Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  Winona and Willie left the office and climbed back into the car. After Willie drove for three blocks down a main street, he turned left into a residential area. After driving for four more blocks he turned right. He drove another half block before parking his car in front of a ranch-style house and shutting off the engine.

  “I take it that we have arrived,” Winona assumed.

  “We’re going there,” Willie said while pointing towards the house. “And before we go in there, I should warn you about Liz’s dog Baby.”

  “What about her dog Baby?”

  “I’m sure you know about the comic strip Marmaduke,” Willie hinted.

  “Baby’s a large Great Dane?” Winona questioned.

  “The biggest in Atlanta… according to the veterinarian anyway,” Willie said. Winona just grinned. “But don’t let his size intimidate you, because he is the friendliest dog that I have ever come across. However, he does have a habit of greeting people by rearing up on them. So it’s a good thing you’re tall.”

  “Okay, well, let’s go,” Winona said while opening her car door.

  When Winona and Willie stepped up to the door, Willie rang the doorbell. A man who Willie wasn’t familiar with opened the door.

  “May I help you?” the man asked.

  Winona saw the annoyed look in Willie’s face as he asked, “Is Liz here?”

  “And you are?” the man asked.

  “Willie,” he said simply.

  “Do you have a last name, Willie?”

  “Tell Liz that her ex-husband is here,” Willie ordered in an unpleasant tone.

  “Ex-husband?” he echoed in a surprised tone.

  “She failed to mention me I guess,” Willie assumed. “Anyway, will you tell her that I’m here?”

  “Hold on,” he said before backing up and shutting the door.

  “Perhaps I should wait in the car,” Winona suggested.

  “You can stay,” Willie insisted.

  “I really don’t want to hear you and your ex get into it,” Winona informed.

  “We won’t,” Willie insisted. “I swear.”

  “Okay,” Winona said skeptically.

  Winona and Willie waited quietly for a short time before Liz reopened the door.

  Liz glanced at Winona first before looking at Willie and demanding to know, “Why are you here, Willie?”

  “I’m here to make a simple request,” Willie replied.

  “And what is this request?” Liz asked.

  “I would like to borrow one of your old purses that you no longer use.”

  “None of my purses will go with any of your outfits,” Liz quipped.

  “Cute,” Willie replied before gesturing towards Winona. “The purse is for her. She’s a client of mine, and for the case that we are working on, she needs a purse big enough to conceal a few objects.”

  Liz turned towards Winona while asking, “What’s your name?”

  “It’s Winona,” she replied.

  “What is your favorite color?” Liz questioned.

  Winona gave Liz a curious look before replying cautiously, “Green.”

  “Mmm, I think I do have a cute green purse that you can have,” Liz told her.

  “We just need to borrow it,” Winona said.

  “I won’t need it back,” Liz assured her. “So… stay—both of you—and I’ll be back in a moment.”

  “Okay,” Winona and Willie agreed.

  Liz went back into the house and shut the door. Winona and Willie waited quietly for the few minutes that it took for Liz to return with a large green purse with a long strap.

  When Winona saw the purse that Liz had returned with, she gestured towards it while pointing out, “That’s a two hundred dollar purse.”

  “Well, I got it on sale for a hundred and seventy,” Liz replied.

  “I can’t take that purse,” Winona informed.

  “The purse is a year old, and most likely I won’t be using it again,” Liz began. “So if you won’t take it, someone else will eventually end up with it.”

  “Take the purse,” Willie instructed.

  When Liz held out the purse, Winona slightly sighed before saying, “Okay. Fine. I’ll take it.”

  Once Winona took the purse, Liz asked, “Anything else I can do for you two?”

  “Who’s that guy in there?” Willie questioned.

  “Good night, William,” Liz said sternly.

  “Okay, don’t tell me,” Willie began. “I’ll find out on my own.”

  “William, I like him,” Liz began. “So if you ruin this for me, I will hunt you down and I will seriously hurt you. So back off.”

  Willie put his hands up in a surrendering manner, before saying, “Alright. Backing off.”

  “I mean it, William,” Liz said.

  “I’m backing off,” Willie insisted. “Let’s go, Winona.”

  “Bye,” Winona told Liz.

  “Bye,” Liz echoed.

  As Winona and Willie were walking away, Liz went back into the house.

  When Winona heard the door closing, she pointed out, “You obviously still have feelings for her. So what happened between you and her?”

  Willie slightly hesitated before saying, “One year and eleven months ago, I was working a case that had gotten her kidnapped and shot. She almost bled out. In fact, the doctors had a hell of a time getting her stable. She died on the operating table, and reviving her went a few seconds past the time when most doctors would declare a person legally dead. The doctors had even feared that she might’ve suffered mild brain damage for how long that it had taken them to revive her. However, she was tested and was determined that she was one hundred percent.

  “Anyway, when she woke up in the recovery room, the first thing out of her mouth to me was, ‘I want a divorce.’ Weeks before that, she had wanted me to quit my job as a private investigator, but I was set on staying one. When she asked for the divorce I had promised her that I would quit, but that option was no longer in the running. She had wanted a divorce, and nothing I said or do from that point forward was going to changed that.”

  “I’m sorry,” Winona said as they were approaching the car.

  Willie shrugged before saying, “The divorce was more than a year ago—uncontested. So what wounds there were have scarred over.”

  “Scabbed over you mean,” Winona retorted as they moved towards their respective doors. She then caught the puzzled look that Willie had shot her. “You still have strong feelings for her, so that wound hasn’t completely healed.”

  “And you’re going to pick at the scab until it bleeds?” Willie questioned in an annoyed tone.

  “No,” Winona quickly answered as they were opening their car doors. “Sorry. I wasn’t meaning to do that.”

  Willie acknowledged the apology with a nod.

  Winona and Willie got into the car, and after Willie had started the car, Winona continued, “To change the subject, how long have you been a private investigator?”

  “For eight years,” Willie replied while driving away. “Before that, I was a police officer for a whole six months. I lost my badge in an attempt to keep an innocent nineteen-year-old boy from going to prison.”

  “That would be a part of your job, wouldn’t it?” Winona questioned as she began transferring the crystal balls and the wooden stakes to the green purse.

  “I was a rookie cop,” Willie replied. “My job was to do what I was told; not to play detective—although someone had needed to play detective. The two detectives who were assigned that case sure weren’t doing it, and they refused to believe that they had arrested the wrong man.”

  “So did they learn the truth about that nineteen-year-old?” Winona asked.

  “His public defender had told him that he couldn’t win in court and urged him to take a plea… so I was told anyway,” Willie began. “He committed suicide before he could be sentenced.”

  “And you’re sure he was innocent?” Winona questioned.

  “A
fter I had obtained my private investigator’s license I proved his innocence by finding the guilty person.” Willie slightly laughed. “I then rubbed that proof in my old captain’s face. I was kicked off the force and I was right. I then picked apart a few more of their wrongful arrest cases, and overturned six of their convictions by identifying the actual perpetrator.”

  “Fascinating,” Winona said.

  During the drive to ‘The Crow’s Nest’—the nightclub that was housing the single vampire—Winona and Willie’s conversation turned casual.

  ‘The Crow’s Nest’ and its parking lot were packed with people dressed in gothic clothing and jewelry, and wearing make-up that made them look eerie.

  As Willie was parking his car, Winona shared, “I think we found larp headquarters.”

  “It sure looks that way,” Willie agreed as he came to a halt.

  As Willie was putting the car into park, Winona was opening her door.

  Once Winona was out with her door shut, she put her head through the strap of the purse. The purse hung at her right hip as the strap crossed her chest and back from her left shoulder.

  Willie made sure that his laptop couldn’t be seen before getting out of the car.

  The doorman of the nightclub—while also wearing gothic clothes, jewelry and the make-up that made him look eerie—carried a clipboard with a list of members attached to it and a pen that promoted animal rights.

  When Winona and Willie stepped up to the doorman, the doorman looked them up and down before asking, “What clan are you with?”

  “We’re not with a clan,” Willie was the one to say just before he flashed his private investigator’s license. “I’m Willie Merritt—a private investigator.”

  Willie was noticing the pen as the doorman said, “Yes, well, it’s members only, so unless you have a badge that reads, ‘Detective Willie Merritt of the Atlanta, Georgia Police Department’ plus a warrant to enter, you two are not getting in.”

  “Is it too late to become members of this larp?” Winona quickly asked.

  The doorman slightly snarled before saying disdainfully, “For most of us, what we do here is a way of life, and for you to inquire about becoming members, just so that you two can pass through this door, is sacrilege.”

  “I assure you I wasn’t meaning to commit a taboo against you or what you did here,” Winona quickly defended. “We are looking for someone though—to inform him of an inheritance that he’s entitled to, and we were told that he’s inside.”

  “Your presence here is over someone’s inheritance?” the doorman questioned.

  “Oh, yeah,” Willie chimed in while playing along with Winona’s lie. “We were hired to track down Casper Meyer’s sole surviving heir. And in case you haven’t heard of Casper Meyer—which most people haven’t, so don’t feel bad—Casper Meyer was a porn movie producer in the 1970s, and he made millions before retiring relatively young in the 1980s. He died last week and his only heir is his grandson—his last surviving relative.” Willie looked at his digital watch as he continued with, “However, if we don’t track down Casper’s grandson within the next… fourteen hours, Casper’s entire fortune—seventy-two million U.S. dollars—goes to that… that… oh, man, my mind had just went blank on me. I can’t think of that one research facility’s name.”

  “Which research facility?” the doorman asked curiously.

  “The one that experiments on animals before the product gets tested on humans,” Willie informed. “With seventy-two million dollars there’s no telling how many more animals that, that research facility could buy and experiment on.”

  The doorman took a deep breath before pulling out a sheet of a blank name badge paper and saying, “Alright.” The doorman began to write. “I’m going to give you two an hour, or until someone complains, for you to find Casper’s grandson. But first, both of you, come up with a vampire name for yourself.”

  Winona slightly shrugged before saying, “Sawni.”

  “The Seminole name meaning echo,” the doorman said while writing ‘Sawni’ on the badge.

  “Very good,” Winona praised.

  “I went to high school with a girl named Sawni,” the doorman said.

  “My grandma’s name was Sawni,” Winona shared. “My oldest cousin… on my dad’s side of the family is also named Sawni.”

  “Nice,” the doorman politely said before turning towards Willie. “And your vampire name?”

  “Gemini,” Willie said.

  “There’s already a Gemini, so I’ll change it to Gemini-Merritt,” the doorman said as he continued to write.

  “Make it Thorald instead,” Willie said.

  “Alright,” the doorman replied.

  “Why Thorald?” Winona questioned.

  Willie slightly grinned before saying, “It’s actually my middle name.”

  Winona responded with a grin.

  “Okay, well, both of your characters will be the illegitimate offspring of Dorrautis,” the doorman continued. “Dorrautis has the power of invisibility and so do you two. For both of you, your bravery attribute is one, so if either of you gets confronted by someone, you will say, ‘my bravery is one, and because of my ability, which I inherited from my illegitimate father Dorrautis, my fear makes me invisible.’ And then you two will walk away… quickly—as if scampering away.”

  “Okay,” Winona said followed by Willie.

  Without rushing, the doorman wrote out on a card that showed a list of attributes. On another card he had written out the name ‘Sawni’. He stuck the card with the name on it in a holder that would get pinned to Winona’s shirt for people to see, and then he handed the items to Winona.

  Winona examined the items that she was handed as the doorman wrote out the ones for Willie.

  Once Winona and Willie had pinned the name badges to their shirts, they entered the nightclub.

  After stepping three feet inside, Willie pulled out the appropriate picture of the real vampire. “We can cover more ground if we split up.”

  “Okay,” Winona agreed before pulling out the folded picture that she had of the real vampire from her purse.

  Winona and Willie then left in opposite directions while searching for the real vampire among the role-playing vampires.

  Winona had been looking for five minutes when a man—with a name badge that read ‘Lotus’—jumped out in front of her while uttering out, “Halt! Who dares to pass?”

  Winona stopped walking, and as Lotus was reading Winona’s handwritten name badge, she said, “My bravery is one, and because of my invisibility ability that I inherited from my illegitimate father Dorrautis, my fear makes me invisible. Now I scamper away in fear.”

  “Hold up, Sawni,” Lotus uttered. “I challenge your attributes.”

  “You challenge my attributes?” Winona echoed as she stuffed the folded picture of the real vampire back into her purse without looking. “You think I’m cheating?”

  “I’m a member of the Dorrautis clan…”

  Winona made a facial gesture as if to sarcastically say, ‘Figures.’

  During Winona’s gesture, Lotus continued with, “And there’s nothing in the story script about Dorrautis having an illegitimate daughter. And you’re not even dressed in character. So let me see your card.”

  “Fine,” Winona said while pulling out the card that showed her attributes.

  Winona had barely held out the card when Lotus snatched it.

  “This was created with a pen, as with your name badge,” Lotus pointed out.

  “Is that a problem?” Winona questioned.

  “Yeah,” Lotus replied. “Authentic attribute cards and name badges are computer generated with a watermark.”

  “I actually lost those,” Winona claimed. “Luckily I knew what my attributes were, so I wrote them out on a blank card.”

  “I’m taking you to Dorrautis, so come with me,” Lotus ordered.

  “Fine,” Winona agreed before gesturing. “Lead the way.”

 
Lotus led Winona to a table closest to the office, and when Winona saw the actual vampire sitting at the table—with a glass of blood on the table in front of him—her heart started pounding from her nervousness.

  The vampire looked curiously at Winona as Lotus said, “Conner…”

  “You’re supposed to remain in character until the game has ended, Lotus,” Conner informed as he continued to stare curiously at Winona.

  “Alright,” Lotus agreed before gesturing towards Winona. “Sawni—here—claims to be your illegitimate daughter.”

  “I see why you broke character,” Conner said as he stood.

  “Within the game, I mean,” Lotus added. “And since it wasn’t a part of your game script, I brought her to you.”

  Conner stepped up to Winona before accusing, “You’re nervous.”

  Winona stared into Conner’s eyes while lying, “I just got caught crashing your party, so of course I’m nervous.”

  “You became nervous after seeing me,” Conner pointed out.

  “You’re an authority figure—in my mind anyway—and I always get nervous once I get brought before an authority figure,” Winona claimed.

  “I can always tell when I get lied to, and I don’t like being lied to,” Conner informed. “So don’t lie to me again.”

  “I can see now that crashing your party was a mistake,” Winona began. “So if you don’t mind, I’ll show myself out.”

  “Hold on,” Conner insisted. “Your little adlib plot twist of you being my illegitimate daughter has merit. I am curious though as to why I make you nervous.”

  Winona stared nervously into his eyes for a moment before breaking her stare and confessing, “Okay, you’re right. You do make me nervous, and I will tell you as to why when I’m ready. And right now though, I’m not ready.”

  Conner pursed his lips for a moment before asking, “Is Sawni your actual name?”

  “My actual name is Winona,” she said before gesturing towards Lotus. “And going off from what he had originally called you, your actual name is Conner.”

  Conner nodded before saying, “This character that you created for yourself to get in here, I like it. And I’m willing to put you on one of the teams as Sawni—my illegitimate daughter.”