Chapter Six

Ryan was trying very hard to be quiet because Eddie said not to disturb the strange lady while she was asleep. Except she wasn’t sleeping. She was dead. Not dead like the rat he found in the alley, but not exactly alive either. Ryan knew she was a vampire because Eddie had told him so when he woke up. Eddie also told him that there was nothing to be scared of: that Sonja wasn’t like Esher or any of the other vampires in Deadtown. Ryan didn’t know exactly what to make of this, but if Eddie said it, then it must be true. As far as he was concerned, Eddie was the smartest person in the world. He wondered if his real dad was anything like Eddie. Probably not, or else his mom would have let him stick around. As much as Ryan liked Eddie, it was nothing compared to how much he loved his mom. Every night before he fell asleep he would think about how it used to be before the monsters came and took her away. For as long as he could remember they always moved around a lot, living in furnished one-room apartments. Since his mom slept all day and worked all night, Ryan spent a lot of time with babysitters. Sometimes, if she couldn’t get someone to watch him, she’d lock him in the apartment by himself with the TV turned on and couple of PB&J sandwiches. So he learned how to take care of himself pretty early. By the time he was four he already knew how to call 911 and microwave a burrito all by himself. Most of the time he sat up watching TV until his mother came home, because that was the only time he had her to himself. Usually she would bring home fast-food and read him a story, like Curious George Rides A Bike or Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, and then they’d go to bed. Until the monsters came, Ryan had never slept away from his mom. Their life was hand-to-mouth, spent one day ahead of the eviction notices, but it was all he had known. Ryan often had nightmares about the night the monsters came. It was just before dawn and he and his mom had just gone to bed. Normally they slept from five in the morning until two or three in the afternoon. Suddenly there was a horrible crash and the front door of their apartment flew open and a bunch of strange guys and a scary-looking woman came in. Ryan’s mom screamed at him to run and hide, but he was too scared and didn’t want to leave her, so he grabbed her hand, instead, and held on tight.

The scary-looking woman pointed at Ryan’s mom, and the guys dragged her off the bed. Since he was still holding his mother’s hand, he got dragged along too. When the scary woman with the metal sticking out of her face saw him, she cussed and grabbed him by his hair, looking at him like he was a bug or something. He screamed, more out of fear than pain, and his mom broke free from the guys long enough to punch the mean lady. The mean lady laughed and let go of him, then slapped his mom hard enough to knock her out. Ryan was so frightened he ran and hid under the couch, which is what he always did when the shows on TV got too scary for him. No one seemed to notice. The guys grabbed his mom and carried her out of the apartment. Just as the mean lady was about to close the door behind her, she dropped down onto all fours and looked under the sofa and grinned right at him. That’s when he saw her sharp, pointy teeth and red eyes and realized his mom had been captured by monsters. Unlike the shows he saw on TV, no policemen ever showed up. After a day or so he realized that his mom wasn’t coming back. So Ryan packed what few things he owned—mostly action figures—and went in search of her. It wasn’t long before his quest brought him to Deadtown. He spent most of the first week avoiding the gang kids, scrounging food out of garbage cans, and looking for a safe place to hide. Being little, he was able to crawl into spaces most people would never think to look in.

Unlike most of Deadtown’s residents, Ryan actually ventured out at night. He had no choice. It was the only way he could hope to catch a glimpse of his mom. He’d actually gotten pretty good at sneaking behind Pointer lines—it was kind of like playing hide-and-seek, except that it wasn’t a game anymore. Ryan had been on the street two weeks by the time he met Eddie. There were a couple of people living in Deadtown who knew about him, and left scraps of food and old clothes on their doorsteps. He would wait until no one was around before darting from his cover and collecting the offerings. Then one day, as he was hungrily wolfing down a half-eaten sandwich left on an alley stoop, the door suddenly opened and a pair of masculine hands grabbed him and yanked him inside. Ryan’s first instinct was to kick and scream, biting at the hands until they let him go. He scampered across the room and tried to make himself as small as possible, wedging himself under the sink. He glowered at the white-bearded man in the tie-dyed shirt standing between him and the door. The bearded man didn’t look very dangerous, but then Ryan had learned through painful experience that appearances in Deadtown were often deceiving.

“Damn it, kid! I’m just trying to help you! There’s no call for you trying to take my fingers off at the knuckle!” the older man snapped, sucking the blood from his wound. The anger quickly drained from his face as he got a good look at Ryan. “Jesus, kid! I’ve seen fatter alley cats than you! Look, I’m sorry if I scared you—I just didn’t want you to run off. I’ve been seeing you on the street for a few days now, and it’s botherin’ me that a li’l dude like you is on his ownsome. Where’s your mama, kiddo?”

“The monsters took her,” Ryan replied simply. The older man made a face. “Your mama is Lord Esher’s new squeeze?” “What’s a squeeze?” Ryan frowned.

“Never mind,” he replied.

Ryan decided he liked the bearded man because he looked like Tim the Bouncer. Tim the Bouncer worked at one of the clubs where his mom used to dance, and had a beard, but it wasn’t white, and he wore a leather jacket and rode a motorcycle. His mom said Tim the Bouncer was an angel, although Ryan had never seen any wings or a halo on him. Maybe this man was an angel, too.

No longer afraid, Ryan finally looked around at his surroundings for the first time and saw that the whole room was full of books. He slowly crept out from under the table, his head swiveling in every direction.

“Do all these belong to your, mister?” “Every last one. Do you like books, kid?”

Ryan nodded vigorously. His eyes widened as he spotted a familiar dust jacket amidst the jumble. He quickly snatched up the copy of Make Way For Ducklings, holding it as if it were an ancient treasure. The gleam in his eyes was that of someone who seeing an old friend they thought long dead. “I used to have this book!” he exclaimed excitedly. “My mommy would read it to me before I went to bed!”

“Would you like to have that book, kid?” the man asked gently. “Yes—but I can’t read yet,” he admitted sheepishly.

The man smiled and motioned for Ryan to bring him the book. “That’s okay. I’ll read it to you.”

Ryan looked at the old man, then down at the book, then back again. “My name’s Ryan.”

“Hi, Ryan. My friends call me Eddie.”

Ryan smiled. It was the first time he’d done so in a long while. It felt good. “Hi, Eddie.”

From that moment on the two became fast friends. Ryan loved and trusted Eddie more than anyone in the world except his mom. And if Eddie said the strange lady with the sunglasses was okay—then she was okay. Even if she was a monster.

Ryan put aside the picture book he’d been pretending to look at and walked over to stare down at Sonja. Eddie had pushed aside some of his books to make room for her, and she was lying on the floor atop a blanket. She was still wearing her street clothes—she hadn’t even removed her boots or jacket. Her arms were folded across her chest, hands resting atop her jacket. She didn’t seem to be breathing. He couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or shut because she was still wearing her sunglasses. He leaned in closer and stared down at his twinned reflection in the mirrored lenses. He had gained some weight since moving in with Eddie, but he still looked thin. He crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, giggling as his mirror image did the same.

“Good morning to you, too.”

Ryan yelped and scuttled backward as Sonja unfolded her arms and sat upright. She swiveled her head toward him, her gaze still shielded by the sunglasses.

“I wasn’t making fun of you! Honest!” he said nervously.

“You needn’t be afraid of me, Ryan,” she said as she stood up and stretched, her leather jacket creaking as she moved. “Where’s Eddie?”

“Out doin’ stuff. He’ll be back soon. It’ll be dark in an hour.” He paused for a moment, eyeing her speculatively. “Are you really a monster?”

Sonja nodded as she patted down her pockets, not seeming to take offense at the question. “You could say that.”

“What kind of monster?”

She flashed a grin at the boy, revealing pearly white fangs. “The kind that eats monsters.”