“Sweet Jimmeny!” He falls on one knee. He clutches his hands over his heart, eyes welling up with tears.
“You came back to me, Domina. You came back to me.” He puts his hand against his forehead. “And now you’ve died. Trying to find me? O how could I not have known?” The waitress has exited the coffee shop, and many other shop owners stand outside their doorways after the blast. Nostramadeus stands up, weakly, and leans against the waitress, who opens her arms around him as he begins to cry against her shoulder. He nuzzles in toward her neck, his favorite place, a softer cry.
“O, come here, there, there,” the waitress tells him. She holds a hand against his head, “There, there. She’d want you to be happy,” she reminds him.
“I know,” the dashing and somewhat broken vampire softly cries, already swinging this last loss to his advantage, although quite without manipulative intention as so many vampires claim to be.
“Who did this?” one shop owner dares to ask, when from above and through the land, a sudden wind blows that holds a witch’s cackle, as it passes by the shop-lined street with the woman-shaped hole. People shiver and bundle up. Nostramadeus cries a little louder and snuggles in a little deeper. One shop owner looks to the opposite side of him.
A woman in a cleaner’s dress, holding a squash, points above his head and whispers, “The witch.”
The shop owner looks down into the hole, “Poor thing.”
“I know,” the woman says and pats her squash.
On the porch, the Legend Teller’s words ring out into the crisp night air, Jessica asks, “Is that the end of it?”
“Well, kind of,” he answers, “you see, us types, mostly, ah I mean, those types from the underworld don’t get haunted. You know, they do the haunting. But, in this case, Sweet Domina, well, she wasn’t ‘good’ with how she went… if ya know what I mean. That close to her goal and all, of getting to the other side, having put up with so much and been a relatively good sport about it. Sooo, certain things began to ‘happen’. As the legend has it, when a vampire jumps from Stygian Downs Bridge, he will dine with the love of his life in the Underworld Castle and be returned after feating with wealth and robustness - sights and sounds always to be remembered - as usual and the reason they call it ‘enchantment’; but, after Domina’s untimely death - due to that night she spent with the Witch (enduring a night of screams and terrors), she began to haunt vampires in their dreams for nights after the event. Now, after a vampire from this world visit’s the underworld and returns, he is haunted in a dream by Domina, taking him into her night of screams and terrors. He won’t wake from the dream until after a Domina appears, in the same room and then disappears again.
“Ug!” Theopolis groans, “She ruined it. Do people, uh - you know - still do it? Jump?”
“I’ve heard some do,” the Legend Teller tells him.
“Vampires aren’t people! And they aren’t real,” the girl sitting across from Theopolis says.
“You’re just pulling our leg!” The Legend Teller pulls his top hat down and laughs. He continues on about the after effect of Domina’s disappointing end in the underworld.
“Nowadays, I’ve heard tell - because of the ‘reverse haunting’ - trolls try to catch ‘yas under the bridge, between the bridge and the underworld. Not sure whose side they’re on. Some thought they were there to protect Domina, as Tyrannomous himself is known to show up in the In Between, but others say no, the trolls are haunting too, fight her too if she were to show up. Anyway, can be great fun defending yourself from a troll, ‘ya know. Ah, but some of them are seriously bristly, and they have pretty much btought an end to that smooth ride straight from the bridge into the netherworld castle. Now you got to put up a bit of a fight - just to get there; just one of the little adjustments.”
“Sounds like more fun than dining with the one you love,” Theopolis says.
“What does?” the girl sitting on the porch rail snaps.
“Fighting trolls.”
“Well, you’re of that age,” the Legend Teller almost laughs, “They sure make a howl when you get one ‘em, though. Anybody for some cake? It is my birthday, after all.”
“I didn’t know it was your birthday,” Jessica pokes Theopolis’ side, “you didn’t tell me.”
“He didn’t tell me either,” Theopolis explains.
“Well, whose counting,” the Legend Teller says, “I almost forgot, myself.”
After the party, while walking home together, Jessica tells Theopolis, “I had a good time tonight.”
“So did I,” he tells her, “I’m glad you got to hear the legend from the best storyteller I know. And not from me. I wouldn’t have remembered all the good parts.”
“Yeah, intriguing legend, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Theopolis agrees. “Makes you want to jump?” He turns to her, “’cause I do. And Jessica, I haven’t ever met, you know, someone like me, my own age, that I’d want to go with me, like you. What do you say?”
“No,” Jessica says flatly, and then she quickly excuses herself, “I have a test Monday. I’ve got to study. Don’t you have any homework?”
“Yeah,” Theopolis says, “I guess so. I don’t put as much ‘faith’ into this school thing as you do. Not exactly what I’ve seen, you know. But that’s me. You seem like you know it’s what you’re more involved with… the half of you that isn’t, than the half of you that is, I guess, vampire, you know?”
“Probably,” Jessica says, “or maybe its just fear. I haven’t exactly gotten there, full in the life - the glamour of it all, you know, as you hear about. Don’t know if I could get there, really.”
Theopolis turns to her again, “If its fear, let’s do it - let’s take the plunge to the underworld, to the castle! You’re a vampire, you like fear, don’t you?”
“No. Do you? And tonight? Not tonight! No. I’ve really got to study. Another time?” she fidgets.
“But what you don’t understand is, if we take that leap, the studding’s not necessary. Why waste time studying at all?”
“I like to study, sometimes, besides, what if I can’t get there, then have I wasted time? Failed in the life I do have now? I went to that extent once. It isn’t worth it. Isn’t bloody worth it. It only led to more… craving. It wasn’t a waste of time - it took up my time, consumed it; thinking about it, then not thinking about what I’d done - you don’t know. You don’t know yet.”
“Jessica!” Theopolis nearly yells, “You don’t talk like this!”
“You don’t know what it was like. I had to drop something I loved,” she says quietly.
“Not tonight then; but listen, think about it, okay? Think about jumping someday soon, okay,” he takes a hold of her hand.
“Well,” Jessica stops walking, “we’re here,” she looks up at her building, “I guess this is good night.”
“Yeah, I guess. Here, give me a hug,” he hugs her tight for quite awhile.
When he lets go, he brushes by her neck and fumbles, rather fidgety, “Uh, sorry,” he says.
“Tickled a little,” Jessica rubs her neck, “its not weird is it?”
“No, no,” Theopolis smiles, “its great. You and me, the same, we can really get to know each other and we don’t have to hide who we are - all the strangeness out of the way. None of that, you know, ‘vampires aren’t real’ talk to sit through…”
“Yeah. Well, that’s a relief. I feel that way too. It’s good. I had a good time. Well, good night!” She walks up the stairs. The girl who’d bumped into her, earlier, with the box, is sitting on the cement steps near a roaring, cement lion.
“Bye Theopolis!” she says, “I had fun too! See you again. Maybe next time!” Jessica turns and makes a face that only Theopolis can see. He keeps a straight face and walks away.
That night, sitting up in her bed, in her night gown, the lamp on her bedside table shining in the otherwise dark room Jessica writes a letter:
Dear Father,
You wouldn�
�t believe who I met. Another of the tried-and-true! Just like me… he invited me to a party. Can you believe? Me! I had a fantastic time, too. We listened while a legend of the ancients was told. I know why you like this place - so much history! Such a story - can you believe I actually liked listening to an old, of-the-blood story?! I did, except, you know me, I was hoping the girl would get away. I got laughed at. She’s a ghost, now, and she haunts vampires. See, I told you you’d have to worry about karma, too, one day. I guess you’ll have a chance to read this letter in your busy life? Not too long cause I’m getting sleepy. At least, I don’t have a father that’ll worry about me going to bed too late and silly things like that. I suppose you have been out all hours - for days? - living the fright life as usual? Not out too much without a daughter to come home to, are you? Now, look, I’m worried! Get some sleep and take your vitamins!
`Jessica
Jessica does not remember much that night beyond drawing little hearts in the corner of the envelope; and, shw wakes the next morning when the sunlight crosses into her room through the open shade. With her little lamp still on, and her letter on the floor near her bed, it is obvious she fell asleep while still addressing!
“Traitorous villains! What time is it?! Huh! The test!” She hurries together her clothing, shoes, books, and back pack; scrunches up the letter into her mail bag; runs her fingers through her hair, tosses on a hat, slings on her satchel, and runs out the door. Then, she stops on a dime from a near run in the hall, turns, re-enters her room, and switches off the little light.
“O biggles and bellfrys! Wish I could go bat at a time like this. I’d be there already.” The door shuts behind her as she hurries off to school - late! - for her first test at Thaddeus Preference’s Alternative School of Superior Inferiorism.
Chapter Five
Theopolis and Jessica meet up outside the library. Walking on campus together. Jessica describes her morning while she smoothes the hair peeking out of her hat back down.
“I was soooo late. The test had already started when I got into the room. I was absolutely flushed, you know, for the pale variety. I don’t even know how I did. I usually know or can guess at it. I hope that doesn’t mean I did badly.”
“I’m sure you did fine. Besides, you worry about stuff like test scores too much. Jump with me tonight.” He stops and holds onto her wrists and pleads, “Just t-r-y the life with me! This once? Just one time?”
“Will it keep you from publicly begging me, like this? Cause I mean really it’s getting embarrassing.”
Theopolis leaps up into the air, “So you will? You’ll jump?!”
“Calm down,” Jessica looks around her, “I didn’t say I’d jump, I asked if you’d stop begging me. O sweet forces! The post office. Let’s stop and get our mail.”
Jessica pulls an envelope out of her mailbox and rips it open.
“What is it?” Theopolis asks watching her tear the thing open.
“Letter. From Father,” Jessica squeals.
“Get yours.”
“Don’t have anything. Let’s go. I places like this. So many…” he looks around himself cautiously and whispers, “Undead, you know? Creepy. The postal service is full of them.”
He pretends to shiver, “Uh-uh-uh.” A letter sorter/deliverer walks by with his mouth hanging open. Only his eyes move to look at Theopolis, his head stays in one spot. Theopolis gets a frightened child’s look upon his face and tugs at Jessica’s sleeve. Jessica is engrossed in reading her letter.
“Je-ss-i-ca…” Theopolis tugs watching the letter sorter - mouth still open - wobble toward him, “can we go, please?” Several tugs later, Jessica looks up at Theopolis. He points.
“Huh? Eewe. Yeah, let’s go.”
“Well, that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth; let me tell you what I know,” Jessica smirks.
“What do you know?’
“That the Undead… Un-appetizing!”
Jessica laughs, “Why are you so eager to jump, and yet you haven’t - you know - bitten yet?”
“It’s more adventurous, I guess. The challenge,” he fakes the confident answer.
“Um-hmm. Sure,” Jessica muses. The two continue walking until they arrive at the steps of Jessica’s building where the girl from the night before sits, again, in her obvious favorite spot, with the roaring lion made from cement. She wears a Thaddeus Preference’s Yacht Team jersey and does a little finger wave at Theopolis. Jessica gets a devilish looking smile on her face, turning to Theopolis who picks up her hint.
“O no. No,” Theopolis says.
“Hello! Heard you almost missed your test this morning,” she says to Jessica.
“Too bad. Thought maybe you’d’ve been kicked out after failing first exams. If I can help you oversleep next time, let me know.”
“O yes!” Jessica whispers to Theopolis, “This is the one for that ‘milestone’ we talked about - just take her out,”
Theopolis interrupts. He looks squimish. He whines, “But, Jess!”
“For a bite!” and then she gets an evil grin and smiles back at the Yacht Club’s jersey wearing, sour-sport-of-a-dormmate.
“You’re so bitter, you know you just sound lonely. I know, maybe…” she looks at Theopolis. He smiles like he might feel queasy.
“Maybe Theopolis, here, could take you out? Help me out, here, Theopolis.”
“Maybe,” he says.
“Do you want to go out with me tonight Theopolis? Because if you do, all you ad to do is ask me.” Theopolis glares at Jessica, but he does not back down in front of her, either.
“I guess so,” he says.
“A bite!” Jessica nearly yells.
“Um, a café, or something?” he asks.
“Yes!” the girl on the steps agrees.
“Penelope, is it? I forgot your name,” Jessica says.
“Yes, Penelope, but don’t use it, Loser!” she stands up and makes arrangements - time and place specifics - with a very reluctant Theopolis.
“Uhh-huh,” Theopolis manages to say, holding one hand to his stomach.
Later, Jessica waves out the door of the girls’ boarding house over the back of Penelope’s head to Theopolis as they walk down the stairs and out into the night. Jessica shuts the door behind them, leans against it and laughs - a very wicked laugh which echoes down the ancient hallway built of ancient brick and stone. It drifts past the doors of good girls and bad, not yet knowing the lucky from the unlucky; not yet knowing the fate of at least one ghost (unlucky) who steps out from one of the ancient hall’s doorways, ‘caught’ in her night gown (by vampires? a dorm room fire maybe). She looks briefly at Jessica just before disappearing down the hall, translucent against the lit lamps at the end of the cooridor. Jessica covers her mouth with her hand. “Sorry!” she says, quietly, out of respect for the dead. And, Jessica feels a bit bad for the unlucky girl who never got away. She wonders suddenly, too, if she’s done something far wrong to plot this encounter, pressing Theopolis toward his first bite.
“A vampire with a soft spot. A complex!” she hears her father say, “What will you do?” “I’ll be these halls are full of them,” Jessica thinks to herself. “Ghosts. A history of vampires in the area and a boarding house of naïve, unaware girls.” She looks down and slowly shakes her head from side to side. A warning, dear readers: Avoid Thaddeus. When you do, perchance, and I hope you will, leave the nest you’re in while reading this, someday to advance your education - hopefully at some prestigious (did I say that?), old alma mater - unless you’re sure it is built upon grounds where no ancient blood has spilled, mind your manners. Watch your P’s and Q’s. Tongue lashing’s to a new (potential) friend, not the best idea, but at an establishment with a ‘history of vampires’, well, who’s to say she really didn’t deserve such a fate as the one she’s just stepped into. Then again, who’s to say that ghost girl just now lingering down the hall, that catastrophic night of hers, was actually to blame. Perhaps it was bad timing - still in her nightgown, sh
e could have simply been up late to get a glass of water. The wrong hour, the wrong night?… Plan, children. Prepare. Garlic, although professed to, does not work. Not at all. A cultured vampire, as most are, gets a taste for garlic as much as any connoisseur of good food. Know what works? Don’t have an alarm clock onsite. Truly. It’s the first sign of fresh incentive. You’re not dead, you’re not undead - with an alarm clock, you’re ready! By damn, and raring to go. You’re type A’s and B types, like the fresh sprouts of lettuces from Mr. McGregor’s garden. But I’ve rambled on. Perhaps I’m feeling as bad about this as Jessica. “She’ll learn,” her father thinks and often tells his dear friend, Ickabod, “not to be remorseful. A victim is a victim, after all.” And Penelope, well, she had this coming to her, didn’t she? Couldn’t have been that many bad days the first few weeks of Thaddeus’ scholastic activities to explain such an extended period of bad behavior; but, that sweet thing in the night clothes, well, enough of this, I’m getting teary eyed. And vampires, well I’m sure you have heard of a crocodile’s tears? All heart, really, some are. Let’s see what Jessica has to say. She’s upstairs, in her room now. Not giving that ghost too much of a thought - too many of them - and they’ll want ‘time’ she thinks, to tell their stories. Better to ignore them and live your life - so much going on at Thaddeus, no time to offer ghosts. Too bad the mortal girls can’t see them, too - there’s who could really learn a lesson from their stories. No, Jessica is upstairs, walking around her room, looking for something to do. The absence of remorse just may have proved her father - to his old friend - wrong! She picks up her father’s letter and re-reads a part of it that’s bothered her since the first time she opened it and read it all the way through.
My dearest Jessica,
I am so pleased you have met a playfellow of common ancestry. That you would learn the value of consanguineous kinship, is comforting to me while you are in a far off land. Just remember far is never too far for me to soar, and should anything arise: a tear, a sad feeling, I could be there for you, in an instant. These years are as tender as any other you have experienced, and a man of my being is worth occasionally showing up with might and main, if need be, to set straight any mishaps, should they arise, although unwanted.
Legend of Stygian Downs (Vampire DeAngeliuson Book 2) Page 6