The Late Night Horror Show by Bryan Smith Read Free Book Online

the same theater with Brix Harris. And she thought it’d be nice to give Kira and Monroe some space while they watched the vamp movie, making it more like a real date for them. At least for the first movie. She’d catch the second screening of the zombie flick with them, avoiding the weird Harris girl altogether.
     
    Though he’d been the focus of Brix’s hostility, Jason wasn’t about to let that sway him from seeing the first screening of Rise of the Dead . Given the number of people present, the theater would be mostly empty anyway. He and Nikki would just sit far away from the weird hicks, making out for ninety-some minutes while the end of the world played out on the big screen.
     
    The initial screening of Blood Lust was lightly attended, to understate. Monroe and Kira had the back row of the theater to themselves. Another couple sat in the row closest to the screen, a world away. They had the place virtually to themselves. The theater lights went down and the requisite safety announcement appeared on the screen. Kira leaned closer to him and dipped a hand inside the large bucket of popcorn propped on his lap. Monroe put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned even closer. An MPAA advisory appeared on the screen and the first coming-attractions trailer began soon after.
    Monroe smiled.
    The real fun was about to begin.

Chapter Six
    John Dorsey took no note of any oddities regarding the theater employees. He was too off kilter physically and emotionally for such things to register. The employees, in turn, opted to ignore the pint bottle of whiskey shoved down his right hip pocket, though the outline of the bottle was very plain to see. At any other theater on any other night, the bottle would have been confiscated by theater staff before he was allowed in. He was so drunk many theaters might have barred him from entering at all.  
    But the Sunshine 6 was no ordinary theater and, despite appearances to the contrary, the employees were not actually human.  
    John purchased his ticket and entered the theater with no complications. He staggered over to the concessions stand, purchased a fountain soda, and promptly reeled off in the direction of the nearest auditorium, which turned out to be the one showing Chainsaw Maniac .
     
     
    Some fifteen minutes later, Greg Nelson got out of his car, walked up to the ticket booth, and purchased a ticket. Unlike John, he was absolutely sober and therefore noticed the employees’ similarity in appearance, along with a few other odd little quirks, including the way their dark complexions masked somewhat the flawlessness of their flesh, which was devoid of any wrinkles or blemishes. Their skin had an almost artificial quality to it, as if they weren’t quite real at all. Greg dismissed this as fanciful nonsense as he entered the theater, where he bypassed the concessions stand and headed directly for the auditorium showing Rise of the Dead .
     
     
    The lights had gone down in each auditorium in the Sunshine 6. The theater-safety announcements and lame commercials were over. Trailers for all six films that were a part of the Late Night Horror Show festival were being screened now.
    Brix Harris and Trevor McKinley were kicked back in seats in the approximate middle of the auditorium screening Rise of the Dead . Brix had her right leg up, with her foot wedged into the space between the two empty seats in front of her. She munched on a piece of popcorn and watched the trailer for Blood Lust , which looked boring as hell. It was the usual angst-ridden vampire nonsense.  
    This impression had nothing to do with how pissed she was that Trevor’s friend had opted to see it first with that hipster chick Kira, rather than sticking to the original plan. She loved horror in general, but vampires were her least favorite of all the major monsters. Modern authors and filmmakers were too prone to portraying them as objects of desire or as potential romantic partners. Puke. The old