Outside of the waves, there was nothing but silence. The pier, the beach, the whole damn town had retired for the night. For all he knew it could be nearing morning. Wondering what the hell he was going to do now, he regretted not taking Duke up on his offer.
When he lifted his head and turned around, he nearly screamed.
A tall man with long black hair stood there, gazing at him behind dark eyes.
“Hi,” Craig managed. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. A chill raged down his spine. He felt his skin break out in goose flesh. There was so much about this person standing here that wasn’t right. Where the hell had he come from? Had he been there the whole time? Had he been watching him? Was he homeless? A beach bum? No. The fancy long coat and boots said he was probably well off.
“If this is your spot, I’m sorry. I’ll juss be on my w—” Craig started.
The man came at him fast. So quick that Craig hadn’t even seen him move his legs. As if he had glided like an evil Peter Pan across the sand.
Evil?
The man’s hand was on his throat. Craig tried to fend him off, batting at his arm. It was as useful as a toddler trying to break free from a parent. The man had yet to make a sound. Not a breath, not a sigh. Even now, lifting Craig from the ground with one hand, he did so in silence.
“Puh-puh, pleeease,” Craig managed.
“Yes,” the man said, his voice smooth as silk. “Beg.”
And with that, Craig was pulled to the man. Pain exploded in his neck as the man bit into his throat. He felt the guy sucking on him. Drawing from him. Craig’s limbs grew weak, his breathing slowed. A strange sense of peace washed over him. His heart seemed to fall in line, beating with each pull from this man’s mouth, and swooshing with the waves.
Craig had just enough time to think of Darlene when she’d still loved him. And then, he would have laughed if he’d had the time or ability as the word vampire crossed his dying mind.
Chapter Two
Rocky wiped the drool from his cheek and covered his head with his pillow. Those friggin’ bikers, man, when the hell did they sleep? Try as he might to fall back into the dream of the random blonde taking him someplace only she knew about, it wasn’t happening. He lifted the corner of the pillow and reached for his watch on the nightstand.
“Argh,” he growled. Eight in the morning. And on the second week of summer vacation, that was just wrong in so many ways. He put the watch back on top of his new Superman comic and slipped his feet out from under the covers.
His back brace stared at him from in front of his bureau across the room and he glared back. He should put it on, but he didn’t want to. Not yet.
It can wait until after breakfast.
He’d been diagnosed with severe scoliosis in fifth grade and that uncomfortable, hard plastic torture device was his grand prize. His mother and father liked to remind him of the alternative – surgery. Two steel rods fused to his spine.
On second thought.
He picked the lightweight brace up and squeezed it around his ribs and hips. The pinched nerve in his hip that never seemed to go away made him wince and curse as he reached back, pulled the straps tight and Velcroed them in place.
Breathing a sigh that was equal parts depression and submission, he pulled on a Journey Raised on Radio t-shirt and crossed the hall.
Julie was singing some lame Madonna song. Madonna was hot, but her music sucked. He pushed his sister’s door open.
She spun around, placing her arms over her chest.
“Jesus, Rocky,” she said. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
Julie turned her back to him, snagged a t-shirt from the top of her bureau and pulled it on.
“Sure, but I figured you must have your headphones on. You sound like a dying cat.”
“Screw you,” she said.
Julie actually had a good singing voice, but he loved messing with her.
“Are you working today?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m leaving in, like, half an hour. Why?”
“Can you bring me with you?”
She had a job at the Maine Mall. He normally only went to Portland once a month. He preferred the square, but he’d been out there every day since vacation started.
“I can’t. For one, Mom and Dad would kill me for leaving you on your own all day, and besides, I have a date right after work, so you’d need to find a way home.”
“What? You mean you’re seeing Brick again?”
She reached for a bunch of jelly bracelets and chucked them at him.
He dodged them and they landed in the hallway.
“You know I’m just kidding. I don’t care if you guys are trying to be the real-life Nick and Mallory.”
She reached for her canister of Aqua Net and held it back over her shoulder like she was going to chuck it.
“Kidding,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “Honestly, I just need to get out of here.”
“It’s not happening,” she said. She lowered the Aqua Net and looked at him with sympathy. “Maybe I’ll bring you in tomorrow. I have the day off and need to do some shopping anyway.”
He smiled.
“Now get out of here,” she said. “Let me finish getting ready.”
“All right, all right, don’t have a conniption fit,” he said. Rocky smiled as he made his way down the hall.
After relieving himself, Rocky checked his face in the mirror. His nose was a little on the big size and had a slight bump on the right from when his sister broke it by slamming the front door in his face two summers back. His teeth were crooked, especially the bottom ones. Paul Bilodeau once called them Freddy Krueger teeth. His earlobes were long, not circus-freak long, but he could tuck them in his ear if he tried. Axel thought it was a neat trick, but it wasn’t the sort of thing to impress a girl. He wet his face with a handful of cold water from the sink and slicked his floppy hair back from his forehead. He wasn’t a total monster or anything, but he certainly didn’t have the charisma it took to get a girlfriend. His back brace only added to his ever-growing list of anxieties.
He sighed and headed to the kitchen.
He grabbed a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles and a Pepsi from the fridge and plopped down in front of MTV to wait for a Twisted Sister or Ratt video. He’d just have to suffer through Wham! and Duran Duran first.
Julie came out singing along with Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’. She was messing with her hair, trying to make it taller – her bangs were at least half a foot high – as she stepped next to the couch.