Post by Katastrophe St. John on Nov 30, 2008 19:20:08 GMT -7
((Quick note: This was originally a thing I had posted on the RBC Yahoo group, but it's much easier to do a monologue thing here where the threads won't get lost. Here are the first two parts I had posted plus a little more. I will add on as I have the time, but bear in mind that this timeline doesn't mesh at all with the present, more of something that happened a while back. Enjoy!))
It had been eight months since I became a vampire. My life had changed in ways I could only have dreamed about, or just as equally had nightmares about.
I felt as if time had allowed me to forget my former life, though it was only a façade. Whenever I had a quiet moment alone, my thoughts would drift to my dead husband and son. I wondered if they passed on and went to heaven as I had always believed they would one day, just not so soon. Becoming a vampire meant that this world was not at all what it seemed. The things of myth and legend were daily becoming all too real.
But now, it was time to revisit the past, time to discover what had happened to the things surrounding that life. To put my mind at ease.
I teleported to Austin, Texas.
It was raining, how appropriate, I remembered thinking. I materialized downtown in a dark, nondescript corner of the parking garage of the main police station. Located at I-35 and 8th Street, it was appropriately close to the city's hub for nightlife: 6th Street and The Warehouse District. Home to more than four local colleges as well as being the capital of Texas, this area of Austin was always packed solid with clubbers out looking for a good time. This was not what I was after.
I was dressed conservatively in khaki slacks and a white button-up blouse with short, black heels. My hair was gathered up on my head in a twist, held together by a black clip, I had also donned a pair of black reading glasses, though my eyesight was perfectly fine. I felt a bit like Clark Kent as I strode confidently out of the shadows and toward a patrol car whose engine had just shut off. Perfect.
"Good evening," I said, clearly startling the tall, blonde woman as my movements had gone unnoticed. "How are you?" My pleasantries were only a ruse to allow me to get close enough to try a trick I had learned from my husband. My ultimate goal was her access card to the building.
"Oh… uh, I'm fine Ms..," she stammered, appraising me with a careful eye. She likely thought me to be an attorney, but certainly no one she should be too cautious around. Excellent.
"Blanton, ADA Blanton," I didn't hesitate as I gave her my mother's maiden name. "I'm here to see the ME about a case I'm working." All the while, I continued to walk closer as she remained practically
frozen in place. "It's good to see you again, Lieutenant Holte." I flashed her a dazzling smile, careful to keep the tips of my fangs hidden from sight behind my lower lip.
"Yes, ADA Blanton, of course, I remember you now," I could sense her hesitation, but having spent enough time down here as a teenager from the work both my parents did, I knew how crazy it could get. The probability of her crossing paths with an ADA she wouldn't remember was pretty high.
I barely let her finish speaking before I raised my hand to touch her forehead. My eyes closed as I reached into her thoughts, sending her into a trance-like state as I pulled every memory of our encounter from her mind. I opened my eyes to find her eerily frozen and statuesque. Humans simply weren't capable of such stillness normally. My hand slipped into her pocket to grab the card I sought, just as a caught a whiff of her alluring scent, glad that I had sated my animalistic desires to feed long before I had started off on such a mission. Just the same, I allowed myself to linger at her neck as I
whispered into her ear.
"You never saw me this night, and if you see me again, you won't remember who I am," I spoke low, but clear. She seemed to mumble the words back to me. "Five minutes from now, you will go back to your duties, unaware that anything is out of sorts."
Satisfied, I left her and headed to the elevators that led directly into the police station. I cracked my knuckles nervously as I waited for the doors to open.
Once inside the elevator, I had to slide the card through to access the floor I wanted, the basement. I had been there countless times, ME Klein, better known to me as Steve, was a long time friend of my parents. And he had been there for me after they were killed in the small plane crash after a typical business trips to D.C. He had helped me settle their estate and get all of their affairs in order while I still tried to attend college, pretending that I was fine, losing myself to my studies to forget all that I had lost. Thinking back on that moment, it was hard to imagine that it was only the beginning of my losses to come.
The elevator slowed and the muted ding signaled the opening of the steel gray doors. I stepped into the hallway, looking both left and right. No one appeared to be around. Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly had I called in a bomb scare targeting the mayor’s office in an effort to empty the station. The hallway seemed to go on forever in both directions, reminding me of the movie Labyrinth, only there was an obvious door here and there.
As my shoes made contact with the floor, my pace and the noise were like a metronome keeping the time until I reached the third door on the left. Again, there was another place to swipe an access card. I quickly ran the card through, only to have it make an unhappy noise that echoed with non-acceptance. This wasn’t something I had accounted for, and I wasn’t a lock-picker.
“That card won’t work, hon,” a man’s voice said, startling me. The fact that I hadn’t heard anyone approaching unnerved me. Humans were always easy to track. “Only detectives’ cards and mine are granted access.”
I turned to find Steve staring pleasantly back at me. He was not at all shocked to see me, which only added to my confusion. I had assumed my presence after such a long time would be a shock, at the very least. I also assumed that since my husband and son were found dead with no trace of me, that I’d be wanted for murder, or at the very least, questioning.
I asked the first of many questions on my mind. “What are you?”
His easy laughter bellowed down the hallway. “Oh please, Kathryn, —“it was the first time someone had used my human name in so long “—you think you’re the only vampire on the planet or something?”
He knew what I was.
“So that’s how you were able to sneak up on me,” I said, a smirk playing on my lips. “I should’ve known.” I laughed too, then, and it was as if a huge shroud had been lifted between us that I hadn’t known existed. I guess I knew that vampires could be anywhere, but it never occurred to me that Austin would be home to any, even less that I might actually already know one… or maybe more. Of course, now that I knew the truth about Steve, that only brought about more puzzling questions, but they would have to wait.
He looked the same. Kind, tired eyes—vampire eyes, brown hair with blended gray that was thinning on top, and wire-framed glasses. He was broad in the shoulders, and was built much like Arias, tall and muscular, but all of it was mostly hidden under the lab coat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his access card. The little machine made a happier noise this time and granted us both entrance to his office.
Once the door closed behind us both, he walked with unmistakable vampire grace to sit in a squeaky, rolling chair behind an old, gray, military-style desk. He pulled open a drawer and took out a flask and two small shot glasses.
“It’s not often I have the opportunity to offer someone a drink,” he said, pouring a thick, dark red liquid into the two glasses. “But I’m sure you won’t be repulsed by it as most of my visitors would be.” He recapped the flask, flashed me a crooked smile, and gently nudged one of the glasses towards me.
I finally unglued my feet from the floor and settled into the ugly, but comfortable brown chair across from him. “Thank you,” I said, taking a whiff before drinking the shot. AB positive. I set the empty glass back down and crossed my legs as I leaned back into the chair. “Why aren’t you so shocked to see me as a vampire, Steve?” Of course, I wondered if he had had something to do with the death of my previous husband and my son, but I’d known him far too long. He was a friend, not someone to cause me grief after what had happened with my parents.
“Oh, why don’t we cut to the chase, shall we?” He wheeled the chair around and rifled through the lowest drawer of the filing cabinet behind him. Turning back to me, he casually tossed a file in my direction. The tab on the file read “Vinson”.
My jaw dropped in shock. I thought that coming by the information I was seeking would be much, much harder than this. Never did I expect the autopsy reports of my husband and son to just drop into my lap.
I gingerly reached for the file that sat half hanging off the desk, almost worried that somehow touching it would make it disappear. It didn’t seem real. My hand pressed down on the top of the manila folder and then moved to clutch the folded side. This was all that remained of my human family. The memories of them sometimes seemed so foreign to me, like looking at them through the eyes of some other person. Heh, if I believed in reincarnation, it’d make perfect sense.
It seemed like minutes had flown by before I finally opened the folder. I started sifting through the papers, not really sure of what I was looking for.
“You will find no crime scene photos in there,” Steve said, pouring himself another shot of blood. “This is the folder I created for you. When we arrived at the scene, it was obvious to me that a vampire had struck. As the days rolled by and there was no sign of you, I knew you’d been turned. Seeing you here now is… calming. I’m glad to know that the one responsible for such heinous disregard for our ways was not holding you hostage.
“As I’m sure you’re well aware, our secret is a most guarded one, and the disarray in which he left your home was most displeasing to the clan who maintains a very stealthy existence in this area.”
My head popped up and my eyes flashed to his. “There’s really a clan in the area? I mean, I understand now that there are obviously other vampires living here, but I’d never thought so many as to be a clan.”
He nodded. “There are vampires in this clan that can tell you stories of what it was like to be an Aztec. But, as you likely assume, there are nomads in the area as well. It was very likely a nomad that…” he trailed off, leaving the air thick with words unsaid.
I couldn’t hide my shock about the Aztecs, that and I didn’t want to focus on the other part of what he’d said just yet. “That’s… amazing, Steve, Aztecs. Does this clan have a name?”
“I don’t know that giving you that information right now is completely necessary,” he said, and a look passed across his face that I couldn’t place.
“I understand,” I said. “They remain anonymous to me for the sake of plausible deniability.”
He bellowed. “You sound like your parents.”
I sighed, looking down at the file again. His recollection of them now wasn’t something I wanted to hear, and I think he caught on.
“Ah, I’ll leave you alone for a bit, Kathryn. Take all the time you need, and if you wish to leave before I come back, then I’ll see you around, okay?”
I nodded, my eyes still glued to the open file in my lap. I heard the door shut and knew he’d left, not bothering to confirm it with a glance.
(To be continued...)
It had been eight months since I became a vampire. My life had changed in ways I could only have dreamed about, or just as equally had nightmares about.
I felt as if time had allowed me to forget my former life, though it was only a façade. Whenever I had a quiet moment alone, my thoughts would drift to my dead husband and son. I wondered if they passed on and went to heaven as I had always believed they would one day, just not so soon. Becoming a vampire meant that this world was not at all what it seemed. The things of myth and legend were daily becoming all too real.
But now, it was time to revisit the past, time to discover what had happened to the things surrounding that life. To put my mind at ease.
I teleported to Austin, Texas.
It was raining, how appropriate, I remembered thinking. I materialized downtown in a dark, nondescript corner of the parking garage of the main police station. Located at I-35 and 8th Street, it was appropriately close to the city's hub for nightlife: 6th Street and The Warehouse District. Home to more than four local colleges as well as being the capital of Texas, this area of Austin was always packed solid with clubbers out looking for a good time. This was not what I was after.
I was dressed conservatively in khaki slacks and a white button-up blouse with short, black heels. My hair was gathered up on my head in a twist, held together by a black clip, I had also donned a pair of black reading glasses, though my eyesight was perfectly fine. I felt a bit like Clark Kent as I strode confidently out of the shadows and toward a patrol car whose engine had just shut off. Perfect.
"Good evening," I said, clearly startling the tall, blonde woman as my movements had gone unnoticed. "How are you?" My pleasantries were only a ruse to allow me to get close enough to try a trick I had learned from my husband. My ultimate goal was her access card to the building.
"Oh… uh, I'm fine Ms..," she stammered, appraising me with a careful eye. She likely thought me to be an attorney, but certainly no one she should be too cautious around. Excellent.
"Blanton, ADA Blanton," I didn't hesitate as I gave her my mother's maiden name. "I'm here to see the ME about a case I'm working." All the while, I continued to walk closer as she remained practically
frozen in place. "It's good to see you again, Lieutenant Holte." I flashed her a dazzling smile, careful to keep the tips of my fangs hidden from sight behind my lower lip.
"Yes, ADA Blanton, of course, I remember you now," I could sense her hesitation, but having spent enough time down here as a teenager from the work both my parents did, I knew how crazy it could get. The probability of her crossing paths with an ADA she wouldn't remember was pretty high.
I barely let her finish speaking before I raised my hand to touch her forehead. My eyes closed as I reached into her thoughts, sending her into a trance-like state as I pulled every memory of our encounter from her mind. I opened my eyes to find her eerily frozen and statuesque. Humans simply weren't capable of such stillness normally. My hand slipped into her pocket to grab the card I sought, just as a caught a whiff of her alluring scent, glad that I had sated my animalistic desires to feed long before I had started off on such a mission. Just the same, I allowed myself to linger at her neck as I
whispered into her ear.
"You never saw me this night, and if you see me again, you won't remember who I am," I spoke low, but clear. She seemed to mumble the words back to me. "Five minutes from now, you will go back to your duties, unaware that anything is out of sorts."
Satisfied, I left her and headed to the elevators that led directly into the police station. I cracked my knuckles nervously as I waited for the doors to open.
Once inside the elevator, I had to slide the card through to access the floor I wanted, the basement. I had been there countless times, ME Klein, better known to me as Steve, was a long time friend of my parents. And he had been there for me after they were killed in the small plane crash after a typical business trips to D.C. He had helped me settle their estate and get all of their affairs in order while I still tried to attend college, pretending that I was fine, losing myself to my studies to forget all that I had lost. Thinking back on that moment, it was hard to imagine that it was only the beginning of my losses to come.
The elevator slowed and the muted ding signaled the opening of the steel gray doors. I stepped into the hallway, looking both left and right. No one appeared to be around. Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly had I called in a bomb scare targeting the mayor’s office in an effort to empty the station. The hallway seemed to go on forever in both directions, reminding me of the movie Labyrinth, only there was an obvious door here and there.
As my shoes made contact with the floor, my pace and the noise were like a metronome keeping the time until I reached the third door on the left. Again, there was another place to swipe an access card. I quickly ran the card through, only to have it make an unhappy noise that echoed with non-acceptance. This wasn’t something I had accounted for, and I wasn’t a lock-picker.
“That card won’t work, hon,” a man’s voice said, startling me. The fact that I hadn’t heard anyone approaching unnerved me. Humans were always easy to track. “Only detectives’ cards and mine are granted access.”
I turned to find Steve staring pleasantly back at me. He was not at all shocked to see me, which only added to my confusion. I had assumed my presence after such a long time would be a shock, at the very least. I also assumed that since my husband and son were found dead with no trace of me, that I’d be wanted for murder, or at the very least, questioning.
I asked the first of many questions on my mind. “What are you?”
His easy laughter bellowed down the hallway. “Oh please, Kathryn, —“it was the first time someone had used my human name in so long “—you think you’re the only vampire on the planet or something?”
He knew what I was.
“So that’s how you were able to sneak up on me,” I said, a smirk playing on my lips. “I should’ve known.” I laughed too, then, and it was as if a huge shroud had been lifted between us that I hadn’t known existed. I guess I knew that vampires could be anywhere, but it never occurred to me that Austin would be home to any, even less that I might actually already know one… or maybe more. Of course, now that I knew the truth about Steve, that only brought about more puzzling questions, but they would have to wait.
He looked the same. Kind, tired eyes—vampire eyes, brown hair with blended gray that was thinning on top, and wire-framed glasses. He was broad in the shoulders, and was built much like Arias, tall and muscular, but all of it was mostly hidden under the lab coat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his access card. The little machine made a happier noise this time and granted us both entrance to his office.
Once the door closed behind us both, he walked with unmistakable vampire grace to sit in a squeaky, rolling chair behind an old, gray, military-style desk. He pulled open a drawer and took out a flask and two small shot glasses.
“It’s not often I have the opportunity to offer someone a drink,” he said, pouring a thick, dark red liquid into the two glasses. “But I’m sure you won’t be repulsed by it as most of my visitors would be.” He recapped the flask, flashed me a crooked smile, and gently nudged one of the glasses towards me.
I finally unglued my feet from the floor and settled into the ugly, but comfortable brown chair across from him. “Thank you,” I said, taking a whiff before drinking the shot. AB positive. I set the empty glass back down and crossed my legs as I leaned back into the chair. “Why aren’t you so shocked to see me as a vampire, Steve?” Of course, I wondered if he had had something to do with the death of my previous husband and my son, but I’d known him far too long. He was a friend, not someone to cause me grief after what had happened with my parents.
“Oh, why don’t we cut to the chase, shall we?” He wheeled the chair around and rifled through the lowest drawer of the filing cabinet behind him. Turning back to me, he casually tossed a file in my direction. The tab on the file read “Vinson”.
My jaw dropped in shock. I thought that coming by the information I was seeking would be much, much harder than this. Never did I expect the autopsy reports of my husband and son to just drop into my lap.
I gingerly reached for the file that sat half hanging off the desk, almost worried that somehow touching it would make it disappear. It didn’t seem real. My hand pressed down on the top of the manila folder and then moved to clutch the folded side. This was all that remained of my human family. The memories of them sometimes seemed so foreign to me, like looking at them through the eyes of some other person. Heh, if I believed in reincarnation, it’d make perfect sense.
It seemed like minutes had flown by before I finally opened the folder. I started sifting through the papers, not really sure of what I was looking for.
“You will find no crime scene photos in there,” Steve said, pouring himself another shot of blood. “This is the folder I created for you. When we arrived at the scene, it was obvious to me that a vampire had struck. As the days rolled by and there was no sign of you, I knew you’d been turned. Seeing you here now is… calming. I’m glad to know that the one responsible for such heinous disregard for our ways was not holding you hostage.
“As I’m sure you’re well aware, our secret is a most guarded one, and the disarray in which he left your home was most displeasing to the clan who maintains a very stealthy existence in this area.”
My head popped up and my eyes flashed to his. “There’s really a clan in the area? I mean, I understand now that there are obviously other vampires living here, but I’d never thought so many as to be a clan.”
He nodded. “There are vampires in this clan that can tell you stories of what it was like to be an Aztec. But, as you likely assume, there are nomads in the area as well. It was very likely a nomad that…” he trailed off, leaving the air thick with words unsaid.
I couldn’t hide my shock about the Aztecs, that and I didn’t want to focus on the other part of what he’d said just yet. “That’s… amazing, Steve, Aztecs. Does this clan have a name?”
“I don’t know that giving you that information right now is completely necessary,” he said, and a look passed across his face that I couldn’t place.
“I understand,” I said. “They remain anonymous to me for the sake of plausible deniability.”
He bellowed. “You sound like your parents.”
I sighed, looking down at the file again. His recollection of them now wasn’t something I wanted to hear, and I think he caught on.
“Ah, I’ll leave you alone for a bit, Kathryn. Take all the time you need, and if you wish to leave before I come back, then I’ll see you around, okay?”
I nodded, my eyes still glued to the open file in my lap. I heard the door shut and knew he’d left, not bothering to confirm it with a glance.
(To be continued...)
