There was a crunch of glass as another face shattered, scattering shards and gears about the floor. That was the fifth one this week. At least he thought it was a week; maybe it was a month, maybe only a day or two, no one knew really, he couldn’t keep track anymore. Clocks were such a waste to an immortal. He really had no idea why he continued to buy them just to hang them up and then get frustrated because they just kept changing even though he never did and it was just frustrating and immortals had no use for clocks but he wanted to have them anyway.

He didn’t know why. Clocks were such a waste to an immortal.

He rather hoped that that whole fire thing had gone well. At the very least he was fairly sure that the man hadn’t escaped (that was funny see), and that he’d probably been burnt to a skeletal crisp. He kept meaning to be more careful with who he had for dinner and where, but for some reason in recent months he’d been getting more and more careless about it. Like that man in the parking lot a few weeks ago. And the girl in the forest shortly before that. The woman behind the Wal-mart in Ohio a few months back. And that couple in West Virginia over the summer. He really should be more careful.

He probably wouldn’t be much more careful.

He peered almost curiously up at the wall of half-destroyed clocks, the room silent of ticking. He decided to go buy another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No! Don’t open the door! …Aw, you opened it. Now you‘re gonna die.”

“Kody,” Kat said sharply. “They can’t hear you. This is a movie. From the 90s.”

Kody looked irritably at the screen. “Why are people in horror movies always so stupid?”

“Because no one would die or lose limbs if they were intelligent,” Marten said matter-of-factly. “And then no one would watch it and they’d make no money and the film industry would crash and burn.”

“That doesn’t make it any less idiotic,” Kody grumbled.

Marten, Kat, and Raina looked at each other, and shrugged.

“Aw, whatever,” Kody said. “Anyway, why are we watching this? Isn’t there anything else on?”

“It’s the night before Halloween. There’s a horror movie or cheesy Halloween special on every channel,” Marten said. “Also, this place doesn’t have cable. This is a DVD.” Sure enough, the four of them were crowded in the small hidden library, which was quickly becoming a sort of hideout. They’d brought in an old TV found in Kat’s basement, and Marten had hooked up a small DVD player to it. The power source was a sort of battery pack that was also a relic of a bygone decade; Kat had told them her parents used to take it on road trips so she could watch movies in the car. “It was to keep me quiet, I’m sure,” she had told them.

Currently, they were viewing an old slasher flick pulled from the collection of Raina’s father, who, as it turned out, was a bit of a movie buff.

“Hey, isn’t this Devil’s Night, then?” Raina inquired.

“Yeah,” Kat said. “Stupid tradition, if you ask me.”

“Your house get egged last year?” Marten asked.

“Every goddamn year,” Kat replied through gritted teeth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, the movie ended, earning a sigh of relief from the small audience.

“That was…not good,” Marten said.

“Definitely not good,” Kat agreed.

“So stupid,” Kody reiterated.

“I’ll let my dad know our review,” Raina said dryly.

“So, what else do we have?” Marten inquired.

Raina looked through the small pile of DVDs. “It looks like we’ve watched most of them already…unless you guys wanna see Twilight.”

“Pass,” Marten said.

“God no,” Kat said with an eyeroll.

“No way,” Kody said, nose wrinkling in disgust. “The sparkly vampires are totally unrealistic.”

Kat gave him a funny look. “I don’t think there’s a ‘realistic’ version of a mythical creature, Kody.”

Kody shifted uncomfortably. “Ehhh I just like some versions better than others. Anyway, if there’s nothing left to watch, we might as well call it a night.”

“Yeah, before it gets too dark and we get egged or TPed on the way home,” Marten said, shooting Kat an innocent smile.

Kat smacked him in the back of the head. “Shut up.”

“Ow! Watch the brain!” he said through a laugh.

“I hope I damaged the brain,” Kat grumbled.

“Guys, no brain damage, please,” Kody said. “There’s enough of that in the room with me.”

Kat looked at him. “For some reason I can’t disagree with that.”

Kody grinned, pointing at her. “Exactly. Anyway, you guys go ahead, I’ll clean up here,” he offered, indicating the small mess of popcorn, chip bags, and empty drink bottles littering the floor from their movie night.

"Are you sure?" Kat asked. "We can stay."

"Nah, I got it," Kody assured her. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Kat shrugged. "If you say so. See you."

"Bye," Kody said, watching the three of them crawl through the heavy curtain and out of the library. When they were gone, he walked slowly around the room, picking up the trash and putting it in a plastic bag for the dumpster outside. After that, he picked up some of the scattered books, putting them in neat piles. Satisfied that their hideout was tidy, he gathered up his things and crept out of the secret room. He headed downstairs, stopping in the garage area to open his backpack and check on the contents. He unzipped it and surveyed the dozen or so empty water bottles. It was about time to refill those. The leftovers from the drunken cowboy a few weeks ago had finally run out, and he would have a problem on his hands if he didn’t replace them.

He'd picked out his target awhile ago, having watched some of East Ariesville's sleazier citizens and narrowing it down to one particular guy. 

Sighing, he closed up his pack and began walking in the direction of his dinner's house.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly home, Kat thought over what she needed to do for school tomorrow. Calculus homework? Check. English essay? Check. Biology homework?...Not check. She'd tried to start it before the movie, but Kody had snatched the book out of her hands, putting it aside and telling her to "take a freaking break."

Kat froze. He'd put it aside... and it was still there, sitting in the library. She swore, turned on her heel, and jogged back in the direction she'd come.

~~~~~~~

Kody wiped a bit of nervous perspiration from his forehead, but couldn't help but smile a bit at his own accomplishment. It was a very clean kill; he'd managed to sneak up on the man behind his garage and snap his neck. The victim was now laying face down on the grass, head bent at an odd angle. Unfortunately he couldn't just deal with the blood thing here; it was a bit too out in the open. Carefully, he crammed the body into a large garbage bag, then, using strength that was just a bit beyond human, he lifted the bag and plopped it into a plastic garbage can.

Whistling merrily, he began wheeling the can down the road, towards the abandoned garage with the long forgotten library.

~~~~~~~~~

After power-walking the half-mile or so back, Kat finally turned and strode into the gravel lot in front of the building, and then through the half-broken door. Cursing the darkness, she pulled a keychain flashlight out of her purse, then crossed the garage to the doorway that contained the stairs. She shut it behind her, disappearing from the room as if she’d never been there. 

~~~~~~~~~

After a surprisingly easy trip down the street with the garbage can, Kody turned the corner into the gravel lot. The can wheels got stuck a few times in the rocks, causing Kody to give it an extra shove or kick the bottom a bit to get it moving. Eventually, he got to the door, still hanging by its one hinge, and pushed it aside a bit, careful not to knock it down.

Once inside, he wheeled the can to the back of the room, out of sight of the half-open door, and

dumped out the bag. He untied it, then pulled it off, the dead man tumbling out onto the floor.

He turned, digging around in his backpack for the necessary equipment. Rather than doing the traditional vampire thing and drinking all the victim’s blood on the spot, he preferred to take it and store it, drinking when he felt like it--hence the plastic bottles. He also preferred not to have to actually bite people—who knows what was on them--so he’d rigged himself a way (involving a medical needle, a modified gas siphon, and twist off bottle cap with a tube in it) to suck the blood out without having to even make a mess. It was actually kind of brilliant, he thought.

One by one, he pulled things out of his backpack, getting ready to get to work.