Chapter 32: Gravestone Blues

Dimitri considered his options. On one hand, he had to help Jack.

On the other…

"Lily Briar. Beloved mother of three. May she and little Timmy rest in peace."

How was he supposed to dig out a woman who had died in her child bed?

Jack sighed next to him.

"That is the only fresh grave left. I checked," the ghoul told him, but he wasn't willing to dig it out, either.

"We have to find you food, and fast," Dimitri said, as he looked at the rising sun. "Will your beast be quiet if we catch it a vampire?"

Jack blinked.

"Don't you guys turn to ashes when you die?" The ghoul asked. Dimitri looked at the gravestone, but he still didn't have the heart to disturb the poor woman's rest.

"We do. Well, the thin bloods don't. And I can feel one of them in the grave over there."

Jack sniffed the air. He knew that there was no digging the vampire out without violence.

"Thin bloods are not real vampires," Dimitri continued. "They are more ghouls, than anything else. We will be doing this community a service. After all, if this vampire gets out, he will hunt whatever he wishes."

Dimitri passed the shovel to Jack. The man marched to the grave in question with a grave determination.

As Jack began to dig, Dimitri wondered what Jean and Nikola were going to say when they found out.

He was certain that the two didn't know much about ghouls. And even if they did, they weren't viewing Jack as the sum of his new existence.

No, for the one, he was someone who had a crush on them.

For the other: a brother.

Dimitri took out his gun. As soon as a hand appeared out of the grave, he shot at it.

"Jack, pull up the lid!" Dimitri yelled.

"Sure!"

As soon as Dimitri saw just what type of monster they had dug up, he felt sick.

This was another woman. There was a tiny skull next to her.

Dimitri took aim, said a prayer for the baby and its mother, and then shot the thin-blooded vampire between the eyes.

The salt bullets did the rest.

****

Jack felt better, but he still couldn't come to terms with the fact that the vampire had eaten her own unborn baby. That she had dug into her own womb just to get to the baby's blood.

"Coffin births are real," Dimitri told him, as he watched him eat his bitter meal. "The baby is in a better place now."

"Really?" Jack asked, sarcasm in his voice. "Can you imagine it? To be born in a coffin, to be eaten by your mother?"

Dimitri shook his head.

"We live in a cruel world," he said finally, as he looked around.

"Do you think that the woman with the baby also had a coffin birth?" Dimitri added.

Jack was up from his spot, the shovel in his hand.

The grave was fresh. It must have been dug yesterday morning.

There had been no cries from the grave, but he still began to dig. The sun was rising. He knew that if he got caught, he was going to jail.

Still, he dug. Until he found the lid, and he pushed it to the side.

The woman's stomach was swollen. He pressed a hand over it.

Something kicked him weakly from inside.

"Dimitri, the baby is alive!" Jack exclaimed.

"On it!" Dimitri took out a knife. The mother won't feel pain anymore. He didn't want for her to come back as a ghost, trying to desperately help her child, only to turn bitter when it died.

It was a bloody birth. The baby still cried when they got it out.

Dimitri wrapped up the child in his jacket, not having anything to wrap it up with.

"What are we going to do with the baby?" Jack asked. They couldn't just leave it in an orphanage. They couldn't come clean that they had dug it out of a grave.

"Well, I always wanted to be a father," Dimitri said, as he hugged the baby close to him. "We need baby formula. How about this? You can wait in the car with the baby, and I will get it everything it needs."

The problem, Dimitri realized, was that there was the possibility of Nikola not wanting to take care of the baby. The man was young. He might get scared of the responsibility.

And yet, he still carried the baby to the car, gave him to Jack, whose eyes were back to being dark, and then drove into town.

****

The place was full of bone-tired mothers. Some even had their babies in a sling.

Dimitri had no idea what he was supposed to buy for the baby. The baby didn't even have a name yet. He hadn't even checked for the gender.

He was trying to decide between two baby formulas, trying to decipher what the labels meant, and if the baby needed 25 vitamins or just 10.

"Are you a first-time father?" A young woman with her baby in a sling over her chest asked.

"Yes. My son was born yesterday," which was even the truth. The sunrise had come and was now high in the sky.

The baby was born this morning, in a cool and polished coffin.

It was either ironic, he decided, or just the perfect baby for a vampire.

"Pick this one, with the 10 vitamins," she pointed at the cheaper brand. "I fed my boy with it, and he is just fine, see?"

She turned so that Dimitri could see the baby. It giggled, blowing him a raspberry.

Dimitri smiled, petted the boy on the head, and then placed the baby formula in his shopping cart. Then, he took three more containers and vowed to keep them somewhere cold.

"You will also need clothes," the mother pointed at the aisle to his left. "And don't forget to get the angel a stroller!"

Dimitri nodded. He began to browse the shop again. The young mother by his side, giving him advice on what he should buy.