The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

into the other clown, knocking him off his feet and back down into
the snow where his head thudded against some ice.
    ‘Quick,’ yelled Vanity,
grabbing his arm. ‘Let’s get inside. There’s more of them coming!’
    As they raced into the
church, Dante glanced back over his shoulder. A gang of vampire clowns had seen
what was going on and were charging towards the church. Some of them were armed
with machetes, others just water pistols. Either way, there was no use in
sticking around to get sliced up by these unfunny fuckers.
    Dante and Vanity
slammed shut the large wooden doors of the entrance, just in the nick of time
too. A couple of the quicker clowns crashed head first into the doors as Vanity
slid a large metal bolt across locking them shut from inside.
    Dante looked around for
Kacy. She was standing in the middle of the aisle half way down the church. On
a row of pews either side of her, the faces of around fifteen terrified
Sunflower Girls were peering over.
    ‘How many of them are
out there?’ Kacy asked.
    ‘About five,’ said
Vanity, brushing past Dante towards Kacy. ‘If they decide they want to get in
here we’re fucked. I’ll check around the back to make sure there’s no other
doors they can get in through.’
    Vanity rushed past Kacy
and the girls at lightning speed. When he reached the altar at the other end of
the hall he looked both ways before dashing off out of sight down the West wing
of the church.
    Dante could see the
fear in the eyes of the young girls and attempted to reassure them. ‘Don’t
worry about him,’ he said. ‘He won’t hurt you.’
    The little blonde girl
who Dante had rescued from the red haired clown spoke up on behalf of the
others, her voice a trembling squeak. ‘Are you vampires too?’ she asked.
    Dante looked to Kacy.
‘Can you field that question, while I go help Vanity check for other
entrances?’
    ‘Sure.’
    He hurried down the
aisle, past Kacy and the terrified girls. As he passed them he heard Kacy
attempting to explain. ‘We’re not proper vampires,’ she said. ‘We’re the nice
kind. We protect little girls from the real vampires. The clowns.’
    He was admiring her
skill and patience with the kids as he reached the end of the aisle. There was
no sign of Vanity anywhere.
    The church was cold and
dark. The only light (or heat for that matter) was provided by a scant few
candles on the walls. As Dante looked around for any sight of Vanity or any
open doors that might look inviting to unwanted intruders, he heard and
almighty crashing sound behind him.
    It was the sound of
breaking glass and it set the girls off screaming again. Dante spun around in
time to see five clowns come crashing through the stained glass windows above
the front doors. Shards of shattered glass fell from above and crashed down
onto the stone church floor, shattering into tiny pieces.
    Four of the clowns
landed in amongst the pews that were hiding the screaming Sunflower Girls. The
fifth clown landed behind Kacy and grabbed hold of her. He yanked her off her
feet and dragged her back down the aisle with him towards the entrance. The four
others each grabbed a screaming child and dragged them up out of the pews as
the remaining girls ducked down crying and screaming.
    Dante’s instinctive
reaction was to charge towards Kacy, but he’d barely taken a step when the
clown who was holding her, a freak with a green wig and an evil smile, pulled a
machete from up his sleeve and pressed it against her throat. He licked the
side of Kacy’s face and spoke into her ear.
    ‘Why are you helping
these kids?’ he sneered.
    ‘Because they’re kids,’
Kacy replied nervously.
    Dante felt his stomach
tighten. The blade on the machete was pressed tightly against Kacy’s neck. One
bad decision here could see her sliced up. It made him feel powerless. Kacy now
looked every bit as terrified as the children she had been trying so hard to
calm only moments earlier. And where the hell was Vanity?
    The clown with the
machete pressed against Kacy’s throat seemed to be the leader. The others,
hovering above the pews, holding captive schoolgirls, were clearly waiting for
him to give them the signal to start the carnage. He sneered at Dante.
    ‘You’ve broken vampire
code by siding with these kids,’ he yelled. ‘And you shouldn’t have brought
them here to the church. Goddamn church won’t save any of you!’
    Dante didn’t know how
to answer. But fortunately he didn’t have to.