Monster Stalker

by Elizabeth Watasin

  I’m carrying groceries. I’m walking in the sun with a pretty girl. Nico indulged in marvel. Three young men leaned on a balcony railing and as Shayla and Nico passed below, they hooted.

  “Yip-yip-yip.”

  “Aw, look at the puppy. Shayla, is that your new puppy?”

  “Hey, little puppy.”

  “I’m not a were-dog,” Nico yelled at them, appalled.

  “Shayla’s picked up another stray,” a third man mocked.

  “Get a job!” Nico snarled. She turned to Shayla. “Do I look like a were-dog?”

  Shayla laughed, the soft sound brief. The touch she gave Nico’s back was fleeting but reassuring. “No, chick. They’re only teasing. I’d a friend and lover who followed me thus, and ey was happy tae do so. Ey was a vampire. That was three years ago.”

  Three years ago was when Shy got killed. Whoever “ey” was, that one didn’t appear to be around anymore.

  “You’re the first person I’m following just because I want to,” Nico said in surprise. It was a strange and very new realisation, and it made her give a little skip. Shayla looked at her, intrigued.

  Three little girls bounced a ball to each other on the street ahead when two little boys ran up. One snatched the ball away and then shoved the girl.

  “Stop it,” the girl hollered. “Or I’ll make Shayla admonish ya.” She ran to Shayla and clung to her legs.

  “I dinnae do nothin’,” the little boy yelled.

  “Callum, I witnessed what ya did,” Shayla said firmly. “Come apologise now.”

  “Ye’re not the real pistol, anymore!” Callum shouted, and threw down the ball. He ran away.

  The little girl turned around and pointed at Callum, her hand in the form of a gun.

  “Pow, pow,” the girl said.

  “Wissht, Lainie,” Shayla said with severity. She took hold of the girl’s pointing finger and put it down. “Tae yer ma, now.”

  The little girl went to her mother, who’d emerged from a doorway, and Nico looked at Shayla. She caught the pain in Shayla’s gaze.

  Nico thought about witches become vampires and witches with pistols when Shayla finally stopped before a building; they had reached her apartment complex.

  “That’s me, then,” Shayla said, and held out a hand for her grocery bag. Nico gave it to her.

  “You’ve been so nice,” Nico said. “Don’t invite me in.”

  Shayla grinned. “Ya follow me home and then want me tae make ya go away?”

  Nico held Bear. “I just...I’m sorry about your sister,” she blurted.

  At Shayla’s surprised expression, Nico looked down.

  “I didn’t simply ask around for you. I looked up stuff published about you too. I know that the news never gets the whole picture? But I’m sorry about what happened to you and her.” Shayla touched her arm, and Nico met her gaze.

  “Thank ye,” Shayla said.

  Nico played with Bear’s arms. “It’s creepy again, my reading about you. It’s something I need to stop doing. But I had wondered why you were so okay with something like me.”

  “Now chick,” Shayla began, her tone chastising.

  Nico shook her head. “You shouldn’t be so tolerant of vampires. We might mistaken it for your being passive...instead of patient with us.”

  Shayla smiled, bittersweet. “It’s an earned patience, love. There’s a reason for it.”

  Nico yearned to ask: what’s it like, having a murdered sister rise a vampire? Do you blame yourself? Has she tried to kill you? Has she tried to make you like her?

  “I’m sorry,” Nico said again.

  “Ah, love.” Shayla put her bag down and hugged her, and Nico stiffened, overwhelmed by Shayla’s softness, warmth, and golden peach-bergamot scent. Nico made her arms move and hugged back with Bear mashed between them. A grandstand of Bears waved Union Jacks within her.

  When Shayla ended the hug, her gaze was mischievous.

  “Now,” she said. “What did ye really want tae talk about?”

  ***

  Nico skipped as she left Shayla’s building.

  I have a date!

  Shayla was not currently attached. And she hadn’t really said “yes.” It had really been a very gentle “no” that had made Nico want the earth to swallow her up for asking.

  “I like ye, Niky, but dating’s not fer me, right now,” Shayla had clarified when Nico’s entire being sank into the ground.

  “Can we still be friends?” Nico had asked. “Because I have so many questions. When I get creepy, just shoot me.”

  Shayla had smiled, both amazed and humoured. “I cannae leave ye unable to ken this world, can I? I’m free early the morra…how’s that?”

  Yes-yes-yes.

  “Yes, I want a real friend on Darqueworld,” Nico babbled to Bear as they descended into an underground station. She then thought of Heloise. “And one I can trust. Plus, I like Shayla more than that. But the ‘date’ thing! I’m an amnesiac, I have Old Earth problems come over with me—that might be real, or maybe imagined. I don’t even know how to explain it to her. And I’m unstable. Why am I even doing this?” The query of a date leaving her mouth had surprised her as much as it hadn’t seemed to surprise Shayla. Nico could only think that she’d risked it because Shayla was worth rejection.

  Shayla had to work the night, a graveyard shift, because Lucy’s was a 24-hour diner. But Nico would be there in the morning, on the dot, for chatting.

  Not for a sex encounter, not for a clandestine “arrangement”. Nico was going to spend genuine time with a woman—in public—simply to be in her company. So far, nervousness had not yet outweighed elation.

  “Later, I may throw up,” Nico said to Bear, and hugged him. Her Id chimed.

  She pulled it out and read the caller’s identification.

  Caller: Deepika Kapoor, immigrations social worker

  Subject: client’s Id found

  Nico answered, and Deepika’s holo popped up. She was an older Indian woman dressed in a purple silk sari and wearing silver-rimmed spectacles.

  “May I speak to Ms Nicolette Alexikova?” Deepika said in even British tones.

  “Yes, that’s me,” Nico quickly answered.

  “Thank you for finding my client’s Id,” Deepika said. “Can you give me a description of her, the time and day you last saw her, and in what condition or circumstance you found my client in?”

  Nico did, recalling as much detail as possible. “I think something bad happened to her,” she added.

  “I understand.” Deepika looked off-holo and typed. After a while, she returned her attention to Nico. “I’ve submitted a missing person’s report. It dispatches to all police, public services, and the Makepeace. Hopefully someone will find her.”

  “What’s her name?” Nico asked.

  Deepika looked at her over her glasses. “Are you kin, spouse, maker, guardian, or champion to my client?”

  “Champion,” Nico answered.

  “Indeed.”

  “Wouldn’t I know her name if I were her kin or spouse?” Nico asked.

  “You’d be surprised. One moment, please.” Deepika glanced off-holo, and then returned her attention to Nico. “If you would affirm your champion’s pledge to me, I can tell you her name. Vampire face, please.”

  “Oh, okay.” Nico bared her teeth and her fangs grew. Her eyes changed.

  Deepika peered at Nico closely, and then Nico’s Id flashed her in the face. “Visual affirmation; checked.” She returned her attention off-holo and began reading aloud. “As the celestial holarchy, the primacy of vampires, and this servant of the under-holarchy are your witnesses, you, Nicolette Alexikova—”

  “And Bear,” Nico added.

  “You, Nicolette Alexikova and Bear, give this Utterance of Life, and pledge with your heart, truth, and soul that you will champion Esche Abram-Angel, giving protection and aid in her time of need, whether she be living or dead.”

  “I pledge it,” Nico promised.

/>   “Duly recorded. Well, there you are.” Nico’s Id lit up, and she saw data had been added. “Now you may go find my client.”

  ***

  Nico reviewed Esche’s immigration information while riding the Four back to the hostels sector. She’d been correct, she shared the same vampire age and age of death as Esche, who came to Darqueworld via the star chariot Lusitani.

  “Esche means ‘ash tree’ in German,” Nico told Bear. “I like her name.”

  But the next information gave her pause. She read:

  Psionic ability detected.

  Psychometric score is:

  60% recognition in uncommon aestheses

  100% recognition in empathic perception

  Recommend telepathic testing

  Recommend telekinetic testing

  Nico recalled the mental sensation of a finger lightly touching her mind’s blank spot.

  “She’s a sensitive,” Nico whispered.

  ***

  She asked in the hostels sector if anyone had seen Esche, from the preacher, the medical clinic, the Shivers, to even the street hustlers, and stared into the hustlers’ eyes and feigned non-committal attitudes, trying to gauge if they were kidnappers. She even enquired at the boys’ hostel and bar.

  “Do you want to be admonished, citizen?” the holo of Thunder Gunn said when the bouncer allowed her in. A German couple ran the hostel and bar, the bouncer had told her, and many of the hostel’s guests were of the culture. If anyone came from the same ship as Esche, Nico might find such chrono-arrivals there. She put Bear’s Isle flag away and moved through the boys and men gyrating to the driving techno beat. She showed people Esche’s holo photo and received negatives to her enquiries about her and the Lusitani.

  “Wissen Sie Esche?” she shouted up to a muscled male with blonde beard, braids, and a Thor’s hammer amulet on his bared chest. “Esche Abram-Angel?” He scrutinised the holo, then shook his head. Nico headed to the bar counter and its bartender, who watched her.

  “Where did you see her last?” he said above the music as she showed him the holo picture. He introduced himself as the hostel’s co-owner, and they shook hands.

  “Again Friends Youth Hostel,” Nico said.

  “Oh.” The owner shook his head. “Vampires come and go very fast on this street. They don’t hang around—have themselves a good time.”

  “Those vampires are having a good time,” Nico said, pointing at boys wearing black. One showed off his shirtless body in a chest harness similar to hers and Bear’s. With their white-blond hair, eyeliner, and piercings, Nico had thought the boys possible undead kin to Esche. Or her boyfriend type. They had not recognised her photo.

  “Yah, that’s because they are staying here,” the owner said, grinning.

  “I should stay here,” Nico said. She bade the owner farewell, and returned to the street.

  ***

  “And her name is?” Dann said when Nico showed him Esche.

  “Esche Abram-Angel. The vampire the Id belongs to. So you didn’t see her?”

  “Maybe she signed in.” Dann pushed the sign-up sheet in her direction. “Want to sign for another night?”

  “I already signed for this night. I checked that box yesterday.” She looked at the signatures. None were for Esche.

  “I mean, sign for tomorrow.” He pushed a card for Chaikov’s Collectible Coins & Currencies towards her. Nico pushed it back.

  “And no one came to claim her Id?”

  “Oh, that. Nah. Hey, the blood snacks are late, but they are coming.”

  “What if the snacks don’t come, and lockdown happens with all these hungry vampires trapped inside? With you?”

  “That can’t happen,” Dann said. “The snacks always come.”

  Nico showed him Esche’s holo photo again. “Remember that face.” Then she left.

  The girls’ dorm held three vampire girls, including the backpacker, Danica, while the boys’ dorm held a scruffy group of four—boy punks who laughed and smoked, hunched together like conspirators. None recognised Esche’s holo photo. Eton boy, broody boy, and Tex were not present.

  Sparse night for Again Friends. Maybe they’ll lose their funding. She didn’t feel sympathetic. She returned to the ground floor.

  She was standing before the vending machine, contemplating its emptiness, when Iris suddenly spoke to her.

  “It’s almost rest time,” Iris said, and Nico turned, having not heard the other vampire’s approach. Iris hugged herself, her eyes bearing dark circles beneath them. “I’ve been searching all day. Tex and Delores still aren’t back.”

  “You have your Id, right?” Nico said. “Have you tried calling them?”

  Iris smiled, brittle. “I lost mine, and I can’t afford a new one. Delores helped me keep in contact with Tex’s social worker so I’d know when he got out of prison. We haven’t separated since.”

  “Here.” Nico held up her Id. “Let me call them.” That way Tex and cat-eyes girl won’t ignore it, thinking it’s you. “What’s Tex’s contact code?”

  Iris showed Nico her wrist. A contact code was written on her skin. “This is Delores. Tex never got the hang of an Id.” Iris laughed nervously. “I’ve already had people call her.”

  Nico nodded. She tried the contact code, and she and Iris watched as the call’s icon slowly pulsed.

  “I was thinking,” Iris said, “what if...what if the spawn got to them?”

  “I think the spawn would need to take the rail to get here,” Nico said.

  “Now you’re making fun of me,” Iris accused. “And sure the spawn can take the rail. They live underground, don’t they?”

  “Sorry,” Nico said. “Are you okay? You haven’t been looking well.”

  “I’ll—I’ll have some blood and sleep and I’ll be okay.” Iris hugged herself more.

  “If you need a clinic, I’ll take you to one.” Nico ended the call attempt. “They’ve free ones and they don’t ask questions.”

  “Oh, I know about them, there’s one a street over and they give away free drugs! Me and Tex got a little excited about that, that’s why we got into trouble.” Iris smiled. “I’ll be okay, especially when Tex comes back. Look! The blood is finally here.”

  A human deliveryman walked in carrying a white translucent box with the blood drop logo on it. He went down the hall for the rec room and Iris followed.

  Nico blew breath. At some point Iris would have to make the decision to contact the Makepeace, and when they located Tex and Dolores honeymooning in neuvo wherever, Iris could then have closure.

  Dorothy, where are the spawn located? Nico typed, curious. Dorothy projected a holo map. The red circle lay within a populated (and poor) sector between where Shayla lived and mid-town’s business sector began. Nico requested an isometric projection to discern how far below Again NewYork the spawn’s location was.

  “Teh,” she uttered in humour and surprise. “A ground-level commuter tunnel, seriously? I guess they can come out and get us, after all.” And one easily accessed via an abandoned and over-grown surface passage. “That looks bigger than the usual tunnel. What are the specs, Dorothy?” Dorothy gave her the size, length, and materials the tunnel was made of, and stated:

  “The Jotun tunnel was built to accommodate the leviathan train known as the Mammoth, which was three times the width and twice the height of the standard train. However, veldt leviathans attacked and consumed three Mammoth trains on the cross-veldt route before the project was abandoned.”

  “Wow.” Nico made a note to look up First creatures eating trains, then put Dorothy away and went to the rec room.

  When she entered, Ozzie girl was happily passing out blood packets again. The early birds were present: paperback girl with her thick book under an arm, tongue-pierced girl, and the Sushi Hut worker, still in uniform and seated, hunched with fatigue. Broody boy lurked in the room’s shadows, already sucking on a bag.

  “Has anyone seen Esche?” Nico asked, and displayed the holo p
icture. A round of no’s answered her.

  “She might’ve moved on, mate,” Ozzy girl said.

  “That’ll be me too. Just one more night.” Paperback girl sighed as she accepted two packs from Ozzie girl. “And then I am out of here.”

  “Really? To where?” Ozzie girl asked.

  “Found a vampire nest that’ll take me. They’re in the fashion sector.”

  “That’s great,” Iris enthused.

  “Really great,” tongue-pierced girl said.

  “Sounds bodgie,” Ozzie girl said, sceptical.

  “Sounds like I found home,” paperback girl said coolly.

  “Are these your Again Walker friends, the non-biting pacifists?” tongue-pierced girl asked, her tone teasing.

  “You know I don’t like to bite,” paperback girl said.

  “I can’t wait until me and Tex and Delores find a place,” Iris said. “A place to call home. On Darqueworld we can be like everyone else.”

  “Oh yeah, and with a white picket fence,” tongue-pierced girl said lightly.

  “I wouldn’t mind one.” Iris smiled. “But more a wrought-iron balcony, like in New Orleans. Did you know there’s a New Orleans here? It’s called Sister Orleans. That’s so diesel.”

  “Ugh,” Sushi Hut girl uttered, rubbing her eyes. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt.” She picked up her blood packs and rose to leave.

  “Dreams keeping you up?” tongue-pierced girl asked as she turned to follow, and sucked on the straw in her bag.

  “I don’t really dream anymore; do you?” paperback girl remarked, also departing. Iris left with them.

  “I can’t remember anything,” tongue-pierced girl replied.

  I can’t remember anything, Nico recalled thinking when she had been human, and had woken up in her own bedroom in her parents’ home, her clothes feeling wrong.