B-Movie War Read Free Page B

How could she make love to him? Why was she asking him to cut up endless reels of film? For what purpose? Why couldn’t she just tell him what it all meant?
    The truth sank in hard. What he was doing was supporting something unreal. Possibly dangerous. Jules threw himself at the door. He clutched the doorknob, and it scalded his hand. The iron knob was orange hot. Smelling scorched skin, he gripped his hand in pain.
    Penny was out there. Poor Penny. He had ignored his niece during the previous months. Put the business on her shoulders. His problems too. She had a decent head on her shoulders. It felt like forever since the last time he had a real conversation with Penny.
    He hadn’t showered in what felt like weeks. He barely ate any food, just whatever junk from concessions Darlene brought him.
    Darlene.
    What the hell was she?
    He looked down at the palm of his hand. The flesh was glistening and bright red from the second degree burns.
    Strips of film littered the floor among stacks of reels stored in their metal cases. Boxes of cut up reels were set up on metal dollies ready to be hauled elsewhere.
    Just what the hell was being perpetrated here?
    Jules kicked the door, suddenly needing out of the office now more than ever. “HELP ME SOMEONE! I’M TRAPPED. IS ANYONE OUT THERE? PLEASE HELP ME!”
    Losing control of himself, Jules ended up on the floor swimming in snippets of reels. He wept. Bemoaned and pitied himself. The movies. Something about the movies. What was Darlene doing with the movies?
    Jules tipped over the desk. He kicked at one of the wooden legs until it snapped. Then he beat it against the wall until a sliver broke free. He turned the leg into a sharp stick.
    A wooden stake.
    He had a theory.
    The reel sent to him in a package two months ago—it was called Morgue Vampire Tramps Find Temptation at the Funeral Home . The movie was obviously about vampires. The movie had come to life, or something along those lines. Insane, yes, but what else could be doing this? He had to protect himself. What else did one do to kill a vampire besides shove a fucking stake into its blasphemous heart? Whatever allowed Darlene to live again, even as a monster, the reel was the catalyst. He thought again to the reels he was cutting. They were all horror movies.
    Why horror movies?
    Jules clutched the rough wooden stake in his hands and waited for Darlene to return to the office.
    She wasn’t his wife.
    She was a vampire.
    Jules was about to turn off the reel projector when a hand grabbed him by the throat and tossed him across the room.
    Darlene had returned.
    She shattered Jules’s wooden stake by closing her fist around it. “I see you’re finished with your job, honey. It’s the perfect time to sign off. It’s almost show time. But you’re not the only person whose work here is done. There’s a war about to be waged. People will fight to the bitter end against us. There’s already a plan to counter our attack, but we will fight against their strategies. We will win, and we will conquer!”
    Jules stood in shock.
    Helpless against the vampire/monster.
    Darlene ripped her clothes off with insane zest. In tandem, her smooth creamy flesh turned plated black. Reptilian. Naked and proud, the monster clicked her razor sharp teeth together and rasped, “I am your wife, Jules. I really am Darlene. My soul is in this body. I’ve been subjected to death. I never wanted to be buried in the ground. I kicked and screamed during the funeral wake. Nobody heard me. The living chose not to listen. Even you, Jules. You didn’t hear me because you weren’t listening. I heard every shovel of dirt thrown over the top of my grave. All you people did was cry for yourselves when you should’ve been crying for ME! You shut the dead up in wooden boxes under six feet of dirt. It’s desecration of the soul! Spitting on my humanity!
    â€œThe longer I was in the grave,