by Andrew Lynch
I thought I had been on to something. I had a good feeling after meeting with Tom. We’d sorted out our children’s problems, and I just felt… positive. Like I was moving on. Actually getting somewhere with my life.
After three nights of searching every nook and cranny of Sanctuary, including getting this damn cut from an old bit of rusty wire lurking in a promising-looking underpass, I realised I didn’t know what I was doing.
I wasn’t going to blindly stumble onto a clue.
I turned away from the bench and looked around. It was a nice park. The weather was nice. The people were nice. Sanctuary was nice. I’d never felt more out of place, and didn’t know how much longer I could keep this teacher-act up.
I sighed. I had to keep it together. For Richard. The very unhappy and sulky Richard after last weekend.
I heard movement behind me. Not someone walking openly on the path, but someone sneaking from the trees.
Damn, they were quiet. My right hand went to the gun under my arm. I listened for a bit longer. Maybe they were just humans. Muggers trying to take what they want. In which case the gun would do. But maybe this was a monster. I slipped my left hand into my trouser pocket and felt the vial of Lyfe there.
I weighed up my options. If they were just humans, this would be a waste of a vial. But if it was the monster returning to the scene of the crime, then perhaps I was already too late. Better safe than sorry.
I hadn’t bothered to test it yet. I’d been putting off having to use the substance again. But okay, time for a field test.
I popped the top off the glass vial and drank it.
It tasted of… meat.
Copper and sulphur rushed into my nostrils.
I stopped myself from gagging.
Then it hit, and I remembered why I did what I did. Oh yes. This was me. Not that teacher. This felt right.
The darkness retreated, and I could make out every shadow. I could hear individual leaves rustling in the gentle night breeze. I could feel every muscle in my body tense in readiness.
Suddenly the near silent footfalls behind me were obvious.
But they didn’t worry me.
What worried me were two things. The first was a scent on the air. Something horrific. It was bloody, unnatural. The smell of putrescence. I’d smelled it before. A monster that I knew from personal experience could be the culprit in last week’s killing. A fiend.
The second was a pulling of air brushing my skin. As if something appeared where before there was nothing. A low growl from the back of a predator’s throat.
I pulled my arm back, throwing my elbow at the location the noise came from. My Lyfe-enhanced body moved faster than anyone would have been able to see.
My elbow connected with something hard that gave way beneath my strike. A lucky blow, I was sure. Anything that could appear behind me unnoticed as it had, must have been faster than me.
I saw three boys walking towards me. A girl and another boy were hiding in the trees in what would have been pitch black if it wasn’t for Lyfe.
And a… young girl, tumbling backwards through the air.
Before she landed I saw her face. Black eyes and fangs, with a pallid complexion.
With unseen speed I pulled my gun out of my jacket.
But… was that Johnny? It was! What was he doing here? And… yes, I knew the others as well. My students.
I looked back to the creature I’d hit.
Rel.
Just a little girl, with tears starting to well in her eyes.
Bloody brilliant. Here I was, hopped up on combat drugs, surrounded by my students. Imagining they were monsters. Great way to mold impressionable minds. Faster than the eye could see, I holstered my gun again.
‘Mr. Anderton?’ Johnny said, jaw hanging in disbelief.
I ignored him and moved to Rel’s side. I’d just hit a teenage girl as hard as I possibly could. I’d broken bones with less, and her head had just become intimately familiar with my elbow.
I leaned in to her mouth to see if I could hear her breathing.
Nothing.
Oh God, what had I done.
I grabbed her wrist to try and find a pulse. Before I could, she sobbed.
Oh thank God. Anyone that could cry was very much alive.
The putrid smell grew stronger. I needed to get these kids away from here before things got dangerous.
Johnny caught up with me. ‘Is she okay?’
He had just seen her literally fly through the air after being hit in the head. He wasn’t the brightest bulb.
‘Of course she’s not… well, actually, she does seem in better condition than I expected, yes.’
‘Why’d you hit her?’
I took a heartbeat to compose myself. ‘I thought she was going to mug me.’
The others caught up with us, including Ariel and a boy who wasn’t in my class.
‘She’s only a girl.’
‘Well observed, Jonathan, but not only was I not aware of that since she presumably sneaked up behind me, but more importantly, girls can be dangerous too.’
Rel made a few mumbling noises, and tears rolled down her face. But still, the side of her head hadn’t been caved in, so I both thanked my lucky stars, and also made a note to point out to Claire that Lyfe didn’t make me strong enough.
Ariel knelt down beside her friend, and looked at me with worried eyes.
‘Don’t worry. She’ll be fine.’ There seemed little point in telling them that I had no idea why she wasn’t dead.
Footsteps from behind.
I whirled to see Erin. And again, that terrible smell wafted towards me. But it wasn’t her. She did smell… odd though, but I had no time to figure out why.
Rel gasped, and opened her eyes.
‘Rel, I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ Erin said. ‘We’ll take her home.’
A group of helpless teenagers walking through a park on their own? That sounded like heaven for any monster. ‘No, no. I insist. I’ll escort you all.’
Rel mumbled something incoherent about her head.
‘You just take a few minutes to recover,’ I told her.
‘I’m afraid I really do have to take you all home now. As your teacher, I really can’t let you be out after dark so close to where…’ I gestured to the park bench where the killing had occurred. ‘Something like this happened.’
Again, Rel mumbled something, but this time about teachers. I really needed to get her checked out for concussion.
Ariel showed her phone to Jonathan, who passed on the message. ‘We shouldn’t just move her.’
‘That’s right. We can wait for a moment. At least until she stops mumbling. Let’s see how she’s feeling.’ I hoped I hadn’t caused some sort of brain damage.
An awkward silence set in for a few seconds, as presumably the students felt nervous around their teacher and didn’t want to talk.
It gave me a moment to appreciate just how shaky I felt. If Lyfe was like the previous formulas, then I really needed to work it out of my system, otherwise I’d have the mother of all comedowns when it wore off.
The putrid smell grew stronger, but I also noticed the scents of those around me. They didn’t smell… human. But the difference was faint. Barely noticeable even to my enhanced sense.
Their smells were clashing and I couldn’t tell who was who, but… no, I knew these kids. Lyfe must just act differently to what I was expecting.
I focused on the smells more as the silence stretched out.
My head jerked as I recognised one of them. It was unmistakable. I’d only smelled it once before, years ago on the other side of the world. Draugr.
But as soon as I’d identified it, it was gone. And the looming putrescence replaced it. Whatever that was, it was getting stronger. The Fiend was heading our way.
I needed to get the children out of here before it found them.
‘That’s long enough.’ They breathed a sigh of relief at someone
ending the awkwardness. ‘I’ll carry Rel. Let’s go.’
And just as I thought I’d made a new friend in Tom. I didn’t know of many fathers who would take kindly to someone attacking their daughter. But my main priority was to get her back to her home and admit what had happened, so they could get her checked over.
Chapter 14
Reliquiae
I was lying on the couch in my living room.
I tried to sit up, but my mom’s hand stopped me. “Shh, lie down, don’t you worry.”
“You’re the one worrying. Really, I’m fine.” And I was. I felt better now than I had all week. The hunger was gone. I didn’t know why, but once I’d stopped crying and my face stopped hurting, I felt great!
It was annoying that I had no one to ask why, or what that meant, but I guessed I still had a lot to figure out.
For now, I was twiddling my thumbs while grown-ups did grown up things in the other room.
Mr. Anderton appeared by the front door, and was about to say something to me, probably another apology, when my dad rushed him out the door.
He shut the door harder than necessary, and muttered to himself as he came in to check on me.
“Dad, you know I’m all right. Why are you mad at him?”
“‘Because I have to be. Of course a normal human isn’t going to hurt a Draugr, but I can’t just pretend everything’s okay. I have to react as if you were a human. And let’s not forget that you haven’t discovered any abilities yet. Apart from being hungry.”
I hadn’t told them about my experiments in the bunker and what I thought I could do.
He slumped into a chair.
“‘Yeah, but you’re not pretending to be mad.”
“I just thought… no, nothing. How are you feeling, honey?”
My mum leaned in and whispered, “He thought he’d made a new friend.”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “This doesn’t change anything! Accidents happen. He thought we were a gang of thugs who were going to attack him! Would you have rather a stranger did it?”
“Yes!” I think that for the first time I could remember, my dad was sulking. “Then they could have mysteriously ended up dead.”
“Tom!” my mom shouted. “Don’t talk like that.”
My dad hesitated for a second, but then shook his head. “Sorry. I’m just upset at seeing my little girl hurt, when I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
“What were you going to do?” my mom asked. “Be with her for every second of her life?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “We could borrow a werewolf cage. Ground her till she’s… I don’t know, what’s a good age?”
“You’re not doing that,” I said. His face fell.
Until my mum joined in. “Forty two.”
“Ooh. Good age. Yes. I’ll give Lucas a call, I’m sure he’s got some spare cages.”
“Guys. No.”
“Never say never,” my dad said.
“We’ll put a pin in it, sweetie. Come back to the idea when you feel better.” Mom patted my hand.
I rolled my eyes - the most activity they would let me get away with right now.
“It’s a good thing part of your abilities have begun,” my dad said. “He could have really hurt you.”
“About that,”’ I began. “I’ve tried some stuff. To see what I could do.”
My parents both leaned back in their chairs, faces schooled to neutral.
“And?” my mom asked.
“Well, I can see in the dark. And I’m fast. Really fast. I’m not really sure about anything else yet.” They didn’t say anything, so I continued. “But I can’t control it. I’ve got some theories about what triggers it.”
“That’s about normal,” Mom said. “Most supernaturals struggle with controlling their abilities when they first start. Some find them completely overpowering and irresistible from the second they manifest. Others don’t show any abilities until much later. But you seem to have what most of us have. Intermittent bursts of power, punctuated by cravings.”
“Your mother’s right. Succubi usually have a very explosive awakening.”
“Not now, Tom.”
“Sorry,” my dad said, suitably scolded.
“How did it work for you guys?” I asked.
They both puffed their cheeks up and did a long sigh.
“Well,” Mom started, “if you believe my friends, then I was a late starter at the ripe old age of thirteen–”
“Fourteen,” my dad butted in.
“Was it fourteen? Okay, I was fourteen. I’d just met a lovely young boy called–”
“Bullet point it for me Mom.”
“Good idea,” my dad agreed. “She does love to go on about that guy.”
My mum gave him a wink. “It came over me out of nowhere. I didn’t know what was happening. Your grandma had warned me about it, so I was prepared for it mentally. But there’s a big difference between thinking you’re ready for something, and actually being ready. Luckily, my brain had disengaged, and I was running on some stupid instinct. My abilities started working right there, in a public place. I lured the boy away. I remember now that I didn’t know how I was doing it, I just was. But someone felt my power, and managed to stop me.”
My dad polished his fingernails on his shirt. “Your hero, always.”
They shared a smile that made me wish for Rick.
“And then a long series of almost mistakes, and narrowly avoided mishaps ensued. My abilities took years until I could control them reliably. And during that time, my need to feed as a succubus was a constant threat.”
“That sounds sooo perfectly calculated to make me feel like we all go through the same thing so I can totally relate,” I muttered. Perhaps I was too cynical?
She shrugged. “The specifics vary wildly, I’m sure - but yeah, the general feelings are the same. So far, you’ve had a pretty human childhood. Well, you’re about to see a lot more of the supernatural side of life. Most of us are pretty normal, but there will be small things that humans just don’t have to deal with. For you, obviously it’s needing to drink blood. For others, it might be that they turn into rampaging beasts once a month, or start to miss a life they don’t remember having.”
“Umm, life they don’t remember? What?”
“‘Ghosts, darling.”
I had to ask. “How do ghosts have children anyway?”
“The same way the rest of us do. But I think your mother’s story makes my experience pretty obvious,” my dad said. “I wasn’t any more experienced than your mother, but luckily for both of us, I managed to sense her power, and know that she was about to make a mistake. The important thing is that we helped each other through it. We had support. Thanks to that, we never hurt anyone.”
I clenched my eyes shut. My hopeless crush on Rick was the closest thing I had to what my parents had, with the small caveat that Rick was the one who first triggered my hunger. He was the one I almost hurt. “Except I don’t have anyone of my kind to tell me what to expect.”
“That’s true,” my mom agreed. “But we heard back from Mrs. Raich, and she said she’d come here as soon as she could.”
“Who?”
“The woman we know from a long time ago that knows the most about Draugr of anyone we’ve ever met. We already told you about her.”
“But she isn’t one?” I asked, just to make sure.
“No. She’s actually a human.”
I sat up in shock. My mum pushed me straight back down. “You’re bringing a hunter here?!”
“No, no. Not all humans who know we exist are trying to kill us. They’re a rare breed though… Most just think we’re all mindless monsters trying to eradicate all humans.”
This was completely new information. “Why don’t we just… tell more of them about us?”
My dad nodded at my curiosity. “Have you heard of a large city called Centralia in Pennsylvania?”
I shook my head.
“That�
�s why. Thankfully that experiment happened before the internet. Needless to say, that city is now a few ramshackle buildings that survived it.”
This was a lot to think about. So some humans could know about us. Some humans being Rick, and us being me. If I could just control myself, then maybe…
That did it. I’d have to push myself. If it was stress that triggered my instincts, then I’d have to get stressed. It would need something a bit more than just my poor grades this week.
I just needed to think of how to really let myself go without putting anyone else in harm’s way.
Chapter 15
Reliquiae
Should I tell them?
They were bullied, and still hid it from their families. They’d been through hardships just to live their lives the way they needed to. They’d understand.
Peter then tripped Bhav, making Bhav swing his shoulder bag at Peter, although he missed and hit a tree instead.
Okay, right now was a bad example, but they were mature. Normally.
After they were done messing around, and we were walking down one of the quieter streets, they each put a hand in the other’s back pocket. If they weren’t such a good couple, I’d be annoyed at the levels of cuteness they exuded.
“What was up with you today?” Bhav asked me.
“Huh? Nothing. That’s just how I am.”
They shrugged, conceding that it might just be true.
“I never knew you were so…” Bhav looked to Peter.
Peter dutifully finished the sentence for him. “Athletic.”
“Exactly,” Bhav agreed. “I mean, you’ve never really…”
“Done anything,” Peter finished for him again.
“Exactly. Have you?”
“Guys, of course I’ve done things before.”
“Like?” Bhav pressed.
“Well… just trust me. I’ve done physical activity before.”
“I was just surprised, is all. I mean, we train really hard to be on the squad, it took me and Peter ages to get to grips with the drills and the stunts, and you came in today and, well, kind of blew us away, to be honest.”
