# # #
The fire was already going when Ricky and George showed up.
“What’s in the bag?” their father asked.
“Stuffed bear. It has to be burned.”
“This fire is permitted for clean brush. You know that,” Vernon said.
Ricky laughed. His father burned all kinds of atrocious things in his pit. The rules dictated by the fire department had never been taken seriously on their property. Ricky tossed the bag in. For a moment, Ricky and George both held their breath, waiting to see what would happen when the stuffed animal burned up.
“What are you two up to?” their father asked.
“Nothing,” they said at the same time.
Vernon laughed. “Ricky, if you want to be a decent cop, you’re going to have to learn to lie better than that.”
“Not all sheriffs lie, Dad.”
“The good ones do. You have to be able to say things like, ‘Listen, if you just tell us what you did, then we can work together to make this go away quickly. None of us want this to stretch out. If we go digging around, there’s no telling what we’ll find.’”
“You watch too much TV, Dad,” George said.
“Now I know you two are up to something. The only time you defend each other is when you’re in cahoots.”
Ricky leaned in close to George’s ear. “I think we’re okay. If anything was going to happen, it would have by now.”
“Did the demon you called come immediately?” George whispered back.
“No, but I left the ceremony hanging. I think you terminated yours properly.”
“You think we should walk away and leave it to chance that a giant teddy bear isn’t going to pop out of this fire and rampage through the town?” George asked.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“Says the person who has already summoned a demon once.”
Ricky looked up and saw their father. He was standing with his arms folded across his chest and his eyebrows raised. Ricky tapped George’s arm and gestured towards their father.
“What?” George asked.
Vernon pointed at the flames.
“Did you just incinerate Dr. Hugs?”
“Sorry?”
“That was your favorite teddy bear until you were three and you just tied him up in a pillowcase and immolated him?”
The bear’s glass eyes were flickering in the flames. Part of his mouth was still intact. The smile had just been a line of black thread, but now the lips were split and the teddy bear looked like it was screaming silently.
“Oh,” George said. “My roommate had bedbugs and we couldn’t get them out of the bear. I had to burn it.”
“You’re a worse liar than your brother.”
“Ricky was just saying the opposite the other day. He said I was such a good liar that I should be studying law.”
“You’re going to listen to him?”
The conversation died away and they stood there, looking at the flames. Ricky remembered the winter fires from back when he was a kid. Their father would make a big pile of brush all summer and save it until it got cold out. Once the snow was deep enough, Vernon knew that there was no chance that his fire would spread too far. He would wait until a weekend when they had nothing else planned and then they would have a giant bonfire. Ricky’s favorite fires were the ones they would have while it was snowing. He and George would look up and try to see the flakes melting before they hit the fire. They never could. It always seemed the like the bonfire just created a protective bubble that was free from snowfall. Then, inevitably, the fire would melt the snow hanging from the surrounding branches and it would all come down on their heads.
“After this burns out,” Vernon said, “I need help moving that recliner up to the second floor.”
“Sorry, Dad, I have to take George back to school. I’ll help you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Dad,” George said.
The two of them turned and started back towards to Ricky’s car.
Their father called after them.
“Oh, sure, when you need to sacrifice Dr. Hugs to the flames, you don’t mind hanging out with Dad, but when he needs help with the Lay-Z-Boy, suddenly school is more important.”
“See you tomorrow, Dad,” Ricky called with a wave.
# # #
Back on the road, George was blowing fog onto his window. He drew a pentagram before it disappeared.
“Cut it out.”
“Afraid you’ll get kicked off the force for being a devil worshipper?”
“A little, yes. There were some strange questions during my interview. People knew that something happened when we were kids, but they weren’t precisely sure what. I think a couple of the officers were just looking for a reason to reject my application.”
“Any organization that doesn’t want to give you a job doesn’t deserve your talents,” George said.
“Great. I’ll tell them that next time I go in.”
George laughed.
“They just automatically hate anyone under thirty,” Ricky said. “I hear it’s worse down in Portland. You remember Fred Damon?”
“Sure.”
“He said that they’re so sure that young people are going to act entitled that no matter what they do or say it’s going to be misinterpreted. Fred volunteered to work crowd control for a rally and his superior accused him of thinking that overtime was his right. He gave the shift to one of the older guys and that guy got into a scuffle with a protestor and put him in the hospital. That’s exactly what Fred was trying to avoid.”
“Fascists do what fascists do,” George said.
“We’re not like that.”
“No, you’re not like that. It’s undeniable that some are.”
Ricky rolled his eyes.
“Every now and then, you should take a break from this whole ‘George’ thing that you’re doing and try being a real person.”
“Ha. Serious question, should we tell Dad?”
“Tell him what? He knows plenty.”
“But you didn’t tell him anything about the spell and how we’re trying to get my blood all juiced up in order to lure in and then kill lizard vampires?”
“It was your idea,” Ricky said. “I’m supposed to rat you out?”
“The spell was my idea. This whole Rouge Deputy Vampire Hunter thing is your deal.”
“Does he
