The Meeting After Dusk

It was Friday evening when we agreed to get together to confront the terrible situation with the growing transient population from up North. There were five of us, all depraved, a little exhausted and caffeine-deprived yearning to know what was going on in the world changing too quickly in the worse kind of way. 

"Happy Friday, people! I'm glad you've all made it. I have a little surprise for you all, but first we need to see all the goodies you've brought." I could see all of their eager eyes hovering around the coffee table gawking at the food on the table. "Oh, I have spinach pizzas and orange sodas, and beers in the fridge."

"Thank you, Hugo. We're all grateful for you taking on as Host" said Troy.

"Really spinach?" Sam grimaced and shrunk into the couch. 

"You can't be too careful." I winked. 

The three of them held their packages I've asked them to bring for our very own twisted version of show-and-tell. 

Troy Brewer grabbed a slice of pizza, chomped it down, turned to me and laughed. He was a friendly guy who lived just a few doors down from me, who enjoyed jogging with his Husky around the block. 

"Nope. I'm the one whose grateful. For all of you committing."

"Hey, we've all suffered here under their hands." Troy added.

"Yeaahuh." Mr. Sam mumbled. He hesitantly grabbed a slice of pizza. "So this is where we're at? No honor among thieves?" He smacked his lips. "No I'm kidding...I know how dangerous they are, it's almost fitting they would want to join a group like this." He placed the half bitten slice and hammered down an excess of pepper on top of it. "Am I fully vetted now?" he shook his head.

Samuel was a married man with a wife and three kids. He lived in the spacious cape-cod just across the street from my house that was ransacked by one of the transients. Window's broken, leaving a trail of blood across his kitchen floor, nearly took his arm off before he injured him.

Sabrina Hwang's was the last one to join our circle. Her hands trembled raising up. "I- I have a question, if that's okay?" she whispered. She was the youngest of the group, who shared an apartment with two other people, at the very end of the block. 

"Please, go ahead." Troy said, crossing his legs and reclining further into the couch."

"Yeah don't be shy." I added. "Everyone's input is valuable."

"Well..." Sabrina stumbled. "Do we have to kill them?" 

Samuel seemed to be annoyed by this as he grunted.

"I just think there's a humane way to deal with-"

"What is it with your generation?" 

"W-What?"

"I mean seriously. They barge into our country, the Mayor's already letting them live out in those tents. You've seen the chaos they've created out there. Listen, kid. We all appreciate your feedback, but those things get no sympathy from me. He opened his satchel to reveal an intricate collection of silver knives. This is how I plan to hunt them down, not with kisses and hugs. My best sushi and sashimi knives straight from Osaka. 13-set Birchwood handles on this baby." He showed them off like they were his own flesh and blood, passing some across the three of us for a closer look.

Sabrina shrugged and grabbed one with her gloves. "Cool..." she whispered. Troy said the reason she wore those heavy gloves were she was embarrassed, having crossed those new transient people once before. The fourth finger of her right hand was missing. She was able to amputate it right away and they fed her the special rabies vaccination to treat it. She was never the same after that.

Sam's lips dangled melted mozzarella. "Bet your ass it's cool."

"I don't agree with her, Sam. But, I'm curious what her plan here is?" Troy said turning to Sabrina. "Why did you even join us?"

"Uh... Guys hear her out. Let her at least show us what's in that shiny box" I said. I offered her a slice of spinach pizza. 

Sabrina shook her head. "No thanks." she showed me the bag of baked spinach chips she had been snacking on. She placed it aside and put her large wooden box on the coffee table. 

"Well..." she stammered. She proceeded to tear the plastic and the cardboard off revealing a very large taser. Non-slip rubber coating, and uh... double shot, 60-billion stun... I think it will get the job done, so we can then turn them in to get deported?" 

"Ha. You're kidding me?" Sam laughed. 

"Sam, can you enlighten us then? Actually, you just went. Troy, what do you have sir?" 

Troy grabbed a beer from the fridge and a bag of crushed ice to place in his box. "Well, we all know how much those Northerners don't like Spinach right? It fucks with their urinary tract and all that, gives them a sharp pain in their gut. Well, I've got something they can't resist." he said, pulling something he had concocted from his cooler, it was overwhelmingly stinky when he opened it. 

"Ta-da!" 

"Oof, what the fuck is that" Sam held his nose shut. 

Sabrina inched her chair further away from it. 

"It's a dead carcass. Chimp parts, from a friend who works at the zoo, closest thing to humans. They can't resist it. It'll draw them all in close by, but I've laced it with Spinach and other fun stuff like O-negative, their favorite type."

"Shut the damn thing, smells like Dick!" Sam cried out.

"Brilliant." I said. "Troy, you've outdone yourself, my friend."

"Heh." 

I brought out a pen and notepad to jot down the final plan.

"We have a good idea on how to catch them then. Sabrina and Troy could do the honors. Sam, you and I could finish them off. But, we need one last thing to finish this mission up." I stared at my phone for any missed text messages or phone calls. "Where the hell is my sister! Anyone hear from Jenny?"

"Naw." 

"Fine, while we wait. What do you all think? Raise your hands if you agree with the plan. Keep them down if you have some things you're unsure of." 

Troy, Sam and Sabrina all raised their hands.

There was a knock at the door.

"Jenny is that you?"

"No, it's your mom."

I unlocked the door to find my sister standing there in her work uniform.

"You're late. What the hell?"

Jenny barged in tossed her black apron across the couch and carefully placed the medium-roast to-go coffee box by the pizza.

"I could marry you." Sam said reaching for his cup, he grabbed a fist full of sugar packets and creamer. "But, you know."

Jenny furrowed her brow. "Damn, dude." She hopped on the empty side of the couch by Troy.  

"Okay now that we have everyone in the room."

Jenny kicked her legs out and rested them on Troy's arm rest.

Troy pushed her legs away. "Well, what are you bringing to the table?"

"Well, guys I'm glad you've asked. My sister here has the most important job in this. She's going to make sure we don't get caught. We all know, the Mayor is treating any harm done to these folks with the full extent of the law. Jenny here is going to take care of the corpses right until they decompose. I think it happens in 48 hours before they turn into that soot-like ash."

"That's right mother-fuckers, I am the most important part of this plan!" Jenny made a gurgling sound and slid her index finger across her throat. "Now, off with their heads!" 

"Jenny here, she has access to her warehouse where she works."

"Wow, that's great..." Sabrina said in her mousy low voice. "Where is it...?"

Jenny turned to Sabrina and stared at the roots on her hair, a brownish auburn tint, and then to her gloves and arms. "You don't get much sun do you?"

Sabrina blushed. "Uhm..." 

"Right." Troy placed his feet down and leaned over. "You said you had a surprise for us, Hugo?"

"Glad you asked, Troy. If you would all follow me into the next room, I have something special to show you. Oh and bring your toys."

The three of them followed me down the hallway to the ceiling panel revealing the stairs that lead to the attic. 

Jenny grabbed the box with the last slices of pizza and pinched all of the spinach out of them. "Nasty shit." she mumbled and followed us all to the next room. 

The three of us eagerly rushed down the hall with our boxes, then they saw the special guest I had brought them. One of the transient people from up North sat there secured onto the chair, he had bright red hair like fire, pale skin and eyes that were more grey than blue.

Jenny smiled and bit her lips. "It's almost a shame. He looks so... beautiful."

Sam smiled from ear to ear. "Oh, I'm going to carve him really good."

I walked up to him and removed his mouth-gag. 

The transient man was middle aged with soft skin and long almost silky hair to his lower back. He trembled and started to breathe heavily in fear of all of us standing before him. His mouth agape revealing his razor sharp front fangs. 

Sabrina looked scared, hiding behind Troy who stood almost six foot three. Troy just stared at him wide eyed and gritting his teeth, he was nervous and surprised. 

"Hugo, how did you... How did you pull this off?"

"We caught him sleeping. Probably on his way to the blood donation bank the Mayor had set up for his kind."

"So he didn't necessarily attack anyone?" 

"No, but whose to know. it's bound to happen. 

Sam wasted no time, the very touch of his silver knives were enough to cause second degree burn. The transient shook violently, but barely wiggled the chair tightly bolted onto the floor. 

"Ha Ha Ha! Look at how easy it is." Sam laughed. "No fucking way! And what happens if I pierce skin a little?"

"Ahhhh!!!" The man screamed and whispered something under his breath. His language had a soft gentle almost guttural articulation. 

Troy grabbed pliers and placed a piece of his Frankenstein-Ape Meat in his mouth. The Transient willingly consumed it, deprived from food for several days. We all watched for a reaction, and it was only a mere few seconds before it convulsed. 

"This is wicked." Troy nodded. He looked proud. "How many people did these blood-suckers kill in the last few months?"

"Too damn many." I said. 

"One cut for everyone in this county alone." Sam said. 

He continued on to torture it. 

Jenny ate her cheese pizza watching it unfold from the corner. 

She turned over to Sabrina cowering at the end of the room.

"What's the girls deal?" 

The room got quiet for a second. 

"The signs are clear." Sam said. "She doesn't have what it takes. She's scared of her own shadow look at her." 

Sabrina turned bright red.

"C'mon, new girl." Jenny rolled her eyes. "You're gonna let his old-ass talk down to you? Use that big ass taser of yours on the Blood sucker."

Sabrina looked down as if she forgot she had it. 

She held it out, toggled off the safety switch and walked over carefully. 

"I'm interested to see this." Troy said. 

Jenny stuck her tongue out to Sam.  

Sabrina whispered something.

"What?" I asked.

She said it again until I realized, it was in another language.

The transient man lifted his brow up.

"I said, He's just hungry..." she whispered louder.

She pressed the taser against Sam's neck.

All three hundred pounds of him fell forward, shaking and twitching in a frenzy. Sabrina removed her face mask and I could see clearly her fangs she divulged. She took a bite out of my neck where my jugular was and pierced it, the blood oozed down in quick droplets.

"Fuck!" I nudged her away. "Troy, grab the knives!" 

As I held a rag against my wounded neck to prevent the blood from gushing out, Troy took a swing at Sabrina with the silver tools but missed. Sabrina was too fast, too strong for him to reach her. She pushed him against the end of the room and he hit his head against the floor falling unconscious. 

Jenny stumbled down and hid in the corner of the shadow. "I can see you" Sabrina said. "We have very good vision in the dark..."

"Please... Don't..."

"We were just trying to survive here." Sabrina whispered with glossy grey eyes, her contacts had slipped off. "My people...we're just too different."

She ripped the straps and released the man from the chair, who instantly ran through the window to find safety. Sabrina followed behind. It's okay, I placed a tracker under his skin just in case he escaped. I'll need to rush to get the emergency vaccine from the state and we'll try this again in greater numbers.  

"Did she, did she leave?" Jenny stuttered.

"Yep, she left, tough guy."

"Fuck you." 

Troy managed to get up and stared down at Sam who held onto his abdomen and pissed himself on the floor.

"You know what, Hugo? I'm calling off tomorrow." 

"Vacation or sick?"

"Vacation." Troy said trying to gain his balance. "I've got almost 150 hours accumulated." Troy kicked the bottom of Sam's foot. "What about you fatass?" 

Sam mumbled something I think was in agreement. Tomorrows another day and we'll compose ourselves, but for now Jenny's going to take us all to the ER.