotten her, and they’d done terrible things to her. They’d shaved her head and had done other bad things, and Paige had become mean and angry after that. Her tanned head was still bald and speckled with short bumps of dark hair, like a sprinkling of black dust, and she wore a dark-green patchwork shirt and old tattered jeans with big black boots, but…No, she did not look pretty or nice anymore, but Maria did not want these bad men to have her. She did not want that.

The bald teen stepped forward a couple feet, and it was obvious to Maria that Paige was terrified. The girl was stammering as she spoke, and Maria didn’t know what the bad people had done to her, but whatever they’d done, it wasn’t good.

“Y…You have to come with us, Maria,” she stammered. “Please? You don’t know how important this is. Please? I really need you to come with us…”

“No,” said Jack firmly.

The tall and slender man in black would never let them have her, and Maria knew this with one-thousand-percent certainty. Jack was not nice, but he would not let her be taken by these “vamps,” and that, at least, was a good thing.

She hugged Jack tightly and shook her head no. She felt bad for Paige, and it was bad that these bad people had her, but going with them was just stupid. Maria knew they would kill a little girl such as herself, or do even worse things to her, and she was afraid of that and couldn’t allow that to happen, even if they did have Paige.

“I can’t go,” she said fearfully.

“You have to,” pleaded Paige.

Her voice broke into a whine, and it was obvious she was barely holding back her tears. Paige was really scared for some reason, and Maria didn’t like that. These bad people were going to do something bad to her if Maria didn’t go with them.

“This isn’t a game, Maria!” whined Paige. “You don’t know what’s really going on! Y…You can’t go with him. You can’t!”

But Maria couldn’t go with Paige. She was only six, but she wasn’t stupid, and she knew better.

“I can’t go with you, Paige,” said Maria. “I can’t go with those bad people.”

She didn’t want to have to say that, but there was nothing else she could do.

“Maria…” whined Paige.

The bald teen looked as if she were going to cry, but she squeezed her dark-brown eyes shut, and when she opened them again, they were red like the bad people’s eyes. Her thin red lips parted slightly, and Maria could see the fangs in Paige’s mouth.

Maria hadn’t known the bad people could do that to someone, that they could make them bad like them, and she knew for certain now she couldn’t go with them. She figured if they didn’t kill her, then they would make her like them, so she adamantly shook her head no. She did not want to be bad.

Her decision did not go over well. The leader of the bad people grabbed Paige, spun her around, and backhanded her. Paige shrieked in pain and fell to the ground, but Jack took a step forward at this violent response. The two bad women backed away, but the big black man in the military coat ignored Jack’s threatening step and scowled down at Paige.

“Stupid little clam licker!” he barked. “You can’t do anything right, can you? I should leave you out in the sun for a permanent tan, you dumb dyke!”

“I’m trying the best I can!” squealed Paige.

Even though the bald teen was one of them now, Maria still felt sorry for her. She suspected Paige’s fear was real, and these bad people were going to do bad things to the teen.

The leader of the bad people, the big black man, fixed his red eyes on Jack and shone his scowl upon him instead.

“Friggin’ stooge,” he growled. “They got your number, huh? Can’t wait to get back to eating, can you?…Yeah, I know what you are, Mac, even though you’re a collection of BS. People’ll friggin’ believe anything. At least we were more than a newspaper article…Ugh…Doesn’t matter. Your time’s coming, Jack…and you can’t watch her all the time.”

“Yes, I can,” replied Jack in his rough voice.

“Someone’s going to stop you,” said the leader of the bad people. “It’s only a matter of time…Just a matter of time…In fact, I heard on the wire the big man’s after you…I didn’t believe in him till we saw him a couple of weeks ago. Right in the middle of a storm…Lightning strike…They say not to fear him, but…I ain’t screwing with him. Yep, he’s coming for you, man, ’cause you got the only thing valuable that’s left in this toilet of a world.”

“You’re a fool,” said Jack. “Now get out of my way.”

The big black man in the military coat looked behind himself toward the town of Rory and then gave a dark chuckle. He turned his attention back upon Jack and gave him an ugly sneer.

“You’re actually headed into Rory?” he asked. “You’re the fool. Damned freak…Ugh…You might as well hand over that boy right now, because leading him into Rory is a friggin’ waste, and I don’t like to waste food.”

“No!” cried Maria. “James isn’t food!”

“Maria,” said James quietly.

The big black man in the military coat sneered one more time before crossing his arms in defiance.

“If you go into Rory, James, better not go looking for snatch,” he snorted. “I hear it has an appetite.”

The leader of the bad people turned around and looked down at Paige in disgust. Paige was sitting in the dirt, and she still looked scared, but there wasn’t anything Maria could do to help her.

“Speaking of snatch…” said the bad man.

He grabbed Paige by her left arm and yanked her upright.

“No, please,” begged Paige. “Please, no more…Please? Please, don’t…Please? You don’t have to do this…Please? Not again…”

“Shut the hell up, dyke!” barked the leader.

He backhanded her again but didn’t let her fall to the ground. Paige cried out as she was pulled skyward with the rest of them, and Maria cringed as Paige’s crying protests disappeared into the black of the night sky. Maria really hoped Jack would kill those bad people, and she normally didn’t wish for things like that, but that man was really, really bad, and he deserved it.

They waited there for a couple of minutes before Jack gave a head motion to James to continue on.

“Let’s go,” he said firmly. “They won’t bother us for now.”

“Yeah,” breathed James as he looked about fearfully. “Yeah…let’s do that.”

They traveled onward until they reached the first of the many houses that lazily dotted the night-cloaked landscape. This house had seen better days; its side was a tearing of peeling paint bedecked by the smell of mold. It was two stories high, and even though it looked less than inviting, its windows were still intact, a virtual miracle of fortune for the house in general.

James tried the door, and it opened without any trouble whatsoever. The door creaked open, and James shone his flashlight into the dark interior. It didn’t look like there was anything inside, but Maria couldn’t quite tell from her position.

“Well…” breathed James. “It wasn’t locked. I doubt there’s anything inside worth taking, but…you never know. Whelp, it’s ours now. Everybody, come on in.”

Jack set Maria down and motioned for her to enter.

“Let’s go,” he said firmly.

Maria stepped inside onto the wooden floor of the spacious room of this “house.” Jack followed a second later while James shut the door and locked it. James shone his light around the room, but the big open space was bare and devoid of furniture.

“Not much in the way of atmosphere,” he said, “but it’s better than being out there.”

He looked down at Maria and smiled.

“This is our new home for the night,” he grinned. “Pick out a spot on the floor, and we’ll eat, okay?”

“Okay,” said Maria.

She was tired, hungry, and she had to go relieve herself. It had been a long day, and they hadn’t stopped once to rest or eat food or go anywhere. Maria wondered how James could go for so long without breaking, but she knew he had probably gotten used to it just like she had. Still, she really had to go.

“I have to go, James,” she said.

“What?” asked James in mock disappointment. “But we just got here!”

“I have to go poop,” she frowned.

“Ah,” nodded James. “Oooookay. Well…I’ll stay in here while you go, and Jack can watch you. There’s a bathroom right over there, but I doubt the water’s running, so you’d better go outside. I’ll just go pee in the toilet. When you come back in, I’ll have a can open for you, okay?”

“Okay,” said Maria.

“Wait just a moment,” said James. “Hang on.”

James entered the “bathroom” and came back out a moment later. He tossed her a white roll of soft paper, and Maria deftly caught it.

“That’s toilet paper,” he said. “You use it to—”

“I know what it’s for,” frowned Maria. “I’m not stupid.”

James laughed and motioned toward the door.

“All right, all right,” he chuckled. “Go do your business, little princess.”

She went outside with Jack and finished her business. Jack simply stood and watched the sky; he was good that way.

When she came back in, James had already opened up a can of “beans” for her. They were the brown kind, and they tasted a lot different from the green ones, but food was food, and she didn’t mind.

James sat down and took to eating his can of beans. He had a small, white, plastic spoon with a cartoon image of a strange, dark-haired and ligh-brown-skinned girl printed on the handle. The image was faded, but Maria liked it, so James let her use that spoon.

“That’s my favorite spoon,” he grinned. “Don’t break it.”

“I won’t,” said Maria. “I like it. I’m not going to break it.”

James chuckled and went back to eating. Jack, on the other hand, stood by the window and peered out into the night sky.

“Relax, Jack,” said James. “Sit down. Eat something.”

“I can’t eat anymore,” said Jack roughly.

“Oh?” said James. “So, you’re just going to starve to death, then?”

“No,” said Jack. “I can make it till the end.”

“Really?” asked James. “Well, good luck with that.”

Maria had never seen Jack eat anything. She had a bad suspicion about what he liked to eat, so she preferred not to think about it. It was safer that way.

James ate out of his can of beans with one of his other spoons, a metal one, and then he took a drink from his own can-teen. He had a can-teen, too, but it wasn’t metal like Maria’s. It was made from sturdy dark-blue plastic, but it did have a shiny metal cap, so at least part of it was metal. Old Nan had told Maria that metal was better than plastic for water because it was harder to crack.

James sat back after finishing his can of beans and gave a small belch. He set the empty can aside and leaned back on his hands.

“It’s weird to find an empty house like this,” he said in odd observance. “This place isn’t too shabby, so it makes you wonder what in the heck the owners were thinking when they cleared out.

“I mean, there’s no furniture, but there was still a sack of toilet paper in the bathroom and soap still in the box. I don’t know what happened here, but soap and TP are like the first two things I’d take with me. Can’t have enough of that.”

“They left,” said Jack.

“Yeah,” grinned James. “I figured that out, Jack.”

“There’s something…wrong here,” said Jack a moment later.

“Oh?” asked James. “Like what?”

“It smells like…” said Jack, but a noise made him stop midsentence.

They all turned as the wooden stairs behind them creaked in a loud echo of unpleasant disturbance.

A man shambled so much as stepped down the staircase as James flashed his light upon him. The circle of light revealed plain blue jeans that were torn or perhaps shredded in places, but the skin beneath was what frightened Maria. The skin of this man was charred and blackened with the fresh white of bone accented by the disturbance of red as if bloody skin were hanging upon it, and as the light moved upward over a flannel shirt in similar condition, it came to rest upon the face…or rather, a distinct lack of one.

The creature before them was a grinning white skull with black and red bits of flesh hanging from it, and it did not look upon them so much as rest its empty eye sockets in their direction.

“Oh, shi—!” cursed James as Maria let forth a terrified screech.

The creature lunged toward them as it stepped off onto the wooden floor, but Jack was on it in a flash of force and violence. He and the creature gripped each other and struggled as if in some strange macabre dance.

“Take her out,” grunted the tall and slender man in black, and Maria was grabbed by James a second later.

She was whisked up and through the door a moment later, and James pulled her aside from said door to stand by one of the untouched windows of that mostly untouched house.

Great and shining yellow lights blazed to life atop long wooden poles as the nearby town of Rory came to life all at once. The light was blinding to Maria; she had never seen such big flashlights before, but it didn’t matter, as James picked her up before she could observe anything else.

“Jack!” he yelled. “JACK!”

Maria followed his gaze and knew immediately and with utter certainty why James was upset. There were more of those things out there in the dark, those things now lit up by the giant wooden flashlights, plainly visible for all to see. There were so many that Maria could not count them, and they came in various states of burnt decay, wandering aimlessly like they had been hit on the head one too many times.

Well…they had been wandering aimlessly, but thanks to James’ timely and rather unnecessary shouting, they were not wandering aimlessly anymore.

“Oh, mother fu…” breathed James.

Things were bad; Maria knew this, because James only swore when things were bad.

Of course, that was before the front door to the house they had just been in shattered as if struck by a huge fist. It was, in fact, struck by a flying body with such force that it exploded outward to spread wooden shrapnel, splinters, and splattered gore in all directions.

James sheltered Maria from this; he bent over her and put his back to that hurricane of debris within the blink of a bygone second.

Jack stepped through the door and brushed debris from his dark, dark-grey chest plate. It took him less than a second to gauge the situation as the huge horde of grotesque people charged down upon them. However, he did not respond to this development as Maria thought he would, or how James, she surmised, would have thought he would.

“The lights are on,” said Jack in his gravelly voice. “That means someone’s running the power.”

“You think!” asked James in a panic. “Who cares! We’ve got other problems!”

“Take Maria,” said Jack.

And that was all he said before he waded into the swarm of shambling things without a second word.

Jack dashed forward and struck the lead grotesquery with a straight on punch that went all the way through its grotesque chest. Maria assumed it had been a woman, as it had the curve of breasts underneath whatever disgusting and flesh grimed article of clothing it had been wearing. Plus, it was naked beneath that cloth, and it had no boy-thing between its legs, so there was that.

Unfortunately, Jack’s initial strike left his right arm trapped within the shambling corpse before him, and the others were on him in a heartbeat. Maria tried to count how many jumped upon him as he disappeared beneath that mass, and it was scary to watch this, but part of her knew this would not stop Jack or keep him down for long.

And she was right. There was an absence of light for a second, that absence followed by a strange drop in temperature, and then there was a burst of sensation upon her skin, almost like a slap to the face, but a slap infected with a nightmarish chill.

James stumbled backwards to hit the side of the house with an “Oomph!,” and Maria watched with wide eyes as these hideously burnt and mangled creatures went flying in all directions. It was like a blast of solid, frozen darkness had struck and flung them, and she had felt that aftermath in the form of a pulse.

James did not waste that opportunity. He planted one booted foot against the side of the house and pushed off into a dead run, breathing hard as he carried Maria the best he could. They ran toward Jack, but the tall and slender man in black looked no worse for wear than he had mere moments before.

James hopped over one of these fallen things as it reached for him, but he ignored it and kept moving, and that was good, because Maria wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible.

Jack said nothing as he led them forward, and James muttered a protest, though it was somewhat buried within harsh panting as he followed closely behind.

“What in the hell is he doing?” he panted. “That’s going right toward the center of town! There’s got to be more of those things around!”

Jack did not say anything as they passed house after house to run down the main street of Rory. Houses gave way to abandoned shops, and the empty street gave way to car after rusted car.

“There,” said Jack as he ran down the street.

He pointed toward a tall, two-story, brick building along the left side of the street, and Maria noticed it was the only place here that had lights on the inside of it; the inviting glow was distinct through the glare of its pristine and thoroughly unshattered windows.

The creatures came out into the street as they ran, and Maria lost track of how many there actually were. She could count very high, up to a hundred, but there was no way to accurately judge how many of these monsters there were with James’ ragged footsteps bobbing her up and down like a fishing lure.

Jack swung a left hook as he passed one of the disgusting creatures, and his armored black glove impacted so hard that the monster’s head went sailing clean off its grotesque neck to bounce down the street ahead of them. Jack did not even slow down from that shot, no, but kept running and took a brief moment to kick the decapitated head like a ball…Maria watched in fascination as it sailed through the air to shatter the storefront window of a building way down the street.

“Jesus, Jack!” huffed James. “You should’ve played soccer!”

Maria thought the whole incident funny, and she laughed, and James laughed with her. These creatures were everywhere, and they were hideously ugly and scary, but Jack made them look like toys to be knocked down, and that relieved her fear for the time being.

They reached the door of the tall brick building as quickly as they could. Jack pulled on the handle of the tall wooden double doors before them, and the two doors swung open with ease. All three of them stepped into the warm light of the waiting room beyond…Maria was carried in, of course, but she was just happy to be inside and away from the grotesque things that were outside, so that was good.

Jack shut both doors and pressed against them for a moment. Maria turned as James set her down, and the first thing she noticed were the four large and intimidating men sitting on two separate benches, each bench parked opposite each other against the narrow hallway walls.

The four men were dressed in a variety of leather jackets, denim jackets, and black or blue jeans. They had “tattoos,” or pictures on the skin of their arms, and there were even “tattoos” on the neck of one of the men. One of the men was bigger than the others, a bald white guy with a bushy mustache, and he was the one who looked them over and spoke first, or to be more precise, he looked over at Jack and spoke first.

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?” he asked in a gruff voice.

Jack turned, took one look at them, and gave his reply…but it was not nice.

“Someone you don’t mess with,” he said in his gravelly voice.

The bald man looked mad…Jack had that effect on people. Fortunately, someone arrived to quell that impending moment of unnecessary bloodshed…

A tall and slender woman in a flowing red dress appeared from somewhere in the hallway…Maria wasn’t quite sure where she had come from…but she appeared and spoke in a soothing tone that ended the hostility from the big strange men almost immediately.

“Boys! Boys!” she said in gentle excitement. “There’s no prancing in my parlor! There’s more than enough fun for all of you.”

The big bald man with the mustache changed his tune as if he’d suddenly tasted the best food in the world. He grinned at her and eagerly nodded in acceptance of her quick-witted statement.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said happily.

Maria studied this woman carefully.

She was white like Maria, but her skin was very pale, as if she hadn’t seen much sun, and her long black hair was done up in a bun with little curls that framed the sides of her beautiful thin face. Her eyes were a very bright green, and that was weird, because Maria had never seen anyone with that color of eyes before.

She had also never seen such a dress as the one that bedecked this beautiful lady’s thin frame. The dress itself was a deep rose red, almost the color of blood, and it bustled out a little as if held up inside by a small umbrella. Its skirt was pleated, and the hem of it was tailored with cloth roses…Maria had never seen such extravagant clothes before. She looked up to James to get his reaction of it, but James simply stood there staring with a stupid grin on his face.

“Now,” said the beautiful woman carefully, “I’m sorry you had to wait a little, but I had to get the girls ready for each of you. Here’s a key to Room One for you, and a key to Room Four for you, Three for you, and yours is Two…”

The woman handed a small brass key to each of the big strange men, and the big bald man grinned and nodded. He reminded Maria of a little kid who was about to do something naughty, and if he was, she did not want to know what it was he was about to do.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said eagerly.

The four men wandered off down the hall to find their respective rooms, and Maria watched as each of them unlocked a door and walked inside. She did not know what was going on, but it was better to be in here than it was out in the street with the charred ones, so she didn’t really care at the moment.

The beautiful woman in the red dress looked up at them as if seeing them for the first time. Her thin red lips beamed a smile as she voiced her own pleasant surprise.

“Oh!” she said happily. “We have new guests! How wonderful!…Let me take a look at you…”

She took a keen interest in James first. She ran her slender fingers along his dark-brown cheek and gave him a pleasant smile.

“What have we here?” she asked gently. “What a fine young man you are!”

“Yes, ma’am,” grinned James.

Maria looked up at him in irritation. He was acting funny, and she didn’t like that. He was acting like the older boys used to act in Shame, and she didn’t like the way those boys acted back then, and she didn’t like it now…especially after what they’d done to Paige.

The beautiful woman noticed her for the first time and flashed her a warm smile.

“Oh, you have a little one,” she said gently. “We have a playroom for her. It has toys and puzzles and games…If you like, you can wait with her in there while I get one of the girls ready for you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” grinned James.

Maria was annoyed with James over that, but she did want to see this room with toys and puzzles and games…That sounded fun. The woman must have seen her face light up, because Maria saw her expression change to one of smug satisfaction, and that was a little disturbing.

“Now,” continued the woman, “what will be your payment?”

James looked flustered for a moment. He held up his flashlight and clicked it on and off.

“Will this do?” he asked hopefully.

The beautiful woman took his flashlight and flashed him her equally beautiful smile. Maria could not help but think there was something fake about her, like looking at a wooden statue instead of a person, but she could not shake this newfound curiosity over this “playroom,” and so she went with it, the situation at hand, albeit reluctantly.

“That will do quite nicely,” said the beautiful woman in happy reply.

She turned her attention upon Jack next… and simply…stopped. Jack had been standing there the whole time, but it was not until that moment did it appear this woman had noticed him at all. Maria watched in alarm as the beautiful woman’s slender face took a darker turn with a deep frown and narrowed eyes of flashing green.

“You will have to wait outside,” she said firmly.

“No,” said Jack in an equally firm voice.

Something was not right, and this made Maria nervous, but James did not appear to understand this at all.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, Jack,” repeated James. “I’ll be with Maria in the playroom.”

Jack stared at James as if in disbelief of that statement, but since Maria could not read Jack’s masked expression, or for that matter, had never seen the tall and slender man’s face, she really did not know what he was thinking.

“There are charred ones outside,” said Jack roughly. “They will try to break in. That is what they do.”

“They can’t come in here,” said the beautiful woman, but her tone had turned ugly and harsh.

She narrowed her bright green eyes as she looked up at Jack’s glowing red visor eyes. Maria could tell something was wrong, but she still didn’t know what. Jack was not friendly, but he hadn’t done anything bad in here, so she didn’t understand why the beautiful woman didn’t want him inside.

“No, they can’t come in here,” said the beautiful woman in the red dress, “but neither can you. We don’t serve your kind here, Mr. Black. We have a strict policy over that sort of thing. This is my building, and you are not invited. Go play with the charred ones, Mr. Black…You are not wanted here.”

Jack took a step backwards. He looked as if he were struggling against something, like pushing against an imaginary wall, and Maria felt alarmed as she watched this new reaction. She had no idea why he was acting this way; it wasn’t like him. Jack, on the other hand, did not leave before giving one final and very firm warning, and that was like him.

“If you threaten her,” said Jack in a dark tone, “I will be back.”

The woman gave a tart smirk as Jack turned, opened one of the doors, and left…but Maria could not believe what had just happened. Jack never left her alone…like…ever. James was here, but he didn’t really matter to Jack, so she didn’t understand what this was all about…None of it was making any sense, not one bit of this new place, and she didn’t like that, but she really wanted to see this “playroom,” and that made her hold her tongue.

The beautiful woman smiled at James, swiveled around, her dress flowing through the air, and urged him to follow with a single beckoning finger.

James still had that stupid grin on his face, and that was really annoying. Maria didn’t like how he was acting, but then again, he was going to wait with her in this “playroom,” and she still really wanted to see it.

They followed the woman in red down the hallway and then turned to climb a flight of wooden stairs. It occurred to Maria that she had never been inside a structure this large, and the only experience she’d had with stairs that she could remember was just recently when that ugly monster had walked down the stairs of the house they had briefly camped in.

Maria hesitated for a moment at the bottom of the stairs, but the woman turned and addressed her directly with a clear and dulcet voice, like velvet in audible form.

“Come on, dear,” she said gently. “There’s plenty to see and do in the playroom.”

Maria had a bad feeling about this. She could not understand why the charred ones could not break inside this place if Jack said they would, because Jack knew everything about monsters…at least, that was the sense Maria got from him. This was incredibly strange, and it didn’t make sense…and there was also the fact that she was tired and thirsty. She needed a drink, and this place was big, but she didn’t see how this woman and these other “girls” lived here without having to get food or water…They had to go get it somehow, right?

“I…I’m thirsty,” stammered Maria.

“Just get out your canteen,” said James in irritation.

He looked upon the beautiful woman, and his face changed into that stupid grin again, but he had been frowning a second ago when he had spoken to Maria, and she did not like this.

“I’m sorry about her,” said James in a weird voice. “She can be a real pain sometimes.”

The beautiful woman smiled at him and waved her right hand as she rolled her eyes.

“Think nothing of it,” she said with a slight laugh. “She is just the cutest little thing…Such a delicious little treat for you to bring us lonely girls of Rory.”

She looked down at Maria and beckoned her to follow. Maria didn’t really like this at all, and that bad feeling she was getting was growing even stronger.

“We have plenty to drink here,” said the strange woman, “but you should just drink your water for now, sweetie.”

“Oh…O…okay,” stammered Maria.

She didn’t want to follow this woman, but she couldn’t leave James without Jack here. James was all she had in the way of protection in here, and there were a lot of bad things out there. Without Jack, bad things might still get in and get her, and for some reason they wanted to get her, and she really didn’t know why.

Those bad people, those “vampires” who had Paige…? They wanted her for some reason, and it wasn’t to eat, and that wasn’t good at all, because whatever they wanted her for was probably way worse. She didn’t want to think about what they were doing to Paige right now, but…it wasn’t good. She knew that much.

The beautiful woman led them down a hallway that had several doors along the walls. They went to the last door at the end of the hallway, and the woman unlocked it with a brass key.

She turned to James and gave him a glowing smile; her thin red lips turned upward as her bright green eyes sparkled, and Maria had to admit that this woman was the prettiest woman she had ever seen…but she still didn’t trust her. There was something about her that whispered “fake,” but what that was, Maria did not know. She could not figure it out.

“Welcome to Le Maison de L’araignée Rouge,” said the woman softly.

“Oh, you speak French!” said James in strange excitement.

“Not really,” smiled the woman. “I heard it somewhere, but I don’t know if the translation is accurate…but I thought it fitting for our little hideaway, so I used it anyway.”

“What does it mean?” asked James.

She ran her finger under James’ chin and laughed.

“Oh, you sweet boy,” she said with a bubbly laugh. “You’ll find out.”

“I certainly hope so,” breathed James heavily.

The woman laughed and swung open the door to the “playroom.” Inside was a warm-looking room with a plush grey carpet and so many toys that Maria nearly fainted at the sight of them all. There were stuffed animals and boxes with big letters with smiling kids on the front and bags of little plastic bricks…She had never seen anything like this before.

James grinned as the woman stepped out of the way so that they could enter.

“Thank you so much, Miss…Miss…” stammered James.

“Madame,” finished the woman. “Madame Veuve Rouge.”

“Madame Veuve Rouge,” repeated James while flashing his stupid grin.

Maria really couldn’t stand the stupid way James was acting, but she didn’t get a chance to voice her displeasure, as Madame Vyoov Rooj looked down at her and smiled.

“Enjoy your stay, sweetheart,” she said softly. “I know I will.”

She ran one finger along James’ right cheek before turning and walking back down the hallway.

James ushered Maria through the door of the “playroom” before shutting it. He breathed out a long sigh of relief and sat down right there in front of the door.

“Oooooh, buddy,” he said with a dreamy look in his eyes.

Maria thought he was acting weird, but she decided not to call him out on it. She wanted to play a little, and these toys looked fun…That, and James shooed her forward with a wave of his right hand anyway.

“Go on,” he said gently. “Go play.”

“Okay,” said Maria, but she wasn’t really sure.

She had that really bad feeling, and when she had that really bad feeling, then usually really bad things happened. Still, the room was inviting, so she decided to give it a shot. She walked over to a pristine-looking baby doll and picked it up to cuddle it in her arms; her teddy looked old and ragged and tired in comparison.

The doll’s little eyes were closed, and it had long lashes that looked real. She hugged it tightly and put her ear to its mouth.

“What’s your name?” she whispered.

The response came in a sibilant whisper that sunk right down into her soul.

“Deeeeeath…” came a soft voice.

Maria jerked back as she stared down at the doll. Its eyes opened to reveal two hollow sockets with nothing in them.

She immediately thought of Jack and where he might be…She had forgotten him up until this moment. She did not know how she could have forgotten him; he was Jack, and he was almost impossible to forget. She thought of him now because something was definitely wrong with this place, and now that she knew it, she needed him.

She looked up at the far wall of the “playroom,” but she could see two versions of it, the nice version…and the ugly one. The nice version had the soft grey carpet and light-yellow walls and toys and books and games…but the ugly version was much different. The walls held cracked plaster with bits of broken wood, the carpet was a tattered ruin and stained with something brown, and the toys weren’t toys at all.

The boxes of games were just faded and torn cardboard boxes, the bags of bright plastic blocks were nothing but pebbles and round stones, and the stuffed animals were…

Maria could not unsee the ugly version of this “playroom” now, and she could not unsee what was in it. The nice version bled away within her vision, and now all she could see was the straight up horror of the other version of the room and what lay stacked around her.

She looked down at the doll in her hands, but it was not a doll. It was the corpse of a baby, its skin shriveled and desiccated like wood, and she dropped it as she backed away with her small hands in the air. There were other bodies too, two little girls and a little boy, and they were dried up and pitted like prunes, and this was too much for Maria.

She stumbled and sat down upon the worn and tattered carpet, but she was too terrified to say anything, and that was bad. James must have noticed, because he studied her with a curious expression, and some of that stupid grin and fancy left his pleasant face as he looked upon her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in confusion. “You can play for now. You should be happy, Maria. You can’t find a collection of toys like this anymore.”

Maria shook her head no, unslung her knapsack, and pried it open. She pulled out her drawing pad and her “crayons” and took to scribbling out a picture as fast as she could. She could not read and therefore could not write, but she could draw, and so she did. She was feeling so much fear now that she couldn’t just tell James what was wrong; she had to show him.

She ignored James and began to draw. She had to draw, had to make him see, and this was the only way she knew how. She was nearly finished by the time he stood and walked over to her. He peered over her shoulder and stared down at her drawing pad, but she ignored him as she drew as fast as she could. She had to finish it and show him the truth. She had to.

“What are you doing, Mar…” he began, but his voice died in his throat.

She finished her drawing, but what she drew was not what she was seeing. She did not know what she had drawn, but whatever it was, James recognized it. He reached down, jerked the pad away from her, and studied it with a goggle-eyed gaze.

The drawing depicted a man in black, kind of like Jack, but he wasn’t Jack. He wore a long black robe, but his face was a grinning skull, and in his skeletal right hand was a long pole with a big black blade on the end of it. Maria must have done a good job with the lines, because James seemed to know exactly who this scary skeleton man was.

“Maria, why did you draw this?” asked James. “Why did you dra…”

He looked up and his eyes widened in immediate panic. He dropped the drawing pad and turned his head to the left and right, and Maria could tell right then that he could see. He could see now, and that was good, because they needed to go, and right away.

“Oh, crap!” swore James. “Oh, son of a…We have to get out of here!”

Maria could not have agreed more. She packed away her colors and her pad into her knapsack and slung it back over her shoulder. She was scared, but now that James wasn’t acting like a grinning idiot, she felt a little safer. All they had to do was go back to the front door and find Jack, and then they could all leave.

James grabbed her by the arm and then jerked her toward the door. Even the door was old and nasty looking, and the knob looked rusted or coated with something; Maria couldn’t tell. James had no reservations about turning that knob, though; she knew he was finally on the same page with her about that really bad feeling.

James dragged her through the opening and peered down the hallway. Maria could see the real condition of the building now, and it wasn’t good. The walls were cracked in the plaster, there was water damage in some places, and webs…lots of webs.

“What have we gotten into?” asked James fearfully. “Oh, damn!…Stay close to me, Maria.”

“Y…yes,” stammered Maria.

James wasn’t stupid, though. He walked down the hallway in a stealthy manner, and Maria followed him the best she could. She was used to walking quietly and hiding while being still; it was a necessary survival skill. There were too many bad things out in the dark, and she knew with the utmost certainty there were bad things in here as well.

They were almost to the stairs when the last door on the right wall near the stairwell opened, and a young woman stepped out in front of them. She was completely nude, her sandy-blonde hair was up in a coiled bun, and this was clearly her natural hair color as evident by her girl parts below. Maria had seen a naked woman before, she had bathed with the older women when she had lived in Shame, but that had been a necessity, and this was an unexpected and unwanted intrusion to her vision.

The young woman had to be in her early twenties; she did not look much older than James, and she turned and viewed them both with surprise and curiosity etched across her pretty face.

The first thing Maria noticed about her was that her lips were jet-black, as if she had smeared something over them. Normally, she would have thought that this was exactly what the naked stranger had done, colored her lips somehow, but the young woman’s big nipples were also jet-black, and that was just weird. Maria knew those weren’t supposed to be jet-black; she had never seen anything like that from the women in Shame, even the dark-skinned ones.

“What are you doing out here?” asked the young woman with a frown.

James froze, and due to this lack of motion, Maria refused to move as well. The naked woman studied him for a moment, but that moment was telling, for her bright green eyes widened in alarm another moment later.

James sensed something from her, because he grabbed Maria by the arm and dashed to the young woman’s left, but she was fast, far faster than either of them had expected, and she blocked their exit in quick response.

She raised her hands like they were claws and hissed as she squatted into a wrestler’s stance. Two large fangs dropped from the tops of her canines as she opened her jaw as wide as it would go.

“Vampires!” choked out James.

But he was wrong. There was a tearing sound like when Maria would rip paper, and four long and spindly black legs emerged from the naked woman’s back to plant their sharp and armored tips upon the decaying wooden floor below. Her big bottom turned black as it got even bigger, and Maria watched in horror as the woman’s skin turned black and hardened like a shell. Even her breasts coated over with that hard shell, making her already black nipples look like ebon spikes, and the effect of the transformation, coupled with the whole of her new size and bulk, was monstrous to behold.

Several bright-green eyes opened up on her forehead above her real eyes, but the new green orbs were shiny and devoid of pupils. The hair on her head was still sandy-blonde, as was the hair between her legs where her parts should have been, and the combination of it all was so strange and terrifying that Maria peed without wanting to. Her urine ran down her right leg as she stood in complete and shaking, fear-induced shock.

James was a joker and an eternal optimist, and he was friendly and generous, but Maria had never thought of him as a fighter. Nevertheless, the young black man did not hesitate in Maria’s defense; he stepped forward and grabbed the monstrous woman’s long armored black arms and struggled to hold her back.

“Run, Maria!” he yelled. “Go get Jack!”

Maria snapped out of her quivering mess of statuary terror at the sound of James’ command. She dashed past the woman and was nearly impaled by one of the long black armor-tipped extra legs that swiped at her, and she accidentally pushed off of the woman’s huge black bottom to run toward the stairs. The feel of that strange skin was like touching the rubber of an old tire, and it panicked her in a strange motivation to push her little legs to move even faster than she had thought was possible.

She ran down the stairs and nearly fell, but she was deft for her small size and made it to the bottom of the rickety and cracked set of wooden planks without further incident. She heard James scream out in pain, and this brought tears to her eyes, but she ran down the hall toward the exit anyway.

She was bawling like a little baby by the time she had made it halfway, she had pee running down her wet right leg, and she hated herself for both actions. Only babies cried, and only babies peed themselves, but she was terrified and mortified at the same time, and that was a combination her stolid little will could not overcome.

She made it two rooms down from the big double doors, but a door to her right burst open, and she was grabbed by two rough and cruel hands. She shrieked as she was pulled into the yawning dim of that room, and it took her only a second to identify her assailant.

“You little scab!” hissed Madame Veuve Rouge.

The room was dimly lit by some flickering glass bulbs, but that was not what caused Maria to quake in fear. There was old and tattered furniture in here, two ancient divans and a chair, but they were covered in webs, and one of the divan’s had a cocoon draped across it with a withered and pitted hand poking out from its side. The entirety of the room was spanned with a giant web, and the beautiful and cruel woman that had grabbed her tossed Maria directly into the center of that web.

Maria cried out as her little back was stuck to it; it was like glue, and she couldn’t even move her arms.

“You just couldn’t be a good girl and wait your turn!” hissed Madame Veuve Rouge.

Her beautiful dress fell away and crumbled to dust as if it had never existed at all. She changed like the other woman had, but her transformation was fundamentally different.

Her head and bottom bulged outward as her skin turned a deep shade of red, her arms and legs sharpened to spear like points and elongated as four new and equally nasty-looking legs sprouted from her back. Her face stretched wide as her eyes popped outward until they were the size of tennis balls. New eyes appeared on her head as it had the monstrous woman upstairs, but not one of her eyes held the black of a pupil.

The effect was soul slashing and utterly terrifying, but not as terrifying as what happened next. Two menacing foot-long black fangs dropped from Madame Veuve Rouge’s head, and they dripped with saliva-laced venom as she jumped onto the web with practiced ease.

Maria screamed as the giant spider loomed over her, and that scream consisted of only one word.

“JAAAAAAAACK!” she shrieked.

“Quiet, little morsel,” gibbered the spider, and though Maria could understand that speech, it was choked like someone who was trying to talk with a wet sock in their mouth.

This thing that had been Madame Veuve Rouge stood straight and tall on its eight legs and aimed its big and grotesque bottom at Maria. Hot and sticky webbing shot from a hole in her abdomen as two serrated spinnerets moved with clacking efficiency to complete the snare. Maria’s mouth was glued shut as the hot webbing sprayed all over her. The webbing was soft and warm and had a pleasant smell, and even though her adrenaline was pumping for all it was worth, Maria felt dizzy and sleepy in its soothing grip…

But those two big red fangs dripping with caustic venom never reached her.

Jack appeared through the doorway and was in action a heartbeat before those terrible fangs would have sunk into Maria’s tender belly. Jack was upon the terrible creature a second later, and the tall and slender man in black struggled with the great spider upon its own web. Jack grabbed the monstrous two front legs of Madame Veuve Rouge and pushed her up and back. Even with his great strength, though, he struggled against her as if she were made of solid lead.

“You!” gibbered the great red spider. “How dare you enter my lair! Die, you foul thing!”

Maria watched in helpless fear as the giant arachnid lifted her big bottom and sprayed webbing all over Jack’s armored torso. The tall and dark man in the mask fell to the floor and on his back as the monstrous Madame pressed down upon him. This, however, did not deter him in any way.

“I warned you,” grunted Jack in his gravelly voice. “Now…you die.”

“You…are…NOTHING!” screeched the spider. “GET OUT OF MY LAIR!”

Jack’s gauntleted hands crunched closed on the Madame’s two front legs. He pulled hard, there was an awful tearing noise, and Madame Veuve Rouge’s front legs tore from her deformed body with a spurt of green and foul-smelling ichor. She screamed a long and terrible howl and raised up on her back four legs in shock and pain. Her two center legs raised high in a frantic wriggling, and Jack took that moment to kick up his legs as if he were about to push off her large and deformed, grotesque body.

“Burn,” said Jack as if stating a fact, and it was indeed a fact.

His big black boots spouted jets of searing orange flame from their heels, and Madame Veuve Rouge lit up like a bonfire made of driftwood. The creature screamed as it danced back upon its own burning web, and the fire spread across the silk matrix and then the whole of the room.

The webbing upon her mouth moved open as Maria struggled against the grain of it, and she shrieked in pain as the webbing on her right side caught fire like liquid fuel. The sudden shock of the pain and the smell of burning flesh caused her to scream in a higher and shriller voice than she thought capable, but she was torn free from the burning web a second later.

Jack drew her into his dark arms.

Maria was hit with a wave of absolute chill, there was the smell of decaying flesh, darkness encompassed her, and a strange and horrible whispering sprang forth from the everywhere that lay within that horrifying black void.

And then she was out. The whole of that experience could not have been longer than a second, but Maria was out into the dimly lit hallway in front of the entrance to this terrible building, a distance not possible for such a short period of time, but such an impossibility was irrelevant in comparison to the pain she was in.

Jack threw open the doors a second later.

Maria was carried out like she would carry her own knapsack, and Jack walked out as if it were nothing, as if this were a normal part of anyone’s day.

The street was littered with the torn and savaged bodies of “the charred ones,” but Maria was not concerned with them at the moment. Her right arm was throbbing with severe pain, and that pain informed her that this time she was badly hurt.

She cried and wailed from the pain, but Jack ignored her for the moment, set her down, and turned toward the now burning building that had been Le Maison de L’araignée Rouge.

The open doors were alight with flame, and a solitary burning figure stepped out from that fiery hell. It was a woman whom Maria did not recognize, but she was like the woman upstairs, with the long legs and big bulging bottom, but she was on fire, so it was impossible to tell what her original features had been. She took a few steps forward and dropped silently to the street to burn, and the stench from her flaming corpse was awful.

Maria cried as they watched the building burn. High and terrible shrieks echoed into the street from within the burning two-story, but then the raging inferno quelled all such noise until there was nothing but the sound of flaming wood and brick.

Jack turned and opened his duster to pull out Maria’s slightly singed but otherwise okay knapsack. He handed it to her, and she took it, but it did not relieve how she felt inside. Her right arm above her elbow was bright red and was bubbling up with yellow bumps, and it hurt so badly that she couldn’t really pay much attention to anything else.

“We have to go,” said Jack in his rough voice.

Maria did not struggle or argue as he picked her up and took to walking down the street with her. She was tired and in terrible pain, and not all of that pain was physical. She had lost James; he was gone forever, and now she was alone again, because Jack was a void of comfort and hope, and no one could replace James anyway.

They walked onward through the lamplit streets of Rory, but where they were going, Maria did not know. She did not care at that moment, for the loss of James had crippled her, but there was something else as well…

She had drawn a picture of a scary skeleton man in black, and considering her past experiences with her drawings while in Shame, nothing good was going to come from that picture, and that was not a pleasant thought. It was not a pleasant thought at all.

But even that picture and the nameless fear attached to it could not overcome the terrible loss she felt inside. She was broken now; she had lost something that could not be replaced, and wherever they were going, it was not going to make up for the loss of James.

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Rory Copyright © 2025 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott

Rory Copyright © 2019 Jack Be Nimble Matthew L. Marlott

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Author’s Note: The cover image for this story and was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of Canva.com. The image of “Jack (Rory appearance)” was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of SendFame.com, and modified courtesy of Canva.com.

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