Chapter 51: Russell’s Amulet

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Russell’s Amulet

Chapter 51: Russell’s Amulet

"Holy shit, Lionel, what happened to you?" Axel Vance lunged forward and caught Lionel Cosgrove before he slid completely out of the chair. The instant Axel touched him, his expression changed because Lionel’s body felt frighteningly light, his skin was dry, and the strange energy that normally lingered around him had almost completely disappeared.

Paquita Sanchez’s grandmother hurried over and grabbed Lionel’s wrist, then immediately frowned. "He burned through too much of the energy holding him together. We need to replenish him before he gets any worse." Lionel barely reacted, looking more like a man who had crossed a desert without water than someone who had simply made a small charm.

Axel’s first thought was Holy Water. Over the past few days, whenever he had nothing urgent to do, he had practiced consecrating bottles until one corner of the grocery store was practically buried beneath them. He grabbed several bottles, helped Lionel sit upright, and carefully had him drink while he was still conscious enough to swallow normally.

Lionel gulped down several mouthfuls before coughing and letting out a weak hiccup. Warmth slowly returned to his body, and a little color crept back into his pale face, but he still looked completely drained. Axel glanced toward the grandmother and asked, "That helped, but not nearly enough."

"That’s what worries me," she muttered as she pulled Lionel upright and examined him from several angles. After a moment, her eyes narrowed as if she had suddenly remembered something important. "Lionel, what exactly have you been eating since everything happened?"

Lionel rested his forehead on the table and answered weakly, "My kitchen is still mostly wrecked, so I’ve been living on frozen pasta and whatever I can heat up." The grandmother stared at him for several seconds before giving an exasperated sigh. "No wonder you’re falling apart. Your body isn’t operating like a normal man’s anymore, and you’re feeding it like a broke college student."

She disappeared into the back of the store before Lionel could defend himself. A few moments later, she returned carrying enough food to make Axel wonder whether she had been preparing for a hurricane. A heavy smoked ham landed on the table first, followed by cheese, dried sausage, dense loaves of bread, and a jar of olives.

The small table disappeared beneath the pile. Lionel slowly raised his head and stared at the food with growing horror, as though Freddy had somehow returned in the form of lunch. "You want me to eat all of that?"

"Start eating," the grandmother ordered. "Whatever Vera did to you forces your body to burn through ordinary energy along with the supernatural reserve keeping your soul bound to your flesh. If you keep surviving on a few frozen meals, one day you’re going to dry up like an old corpse before you even realize what happened."

Axel looked at Lionel’s miserable face and finally burst out laughing. "Good luck, buddy. I suddenly remembered I have somewhere else to be." Before Lionel could ask for help, Axel slipped out of the grocery store and left him staring hopelessly at the enormous ham.

Axel’s next priority was replacing his destroyed pickup. After thinking about what had happened to his brand-new Ford, he had reached a simple conclusion: expensive vehicles and his supernatural life were a terrible combination. If monsters were going to keep using his trucks as punching bags, he might as well buy something cheap enough that the next wreck would hurt less.

A retired local resident happened to be selling a well-kept used pickup, and Axel bought it after a short inspection and some bargaining. The truck was mechanically sound, the price was reasonable, and the bed had enough room for cases of Holy Water and whatever other strange equipment he accumulated. Compared with the new Ford that Freddy and Jason had destroyed, it felt almost disposable.

Axel drove the used pickup back toward the Crystal Lake camp with a new project already forming in his head. The fire engine had shown him how effective Holy Water became when it was delivered through pressure instead of bottles. He decided the truck bed needed a smaller water tank and a compact high-pressure spray system, something that could turn the pickup into a miniature version of the Holy Water Chariot.

By the time Axel returned to camp, he had already acquired a suitable tank and begun filling it. He stood beside the pickup with one hand against the container while quietly reciting scripture, slowly converting the stored water into Holy Water. The process was much easier than consecrating the entire fire engine tank, especially now that his specialization had reached Level 2.

While Axel worked, Russell wandered past and immediately noticed the small charm hanging from Axel’s belt. The chubby boy stopped, stared at it for a moment, and grinned. "Big Brother Axel, you have an amulet too?"

Axel paused and looked at him. "Too?" Russell proudly reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a metal cross hanging from a chain around his neck.

The moment Axel stepped closer, the hairs along the back of his neck rose. The cross was hanging upside down, and an extremely pure yet unmistakably dark supernatural presence surrounded it. What disturbed Axel even more was that the power showed no sign of corrupting Russell.

Instead, it protected him.

The dark energy formed something like an invisible shell around the boy’s entire body. Axel stared at the cross and suddenly remembered how strangely Russell had behaved during Freddy’s attacks. While Nancy, Glen, and the others fought desperately against sleep, Russell had snored through the night without suffering anything worse than drool on his pillow.

Even when Freddy had specifically mentioned being repelled by the "little fat kid," Russell had remained completely unharmed. Axel had originally credited most of that protection to the Holy Water he gave him, but the strength surrounding the inverted cross suggested there had been another reason. The amulet had likely been shielding Russell long before Axel ever arrived.

Russell noticed Axel’s serious expression and immediately became nervous. "Is something wrong with it?" he asked while instinctively tucking the cross closer to his chest.

Axel crouched until they were eye level. "Russell, I need you to tell me exactly where you got this." His tone was calm but serious enough that the boy stopped smiling.

Russell hesitated. "If I tell you, are you going to laugh at me?" Axel shook his head and promised he would listen without making fun of him.

The boy’s shoulders relaxed. "I told other people before, but nobody believed me." He took a breath and said, "A vampire gave it to me."

Axel closed his eyes for a second and rubbed his forehead.

Of course.

Zombies, cultists, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, cursed bindings, and now a vampire had officially joined the list. At this rate, Axel figured a werewolf would show up next and Crystal Lake could host the strangest poker night in Florida.

He forced the joke out of his mind and looked back at Russell. "All right. Why would a vampire give you a protective amulet?"

Russell thought carefully before answering. "There’s an old cemetery way outside town, past one of the dirt roads. I went exploring there once and saw this coffin sticking halfway out of the ground."

Axel’s expression remained neutral, although internally he was already questioning why an unsupervised child had been exploring remote graveyards. Russell continued explaining that curiosity got the better of him, so he walked over and knocked on the coffin. To his surprise, somebody knocked back.

"There was a man inside," Russell said. "He told me the coffin had been nailed shut too tightly and he couldn’t get out." Russell had apparently decided that leaving a stranger trapped inside a coffin would violate every lesson he had learned about Scouts being helpful and doing a good turn whenever possible.

"So I grabbed a big rock and started smashing the lid," Russell continued proudly. "It took forever, but eventually I broke a hole big enough for something to get through." Axel stared at him, increasingly unsure whether Russell was brave, reckless, or simply immune to common sense.

The first thing that came out was a bat. According to Russell, it circled above the graveyard several times before dropping toward the ground and transforming into a grown man wearing an old-fashioned cape. The stranger thanked Russell for freeing him and said he wanted to repay the favor.

"He gave me this," Russell said as he lifted the inverted cross. "He told me it would keep bad things away and protect me if anything dangerous found me." After that, the man turned into a cloud of black smoke and vanished before Russell could ask many questions.

Axel looked carefully at the amulet again. Nothing about the story proved the vampire was friendly, but giving a child a powerful protective charm after being rescued was certainly better behavior than most supernatural creatures Axel had encountered. Still, the dark energy surrounding the object was strong enough that he had no intention of simply accepting Russell’s story without investigating.

"Do you know where he went?" Axel asked. Russell shook his head and said the vampire disappeared immediately after giving him the cross. Axel stood and looked toward the freshly prepared Holy Water stored in the pickup.

"All right. We’re going for a drive."

Russell’s eyes lit up.

Axel loaded the remaining Holy Water supplies into the truck bed before letting Russell climb into the passenger seat. If the mysterious vampire truly meant no harm, Axel would confirm that and leave him alone, but if Russell had unknowingly released something dangerous into the area, Axel wanted to find out before another town turned into a battlefield.

They followed a series of narrow rural roads until the pavement disappeared beneath the tires. Russell directed Axel along a rough dirt trail lined with trees and overgrown brush, and after several miles they reached an old cemetery almost completely hidden from the main road. The place looked forgotten enough that Axel doubted anyone visited except adventurous children with poor survival instincts.

Russell pointed immediately. "That’s it."

A coffin rested near one of the older graves with nearly half of its structure still embedded in the disturbed earth. The lid had been broken open exactly where Russell described, leaving a jagged gap large enough for a bat—or something shaped like one—to escape.

Axel parked the pickup and stepped out with a bottle of Holy Water close at hand. He examined the coffin carefully and immediately noticed that it was far too elaborate for an ordinary local burial. The dark wood had been carved with intricate patterns, and the interior was lined with old but expensive-looking velvet.

"Well," Axel muttered, "you definitely didn’t free somebody from a Walmart coffin."

Russell followed several steps behind while Axel searched the surrounding ground for anything unusual. There were no obvious tracks left after so much time, and the grave itself offered little beyond disturbed soil and the damaged coffin. Then Axel noticed the tombstone standing beside it.

He brushed dirt and moss from the carved lettering.

Russell leaned closer.

Axel read the inscription once.

Then a second time.

His expression slowly hardened.

THE TOMB OF COUNT ALUCARD.

:::

[Support Goal: 500 PS → +1 Chapter]

[Support Goal: 10 Reviews → +1 Chapter]

Your review helps the story grow.

P1treon Soulforger (20+Chapters ahead)