Body and Soul, Chapter 1

[feste_sylvain]

The Worst Day of My Life
I like to think of myself as a competent dad, but when my wife went out to one of her hen parties, leaving me as a single parent for the evening, I somehow believe that ordering a pizza for Jennifer and me was all I have to do tonight. Jennifer is six, and the light of our lives. She is energetic, makes up wonderful stories (as in, "Alice had a wonderful adventure underground"), and is convinced that pepperoni is the best thing ever, even if it only shows up on pizzas.

So I'm upstairs, just turning the light on against the autumn dusk, when I hear the heart-shattering crash. Breaking glass doesn't sound like you think it should, because the movies always use sculpted sugar for their windows and bottles when they break. I rush downstairs to the sharp sound, and find my Jennifer lacerated up her arm. She must have been leaning on the window again to get a good look at the birdhouse, and this time the window gave way.

There's blood. There's way too much blood. But it has glass in it.

Omigod omigod omigod.

I scoop up Jennifer and run out the front door to my car. The part of my brain that was once a Boy Scout remembers pressure points, and I give Jennifer one of her jackets which was near the door. "Here, I'm going to wrap this around your armpit; can you squeeze down?" It's hard to get this message through, as she's still screaming in pain. But I hold her bleeding, glass-filled arm to her side, and the gawdawful flow of blood seems to slow down. But her face is pale. I jump into the driver's seat and floor the gas.

When her screams reduce to a whimper, I remember that I still have my cell phone. Somehow, as I'm driving too fast for this residential street, I manage to call 911. "My daughter fell through a window, she's bleeding bad, she has glass in her arm, and I'm driving her as fast as I can to Nora Breen Memorial Hospital!"

The 911 officer repeats what I told her, and then asks, "Do you need an ambulance?"

"No! I'm driving her to the ER right now!"

"How may we be of service?"

"I can't be stopped for speeding right now! I need the hospital to be prepared! My daughter may be dying!"

And as I say that, I feel a chill run down my spine.

"I'm alerting patrol cars in your area now sir."

Maybe I hang up, maybe I just drop the phone. I don't know. I'm driving faster than I have since I was a teenager. I don't hear Jennifer anymore. "What's that, Jennifer? Speak to me!"

Jennifer moans pitifully. I don't think I've ever been happier to hear her whine. "Stay with me! We're almost at the hospital! Keep squeezing the jacket in your armpit!"

I smell the blood. There's too much blood. But I turn onto the hospital's access road, and see the ER driveway ahead.

And there's a man in the road.

In the middle of the road.

Facing me.

I try to swerve around him, but I'm going too fast. But just as I'm about to hit him, strike him down, flatten him, he steps aside?

There's a crunching sound, but it's coming from around my feet, and then my car flips over.

Jennifer screams, thank God. I'm completely out of control. Did that man just get out of the way and then flip my car? The world twirls past twice, my head is slammed against the driver's side window, and something is spraying blood all over. Jennifer? No, not Jennifer.

This is my blood now. My head is slammed against the roof, or maybe the roof is slamming against my head. I'm upside down. No, I'm sideways. No, I'm right-side up.

My daughter is bleeding to death, I'm bleeding to death, and I can see the hospital from here.

And the man from the road is walking toward my car.

He rips the door off.

He looks at me, and looks at Jennifer, and then rips the back door off.

Omigod, he's going for Jennifer.

My vision is blurring, but I could swear that the man is bald and has pointed ears and gigantic teeth. The part of my brain that was once a teenage goth is screaming "vampire!", but that's ridiculous. But he's going for Jennifer.

I somehow get my seatbelt off, and lurch for the man, even as he's trying to get Jennifer out of her belt. I try pulling at his black trench-coat ("vampire!"), but he doesn't budge. Jennifer gives one of the weakest screams I've ever heard. Omigod omigod omigod.

I look at the ground, and find a broken tree limb. Stabbing vampires with wood makes them go poof, right? Weakly, I jab the raw stake at his back.

He turns. His eyes are red, his skin is gray, his ears really are pointed, his teeth really are huge. He grabs me by my neck, and... and... LICKS MY HEAD! My bleeding head! Omigod.

I hit his head with the stick, but it just bounces off. I twist my head and bite his arm, the arm which is throttling my neck.

At that, he devotes his full attention to me. The arm which was throttling me, the hand which was throttling me, moves down to my shoulder. His other hand grabs my head and pushes it aside. He exposes my neck completely, and chomps down.

Everything goes dark, but I still hear Jennifer.

I have to save her.

I must keep going.

I have to save her.

I must keep going.

I have to save her.

I must keep going.

I have to save her.

I must keep going.

I have to save her.

I must keep going.

I fly to Jennifer, right through the wrestling men. I try to grab her, but my hands go right through the back seat of the car. My arms reach into her, and suddenly I feel more pain and numbness, at the same time, and I just can't grab her.

I snap my head back, pinning Mr. Grisly's head between mine and my shoulder. He grunts, and if a grunt can sound surprised, it's a surprised grunt. That weakness I felt earlier just drips away from me. I am strong. I reach to the ground for that dead tree branch I dropped earlier.

I fly to the hospital, and find an ambulance. The driver is sitting in the driver's seat, the engine is already running, but he's listening to the same 911 officer that I talked to minutes ago. She's claiming that I ought to be there with my bleeding daughter. I try to grab the driver, expecting my arms to bounce off, but maybe that will get his attention, when I get sucked right into the man. I can feel the steering wheel. I drive.

I bash Mr. Grisly over the head with the tree limb, and he drops to his knees. His head also breaks the branch into a convenient pointy shape. This time when I jab his chest with it, he doesn't just get annoyed. He doesn't go poof, either. What he does is go completely rigid. I toss this body-branch combination into the trees behind the road, just in time to see the ambulance coming.

I start to boil as I drive the ambulance to the wreck of my car. I can't hold on much longer. But I have to save Jennifer! I pop out of the driver like a watermelon seed, straight up through the roof of the ambulance. The ambulance swerves underneath me, but then heads straight for the wreck of my car.

I reach into the car and snap away Jennifer's seat belt. She's still clamping the jacket in her armpit. What a trouper! And she's still bleeding, and that smells so sweet. No! This is Jennifer! But this is blood. But this is Jennifer. The ambulance driver is pulling up beside me, and looking at me and then the car. "Save her", I try to say, but all that comes out is a grunt. So I point, and I back away. I don't think I can resist the blood for long.

I look down at the vampire ("vampire"?), but he looks different. He looks like me. But he was throwing things around, and he was snapping off Jennifer's seat belt. But the driver is now scooping Jennifer up out of the wreck, and running her to his rig. "We're right here!", the driver is shouting. "Hang on, girl! Hang on!" And the vampire is running away.

What the hell just happened?

What in heaven's name just happened?