Chapter 10

By 1:30 PM on Saturday afternoon, the two of them had been on the road for two and a half hours. They'd spent the last 30 minutes driving in an open convertible, past patches of wild cactus, along a two-lane asphalt road, through the arid southern California countryside. Now their trip was almost over. They were approaching Sunnydale.

"I can't believe we're doing this." said Brandon, who sat in the front passenger seat. "We're actually driving along, with a dead woman in the trunk of our car."

"Correction." Dylan, who was behind the wheel said, "That's an ‘undead’ woman."

Brandon sighed. "The things we do for love."

They drove past the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign, rounded a curve and the town came into sight. From a distance, in the daytime, it looked like any typical southern California community.

They drove on further, and came to the Sunnydale Motor Lodge, pulled off the road here, and drove up to the office where they checked in. Then they drove over to room 103, and parked outside.

Behind the window to room 104, the blinds were shut. One slat in the blinds opened a crack. The room's occupant looked through the crack, to see Brandon and Dylan getting out of their car.

The occupant thought, They've found me?

The new arrivals reached into the back seat, and each took out an overnight bag. They shut and locked the car, then carried their bags into room 103.

They haven't come to my door? Room 104's occupant wondered. They're staying in the next room? Do they know I'm here?

The two guys went back out into the parking lot, stood behind Dylan's car and looked around.

"Okay." Brandon said, "No cars coming in either direction."

Dylan knocked on the trunk three times. "Kelly!" He called out, "Are you ready?"

A woman's muffled voice came from inside the trunk. "Okay! You can open it now!"

Dylan unlocked the trunk, and opened it wide. Inside the trunk, Kelly was lying, completely covered from head to foot in a blue blanket; like an Arab woman in traditional robes. Her face was also covered with a towel. A plastic red and white cooler was beside her.

Brandon asked, "Are you breathing okay?"

"I'm a vampire Brandon." She spoke through the towel. "I'm not breathing at all."

"You're not? Then how are you able to speak?"

"I have no idea. Do you guys want to help me get out of here?"

Dylan and Brandon reached in, took her by the arms, which she kept folded inside the blanket, and helped lift her up and out of the trunk. Then she stood on the parking lot's asphalt pavement.

A few wisps of smoke began rising from the blanket’s surface, while Kelly started to tremble. She pulled off the towel which had also started to smoke.

Brandon shouted, "Let's get inside quick!"

Kelly dropped the smoking blanket and towel on the pavement, as the three hurried inside Motel Room 103.

Then Brandon went back out to the car, reached in the trunk again, and lifted out the red and white plastic cooler with both hands. He shut the trunk and carried the cooler into the Motel Room. Dylan shut the door behind him. Dylan had also shut the blinds, and turned on a lamp.

Kelly now stood trembling before the mirror on the wall above the dresser, still wearing the modest blue dress.

Dylan asked, “Are you okay now?”

She nodded and her trembling stopped.

"I look awful!" She said, "My hair's a mess. I don't have a comb or any make-up either."

Dylan said, "That's okay. We'll get you whatever you need when we're in town."

Rooms 103 and 104 were adjoining. The occupant of 104 knelt beside the adjoining doors, listening to their voices.

Now Brandon spoke. "Wait a minute? You can see yourself in that mirror? I can't see your reflection."

"Neither can I." said Dylan.

"But I can see myself." Kelly told them, "I've heard that about vampires."

Then she asked, "So now what?"

Dylan said, "Now it's time for me and Brandon to drive on into town, and start looking for that 'Slayer-Vampire Slayer’s consecrated shrunken head', and that person with magical powers. If we’re lucky, you might actually have your soul restored before it gets dark."

Brandon asked, "You won't have any problem with us leaving you alone like this, will you Kelly?"

"It's okay. No problem. The room's got cable TV, and there's that cooler full of pigs' blood," she smiled, "and the good stuff too. There's no reason for me to go outside. Both of you can take all the time you need."

Brandon and Dylan then went out the door, shutting it behind themselves. Kelly heard the car's engine start, and the vehicle driving off.

Now she was alone in the room. The time was a little after 2 in the afternoon. She sat on the edge of the double bed nearest the door, and wondered, Now what? Brandon and Dylan are gonna be gone for the rest of the day. What do I do until they return?

She looked at the plastic cooler on the floor, under the window.

I'm not hungry now. I have no idea when I'll be hungry again. I think I saw something about that on the website, but I didn't get around to reading it. I'll see what's on TV.

The TV's remote control tuner lay on the night table between the headboards of both beds. She got up to reach for the device. Then she halted.

The sound of a door opening was coming through a door in the wall across from the foot of both beds.

That's not a closet, she thought. It's the door to an adjoining room!

Somebody's coming in here.

She felt her fangs instinctively extend.

No trouble please! She thought I don't want any trouble!

Then the door to the adjoining room swung open, and a woman around Kelly's age stepped into Room 103. The woman had dark hair, and wore the same low cut, thigh high, tight, shimmering green dress that she'd had on the night before, in the After/Dark Nightclub.

She and Kelly looked at each other uneasily for a long, uncomfortable moment.

Then the woman said, "Hi Kelly."

"Good afternoon Valerie." Kelly asked, "How you been?"

"Dead." Valerie told her, "Then undead. You?"

Kelly felt her fangs retract. "Same here."

"Before I became undead," Valerie told her, "I was in Hell. No surprise huh? How about you?"

"I have no memory from when I was dead. After I woke up I finally remembered what really did happen to me, just before I died. I remember being attacked by a woman vampire named Harmony."

"Hey! Whatever she told you, I didn't ask Harmony to kill you!"

"She said you told her that I was the one who you wanted killed the most."

"She misunderstood me." Valerie said, "I didn't say that I wanted her to kill you. I meant that I wanted to do it myself."

Kelly said, "Then you're too late."

Valerie shrugged. "And it wouldn't have done any good anyway. We're now both vampire women. I've got fangs and so do you, but that still hasn't stopped you from being the one who gets the guys. Two of them! Together! In the same motel room!"

There was another uncomfortable silence between them for a few moments.

Then Kelly asked, "So this is where you've been hiding out? The Sunnydale Motor Lodge of all places."

"Safe place for an innocent vampire to hide, 'til things cool down; and I can stop worrying about people I know, wanting to ram a sharp wooden stake through my heart; or at least I thought it was safe."

"Innocent?" Kelly chuckled. "You?"

"Yeah! me! 'Innocent' defined as not guilty of any involvement in your killing, or killing anyone else.

"When I saw Dylan and Brandon drive up, I was sure they'd found me; and they were gonna be coming in here after me, with sharp wooden stakes. But they didn't come to my room. They came in here with you instead. You had no idea I was here, did you?"

"Not until now Valerie. Why'd you come in here anyway? If you'd just stayed in your room, we wouldn't have known.”

"That's what I was planning; but while I was eavesdropping, I heard one of you mention the shrunken head of a Slayer-Vampire Slayer. That's what the guys have gone looking for. They want to use it to restore your soul. I'd like to be included in the same restoration."

Kelly sounded puzzled. "Now since when would somebody like you, want her soul restored? I think you'd be a lot more comfortable without one."

"Not as comfortable as you think. Believe it or not Kelly, I want another chance."

"Another chance to do what?"

"To keep from going back to Hell, Kelly." Valerie went on. "Hell is real, and it's exactly like what those Fundamentalist Preachers say, and what you see in those medieval paintings; fire and brimstone and demons with horns, sticking burning pitchforks into you. It's all real."

"Oh." Kelly shuddered, "Demons really do stick pitchforks in you?"

"Yeah. I had my own personal demon named Egbert. He had a fiery pitchfork stabbed inside my naked body, and he was never gonna take it out."

Kelly laughed. "'Egg-Bert'?"

"Yeah. He was giving me multiple orgasms of extreme agony. If I hadn't become undead, that would have gone on forever, and when I say 'forever', that isn't a figure of speech."

"Multiple orgasms?"

"Right. My pussy was on fire! And that’s not a figure of speech either. I'm totally in fiery hot love with that horny fella. Forever."

"In love? With a guy who set fire to your…"

"That’s being in love in Hell; or being in fiery hot lust, of the kinkiest, most thoroughly degrading, masochistic kind. Nobody does it better than Eggy. I just couldn’t get enough. But that's not enough for me to be in any hurry to go back for more.”