Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  In the men’s room, Winona had to relight the branch twice before finishing the first symbol. As she was drawing the second symbol, Willie knocked hard on the door.

  Winona slightly jumped from the sudden knock. As she continued to draw out the second symbol, she called out, “Occupied!”

  “Winona Rivers,” Willie yelled back. Winona shot the door a curious look. When Winona didn’t answer right away, he continued with, “Winona Rivers, I’m Willie Merritt—a private investigator. Your dad had hired me.”

  “Crap,” Winona let out under her breath while slightly bowing her head in defeat.

  “Winona Rivers!” Willie uttered again.

  “Yes, one moment,” Winona called back before she proceeded to stuff her things back into her bag.

  Willie waited patiently with his left ear inches from the door, and when he heard her grabbing the doorknob, he backed up a few steps. When the door opened wide, Winona locked eyes with the man who stood half of an inch taller than her.

  “I’d never thought that my dad would hire a local P.I.,” Winona told him. “I wouldn’t have been using my bankcard if I had.” Willie slightly grinned. “Anyway, I’m eighteen. Legally you can’t make me go anywhere and I have a job to do.”

  Willie slightly nodded before saying, “I wasn’t hired to put you on a plane back to Fort Lauderdale. I was hired to assist you.”

  “My dad had told you as to why I’m here?” Winona questioned incredulously.

  Willie stepped into a whispering distance before whispering, “Your dad had chosen my services because of what I know.”

  “And what do you know?”

  “I was arrested recently for interfering with an ongoing police investigation of a serial killer…”

  “What does that have to do with what you know?” Winona interrupted.

  “I saw the killers the night before I was arrested, and although the killers look human, I can say with certainty that they’re not,” Willie continued. “They had unnatural quick speed and strength, and they drank blood.”

  “Vampires?” Winona whispered.

  “Yes,” Willie confirmed. “Your dad had hired me to help you to kill these vampires, and I understand that you possess the magic and the incantations to do it.”

  “Yeah, well, I was preparing to cast a locating spell when you knocked on the door,” Winona informed.

  “You won’t need to do that locating spell,” Willie said.

  “You know where the vampires are?” Winona quickly asked.

  “No, what I mean is, your dad wants us to keep communications open between us and him,” Willie began. “He will do the locating spell from Fort Lauderdale and then tell us where to go to find the vampires, which will free you from casting a locating spell in a gas station’s men’s room.”

  Winona slightly smirked before saying, “Well, I still have a couple of spells to cast before I can actually go looking for vampires.”

  “You can do those spells at my office,” Willie said. “So grab your stuff.”

  “Alright,” Winona agreed as she moved to collect her things.

  After Winona and Willie were in Willie’s car and Willie had entered traffic, Willie asked, “So what spells do you have to do?”

  Winona glanced at Willie before answering, “I’m sure you saw TV shows where a wooden stake through the vampire’s heart will kill a vampire.”

  “I have,” Willie agreed.

  “Well, before wooden stakes are effective against vampires, a spell has to be cast on them, and even then a magically enhanced wooden stake through a vampire’s heart will only subdue the vampire…”

  “So how does one kill a vampire?” Willie asked.

  “The only way to kill a vampire is by restraining one within a flame until the fire has completely taken hold of the vampire.”

  “So fire is the only way to kill a vampire,” Willie restated as if to himself.

  “Yep,” Winona said.

  “So, enhancing wooden stakes with magic is one spell that you have to do,” Willie began. “What’s the other one?”

  “I will be turning the crystal balls that I have into incapacitating weapons against vampires,” Winona began. “Once I set loose a magically enhanced crystal ball, any vampires within twenty feet of the crystal ball will be immobilized for eight minutes, which will give me time to stake the vampires with the magically enhanced wooden stakes.”

  “And once you have the stakes through the vampires’ hearts, you can take them somewhere to be burned,” Willie added.

  “Exactly,” Winona agreed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Willie’s office was a part of a one-story building that housed a row of five businesses, and his was the second one on the right between a nail salon and a mom-and-pop deli that sold sub-sandwiches. The deli was the first business on the right. On the other side of the nail salon was a newspaper shop that sold several types of newspapers, catalogs, comics, bottle beverages and snack food. On the far corner was a physical therapist office.

  Winona noticed the deli soon after Willie had pulled into the parking lot, and when she saw that the deli was open and that there were only two customers inside, she informed, “I’m going to the deli for something to eat before I do anything.”

  “I’m a little hungry myself, actually,” Willie replied before pulling into the parking spot that was in front of his office door.

  Before Willie could shut off the engine, Winona was opening her door and stepping out with her bags.

  The owner’s two twenty-something-year-old sons (Austin and Chris) worked the counter. Chris was wearing gothic clothing, jewelry and a name badge, which read ‘Ares’, and he was the one who was taking the orders and fixing the sandwiches while Austin rang up the money.

  Chris was making sandwiches for the two customers when Winona and Willie stepped in line to be served next.

  When Winona saw the name badge, she questioned, “His parents named him Ares?”

  “Who’s named Ares?” Willie asked.

  Winona gestured while saying, “Him. He’s wearing a name badge that reads ‘Ares’.”

  Willie looked before saying, “His name is actually Chris. I don’t know why he’s wearing that name badge… or that getup that he’s wearing.”

  As the two customers moved down to Austin to be checked out, Chris turned his attention towards Winona and Willie.

  In a staged Count Dracula’s voice, Chris said, “Good evening, Willie. How can I serve you and your lovely companion?”

  Willie shot Chris a confused looked before asking, “Have you hit your head recently, Ares?”

  “He was dropped on his head as a baby,” Austin joked.

  “Please ignore this… this peasant,” Chris said as he continued with the staged voice.

  Austin just shook his head as he rang up the price for the sandwiches and chips that the two customers were getting.

  “So what’s up?” Willie asked. “Are you changing your name to Ares?”

  “I’m currently participating in a vampire larp,” Chris said.

  “What’s a vampire larp?” Willie asked.

  “It’s a vampire live action role-playing game, and I have to stay in character,” Chris explained.

  “You’re playing the game here at work?” Winona questioned.

  “I am,” Chris said, simply.

  “How long is the game?” Willie asked.

  “It began today and it will end when there’s a winner, and I was told that the game could take as long as a week, or even longer before ending.”

  “So how does one play this role-playing game?” Winona asked.

  “Well, each larping group may play the game differently,” Chris began. “With the larping group that I’m with there are twenty-five teams—twenty-two teams of five and three teams of six. Anyway, we choose our own names, and then our team captain assigns us abilities…”

  “What kind of abilities?” Winona interrupted.

  “Since I’m a
new player, I’m considered a thrall, and thralls aren’t allowed to know what the abilities are until he or she gets hit by one,” Chris explained. Winona and Willie gave him curious looks. “I was told that the abilities are what you would find in the board games though.”

  “Alright,” Winona said in a tone as if to say, ‘if you say so.’

  “Oh, uh, each player gets attributes too—such as every player gets the attributes bravery and intimidation, and the scale for attributes can range from one to five. My bravery is two, so if an opponent confronts me with an intimidation of three, I’m to kneel before him or her.”

  “Okay,” Winona acknowledged.

  “Anyway, each team is then given a large number of tasks to be completed. One task might be to find a lost magical amulet. There would be only one amulet, but ten or more teams would be assigned that task, so obviously, there will be conflict among the teams while retrieving the amulet. So the team that can successfully retrieve the amulet would get the points.”

  “So there is scoring involve?” Winona asked.

  “Oh yeah, in fact, each team would start out with five hundred life-points,” Chris said. “Which would equal a hundred life-points each for a team of five and approximately eighty-three life points each for a team of six. Of course depending on the team’s captain, the life-points could be distributed unevenly.”

  “Okay,” Winona acknowledged.

  “Those life-points would then decrease during a battle and then increase after a task has been completed successfully,” Chris continued. “Any team member who would reach zero life-points would be considered dead; however, I was told that certain vampires are also sorcerers and conjurers, so once a sorcerer or a conjurer reaches so many life-points, the sorcerer or the conjurer could restore a dead team member back to life by transferring some of his or her life-points to that dead team member. The game ends when all the tasks are complete and the life-points for the teams have been tallied, or when there is only one team left in the game.”

  “Okay, well, have fun,” Winona told him. Chris just gave a nod. “Meanwhile, can you conjure me up a tuna club sandwich on whole-wheat?”

  “Sure,” Chris said with an amused grin. “Your usual, Willie?”

  “That’ll be good,” Willie said.

  Chris nodded before he went to work making the sandwiches. After slicing the bread for Winona’s sandwich, Chris looked up at her and asked, “So what’s your name?”

  “Winona,” she answered simply.

  “Do you live around here, Winona?” Chris questioned.

  “No,” she replied. “I’m just visiting.”

  “From where?” Chris continued.

  “From Fort Lauderdale.”

  “So how long will you be visiting?” Chris questioned.

  “I’m here on personal business, so as soon as my business gets concluded, I’ll be leaving,” Winona replied.

  “Bummer,” Chris said. “I was hoping I could show you around.”

  Winona slightly grinned before saying, “Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to have to pass.”

  “Okay,” Chris said with a grin before turning his full attention on making the sandwiches.

  Winona and Willie took their sandwiches, chips and drinks next door to Willie’s office. After taking fifteen minutes to eat their sandwiches and chips, Winona and Willie moved onto the incantations.

  Winona pulled out the three crystal balls and then a needle from the sewing kit. Willie watched curiously as Winona pricked her finger and then continued to watch curiously as she drew out the proper symbols on one of the crystal balls with her blood. Once the symbols were drawn out, Winona cast the incantation, and the activation word that she used was the Seminole word equivalent to the word ‘sunrise’.

  Winona then drew out the symbols again with her blood on one of the two remaining crystal balls and repeated the incantation, and the activation word for the second one was the Seminole word equivalent to the word ‘dusk’.

  For a third time, Winona drew out the symbols on the last crystal ball and repeated the incantation, and the activation word for the final one was the Seminole word equivalent to the word ‘midnight’.

  As Winona was marking the crystal balls for easy identification, Willie pointed out, “That incantation wasn’t performed exactly the same way on each of the crystal balls. Why wasn’t it performed the same way each time?”

  “Any word or phrase can be used to activate the spell,” Winona began. “So that I wouldn’t activate all three at the same time, I gave each one its own activation word.”

  “Makes sense,” Willie said. “Anyway, does a person have to be a witch or a warlock to activate the spell?”

  “I don’t know about that, but I do know that only the person who had originally cast the spell on the crystal balls is the only person who can activate them.”

  “Well, that’s inconvenient,” Willie retorted.

  “It is,” Winona agreed with a grin.

  Winona held her grin as she moved onto the wooden stakes.

  “What about them?” Willie questioned while gesturing towards the wooden stakes.

  In a confused tone, Winona echoed, “What about them?”

  “After you cast the spell on the wooden stakes, are you the only one who can make those stakes work?”

  “The wooden stakes are different,” Winona explained. “There’s no activation word once the spell is complete, so as far as I know, anyone can use a magically enhanced wooden stake to incapacitate a vampire.”

  “Good,” Willie said in a satisfactory tone.

  Winona’s grin came back as she continued the ritual.

  Winona—as she did with the crystal balls—cast the incantation one at a time on the wooden stakes.

  Once the spell was cast on the last stake, Willie—while sitting at his desk and using the speakerphone feature on his phone—called Shayne.

  When Shayne answered the phone, Willie said, “It’s Willie, and Winona is with me.”

  “Hi, Dad,” Winona said.

  “Hi,” Shayne echoed. “Are you sure that you are set on doing this, Winnie?”

  “Yes, Dad, I am,” Winona assured him.

  “Alright,” Shayne agreed. “I actually figured that you would, and I’m currently in front of the mirror. One of the male vampires and the female vampire are together. The second male vampire is in a different part of town. I had taken digital pictures of the three vampires and the buildings that the three are located in, and I have emailed those pictures to Willie.”

  Willie’s laptop was in sleep mode, and it immediately returned to its previous state once it was opened.

  “Give me a moment to log into my Email,” Willie requested as he went to do so.

  “Alright,” Shayne said.

  Once Willie opened the Email and viewed the photos, he said, “I know where both buildings are. One’s a hotel and the other’s called ‘The Crow’s Nest’. ‘The Crow’s Nest’ is a private nightclub that hosts special events.”

  “It might be easier to go after the one by himself,” Winona suggested. “Which building is the single vampire in, Dad?”

  “The photo filename ending with one-fifty-six,” Shayne replied. “The vampire in that building is the photo filename ending with one-fifty-five.”

  “The single vampire is at ‘The Crow’s Nest’,” Willie informed as he began to print out the vampires’ pictures—twice per picture. The first picture began printing.

  “Okay,” Winona said as she glanced towards the squeaking printer.

  “Call me every hour on the hour,” Shayne ordered, “Otherwise I’ll think the worst and I’ll be on the next flight to Atlanta.”

  “Well, I could be in the middle of something, Dad, so give me at least a thirty-minute leeway before you hop on a plane,” Winona requested.

  “Alright,” Shayne agreed. “I’ll keep tabs on the mirror and if something changes, I’ll call you. So keep your phone on.”

  “Alright, Da
d,” Winona said.

  “I have a laptop with mobile internet connection,” Willie added. “I’ll take my laptop with me, so if you need to Email additional information, you can.”

  “Alright,” Shayne agreed. “Bye.”

  “Bye,” Winona and Willie echoed.

  After Willie hung up, Winona saw that he was giving the crystal balls and wooden stakes curious looks.

  “What?” Winona asked while glancing at the items.

  “You need something other than your gym bag to carry your crystal balls and stakes in—something that would be less conspicuous.”

  “Like what?” Winona asked.

  “There are purses big enough to carry them, and I know this because my ex-wife Liz would carry one,” Willie informed. “Also you’ll need a mallet.”

  “Why would I need a mallet?” Winona questioned.

  “Unless you have the unnatural strength to drive a wooden stake through bone with only the thrust of your hand, you’re going to need a mallet to drive a stake through the vampire’s ribs in order to pierce the heart,” Willie said while pulling open his bottom desk drawer. “And I actually have a mallet.” Willie pulled out a heavy rubber mallet and laid it down on the desk. “I found it near the dumpster a few weeks ago actually. No one came looking for it, so I’m giving it to you.”

  Winona picked up the mallet while saying, “Now all I need is a purse to carry everything.”

  Willie stood up, and while walking over to the printer to retrieve the pictures, he instructed, “Put your things in your bag.”

  “Okay,” Winona replied in an uncertain tone as she went to put her things up.

  “Liz always buys a new purse every few weeks, so she should have old ones stuffed in a closet somewhere.”

  “And she doesn’t have a problem with giving strangers her old purses?”

  “When she collects so many, she gives them to a thrift store. So I don’t see why she would have a problem with it.”

  “Okay,” Winona said while she was finishing up at putting the items back into her bag.

  Willie closed his laptop—while forcing it into sleep mode again—and then grabbed the car-charger for the laptop from his desk drawer.