Enter, Night

otherwise, but Finn hadn’t been strange. He’d been compliant and docile with Christina, looking anxious and fretful when she stepped out of his line of sight. He even called her

“Mom” once.

She didn’t believe the story he’d told her in the bathtub, the story about vampires and monsters and sunlight burning up his dog, but whatever had happened to this boy-whatever he’d seen-had clearly shattered him.

“Finn,” Christina said softly when she’d cleared away his bowl. “Is it OK if Dr. Lightning-Billy-comes in and talks with you? He wants to hear what you told Morgan and me?”

Finn nodded. “OK,” he said. “But he won’t believe me.”

“It’s all right, Finn. Just tell him what you told us.”

Christina nodded to Billy, who had been standing in the doorway.

He entered the room and sat down in an armchair across from the bed. Christina had made Billy promise not to ask about the bloody hockey bag. Billy asked, “How are you feeling, son?”

“Fine, I guess,” Finn replied. “Cold.”

“You’ll warm right up,” Billy said. “Now, would you mind telling me what happened? Just like you told Morgan and her mom? Morgan told me it’s a bit of a scary story. I don’t want you to be scared, because you’re safe here. But I know a bit about spooky stories myself. I’m a teacher, you know. At a university. Do you know what a university is?”

“Of course I know what a university is,” Finn said weakly. “Just because I’m a kid doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

Billy laughed, a full-throated, warm laugh. “Of course not, Finn. Sorry, it was a stupid question. Grownups can be the dumb ones sometimes. Now, can you tell me what happened?”

“OK. Well,” Finn said, “a vampire must have taken my dog, Sadie. I put her out in the yard and the next morning she was gone. When she came back, she was all bitten up. When I took her for a walk, the sun came up and she went on fire. Then my dad went up to look for her body and he didn’t come home. When he came home, he was different. He was horrible. He had long sharp teeth and he bit my mom in the neck and killed her.”

Billy spoke calmly and neutrally. “How do you know he was a vampire, Finn?”

“Because he had long sharp teeth and he bit my mom in the neck and killed her,” Finn said patiently. “Because when I put a cross in his face, it burned him,” Finn said. “My dad screamed when it touched him. That’s the only way you can hurt them-crosses, holy water. Stuff like that. And you can only kill them with wooden stakes or by dragging them out into the sunlight. Everybody knows that.”

“Finn, have you ever thought there were vampires here before? I mean, in Parr’s Landing?”

Finn’s expression was scornful. “You don’t believe me,” he said. “You’re just fibbing.”

“I’m really interested, Finn,” Billy said softly. “There have been some strange things happening up here over the years. And, most of all, I believe you that something pretty awful happened to your mother and father. Now, why do you think that there are vampires in Parr’s Landing?”

Finn thought for a moment. “Once when I went for a walk with Sadie, we were up by Spirit Rock and she was really scared. She was barking and whining. She never made that much noise. She was scared.”

“Do you remember where you were, Finn? I mean, pretty close?”

“Up under by the paintings, on the cliffs. In my comics, sometimes dogs can tell when there’s a vampire’s grave around. I think this vampire’s grave was there. I think the vampire woke up somehow.”

Billy sat very still. “Finn, do you know any other stories from around here? You know, scary ones?”

“No,” he said. “What kind of stories?”

“You know, legends?”

Finn paused. “Not really. I once heard some of the older guys talking about a Wendigo. But that’s just a spook story to scare kids,” he added scornfully. “Nobody believes that one. It’s so fake.”

“What do you think?”

Christina and Billy were sitting in front of the fire Jeremy had built in Adeline’s ground-floor study. Even though Jeremy had assured her that Adeline wasn’t in the house-no one knew where she was, nor much cared at the moment-Christina was still uncomfortable there. She was convinced that Adeline was going to come walking through the door any second, eyes blazing, demanding to know how they dared make themselves so at home in her study. Jeremy, for his own reasons, couldn’t bear to remain in the study, and Christina had sent Morgan to her room to read.

Billy said, “Are you asking me if I think Finn’s father is a vampire?”

“Of course not! For heaven’s sake, Billy.” She shook her head. “I’m asking what you think actually happened?”

“I have no idea,” he admitted. He stood up and walked over to the fire. “But Finn believes his story exactly as he told to us. I’m no psychologist, Christina, but he really believes it. As an anthropologist, I have to take into account that Finn-who has no connection to Richard Weal, other than finding the hockey bag-seems to be suffering from another variation of the documented Wendigo psychosis, minus the anthropophagy.”

“The what?”

“The desire to eat human flesh,” Billy said. “It’s an established element of Wendigo psychosis. In Finn’s case, he just believes the myth without wanting to be part of it.”

“Jesus Christ, Billy,” she said, shuddering. “He’s a child. And he’s not talking about the Wendigo, he’s talking about vampires. Actual ones, like in the Dracula movies.”

Billy shrugged. “One legend or another,” he said, sounding embarrassingly professorial, even to himself. “Finn has just grafted his version on the myth in response to the trauma he experienced.” He looked at his watch. “Christina, it’s four in the afternoon. We need to find a cop. This is ridiculous. We have a boy upstairs in bed with no parents. I’m not sure that’s even legal. I’m going to drive into town. If Thomson and McKitrick still aren’t in the goddamn station, I’ll drive around until I find someone. You stay here. I’ll be back with the cavalry.”

“Billy?” Christina said. “Please be careful?”

He thought of making another lame joke, or a glib retort, but Billy realized two things: that Christina meant it, that she cared. And that he felt warmed by that care.

Not for the first time, he cursed the circumstances of meeting this woman so early in her widowhood, when mourning was still so fresh. But he still felt warmed.

“Hold on,” Christina said. “I’ll drive you back to the motel so you can pick up your truck. I’d let you take the Chevelle, but we may need it for Finn later.”

Billy had done two loops through the empty streets of Parr’s Landing before, entirely by haphazard chance, he turned onto Brandon Nixon Road and found himself pulling up in front of the scorched-out jumble of charred buildings with the police cruiser parked in front of it.

How did I never see this before? Billy thought, surveying the darkened ruin. What a goddamn fuck-ugly mess, even in a town full of goddamn fuckugly messes.

Wet snow had begun to fall heavily, and it was starting to cling to the ground, flowering the autumn oaks and maples along the side of the road. The snow had begun to layer the burnt boards, highlighting them with streaks and clumps of white.

Billy approached the police cruiser and peered in through the windows. He rapped on the glass with his knuckles-softly, but with tredpidation.

Of course it was empty. He hadn’t expected to find McKitrick or his boss in it, crouched wolfishly on the edge of the road in their police car on this lonely road, had he? Or had he? And what was the cruiser doing parked here in the first place-empty like the police station, like the streets of the town itself?

Billy called out, “Hello? Constable McKitrick? Sergeant Thomson?” The wind suddenly picked up, scattering the wet snow and carrying away the sound of his voice. He looked up at the darkening sky, then down at his watch. It was now nearly five. It would be dark soon, and there were no lights on Brandon Nixon Road.

Who do you report an abandoned cop car to? Well, to the cops. But if there aren’t any cops around, what then?

He hesitated, then went back to his truck and took the flashlight out of the glove box. Billy Lightning had never been a coward in his life, and he didn’t plan to start now.

He reached behind the back seat and picked up the crowbar he kept there, telling himself it was for just in case.