Morbius

by Brendan Deneen

  But then graduation had happened, and the unraveling of that bond. Amanda and her family moved across the country. The two of them would sometimes see each other at holidays, and laugh that their lives had gotten so crazy, promised that they would be better, but then the time between communication would grow longer and longer, until it was like they had never known each other at all.

  Liz had regretted the death of their friendship, found herself thinking about Amanda much of the time, but her life was such that she hadn’t been able to dwell on it. She’d become busy bartending most nights and auditioning for off-off-off-Broadway plays and bad student films during the day.

  She’d come close to being “discovered” once, had been approached one night after a play she’d directed and starred in. A guy in a nice suit carrying a business card emblazoned with an agency name she recognized, the kind of company that represented major stars. He’d told her to call him, which she did three days later… didn’t want to seem too desperate.

  But she never heard back. Maybe she had waited too long. She eventually convinced herself that she had definitely waited too long. Liz called a couple more times, but it didn’t matter. He’d clearly forgotten about her, or had never been all that serious about connecting with her in the first place. Since then, the jobs had been sporadic at best, and she wondered what the hell she was even doing with her life.

  Then there was her dad.

  He’d helped her out so much over the years, lending her money when she needed it, but now he was sick. Really sick, and the medicine he needed was expensive. He was a proud man, too proud, but she knew he was in trouble. He’d lost so much weight in recent weeks, and his skin was so thin, like paper. She told him he should move in with her, that she was between roommates and had extra space, could help take care of him, but he refused and scoffed at her concern. He was fine, he insisted. Just going through a bad spell. The medicine would work, and then he could get back to hunting for a job.

  Tears appeared in her eyes. Liz wiped them away and laughed at herself. She had an audition in a few hours, and didn’t want to look puffy or depressed. It didn’t take much for a casting director to move on to the actor behind you.

  As Liz headed to the sink, the apartment door opened and Amanda trudged in, wearing her hospital scrubs. Liz smiled. Even though things were weird—to say the least—with Amanda and Morbius staying there, it was still a thrill every day for Liz to see her best friend.

  Or whatever they were now.

  “Hey,” she said and a smile crossed Amanda’s face, too, even though she looked exhausted.

  “Hey there,” Amanda replied, walking over to the table and slumping down into the seat Liz had just been occupying. “Is that coffee? It smells—”

  Before Amanda could finish her sentence, Liz placed a steaming cup in front of her friend. Amanda’s entire body appeared to relax as she leaned over the aromatic steam.

  “Oh my god,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Of course,” Liz replied, mussing her estranged friend’s hair, something she used to do back in high school. Amanda smiled and then took a long sip of the coffee, her eyes shut in apparent ecstasy. Liz sat down across from her and just watched her for a minute. She’d missed this.

  “Is he…?” Amanda said, her eyes still closed, nodding toward the small room with the closed door.

  “Yeah,” Liz answered. “Came in a few minutes before you.”

  “Hm.” Amanda opened her eyes and put the coffee down on the table. “I wonder if he…”

  The two women stared at each other for a long moment.

  “Attacked someone, murdered them, and drank their blood?” Liz finished for her in a monotone voice. Silence hung heavy for a minute and then the two women burst out laughing.

  “It’s not funny!” Amanda blurted.

  “I know it isn’t,” Liz answered, and the two continued to laugh until it finally died down. Amanda chugged the rest of her coffee. It was still hot, and she waved her hand around her throat, as if that would help.

  “Whoah,” Liz said, her eyes wide.

  “Ha, yeah, guess I needed the caffeine. It was a long night. Hell, it’s been a long month.”

  “I know it has,” Liz responded. “Anything new on finding your mom? Or your dad?” She still couldn’t quite fathom everything that had happened to her friend.

  Amanda released a long sigh, as if she’d been holding it in for hours, if not days.

  “No. I mean, there was that note Morbius and I found back in Maine, telling us to go to Nevada, but I don’t exactly trust it after everything we went through. I’m still reaching out to people who knew them… to people who may have been involved with Demon-Fire back in San Francisco, or Maine, or here in New York. But when I do, they either deny having any information or hang up on me as soon as I mention the cult. They sound so… scared when I even bring it up.”

  “Well, from what you told me, the people in that cult are pretty scary.”

  Liz’s eyes wandered to a nearby window. From where she sat, she could just make out a sliver of sky above the top of the building next door. The dark gray rainclouds were moving on, making way for a radiant blue and a quickly rising November sun. The dichotomy, split almost evenly through the glass, was beautiful, but she found herself having trouble appreciating it.

  “Yeah… that’s an understatement,” Amanda said finally, dreamily, also watching the blue overtake the full slab of sky that was visible. “I don’t think I’ll ever get the stench of that giant spider out of my nose… or the sight of its gaping mouth… those fangs… out of my head.”

  “I still can’t believe that guy Justin was part of it all along,” Liz said. “And your sister! I… I thought I knew Catherine. Can only imagine how painful it was. That cult, the way you’ve described it, is pure evil. I know I’ve already said it, but I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m just surprised…”

  Amanda pulled her eyes away from the window and looked at her friend. Liz’s face was scrunched up as she searched for her next words.

  “Surprised what?”

  “I’m just…” Liz said haltingly, then blurted, “…surprised that you’d keep going… keep hunting for your mom and dad, after everything that’s happened. If I were you, part of me would just want to run away and find a place to hide and never look back.”

  Amanda let out a laugh that contained no humor whatsoever.

  “Trust me, I’ve thought about it,” she said, “but I… I have to find my parents. Even if they’re already dead, or a part of the cult. Even if it kills me, I can’t just let them go. I love them too much to just abandon them. You know?”

  “Yeah… I know,” Liz responded, smiling sadly at her friend. “I’d do the same for my dad.”

  A long moment passed as they stared at each other, the sounds of an awakening New York City rising up to greet them. Cabbies laying on their horns, cops rushing to their destinations with sirens wailing, locals grumpily pushing their way past starry-eyed tourists.

  “What a world,” Amanda said finally.

  “Seriously,” Liz concurred, “but at least we get to see Thor fly by every once in a while.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes at her friend.

  “I mean, have you seen his hammer?”

  A spurt of laughter burst out of Amanda’s mouth, followed by deep guffaws, and then she was laughing so hard that she could barely catch her breath. Liz couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her friend laugh so hard.

  “You are the worst,” Amanda said, wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “Yep,” Liz replied, sitting back in her chair. “And that’s why you love me.”

  Amanda adjusted in her seat, as if something was poking her in the side. She reached into her jacket’s inner pockets and pulled out the two packets of blood, dropping them down onto the table with an audible slap.

  “Gross,” Liz said, even though she’d been expecting it. She said the same thing every time Amanda came home
and revealed her stolen goods.

  As if in response, the door behind her opened.

  Violently.

  Liz stiffened immediately, all the mirth in the room dissipating in an instant. She could feel the vampire walking toward them, even though she didn’t hear a thing. His ability to remain silent like that might have been the most frightening thing about him. She closed her eyes.

  When she reopened them, Morbius was standing next to the table, staring down at the packets with a look of dissatisfaction on his face.

  “Only two?” he growled.

  Amanda’s expression went as dark as his, and Liz held her breath. Her two houseguests had a contentious relationship, to say the least, which would have been bad enough if they’d both been… you know… human.

  “I’m doing the best I can, Michael,” Amanda said sharply, staring daggers up into his pale face. In response, he grunted and grabbed one of the containers. Liz tried to will herself to look away, but she couldn’t resist. It was like watching a car crash. She didn’t want to see the monster feed, not really, but it was as fascinating as it was stomach-churning.

  Morbius held the packet almost gingerly, staring at it with excitement despite his earlier words and attitude. He slowly raised it up and sunk his long fangs into it, through the plastic sheathe and into the plasma within. The gentle slurping sounds were almost as unnerving as watching the vampire’s throat trembling as he chugged the dark red fluid.

  When it was empty, he dropped the container back onto the table, drops of blood leaking out, and quickly grabbed the other, sucking it down just as quickly.

  Liz made eye contact with Amanda and her friend opened her eyes a little wider, as if to say, This is nothing compared to the things I’ve seen. Liz nodded, wishing she had the courage to get up and walk away from the table. Before she could even process the thought, Morbius dropped the second packet as well. Empty. Both sat on the table, slightly crumpled, twin holes in the skin of each with the drops of blood still oozing out.

  Swallowing down nausea, Liz looked up at Morbius.

  The vampire’s eyes were closed, head raised up to face the ceiling. From her angle, he looked almost peaceful, and Liz wondered if perhaps she was being too judgmental, too harsh about this haunted figure. Based on what Amanda had told her, despite everything that he’d done, the man had suffered through his own share of tragedy.

  But then his huge eyes sprang open and found hers, and she recoiled. Any sympathy she felt instantly washed away as he wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and strode back toward the extra bedroom.

  “Anything you’d like to say?” Amanda called out after him.

  He stopped at the door, his clawed hand resting on the handle.

  “I need more,” he said, almost a whisper, and then he disappeared into the room. Amanda shook her head and looked over at her best friend, picking up the coffee cup in front of her.

  “I was hoping for a ‘thank you,’” Amanda said, staring at the bottom of the cup for a long moment, and then letting out an exhausted sigh. She looked up again, her eyes dark. “But what do you expect from a vampire?”

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE HOSPITAL was quiet. Very quiet.

  Amanda walked down a hallway, pushing a mop and a bucket of water. Her job tonight was to clean up the floors in the southeast wing, a part of the hospital that had been under construction for months following some kind of super-powered battle, but was reopening shortly. She had never been down here and was unnerved by how silent it was. Even the car horns and sirens out on the street echoed softly in the distance.

  The overhead fluorescent lights blinked on and off.

  Apparently those needed fixing, too.

  She stopped and pulled the mop out of the dirty water, cleaning the next section of floor. The peacefulness should have been nice, but too much had happened to Amanda recently for her to really enjoy it.

  In the couple of weeks she’d been working here, she was almost always surrounded by people, something that had taken some getting used to after being on the road with just Morbius, but she had started to like it. She’d forgotten how much she enjoyed the company of others. An easy thing to forget after all the betrayal she’d suffered. Her mother. Her sister. Justin. It was almost too much to contemplate.

  Amanda shook her head against these thoughts and focused instead on the burgeoning strength she had begun to find in herself, as a result. On the odd friendship she had with Michael. It was far from normal but, in many ways, it was the most stable thing in her life right now. She laughed at that thought and continued mopping.

  The lights continued to flicker overhead and then went out altogether. The blackness was absolute.

  The breath caught in Amanda’s throat. She had always been afraid of the dark, going as far back as her childhood. Amanda would awake screaming from a nightmare, the darkness closing in around her, only to find a room just as dark. Her mom would come into her room, would push the hair back from her sweaty forehead and tell her that it was okay, that everything was going to be okay. She would sing quietly until Amanda slowly drifted back into unconsciousness.

  What had happened to that woman? When had that person turned into someone who would run away and join a murderous cult? Yes, her parents’ relationship had grown strained over the years, but her mom’s abandonment of the family was still shocking.

  Amanda’s fingers tightened on the wooden mop handle. She could feel the splinters pushing into her skin, but she ignored the pain, her eyes attempting desperately to see through the pitch blackness. There were no windows in this stretch of hallway and all the doors were closed due to the construction, the glass covered with yellowing newspaper.

  A noise reached her from the end of the hallway. A skittering, and was that… laughter?

  “Hello…?” she called out, her voice breaking slightly.

  “Hello…” a voice replied… or was it her own echo? She wasn’t sure, but she could feel the hairs on her arms standing on end. She took a step forward and then stopped. The laughter sounded again and the lights flickered for a second.

  At the end of the hallway, a woman stood against the far wall, staring at Amanda. She had a sick smile on her face.

  It was her sister. Catherine.

  Her dead sister.

  It can’t be.

  The lights went off again and a rushing noise filled the space, seemed to swell in the air around Amanda, and she held up her hands to stave it off. Terror rose up from her stomach and filled her lungs, the mop handle slapping down onto the ground loudly, and she almost screamed.

  Then the lights came back on, nearly blinding her with their brightness.

  The hallway was empty. She was alone.

  “The hell…?” she whispered. “I’m losing my mind.”

  Amanda laughed at herself, secretly hoping the laughter would quell the fear. She leaned down to pick up the mop, then nearly cried out when she saw a pair of shiny black shoes.

  Looking behind her, she saw a man wearing a security uniform.

  “Jesus, Jerry, you scared the crap out of me,” Amanda croaked, but she smiled and stood up straight. They’d become friendly since she started, and she made sure to always bring him a cup of coffee before her shift started. In return, he’d give her inside info about the hospital, like the details she needed about the Pathology section.

  Her smile faded as she took in Jerry’s demeanor. His arms were folded across his chest and his mouth was a straight line beneath his mustache. His eyes were dark and serious.

  “Come on,” he said without warmth. “Boss Man wants to see you.”

  * * *

  “YOU’RE FIRED.”

  Amanda stared at the man sitting behind the desk. She tried to remain calm, even though she could feel the sweat breaking out all across her body. She had only been working at the hospital for a little while, but she had come to like the job, even if she’d originally taken it to help Morbius. She had made some friends, was
learning about medicine, and had even thought about maybe going to nursing school someday.

  “What…? Why?”

  She knew exactly why.

  “This meeting gives me no pleasure,” he said through pursed lips. The nameplate on the desk said Matthew Costello, but he had instructed her to call him Matt when they’d met at her initial interview. The job was “only” a custodial position, but Matt had said that it could lead to bigger things, that she seemed bright and that this hospital—unlike Downtown Medical—often promoted from within. If Amanda could eke out six months or a year as a custodian, they might even help pay for classes.

  That was all gone now.

  “I like you, Amanda,” he said. “I really do, and I had high hopes, but we do not tolerate theft at this hospital. Did you really think we wouldn’t notice? I’m just chagrined that it took us this long. Our resources are stretched too thin, and this kind of thing does nothing to alleviate that situation.”

  “I… I can explain,” she stuttered.

  “What were you even doing with the plasma? Selling it?” he probed, confusion wrinkling his face. “I can’t imagine it would fetch all that much. Why risk your job for so little reward? I’m genuinely baffled, Amanda.”

  “I was… I was saving lives,” she said. She knew it made no sense but she thought it was important to say it. It was the truth.

  Matt continued to stare at her with that confused look. Finally, he spoke.

  “You’re just lucky I’m not pressing charges,” he responded. “Like I said, I’m fond of you. I’m so disappointed, but I don’t think you’re a bad person. Desperate maybe, but not bad. I just hope you’ll make better choices in the future.”

  “Matt, can I—?”

  “Jerry will see you out. You can collect your personal items from your locker, and you won’t be welcome back to this hospital. If you ever require medical attention, I hope you’ll avail yourself of Downtown Medical’s services… though I hate to give them any business.”