'I have some toast and butter,' Alice Avery said. 'Will that do?'
'That will be fine,' Jane said. 'Thank you.'
The toast was cooked on the fire and had charred edges, but Jane was grateful for it. Any food was good after what she'd been through.
Harry was out front of his butcher shop. It looked like he'd been up early preparing carcasses for the day's trade, and the pieces were now all on display on the street. Alice and Harry had four children, and they were all toiling. The boys were chopping up meat while the girls were helping their mother sew. Alice Avery was almost a female twin to her husband. Big and round and covered in viscous drops of blood.
The events of last night had all happened so quickly that Jane had thought little of them. Now they surged over her, one after another. The attack on the road. Her scramble across the darkened fields to the church. The discovery of Cassandra's disappearance. And now this frantic, impromptu journey to London.
Goodness, she thought. What's next?
Alice told the children to leave them be. She made them tea, which they drank as Alice worked on her sewing.
Alice lowered her voice. 'I understand you're after them vampires.'
'They…they took my sister, Cassandra.'
'Like they did with our sons,' Alice said, nodding. 'Robbie and Alf.'
'I'm so sorry,' Jane said. 'May I ask what happened?'
'They met these two girls at the theatre. They were dancers. We thought they was real nice. Very pretty, although Robbie and Alf could always draw the girls. They were big, strapping boys. Handsome. Got the best bits of both me and Harry.' Alice gazed into the distance. 'Then one night they didn't come home. Harry went to the theatre to find the girls and ask them. It turned out they hadn't worked there for weeks. So then he found out where they lived.'
The woman stopped for a moment and stared at her sewing.
'The house was a rundown joint,' she said. 'Harry found Alf upstairs. His blood had been drained. He was like a skeleton. It was like every single drop had been taken from him. As far as Robbie went, there was no sign of him. It was like he'd disappeared off the face of the planet.' Alice swallowed. 'We'd known Doctor Porter for years. She came, had a look, and knew straight up what had happened. She'd seen it before. Worse, she knew what would happen next.'
Next?
The woman's eyes angled up, reading the look in Jane's eyes. 'Oh yes. It got worse.' She laid down her sewing. 'You see, vampires make other vampires. That's what they do. It's like the pox. It gets one of you. And then another. Then everyone's got it.'
Jane nodded.
'We buried Alf,' Alice said. 'Saddest day of our lives. It was raining torrents. Like God was crying, although I don't know where he was when our boys were taken. That night, Doctor Porter and Harry and me went back to the cemetery. Waited most of the night, and nothing happened.'
Alice knotted her hands. 'And I prayed nothing would happen,' she said. 'You want your loved one to go up to Heaven. Our sons deserved that. They were both good boys. Anyway, we went back the next night and still nothing happened. Alf lay in peace in God's good earth.' She paused. 'It was on the third night he rose. I wish I hadn't been there. There are some things you can never forget, and that's one of them.'
'The cemetery was dark except for the light of the lantern. We stood around Alf's grave. Both Harry and I prayed, but the doctor didn't do no praying. She's not the praying kind, I expect. I can't blame her. Anyway, it was after midnight, and we were about to head home when we heard this muffled pounding.'
Jane stared at her. 'Pounding?'
'From under the ground.' Alice took a long sip of her tea. 'And screaming. Like it was from the end of a long tunnel. Anyway, we stood, waited, and watched. And then the ground began to heave. It rose up, and then a hand broke through. I knew it was Alf's hand. He was missing part of his little finger. It happened when Harry was training him up as a butcher.
'Then his other hand broke through. Harry was begging me to go, but I wouldn't go. I'd seen that much. I had to see it through to the end. Of course, then Alf's face appeared, and I screamed.
'But it wasn't all a scream of fear.' Alice fixed an eye on Jane. 'No, part of me was hopeful. You see, who wouldn't want their loved one back? God said we'll see our loved ones on the judgment day, but who can wait that long? And what if it isn't true? What if the vicars and the priests are wrong and there's no resurrection?
'You see, Jane, I saw a resurrection. My son came back from the dead. But he wasn't the same. His skin was white. Like ivory, he was. A pure white statue resurrected from death, and strong! That was the strangest part! That vampire had taken his blood, but he was as powerful as he'd ever been.
'He pushed through that dirt, and I wanted to hold him. I think Harry wanted to as well, but he grabbed me and stopped me going to him.' She rubbed her face. 'And a good thing too. You see, Alf rubbed the dirt from his eyes, and then he looked around, and he saw us there.' Alice shuddered. 'They say the eyes are a window to the soul, and there's some truth in that. Alf looked at me, and his eyes were red. Horribly bloody red. And it was worse. There was hunger in those eyes.'
The woman gave a hollow, sad laugh. 'When he was a boy, Alf used to get a look in his eyes when he was hungry. It was a funny little boy look. Like he couldn't wait for dinner. His eyes would light up and go all wide, and his hands would clench like he was real excited.' Alice's eyes met Jane's. 'Alf looked at me with that same insatiable hunger. Like he'd woken up, he was hungry, and he couldn't wait to have something to eat.' She stopped. 'And then he growled.'
Jane remembered the creature she'd seen back in the graveyard. It had been like that. A person, once. A man with a life and loved ones. But vampirism had transformed him into something else entirely.
'He was an animal,' Alice said. 'I saw it then. It was like looking at the face of a wolf. Our Alf was gone. That part had gone to Heaven, and what remained was this beast. Not like a dog or cat or someone's pet. No, it was like a savage wolf that would hunt you down and tear you to pieces. It made no difference that I was his mother, and Harry, his father. We were just prey to him—to it.
'The thing—and I think of it as a thing—it weren't our Alf no more. It jumped at us. Doctor Porter was quick, though. She had her guns ready and that sword of hers. Still, it was tough to beat. I couldn't do anything, but Harry helped her. He had to. Our son was gone, and it was like a disease had taken over his body. They destroyed what he'd become and then put him back in the ground. Where he belonged.
'At night, I wake up screaming from nightmares. It's that look on Alf's face. That hungry look, like an animal.' Alice took a long, hard look at Jane. 'I'll pray for you, Jane, and I'll pray for your sister. No one should ever look into their loved one's face and see a creature like that. It just ain't right.'