by J. E. Cammon
Standing on a double yellow line, David turned to face what could be.
Chapter Two
David unlocked his apartment and pushed the door open. Nick—the man’s name was Nick—walked in slowly, his head swiveling around like he was not only inspecting everything but also wanted to make that fact as obvious as possible. David stepped in after him and pushed the door closed.
“Take it easy, Columbo,” David jabbed. “No bad guys here.” He tossed his bag on the couch and stepped around his visitor, headed for the kitchen.
Nick watched him go. “Do you go by Dave, or Davey?” Nick took a step backwards at David’s expression.
“David is fine,” David said, then continued his search for liquid refreshment. He snarled, exasperated. He should have gone shopping, he thought as he looked into the fridge and found only the milk carton reserved for tomorrow’s cereal. “Crap.”
“What is it?” Nick said with just a bit too much urgency.
“Nothing to drink,” David replied, standing up. He blinked. “Wait, this is not a social call.” He flashed a look at Nick and pointed at the couch. “Sit down. You need to tell me what’s going on.” Nick complied, though silently. When David got to the love seat, he could see his visitor was looking conflicted. “Look, you want my help, this is how it has to be. You know, trust and whatnot.”
Nick nodded slowly. “I’m a diviner.”
David blinked in disbelief. “I’m sorry?”
“I’m an anthropologist librarian entrusted with certain mystical secrets of the ancient world’s mythic places.” Nick paused, passing a hand through his hair. “I was a history major in undergrad, and my focus in grad school is ancient cultures and religion, but…” He trailed off, conflicted again.
“You found a magic tablet or a green ring with a funky symbol?” David asked, trying not to laugh. He waved a hand dismissively.
“There was a special program. Candidates were chosen and approached individually; one could not apply. It’s government funded. There was no interview. It was all very clandestine,” Nick explained, looking down at his hands in his lap.
“We got to learn a lot of interesting things and study sacred relics. And the libraries…”
David felt a yawn coming on and checked his watch. “Okay, I’m sorry,” he interrupted Nick, making a time-out signal. “I didn’t know this was going to be a life story sort of thing, but I guess I should’ve expected. Can you fast forward to the part where you have to sprint cross country through alleys for your life, or should this wait until tomorrow?”
The man’s eyes widened. “Tomorrow?”
“Uh, yeah. One of us has a day job.” David surrendered to the yawn, neglecting to cover his mouth. “Plus, I’m beat. So yeah, tomorrow.”
“It could be out killing people right now, raising hell. Maybe literally.” Nick stood up suddenly.
David, still seated, noticed how much taller than him Nick was—then again, most people were. He rolled his eyes. “Look, people die all the time. I’m sure once it figures out there are police officers and gangs and…” he paused, suddenly tight lipped, “…other things, it’ll lay low. Especially during the night.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“I’ll admit, I’m mostly assuming. You can have the couch. Don’t drink my milk. The tap water isn’t too horrible. Glasses are in the cabinet,” David said. “You think you’ll need a blanket?” Nick’s mouth dropped open. David stepped forward and tried putting his hand on the man’s shoulder. It helped in the movies. “Don’t worry, man. I’m sure in the future after you finish all your coursework you’ll be able to clean up a mess like this, no problem. Crawl before you walk and all that.” He turned on his heels, not wanting to hear any argument, and threw a wave over his shoulder. Surprisingly, it worked. At least, the strange visitor didn’t follow him.
When David finally slept, he dreamt of a starry night sky above him spinning like a huge, inverted cosmic drain. Stars shot down like bright arrows, compelled by some huge, thirsty maw. Then, in the midst of it all, he turned into a horrible monster and ate everyone he greeted that day, helped or hindered; the last of them was his new acquaintance Nick. David didn’t concentrate too much on whether that felt good or not when he finally woke up, but his sheets were damp from sweat.
Nick was asleep when David went into the kitchen. He showered and then had breakfast, staring at the man’s exposed shoulder over the back of the couch. He heard the man pacing and babbling to himself the night before. The milk was probably a day before stale, which was good, and the news didn’t report any horrible demonic massacres or devil rites, so the world was still turning.
“Yo, Gandalf,” David said. Nick roused slowly, then all of a sudden gave a jerky spasm. “I’m headed out, don’t you have class or something?”
Nick blinked, slowly remembering. “Oh God.”
David put a hand up. “I checked the news; no blood baths. We’re still good. Are you going to have another episode? I’m running late.”
Nick sat up. “David. You’re still going to help, right?”
At the door, David nodded, patting his pockets. “Yup. I even know someone who might want to help. I’ll make a call. You want us to meet you somewhere tonight?” He tried some non-verbal communication to get his guest up and dressed and headed to the door. He didn’t have anything to steal but Nick didn’t need to know that.
Nick eventually got the gist and started putting on his shoes and socks. “Uh, there’s a twenty-four hour diner near here,” he started.
“I know the place, we’ll be there,” David said, starting to help him up and towards the door.
“Can I have some water?” Nick asked, smacking his dry lips.
David stepped to the kitchen and filled a glass, then handed it to him. “Take your time. Keep it. See you tonight.” David closed and locked the door, then watched as Nick slowly came to understand that he was on the hallway side of the door too, inexplicably.
David grinned and stepped towards the elevator. He got down to the transit stop just in time to step directly onto the bus. He imagined Nick standing around, contemplating the glass of water for a while before drinking it and walking back to wherever he lived. David pondered. Nick knew about the diner, so maybe he lived on this side of town. He also didn’t mention which school he went to.
The bus slowly lurched with its passengers toward their various destinations. David mentally compiled a list of important details Nick left out.
The list got longer as he got to work and hunkered down into the rhythm of a repetitious everyday. He wondered if Jarvis would hang the phone up in his face when he mentioned ”demon hunt.“ In their years together, they didn’t really talk much about the things they had in common, all of which fell into the category of the supernatural. Knowing that they qualified themselves was enough. Instead, they talked about…David pondered. They didn’t really talk about anything. It wasn’t like Jarvis was some source of great wisdom; he was old, sure, but he didn’t know about anything that David wanted to know about.
That day work was mundane in a way it never was before. David believed the job got about as boring as a job could get. No experience was as deadening as a nine to five. The people in the waiting room slowed and became black and white; the world outside became brighter with sparkling quality. David realized he was looking forward more than ever to evening. He tried not to think about it, though, hoping the hands on the clock would spin faster when he wasn’t looking.
After work, after dusk, he rang Jarvis. Rang, instead of called, was Jarvis’ language. David didn’t know if the vampire thought it was funny, or dignified or what, but he thought a real friend may have demanded he get out more.
“It’s David.”
“I know,” came the reply in dead-deep baritone. “You’re the only person that ca
lls this phone. I’m the only one who answers.”
This surprised David, maybe because of the vampire’s attempt at trust. “So,” he decided it would be easier to just say it, “I met this guy who I think maybe is being hunted by a demon or a devil or something…it’s related in some fashion. Anyway, I was thinking maybe you’d be up for…” He wasn’t sure how to complete the sentence.
“You cannot be serious.” Jarvis of course was of little help.
“Meet me at that diner near my apartment,” was all David said, and awkwardly hung up the phone. He wasn’t sure if it counted as an ultimatum, or if there was more to that statement he coolly left off. In any event, Nick was going to be there sooner or later, he hoped, and Jarvis would either show up or he would not.
For his part, David went grocery shopping. In the check out line, as the clerk scanned his steaks, it occurred to him that he could maybe even die, and how stupid it would look for him to have bought groceries right before putting his life in danger. Once he got home, however, he took pleasure from having soda and milk and juice and cheese and lunch meats and other things.
He threw his scrubs in the laundry and put a change of clothes in the backpack. He was premeditating. Numbly, he put on the bag and locked the door behind him. He went down the hall, rode the elevator, and walked up the street, noting night fell during all his shopping and musing.
After David sat waiting nervously in the diner for some time, Nick finally showed up, looking more introspective than David felt. He slid into the opposite side of the booth, smiling briefly.
“You came,” he said, fumbling with a menu.
“Told you I’d see you later. I see you weren’t eaten,” David replied. He aimed for nonchalance.
“I did some reading and—”
David held a hand up. “It isn’t that I don’t want to hear it, I just don’t want to hear it twice. A...guy I know might be coming, and if he does, it would be good for him to hear your story too. So let’s just wait. Have you eaten?”
Nick looked thoughtful. “You’re hungry?”
“I find that I usually am, yeah. The chicken chili here is pretty good.” David flipped the menu over. It wasn’t lengthy, just two sides of medium sized print; a couple pictures, a slogan, a guarantee, and some quotes from the founder. For a reasonable price, given foreknowledge of what to order and what to avoid, it was some of the best cuisine in the zip code. “The steak not so much.”
Nick looked at the menu with fresh eyes. David inspected his face. If Nick came to the restaurant before, he didn’t do it very often.
“Which steak?” Nick asked.
“Oh, none of them,” David replied, looking out of their window. “Just ignore the steak section entirely.”
“They only have two steaks, though,” the other man argued.
“No, I mean anything with the word steak in it, or on it, or prepared in the same vicinity of.” David glanced at his watch. He took a moment to rifle though his feelings and found disappointment.
Two hours went by. They ordered and ate. The waiting staff carted away the leftovers and dirty plates. Nick settled on a simple omelet and dry wheat toast. David ate chili and a baked potato with extra bacon. He redoubled his detective efforts and acquired the name of Nick’s school, along with information on how exactly whatever last night’s creature was had gotten into that alley.
There were invocations, Nick said, which brought things forth, but the translations were sketchy. He claimed in this instance, the invocation was to summon an apparition of the entity to retrieve information, but instead it invited the entity as a whole.
That was the short version without SAT words. David didn’t ask why it worked the way it did, or why Nick did it, but it seemed the man broke a dozen or so different rules. David was afraid it might be for something stupid like lottery numbers.
At a quarter to ten, Jarvis materialized near the front door. David really thought he kept better track of people’s goings and comings. One moment he watched Nick’s hands, the odd way the fingers straightened as the man cut and chopped his words in the air, and the next moment his gaze was being pulled away towards the establishment’s entrance. Something in his stomach told him danger was close, and that’s how he knew the vampire was there.
Nick opened his mouth to speak, and his jaw continued its descent as he became aware of Jarvis looming over the two of them, casting a shadow in the soft light of the diner.
“Now,” David said. “You can tell us exactly how we fix this.” He began to slide sideways out of the booth; they were done eating.
Chapter Three
Recent events were becoming more difficult to believe by the moment. Scholars could go decades before even getting sight of a vampire in the flesh. Nick shook one’s hand, and he only recently attached himself to the Academy. All empirical evidence was beginning to suggest that he, Nicholas Hughes, was destined for truly fantastic things. It was especially fortunate that he ran into David in that alley the previous night. Who knew, a left turn instead of a right, and he’d have to fix this situation all by himself instead of having assistance.
Sensibly, they left rather than ask the enormous vampire to squeeze into the diner booth with them. On the way to the ritual site, Nick laid out the scenario for the other two. He was trying to advance his understanding with some hands on application and as a result of a mistranslation the rite changed from an invocation to a summoning. The process could most easily be reversed in the location of the initial ritual; if one wanted to erase something and its effects, it was best to address its origin.
“Where would that be?” David interrupted.
Nick glanced back at the two of them. David seemed perfectly nonchalant, hands in his pockets, the straps of that omnipresent backpack adorning his shoulders. When last he saw it, it only contained scrubs, and he tried to jibe how that detail explained the other man’s seeming indifference.
Beside David, the rather large vampire loomed over Nick. He was fascinating, really; his existence railed against every popular vampire mythology of the attractive, pale, gaunt, straight-haired man that flitted about in designer clothes. No, Jarvis wore very utilitarian rigging; what looked like black army fatigues, sturdy work boots, and a hoodie under a black-jean jacket.
Nick looked back at David. “I found an abandoned warehouse. It’s on the east side.”
“Bit far a field of campus. Afraid the headmaster would kick you out of your house?” David grinned, as if he said something clever.
“We don’t have houses,” Nick replied. “Or headmasters.”
David looked up at the vampire for approval, but the reference seemed lost on him, too. Nick wondered how old Jarvis was. There was of course no way to determine specific age, but it could be estimated. It required specific materials, however.
“We should probably bus,” Nick mentioned, searching the street for a stop.
“We’re taking a bus,” David said flatly. “This is somehow less spectacular than I imagined.”
The vampire helped Nick look for one of those poles with the small metal signs. Eventually they found one and waited, the three of them embarking on an adventure, albeit very slowly.
Nick raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the vampire, who was staring out into the street like a statue. “If I might ask,” he began.
“Don’t,” David interrupted.
Nick frowned but kept talking, “What’s it like?” David put a hand over his face. The vampire looked down at Nick and he had the sudden impulse to take several steps backwards.
Jarvis’ mouth opened like a person’s would, the jaw hinging open and closed, but there was no breath. The voice was hollow, like it was being projected through him rather than belong to him and he was only the instrument. “Perhaps this was not the best of ideas,” he said to no one in particular.
“He’s chatty, yeah, but generally okay, I think,” David responded.
Nick looked from one to the other, but said nothing. Eventually, the bus arrived, and they boarded. David swiped a pass twice, and the vampire produced a crisp hundred dollar bill and handed it to David. He didn’t wait for change. Nick paid in the change he got from the diner.
The trip across the city was quiet. It seemed like just another night; they seemed like just another trio of passengers. Outside, the city swept by in a stop-and-start dance of scenery. In fast forward, it could have been media footage of a piece called, ”Dark Pastels out a Bus Window.”
“Wait a minute,” David said, breaking the silence. “How long is this going to take, this ritual?”
Nick looked at him across the aisle. “A few minutes, maybe more,” he replied. “Why?”
David shrugged. “I was just wondering how long we have to distract it for,” he said, openly putting things together in his mind. “Are there candles or anything? Maybe a circle that if broken or interrupted would explode the future?”
Nick looked at him, thinking. “Not really,” he replied, not sure where David was going.
“You know, it sounds like we’re going to show up and that thing is going to chew on us while you attempt something you have no experience at doing,” David retorted, staring at Nick straight in the eye.
“No experience?” Nick feigned offense. “Of course not. This category of endeavor doesn’t have much documentation. Everything is based on sound principle,” he explained.
David threw his hands up, leaning backwards. Behind him, the vampire moved his mouth and his voice emulated a whisper. David sat forward again, eyeing Nick.
“Can’t we just kill it?” he asked. “I mean, you know, as a last resort,” he added quickly.