Outsider

by W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh

  Ok, this is not the night I had in mind. Of course, I could just up and go; I've got time before dawn. The vampire does not move. She is actually impressed. Anger is a rare feeling for Sid Wasgo and she can sense it running under the skin. Do I consider her worthy of an answer? More than one while I'm at it? Oh, can vampires suffer from a headache? She tries a light approach.

  "Well, as I said earlier, most vampires never ask to be vampires. I didn't! Toni probably did not. And Dee-Dee was not given more options. You see, Toni, like most vampires, simply takes what she wants, she never bothers with asking. She wanted Dee-Dee, she seduced her and made her. I think Dee-Dee ─as a human─ could have handled Toni being a vampire. But, Dee-Dee was not very happy ─to put it mildly─ about being made into a vampire. She really bolted at that, and the first thing she did was very simply to run away from Toni. I believe Toni spent the last twelve years tracking her down around the world. As a human, Dee-Dee would rarely get angry, so when her temper would flare……. You wouldn't want to hang about. Otherwise, she was a very sweet woman."

  "What about Toni?"

  "Toni? What's to say about Toni? There is nothing human about Toni. She is a vampire through and through. With all the cruelty. And the loneliness. Yes, being a vampire is a rather lonely affair. That's probably how she came about to make the vampire Dee-Dee. She fell for Dee-Dee and decided to make her at her image ─great success─ to spend the rest of eternity with her." Irony was sometimes the only way she could talk about Toni. The older vampire could be so aggravating. So confusing. Joy would like to let the silence resettle, but Sid has one more query.

  "Why would Dee-Dee ask WHAT I was? Any suggestion to answer her question?"

  "Er……." How on Earth could she tell her? "Well……." This would be another fine time to sigh. "Has your eyesight, for example, improved any lately?"

  Now that the vampire inquires, the writer has to make her lazy mind work. She is not hesitating; she is just taking her time.

  "On and off. …….when you're around."

  Joy gives it room to take over the silence, before formulating the next installment. This one would be a wild guess if it were not for her knowledge of some of Sid's habits: Sid likes staring at a challenge in the eye.

  "When Dee-Dee drained your blood some, did you feel weak?"

  "Yes." Slow and calculated.

  "Until you look into her deep, grey eyes?"

  "Yes." Stretching the one syllable to its maximum elasticity.

  "And then you regained some strength……. "

  "What are you getting at?" Sid does not want to come up with the explanation herself. It could be too far-fetched.

  "The word we're getting at is psychic vampire……."

  "No, this doesn't make sense."

  "Come on, it does. Think about how long you can dance, almost tirelessly, almost forever. Think about how you can see in the dark when we spend the night together. Think about Dee-Dee's reaction." Think about everything I haven't mentioned and everything I don't know.

  "How long have you known?"

  "Since the beginning of the winter."

  "Not good enough a topic of conversation?"

  "As good as any. I tried to get you on track a little while ago. You didn't even twitch. You didn't know. You do not even control your nature."

  Is it absurd or is it true? It's the wrong day for an April's fool. Joy wouldn't make up such story, she would have no reason. Well, she is a vampire, a blood drinker, she can be cruel, she does not care. Does she? This is taking a confusing direction.

  "This doesn't make sense. How could I be a…… . psychic vampire? I am mortal, am I not?" Or immortal until Death changes her mind.

  "I don't know. I'm no philosopher, alchemist or scholar. But I do believe you are a psychic vampire. Anger increases your hunger."

  Face rigid, Sid thinks about the blond vampire with the painful bite. Yes, she is angry alright.

  "Does it make me dangerous for a vampire like Dee-Dee?"

  "Yes." It is Joy's turn to articulate the one syllable slowly.

  "Does it give me the power……. to kill?"

  "Maybe. At least, you could greatly weaken her. Or me, probably. And maybe Toni." After another silence, she adds: "Of course, you haven't got the physical strength of a vampire, which means in the case scenario of you encountering Dee-Dee again, that ─if you have Surprise on your side─ you might strike quite a blow. However, if Toni catches up with Dee-Dee at that very moment, in all likelihood, she would probably dive to Dee-Dee's defense, and you would be in big trouble. Remember: Toni is older than I am."

  Sid does not move. Only her regular breathing betrays her as a living mortal. Out of pure logic, just to round up all the main characters in this particular plot, in the name of equal opportunity, she launches the last probe: "What about you, what would you do in this case scenario?"

  Joy's features shape into an invisible smile tainted with disgust. I'd jump to your rescue, dummy. I'd be a disgrace to the whole vampire community!

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  While Joy is sorting out their tickets one way or another, Sid looks around, curious of the diversity of the audience attracted by Girlschool. She doesn’t know much about their music; she only knows they have been around for almost 25 years and they are an all-women band. Joy was surprised by this hole in the writer's great knowledge of women in music. Sid is not. Depression, the depression that has plagued most of her life and taken a backseat only when Music was strong enough to make it recede, depression has killed motivation over and over at every possible opportunity.

  Hands stashed in pockets, mohican green, Sid looks around, stares at the long hair of some metalheads and admires a few tattoos. She notices three women wearing black walking down the steps. The dark pink mohican with a definite punk look, queries at the desk for guest lists before stalking off. The long black mohican with something gothic in her aura talks to the third one ─the purple mohican with clothes in too good a condition to be punk. They walk deeper into the bowels of the Wicked Cello.

  "Let's go," Joy orders, sporting one of her twenty identical gothic outfits, and pushes Sid in the same direction among like-minded punters.

  A sparse crowd has already claimed the seatless space. There is an impression of dimness and grubbiness. A gentle brouhaha of canned music, friendly chatter and beer guzzling. At one end of the stage, Sid's improved eyesight spots Frank, the sapphire-haired freelance reporter and Stacee, the Goth woman with a dazzling smile. They haven't noticed Sid or Joy. They would look delicious but the vampire has already fed.

  Sid and Joy share their corner with the Goth and the pseudo-punk the writer has noticed on arrival. Like her, the purple mohican is scanning the crowd with great assiduity. She has taken her long sleeves off and revealed tattoos. Sid gets a flash of a dagger dribbling with blood on a forearm.

  A band is getting ready on stage. Sid will never remember them. Nor will she the second act. Right now, she is actually thinking about this strike of destiny: a psychic vampire? She would have more likely thought herself a werewolf, because of her occasional cravings for raw meat. Rather odd for a vegetarian person.

  * * * * * * *

  Dee-Dee the vampire enjoys live music better when ravenous. She remembers gracing a Girlschool audience with her presence once, the year before encountering Toni, her last year as a living being. She scans the crowd for a delicious meal. She is in no hurry; she has the whole night. The band currently sweating on stage is a female power trio. They almost sound like a younger version of Girlschool. Their name is historically striking: Joan Ov Arc. About time someone grabs this name. The guitar player is as good as Dee-Dee was, when mortal. A flash of blue in the crowd attracts her eyes. She tracks the sapphire hair, watches her for a few minutes, and suddenly sets eyes on the near-by long, black hair.

  * * * * * * *

  Toni can sense it in the warm air of the rock venue: Dee-Dee is here. And she is not the only one. The older vampire smiles, bu
t there is hunger gnawing at her core. She has time to feed. She scans the crowd and notices a rather tipsy young woman strapped in every possible oppressive fashion: make-up a la Posh Spice (wrong gig, Sweetheart!), flimsy top, mini-skirt and stilettos. She follows her to the toilets and into a stall. And does not bother disposing of the limp and bloodless leftover of a once vibrant human being sliding, ten minutes later, out of her hands. She feels in a reckless mood: for the first time in twelve years, she is in Dee-Dee's direct vicinity! Dee-Dee is not aware of the presence of the androgynous scarecrow yet. Must be shopping for her dinner. I wonder what takes her fancy.

  * * * * * * *

  Girlschool are on stage, at last. Sid suddenly wishes she had prepared herself psychologically. Their collective energy hits her like a tsunami and makes her gasp. She stares at them one by one: the bass player, the drummer, the dark-haired guitar player, and the blonde guitar player who looks so tall. When an emotion is so intense, Sid is never sure what it is. It could just as well be pain. Intensity can sustain her, that's all that matters.

  The drums roll and the guitars are unleashed on the willing audience. Sid's eyes track the guitar moves, the music leaping joyfully, bouncing off each musician and reverberating in rippling waves of pleasure and excitement through the crowd. Music is an ocean, let your mind swim like a fish.

  Something is wrong; it suddenly jumps at Sid. She takes her fascinated eyes away from the charismatic musician running her cordless electric guitar all over the stage, and scans the audience. After such an onslaught of music, Sid is more susceptible to spontaneity. She sees the vampire from the Breakdown and rage gathers in dark clouds all over her field of vision. Hungry, Dee-Dee's one-track mind is taking her focused feet to innocent victims.

  Motionless, Joy watches Sid suddenly bumping into punters, carving a path through the crowd. She has been aware of her fellow blood drinker since the act before the headliners. She is curious about Sid's new strength as a psychic vampire. Rage can be such a powerful fuel. Joy is as confident, as arrogant, as any vampire left unchallenged for too long. She can be there before you finish snapping your fingers once.

  Hungry and expectant, Dee-Dee greets surprise when one impudent past victim steps in front of her intended dinner. The eyes are as dark as a stormy sky. Something very powerful tugs and pulls at Dee-Dee. Not again. However, the creature is more powerful than she remembers and pain is edging its way through her nerves.

  * * * * * * *

  Toni is older and, if not wiser, more knowledgeable. She takes flight over the crowd mesmerized by the legendary rock band. And gets bumped off by an unprecedented missile before slamming into the psychic vampire.

  "Hey!" Complains the punter she squarely and ungracefully landed on. She does not even bother contemplating his good-natured outrage, she breaks his neck with one swift hand. Another brawny punter attempts to jump her but only impales himself on the same swift hand.

  The band keeps on playing. The bass player is the first grey eye to stare, soon wearily, at the skirmish quickly getting out of hand. Well, it is actually in Toni's deadly, swift hand.

  People unhappily bumped into join the fight, while Toni tries to get to Sid. To do so, she needs to get past Joy, while Dee-Dee simply would like to get to her dinner, but it is rather tricky with this creature staring at her and sucking out her energy. She can just about resist the pull, but cannot break the eye contact. They are both aware of the chaos raging around her. Frank and Tracee are not quite sure what to do. So far, mayhem is happening around them and without them, but there is not apparent exit.

  The song ends in the clamour rising from the audience. It is a mixture of enthusiasm from the punters still untouched by the rage, and screaming and shouting from the fighters crowding the melee. The wandering guitar player looks at the bass player, who looks at the other guitar player, who looks at the drummer. The security people look rather overwhelmed. Riot is threatening to reach the stage. Consensus is established in a split second: playing a bloody riot is not in their contract. They run.

  "Children, children," Death sighs, sitting on the edge of the stage.

  "Yes, children," Life's sigh perfectly echoes her workmate's.

  "Shall we?"

  "Let's."

  Freezing time happens to be a prerogative they rarely use. They choose to interfere only when other powerful beings ─in this case: usual troublemakers the vampires─ threaten the balance of beliefs or the order of the future.

  Struck by the sudden silence, Toni and Joy, only ten feet from the ground, lose their hold on each other, drop off the air and look around. The psychic link between Sid and Dee-Dee is broken when the mortal looks at the tall woman with long, blond hair who ruffles Joy's black and white long, mohican while strolling by, and at Death smiling in the frozen chaos. Joy throws a venomous look at the stranger.

  "Children, children! What are we supposed to do about you!" The copper-skinned woman exclaims with ironic nonchalance. "I am Death", she says for Toni's and Dee-Dee's benefit. "This is Life. We work a lot together," pointing at the newcomer.

  If truth be told, Vampires are out of their jurisdiction, but they have always kept this detail under wraps.

  Toni, squaring up to Death, throws her rage into the relaxed face: "And what the hell do you want?"

  "She used to be so sweet," Death tells Life. "Remember? It was not easy for her in the late 1780's when she was still human. Such pity some vampires can go mentally unstable."

  "Yes," Life replies, as deadpan as her colleague. "There is only so much we can do."

  "Now, seriously," Death redirects her attention. "We have several problems to address, one being that there is no reason for Sid to be a psychic vampire. Yes, I know, Sid, you'd rather be a werewolf. But it is not a question of choice."

  "We also have Dee-Dee who'd rather be dead than be a vampire but, survival instinct is such a bitch!" Life picks up the thread.

  "Toni is insane."

  "Joy is depressed. Hence her name."

  "And we are in a public venue, at a public event, in the middle of a frozen mayhem. Bear with us, children; for us, being here is like having a tea break! We can get so bored with our work."

  Irate, the scarecrow lunges at Death, but her lethal hands only catch empty air.

  "Behind you, child."

  She whirls around, only to find herself flat on the ground, face in the sticky dirt, and one leather boot as heavy as lead on her back, in less than a blink of an eye.

  "I am Death, and even if you are not directly under my dominion, I can do whatever I want to you." There is iron in her voice.

  "We'll have to spread them over the planet."

  "Yes." Turning to their unwilling audience, the supposedly Grim Reaper addresses them with a grin: "Spread, but do not multiply!"

  Dee-Dee stares down at the enraged vampire, wordlessly. Joy looks away pointedly. Sid sighs; it is her human prerogative. Around them, punters are like statues of stone. It almost looks like an easy-watching, American TV series. In fact, the writer is pleased to see Death again, but this time she keeps silent.

  "Time travel?" Life suddenly suggests, just for the fun of it.

  "It would be only temporary."

  "Parallel universe?"

  "You have too much spare time!" Death catches on the humorous streak.

  "We'll have to, then."

  "Yes, we'll have to."

  Death and Life stare at each other in serious silence. It is a most radical solution.

  "Do what?" Sid eventually queries for herself and the vampires.

  "I'll take Toni," says Death.

  "I'll take Dee-Dee," says Life.

  "Sid?"

  It is like shorthand. It is actually a language they speak regularly between them.

  "What?" The mortal asks.

  "In her case, it might disappear the same way it appears. It is just a question of fulfilling her destiny."

  "Behave yourself," Death tells the writer with a gentle smile. "I'll see
you soon." She grabs Toni by the collar of her jacket, while Life rests a strong hand on Dee-Dee's neck.

  Mayhem suddenly unfreezes around Sid and Joy.

  SID

  A novel by W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh

  “And drowning in the flood

  Of the sea’s angry sorrow

  That pulls me with the tide” (Jane Timm Baxter)

  PROLOGUE

  Reader, tread carefully……. You might, or might not, desire to know what happened a few years later……. At any rate, watch your step…….

  THE ENVOY

  BY

  W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh

  “Because who knows how the water is designed?”

  (Wrong Lane Jane aka Jane Lawson in “The Enigma”)

  An Envoy’s existence requires regular time-outs. It’s tough, it’s unpredictable, it’s demanding, it’s all over the place. Unfortunately these days, free time is a luxury and we have to keep on call twenty-four hours a day, no matter what. The boss herself is working triple shift. We can blame it on the increase of the suicide rate.

  So, there I was, enjoying the nice summer night in a biker café, looking forward to the main act (an uncompromising rock band going by the name of Never The Bride), and in the meantime enjoying the support act thrown as a sacrifice to the avid crowd of fans. Girls On Top were a very distinctive punk-rock outfit and the audience could only welcome the vociferous singer and delight in the infectious music.

  When my pager vibrated painfully in the back pocket of my leather jeans.

  I fished it out to check the number: 666.There was no escaping from that one. I gave the band a last wistful look and walked through the tight throng of mostly leather maniacs.