The Shepherd

  And she hadn’t lied about this one detail. Nadia walked right past my Dad asleep on the couch. But she wasn’t helping me walk in. She carried me, cradled in her arms like an oversized baby. She laid me down on my bed slow and careful. And there it was again, that super creepy thing when she cried – tears of blood ran down her cheeks. She cried softly as she brushed the hair from my forehead.

  God, I looked like shit.

  Made me want to cry too. My nose was busted open, blood all over my face. I hadn’t really known how bad it was. Watching Nadia cry while she removed my shirt, I reached up to feel my nose, looking for some evidence of my injuries. It had only been three days since this happened.

  My nose didn’t have a single mark or scar, and didn’t even hurt anymore.

  And then bam, I jumped-flashed to another scene, a place that was almost as familiar as my own home – Rachelle Werner’s house. Nadia was there, climbing in Rachelle’s window.

  Shit, this couldn’t be good.

  I followed her, cupping my hands against the window to see inside as Nadia slinked around Rachelle’s room, silent as a cat burglar.

  Being here gave me a sense of nostalgia. I recalled the countless times I’d been in her room when I had lived down the street. Some of the décor was new, but I recognized the sleeping beauty in bed, her golden hair fanned out across the pillow. I stared at Rachelle for a few seconds, wondering if she might wake up, but she slept soundly. I watched Nadia, dreading what I suspected would happen, had already happened.

  She reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled out a small glass vial of clear fluid.

  The little demon popped open the top of a lotion bottle on Rachelle’s dresser, and dumped the entire contents of the vial into it. Nadia capped the lotion bottle and shook it up vigorously, ensuring a good even mixture throughout. I shook my head in denial. Why did she do it? Acid?

  Though I knew it must have happened exactly like this, I still found it hard to believe.

  Another jump-flash hit me all too soon. Sand dunes, a campfire surrounded by teenagers sparked and smoked into the cool night air. Several vehicles and motorbikes were parked nearby where Nadia stood blended into the shadows. She was stalking Tommy and some of his wrestler buddies clustered around the fire, drinking and chatting. Justin was there too, beer in hand, running his mouth as usual. They spoke loudly over the top of the music blaring from the stereo in Tommy’s Jeep Wrangler.

  Justin yelled towards Tommy, “Forget about her dude. She’s not worth it. She’s been playing you all along. Rachelle’s nothing but a dumb-ass blonde, a cheerleader! I bet she’ll be calling and texting by tomorrow, begging you to take her back. Give it a couple days. I got it! Her friends, dude. Go screw all her friends. Bang the whole cheerleading squad. Shit, have a couple threesomes! That’ll show her she’s nothing special! I’ll give you Lindsey’s number, you can start with her. She doesn’t mean anything to me, and she’s one of Rachelle’s best friends.”

  Justin looked eerily demonic with the flickering light of the fire dancing across his malicious drunken face. This was a side of Justin I had never seen, his drunken asshole side. Justin was always obnoxious, but this went above and beyond.

  Completely sloshed, Justin rambled on and on. Tommy ignored him for the most part, sitting and staring into the fire, nursing his beer. I did a double-take on Tommy, he looked like hell: black eyes, split-scabby lips, one of his lower front teeth missing, a scabbed cut above his left eye. I must have rocked his world.

  I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. Tommy had needed his ass kicked. He deserved every lick of the beating I had given him.

  A wrestler, Derek, yelled at the top of his lungs, “Fuck Rachelle Werner and her big tits!” They all chuckled and snickered.

  Tommy threw his hands in the air. “I can’t believe that bitch broke up with me.”

  Justin was right on top of it. “She ain’t shit, bro. I’m telling you, tag all her friends, that’ll show her!”

  Tommy snapped, “Yeah, fuck it!” He leaped up from his seat atop the beer cooler, downed his beer and headed for a Yamaha dirt bike leaned up against his Jeep. He pushed the bike out into the sand a few yards away from the fire, closer to the darkness where Nadia waited.

  Tommy kicked down hard to bring the dirt bike to life, revving the throttle. Must be nice to have real estate agent parents who can afford brand new toys for their son. Tommy had a Yamaha dirt bike, Kawasaki Jet Ski, Jeep Wrangler, and even a snowmobile.

  Nadia flowed across the sand straight for Tommy. He was far enough away from the fire that no one else could see her. Tommy revved the bike a couple more times and reached for his helmet in the sand.

  Nadia kicked the helmet out of his grasp and growled in his face. “I have a message from Mike Evans. Fuck off.” She lashed out across Tommy’s bruised cheek, leaving two red slashes from ear to nose. Her wicked little nails drew blood. Then she laughed. “Catch me if you can!”

  Nadia danced off into the darkness. Tommy yelled in pain and rage, a murderous fire in his pale grey-blue eyes. She had him riled.

  He peeled out, throwing a rooster tail of sand all over the campfire, and raced off to chase her down. He flicked on the headlights to find her off in the distance running fast. Tommy gunned it, opening the throttle up, leaning forward on the bike as he closed the distance between them.

  I flowed right along with him, seeing everything he saw.

  He seemed to catch up with her, but like a Spanish bull fighter, she spun out of the way and took off in a different direction.

  Tommy leaned into a tight turn, adjusting course to catch her again. She was headed up a small sand dune. He laid into the throttle, racing to scale the dune, closing the distance. The two of them topped the crest of the dune almost at the same time. She did it again, dancing out of the way. Tommy ripped past her and went flying into the jump. They were so close in that moment, that she reached out and slapped him across the face.

  Snarling in rage, Tommy flew ten feet and landed in the loose sand. He fishtailed back and forth to regain control of the bike. As he turned, his bike spitting sand in a fan-like spray, he spotted Nadia and yelled, “You bitch! Your ass is mine!”

  Angry and drunk, he never seemed to notice the oddity of this little slip of a girl outrunning and outmaneuvering him.

  Nadia laughed, stuck her svelte little butt out and spanked it in a taunt. She was having a blast with the whole thing. She took off running again and Tommy took the bait. He throttled up the bike to give chase. He followed her for several minutes, tearing through the dunes and out onto the harder packed surface, to a track with berms and a series of low-rise three foot humps. Coming out the berms, he hit the humps and had to slow down to maintain control.

  As soon as he cleared the track he caught sight of her again. She stood about forty to fifty yards away, waiting for him. He seemed insulted that she wasn’t running anymore. Tommy gunned it, leaning down into the throttle. He accelerated fast, easily doing forty some miles an hour. As he drew down on her, and she didn’t move, he throttled back and downshifted. She just stood there, not even flinching. At the very last second, mere inches from nailing her head on, she spun to the side in a flash yelling, “Ole!” A bullfighter to his motorized bull.

  Tommy realized far too late that she was perched on the edge of a precipice, nothing but open air behind her. He sailed through the air over fifty feet above the pit floor. He looked back over his shoulder at her as he descended into the darkness of the pit below.

  She blew him a kiss goodbye.

  He lost grip on the bike and its weight dropped out from under him. Tommy hit the pit floor seconds after the bike, and tumbled to rest in a broken heap. The bike bounced off to the side to stall out.

  Tommy laid dead – a pile of broken bones.

  The vision ended abruptly with a jump-flash back to the here and now, on the sandy beach a couple miles away from Tommy’s pit of death. I was on my knees, breathing in gasps, trying hard no
t to hurl again. I looked into the face of the Nadia-thing and spit out the accusation, “Murderer! You killed him! It wasn’t an accident. You killed Tommy Schroeder!”

  She didn’t flinch or look away and she wasn’t crying anymore. No guilt, no remorse. She answered levelly, “I told you I couldn’t allow the situation to continue. He was a problem, a serious threat. He hurt you bad. And he would have done it again if I hadn’t put a stop to it. He’ll never hurt you again.” She spoke insane words with cold, rational, reason.

  “And what about Rachelle? How did she deserve what you did to her?” I picked myself up off the ground and stood on legs shaky from vertigo and the adrenaline roller coaster I’d been riding for far too long.

  “Betrayal? Humiliation? Deception? There are many ways to hurt someone, especially when they hold your heart in their hands. Rachelle was a problem. Her beauty masked the ugliness inside. Now, she’s not so beautiful. A fitting punishment. I could have killed her, but it’s better that she live this way.”

  Her words made me sick. The twisted logic made sense in a perverse way, but there was still no excuse for what she had done. “I don’t want you in my life. I don’t want your help or protection. You’re sick, you’re a murderer. Leave me be. Leave me alone!”

  I threw her locket as if it had burned my hand. She snatched it out of the air with cat-like reflexes.

  “A promise is a promise, Misha. I love you. I’ve always loved you. You promised me forever! No one and nothing can take you away from me! Not even Anita! You’re mine! And Justin’s become a problem too. I will deal with him very soon!”

  Her terrifying words cut me to the bone. Everyone I knew was at risk, a potential target. I broke into a cold sweat with the horrifying thought of Nadia attacking Anita or Justin in some twisted idea of possessiveness or protection. Nadia stepped up close, her hands held out for a welcoming embrace.

  “No! Stay away from me. Stay away from Anita and Justin. They haven’t done anything. Leave us all alone!” I darted to my car, started it up and reversed off the beach, spitting sand all the way to the gravel Sand Dunes Road. Nadia stood there in my headlights, a hurt, pouty look on her face. It was the first time I’d ever pushed her away.

  * * * *

  Chapter 17

  Thursday, October 28th, 12:50 a.m.

  I raced down Sand Dunes Road. My guts twisted and my hands shook with panic as my car slipped and slid on the gravelly turns. My heart pounded up in my throat as I fought with the wheel on a tight turn. Sliding out of control, I skidded to a stop at the edge of one of those pits, a forty foot drop two feet from my grill.

  “Slow down Mike, slow down.”

  I hyperventilated, looking in all directions for the elusive Nadia in pursuit. When I caught my breath, I backed up slowly from the edge and spun off down the gravel road, racing against time.

  My head ached as if the hands of God had squeezed my temples, squishing what little juice I might provide. I felt like two different Mike Evans. The skater Mike with a girlfriend and a part-time job, and the clairvoyant Mike with grisly visions of death, murderous vampires, fighting a losing battle to save my friends.

  I reeled with all the implications of Nadia’s promise to protect me, even from Anita. I had to get to Anita and Justin to warn them. I had to make them understand how dangerous this little girl-creature truly was. Anita’s house on Hill Road was closer. From there I’d go straight to Justin in Knolls Vista, Northshore Drive, five doors down from Rachelle.

  I parked across the street from Anita’s so as not to wake anyone. Peering through her bedroom window, I found her asleep, window locked. I dialed her cell and watched as it lit up on the bedside nightstand. Her phone lit up with a song by Beyoncé playing as her ringtone.

  She didn’t answer until the fourth ring. “Hello.” She sounded as groggy as she looked.

  “Hey, Anita, I’m outside right now, take a look.” She looked up in surprise and I waved to her, motioning her to the window. “Let me in, we need to talk!”

  She was still half asleep and confused. “Hunh?”

  “The window. Open the window.” I tapped on the window lightly.

  She slid out of bed and opened the window. I climbed inside to embrace her. She hugged me back, warm and inviting, whispering in my ear, “Are you okay?”

  I held her tight and buried my face in her wonderful kiwi-strawberry scented hair. She wore only a white T-shirt and black panties. Her wonderful D cup breasts pressed against my chest through the thin cotton T-shirt, no bra.

  I wanted to stand there forever, holding this beautiful, soft, half-naked girl in my arms. But time was short. “Yeah, I’m better now. I’m sorry I yelled at you, I was really upset. I needed to be alone for a while.” In an insane world of horrific girl-creatures, Anita’s warm hug was a badly-needed dose of normalcy, reality.

  “I didn’t think you cared that much about Tommy.” She held onto me, and I knew this girl was the one. She was so loving, so forgiving.

  “Well, I don’t … not really. Listen, there’s something really important I have to tell you. It’s gonna be hard to believe, but it’s true. Do you trust me to tell you the truth?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, but her eyes looked wary, expecting something bad.

  “You heard about what happened to Rachelle right?” Anita nodded again, she looked almost afraid to hear what I had to say. “I know who did it. I know who put the acid in her lotion.”

  “How did you find out?” Anita’s face held a confusion I found disconcerting.

  “Someone told me, but first, you know it wasn’t me right?

  “I know you’d never do anything like that. I wouldn’t either, though I have considered kicking Rachelle’s little blonde ass. But acid! Ooohh, that’s so gross!”

  “Nadia did it. And she did it for me.”

  “Are you sure it was her? She doesn’t even know Rachelle. What does she have against her?”

  “Yes I’m sure. She admitted it.”

  I decided against telling Anita about my visions, definitely not prepared for that confession. What I had to say would be hard enough to swallow without adding anything else to the mix.

  “Nadia is a vampire. She’s like a hundred years old, and she’s obsessed with me. She hated Rachelle for setting up that fight with Tommy. But that’s not all. Nadia caused Tommy’s accident. There was no accident. She did it. She tricked Tommy into riding his bike into that pit at high speed.” I tried to remain calm and hold eye contact the whole time. To impress my sincerity.

  Anita’s face ran through the gamut of shock, surprise, and disbelief. “That’s so wild! Do you hear what you’re saying? Do you hear how crazy that sounds?”

  “I know. I know. But you’ve gotta believe me, she has her reasons. If you understand her it almost makes sense. It’s twisted and gross, but it makes sense to her. Did you ever hear her call me Misha?”

  “Uh, yeah, she does it all the time. I thought it was funny, like a pet name or something. I’ve always thought she was stuck on you. She’s got a major crush. It’s cute. She’s definitely attached to you.” Strangely, Anita had accepted this fact.

  “Listen. It’s not cute. The girl is extremely dangerous. This guy Misha, he was someone she knew in 1917. His name was Mikhail, Misha was just a nickname. She’s convinced I’m Mikhail reincarnated. The really freaky part is that he looked exactly like me. She has an old black and white picture of him. It’s so creepy! He could be my twin.”

  “How do you know this for sure? Maybe she’s just a nutjob. How do you know she was alive in 1917? How do you know she’s a vampire? There’s all kinds of Goth chics who are into that vampire thing. They get all painted up and put fangs on. Some of them even drink a little blood.”

  “Just listen to me. I’ll explain. You have to see this picture of Mikhail. It’s really old, like one of those Wild West photos. I have seen her do things that you wouldn’t believe.”

  Time to come clean.

  I explained how we
met the night Nadia was hit by a car on the highway. I told her how Nadia carried me in her arms into my own trailer after my fight with Tommy. I told her what happened at the skatepark when I caught Nadia feeding from Taylor, and how inhumanly fast she ran across the sand while I chased her down to the beach on the south end.

  “Holy shit! Are you for real? Tell me this is all a sick joke.”

  “No, Anita, it’s real. I asked if you trust me, remember?”

  “Fine! But what does all this have to do with Tommy and Rachelle? And why would she want to hurt them?”

  “Gimme a minute! I’m getting there. She thinks I’m Mikhail, and he died – well actually she killed him. It was kind of an accident. I’ll tell you more on that later. The point is, she thinks I’m her second chance with Mikhail. She’s obsessed with the idea of protecting me from harm. She went after Tommy and Rachelle because they were a threat to me.”

  “Oh gaaad, that is so creepy!”

  “I know. I haven’t told you this, but she’s been giving me money all this time. That’s how I could afford the tuxedo for homecoming. She’s … taking care of me. Do you see where this is going?”

  “Yeah, so if she’s got all that money, why is she always jackin’ stuff from Wal-Mart? She could steal the pants right off the security guard.” She had me laughing, a welcome break in the tension.

  “I don’t know. She’s weird like that. I don’t understand it either. Did you ever see her hypnotize that bald security guard?”

  Anita shook her head. “It’s kinda hard to believe.”

  I nodded, thinking about how I hadn’t told Anita the entire truth, how Nadia had been sleeping in my bed every night, up close and personal.

  “I’m dead serious, Anita, it’s all true. And she said something that’s really got me worried. She mentioned you and Justin. She was talking like you and Justin were a threat, like she might go after you. I think she’s psychotically possessive. She said she wasn’t jealous of you, but she acts like I belong to her, and she won’t let anyone get in her way. I’m really scared she might do something evil to you.”