Free Reckless: Shades of a Vampire by Emily Jackson

rows back, and others who are not participating in the snake handling service. They turn and walk slowly out the church’s front door as the verses ring out and the deacons are gone, out of sight, to get the snakes.
    Just as I am, and waiting not
    To rid my soul of one dark blot,
    To thee whose blood can clean each spot,
    O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
     
    Out the sanctuary door and holding her daughter’s hand, Judith turns back as she walks down brick pathway leading to the gravel parking lot to tell Emma, who has also left the church, goodnight.
    “Hope to see you soon, girl,” Judith says.
    Emma smiles with a clinched jaw.
    "I hope to tongue your husband soon," she is thinking.
    Judith walks with her daughter toward the parking lot. Emma quickens her pace walking away from the church. The air is outside cooler than the church was inside, and the breeze blows the tiny sweat droplets that had beaded on her forehead away. Her heartbeat hastens its pace, and Emma moves away from the church in a fast walk, taking long strides in her white dress and sandals.
    Emma wonders if the fact that Josh wasn’t at the church service is a sign that he will surely be at the barn. She wonders if he shows, what the kiss will be like?
    Will he use his tongue to touch hers, like Michael? Or, will he kiss with his lips softly, leaving his mouth closed, and her longing for more?
    She wonders also if he wasn’t at the church service to send her a sign. Maybe he is not coming to the barn, she thinks.
    But Emma keeps moving and reaches the last turn in the road she can see the barn straight ahead. She squints to see if Josh is there, but she does not see him. The sun is setting earlier in the late summer season, and the sky is in a deep dusk as she approaches, meaning she can only see its outline in the fading light.
    She stops just outside the barn’s doorway facing the parsonage, and doesn’t see Josh.
    Her heart sinks, she feels, to her toes.
    Emma whimpers, audibly. Before she takes a step away back home, a voice booms from within the barn.
    “Hey,” it says.
    “Huh,” Emma responds, with wide eyes.
    “Its me. I didn’t know if you was bluffing me or not,” says Josh, in gravelly baritone. “Guess not. Look at you. Look at you. So beautiful.”
    “No,” Emma says. “I wasn't bluffing you. I’m here.”
    “Yep,” Josh says. “I’m here too.”
    "I see."
    Emma turns toward his voice, looking inside the barn. She sees Josh’s silhouette leaning against a pillar in the middle. He is illuminated by the faint light of fast-fading dusk seeping in.
    “I didn’t know if you were coming or not,” Emma says, with a slight hint of giggle.
    She walks toward him, taking soft slow steps across the barn’s dirt floor that mixes with hay.
    “I shouldn’t have,” Josh says. “Everybody knows you don’t mess with the preacher’s daughter. Your Daddy might put some kind of spell on me if he finds out.”
    “I thought you weren’t afraid,” Emma says.
    “I’m not afraid. But everybody knows. You don’t mess with the preacher’s daughter. And you especially don't fuck the preacher's daughter."
    “Father doesn’t do spells,” Emma says. “He just prays. And maybe we won't fuck.”
    “He might pray against me, then. And what do you mean, 'maybe we won't fuck'? You got me all worked up. My dick has been harder than a two-by-four since Monday.
    "Can't do anything about it. It's like a pointer dog -- just looking for you."
    Emma doesn’t respond.
    “Why did you want me to come?” Josh asks.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Why did you want me to come here then if you don't want to fuck me?”
    “Just to talk,” Emma says. “There’s nothing wrong with that, right? I enjoyed talking with you at the picnic. You talked to me. I talked back. I thought we could talk more here.”
    “I didn’t come here to talk,” Josh says.
    “No?” says Emma.
    “No. You felt me rubbing your leg under the table, didn’t you? I know you