Bloodstone Heart

  T. Lynne Tolles

  Troll Publishing

  Copyright © 2010 T. Lynne Tolles

  Version 3.1K – September 30, 2011

  ISBN 978-0-9829876-3-6

  All Rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews, is illegal and punishable by law

  Publisher’s Note:

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, locals or events is coincidental.

  T. Lynne Tolles

  Edited by: Erin Potter of Shamrock Editing

  Dedication

  To Linda – my sister-in-law and best friend – for always being there when I needed you. I love you!

  Chapter 1

  The chill of March was in the air and the moon shone through a halo of misty fog. Even though the moon was but a sliver, it appeared ten times brighter than normal, due to the refraction of the halo. Josh often walked late at night, even if just to pick up items from a convenience store. He liked this time of night, when most people were home with their families. The streets were quiet without many people about.

  He had a hoodie on under his black leather coat and his iPod turned up as loud as he could stand it. This was standard practice for any public outing. Since he had been a young child, Josh could read other people’s thoughts. Though to anyone else, that may seem a gift, he felt it more a curse - a curse that had no on/off, mute, or volume switch.

  Imagine being able to hear the random thoughts of everyone in your vicinity. Goofy, dumb thoughts, rude thoughts, thoughts a person never intends for anyone to hear. Everyone thinks out loud at times, but like breathing, people don't think about it. Sometimes it's just to keep oneself company, like having a television on in the background. Other times, it helps in dealing with scary, stressful, or embarrassing situations, but in most cases, people would be horrified if someone heard these thoughts. It made Josh feel like an outsider, a freak, to know what a person would say before they said it or to know their true feelings on any given thing. To Josh, isolation was the key and he was good at isolating himself from others; after all, he had perfected it over the years.

  Handsome though he was, at six foot three, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes the color of your favorite faded jeans, he rarely spoke to anyone and kept to his home like a hermit. These outings at night were his alone, to see the world at a safe distance, the way he liked it.

  With the next brisk gust of winter’s last icy wind, he lifted the hood of his hoodie up over his head and pulled the collar of his jacket tight around his neck as he headed through the park.

  Mid-walk, he sat on a park bench and turned off his iPod, pulling the buds from his ears. This was what he waited for all day, everyday. Silence. The wind rustled through trees, whipping around him like a choreographed dance in the moonlight that humans were only privy to feel but not see. Josh savored this peace. To him, the only things better were the beach at night or the monotonous pounding of rain on the window, lulling him to sleep like a lullaby. With arms up and hands clasped behind his neck, he smiled and stared at the moon above and wished this could be what he heard in his head, instead of the nonsensical drivel from others around him that deprived him of his sanity most of the time.

  He was starting to get cold and knew he would have to head off soon, but he wanted to enjoy all he could before heading back to the isolation of his pounding music that drowned out the constant noise of other’s thoughts rushing at him. Finally he stood, and rubbing his hands together and blowing into his cupped hands, he started to head for the corner store for a quart of milk, Pop Tarts, and beer. With no one on the streets, he was relieved to not have to put his ear buds back in, and he was able to enjoy the quiet sounds of nature a little longer.

  The corner store looked empty. Just the way he liked it. One voice, from the guy behind the counter, was better than ten. His sore ears were happy to be relieved from the ear buds that were in them so often. Just as he came to the door and held out his hand to open it, a petite young woman came around the corner bundled up like an Eskimo. Brown bangs hung over her eyes. She wore a black knit hat pulled down tight over her ears.

  She was obviously startled by him as she came around the corner and this seemed to embarrass her a bit. He could tell this by her nervous smile. Her mind was quiet as she gestured for him to go first, and she never made eye contact with him. This was just fine with Josh; if he made eye contact with someone, it usually was like walking into a tunnel where all he could hear was that person's life story. Instead of going first, though, he held the door open for her as she gave him a wide berth. Just as she took a step into the door, she slipped on an icy patch and started to head for the ground. With his foot holding the door open, his left hand quickly encircled her waist to catch most of her weight and his right hand grabbed for her gloved hand, missing it and grazing her skin above the glove before grabbing at her forearm to steady her.

  She looked up at him in shock with the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen. Their eyes locked on one another for only a few seconds of silence before he helped her back up to a standing position. "Thank you," she said, brushing at her coat in what must have been pure nervousness, because she had never hit the ground.

  But what Josh noticed the most was the silence around her. Her beauty was staggering, but the peace he felt when his skin touched hers was astonishing. In that tiny split second, a loud clap like thunder hit him and melted into a peaceful serenity that was absolute bliss. His mouth hung open and, having been anti-social most of his life, he couldn't think of a thing to say. He just stood there with a small, amazed smile.

  Embarrassed by his gawking, she quickly turned and went down one of the store aisles. Being six foot three, he could easily watch her snake around the store, grabbing things off shelves, and occasionally looking back to find him staring at her and smiling. He slowly walked to the back of the store to get some milk and beer, but never took his eyes off of her for more than a second. She made her way to the counter, and he towered right behind her. As she paid the clerk, he set his items down, coming slightly around her to her left. She made no eye contact, and the silence around her was so distracting to him that he barely heard the thoughts of the man behind the counter, noting her beauty and other things. When Josh heard the clerk’s thoughts, he jerked his head towards him with a stern glare, startling the man.

  Josh pulled out his wallet, flashed his credit card in front of the fast pay terminal, and practically ripped the bag out of the clerk's hand. He went racing for the door behind the woman who had just left.

  He had to run to catch up with her and when she heard him come up from behind, she turned and stopped.

  "Should I be worried? Are you stalking me?"

  Josh laughed, but then realized that probably wasn't a good thing to do, given the look on her face. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just thought, well, that you shouldn't be walking around by yourself so late at night."

  "Why? Because someone might follow me home? You're the only one that seems to be doing that. Again. Should I be worried?"

  "I'm sorry. You're right. I'm not very... I...”

  "You're not very good with people?"

  "Yeah."

  "Yeah, I saw that, uh... I ... what I meant to say, is I could tell. Sorry, I have my own social issues; I guess that's why both of us are shopping at 1:00 A.M."

  "Yeah."

  "Well, uh ...
thank you again for not letting me crack my head open on the cement. That would have been ugly."

  "Yeah. No problem."

  "So ... I'm going to go home now," she said and pointed over her shoulder.

  "Yeah. Okay."

  "Okay."

  She spun around on her heels to leave when Josh said, "Would you mind if I walked you home? I feel kind of responsible for you after your accident."

  She turned around again. "That's not really necessary, besides, if you are a stalker, I'd be leading you right to my home. That probably wouldn't be very smart of me."

  "Yeah. Probably not."

  "Okay, then..."

  "Yeah. Okay."

  "Okay. I'm going now."

  She turned around, yet again, when Josh said, "I'm not a stalker."

  She turned, smiling, and said, "I kind of figured."

  "So...?"

  "So? Oh! Fine. Would you please walk me home so I can get home sometime tonight?"

  He smiled proudly as he started walking beside her. Complete silence emanated from her. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't read a thought. Never had he been near someone he couldn't read. He was out of his element, and if he hadn't enjoyed it so much, he might have run away in fear. They walked for several blocks in complete silence. She looked up at him every once in a while only to see his silly grin.

  Finally she said, "You're not a big talker for someone who insisted on my company."

  "Yeah. Not really."

  "Hmm. Can I at least ask you your name?"

  "Oh, yeah! Sorry. I suppose that's rude. I'm Josh Brenner."

  "Well, Josh Brenner, do you meet all your women at 1:00 A.M. at the store and then walk them home?"

  "Uhhh. No. I've never... I mean…I don't get out much."

  "Me either. What do you do?"

  "Umm, well I've done a lot of things. I was a carpenter for a while, truck driver for some time, but I've kind of settled into computer programming."

  "Really? Where?"

  "I work from home. Independent contractor."

  "Hmmm. All very isolated jobs – you like to work alone, do you?"

  "Yeah."

  They walked for another block or two in silence. Sweet silence, Josh thought. It's so peaceful with her.

  Suddenly she stopped and turned to Josh and said, "Well, Josh Brenner, this is me." She pointed her tiny, gloved hand to a window on the second floor of a Victorian home painted all in white. The window she pointed to was the only one lit.

  "Oh, yeah. Okay."

  "Well, it was nice to meet you. Thank you for saving me and for walking me home safely."

  "Yeah."

  "Okay then, good night, Josh!"

  "Goodnight."

  She turned away and headed for the door when Josh said, "Oh, what is your name?"

  She turned back towards him and said, "Melanie Harper, but you can call me Lanie if you like. That's what my parents always called me."

  "Okay. Goodnight, Lanie."

  "Night, Josh." She smiled at him and then turned and placed a key in the lock, letting herself into the front door. She turned to see him still standing there, goofy grin intact, and waved at him as she closed the door.

  He stood for a few moments, smiling and thinking about her, when it hit him. I should have asked for her number. That was stupid. Geez. What if I never run into her again? He smacked his forehead with his palm, when the door opened suddenly and Melanie ran out with something in her hand.

  "Here," she said to Josh. "This is my phone number and email address. I kind of figured maybe you meant to ask for it but, well…anyway. Here." She held out her gloved hand.

  "Thanks. I'll call you."

  "Yeah. That's kind of the idea." The huge smile returned to his face and she turned and ran back up the stairs and closed the door behind her. Josh carefully folded the paper up and tucked it away in his wallet and headed towards home.

  Chapter 2

  In no time at all Josh was back by the corner store working his way back towards his house. He opted to go home differently than the way he had come. Still with a smile on his face, he thought of Lanie and the peaceful feeling he had when he was with her. Head down, he continued on the street past several alleyways, thinking about all the things he should have asked her. I wonder what she does for a living? Why would such a pretty woman not shop at normal hours with the rest of the world?

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw something glimmer in the moonlight a couple of steps into a dark alley. He went to it, bent down, and picked it up, but before he could look at it, he heard the all too familiar voice in his head; only this voice was malicious. He instinctively pocketed the found item and started to quietly back out of the alley, hoping whoever was in the alley might think he had not seen anything and let things be.

  As Josh retreated, he stepped on a tiny twig, barely making a sound as it cracked under his weight, but apparently it was heard by the malevolent person in the alley because Josh heard the stranger’s thoughts. Mmm. I might as well eat while I'm here. And with a force like a hurricane, Josh was yanked into the darkness of the alley and thrown hard against the bricks of the building wall. Somewhere in between, Josh's groceries hit the ground with a splat as the milk carton burst.

  Josh never saw his assailant, but the grip on his neck as he was again hurled into the air, at least fifteen to twenty feet, was as strong as an ape’s. With the snap of splintering wood against his back, Josh was sure that he must have landed on an old pallet. Blindly feeling around in the dark for anything to defend himself, he could see a large dark form coming towards him, with eyes of glowing crimson. Frantically, his hands fanned out to either side for anything he could get his hands on. The figure grew larger as it came closer. A sliver of moonlight shone in the oncoming figure's path and when it hit him, Josh saw a glimmer of white fangs below the glowing red eyes. Now only a few yards away, the dark figure seemed to smile and grotesquely bared its teeth and hissed as it started to sprint towards Josh.

  Josh felt something on the ground and not caring what it was, brought it forward and pointed it towards the oncoming predator. Too late to stop the forward force it had begun in its leap towards its victim, the predator was stabbed by a large splinter of wood that penetrated deep into its chest.

  The predator, now only inches from Josh's face, grimaced and looked down. He looked back at Josh, but now his eyes were no longer crimson, they were green, and the fangs were retreating behind his upper lip. His mouth was wide open in what should have been a scream, but no sound came out. His skin seemed to be changing. Yes, definitely changing, thought Josh. His face became shallow, his eyes seemed to recede into his head and the man now seemed to be more of an ancient corpse. Within a millisecond, the corpse burst into a cloud of what looked and felt like ash.

  Josh, still on the ground, holding the splintered piece of wood in front of him, gasped for air. He hadn't realized that when the predator had come at him he had held his breath. His heartbeat was pounding in his head. It felt like it would beat itself right out of his chest. What the ...?

  Josh stood up and dropped the wood piece. He sprinted out of the alley and into the light of the street lamp nearby, never taking his eye off the alley and listening with his mind harder than he had ever listened before, for any hint of another attacker. After a few seconds of silence, he ran home as fast as his feet could take him. Once behind the safety of his dead-bolted door, he slid down to the floor.

  His mind was racing. What had he seen? What had just happened? Had he miraculously killed the creature? Was it a creature or a man? He looked and sounded to be a man at the end, but...

  Elbows on knees and palms on his forehead, he thought about everything he’d seen as he sat there on the floor for a long time. He ran his fingers back through his longish, wavy hair, relieving his head from the hood of his jacket. One hand reached for his chin and rubbed through the stubble of a two day old beard. He just couldn't wrap his brain around what had happened. He sat there and mull
ed over all the details, trying to make some sense of what he had experienced, but no matter how he came at it, nothing about it made sense.

  Who do you ask about things like these? Well, that's stupid, no one would believe him. He wasn't sure he believed it himself. It wasn't like he had any friends in which to confide. Anyone who knew of him thought he was the weird hermit guy who never went anywhere, never talked to anyone, and shopped at 1:00 in the morning after long walks by himself in the park. They all think I'm crazy as it is. Now I'm seeing monsters? Can anyone say – loony bin?

  He worked for a while to distract himself, but after several hours, he decided to surf the net to try and figure out what kind of creature he had seen.

  He was hyper alert. The tiniest sound would set him on his guard. Nothing had ever rattled Josh like this had. He was a levelheaded guy. For the first time in years, he wished he had someone to talk to. He hadn't felt so alone since he had been a boy.

  On the computer, he looked up 'vampire,' but that seemed so ridiculous. How could such a creature be real? Search after search on every search engine imaginable, for hours, only gave him more of the same crazy results. Vampire lore, folktales, movies, thousands and thousands of hits and sites, but nothing that made what happened that evening make any sense.

  The rest of the night and all the next day he searched for answers, only to find more questions. Exhaustion was setting in. He hadn't slept now for more than twenty-four hours, which made him increasingly paranoid as darkness crept back in like a fog engulfing the house.

  Josh spent the better part of a week this way. His favorite time of the day was now painted with fear of the unknown. But when there was absolutely no food in the house, no toilet paper or toothpaste, he knew he would have to venture back out to the store. He decided his best bet was to avoid the darkness, so before the sun went down, when most people were home eating dinner, Josh took a deep breath and headed for the corner store.