Lamprolign
First Post
034
"Red eyes," Gabe muttered. The rhythmic sway of the last Blue Line run to Rosemont lulled him into the murk between slumber and waking.
"I told you it was a vampire."
Gabe opened his eyes and stared at the metal ceiling above. I was well on my way to a nap, Mary. Dark forces.... His eyes wandered to the large windows, street lights beside the track dissolved into glowing trails as the train slipped past. Well, at least we know it wasn't your chum, wrong hair color.
"Poe's really a good person, Gabe. Why can't you two get along better?"
"I don't know, oil and water I guess," his voice sounded odd, echoing in the empty train car. "I need to talk to her again though."
"Just because she's a vampire doesn't mean she'll automatically know something."
"I'm not saying she does, but I have no idea what a vampire is capable of."
"Well, you can forget most of the stuff from the movies."
****
"Are you certain child?"
Poe craned her neck to make eye contact with the giant walking beside her. "The cops have four bloodless bodies with their hearts ripped out. Her gaze dropped to the rough concrete floor on which she trod. "So yeah, I'm certain."
Kifaru continued in silence to the wall opposite the entrance and passed through a narrow door concealed in shadows. Inside, under a pool of flickering fluorescent light, sat a small round table with four wooden chairs. Three Alice Cooper concert posters, barely visible through decades' worth of grime, hung on the nearest wall. Poe lowered herself into one of the chairs. She placed her elbows on the scratched tabletop and rested her forehead in her hands.
"I will kill her." Her voice was muffled, as if reluctant to pass the cascade of dark hair that draped to the table.
"If it is Mara, she has not returned without a reason." Kifaru regarded Poe solemnly. "She will not be so easy to kill."
"She can't be allowed to continue..."
"Are you certain that is what moves you?"
"Yes...! no, I don't know..." her voice trailed off.
Kifaru reached out and cupped Poe's chin in his hand. "You were saved from the madness. Do you not think that she deserves the same chance?"
"What chance did she give me?!" Poe stood, violently pulling away, sending her chair skidding across the floor. "She's past redemption!"
"Even then she was confounded."
"She knew what she was doing! She knew what they meant to me!"
"Her passions consumed her, Poe. Do not let the same happen to you."
"Will you help me or not?"
Many silent moments passed before he responded. "Yes."
****
Uncertain light, loath to resist the gloom, flickered through the expanse of the old gymnasium. Skittering shuffles echoed through the rafters as several ghouls moved quickly away from the main door. Karin looked up from the moldering tome that lay before her. A grimace of irritation gave way to carefully composed neutrality when she sensed the source of the ghoul's agitation.
"I see you have found a new home," a deep voice rumbled from the shadows, "and it is a decided improvement over your previous accommodations."
Karin did not move as the voice's owner came into sight. His shoulders barely fit through the door, the dark gray hat atop his head brushed the doorframe. He wore a long gray coat, and the two trunk-like legs that supported the giant were clad in light gray trousers and ended in black oxford shoes.
"Nice of you to notice, Travis," she pushed an errant strand of dark hair behind her ear, "but I'm sure that you aren't here merely to compliment my décor."
"Astute as ever, I think that is why Amicia favors you so." He smiled and shifted his hat revealing chiseled features and a long scar that ran from chin to scalp. "She is concerned by your recent progress, and most of all, your previous employer's loss of the child."
Karin stood. The polished stone table between her and the man seemed flimsy shelter. "I can do nothing for the past, only work for the present. I have someone on the inside."
"Yes, the boy, Joshua," the man's cold gaze drifted from the book on the table to rest solidly on her. "Your choice in servants is somewhat questionable, he is too unpredictable."
"He'll do as he is told."
"I trust that you will see to it."
"He knows his place."
Travis moved a step closer to the table. "That matter is in your hands, but it was not that alone that prompted my visit tonight. One of the Vrykolakas has been overly active of late, and very indiscreet. She may complicate our machinations."
"She is part of those machinations, she and the Sister's pet have a history that we can exploit."
"I know of their history, but a deranged Vrykolakas is no ghoul to be commanded by craft."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Enticing Mara back to Chicago was ill-advised. She draws far too much attention to her activities, both from authorities, and the Haven." Travis placed ham sized fists on the table and leaned forward. "Amicia has a great deal of faith in your abilities. I do not. If you fail a second time..."
****
Gabe sat quietly contemplating the scuffs and scratches on the train's black rubber flooring. He scarcely noticed the recorded voice announcing California Avenue as the next stop. Instinctively he leaned toward the rear of the train, anticipating the deceleration as they entered the station. The voice announced the stop again as the familiar whine of the brakes slowing several tons of steel grew in volume. The sound faltered and distorted. Are the brakes failing?
Asphalt replaced rubber under his feet. The clacking of the train was replaced by sounds of distant traffic. The Kennedy Expressway, he thought. Gabe looked around quickly. He could see the lights of the California station a hundred yards to his left. The elevated tracks of the Blue Line were directly over his head, but no train disturbed the night. He looked left. Mary's white hair shone a dull orange in light from sodium vapor lamps mounted on the underside of the track.
A young man with a stubbly jaw and long brown hair pulled back tightly behind his head walked quickly towards them. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his battered military field coat. Nervously he glanced over his shoulder, and then looked toward the station lights. A small smile brightened his otherwise grim countenance. His pace quickened. He was only a few yards from them now.
Waves of fierce emotion crashed through Gabe's mind, hunger; rage; exhilaration. He saw the man momentarily surrounded in a ochre hued aura. As quickly as it came, the tide of foreign emotions ebbed. His vision was obscured. He stumbled back. At first he thought Mary in front of him, but the woman he saw was much taller. The young man stood stock still, his face ashen beneath the cold lights.
"Sanguis cor vanire ex corpus," the woman spoke.
Face contorted in paroxysms of agony, he was lifted above the ground. His limbs and head forced back and chest thrown forward. The woman extended her hand and a gaping hole opened in his chest. An amoebic mass of gore hemorrhaged into the night air, orbiting the still-beating heart. It shimmered in the light and slowly grew with luminescence of its own. The heart dissolved into the now glowing mass as it elongated and split into multiple tendrils, encircling the woman. She spread her arms wide and the phosphorescent coil eddied around her. The light imploded, vanishing in a shower of fine ash that quickly dissipated in the wind.
Mary grabbed to Gabe's coat sleeve and stepped close beside him. "I've never seen anything like that," she whispered.
"No shi..." Gabe's words fell silent when woman turned and looked directly at them.
He was back in the train car. Gabe grabbed seat beside him, the world was tilting dangerously beneath him. The train doors hissed and began to close.
"
!" He jumped towards the quickly diminishing opening. The doors slammed shut as his foot cleared. He landed badly on the concrete platform, but managed to roll to his feet. Still dazed, he spun in a circle. "Which way!?"
"To your left. No! Your other left!" Mary's voice cleared his muddled thoughts.
Gabe pelted down the staircase and onto the street below. He could see the place, and a lump lying at the edge of the light. He skidded to a halt beside the body. It was positioned such that the crater in the chest was clearly visible. A small tendril of steam rose from the still-warm wound.
"I think we should..." Mary's words were cut short when Gabe registered the sharp prickling of his neck hair standing on end. He spun one-eighty and came face to face with a pair of red eyes framed by snow-colored hair.
© 2004, Austin Hale
"Red eyes," Gabe muttered. The rhythmic sway of the last Blue Line run to Rosemont lulled him into the murk between slumber and waking.
"I told you it was a vampire."
Gabe opened his eyes and stared at the metal ceiling above. I was well on my way to a nap, Mary. Dark forces.... His eyes wandered to the large windows, street lights beside the track dissolved into glowing trails as the train slipped past. Well, at least we know it wasn't your chum, wrong hair color.
"Poe's really a good person, Gabe. Why can't you two get along better?"
"I don't know, oil and water I guess," his voice sounded odd, echoing in the empty train car. "I need to talk to her again though."
"Just because she's a vampire doesn't mean she'll automatically know something."
"I'm not saying she does, but I have no idea what a vampire is capable of."
"Well, you can forget most of the stuff from the movies."
****
"Are you certain child?"
Poe craned her neck to make eye contact with the giant walking beside her. "The cops have four bloodless bodies with their hearts ripped out. Her gaze dropped to the rough concrete floor on which she trod. "So yeah, I'm certain."
Kifaru continued in silence to the wall opposite the entrance and passed through a narrow door concealed in shadows. Inside, under a pool of flickering fluorescent light, sat a small round table with four wooden chairs. Three Alice Cooper concert posters, barely visible through decades' worth of grime, hung on the nearest wall. Poe lowered herself into one of the chairs. She placed her elbows on the scratched tabletop and rested her forehead in her hands.
"I will kill her." Her voice was muffled, as if reluctant to pass the cascade of dark hair that draped to the table.
"If it is Mara, she has not returned without a reason." Kifaru regarded Poe solemnly. "She will not be so easy to kill."
"She can't be allowed to continue..."
"Are you certain that is what moves you?"
"Yes...! no, I don't know..." her voice trailed off.
Kifaru reached out and cupped Poe's chin in his hand. "You were saved from the madness. Do you not think that she deserves the same chance?"
"What chance did she give me?!" Poe stood, violently pulling away, sending her chair skidding across the floor. "She's past redemption!"
"Even then she was confounded."
"She knew what she was doing! She knew what they meant to me!"
"Her passions consumed her, Poe. Do not let the same happen to you."
"Will you help me or not?"
Many silent moments passed before he responded. "Yes."
****
Uncertain light, loath to resist the gloom, flickered through the expanse of the old gymnasium. Skittering shuffles echoed through the rafters as several ghouls moved quickly away from the main door. Karin looked up from the moldering tome that lay before her. A grimace of irritation gave way to carefully composed neutrality when she sensed the source of the ghoul's agitation.
"I see you have found a new home," a deep voice rumbled from the shadows, "and it is a decided improvement over your previous accommodations."
Karin did not move as the voice's owner came into sight. His shoulders barely fit through the door, the dark gray hat atop his head brushed the doorframe. He wore a long gray coat, and the two trunk-like legs that supported the giant were clad in light gray trousers and ended in black oxford shoes.
"Nice of you to notice, Travis," she pushed an errant strand of dark hair behind her ear, "but I'm sure that you aren't here merely to compliment my décor."
"Astute as ever, I think that is why Amicia favors you so." He smiled and shifted his hat revealing chiseled features and a long scar that ran from chin to scalp. "She is concerned by your recent progress, and most of all, your previous employer's loss of the child."
Karin stood. The polished stone table between her and the man seemed flimsy shelter. "I can do nothing for the past, only work for the present. I have someone on the inside."
"Yes, the boy, Joshua," the man's cold gaze drifted from the book on the table to rest solidly on her. "Your choice in servants is somewhat questionable, he is too unpredictable."
"He'll do as he is told."
"I trust that you will see to it."
"He knows his place."
Travis moved a step closer to the table. "That matter is in your hands, but it was not that alone that prompted my visit tonight. One of the Vrykolakas has been overly active of late, and very indiscreet. She may complicate our machinations."
"She is part of those machinations, she and the Sister's pet have a history that we can exploit."
"I know of their history, but a deranged Vrykolakas is no ghoul to be commanded by craft."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Enticing Mara back to Chicago was ill-advised. She draws far too much attention to her activities, both from authorities, and the Haven." Travis placed ham sized fists on the table and leaned forward. "Amicia has a great deal of faith in your abilities. I do not. If you fail a second time..."
****
Gabe sat quietly contemplating the scuffs and scratches on the train's black rubber flooring. He scarcely noticed the recorded voice announcing California Avenue as the next stop. Instinctively he leaned toward the rear of the train, anticipating the deceleration as they entered the station. The voice announced the stop again as the familiar whine of the brakes slowing several tons of steel grew in volume. The sound faltered and distorted. Are the brakes failing?
Asphalt replaced rubber under his feet. The clacking of the train was replaced by sounds of distant traffic. The Kennedy Expressway, he thought. Gabe looked around quickly. He could see the lights of the California station a hundred yards to his left. The elevated tracks of the Blue Line were directly over his head, but no train disturbed the night. He looked left. Mary's white hair shone a dull orange in light from sodium vapor lamps mounted on the underside of the track.
A young man with a stubbly jaw and long brown hair pulled back tightly behind his head walked quickly towards them. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his battered military field coat. Nervously he glanced over his shoulder, and then looked toward the station lights. A small smile brightened his otherwise grim countenance. His pace quickened. He was only a few yards from them now.
Waves of fierce emotion crashed through Gabe's mind, hunger; rage; exhilaration. He saw the man momentarily surrounded in a ochre hued aura. As quickly as it came, the tide of foreign emotions ebbed. His vision was obscured. He stumbled back. At first he thought Mary in front of him, but the woman he saw was much taller. The young man stood stock still, his face ashen beneath the cold lights.
"Sanguis cor vanire ex corpus," the woman spoke.
Face contorted in paroxysms of agony, he was lifted above the ground. His limbs and head forced back and chest thrown forward. The woman extended her hand and a gaping hole opened in his chest. An amoebic mass of gore hemorrhaged into the night air, orbiting the still-beating heart. It shimmered in the light and slowly grew with luminescence of its own. The heart dissolved into the now glowing mass as it elongated and split into multiple tendrils, encircling the woman. She spread her arms wide and the phosphorescent coil eddied around her. The light imploded, vanishing in a shower of fine ash that quickly dissipated in the wind.
Mary grabbed to Gabe's coat sleeve and stepped close beside him. "I've never seen anything like that," she whispered.
"No shi..." Gabe's words fell silent when woman turned and looked directly at them.
He was back in the train car. Gabe grabbed seat beside him, the world was tilting dangerously beneath him. The train doors hissed and began to close.
"
!" He jumped towards the quickly diminishing opening. The doors slammed shut as his foot cleared. He landed badly on the concrete platform, but managed to roll to his feet. Still dazed, he spun in a circle. "Which way!?""To your left. No! Your other left!" Mary's voice cleared his muddled thoughts.
Gabe pelted down the staircase and onto the street below. He could see the place, and a lump lying at the edge of the light. He skidded to a halt beside the body. It was positioned such that the crater in the chest was clearly visible. A small tendril of steam rose from the still-warm wound.
"I think we should..." Mary's words were cut short when Gabe registered the sharp prickling of his neck hair standing on end. He spun one-eighty and came face to face with a pair of red eyes framed by snow-colored hair.
© 2004, Austin Hale
