The Holy Death

Chapter 9

"I'm really looking forward to this," Scott said to Dawn as he drove the Mach I Mustang down highway 101 en route to a campsite in the foothills of the Oregon Coast range, just north of Florence. "I haven't been camping in a long time, not since my dad passed away. This'll be fun. Don't you think so, sweetheart?"

Silence. Stone cold silence. That is the way it had been since Scott picked up a still stewing Dawn from her home. It made for a rather tense journey, a tension he tried breaking every now and then with a tidbit of conversation or a bad joke. Dawn would not be moved.

"I'm real glad Jeremiah is going to try and find more info on that elf. Well, he and Cressida, anyway."

The name of Cressida invoked the only response Dawn had given yet the whole trip – an angry glare from the hateful ginger. Scott was a vampire, and had seen some frightening things in his time among the undead, but the cold stare from the scorned redhead was by far the most terrifying. I probably shouldn't have mentioned Cressida, Scott told himself, in a rare moment of all-too-obvious clarity. Dawn then looked away as she shot daggers from her flaming eyes.

"So, it's the silent treatment, huh? Okay, I get it. You know, that's real mature, Dawn."

"Mature?" Dawn roared. "And going to a strip club, that's mature?"

"Dawn, I told you, it wasn't my fault. I was forced!"

"You were forced. Uh huh. And how were you forced?"

"Well, there was Zed, and two other guys."

"Was Zed in his werewolf mode?"

"No, he wasn't."

"And the two other guys, how were they so overpoweringly strong that they were able to subdue a vampire?"

"Actually, they were skinny little computer geeks, but that's not the point."

"You could have taken them, easily!"

"Not every problem should be resolved with violence, Dawn."

"Or maybe you didn't want to 'resolve the problem', Scott!"

"Dawn, that's not true!"

"Whatever," Dawn again looked away from Scott, effectively ending the conversation. There was not a further sound from her until they pulled into the campsite parking lot. Pastor Larry and Tim O'Neill had beaten them there, Tim having gone into the woods to set up his tent, while Larry remained in the lot, hovering around his minivan. He waved at the newcomers. Dawn got out of the car, ran up to Larry and gave him a hug.

"Wow," Scott said as he looked about the otherwise empty lot, "This place is way off the beaten path, so to speak. Tim really knows his obscure campsites!"

"That's why we're not allowing him to plan any more camp outs," Larry responded. "By the way, Tim's wife Ellen is sick, so you guys are the only couple out here. Speaking of which, how is the happy young couple?"

"Not so happy," Dawn said.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Scott went to a strip club."

"Dawn!" Scott whined. "Thanks a lot!"

"Scott? Really? You went to a strip club?"

"It wasn't my idea, Larry! I was tricked into it!"

"Yeah," Dawn said, "But once you were there, you didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave."