by Luke Metcalf
“My true nature revealed!” she cried.
“Whoa, you look hot.”
Cindy laughed.
After some searching, Emily found a gorgeous midnight-blue ball gown that was perfect. She had some fake jewelry at home she could add for effect, and for the final touch she bought an amazingly realistic-looking pair of fangs. As they were walking out of the store they noticed a flyer stapled to a telephone pole, advertising an all-ages bash at a rock club called the Sanctuary, which was opening on Halloween. The blood drained from Emily’s face as she slowly reached out to tear off the flyer. As she read it over again, she shuddered. Could this be the same Sanctuary? It would explain why she hadn’t been able to find it online. It was a brand-new club that didn’t even have a website yet. But why in the world would those men be interested in meeting at a Halloween party in a club?
“This must be it though,” she muttered to herself. He had said the people they were meeting were scared, so they wanted to meet in a public place.
“What? What is it?” Cindy asked.
“I know where we’re going for Halloween.” Emily passed her the flyer.
“No admittance without costume,” read Cindy. “I like it!”
After dropping Cindy off, Emily drove home. When she was in her bedroom Mercurios was waiting on her desk.
“You dislike the Chanel girl intensely don’t you? Perhaps some day you should give her a taste of your Wand of Lightning. We could very easily make her head explode and turn her into a pile of ashes, tee-hee-hee.”
“Listen, I just want to make something clear. Just because I don’t like Chanel doesn’t mean I want to blast her with a lightning bolt.”
“Of course you don’t, Emily, tee-hee-hee,” he chuckled, giving her a knowing wink. “Oh, and that reminds me, your name isn’t Emily.”
“What?”
“Your real name is Talia.”
“Okay, stop right there. My name is Emily, got it? I’m Emily Bliss. That’s who I am.”
“Whatever you say. But I don’t like this plan of yours. Focus your energies on learning magic, that is what’s important, forget about everything else.”
“Listen, Mercurios, I promise to be safe, I won’t go into Cady’s house again or anything like that. But I need to find out as much as possible. I’m going to record him from a safe distance. It’s a compromise. I get to do what I want and be safe at the same time.”
“Foolish.”
She drove by Cady Sunner’s house, parked her car just up the street, snuck into Cady’s backyard and hid the mic in his bushes, pointing it at the open kitchen window. Then she went home, made sure the signal was being recorded onto her computer and started getting ready for Tom’s party.
Twelve
2020
For more than two centuries Mitchell remained trapped, crushed in the depths of the watery, black abyss. During that time, his body was barely able to regenerate itself. For decade after decade he existed in an almost comatose nightmare. Every hour of those years, however, his hunger for blood grew stronger, the pain becoming so great it eventually hauled his mind out of the blackness and into a full, agonizing consciousness when a shark tore open a large fish nearby and a cloud of blood engulfed him. He was barely able to move, but he could sense the life forms moving around him in the darkness. The faint, enticing scent of the blood drove his body to start the long process of healing.
With what little strength returned he fed upon whatever creatures of the deep found their way to him, but their feeble life forces did not provide the same power as human blood. It took forever for them to provide enough strength for him start moving, inch by painful inch, to escape his chains until eventually he was able to break free of them and the weight of water above him and haul his crushed body up toward the surface of the ocean.
As he came closer to the surface Mitchell could hear the thoughts of humans on a ship crossing far above him. When he finally broke through the waves, under cover of darkness, he was able to grasp onto the side of the hull with his bony fingers, hanging there, dragged in the ship’s wake, until he could muster the strength to lift his own weight out of the water and throw himself onto the deck. There he sprawled in the dark for several hours before crawling to a hatch and dropping into a dark corner of the hold, where he remained for the next few weeks, feeding on the blood of rats.
Like the creatures of the deep the rats’ blood was also weak, but it kept him alive as his body fought to regenerate itself. Occasionally he would catch the thoughts and voices of sailors and smell the blood coursing through their strong veins as they worked. He learned that the ship was headed far north to Sweden. When it finally docked, he waited until nightfall and slithered from the hold, crawling silently to the shore, unseen and unheard by the slumbering population. He lay in wait on the rocks beneath a pier, exhausted by his efforts, kept alive by the force of his will.
“Wherever you are,” he whispered to the stars above, “I will find you.”
After a few hours he mustered the strength to crawl into a cave and for many months he lay there, feeding on the blood of any birds of animals that scurried too close to his waiting fingers. When he had healed enough to stand upright, he stepped out into the world of humans once more, ready to hunt. Now he was not only one of the most ancient vampires on earth, but his power had grown well beyond his years, the centuries spent crushed by the ocean having accelerated his development.
He was not prepared, however, for the profound changes that had taken place in the world of mortals and his eyes were wide in amazement as he moved silently amongst people who barely noticed his existence. He stole modern clothes from a traveler’s suitcase then crossed by boat to England, stole a horse from a farm and rode southward, passing landscapes populated by gleaming towers. He saw machines that flew across the sky and at night he saw the people inside staring at boxes with moving pictures projected onto glass. Everything was so shiny and hard.
He needed to learn how to blend into this new reality. It was essential that he master his new environment if he was going to thrive. In the two hundred years he had existed as a vampire before being crushed in the depths of the ocean, Mitchell had amassed a fortune and had buried his treasures in various spots in the English countryside. His first task was to locate those stashes that had not been covered in concrete and dig up belongings that he hoped would now be worth the fortune he needed.
Leaving the countryside for the city he started to acquaint himself with the survival skills needed for the modern world. He learned how to use a computer and drive a car, while all the time searching for information about the movements of the Priests of Mezzor and for any of the Knights of the Niveus Gladius. Once he had turned his treasures into cash he purchased some real estate, cars and a private jet and hired his own personal pilot.
He developed a taste for the raw, primal power of rock music. One night he was out at a rock club in London. He was dressed simply but stylishly and wore a long black trench coat to cover the fact they he was carrying his sword. Getting it past bouncers had been easy, using the hypnotic power of his eyes. While observing the mortals as they danced and played endless games of seduction, he fleetingly caught the thoughts of a young man sitting alone in a dark corner of the club. Mitchell froze. For a moment, he had seen a clear image of Baelaar standing in some sort of temple and he realized that he had stumbled upon a recently turned Initiate of the Priests of Mezzor.
As Mitchell edged closer, the young vampire’s thoughts grew darker. He recalled sneaking into a hospital earlier that evening and feeding on infants and children as though they were rodents. Mitchell was disgusted but his face showed no expression as he pulled up a seat at the same table. The Initiate looked at him in surprise. When Mitchell smiled, exposing his teeth, the young man drew back suspiciously.
“Who are you?”
“Baelaar sends his greetings. There is a situation that must be dealt with immediately. Mephris has gone rogue.”
“W
hat?”
“He is a traitor. He is working with the Niveus Gladius.”
“That’s impossible!”
“That is exactly what I said, but unfortunately it is possible. I will explain how, but we must go somewhere more private. Shall we step outside?”
The Initiate hesitated before nodding. Mitchell led him out of the club into an alley between two buildings.
“We are telling everyone to keep their eyes open for him and to report any sightings immediately,” Mitchell said. “Have you seen him?”
“The last I heard, he was in America working on… but don’t you know that?”
The Initiate frowned, realizing something was wrong. Mitchell was standing too close to him, making him shiver involuntarily.
“Of course,” Mitchell replied. From the vampire’s thoughts he could see that Mephris was his maker and that he had gone to a place in America called Portland, Maine. The Initiate had accompanied him and then returned to England. Mitchell saw jumbled images of a warehouse on the waterfront. The Initiate had also overheard a conversation in which Mephris mentioned the Well of Many Worlds, although the boy had no idea what it was. All he knew was that Mephris was seeking it, and that was why he had gone to Portland. He also knew that there was a meeting with a group of American vampires planned there in a couple nights at a place called the Sanctuary on Halloween.
“What did you say your name was again?” asked the Initiate, slowly backing away.
“My name?” Mitchell smiled, his canines gleaming in the lamplight. “My name… is Vengeance.”
With one swift movement, Mitchell drew his sword of flame and sliced off the young man’s head. Stepping over the bleeding corpse, kicking the head to the side, he sheathed his sword and walked away.
“Portland, Maine,” he muttered to himself. “The Sanctuary, October 31st, All Hallows Eve. Hmmm… it’s a full moon on Halloween this year.”
Behind him the body disintegrated into a pile of ash that was then scattered by a gust of wind.
Thirteen
Emily sat in her bedroom staring at the palm of her right hand. “Mercurios?”
“Yes.” The imp appeared on her dresser.
“You’ve been around my whole life, do you know how I got this scar?” She held up her hand. There was a scar running down the lifeline. “I’ve had it ever since I can remember and I don’t know how I got it and my mom doesn’t remember.”
The imp jumped off the dresser, ran over and leaped onto Emily’s lap and stared intently at her hand. “No, Emily, I don’t remember.”
There was a pounding on Emily’s bedroom door and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Mercurios vanished. When she opened the door Emily found her mother standing, arms crossed and frowning.
“What, Mom?”
“I got a call from the school earlier. Apparently, you’re failing math! Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Mom, I don’t want to talk about it now,” Emily said quietly.
“Apparently all your grades are falling. What’s going on?”
“Other than my father dying?” Emily said, unable to keep her sarcasm in check.
“Other than that. I know it’s been very hard for you, dear, but I’m just concerned. Do you need a tutor?”
“No. Listen, I can deal with this myself. Just give me time!”
“Well, it certainly doesn’t seem like it! You can’t let your grades slip like this!”
“Yeah, because achieving good grades is everything and nothing else matters. Listen, Mom, why don’t you just go back to work, since that’s the most important thing in the world and let me deal with my life.”
“Emily, I work very hard to provide this life for you – a life that you obviously take for granted – so I have the right to know what’s going on.”
“I don’t take it for granted, Mom, I’m grateful for it, but there’s more to life.” Emily thought for a moment. Maybe a half-truth would get her out of this situation. “Look, I’ve just been doing a lot of socializing, that’s all. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“What, with Cindy? But she’s a straight-A student.”
“Not just Cindy.”
“Do you mean a boy?”
“Uh… yeah. And you need to respect that this is my personal life and have confidence in me that, even though I won’t be getting a hundred per cent on every exam because I want to actually spend some time enjoying my life while I’m young, I will pull through.”
She waited before adding any more, unsure how her mother would react. She had never spoken to her about this kind of stuff before. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that she might just have made a big mistake.
“Oh… I see. That makes sense.” Her mother nodded. “Well, it’s wonderful that you’ve found a boy you like, but I expect you to be responsible about this. You’ve got to keep up with your studies.” Emily could feel herself blushing angrily. “You have to think about your future, your career.”
“Okay, I will worry about my life and you can worry about yours. Are we done?”
“For now.” Her mother headed off downstairs.
Whew! Emily thought. I got out of that one!
“Em?” her mother called up the stairs.
Emily stopped halfway closing her door and poked her head back out. “Yes, Mom?”
“Why don’t we cook dinner together tonight?”
She had a sneaking suspicion that this invitation was just a cover for the dreaded “sex ed” conversation. She knew she couldn’t avoid it forever. It was programmed into every parent’s DNA – “the talk.” She groaned inwardly at the thought of it, but she also knew she had to get it out of the way.
“Um, okay.”
“Okay, great. Come on then.”
Emily walked downstairs as though she was on her way to her own execution. As expected, her mother began discussing male-female stuff as they prepared dinner, and it was just as awkward and embarrassing for both of them as expected.
“Now, honey, at your age, there are these things called hormones.”
“Yes, I know, Mom. And they’re present at any age.”
“Let me finish, please. Now, hormones can affect young people in strange ways. They’re like a chemical reaction that can create an imbalance in your brain. It can almost be like a mild form of insanity. You might find yourself thinking and acting a little crazy and getting impulses, thinking and feeling things—”
“Gee, Mom, I know.”
“Oh, you know so much, do you?”
“Mom, I know about hormones and puberty and all that stuff. I’m nearly eighteen!”
“Oh, you do!” her mother exclaimed. “Well, just imagine for a moment that despite your vast experience, there might just be a couple things that I have a little more experience with than you.” She banged down an empty pot and fished inside of the cutlery drawer.
“Okay, okay, look, I’m sorry.”
“Does he respect you?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Oh, so you haven’t…”
“No, Mom, listen, to put a quick end to this conversation, I’m a virgin, okay?”
“Oh, well, good dear, I’m glad you’ve been so mature about this. Always remember: The best way to find out if a boy really loves you is to see if he’ll wait for marriage. It really is just that simple.”
“Okay, thanks, Mom, can we talk about something else now?”
“No, Emily!”
Emily spent the next hour helping her mother in silence, letting her do all the talking. When dinner was finally over, and all the dishes had been washed, she retreated to her bedroom to finish getting ready for the party while listening to rock and roll on her stereo at full volume. It was her favorite style of music and always transported her to another place.
When she arrived outside Tom’s mansion she could hear the dull thudding of rock music coming through the closed front door. Just as she was about to let herself in Cindy arrived with Chester and a second
later Chanel, Tyler, and the rest of Chanel’s squad pulled into the driveway and got out of their cars in their various costumes.
Chanel was dressed in an expensive-looking dress, real jewelry and designer shoes, as if she had just stepped off a New York runway. She wore a “Miss Universe” sash and looked like a movie star. Emily hated her even more for it. She wondered if Tom would be more attracted to her or Chanel, then hated herself for even caring.
As Chanel’s squad approached in their super-sexy Halloween costumes, Chanel looked at Cindy’s costume and spoke loudly to Tyler, “Ugh. Cupcakes has the fashion sense of a clam.”
“Hey, take that back!” Chester, dressed as a Viking, glared at her.
“Shut up, Chanel.” Cindy, glowered. “It’s personality that counts, and yours sucks.”
“It’s personality that counts!” Chanel held her flat stomach to indicate how hard she was faking a laugh. Her friends laughed with her.
“Don’t even bother,” Emily murmured to Cindy, taking her friend’s arm. “C’mon. Let’s just go in.”
Chanel turned her attention to Emily. “Do your parents – oops! I mean, does your mother still dress you for Halloween?”
Emily stopped and slowly turned back toward Chanel, chin up, her hands on her hips. Chanel and her friends all waited for her response, their eyebrows raised expectantly.
“You know, Chanel, I’ve always wanted to ask you – doesn’t the fact you have to spend so much money just to look good enough to walk outside each day make you insecure?”
“Is that it?” scoffed Chanel. “That’s all you got?” She turned to her friends and laughed.
“Is that what went wrong with Tom?” continued Emily. “Is that why he dumped you? He finally realized that under all those designer clothes, there was nothing worth looking at?”
The other girls exchanged nervous and amused glances. Chanel clenched her jaw, her eyes blazing as Emily turned and opened the front door, her head still held high.