City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) Read Free Page B

myth we had clearly busted by then was that of
the invitation. Stella and the creature next door, if it had indeed been a
vampire, had proven that those things weren’t going to wait for an invitation.
They would come in and help themselves to a late night snack in someone’s
living room whether or not they were invited.

4
    Beth and I didn’t say a word for the rest of the night. As the sun began to
rise, I began to relax.
    “It was a vampire I think,” I said.
    Beth looked concerned, “What do you mean?”
    “I just mean I think a person would have at least
tried some door handles or tried to poke through the boards on the window. If
he’s going to go to all the trouble to climb up five floors, a vampire corpse
might not completely protect against his curiosity. A vampire might have eaten
his fill and not cared so much.”
    “Okay, sure, I guess.” Beth looked unconvinced, but we
didn’t talk about it again.
    After the incident next door, we didn’t hear any more
noises in our building. The outside was much quieter as well. After three days
of silence, Beth and I decided we had to leave the apartment and search for
food and water.
    We still had running water, but if the water lines
broke or our water source was contaminated, we wouldn’t last more than a few
days. With that in mind, I wanted to stay prepared. It also wouldn’t hurt to
find some supplies to board up the smashed window.
    We watched the sky all morning to make sure it was
sunny with little chance of rain. I had never seen any vampires out during the
day, but I was a little worried that they might come out if it was cloudy
enough. We also kept an eye on the street below in case we saw any unsavory New
Yorkers looking for trouble.
    We didn’t see anyone, so we left the apartment in the
late morning. I felt more comfortable using the fire escape because I didn’t
know what might be lurking in the hallways and stairwell of my building. We
hadn’t been able to completely board up the window in the first place, and the
boards that were on the window were easy to remove. I cringed when I thought
about how easy it would be for an intruder to get through our flimsy defense
system. We used the window next to Stella and I almost vomited from the stench
when I crawled by her.
    “Maybe we should shop for a new vampire corpse while
we’re out...something fresher,” I suggested.
    Beth didn’t laugh.
    We each wore a backpack with a bottle of water and
some stakes, just in case. We still couldn’t be one hundred percent sure there
were no vampires out in the day. In addition, Beth carried the pepper spray and
I carried a knife in case we encountered any people.
    It was strange being out on the street after being
locked up for so long. Midtown was always hustle and bustle, and once the panic
happened, everything got even worse. Now I could hear the birds. For a moment I
thought I heard a helicopter in the distance, but I couldn’t see very far north
or south because of the buildings.
    The first place we went was the Duane Reade down the
street. Fortunately, this one had windows that allowed in a decent amount of
sunlight. The place had already been looted, but we managed to score a few
bottles of water and some pretzels. I could foresee our biggest problems would
be finding fresh food and weapons. We needed hardware to reinforce the apartment,
and wood and tools to make sharp stakes. After our first adventure staking a
vampire, I knew it wasn’t as easy as it looked in the movies, and a sharper
stake would be better.
    There was a Home Depot a little over thirty blocks
north and all the way on the East Side, but I
also knew that two of its levels were underground. That meant it would probably
be pitch dark inside, and it could be full of vampires, looters, or who knew
what else. Even if we were able to get in and out safely, how then would we
bring everything back thirty-plus blocks? Maybe our best bet was to raid nearby
construction areas.
    There was a