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He led them to the wine and liquor section. Aisle after aisle. Shelf after shelf. All empty. Hugo and Alice touched the empty shelves where the blackish-green bottles once stood. Their fingers dragged over the aluminum shelves before their eyes met each other with a flabbergasted expression.
“It’s all gone. Everything. The wine. The liquor. The beer.Everything,” Oliver explained. “Every distributor pulled their items from the shelves.”
Hugo turned to Oliver, his face sunken in disbelief. “Why?”
Oliver gulped. He averted his gaze, holding onto his answer. He couldn’t. He couldn’t tell them why. He knew it would devastate them both, especially Alice.
“Why did they take everything?” Alice asked.
Oliver couldn’t say it. The truth would crush Alice’s spirit. His eyes watered, overcome with guilt. He couldn’t utter the words, so the burden fell onto his body. Hugo and Alice followed his finger as he pointed to Alice’s wine display.
“My wine did this?” Alice asked.
Oliver nodded.
Ez examined the display. “They’re making a move.”
Alice hugged Oliver. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t . . .” Oliver said. “I couldn’t take away your dream. Not after you worked so hard.”
“We need to talk in private,” Ez said.
“We can talk in our office in the back,” Carol offered.
Ez took off, not waiting for the others to join her. They all followed her down the hallway and into the Raskins’ office. Ez shut the door behind everyone.
“First, the restaurant, and now the market,” Hugo said. “They’re moving pieces on the chessboard, and we don’t even know it.”
“Who is doing what?” Oliver asked.
“You might want to sit down for this,” Hugo suggested.
The Raskins sat down.
“This is going to sound strange, but our neighbors are vampires,” Alice said.
“Vampires?” Carol asked.
“Like fangs and capes and turning into bats?” Oliver asked.
“Fangs, yes. Capes and bats, not so much,” Hugo said. “But yeah, those bloodsucking monsters.”
“We believe they’re targeting us,” Alice said.
“How do you know?” Oliver asked.
“Because they tried to get us last night,” Hugo said. “They invited us over for dinner and tried to hypnotize us.”
Oliver sat back in his chair.Vampires?
Memories of taking Carol to see the old Christopher LeeDraculamovies in their youth raced through his mind.
“So, do we need a lot of garlic or something?” Oliver asked.
“It won’t work,” Hugo said.
“It’s a myth,” Ez said. “It’s something you tell someone to calm them down.”
