Discovery of Death by A P Fuchs Page A

Okay, sure, maybe you think I’m lying about the vampire part, but in terms of your mother and I being mercenaries, what do you think? Who else keeps a basement like this?”
    “ I don’t know, pyschos? Serial killers?”
    “ If you don’t believe me about the vampire part, fine. We’ll tackle that issue another time. But I’m telling you the truth.”
    She shook her head. “Just let me go, Dad.”
    “ No.”
    Without thinking, she shoved him in the chest, pushing him back a step. The moment her foot touched down on the first stair, her dad grabbed her from behind and pulled her deeper into the room.
    “ Stop! Let go of me!” she screamed.
    He took her past the table, around a corner, and to a door that had a pair of chains across it in an X. With one hand, he clutched her close to his body; with the other he fished a key off a ring on his belt. He slid the key into the padlock keeping the chains together and unlocked it.
    “ Dad! Stop!” she shouted.
    “ Quiet. I’m giving you proof.”
    The padlock came loose and the chains draped to the side like a pair of curtains. He then punched a code into the keypad above the door handle and a loud ka-thoom shook Rose’s insides. Her father opened the door with a grunt and set her down inside. He threw on the lights.
    “ Look around,” he said.
    The room was as big as a wine cellar, narrow, with what looked like silver coffins stacked three high and two deep on either side. There was another stack of two next to the wall across from them.
    “ What is this?” she asked.
    “ This is where we keep them, if they don’t disintegrate upon death. There are vampires in these coffins. We keep them contained here in case, through some miracle, they come back to life after we thought we disposed of them. In the old days, you could chop off their head and would be assured they would not regenerate. Seems some have increased in power as those contained here regenerated their heads after being decapitated.” He pulled a sword off the wall next to the door and proceeded to the first coffin.
    “ What are you doing?” she asked.
    “ Come here and watch.”
    “ I don’t . . . I don’t want to.”
    “ Fine, then stay there but don’t leave this room. You want proof that I’m not crazy? That I’m telling the truth? Fine. This is it.” He turned a switch that looked like a large butterfly nut on the side of the coffin. Another ka-thoom shook the room, then the lid on the coffin slid to the side, retreating inside the wall away from her father.
    Her dad pointed the sword against what was within.
    “ No sudden movements,” he said, “but you can look.”
    Rose glanced to the door. She couldn’t believe what was going on.
    “ Rose?” her dad said.
    With a sigh, she went over beside him and looked in the coffin. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the body within. She couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but it lay there like a decomposing corpse, the skeleton beneath pushing up against its drooping skin. Its dark clothing was in tatters, a large silver spike of some kind protruding from its chest, roughly where its heart would be. The tip of her father’s sword was against where the spike met the flesh in a cakey mess of dried blood and rotten meat.
    The skull was without eyes, only the sockets remaining, its hooded brow sharp and pronounced. Its mouth open, large sharp teeth lining it.
    Rose put a hand to her mouth and also pressed the side of her index finger and thumb against her nose the smell was so bad.
    “ See?” her dad said. “I was telling the truth.”
     
     
    18
     
    Z ach was in the crypt with his family. He sat alone, his back against his coffin, knees up, elbows upon them.
    Mira had explained that what he saw were flashes from the woman’s life, prominent memories that she’d held dear.
    It was the image of himself he saw in the montage that bothered him the most. He didn’t tell Mira that part, not really sure how to even bring it