by P. Mattern
Charley smiled to himself as he considered some of the cooler aspects of his condition, most of which he'd discovered on his own. He knew he was stronger than any young man his age that was for sure. The day he'd discovered his tremendous strength he'd gone around the house lifting increasingly heavier objects just to see if he could; he’d been careful to do this quietly and out of Mitzi's visual field. It had started with moving the trash cans, a job that usually left him panting, but somehow "Super Charley" (as he'd dubbed himself) did the household chore with such ease that he'd wondered what else he could lift. Next he lifted the entire couch with one hand, the washing machine, the dining room table and his mother's treadmill, finishing off with the family car. As exciting as that day was he knew instinctively that sharing his prowess with his mother would be more than she could handle in her already concerned parental state.
* * *
Chapter 04: Rainy Day Games
It was raining the next day, not unexpected weather for the change of seasons from summer to fall. Locally, the rainy segue was dubbed "the Fall monsoons". It was a Saturday, and Fress, Cass, Lux, and a friend they brought with them had shown up at noon, hoping to take Charley to the park. Instead, because the inconvenient weather showed no sign of letting up, everyone settled in for the afternoon as Mitzi stirred up soup and cookie batter, hoping to chase the chill out of the house. The younger people (including a young, blonde African American woman with a sweet face and eyes that crinkled at the corners when she smiled who Fress had introduced as "Merilee, my BFF!") sat around the round pedestal dining table staring intently at the board game they were playing. As she cooked Mitzi watched them over the kitchen island as they conferred, strategized and moved oddly shaped game pieces with tiny feet around on a mammoth game board. Apparently there was some degree of role playing involved; from what Mitzi had gathered, Merilee and Fress were warrior princesses advancing with their respective armies toward a kingdom stronghold ruled by King Lux. Charley was a knight errant, and Cass was a Conjurer who had a power card that allowed him to control the weather. And the group had only been playing for ten minutes.
"What's this game called again?" Mitzi queried as she slid hot chocolate chip cookies from a cookie sheet onto a platter. The rich smell of semi-sweet chocolate wafting through the house was intoxicating. She wanted to laugh. Cass was wearing a tasseled "conjurers cap", Charley was sporting a doublet and feathered helmet. Lux had on a realistic looking "iron" crown, and the girls were wearing molded breastplates reminiscent of Wonder Woman garb. The entire group reminded Mitzi of children playing dress up or putting on a rainy day play.
Everyone answered her at once, practically in unison, "It's called World of Azglen!" Charley grinned toothily over at Mitzi from the far side of the table, clearly ebullient at being included. To "oohs" and "aaaahs" Mitzi deftly delivered a platter of cookies and a thermal carafe of cocoa, along with a stack of Styrofoam cups.
"You should join us, Mitzi," Cass commented, biting contemplatively into a cookie the size of a saucer. "We could use another player. You can pick your own role to play."
"What's available?" Mitzi wanted to know.
Cass glanced down at the open game box on the carpet. "There's the usurper, the necromancer, the fair maiden, the thief, and the crone. Quite a lot to choose from. And you can jump in anywhere -- that's the beauty of this game. But you need to choose sides... or not, you can operate independently if you prefer but then no one will have your back if you're attacked. And there's always the possibility that we may all gang up on you. Here..." Cass deftly pulled in an extra chair from against the wall of the kitchen and pulled it into place alongside his own. "You can sit next to me. I'll help you navigate through this."
"Well, if you insist." Mitzi wiped her hands on a dish towel, glanced behind her shoulder at the soup bubbling innocuously on the stovetop and slid into the seat proffered by Cass. Cass continued speaking without breaking stride, "The object of the game is to find your way to one of the three Circles of Light, which could be hidden anywhere on the board. The Circles are desirable because they confer upon the successful quester--"
"Unlimited power." Lux finished for him, rubbing his hands together greedily. "You are granted all your heart's desires and also the power to completely defeat and capture one of your many enemies you've made along your way."
Mitzi surveyed the humongous game board that covered 90% of the table. Some of the game features were in relief, jutting up from the cardboard base. Visually scanning she noted temples, citadels, bridges, caverns castles and several densely forested areas. One structure stood out from the rest; it was shaped roughly like an igloo and constructed of tiny segments that looked suspiciously like ---
"Bones," Cass said smiling, "That would be the Portal of Bones.”
"How are the locations for the Circles of Light chosen then? Mitzi wanted to know. "Do you draw cards from a deck or something?"
Merilee jumped into the conversation. "The selections are made randomly and electronically by pressing a button to begin the game. No one knows where they are hidden. So the objective is to hit as many landmarks as you can in the shortest amount of time, because some landmarks yield clues. And of course your competitors are always trying to deter you on your journey, making you repeat your steps or go back to the beginning of your journey. And you get to choose where you begin your journey. There is no standard starting place in the game. Fress and I decided to begin in the Violet Forest. Cass started out from Crow's Point, Lux and Charley both started from west of the Citadel."
Mitzi looked down and noticed tiny golden footprints tracing patterns through the landmarks. There must have been hundreds, if not a thousand of them.
"Do we follow the footprints as many spaces as the dice roll determines?"
"Yes," Fress answered her, "And there are three dice, so you travel faster than you'd think. And if you land on a 'Hot Spot', that is, a set of footprints that has a message for you, you will hear an audible voice giving instructions or see a weapon you need or a treasure. Those are preprogrammed from the start too. But you have to be the first to land on them because they never awaken twice. Does that explain it enough? Which character are you going to pick?"
Mitzi felt a little excited. "Either the Fair Maiden or the Crone. I should probably pick the Crone... I'm so much older than you guys..."
Lux smirked, "That's actually a good choice, Mitzi. The Crone sometimes transforms in the Circle of Light. And the best part about winning is--"
"The 3D holograms!" Merilee chimed in. "They are unbelievable and there are hundreds of them. So far I haven't seen the same one twice. Sometimes there are tiny fireworks projected upwards 18 inches off the board, and they look completely real! 3 - D, only without the cumbersome glasses."
Mitzi settled in having teamed up with Cass as a matter of convenience since she was already sitting next to him. She soon found herself traveling with Cass towards a site labeled Shrine of Halcyon. Cass had an opportunity to flood a valley on the way to his ultimate goal of capturing the castle of King Lux and the flood he created forced Merilee and Fress to retreat from their plan of reaching King Lux's castle first and forming an alliance. Instead Merilee and Fress were forced to take refuge in the Aubergine Mountains. Cass then proceeded to trap them there for three turns by creating an unseasonable snowstorm.
The first victor of the game was surprisingly Charley Rabbit himself, largely ignored by the others as he followed a circuitous path to rescue Merilee and Fress. On one turn Charley landed on a Hot Spot that allowed him to usurp the power of another player (he chose to take Cass's weather controlling power), and it also placed him in the first Circle of Light.
Even though the group had taken breaks during the game it was soon very late.
As was the game tradition, the game was paused with the magnetic current switched on to hold the game pieces in place until the group met to play again.
"What do you think of 'World of Azglen'?" Merilee asked, yawni
ng and stretching at the same time.
"I liked it!" Mitzi affirmed. "I don't usually do board games – ever - but it seems to go beyond the scope of the average board game somehow."
"That it does." Cass chimed in. "It's really about survival and strategy. Kind of like a cross between a chess game and tribal warfare."
All the young people pecked Mitzi on the cheek on their way out, Cass making a point of kissing her on both cheeks. Charley hesitated for a minute and then blurted out, "Mom I'm seeing Fress home. Be back later."
Mitzi remembered that Charley had passed his driver’s test the previous week. Of course he could drive. Once again she felt the inner surge of apprehension as she witnessed one more way in which he was asserting his independence.
"Of course. Be careful." She answered. And then went upstairs seeking oblivion from the acknowledgement of the newest dent in her former reality.
* * *
Chapter 05: Busted
It was the following weekend. The monsoons had continued throughout the week and the gloomy weather added to Mitzi's general unease and sense of foreboding. Watching Charley go about his activities in his new enhanced manner was becoming an out of body experience for Mitzi; she felt like an outside observer of a life she was no longer a part of. There was only one conclusion she'd reached that seemed to anchor a bit of logic to all of the recent changes in her and Charley's life.
It had all started after the Medieval Faire.
This was why the gray Saturday found Mitzi standing next to the prep island in her kitchen, glaring at each of her guests, Fressenda, Lux, and Cass, in turn. Her barely suppressed fury seemed to give her extra height over her 5'2". Charley had been asked to go take a break in his room upstairs so that Mitzi could have a talk with his newest friends. Trying with great effort to keep her voice level Mitzi spoke to the three familiar people gathered around the kitchen island with her. "OK. What is going on here? I am not blind and I am not simple. In fact, it might surprise you to know that I'm actually a little prescient -- especially in matters that concern my son. I know that there is something more behind your charitable interest in Charley besides charity; I sense that your involvement in his life -OUR lives- has somehow caused the changes that he is going through. I want some answers and I want them this minute! WHO ARE YOU?"
By the time her mere seconds long diatribe was finished Mitzi was breathless, practically panting. Both the boys, Cass and Lux, were looking at Fress, who unflinchingly met Mitzi's gaze in a contemplative manner. Finally, after a few seconds of silence, she spoke.
"Mitzi, it’s like that movie, the military one with the big Hollywood names. I very much want to tell you the truth, but I'm not sure that you can handle it."
The fierce pounding of the rain outside seemed to increase with the tenseness of the atmosphere in the room. Somewhere beyond the double set of kitchen windows, in the rising wind and rain swept darkness, a tree branch snapped off with the sound of a gunshot. Involuntarily Mitzi jumped. Her bravado seemed to evaporate and she suddenly felt paranoid. After all, how well did she know these young people standing in her home?
She'd known them for what? Three months maybe? And there were three of them, and only one of her. Suddenly she was feeling her vulnerability with the same bottomless fear and grief as she had after being told of Sam's death. God she hated that feeling, but resenting it made her angry and her anger gave her the courage to speak again.
"I ask because I need to know. I need information in order to figure out if you have any place in our lives, and if you are helping or harming Charley. You guys are not merely eclectic. You are the 'poster people' for STRANGE. So tell me -- you're what? Witches? Part of a coven? Satanists?"
Cass and Lux immediately looked down at their feet. Cass snorted quietly as if stifling laughter and Lux elbowed him. Fress seemed bemused also and answered quickly, "No, of course not Mitzi. I promise you. But I won't lie to you either. We do have unusual affiliations. In that regard your mother's intuition was spot on. "The overhead lights dimmed for a second as a rumble of thunder was heard and then came back on. Charley called, "Mom?" from the top of the upstairs landing in an uncertain voice. He hated when the lights went out, especially during a storm. Mitzi's gaze never left Fress's face as she called over her shoulder, "its ok Charley! Get your flashlight out just in case the lights go out again." Then, lowering her voice, she continued speaking in a semi-hiss. "Exactly what kind of affiliations?"
Fress turned to the twins, "Be ready, I'm going to tell her."
Lux frowned disapprovingly, "I don't know Fress... are you sure about this?"
Fress nodded.
Cass let out a long whistle and said, "All righty then. This should be good."
Fress held Mitzi's gaze steadily across the 18 inches of granite countertop between them and stated simply, "Mitzi... we're vampires."
Mitzi had only fainted once in her life. As a teenager she had cut halfway through one knuckle of her middle finger opening a tin can; the amount of blood that issued forth had caused her visual field to go grey around the periphery -- a fuzzy greyness that was closing in fast toward the center. At the same time she seemed to go deaf, only dimly hearing her sister shriek, "Put your head between your legs!" and feeling the pressure of her sisters hand on the back of her neck. That time she had recovered before passing completely out.
But not this time.
This time her knees buckled first and she was aware of gazing up into the ceiling lights before darkness settled over her like a gently drawn velvet drape. Strong arms caught her up on the way down to the linoleum, she heard a male voice say "Whoops!", and then the darkness took her away.
She was staring up at three faces looking down at her when she came to. It reminded Mitzi of those corny family photographs where everyone is on the floor in a circle, heads touching, looking upwards into the camera. Fressenda was rubbing her wrists, saying, "You know, smelling salts were a good idea. They still sell them at pharmacies too, but practically no one buys them. They haven't been a part of the average person's medicine cabinet for decades. A shame, really."
Mitzi felt refreshed, as if she'd just taken the most amazing and restorative power nap ever. She studied the faces suspended above her for a minute, then said, "Can I get up?"
Lux and Fressenda helped her up, as Cass said tersely, "Fressie are you sure you don't want to stun her? She won't remember this. If I can offer an opinion I don't think it was going well at all."
Lux and Fress helped Mitzi sit up and then gently guided her into a chair. "And what would be the point of that?" Lux retorted crossly. "We'd get to the same point again eventually. She'd be asking the same questions, we'd answer them; we'd get the same response, over and over again. Like the movie Groundhog Day except with a vamp twist." Fress peered into Mitzi's face, "Are you okay? We lost you for a moment."
Some of the pre - faint conversation was coming back to Mitzi. 'Something... dark,' she told herself. 'They told me something very dark'. Her body reacted first, even before her remembrance returned, her mouth forming a soundless "OH!" as she shot, swaying slightly, suddenly to her feet.
"You can't be vampires. There is no such thing. Maybe you are a bunch of kooks that are pretending to be vampires, which, by the way, puts you in the mentally unstable category as far as I am concerned..." Unconsciously she had been backing away by inches from Fress and the twins, but suddenly she lunged forward and grabbed the largest knife from the wooden cutlery holder, making a few jabs in the air for effect.
Cass was the first to react, "Mrs. Rabbit, I don't look particularly good in black so I never wear it above the beltline. As for my friends, I think that you would have to look pretty far and wide to find a more attractive and wholesome crew. We don't wear black. We are not Goths, Satanists, Ninjas, Terrorists - or even Amish. We are nice people, same as you and Charley."
Mitzi stopped backing up although she still held the carving knife between herself and her guests.
"You SAID yo
u were vampires! That's what you SAID!"
Cass nodded. "Yes we did, just to give you a cultural point of reference. But even that term is not technically accurate..." He stopped and glared in the direction of Lux and Fressenda. "Feel free to jump in anytime guys -- help me out a little with this?"
Fress and Lux both shrugged casually. Lux said, "You're doing a fine job, Cass. Really!"
Cass rolled his eyes briefly, adopted palms-up placating body language and continued. "We prefer the term 'transcendent'. We were once -as you are now- human. But now we're – er - sort of 'uber human'. He stopped for a moment, looked down pointedly at the knife Mitzi was holding and gave her a baleful look. Mitzi sighed and returned the large knife to the cutlery stand. She seemed at a loss for words. Finally, she spoke. "O.K. Prove it. Back it up. Uber human... HOW?"
Lux spoke, looking at his brother, "She wants a parlor trick, bro."
Cass looked irritated. "Why don't YOU give her a parlor trick then bro? I'm handling everything else for our collective benefit."
At that moment Fress found her voice and spoke suddenly, "OK everyone -- CEILING!!!!!!"
And in a nanosecond they were there, the three of them, standing on the ceiling, just staring at Mitzi. The sudden visual took Mitzi's breath away, particularly the fact that they appeared exactly the same as they had when they'd been standing on the black and white tile of the kitchen floor. Their hair and clothing remained in place, seemingly unaffected by gravity.
Mitzi involuntarily drew in a breath, realizing that she had stopped breathing for a few seconds. Her brain was having problems processing what her eyes were seeing.
"Enough?" Fress asked.