The Traveling Vampire Show

Or maybe no longer caring about the time or about the five hundred dollars or about anything other than what was sprawled on the ground behind him.

Pulling the polo shirt over his head, he whirled around. He flung the shirt away. Naked down to his knee socks, he dived for Valeria, arms extended, hands all set to grab her breasts. He would’ve landed between her knees in perfect position for thrusting into her body, but one of her feet shot up.

In an instant of silence, I heard the jingle of a spur.

Then Chester squealed. Braced up by Valeria’s right leg, he was thrown over her body. He flipped over in midair and landed on his back across her open casket.

He’d been split open from navel to sternum.

“Holy shit,” Rusty muttered.

Lee blinked, shook her head and said, “Maybe he’s not a ringer” as Valeria, down in the cage, buried her face in Chester’s bloody abdomen.

Chapter Fifty-four

The black-shirted crew hustled into the cage and lifted Chester onto the gurney. As they rolled him away, Valeria took a wet towel from one of the helpers and started to wipe the blood off her body. Stryker spoke into the microphone. “LET’S HEAR IT FOR CHESTER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! A REAL SCRAPPER!

Down beside him in the cage, Valeria raised her right leg and propped her boot on an edge of the coffin.

Bending down, she used the towel to wipe the blood off her spur. As she did that, I stared at the red mark across her back… the wound inflicted by Stryker’s spur.

Hers was just a scratch.

She’d really opened up Chester.

“AND HOW ABOUT THAT PHYSIQUE!” Stryker went on. “IF ANY OF YOU LADIES ARE INTERESTED, I’M SURE YOU’LL HAVE NO TROUBLE FINDING CHESTER LATER AT THE LOCAL EMERGENCY ROOM.”

Here and there, people were making their way down the bleachers. Mostly women. Several towed men along behind them.

Apparently, they’d had enough.

Ignoring the exodus, Stryker studied his stopwatch. “CHESTER LASTED A GRAND TOTAL OF FOUR MINUTES AND FORTY-THREE SECONDS. CAME UP ONLY SEVENTEEN SECONDS SHORT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.”

Vivian hurried over to Stryker and leaned in close to his side. As she started speaking into his ear, he lowered the microphone. Whatever she was telling him, we couldn’t hear it.

“Maybe we should be going, too,” Lee said.

Rusty blurted, “No! We can’t!”

“This is worse than I thought it’d be. You boys shouldn’t be seeing this sort of thing. I shouldn’t either.”

“Please, Mrs. Thompson.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing you boys to a show like…”

“It’s not so bad,” Rusty said.

“That man was naked.”

“So? It was just a guy. I mean, maybe you didn’t like to see that, but it wasn’t any big deal for me and Dwight. It ain’t pretty, but we see that sorta stuff in gym class all the time. Right, Dwight?”

I just shrugged.

“You don’t see guys get ripped open,” Lee said.

“It’s just a show, Mrs. Thompson. You said so yourself. I’ll bet Chester didn’t even get a scratch on him. It was probably all a big fake-out. They can do that sorta stuff, magicians and people like that. It’s easy.”

Lee frowned and shook her head, but I noticed she was still sitting down. In my opinion, she felt that she ought to take us away from the evil show, but she didn’t much want to miss the rest of it, herself.

I finally opened my mouth. “Why don’t we just stick around for one more bout and see what happens?”

Lee frowned and sighed. “I suppose we can stay for one more.” Glancing from Rusty to me, she said, “But you guys have to promise you’ll never breathe a word about any of this to your parents.” To me, she added, “Or your brothers. If they find out I dragged you guys to something like…”

“I’ll never tell,” Rusty said.

“I sure won’t,” I said. “I promise.”

“Okay. Well, I guess we can stay a little while longer.” Rusty grinned and clapped. “You’re the best, Mrs. Thompson.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Just about then, Vivian got finished whispering to Stryker. As she hurried out of the cage, he raised the microphone to his mouth. “I’VE JUST BEEN ASSURED THAT CHESTER WILL NEED A FEW STITCHES, BUT HE’LL BE FINE. LET’S HEAR IT AGAIN FOR HIM!”

Some applause came from the crowd, but not much.

“PERHAPS HE DESERVED WORSE THAN HE GOT.”

With that comment, Stryker won over a good portion of the remaining spectators. They laughed and cheered.

“BUT THE SCRAWNY LITTLE BASTARD CAME WITHIN A MERE SEVENTEEN SECONDS OF WALKING HOME WITH FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS CASH MONEY IN HIS POCKET! HE LASTED THAT LONG, FOLKS. IF HE CAN STICK IT OUT—NO PUN INTENDED….”

Laughter, groans, applause.

“IF CHESTER CAN LAST THAT LONG, WHY NOT YOU? OUTLAST HIM BY A MEAGER SEVENTEEN SECONDS AND YOU’LL WIN THE BIG PRIZE. NOW, HOW ABOUT IT, FOLKS? DO WE HAVE A VOLUNTEER?”

“I’ll take her!” shouted someone behind me.

I recognized the voice.