Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
“I don’t need any of that. I just need clothes, a shower, and … and …” Mikey’s posture keeps breaking as he fights back tears. “I just need to get to my home.”
“Where is that?” asks Kyle. “You never said.”
“And I won’t.” Mikey’s eyes flick to Drake’s. “Last thing I need is any of them knowing where my family is.”
Drake lets out a tiny sigh, then offers Mikey a wistful smile. “I not only know exactly where you live, I also know your mom and dad’s names, your two sisters’ names and where they go to school, the breed of your dog, and even your recently-deceased gerbil.”
Mikey’s eyes flash. “Fuzzy died?”
Drake grimaces. “Sorry to bear the bad news.”
Mikey, who seems suddenly far less interested in Drake’s review of how much he knows about his life, loses his steam at hearing the news of his pet. He stares at the ground, mumbles, “Had that gerbil since I was in high school.”
“To be fair, they only live two to four years at best, five or six if they’re really lucky,” offers Drake, like a living encyclopedia. “It sounds like he was one of the lucky ones.”
“She.”
“She,” Drake corrects himself. “Sorry for your loss.”
It isn’t really about the gerbil, Kyle can sense. Mikey feels disconnected from his whole life. One moment ago, he thought he would never see his family again. Now everything feels taken away even more than it already was. Perhaps even still, the idea of returning to his life feels like some distant dream.
Kyle can more than relate to that sentiment.
Without another word, Mikey starts walking off.
After a moment, Drake seems to want to say something to Kyle, but Kyle rises off the ground before he speaks and follows Mikey. Soon, Drake tags along, too, and the trio are back to crossing the arid, moonlit landscape.
It seems like hours later, and there is still nothing in sight. Mikey’s pace has slowed greatly. It’s only now after having had a taste of Lazarus’s blood that Kyle finds himself envying the power it gave him. He could carry Mikey on his back with ease and cover so much more ground. Then he feels sickened for envying the power and speed that full vampire blood lends him.
He decides he never wants to taste it again.
“How much further?” groans Mikey.
Kyle pulls out his phone to check for a signal, only to then be reminded that it died countless hours ago during the day. “I have no idea. Have we gone in a circle?”
“Everything’s far away from the Devil’s Mouth,” points out Drake, “for obvious safety reasons. I’d say we have another four or maybe five hours left to travel. Ten or fifteen miles, I guess. Or I’m just pulling these numbers out of my ass. Do I look like a human maps app to you?”
“I’m gonna die,” cries Mikey.
Kyle glances toward the horizon. It’s already beginning to swell a deep, menacing blue. “We don’t even have one hour, let alone five or six. We barely have half an hour. How in the hell did the night go by so fast? I thought I made it to the Devil’s Mouth much quicker before. We must’ve taken a longer way.”
Drake comes to a stop, sighs. “Only one solution to the time issue. Looks like we’ve gotta get dirty.”
Kyle stops as well. “What do you mean?”
Drake starts walking here and there, stomping his foot on the ground. When he finds the perfect spot, he crouches down, smirking, then says, “We have to dig.” He peers up, sees the puzzled expression on Kyle’s face. “Y’know, for us to spend the day in. Because: sun. We’re digging a grave.”
Kyle and Mikey blurt out at the same time: “Grave??”
Drake turns to Mikey. “Good news: no vampires are gonna pursue you for the next thirteen hours. Bad news: your new bed is gonna be on top of our grave.”
While Mikey tries to make sense out of that, Kyle squints at Drake like he’s lost his mind. “You can’t just dig a hole in this kind of earth. It’s as solid as cement.”
A corner of Drake’s lips pull up. “Challenge accepted.”
Then he throws a fist into the ground.
Kyle and Mikey step back as the earth crackles outward. He doesn’t seem satisfied with the result, so he pounds the hard earth again—and again. Once it seems to have broken enough, he starts digging his fingers into the cracks, prying and pulling chunks of hardened stone and dirt out. Kyle and Mikey watch, stunned, as Drake circles the start of his work, crouches in a different place, and continues punching, clawing, and peeling away the earth.
Drake peers back at them. “You boys plan to help? Or just to stand there admiring how cute my butt looks in these jeans?”
Kyle scoffs. “There’s gotta be another way.”