Vampire Storm (Volume 1 : The Hurricane Journals)

by R.M. Plaiscia

After spending all night and part of the day in the library, just reading through book after book, watching the witches come and go, he began to notice the activity increasing on the lower level below him. He moved over to the balcony with his last couple of books and watched as the witches would come into the library and leave with stacks of books in their arms. He saw several different faces that would return back and take more books with them, time and time again throughout the hours. He wanted to ask them what was going on but didn’t want to talk to anyone he didn’t know, which was everyone, so he resorted to trying to listen in on them as they spoke. After awhile of that, he noticed that not many of them were talking at all, and those that were just complained about what they had to do while others just watched them. But this gave him no insight as to why the library was being emptied out.

  He then decided to just ignore it and went back to reading for another hour or so, until he began to be distracted by two loud voices that were growing closer, coming from the hallway down below. Everyone else that had been speaking kept their voices to a whisper. But these two voices were loud, as if they had nothing to hide. He stopped reading for a moment and focused in on the both of them, quickly realizing they both sounded familiar to him. And before they even came into his sight he knew who they were, Jade and that old man she was talking with earlier.

  “So I guess she thinks this storm is going to be that bad, huh, sending us here to empty out the whole damn library.” Jade groaned to the old man in the hallway, her voice loud and clearly annoyed.

  “Well, you heard what Heather had to say about it.” The old man told her. “Jane is just not one to take chances.”

  “Yes, that being one of her downfalls.” Jade said. “And what was Heather saying about the Birthplace, that the storm came from there or something?”

  “Not ‘or something’.” The old man shot back at her. “It has already pushed the ocean into the lower lands, joining the river with our Terra. She felt that its power reminded her of the storms that used to grow over the coast of our Birthplace and send down torrents of rain upon us for days on end, only to disappear out into the sea and leave us dry for months. And if her hypothesis is correct, if these storms do continue to grow out in the ocean until they find land, then we could be in for a furious couple of days.”

  “Yes, that was the absurdity.” Jade blurted out loudly. “I wonder how she could come to such a farfetched conclusion.”

  “Ugh, it actually sounds rather reasonable to me.” He groaned in admitance, siding with everyone else.

  “Yeah, and it sounds like crazy talk to me,” Jade scoffed at his remark. “All of it does. And Jane’s reaction to it all was the worst thing of all. Such unwarranted paranoia and drastic measures, like making emptying out the entire library our first priority, especially if it really is going to get as bad as she says it is. And then all that crap about having to escape some mythical flood chasing after us from the past, the past that we have all been hiding from or whatever… it all seems a little much to me.”

  “I believe she was speaking metaphorically.” He told her.

  “Well, I think she was serious.” Jade said. “She sure sounded frening serious. And this is no time to go and change our strategy because of some old and dried out belief system, the same that we are trying to break ourselves from.”

  “She is only trying to keep us alive. If the flooding persists we will not be spared.” The old man told her, only for Jade to counter him with, “And if she is wrong we waste time and leave ourselves open for an attack. We should be more focused on our enemies now, not the frening weather.”

  “Jane is playing it safe. There is nothing wrong with that.” The old man told her. “She only wants us to remember that our fellow witches are not our only adversaries, and that Mother Nature can sometimes pose as one as well. We should know better than anyone else that she and she alone will dictate the future of our Terra… and besides, King Orleans clearly agrees, and he has already arranged for us to work with both the mortals and the natives to protect both our history and ourselves.”

  “Yes, I know.” Jade said. “And it seems to me that another ‘mother’ or two may be emerging on this side of the swamp. And that is the last frening thing we need.”

  “I don’t think they are anywhere near as bad as her.” He had to admit.

  “Maybe not yet,” Jade agreed, “But you can see it coming… or at least I can. We are headed down the same path as four years ago, Caffin, and despite all the hope we seem to hold out towards the future, nothing has changed since those first few moments of our defection. We are being held down by the same chains that we broke away from in the first place.”

  Caffin shook his head. “You are too pessimistic, Jade. You must stop overreacting.” As he spoke, Jade laughed sarcastically.

  Then, from above, they were both interrupted. “Don’t you two know this is a library and you should keep your voices down?! Some of us are actually trying to read in here!”

  The two of them then looked up to see the newly arrived Vampire Strom staring down at them from the balcony above. Caffin became startled, but Jade just smiled up at him as she enjoyed her eureka moment under her breath, “Of course… Why didn’t I think of it sooner? Oh, the fates have smiled brightly upon me on this night.”

  As Caffin looked over at her with a look of confusion, she yelled out to the vampire, “Of course, I should have figured I would find you in here, vampire. Learning about us, I presume?” She asked him.

  “Yes, and it is all very intriguing.” Reggio said back to her, and then asked a question himself, the one he had been eager to ask for the last few hours. “And what, may I ask, is everyone around here doing?”

  “Why not put down those books and get down here so I can explain?” Jade asked instead, and almost immediately Reggio was scurrying over to the stairs.

  Jade looked over at the old wizard. “Looks like you may have just gotten yourself out of this, Caffin.” She told him. “I know he makes you nervous, so… if you wish, you may leave us.”

  Caffin looked over at her, shaking his head. “He should not be here. You should leave him alone, Jade. He is trouble waiting to happen.” He warned her quietly as Reggio approached them.

  Jade just turned towards him for a moment and smiled at him. “Then you may leave us now, Caffin.” She told him, no longer giving him a choice. “You wizards always were too damn cautious.”

  She then turned to face Reggio as Caffin left in a quiet fuss.

  “I was hoping to see a familiar face so I could ask what was happening.” Reggio told her, paying no attention to the departing old wizard.

  “Walk with me.” Jade told him as she led him down a half empty aisle of shelves. As she spoke she began stacking up books on top of each other. “Our superiors have ordered us to bring all the books out of the chambers.” She told him.

  “You sound like you don’t agree with their decision.” Reggio said. He knew she clearly did not, but he wanted to see if she would be honest with him.

  “That is because I do not.” She admitted to him. “But nonetheless, it must be done. I have my orders.”

  “And what are those orders?” He asked her.

  “I have many things to do, but none of which that I believe is necessary.” Jade told him.

  “So why do you listen?” Reggio asked, stopping her as she grabbed another book.

  “That is a very good question, vampire.” She said after a moment of pause.

  She then stacked another few books on top of the others without saying a word, seeming affected by Reggio’s question. She finally stopped stacking the books up after the stack was passed her knees and picked it up without any trouble.

  “So… I was wondering, vampire. Since my strength is not here to aid me right now, maybe you could help me instead?” Jade looked around the stack of books at Reggio.

  “Of course, it would be my pleasure.” He said.

  Jade then immediately dumped the stack of boo
ks into Reggio’s arms. “Of course it is.” She said with a smile as she grabbed only a couple more and made her way around him to get back out of the library.

  He carefully turned himself around and peered around the tall stack of wobbling books to see where she was going, while at the same time trying to balance all of them. He saw her already making her way out of the library and moved as quickly as he could to catch up with her. She was moving faster than he was so he decided to slow her down with some small talk.

  “So, Jade, why are we moving these books out of the library, anyway?” He asked, speaking loudly to catch her attention.

  Jade spun around, giving him enough time to catch up with her. “You sure do ask a lot of questions, vampire.” She told him.

  “Well, that is because you do not answer them.” He said in return as they started walking again.

  “Well…”Jade began, trying to mock his voice. “Have you ever thought that there may be a reason for that?” She asked. “I mean, who the fury are you, anyway, some kind of spy or something?”

  Reggio looked curiously over at her, sighing as he spoke. “I do not know what that is you just called me. However, it is the third name you have placed upon me. And regardless, that is the same exact question I have been asking myself for quite some time now… who in fury am I?” He moved around someone in the hallway, managing to keep balance of all the books.

  “Oh, how convenient,” The red-haired witch snarled with a sarcastic snicker. “I should have remembered that you are a mystery that I am going to have to unravel myself.”

  “So I guess that means you are not going to tell me why I am doing this.” He said with his head stretched around the books to see where he was going.

  “You are doing this because you decided to be nice to me.” Jade reminded him simply as she walked off ahead of him.

  Reggio moved faster to keep pace with her, the stack of books swaying back and forth with each of his strides, but he struggled to keep it balanced as they turned left down the connecting hallway that led back to the outside world. Jade had rounded the corner before him and was now a good few paces ahead of him down the hallway. And where it had been completely empty earlier with Jane, it was now bustling with action. Reggio moved around and dodged all the witches and warlocks that rushed along around him, running and pushing his way through the hall without dropping a single book from his stack. However, after all of Reggio’s maneuvering he had lost sight of Jade. He felt confident he knew where she was going, though, it being the only place this hallway led to, as far as he knew. He just wanted to catch up with her before she made it outside, so he began making his own path down the hallway, yelling out for everyone else to “Get out of the way! This is important witch business!”

  To his surprise, and for whatever reasons, they all began making a path for him to rush down the hallway without resistance, and still he let not a single book drop from his tall stack. They tried to fall over, but whenever they did he just ran faster in whichever direction they were falling, getting back underneath them and letting his momentum push them back against his chest. He could see the opening of the hallway ahead of him as he ran with his head poking around the books.

  “This witch here,” he mumbled to himself as he ran out into the crowded main chamber, spotting Jade through all the bodies, already at the steps leading outside.

  As he rushed around all the witches and made it to the stairs, Jade was already halfway up them.

  “Do you mind slowing down?!” The vampire called up to her as he began climbing the steps.

  Jade glanced back at him and smiled, not slowing down at all. “You mind catching up?” She asked him in return. “We do not have all day to get this done.”

  Reggio groaned as he continued up the stairs, looking down to make sure he did not trip on any of the steps. He moved quickly, basically jumping up them. As he neared the top he realized that the light was getting noticeably brighter around him. And as he peered around the stack of books one last time, he saw that he was about to follow this witch right out into the daylight. He stopped himself abruptly on the last step, keeping himself just inside the shadow of the tree, and causing all of his books to topple over onto the ground in an avalanche of pages.

  “Damn,” he growled under his breath as he began to slowly back down the steps, further into the shadow.

  “What in fury…?!” Jade exclaimed as she turned around and stormed back towards him. “What do you think you are doing?!”

  “Me?” Reggio asked her, his eyes open wide and eyebrows raised up high. “What in fury are you doing, trying to kill me or something?!”

  “Kill you?” She asked with her arms up at her sides, her face showing her confusion as she looked around. “Trust me. You would know if I was trying to kill you. Now what is the frening problem?”

  “Are you serious?” Reggio asked her, holding his hand out to try and block the light from his eyes. “I can’t go out there.”

  Jade looked at him, then up into the air. “Oh, yes, of course… I understand now.” She was laughing at herself. “Vampires cannot walk in the daylight. You are afraid of the sun.”

  “Afraid?” Reggio repeated her choice of words, sounding almost like she had insulted him. “It has nothing to do with fear. It has to do with its light melting the flesh from my bones.”

  Jade smiled back at him and then looked up into the sky. “Well…. you should have nothing to fear today. Although it is not as dark as the night, I do not believe the sun’s light can penetrate black clouds like the ones above us now.” She told him, motioning up at the sky.

  “What are you talking about? I can see the light right there!” Reggio told her, pointing beyond the shade of the tree.

  “Yes, but I do not think that is the same as direct sunlight.” She told him, her words sounding confident. “I may not know everything about vampires, but if I understand correctly, it is only direct sunlight that can hurt you.”

  “You don’t think?” Reggio asked, repeating her again, not confident in her assumptions. “And how can you be so sure of yourself? I can feel the heat of the sun from where I stand.”

  “Well, that is because it is hot in this frening swamp, regardless of the sunlight or the seasons.” Jade pointed out. “But there is only one way to find out if I am right or not. You need to step out of that tree.”

  “I can’t. We will just have to wait.” The vampire told her stubbornly.

  “We do not have time for your procrastinations!” Jade snapped at him. “These clouds will soon bring a storm that could halt our efforts of doing anything. They alone hold more power than all of us here combined. I would have agreed with you not fifteen minutes ago, but after seeing these clouds for myself, I can now understand everyone’s panic. I do not think we should be running around like we are, but I admit that I may have questioned them too soon. These clouds are as black as night and cold as a warwalker’s heart, like I have never seen them before. They will show us no mercy once they have all gathered. So this is no time to be acting like a frening coward!”

  Reggio would have been furious had anyone else spoken to him like that, but for some reason his reaction was one of only curiosity. Without even thinking about it he stepped up beyond the shade and glanced outside of the tree, up at the black clouds in the sky. “They do look angry.” He had to agree with her.

  “That they do.” Jade told him. “But as I said, you do not need to worry about the sun as long as they are out.”

  As she said that, Reggio looked around and noticed that he was already standing outside of the shade. His first instinct was to jump back, but he stopped himself once he realized his skin was not being singed. He began looking down at his arms in amazement as he held them out in front of him, and then stared up into the sky. He could feel the heat on his skin, but it was not burning him at all. And the cool breeze that brushed his flesh seemed to ease his nerves.

  “This is amazing!” The vampire exclaimed, and with more glee th
an any vampire should ever show. “How did you know the sun would not be able to burn me through those clouds?”

  Jade shrugged her shoulders. “I did not.” She admitted, not smiling at all. “It was just a logical guess.”

  Reggio’s smile dissipated as his eyes moved to meet hers and his jaw nearly dropped, “You what?! You could have gotten me killed!” He yelped out loud.

  “I could have, sure, but I did not.” Jade told him honestly. “And even if I was wrong, your flesh would’ve healed. But regardless, how else were we going to find out? You were never going to do it on your own. And I told you, we do not have all day.”

  Reggio just shook his head as he stared back at her. In return, Jade smiled arrogantly at him and turned back around.

  “Now pick those books up and follow me, vampire. We have wasted enough time.” She said forcefully, glancing back at him. “And this time try and keep up.”

  Reggio snarled at her remarks, but felt much better being around her rather than being alone. So he quickly picked up all the books off the ground and stacked them back up. Jade was clearly not waiting for him so he hurried to catch up with her again. She followed a short trail that led to a wide open area separated by a stream of slowly moving water. As Reggio stumbled out of the trail, he saw Jade approaching a large wooden bridge stretching out over the stream. He immediately noticed that it was the same bridge they had crossed the night before.

  In the dark he could tell it was different from the other bridges they’d crossed… those were all mounds of mud that hardly constituted as real bridges at all, just the mortals futile attempt to navigate the swamp more thoroughly… but this bridge, he could tell even in the stress and awkwardness of the night before, was different. It was a bridge built by someone that understood this swamp far better than most. And in the light he was able to get a better look at it. He saw Jade walking across it but stopped before stepping onto it to look more curiously upon it.

  The bridge was a worn down color of white, and it arced over the stream. Two railings stretched across each of its sides, from one end of it to the other, both carved into the bodies of two snakes wrapping around each other. Those railings were connected to each end by two large perches of stone, carved cylindrically, each with a separate stone atop them carved to look like owls perched up above the snake railings. It was probably fifteen feet across and forty of fifty feet from end to end, and twenty feet or so from the water below at its highest point in the middle. But by the time Reggio was finished examining it Jade had already reached the other end. He snorted at her as he moved along across the strange structure, basically chasing after her. He was stopped halfway across it, though, by the sight to his right. He stopped right where he stood and began staring off into the distance. And in it, through the trees, he saw the wide expanse of water slashing about, angered by the growing winds. It was a sight like he had never seen before.

  He could see it much better in the light, but he could tell it was significantly different from the night before. The water was blue and clear, much unlike the river that he was accustomed to. But much like the river he was used to, and what was different from the previous night, it did not sit still. Instead it seemed to roll up and down with the wind, rising up in wide swaths only to crash back down upon itself in explosive fashion, over and over again. And as Reggio stared out into it, Jade had made her way back to him.

  “I thought I told you to keep up.” She told him as she walked up to his side.

  “Yes, I know.” Reggio told her, not taking his eyes off of the rolling water. He watched it as a wave crashed into the shore and pushed a rush of water into the stream below them, pushing the flood further and further into the swamp with each thrust of the lake’s elegant motion.

  “So why are you just standing there?” Jade asked him, not paying any mind to the angered expanse of water beyond them.

  “This is… beautiful.” He told her as he admired it. “I have never seen such wide water before. I cannot see anything beyond it.”

  “It is funny that you put it like that.” Jade told him. “The natives here call it Okwata, which literally means ‘wide water’, but we have come to name it the Lake of Pontchartrain because it…” She stopped herself, and then asked, “Did I not already tell you this?”

  “This is the same place we saw last night,” he asked her just to make sure, even though he knew it was, “The same bridge?”

  “Yes, of course it is.” Jade told him. “Why are you making me repeat myself?”

  “It just… looks so different.” He had to admit. “Last night the water was so calm.”

  “And it will only grow worse as the storm approaches, something else I already told you.” She told him, clearly agitated. “This is but a small example of what the wind will do to this water in the hours to come. From here it can only become more menacing.”

  Reggio’s attention was still on the newly lit lake beyond them. “Is there anything on the other side of it? Is there even another side to it?”

  Jade shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “We cannot say for sure.” She admitted. “But we do know that it does connect to the ocean.”

  “The ocean?” Reggio asked, looking over at her. “What is that? Jane might have mentioned it, but…”

  “It is a place where the water never seems to end, a place where dry ground does not exist.” Jade explained to him, putting it as simply as she could. “But it is no place you ever want to know, although tonight, if everyone’s paranoia is correct, we will all know it more than we wish to.”

  “What do you mean?” He asked. “I thought you said the clouds would…”

  “Never mind,” She said as she turned away from him and walked back down the bridge. “You still have much to learn about many things.”

  Reggio wasted no time to catch up with her. “Jane told me that same thing.” He told her as he got alongside her and stepped off the bridge. “Why do you both say the same things about me?”

  “Because, evidently, we are both right.” Jade told him as she stepped through a row of tall bushes and onto a trail already carved into the swamp. She was taking a different route from which they had come the night before.

  Reggio followed closely behind her, not wanting to lose her again because now he had no idea where he was. “I suppose you can both be right, and that there are reasons for not teaching me,” he admitted, “But could you at least tell me whether it is the clouds or the water that I should be worried about.”

  She laughed lightly as she shook her head, deciding to indulge him a bit. “There can be many aspects to any storm, wind, water, rain, but if you ask me about this storm and everyone’s paranoia then I will tell you that they are all crazy and that we are wasting our time doing all of this for them.”

  “Wait, I thought you said that after seeing these clouds yourself you believed their concerns.” The vampire reminded her, finding it a little bit harder to keep the books steady in the breeze.

  “Again, I had to get you out of those chambers and off that bridge somehow.” Jade told him.

  “So you lied?” Reggio asked her.

  “Of course I lied!” She responded loudly. “But you believed me. Why did you believe me?”

  “Well, because I had no reasons not to, I suppose.” He told her.

  “You do not even know me, vampire. I have given you no reasons to trust me, yet you have seen it as no reason not to trust me.” Jade pointed out as she looked over at him struggling with the books. “It is tendencies such as those that you must avoid. You will soon learn around here that qualities such as trust and loyalty could get you killed rather quickly.”

  “And how am I supposed to know that? No one around here wants to teach me anything.” Reggio told her in annoyance.

  “And there is good reason for that.” Jade said. “Not everything can simply be taught. Some things can only be learned through experience. And besides, you have not even seen an entire day pass here yet. Not all of us are su
re yet whether we trust you or not. If you decide to remain here with us, which you are more than welcome to do, then I am sure everything you need to know about us will be taught to you in time.”

  Reggio thought about it as they continued down the path. He did not understand why he needed to be kept in the dark about so many things. He knew that Jane had warned him of how hard these first few days would be, and that he would have to earn everyone’s trust, but he felt that hauling around all these books through the damn swamp was a little much for his first one.

  “So I suppose carrying these books around is all part of the learning process?” He asked sarcastically.

  Jade smiled, but didn’t look at him. “Anything you do, any action that you take, could all be seen as being part of the learning process of life.” She explained to him. “So, yes, this could be looked at as one of those pointless overreactions that we can all learn never to do again.”

  Reggio laughed at her, knowing they were already on the same page about this being pointless. But as they neared a clearing in the swamp he realized that Jade was right, and that many things could be learned from pointless actions. Even in the pointless action he was performing at that moment, he could still learn something. And as Jade led the way through a final line of tall bushes, he did. He learned where all those mortals he had been running into lately were coming from.

  “That can’t be what I think it is.” The vampire said as he peered around his swaying stack of books.

  “You have seen a settlement before, have you not?” Jade asked as they moved closer to the clearing.

  “I have seen many of them along my journey,” Reggio let her know, “But never in such an unlivable and inhospitable environment.”

  Jade laughed at him. “Well, with enough time I believe you will come to find that the mortals have a sort of addiction for danger.” She told him. “If it seems impossible, you can bet your life that one of them will try to conquer it, and then others will inevitably follow. It is but one of the many strange qualities that they possess.”

  “So they actually live out here,” he asked as they neared the end of the trail, “By choice?”

  “They do,” Jade told him, smiling at his sudden amusement.

  “But…. they are such feeble creatures. How do they survive?”

  She could only shake her head. “That is a question many of us have asked ourselves for many years, and not just about this place.” She had to admit. “Despite the odds they always seem to find a way, which is another one of their strange qualities, something I believe they like to call luck, although they often misinterpret it as being fate.”

  “Luck, huh?” Reggio repeated questioningly. “And you call it fate?”

  “Actually, I call it a load of apeshit.” Jade said simply as they took their first few steps into the mortal settlement, not lowering her voice as they did. “Luck is for the lowly, and fate for the arrogant. I am neither. I care not for words carved in stone, nor do I depend on any unseen hand to guide my actions. I make my own luck, and control my own fate, as should we all.”

  Reggio shut his mouth as soon as they walked into the settlement, instantly feeling all the eyes turn towards them as Jade continued forward. As he looked around he could not believe that these people were actually living out in the middle of this swamp, between a raging river and a luminously massive lake, both ready to pour out their fury at any given moment. He watched them as they all began to come out of their huts and their little wooden homes to stare at the two of them. The huts were built in lines right alongside the rows of wooden shack-like homes, each spaced about twenty feet from one another and standing up to fifteen feet or so in the air. The homes were built closer together, each of them nearly touching the other and being built from east to west in rows twelve to fourteen homes wide. They seemed to all be built with wood from the swamp area, mostly Cyprus, giving it a feel that it actually belonged there. The settlement itself was rather far away from the lake, where they had walked from, and was much closer to the river, built almost on top of it, basically right next to it, for what reasons Reggio did not know.

  As he kept his attention on the humans without making any eye contact with them, he followed Jade as she moved quickly through the lines of huts and around a row of homes. She seemed to be moving in the direction of a large wooden building in the center of a wide clearing, behind all the huts and a bit farther away from the river. It was a building bigger than any that Reggio had ever seen, and seemed to tower over them as they approached it. The large wooden cross atop its roof and two carved out gargoyles above its wide door made it seem almost menacing to Reggio, a place he did not wish to enter.

  He did not know why.

  Jade stopped at its front steps and waited for him there. He made it to her a few moments later and stood in near awe at its size, and the way it made him feel. As he stared up at the two gargoyles above the door, and before Jade could say anything to him, the sky cracked with a bright flash of lightning and rumbled loudly with an eruption of thunder. It made Reggio jump and nearly fumble away all the books, and scared many of the curious mortals back into their homes. Jade just laughed as she helped him out with the books and took them into her own arms.

  “If the skies do not scare you away, you can wait for me out here.” She told him with a smile. “I should not be too long.”

  “I was not scared, only… surprised.” Reggio corrected her, but Jade did not even wait for a reply.

  “Of course you were.” She told him as she opened up the tall door and disappeared into the building.

  Chapter 7 - Walking With a Storm