to the attack. Would she deny it, like her mom? Tanya would like to think she would be as supportive as her dad, but it was hard to imagine Nana encouraging her to kill anything. Still, it was nice to have some normal memories to fall back on when her adult life got too freaky.
Locking the door behind her, she smiled. "Hi, Nana," she whispered. It was an old habit she never had the heart to break.
She dumped the laundry on her small kitchen floor—it could wait until tomorrow—and collapsed on the bed, which still had the same old crazy quilt, patched by her inexpert hand a dozen times or more. She had meant to get up and change into her PJs, but the smell of the quilt had her eyes fluttering shut. She hadn't bothered to turn on the lights, so she just kicked off her shoes and climbed under the covers.
In the parking lot below, a lone figure gazed up at the darkened windows of Tatiana's apartment. It is truly a shame that she lives on the third floor, he mused. It would be much easier to keep an eye on her if she were on the first. The lights had never come on, so he assumed she had gone straight to bed. For a moment, he imagined what she must look like while sleeping, her beautiful face relaxed and untroubled.
He would have liked to stay there all night, but he knew she would soon move on to Chicago. She liked to keep moving, and it kept him on his toes. He would need to get there before her, in order to make the proper preparations.
The radio did little to soothe his nerves as he drove the long stretch of I-55. He loathed being away from her for any length of time and usually spent it imagining all sorts of horrible things that might befall her. It was foolish, he knew. She was an incredibly capable young woman, and not as susceptible to the dangers of the world as she had once been.
Still, the distance between them tugged on him like a lodestone, and he fought to ignore it. Soon, very soon, she would be near him again. What were a few days when he had waited this long? And then, in a month, perhaps two if she was overly cautious—which he doubted, knowing her—she would at last be his.
Tanya rolled over in her sleep, bringing her legs in close to her stomach. She moaned softly as the familiar tug of memory pulled her down into the darkness.
"Ungh... Tanya..." Jake grabbed Tanya's hips and pulled, making their jeans rub together harder.
She smiled at his reaction and tugged off her sweater, knocking her hand against the dome light of his Corolla in the process. To make matters worse, her long curly hair was now a static-filled mess. She felt like a dork, but he hardly seemed to notice, grabbing her breasts as soon as they came into view. They had been sneaking out for the last two months, and he still couldn't get enough of her shirtless. It was a hell of a high for her.
"Oh yeah, babe," he grinned, and she grinned back, leaning forward to kiss him.
He started fumbling with the button of her jeans, and she put a hand on his to stop him. "Did you bring it?" she asked.
Jake slumped against the back door. "No, I forgot. I don't see why it's such a big deal, anyway, it's not like we've been with anybody else," he argued for the millionth time. "Right?" There was just enough hesitation in his voice to make her feel insulted, but she didn't bring it up.
"It's not about that! What if I got pregnant?" she whined. The week before, her PE teacher had put the fear of god into her by making her health class watch a video of a real live birth. She wasn't going to budge on this subject.
"I love you, Tanya, I'll take care of you," he offered, sitting up and wrapping his arms around her.
"Jake, you're eighteen. And I'm not going to be one of those horrible drop-out teen moms." She leaned back and rummaged in her purse. "Lucky for you, I thought ahead," she rattled the little foil packet at him. Asking him had only been a test, and she had been pretty sure he would fail.
He made a face.
"C'mon, it'll be fun." She grinned and began to unbutton his pants.
There was a sound outside the car and they both jumped. "What was that?" Jake asked, turning around to look out the fogged-up window. "I think there's someone out there!"
"Shit!" Tanya grabbed her sweater and yanked it back over her head, before scrambling into the front seat. If it was the cops, she was going to be in serious trouble. A sharp rap on the driver's side window made them both jump again, and Jake climbed into the driver’s seat and rolled down the window.
But instead of a cop, it was just a girl, maybe a couple years older than them. She smiled, and she was very pretty, despite her teased-out blonde hair.
"Hey, you guys got any reefer?" she asked. When she leaned down to talk, they could see down her baggy sweatshirt. She looked like something straight out of The Breakfast Club.
"Um, no?" Jake answered nervously.
Tanya snorted. He probably doesn’t even know what that is.
Leaning forward, she leveled a glare at the intruder. "We don't smoke that shit," Tanya told her. "But I know a guy in town who does." She hoped the offer would make her go away. Jake finally stopped staring at Retro Barbie's cleavage to give Tanya a shocked look.
"Really? Gnarly, man. Where?" She loudly cracked the bubblegum she was chewing.
Gnarly? Tanya thought. What kind of loser chick is she? "He lives over in Montreal, by the gas station. The big white house with the boarded up windows."
At that the girl pouted, and then stood up, speaking to someone outside the car. As the fog faded from the windows, Tanya saw that someone was standing on her side of the car. It looked like a guy in a jean jacket. She could hear his voice, low and deep, but she couldn't make out the words.
When they were done talking, the girl leaned back down, reaching into the car to play with the lock button on Jake's door. "Yeah, we already went there. Now we got the munchies."
The car doors opened, and Tanya was pulled out into the chilly night by the arm. She struggled as the man in the jean jacket dragged her out in front of the car. She kicked him right in the balls, just like her dad had taught her, but it only made him laugh. He was tall and skinny, with greasy hair and oddly perfect teeth. Distantly, she thought they looked out of place on such a greaseball.
He wrenched her around, holding her arm up behind her back. When she tried to wiggle out of the hold, he wound his free hand in her hair and yanked hard, effectively trapping her. Jake shouted, he had got out of the car on his own, but before he could come any closer the girl roughly pinned him down on the hood. She flashed a grin up at Tanya or the guy who was holding her, she wasn't sure, and then she bent down to kiss Jake's neck.
Except she wasn't kissing him. Jake screamed. Tanya screamed out his name and started sobbing, but the girl just kept biting him, smearing red all over his neck and her face. Tanya yanked on her arm until it hurt like hell, but the guy didn't budge. He just laughed and pulled her hair tighter, making her watch as she sobbed hysterically.
And she had to watch, how could she look away, while Jake fought less and less, going pale and struggling to breathe? He looked at her like he was trying to ask for her help, but he couldn't even talk. After a while, he stopped blinking and just stared. His eyes were still locked on Tanya, but slowly they lost focus and clarity.
At last the girl pulled away, letting Jake's body slide off the car and onto the ground, just a couple yards from Tanya's kicking feet. Slasher Barbie wiped her face on her sleeve and giggled.
