“I don’t know. Maybe with my thoughts,” Heloise said with sarcasm. She looked in the mirror and pulled her black, narrow leather tie out of its knot. “The girls at the Pussy Lounge said thanks.”
“How many lap dances was that?”
“Six.” Heloise undid her tie’s knot and adjusted the ends, bringing the wider end to hang lower.
“I was serious about the frilly apron,” Nico said.
“Oh?”
“And the pearls.”
“Oh?”
Heloise made a four-in-hand knot, her long, slender fingers working, then pulled it apart again. Nico walked over to her.
“Here, let me. I used to do it for my dad.”
Heloise lifted her chin, put her hands behind her back, and averted her gaze. Nico held the tie’s ends. She carefully folded them over, pulled them through, and formed the small, slightly elongated shape that was the four-in-hand. When she tightened the knot at Heloise’s throat, she smoothed the points of Heloise’s collar, then followed the tie down to tuck the long end into Heloise’s waistband.
There. Her countess lawyer vampire. Beautiful piano player. Nico let her fingers linger within the waistband and took a breath. Heloise had been in the sun recently, and her warmed fragrance bloomed.
“Thought you might assume next that I helped turn us into sausages,” Heloise grumbled.
“I made a mistake,” Nico said. “I’m sorry.” She held Heloise’s waistband and sensed her perfumed body’s stillness; cool, pristine, and clean. Nothing pulsed in Heloise’s perfection, her death’s suspension. But Nico felt her own undead state drawn to such perfection, and perhaps Shayla had known that would happen.
Be my maker.
Heloise looked at her. She slowly reached into her jacket’s inner pocket and pulled out a small, bright red, translucent lollipop, wrapped in flat cellophane.
Nico made a sound of humour and swallowed, unable to meet Heloise’s gaze. She accepted the treat.
“I hate to see a little girl unhappy,” Heloise softly said.
Nico hooked Heloise’s waistband with both of her hands, the lollipop pressing.
“Show me your fangs,” Nico whispered.
Heloise bared her teeth, snarling. Her blue eyes changed.
Nico snarled back.
***
Nico hurried into her testing room dead last, her hair entirely mussed, and received her paper test booklet, two wooden pencils, her answer sheet, and a blank sheet of scratch paper. She didn’t think she needed scratch paper because it was a civics test, not a math test, but she accepted it anyway. The ballroom-sized testing room was filled with small desks, all occupied by a variety of humanoids and last century chrono-immigrants who might find paper and pencil easier to handle than a holo interface. She found a desk to sit at, and the introduction to the test commenced.
Half an hour later, Nico was done, the vast room gravely silent as people coughed, sighed, chirped, or hissed, working on their questions. The test monitors walked down the aisles, and Nico decided to sit and while away the rest of the hour rather than rise early and hand her sheet in. A tree person rustled in the seat behind her.
Mr Bear sat beneath her seat, and she didn’t think he minded being stored away as he’d had the pleasure of sitting on the bathroom counter and witnessing a spot of carnality, half an hour before.
Nico licked her lips, and still tasted Heloise.
Heloise had beautiful, big fangs. Nico drew fangs on her scratch paper.
She still couldn’t kiss properly on the mouth, but she could always do the other kind of kissing, and that had made Heloise swagger out of the bathroom, once more the owner of the world.
“How about I take you for ice cream later,” Heloise had whispered, and rubbed away her lipstick mark from the corner of Nico’s mouth. “Is that the pretty witch I smell on you?”
Nico would need to message Shayla about Heloise. This nascent triad—and she hoped she could make it work—required reading a book or watching a holo, and she made a note of that on her scratch paper. She drew more fangs and then a pistol for Shayla. Shayla might not approve—a pie or coffee mug might be nicer—but to Nico, Shayla was her secret gun, and she blew holes in evil.
Nico wrote: Nico loves—she drew a heart—drew a pistol—and then drew a set of fangs.
She looked at what she’d drawn and thought a kind of perfection had been attained. It would be necessary to draw the combination often, in several different formulas that proved the same result over and over. It was a spell to annihilate the one carved into her body.
If Heloise had been Scots too...I don’t know if I could have dealt with that. Or Shayla, a vampire.
She was certain her psyche would have blown up. No, their aspects had to be separate. Two defeated one. Slowly but surely, Heloise and Shayla invalidated her maker’s memory, one particle at a time, with sheer numbers.
THE END, monster, she wrote on her scratch paper.
***
When test time ended, Nico was busy drawing pictures of spawn-spud makers getting ground into sausage. The monitors gathered booklets, test sheets, and pencils, and Nico shuffled out with the rest of the potential citizens into the hallway. Doors opened across the way and sunlight spilled, the light so bright it made Nico jump back. Grinning people exited, their companions photographing and congratulating them.
New citizens, Nico thought.
“That’s gonna be us,” a woman who’d exited the exam room declared. Re’shawn, dressed in a blouse and blazer, filed out of a second exam room that had also opened its doors. She looked completely healed from her ordeal.
“Hey, sugarplum,” Re’shawn said.
“I’m glad you’re okay. But now I’m a fairy?” Nico exclaimed.
“Yeah, if fairies were sugarcoated almond balls.”
“You’re a cop,” Nico accused.
“Naw, more like I got deputised,” Re’shawn drawled. “Was recruited to get in on that sting operation at my immigration interview. Didn’t you?” She walked to the side of the corridor as it became crowded, and Nico joined her. Nico recalled the series of flashes she’d experienced in the hologram room.
“You stood out like a sore thumb at the hostel,” Nico pointed out instead.
“Didn’t I know it,” Re’shawn said, wry. “The moment I went back there with you, Aussie Girl got the drop on me. I’m still ashamed about that.”
“Ozzie.”
“Huh?”
“But you weren’t the only one working for the OI.”
“Naw, two others had gone in before, and both didn’t come out. They wore glasses to record what happened.” Re’shawn pointed at her own eyes. “Wearing those probably gave them away. I didn’t do any better—when I first walked into that hostel? Shee—I mean, pardon me, Lord, shoot. I knew the bad guys had made me.”
“But the OI told you to go back. What made you qualified for the sting?” Nico recalled Eton boy’s altruism.
“I dunno.” Re’shawn shrugged. “My last kills were vampires who tried taking over the ship bringing us here. I wasn’t cool with mutiny. Not down with the meat grinding of our kind, either. So, they didn’t ask you to investigate this?”
“No,” Nico said. “I was the vigilante.”
Re’shawn held out her palm. “Five, go-go girl.”
Nico slapped her palm awkwardly.
***
Nico didn’t have a chance to ask Re’shawn what she got in return for nearly being made into sausage. She also wanted to ask if Eton boy was okay. But she received a summons on her Id that told her to report to another room and had to scuttle plans of lunching with her friend. Re’shawn departed and Nico ascended to another floor—one high enough to cause nosebleeds—to sit outside a closed door.
I hope I’m not in trouble for that car I set on fire.
She and Bear watched Patrick Stewart as Capt Jean Luc Picard in “Drumhead” on her Id when a clerk emerged.
“Ms Alexikova and Mr Bear? Follow
me please,” she said.
Nico put Dorothy away and followed the clerk into the room’s front entry, then through the inner doors for a low-lit, great chamber. Shield doors blocked the scenic windows, and a marble fount stood in the middle. But what gave Nico pause were the people present, standing to the side of the fount.
Shayla? Shayla smiled, dressed in moss green and wearing an amber necklace. MP-1634 stood beside her, the helm removed, revealing an impassive face with eyes of mirrored silver. When Nico neared, she saw who waited beside the Makepeace.
Specs sat within an enclosed mobilised unit, his head against a cushioned rest. His chest and one arm were visible, dressed in a button-down with blue striped tie. An exo-skeleton device covered his resting hand. The bottom half of his body was not apparent.
He gestured with the control device and turned his unit to face her.
“Got out my best tie for you, Nico,” he grinned. Nico raised both of Bear’s arms in celebration, though she still didn’t know what was happening. A pedestal next to the fount and waiting clerk emitted a holo projection, lighting the surrounding area. Nico’s mouth dropped.
Sabella Peck looked twenty years older than the one Nico knew from her photographs. Fine lines edged her mouth and warm eyes, and her face bore the broadened aspect that came with age.
She is so beautiful.
“Hello Nico,” Sabella’s hologram said. “I am Immigration Judge Peck. For your service to Darqueworld, we express our heartfelt gratitude and wish to grant you citizenship. Are you ready to take your oath?”
Nico breathed. “I am.”
“You will act as proxy for Mr Bear, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Step forwards and hold Darqueworld in your hands,” the hologram said.
Nico looked within the fount’s bowl and smelled the ocean. Pure seawater sat, a glistening mirror. Nico glanced at Shayla and Shayla cupped her hands.
Nico dipped her hands, cupping water. She held it up, and the shield doors rumbled and parted, letting the first beam of Merope fall upon her. She blinked, dazzled.
“As Merope is our witness and as three who know you will witness, please repeat after me, Nico,” the Sabella hologram said, the opening widening, and Nico did.
“I, Nicolette Alexikova, do solemnly, sincerely and truly affirm and declare that, on becoming a citizen of Darqueworld, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to its holarchy, respect and observe the Basic Laws and laws of Darqueworld, and refrain from acts which might cause it harm.”
Light flooded the room, and water sparkled in Nico’s hands. Merope’s face illuminated and the Makepeace’s armour shone.
Congratulations, Nico and Bear,” the hologram said, and Shayla and the clerk applauded.
Nico let the water fall from her fingers and into the fount, her body hot from pure sunlight. She looked at the hologram.
“I have to say it,” she said. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Nico,” the hologram said. “Welcome the sun.”
Nico opened her arms.
The end.
***
More by Elizabeth Watasin:
Bloody Nike: A Darquepunk Novel Vol 2 (upcoming)
Gunslinger: A Darquepunk Novel Vol 3 (upcoming)
The Dark Victorian: Risen Vol 1
The Dark Victorian: Bones Vol 2
Ice Demon: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread Vol 1
Medusa: A Dark Victorian Penny Dread Vol 2
Sundark: An Elle Black Penny Dread Vol 1
Poison Garden: An Elle Black Penny Dread Vol 2 (upcoming)
Charm School: The Wrecking Faerie Vol 1 (upcoming)
And Elizabeth’s comic book series:
Charm School Digital, No 1-9
Join me at:
My mailing list, http://a-girlstudio.com/?page_id=2105
My Facebook group, Club Hecate, https://www.facebook.com/groups/ElizabethWatasinsClubHecate
My Twitter, http://twitter.com/ewatasin
Leningrad:
Nico is a 90’s vampire, but Leningrad still exists where she is (which in our timeline, returned to the name St Petersburg in 1991). Therefore, she’s from an Earth alternate from our own.
Food made from blood:
Lucy’s Diner menu of foods cooked from blood was made possible by the Nordic Food Lab research of Elisabeth Paul:
http://magazine.good.is/features/the-nordic-food-lab-cooks-with-blood
Shayla’s Scots dialect and slang:
I used this young woman’s laid-back brogue to guide me (but less on the ‘creaky voice’ touch):
https://youtu.be/rBaB-7Jf5SI
I kept it really light, to avoid reader unfamiliarity and caricature (as I’m no native speaker). Scots slang—in this case, possibly the Glaswegian sort—is considered working class, but I think Shayla’s background on Darqueworld is equivalent to that background. I do have her pronounce ‘you’ and ‘your’, for example, rather than ‘ye’ or ‘ya’ at times (Scots casual speech) for the sake of her having to communicate universally. Otherwise, ‘I’ would be more like ‘ah’, ‘was’ more like ‘wis’, and so on. True Scots voices, when written with great naturalism, is a pleasure. Read samples here: http://www.ayecan.com/read_scots.html
Words and phrases Shayla may use:
auld = old
bairn = infant
belter = great
blootered = very drunk
bonnie = pretty
braw = (compliment on looks and merit) very nice, great
brither = brother
cannae = cannot
chib = knife or razor used as a weapon
dinnae = did not
ehm = um
fash = fuss
fayther, or paw = father
gie = give
gi’ed (more correctly, gied) = (gived) gave
hen = term of endearment; though Shayla says “chick” where Nico is concerned.
Is that you? = Are you done?
ken = know
magic = great
manky = dirty
mither, or mum, or ma (maw—“mahw”—is presently more an insult) = mother
pure = very (as in, “that book was pure quality”)
quality = great
shairp = sharp
skelp = hit or smack someone or thing
skunnurt = disgusted
stoater = really exceptional
tae = to
telt = told
that’s me = I’m done
the morra = tomorrow
wean = child
wee = little
wheesht/wissht = be quiet, hush
ya = you (informal when addressing someone, as in, “ya idiot”)
ye = you (common use)
Gender:
Gender perception is rapidly changing presently, mostly because general culture is becoming aware (again) of identities beyond the usual two. Historically, some cultures already understood gender outside of the two accepted ones. There are several gender-neutral pronoun sets, and I chose the Elverson pronouns (1975) ey, eir, em, where dropping the th makes writing easier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-neutral_pronouns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun
Nico’s music:
“Last Exit for the Lost,” by Fields of the Nephilim, 1988.
“This Corrosion,” by Sisters of Mercy, the long version, 1987.
“Lords of the Null-Lines” by Hyper On Experience (Alex Banks, Danny Demierre). The original 1993 version is what Nico listens to, with the entire original sampling intact. https://youtu.be/tbLCAIkunL4
Symbolism of the null-line:
For an explanation of the null line, you can refer to p390 of The Einstein Equations and the Large Scale Behavior of Gravitational Fields: 50 Years of the Cauchy Problem in General Relativity, by Piotr T. Chrusciel and Helmut Felix Friedrich, published by Birkhäuser, 2004 (view the book at Google Books: http://bit.ly/1dFODYQ) quote:
&
nbsp; “...a null line in space-time is defined to be an inextendible null geodesic which is globally achronal, i.e., for which no two points can be joined by a timelike curve.”
It then goes on to say:
“All of the null geodesics in Minkowski space, de Sitter space and anti-de Sitter space are null lines. The null generators of the event horizon in extended Schwarzschild space-time are null lines.”
Or, you can refer to Alex Banks’s proto-mystical explanation here: http://www.discogs.com/Hyper-On-Experience-Lords-Of-The-Null-Lines-The-Extremely-Bootlegged-Remixes/release/31712
Which begins:
“A Null Line is the path of a light ray or other massless object through space-time.
The consequences of this statement are both fascinating and frightening. To understand why, we must first consider what happens to a particle at light speed.
Albert Einstein said in his theory of relativity that an object travelling at the speed of light is not effected [sic] by time, that is to say it does not experience time. Something that does not experience time takes no time to travel any distance. Although we may observe a particle of light (called a photon) travelling a set distance in a measured time, the particle itself has not aged.”
It then goes on to give a metaphysical explanation of the universe.
The corridor demons:
This is in reference to Johannes Kepler’s book, Somnium, published 1634.
Lone Nico and Bear:
When Specs calls Nico, “Lone Nico and Bear”, he’s referring to Lone Wolf and Cub, a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima.
“Okay, let’s screw this up”:
When Jacqueline Kim performed at Xena Con 2015, she would say this before each song. An audience member asked if her saying it was akin to “break a leg”, which was possibly the spirit of the line.
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