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Especially if, after this is all over, he’ll never be back on Earth again.
Despite the pang in his gut, the need, the rage, the hate, Lauren?iu doesn’t mind either.
Chapter 14
Lauren?iu
With Paimon’s help, the lights in the museum flicker on, and wax eyes stare at them. Despite the life-size King Kong clinging to a tower, the actual museum is only two stories tall. There are several movie set pieces, including another smaller King Kong figure where visitors can pose as “captives.”
Without any strangers around, Paimon has dropped his disguise, and a pang stings Lauren?iu’s chest. He missed the horns and tail, the latter swishing languidly behind the demon king as, with his hands on his hips, he scrutinizes a statue of James T. Kirk. While Paimon does that, Lauren?iu admires him.
Meanwhile, Adrian drinks in the scene in silence as Daisy trots after them. They regard the scene less like a vacationer and more like a student expecting a test. They also might not recognize most of the people and characters; Lauren?iu recognizes about half of them.
It’s odd, doing this and not being alone. He’s not sure he’ll ever get used to it.
Next, they look inside a maze of mirrors, which doesn’t provide much for Lauren?iu. Then, they find a zombie haunted house attraction, which now seems to be in poor taste. The inside is made up like a laboratory, with signs pointing to different wards.
The hours pass in a peace Lauren?iu doesn’t know how to accept.
On the amusement grounds proper, a thick layer of fog blankets the ground, wet with last night’s rain. Indeed, it reminds him of a cemetery, or a tomb. Maybe Paimon is right. This is a place that commemorates a time that no longer exists and can no longer return.
If only Mama and Tata were here.
They come across more reanimated persons wandering idly, and they find an old grist mill where the massive wheel has long since stopped turning. There’s an arrangement of dead flowers, and bushes in the shape of a duck, complete with a wooden beak.
The mill itself looks like a cabin that was once a restaurant, the inside full of overturned, rustic chairs and tables, and a simple menu of cinnamon bread and various sodas and coffees.
Another pang.If only I’d seen this place as it was before, but at least I can be here in peace.
Instead of throwing balls at wooden targets, Adrian takes a sniper rifle Paimon gifted them and settles on top of the mill to shoot reanimated persons in the head. Their aim is exceptional, and they never flinch from recoil.
When Lauren?iu sits by the eerily still water, Paimon and Daisy join him.
CRACK.
Could they have been part of one of the militias across the region? He and Paimon had only run into one so far, but he knows there are more concentrated near cities.
He imagines that TTARP was strict with keeping their own ranks from getting any kind of infection, be it the reanimation virus or something more inexplicable, like vampirism. As far as he knows, no vampire virus was found in his blood tests.
CRACK.
At the sound of another bullet hitting its mark, Paimon sighs happily. “Ah, even more relaxing than ice skating on Cocytus.”
This close, Lauren?iu thinks about touching one of his horns. He’s always wanted to, platonically, but he’s never dared.
When Paimon shifts to look at Lauren?iu, they’re close enough to kiss.
“Don’t you think that it’s too peaceful here?”
“We’re fine. This is very peaceful, yes. Wouldn’t have it any other way.” CRACK. “Oh, that one was a sprayer.”
“And if we get swarmed by some secret covenant of vampire hunters?”
“I guess we’ll be up Shit’s Creek a mile from Bonetown.”
“Yes, that.”
Paimon tsks. “Lauren?iu, who are we kidding? We can both rip out someone’s jugular if we want. We’ll be fine.”
