Even the best outhouses stink. The State Park service had valiantly maintained this one in the time of vampires but the lid had been left up and the smell was almost visible. She didn’t think to look in the hole before sitting down.

Breathing through her mouth (which always made her feel like she was swallowing invisible poison), she perched her “bright, perky little butt” on the seat.

She had wanted Lavinia to hurt her for real; wherever that came from, she was ready to walk away from it.

She finished, reached down to wipe – and froze as something tickled her bottom.

Skin crawling, she let her eyes focus on that dark space beneath her vulnerable nakedness. Nothing (except the usual reason not to look into a privy). The touch came again and she stifled a shriek.

Two flies emerged and buzzed wildly in the dim light.

She should have known, she thought, heart hammering. If the vampires hid down there in daylight, she’d have smelled it on their clothes last night. And if they could move enough to tickle her, they would have torn her up before she knew it.

She pulled up her pants and picked up the holding tank, wishing there were vampires down there. But no, now that she had seen their humanity, she couldn’t have dumped a chamber pot on their heads.

She started to pour blue chemicals and unmentionables into the hole, and froze again, stunned. She had just realized something so basic and obvious that the whole world had missed it.

And with that revelation, the course of her life was clear.

Sally Yan did not have the gift of finding answers to questions. Her gift was this: when she stumbled on the answer, she could always recognize it.

She finished pouring, closed the lid virtuously and stepped outside with a lighter load, puffing the poison out of her lungs before taking that first breath of fresh air.

The sun had just touched the parking lot. A solitary car rounded a distant corner of the highway.

The body in the slanting sun quivered.

Sally snapped into battle mode and edged cautiously closer. Fresh blood pooled under the neck and horrible faint gurgling sounds came from the destroyed throat.

The creature was a man in his late 20s with a handsome brown scholarly face which looked accustomed to making daring arguments in the courtroom. Was he in ecstasy from the sunlight? She couldn’t tell from the awful sounds.

Not sure what to do, she knelt and laid a hand on his upper arm. He had blood to bleed; had the sun done this in just a few minutes?

His eyes looked naked, as if he usually wore glasses. His head lolled helplessly with intense emotion but she still couldn’t tell whether it was orgasm or anguish. If there had been tears, she would have been sure he was crying.

She said vaguely, “It’s alright,” but the light in his eyes went out at that instant and he was truly dead.

I won’t be able to help everybody, no matter what, she reminded herself miserably.

The hum of an approaching engine blossomed into a roar and Sally realized she was alone with a body which didn’t look like a vampire anymore. She thought wildly of dragging it out of sight or dumping it into the outhouse but the putt-putting little car drove past without noticing her and labored up the next hill in a cloud of bluish smoke. As soon as it was gone, she dragged the body into tall bushes at the edge of the lot.

Then she walked up to the camper’s rear doors and pulled them open, knowing exactly what she needed to say to Lavinia.

Lavinia, for all her tough act (and oh, Sally knew about the tough act) was watching with big eyes, waiting for her answer.

♦

Walter LaMont stood basking in the morning sun, eyes closed. Charity Clare walked up to the window and touched him shyly on the shoulder.

He turned and smiled while Jesse bustled around, setting the breakfast table for two. Charity wasn’t sure how to put what she wanted to say. But his face held such understanding that all she said was, “You’re welcome in my home, any time you want to come visit.”

“Thank you, dear,” he said quietly. “I know how much that means to you.”

“You too, of course,” she said quickly to Jesse, embarrassed.

“We’re a package deal,” Jesse grinned, not offended in the least.

Charity smiled shyly and rehearsed again the words she would say when the sun went down. “Welcome. Come in. Welcome.”

She pictured the vampires flooding in…