“All I’m saying is it beats walking by a mile.” Liz argued from the passenger seat, her feet up on the dashboard.

“I’m not arguing that,” Millie replied irritatedly from the back, “I’m just saying that the whole concept of calling shotgun is stupid.”

“If we surrender the claim of shotgun we welcome anarchy,” Liz explained before reaching down beside her seat, “besides, I literally have a shotgun, so…”

“So what?” Millie scoffed, “It’s not like you’re going to fire it until we’re out of the van.”

“She might if she doesn’t put it down,” I pointed out, earning me an eye roll from Liz as she put her weapon back, “but seriously, next time say something before we head out and I’ll happily take the back.”

“And make me drive?” Millie asked, “I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be held responsible when this bucket kicks it.”

“She didn’t mean it, baby.” I whispered loudly, giving the steering wheel a soft pat, “Anyway, we’re almost there, you ready?”

“Ready and raring,” Millie replied sarcastically, smiling at me in the rearview, “sure you’re okay with me using your rifle though? I’m happy to hang back with the axe if you want.”

“Nah,” I said as we turned onto the tall grass-surrounded dirt road to Peterson’s, “I could use the practice with the axe. Not to mention you were a better shot than me before we got… You’ll put the rifle to better use is all I’m saying.”

“Alright, if you’re sure…” Millie trailed off, the mention of our rollback putting an odd feeling in the air.

Thankfully, Peterson’s house came into view not long after that, distracting us from and effectively quelling the weird tension.

“Looks like he’s already gone to bed,” Liz pointed out after taking her feet off the dashboard, “doesn’t speak well to him not shooting at us.”

“You two sit on Monster Mash,” I replied, parking us a good distance from the house with the headlights dimmed but not out, “if he starts firing into the field, do your best to stop him.”

“Do you mean shoot him?” Millie asked concernedly.

“What? No!” I chuckled, “Just shout at him a bunch, maybe squeeze a few shots into the air.”

“And what if he starts shooting at us?” Liz asked.

“That’s when you shoot him,” I half-joked, opening my door and grabbing the axe from behind my seat as I did, “now c’mon, we got some rodents to kill.”

Millie smirked at my little order, having expressed a certain level of enjoyment when I’d taken charge and been direct in the past, but said nothing until I’d climbed over the wooden fence into the tall grass and was out of earshot.

I’d come to enjoy it when Millie and Liz shared words behind my back, mostly because it was almost always something good, but I struggled to think about them at all as I ventured into the dark field.

Peterson had been smart enough to move his cattle elsewhere for the night, either to the barn or a neighboring pasture, which made matters slightly more difficult for me as I waded through the waist-high grass.

If there’d been any livestock, I’d have simply been able to wait for a panicked bleat or bellow and follow it, but without it I was blind to the skittering night critters.

To make matters worse, a healthy constant breeze had decided to sweep across the field, making it all but impossible to look for signs of movement.

“Alright…” I muttered as I came to a stop a good hundred feet from where I’d started, trying my hardest to come up with any sort of plan, “alright, alright, alright…”

“Anything!?” Liz called across the field, her voice carried by the wind.

“Nothin’!” I shouted, preparing to make my way back to the van, “Mayb-”

I’m still not sure if it was dumb luck or divine intervention that helped me that night, but at the exact moment before I’d given in the moon seemed to shine a little brighter, glinting off my axe and into my eyes, forcing an idea into my mind.

“You alright!?” Millie asked after a few moments of me staring at the axe.

“Yeah!” I called back reassuringly, shaking myself loose of the axe’s spell as I put the blade to my free palm, “I just… yeah…”

Have to say, baiting myself was probably my least favorite part of the job, not least of all because it often hurt like a motherfucker.

“Oh…” I groaned after drawing the silver blade across my hand, going a good deal deeper than I’d intended, “Not good…”

On one hand, I knew I was going to draw in the Chupacabras.

On the other, I had two vampire girlfriends and a dislike for getting stitches.

Struggling with whether or not I should let the girls in on my plan, I started walking in a circle, running my bloody hand across the grass as I did and noting the telltale cautious chittering that was slowly closing in on me.

“You didn’t, did you?” Liz snarled, her animalistic tendencies clearly barely being held back by her feelings for me, “Please tell me that’s not you.”

“You got a better idea?” I called over my shoulder as I made my way to the center of my bait circle, my wounded hand closed and against my chest.

“Literally any other idea!” Millie barked, her voice indicating she was a good deal more annoyed with me than Liz, “You could’ve at least warned us!”

“Yeah, well…” I trailed off, the chittering growing into excited growls as a dozen fiery eyes breached my blood circle, “you live and you learn…”

Fun fact; sometimes you don’t.

Sometimes you just die.