For June

“I can’t believe you did that, Charlotte!”

Charlie took out her keys, opened the trunk, pulled up the fake bottom and threw in the bloody blades. “I… I don’t know man.” She slammed the trunk and ran to the front of the car. She quickly got into the driver’s seat with Fern in the passenger seat throwing the duffle bag into the backseat. She could hear the faintest sound of the cops yelling and turned on the car.

“I thought you checked the place!” Fern yelled, staring in the direction of the factory. Charlie could see beads of sweat rolling down his face, even in the winter air.

“I did!” Charlie pulled the car in the direction of the back road they came in on and slammed on the gas. “I swear I didn’t see anyone.”

“Oh, really?” He said in a panicked tone. He was so much more worried than her. He wasn’t even complaining about her unsafe driving.

“I don’t know, Fern! Maybe they are looking for the missing people, like us!” She couldn’t see the cops in the rearview mirror. That was a good sign… or she hoped so.

Fern started to laugh nervously, “This was supposed to be a simple and fast case, Charlotte!” He pulled out one of his burners. “Three days max. And here we are a week and a half later at 3-AM, running from cops. Again.” He hit the dashboard. “You know this is like my tenth case and this is the first time I’ve run from cops. I wonder why!”

“Hey!” Charlie exclaimed, “That time in the diner was your fault! I told you not to start shit with that line cook!”

“He was being a dick.” Fern moved his hand frantically as he spoke. “You saw the way he was looking at us.”

“That doesn’t mean you can start yelling at people thirty minutes into us being in town.”

“I need to defend myself.”

“Not when we’re on a case, Fern!” Still no sirens, or lights. “And you know if it wasn’t for me, you couldn’t even get to a case.”

“I’d rather not go on cases then drive with you. It’s been a month and I swear you should have your license revoked.”

“Would you just shut up!"

The two sat in silence for a few minutes as Charlie sped down the backroad. It felt so much longer in the dark of night, especially without any road signs. She tried to keep as steady as possible while only pushing 70.

Fern started to thumb through his notepad and muttered.

Charlie glanced at her cousin. “What are you going on about?”

“It was supposed to be a ghost.” He put his head in his hands. “Not fucking vampires.”

Charlie sighed and glanced at the rearview mirror again, “Yeah… I kno - Oh shit.”

Red and blue lights flashed in the distance. She slammed on the gas.

“Wha-” Fern looked at the back. “NO!” He flipped back into his seat and grabbed the handle above the door.

God, how far away is the main road. Was it this far away driving to the factory? Her eyes kept flickering from the road to the mirror. She could hear the faintest sound of the sirens.

“Charlie…” Fern spoke in a low tone as he sank further into his seat... “I am begging you not to crash.”

“You know what, Fern!” She glared at him, “If you’re so worried about my driving then you can learn HOW TO DRIVE YOURSELF!”

He didn’t respond.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Charlie growled as she kept speeding. Jesus Christ how muc-

A car sped away on the horizon. Charlie let out a triumphant laugh and gripped the steering wheel and started to slow down as she got closer to the street. “Okay, Fern. I need you to get me a way back to the motel while also making sure we lose the cops.”

Fern pulled himself up and nodded, “Okay.” He pulled out his burner and turned on. “Turn right.”

Charlie could see the stop sign reflecting the headlights. And suddenly she remembered the laws of driving a vehicle.

Run it or stop.

The cops are far enough away I could stop.

But they could catch up if we stop.

If we run it, we could hit a car.

There are no other cars.

We could flip.

Shit.

Just don’t flip.

Okay

Pick a number

8

“Fern, one through ten.”

His head quickly shot up from his phone. “No! No! No!”

“Pick or I’ll do it. You know I will.”

“Fine! I hate you! Eight!”

Fuck.

Charlie slowed down as much as she could before she ran the stop sign and turned right.

Don’t flip.

Please don’t flip.

Charlie nearly screamed as she straightened out the car. Fern did, but she ignored him and slammed on the gas, once again speeding down the slightly uneven road.

“I hate you!” Fern yelled. “I hate you! I hate you!”

“Then learn how to drive, bitch! Now tell me where to go!”

Fern yelled again, “Left on Minnow Street!”

“Which is how far?”

He looked down at the map. “Four streets ahead!”

“Then?”

“Turn right on Main. Then go straight.”

Charlie slowed to turn onto Minnow Street and thought of the few roadways that the small town had. “And after that?”

“Just go straight!” Fern said in a matter of fact tone.

“That will take us out of town!”

“Yeah! We’re kinda running from the cops, Charlie!”

 “What about our stuff?” The sirens were gone, but she could still see some red and blue lights.

“Who cares about our stuff! Those cops saw us chop off two people’s heads! And I doubt they didn’t notice eight other bodies lying around. Especially the one you butchered.”

Charlie cringed at the last word. “We left all our stuff there!” She turned onto Main Street.

“We can get it in the morning!”

Charlie thought about what she left in the room. She could get more clothes. Her dads would be pissed but would get them. And hell, she’d steal a new guitar if she had to. But the journal... She had so much incriminating stuff in that thing. Gun logs; records of random shit she stole; her first kill and the next twenty after that; monster information; Stuff about the case… and June.

“The cops might search the room if they figure out it's us! And my journal is in there!”

The word journal caught Fern’s attention; he knew what was in there. Or at least most of it. He groaned and slammed his back on the seat. “Fuck!” He threw his glasses into his lap. “Okay… Let’s drive out for like an hour and call your dad, the-”

“NO!” Charlie screeched. “WE ARE NOT CALLING MY DAD!”

“We weren't prepared for this!”

“We’ve killed vampires before!”

“Not without out help, and we haven’t been chased by the cops before! Your dad said if anything went wrong to call him.”

“No! We can’t call him!” Charlie stepped on the gas, she had been trying to stay under 60 so she could hopefully slow to turn without saying, but she could only go forward now. She started pushing 90. “This is our first case without our parents, and I am going to finish it!” She looked at the rearview mirror as they passed the city limits of the very small town. The lights were farther than before. Maybe far enough…

“We finished the case! The vampire colony is dead! What more do you want us to do? We should call your dad, let him get our shit and go home!”

“What about June?” Charlie exclaimed. “She’s the whole reason we stayed!”

She thought about June, the nice girl who welcomed them into town after they left the diner to get donuts from the local bakery she happened to work at. She even lived down the street from where the missing teens were last seen. Fern was sure it was a simple ghost that was taking the high school seniors in town. Hell, a young woman named Rachel accidentally died there a week before she was going to go to college a few years back. It all made sense: a ghost pissed about not being able to leave for college kills high schoolers so they can’t either. Charlie and Fern really didn’t count on there being a small colony of vampires hiding out in an abandoned factory 30 minutes outside of town.

And Charlie liked June… a lot more than she was willing to admit. June answered every insane question they asked without hesitation, and even helped them out more than she had to. She told them about Rachel, the factory, and even bought them lunch while they researched the town. She wanted to know if her twin brother, Jack, the first student to go missing, was okay. June was just so nice and pretty and smelled like the bakery.

Fern placed his hand on Charlie’s back. “It’s been four days since she went missing; we knew they most likely killed her when we went to go look for the colony. And they said so themselves.”

He wasn’t wrong. The two of them tied up the whole colony, and the leader, Marcie, said they had bled every kid dry. Something about teen blood being the sweetest because of hormones. And they had seen Charlie and Fern scoping them out and getting close to June. She had smiled and told every gory detail of kidnapping June, showing her Jack’s body, and then killing her. Charlie was so sure she was lying. She had to be.

June couldn’t be dead.

Charlie was going there to save her.

She had to.

Charlie pushed Fern away, let her foot off the gas, and slowly pressed on the breaks as she turned onto an unpaved road.

Fern gripped the handle on the roof again. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I’m going to lose the cops. Now!” She got her speed to 70 and drove. “Then I am going to drive to the motel, get our shit, and we are going to go to another motel. Then tomorrow we find June!”

Fern laughed, “And what if we get caught?”

“There was shitty lighting in the factory.” The sirens and police lights were gone. “They saw us, but probably couldn’t make out our faces. Or the car.”

“The people at the diner called the cops.”

“But we left before they came in, they never saw us.”

“Everyone in this town knows everyone. They probably know it’s us since I doubt the diner didn’t tell them about the outsiders. And they could have seen us any day after.”

Charlie gripped the steering wheel, “I hate small towns.”

Fern sighed, “Listen… let’s get our stuff and go.”

“But Ju-”

“Goddammit, Charlotte!” Fern yelled. “June is dead! And we have cops after us! We didn’t exactly make it look like self-defense. Especially Marcie.”

Charlie couldn’t look at Fern. He was right… After what Marcie said Charlie killed her, and didn’t hold back. She was so angry… angry enough to stab her twelve times before cutting her head off just so she would suffer… and then stabbing the bottom of the head and showing it to the rest of the colony and screaming at them. Fern had to hold her off from doing the same to Marcie’s mate, Morgan.

Charlie just let herself go in that moment.

She was so… angry…

She didn’t save anyone…

She didn’t save June…

Nice and pretty June, who laughed at Charlie’s jokes and sang along when she recognized the old song Charlie lightly played on her guitar one of the few nights they hung out.

“You’re right… June’s gone.” Charlie said in a low voice. “But… I need my journal, Fern… And my dad can’t know. Please.”

Fern sighed, “Okay.”

Charlie looked for the cops again. “I think we lost them.” She slowed down to a stop and turned off the car.

The two sat there for an hour, car doors open, deciding to park the car behind the high school, since it was the only place they could park and not be seen. Fern had texted someone, but promised it wasn’t Charlie’s father. So, she ignored it. It took a half hour to drive back to town going 60. With every minute they spent going back into town more and more shame washed over Charlie.

If she just found the colony faster. If she didn’t go overboard with Marcie. If Fern didn’t have to calm her do-

“Stop it.” Fern said.

Charlie looked over at him, “What?”

“Stop blaming yourself.”

Charlie scoffed, “I’m no-”

“Charlotte, I’ve known you your whole life. I know what it looks like when you’re overthinking.” He pulled out his phone, “We did our best. And all the vampires are dead.”

Charlie sighed and parked the car, “I know. Let’s go.”

As she was about to start down the street when Fern held her back.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Just wait.”

Charlie threw her head back and groaned but did as her cousin said. After ten minutes another car started to pull into the parking lot.

Charlie felt panic rise into her chest, “Fern!” She pulled at his arm, “We have to go!”

Fern rolled his eyes and didn’t move. “Calm down. I asked him to come here.”

Charlie huffed in confusion as the car parked in front of them. She placed her hand on the blade hidden in her jacket pocket.

The car door opened, “Hey guys!”

“Hey, Luca.” Fern said.

Luca.

June’s boyfriend, Luca.

He smiled back at them for a moment, but then stepped back. “Uhhh, hey… Is that from the monster you were after?”

Charlie looked at herself and Fern and realized they were both covered in blood. She hadn’t noticed in the dark of the rural Nebraska night. “Oh shit! Wait, monster?” She gave a panicked laugh. “Who said anything about monsters?”

“You don’t have to make up some lie or whatever,” Luca said, “June told me everything about you guys hunting a ghost or something.”

“Really?” Fern asked as he turned to face the trunk of Charlie’s car.

Charlie elbowed him, “You didn’t know that, and you called him?”

“Yeah,” Luca nodded, “When I was seven my dad’s pigs were eaten by a werewolf. So, learning about you guys just confirmed it for me. Oh, and I broke into the motel room and got you guy’s stuff!”

He opened the back seat of his car and pulled out Charlie’s and Fern’s bags. He tossed them to the pair.

Charlie quickly unzipped her bag to see her journal sitting on top of her clothes and smiled in relief, “Oh my god. Thank you so much!”

Fern grabbed the bags from her arms and put them in the trunk.

“Here,” Luca said, “I got this too.” He held out her guitar.

Charlie let out a laugh as she grabbed it from the boy’s hands. “Thank you!” She quickly hugged him and put it in the backseat of the car. “Dude…” And in that moment the whole of the night clicked in her mind and the weight of it settled in her chest. She rested her head on the cool metal of the car’s hood.

“Hey,” Luca’s voice rang in her ears, “Where’s June?”

Charlie’s head shot up towards him.

June never said much about him, changing the subject every time Charlie mentioned him. What little she did say was positive:

He’s really nice.

He’s cute.

He’s friends with my brother.

But after those short comments June would go back to leaning close to Charlie and asking questions about her.

And when she had met him, Charlie saw that he was nice. A little boring but nice. Even offering Fern and her a space to stay since his parents were out of town when he heard that they were staying in a motel.

So nice he woke up at three AM, broke into a motel room and stole their stuff.

Charlie always felt an odd feeling when she saw Luca though. Almost like pity. But now that June was gone… all she felt was guilt.

The most overwhelming guilt.

Charlie tried to speak, to tell him the truth he deserved, but the words wouldn’t form.

After a few moments of confusion, Luca’s eyes went wide. “A- are you sure?”

She nodded.

Luca backed up, stopping only when he hit the front of his car.

“Luca,” Fern started, “I am so sorry. We r-”

“Killed it?” Luca interrupted.

“What do you think?” She gestured to the blood that covered her.

Luca cleared his throat, staring at the ground. “Good. You guys should get going. Fern mentioned cops. So, I doubt you guys should be here when the sun comes up.”

Charlie nodded. She went for the door handle but stopped herself. She quickly ran to Luca and hugged him as tight as she could.

“I am so sorry,” she breathed out. “I really wanted to save her.”

He gripped her tight, “I know. June told me to trust you. So, I believe you did your best.”

Charlie pulled back, and realized she was crying. She didn’t know for how long, but her throat was tight, and her eyes burned. She got back into the car and gave a final wave to Luca as she pulled out of the parking lot. As she drove down the highway she watched as Luca fell to the ground, sobbing. Grieving the girl, she couldn’t save.