First Time

The black van pulled up to the farm house. James leaned forward to look at it, past Marcus, the driver.
“You know, in all those films, that would be a wooden house, not a think stone walled house, with doors that look so sturdy you need a battering ram to get through them”
“Dem’s de breaks man”
“So, into the breach then”
“Yup”
“How do we know that it’ll still be in there”
“we don’t”
James looked at his companion, who simply shrugged at him. They were following the vaugest of leads, from a guy in the pub that mentioned that he’d not herd anything from the people who lived here in a few days. The signs on the way up the long drive showed neglect. Cows with udders fit to burst, gates broken open as hungry animals went in search of food. They’d been following something for a few days, though always a few steps behind. A trail of empty houses, rumours of missing people. The problem is that buy the time people actually get reported missing it could be days, and in that time it was long gone.

James stepped out of the van, and headed towards the door. He touched it, half expecting it to creek open as it so often does in the horror films. It didn’t. It stayed closed. James pushed it a little harder, just in case. Marcus leaned out of the window and looked at him. James shrugged back. He reached for the door knob and turned it, and this time, the door opened. Marcus leaned back into the van, and reached under the passenger seat, and pulled out Bessie-May, a double-barrelled shot-gun. He reached down into the driver’s door pocket, and pulled out two shells, muttering slowly to himself as he loaded them into the gun.

The first thing James noticed was the smell. It hit him like a wall. The second thing James noticed was the strange parody of a dinner that was set up. Sat at the kitchen table were two very pale corpses, sat as though they were about to eat dinner. A rictus grin on their faces. The third thing that James noticed that was despite the things he’d seen so far, this was a step too far. James threw open the door, and made it two steps outside before his body reacted, and he threw up against the side of the house.

“Dat was quick”
James waved his hand at Marcus, while his body calmed down. He wiped his face, and attempted to straighten himself out. He nodded at Marcus, and headed back into the house. “Dat’s not someting you see in de movies” Marcus mused to himself, and rested the business end of Bessy on the window, and kept an eye on the windows.

This time, James was ready for what faced him, and this time despite his body wanting a repeat perfomance, there was nothing left. He gagged a little, but pushed himself deeper into the house. Door by door, James wandered through the house. There was trails of blood, and evidence of a struggle throughout the house. Someone had had fun here, James thought grimly. He reached the stairs. He could go up, to the bedroom, or down to the cellar. He’d never really had to make this kind of choice. The kind that could literally mean life or death.

He stood there, sock still. By rights there should have been a clock ticking somewhere, or perhaps a creak of a floorboard above him. Instead there was nothing. He looked at the little door that led down to the cellar. It would be dark down there, it seemed appropriate. He opened the door, and looked down the stairs. He reached over and and turned the light on. The cellar was flooded with light. The stone flagstone floor was undisturbed, and James doubted that the workbench that took up most of the floor hid anything. Of course, why would it be in the cellar? If you needed somewhere to sleep, why would you make it somewhere uncomfortable. James headed upstairs.

As he stood on the landing, a tingle started heading up his spine. All the curtains were drawn, and taped together, and along the bottom. This made the landing very, very dark. James shook his head, and pulled the tape off the curtains, throwing them open. In the films, the hero would have walked passed them, leaving the landing in the dark. You can learn a lot from films. Two doors, both of which opened into the rooms, which was handy. He tried the first door, and pushed it open. Another room bathed in darkness, and that smell again. His stomach churned despite himself. There were two shaped lying on the double bed, both still as the grave. Of course, that didn’t really mean anything. The window was on the far side of the room. Three choices, he could head over to the window and throw it open it, or he could stake the two bodies, or try the other door. Tricky. If he went for the curtains, and threw them open, and the thing was in the room, then hopefully the daylight would be enough. Steeling himself, he ran accross the room, and ripped the curtains open, only to be faced with a wooden bored nailed over the door. “Shit”. Rookie mistake, but then, there’s only one way to stop being a rookie. James spun around. Only the one body on the bed. It was the body the furthest away from him, and seemed to be undisturbed. A flicker of movement out of the corner of Jame’s eye was all the warning he got, and it launched at him, pushing James to the ground. It had seemed like a good idea to tuck the stake into the back of his jeans. Probably because he’d seen in on the films. Bloody Films. It was a cold, dead wait on top of him, with a mad laugh. Claws tried to dig into his arms, but his leather coat acted like temporary armour, but it wasn’t going to last long. James kicked against the wall, turning the two of them over. James reached behind him and pulled out the stake, but it was gone. James looked around the dark room. His eyes were slowly getting used to the gloom, and he could see a hunched shape on the far side of the bed. James launched himself over the bed at it, only to be caught in mid air by a vice-like grip from the bed. Panic griped him. He wasn’t expecting that. He found himself being thrown back against the wall, knocking the wind out of him. More laughter from the thing on the bed, as it jumped onto it’s feet.
“now, now, now now little plaything. It’s been a long time since something came looking for me”
In the films, James would have said something pithy, probably with flair. This wasn’t the films. James launched himself at the thing on the bed, much to it’s surprise, and jamed the stake into the thing’s chest. It fell back on the bed, with a cry of surprise. The stake hadn’t gone in deep enough. James punched the stake harder with his hand, as the claws pawed at his face. James punched harder, and harder. Long after the claws had become limp. He looked down at the mess that he’d made of the things chest. It wasn’t dead, not that the thing was really alive. It was simply paralysed. James sat back, and crawled off the bed. He stood up and looked at it. Slowly it sat up. James had missed the heart. The thing laughed, mockingly, and stood on the bed. James stepped back. The thing walked towards him, and stopped at the line where the light was, and it laughed.
“Clever little morsel. But I know your smell. I will hunt you down, and I will find you. When it gets dark, then it’s my turn”
James looked at it. Talking to it awknoledged it, gave it some legitimacy. In the light, he could see that the stake was close. He reached for it as quick as he could, but it was quicker. It grabbed James’ hand and held it in the air.
“I have you now little fish”
James simply charged at the thing, pushing it back into the room. They fell together onto the floor, as it punched at Jame’s face, causing his eye to swell up almost instantly. Using his free hand, James punched the stake hard with his right hand. He felt it move, but not far enough, he hit it again, and the the thing stopped. It froze just as it was. James put more pressure on the stake, keeping it where it was as he caught his breath. Slowly, and uneasily, James got to his feet, and dragged the thing into the hallway. There was the smell of burning flesh, as the sun hit the body. This was a small problem for James as it still had ahold of his left hand. James dragged the body towards the window, and threw the body out as it caught fire. The fall ripped the arm out of it’s socket, leaving James to break the flaming fingers off and letting them fall after the burning body. He leant against the window, looking down with his good eye on the burning body.

James slowly staggered down the stairs, and out into the fading daylight. Markus was standing by the van, resting on it.
“You look like you were in a fight”
James smiled. “You should see the other guy”.
The two of them went around the house, and looked at burning body. The heat from it was causing it to char the grass around it. They watched it for a while, then Markus fetched a spade, and the two of them began beating out the flames, around the body, letting it burn. It took a while. Once the flames were out, the two of them began picking up the ashes, and spreading them around the trees and the bushes. The last thing that they needed to do as the light faded was to check on the corpse upstairs. As far as they knew it was simply waiting to turn. They headed upstairs, and gently carried the corpse downstairs, and placed it in the kitchen, sat at the table with the other two. It didn’t catch fire, so they left it there.

With the light dying, the non-descript black van slowly drove away.