Vampire Storm (Volume 1 : The Hurricane Journals)

by R.M. Plaiscia

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  Back atop the tree, as Reggio tried to keep his eyes away from those of all the witches in the cramped tree shelter, feeling incredibly awkward, he could not help but stare at the poor little witch that was squeezed between the Speed and the Strength, her legs squished up against her chest and her arms hugging them as she rested her chin on her knees. He tried not to look into her eyes, thinking that would draw her attention to him, but even his staring in her direction got her to smile at him.

  With that, he quickly turned his attention away from her, not wanting to be put in the position of having to speak with anyone. After a moment, though, he found his eyes wandering right back over to her, simply to see if she was still looking at him. This meant that he had to look at her eyes, and as soon as he did, he saw that she still was.

  ‘Damn!’ He cursed inside of his head as he looked away, knowing that it now looked like he was curious of her. But who was he kidding? As much as he wished to deny it, he knew that he was curious of her.

  As his eyes wandered back over to her once again, he noticed that she looked very uncomfortable. She was smashed up against the Speed by the giant left arm of the Strength. He wandered why she would put herself in such a place, but, looking around again, he figured that she had no better choice. She looked over at him again after feeling his eyes upon her, and this time he did not look away.

  He noticed that she looked vaguely familiar, from where he was not yet sure. He had seen many witches in such a short span, too many faces to remember them all. But her face he did remember. She was the same young witch that approached him when he first arrived in the chambers, the same witch that seemed to admire him so strangely, and the one that Jade had rushed away. He decided to nod politely in acknowledgement and hope that it would be enough for her. He had a feeling, though, that it would only draw her towards him again.

  It was no matter either way, though. He realized as the tree structure swayed back and forth with the wind that his mind was elsewhere. The thought of another witch made him instantly think of Jane. He knew that he was in no position to be of any help to her, but he could not shake the feeling that she was in danger. He tried to ignore it, heeding the words of Jade to stay where he was, but still the sensation remained. He completely understood that not even he, being so high up in the trees, was safe from this storm. The sound of the wind outside made that very evident, sounding as if the entire swamp was screaming out in horrid pain. The rain was pouring down outside worse than it had all day. And just as Reggio had finally cleared his mind of his fears for Jane, the young witch squeezed out from between the Speed and Strength and made her way over to him, sitting down right beside him.

  He tensed up slightly as she did, causing the young witch to smile gently at him.

  “You look as if there is something on your mind.” The young witch said to him, her voice soft and innocent… nothing at all for Reggio to be afraid of.

  But the vampire completely ignored her, acting as if he did not even hear her.

  The witch could feel the cold shoulder he was giving her, but kept on talking regardless. “You know, whenever I have something on my mind that I can’t really figure out, I just talk about it with someone, you know, to get an outside opinion on the matter, and that usually helps me figure out what to do.” She was trying to invoke a response, any response. “I don’t know how they do it where you come from, but if you need someone to talk to, I am sitting right beside you.”

  As she looked at him, he still acted as if he did not hear her. He was in no mood for a conversation with some witch he did not even care to know.

  This witch, though, was not one to be ignored. Her eyes lowered and then turned to stare him in the face as she began guiding her own fate. “You are no different from any one else here, you know. Well, aside from the fact that you are a legendary vampire deprived of your memory, or so they say. But other than that, you are no different at all.” The young witch was hoping to strike a nerve at some point. “For the last few days, all anyone has speculated over and talked about was this damn storm. ‘What is it?’ ‘When is it coming?’ ‘Will we survive it?’ But now that it has finally arrived and is pouring down its rage upon us, no one wants to talk about it anymore. All everyone wants to do is hold their collective breaths and hope for it all to pass. No one wants to talk about how strong it might be now that they can see it and feel it for themselves, I suppose.” She smiled at him as she went on. “But what else are we supposed to do? We can do nothing to fight it, nothing to hide from it. So I suppose all we can do is hold our breath and hope everything turns out alright. But if you are like me and want to discuss the immense power that this storm, you, seems to possess, then, again… I am sitting right here next to you. Just tell me what’s on your mind.”

  As she stared at him with a smile on her face, he finally looked over at her, for just a second, but it was all she needed to figure out what was on his mind.

  “I see.” The young witch said, causing Reggio’s eyebrows to rise. “It is the witch from earlier, is it not… Jane Saint Marie?”

  This made Reggio turn his head to look at her, his face twisted in confusion, wondering how she knew that from just looking at him.

  “It does not surprise me.” The young witch said as she looked down at the floor and pure jealousy proceeded to seethe out of her mouth. “It is not the first time I have been ignored for her, or anyone else for that matter. She has much bigger breasts than I do, so I suppose it makes sense. But I’ll bet if I had breasts like hers, I could get just as much attention as she does. Oh, I swear, males can be so simple minded.”

  Reggio’s confusion suddenly turned to awkwardness as he looked away from her, and her eyes went right back to the side of his face.

  “Don’t be embarrassed because you are no better than the rest of them.” She told him rather aggressively. “It is nothing new around here. And besides, why would a witch like me even be noticed by Reggyo, the great and legendary vampire?”

  As Reggio looked over at her, she turned her face back at the ground. He began to open his mouth and tell her that she was mistaken, but decided against it before even making a sound. He turned his eyes away from her once again, and she turned right back towards him.

  “So I guess you’re worried about her, huh, worried about poor little Jane?” She asked him, commenting, “As if she didn’t have enough supporters around here already. Don’t you understand what you have walked into?”

  Reggio turned back towards her and looked her right in the eyes. “What do you know?” He asked her in a stern voice, finally acknowledging her.

  “Yeah, that’s right, grill the young one for information. She won’t know any better.” The witch mocked him with a voice thick of sarcasm, and not being afraid to meet the vampire’s glare with one of her own.

  The young witch breathed out her discomfort through her nose and took a deep breath in through her mouth as she began to nod.

  “Fine,” she said after a moment. “But only because it is you.”

  Reggio’s eyebrows rose again as he listened carefully to what she had to say.

  “All I know is that she was supposed to retrieve some stones before going to the church with the others, but nothing more than that.” The young witch told him, speaking innocently, but clearly not telling him everything she knew. “Word has it, though, that these stones are of a very secretive and ancient nature, and that retrieving them can be extremely dangerous. I wonder why?”

  The vampire’s eyes began to move about the room, and the young witch knew she was in his head.

  “I know that, because of their secrecy, she was not able to get them until everyone was evacuated from the chambers.” The witch continued to tell him. “They’ve tried to keep it all a secret, but… I keep my ears open around here. The only thing I can’t figure out is where, exactly, they are located. They are definitely hidden very well. So, I suppose that if they are as hard to retrieve as the rumors say, the
n she could still be searching for them as we speak. Well, as I speak, because you’re just not saying anything. You are just listening, and very intently, I must say.” She looked into his eyes again, trying to read what he was thinking. “You are wondering if I am telling you the truth. You are thinking that I am no one special because I am up here in this tree. So why should you trust me? Well, you are up in this tree, as well. So what does that tell you about yourself?”

  Reggio did not answer her, but she did make him think about it a little bit more than he had already. It made him wonder who in fury she was, who in fury all of them were.

  “Well… that actually tells us nothing.” The witch finally answered herself. “These are just useless politics. None of it makes either of us any less ‘special’ than the other, although some may want us all to believe that. They want us to believe that they did this to help us, so that we would feel better protected than they were, and so that we would have to be grateful to them for saving our lives, when in reality they merely needed to get us out of their way. It all just seems too curious to me, and too convenient for them, even convenience enough for someone to make some kind of big move, if they so chose.”

  A smirk lifted her lips as she went on, “No one can be trusted around here, really. But you have no idea what I am talking about, I am sure. You probably lost interest after I stopped talking about your precious Jane. But later on, after this is all over, after everything changes, after all semblances of recognition have been washed away, you are going to wish that you realized that I was talking about her this entire time.”

  Reggio continued to stare into her eyes, trying to figure her out, but she turned away from him, almost motioning across the room. He followed her eyes to the small hole in the floor on the other side of him, wondering why she was staring at it.

  “You know, sometimes you can just feel when something bad is about to happen.” The witch told him, looking back at him to see his eyes fixed on that hole. “And sometimes… sometimes bad things can happen when we feel the most comfortable. So… might I ask…How do you feel right about now?”

  Reggio didn’t answer. He just continued to stare down at the hole in the floor.

  “Because if you’re asking me, well, I feel pretty damn comfortable here… you know, considering the fact that this entire swamp is being flooded by the frening lake.” The young witch added.

  And with those words, Reggio was gone. He jumped up from where he sat and straight down through the hole, without saying a word. Everyone began looking around, unsure of what had just happened. He was so fast that some did not even know what it was, while others were left peering down the hole, trying to figure out why he jumped. The Speed and Strength, however, were glaring at the young witch with accusing eyes, knowing what she did to make him leave.

  The young witch just smiled and giggled cutely at them, though. “Yes, I suppose that was my fault.” She told them rather sarcastically. “But I hope that doesn’t mean that you two have to go fetch him now.”