The basement was dark and dank, though nothing like Eastern State Penitentiary. Compared to that hellhole, these inmates were living large, and as Jamie paused, his hand about to activate the lock on the door, Elliott looked over his shoulder at Aaron who gave him a reassuring nod, and then he gestured for the doctor to unlock the cell.
The door opened, and Elliott waited in the shadows for a second, wanting the anticipation, the fear, to build, before he revealed himself. There were no windows in the cell and only one bare light bulb hanging from a chain in the middle of the room above a small table and chair which the convict couldn’t even reach since he was chained to his bed in the corner, only able to access the toilet attached to the wall nearby.
He sat up in the bed when the door opened, and the longer Elliott stood outside of the cell, the more he could see the dread spread across the old man’s face. Even from here, he could see old scars. A crack across his nose, a gash that once split his forehead. He scooted up in the bed favoring his left side, as if it wasn’t quite healed yet. Elliott waited, watching, wanting him to say something before he stepped forward. Finally, Sam cleared his voice and said, “Who’s there.”
Before he stepped into the faint light, he called out, “What’s the matter? Don’t recognize me?”
The realization was there before he even crossed into the cell, and Elliott watched as the cowboy’s eyes doubled in size, his mouth drawn into an “O” as his jaw dropped. Finally, he stepped across the threshold, and Jamie closed the door behind him, hard, jarring Sam, who jumped and slammed his head into the rusty bedframe behind him.
He began to stammer, not able to get out his question. “Who… how… what are you…” before he finally said, “You’re dead.”
“Was dead,” Elliott corrected him, still standing near the door, his hands in the pockets of his long black overcoat. “I was dead. Clearly, I am no longer deceased,” he replied, opening his arms wide for emphasis.
Sam was shaking his head slowly from side to side. “But… that’s impossible.”
“So it would seem,” Elliott agreed. “So it would seem.” He took a step forward, further into the light. “And yet… here I am.”
“No,” Sam said, shifting his weight toward the wall, as if he might try to disappear into the concrete bricks.
“Don’t worry, Cowboy Sam,” Elliott said, forcing a smile. “I’m not here to hurt you.” He stepped forward, taking his hands out of his pockets and folding them in front of himself, a gesture meant to reassure the prisoner he had no weapon. “I just wanted to let you know I’m back.”
Despite the assurances, Sam did not seem to relax at all, and he continued to retreat into the wall. Elliott realized that he’d never seen Sam afraid before. Ever. It was a bit humorous, and it was all he could do to hold back his laughter.
“But… the thing is… I am a pretty fickle fellow. I think you might know that about me. I have a reputation for… changing my mind. So, while today, I don’t feel like pounding your face into a pile of meat even uglier than it is right now, well, tomorrow might just be different. Yep. Tomorrow, I might wake up, eat a big bowl of Toastie O’s, and then mosey on down here to see what kinda finger painting I can do with your vitreous gel.”
Sam’s face was stoic, but his eyes were still wide, and Elliott could see that his hands were shaking. “I know what happened to you before—how you crashed and no one would patch you up. Me and Jamie are like this,” he said, flashing crossed fingers. “I guarantee the good doctor will look the other way when… I mean if… I decide to come show you how upset I am that you shot that poor little Hunter Meagan. And then there’s also a little matter of you killing me. So when you lay your worthless head on that yellowed pilla, the color of your teeth, tonight, my friend, you just remember that ol’ Elliott’s back. And I just might come a-calling any time I feel like it.” Taking another step forward he said, in a quiet, low voice, “If you ever thought Vampires were scary, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, old man.”
Despite his best efforts to seem calm, Sam began to shiver and the distinct smell of urine filled Elliott’s nostrils. “That’s my cue to go. For now,” he said, spinning to cross back to the exit. “See you around, Sam,” he called as Jamie opened the door and let him out.
Once he was in the hallway, Elliott took a deep breath, doubling over as he did so. “Well, you did it,” Jamie said, pounding him on the back.
“You okay?” Aaron asked.
Elliott straightened up. “Yeah, I’m fine. That just might have been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do though. Look the scumbag who shot me in the eye and not pound his face in.”
“You could’ve pounded his face in,” Jamie reminded him. “Neither of us would have stopped you.”
“Nah, not today,” Elliott replied, running a hand through his unruly hair. “It’s more fun when they don’t know it’s coming.”
“You’re a sick bastard,” Aaron said, shaking his head. Stepping forward, he clamped Elliott on the shoulder. “Damn, it’s good to have you back.”
As they made their way over to the stairs and back toward the light of day, Elliott couldn’t help but ask, “You sure? You’re not mad at Cadence anymore for bringing me back?”
“No,” Aaron replied, holding the door open at the top of the stairs. “I’ve let that go. But one thing is for sure, once we figure out what came back with you, it’s going to make what you did down there, and facing Gibbon, look like….”
“Like amateur night at a bearded lady contest?” Elliott interrupted.
“Um, I’m not exactly sure what that means,” Aaron admitted.
“You know, small and unimpressive, but still nothin’ you want to cozy up to without a few shots of Wild Turkey.”
“Yes…” Aaron said, nodding as Jamie chuckled behind them. They were walking back across the campus now, headed toward Aaron’s office building, and off in the distance he could see the statue of his daughter, the one Elliott had given to him as a birthday present. Every day that Elliott had been gone, he had looked at that statue and remembered two of the most important people he’d ever lost. Now, at least, he had one of them back. “It’s going to be very difficult to hunt this thing down and destroy it. But, as Cadence has said a hundred times, I know we are stronger because you’re with us.”
“Thanks, boss man,” Elliott said, clapping him on the back and then placing his other hand on Jamie’s shoulder as well. “I’m sure that, if something came through, we can stop it. As long as we work together, there ain’t nothin’ we can’t handle.”
Aaron hoped that his best friend was right, but inside he knew that wasn’t the case. There was something out there, something more sinister, more vicious, than anything he had ever faced in almost two hundred years. The others could be optimistic; he would be practical. Whatever it was, it was going to take everything they had to defeat it, and right now, it seemed as if they were all headed down a path of total destruction.
