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The excitement Sam had felt at finding a comic book store was gone now.
What was with these guys? They looked like they were his age, and there was a resemblance that made Sam suspect they were brothers. They were also watching him intently, like hunters. They were dressed in fatigues, like undersized escapees from a bad action flick.
And now they were closing in on him. One on either side of him.
“Got a problem, guys?” Sam asked, hoping to cool them down. They were being weird, but maybe they were just awkward and bad with people.
Sam had just lost all his friends in the move, and these guys were his own age. Having friends would be nice and having friends who worked in a comic book shop would have some upsides, right?
“Just scoping your civilian wardrobe,” one of them said.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Civilian wardrobe? They really must have watched too many action flicks.
“Well, no one ever realized you were a vampire hunter by looking at you," the one wearing a bandana said. "I guess you always were better at us than that." He paused, then added, very deliberately, "Sam."
Sam turned and stared. “What?”
There was no way they could know his name. The only local he knew was Grandpa and he really doubted he hung out here.
The other brother nodded. "It's good to see you again, Sam."
"Again? No, back up. How do you know my name?"
"Of course we know your name. You're our friend."
“I'm Edgar and this is my brother, Alan. We’re the Frog brothers. And you're Sam Emerson from Phoenix,” bandana boy said.
“And you're looking for Batman number 14,” the other one added.
“Only four in existence, and you’re always looking for the other three.”
“How do you know that?” Sam demanded.
The brothers traded looks again, before looking back at him. “Time travel.”
“Time travel? You been sniffing old newsprint?” Sam wanted to laugh, but not even Mom or Micheal knew that he was looking for Batman number 14. How did these two?
“It's not a joke, Sam.”
“The world is stranger than you think. Vampires are real, and we hunt them. And you're the third member of our vampire hunting team,'' Edgar said, as matter of fact as if he was talking about the fact that the sky was blue.
Sam wanted to laugh- but how had they known his name, let alone about him owning Batman number 14?
And the way they were looking at him-
Before, their watching eyes had just been creepy. But now that they were right in front of him, and he could see them better, they looked almost ...scared. Like if they took their eyes off of him he would disappear.
And the absolute certainty as they said his name- as they talked about vampires-
“Told you he wouldn't believe us yet,” one of the brothers said to the other.
“Well, he didn't believe us the first time either.” He turned back to Sam- “here’s our number. You're going to want it later.”
“And take these too.”
Sam looked down at the comics he handed him. ”Vampires everywhere!” one title read and the other one read “Destroy all vampires!”. “I don't like-” Sam started.
“We know. You don't like horror comics. But these ones could save your life.”
“Well, they're not right about everything,” the other said.
“True, garlic doesn’t work.”
The brothers shared a look before looking back at Sam again.
“They’re good starters though. We’ll teach you the rest later.”
There was some sort of scuffle going on at the front of the comic shop, but neither the brothers nor Sam turned to look.
"Oh and took this too," Edgar said, handing Sam a canteen, "It's holy water. I blessed it myself."
“Yeah.. right,” Sam said and fled.
"Pet Nanook for us!"
Later:
Still reeling from the sight of his brother’s ghost-like reflection and the realization of what he was becoming, Sam grabbed the phone and dialed the number. He kept the canteen full of holy water next to him as it rang.
“You did the right thing in calling us. Don’t worry, your brother is still only a half vampire. You can still save him.”
“We can save him,” the other brother corrected. “It's not a one man job.”
“True. Alright Sam, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to kill the head vampire and that will turn your brother human again-”
Everything was weird but Sam found himself reassured that at least someone knew what was going on.