by Platt, Sean
I wouldn’t trust me.
Abigail tried calling out to John in her head. He might understand, and be able to tell her what to do next.
John?
John, please, I need you.
She wondered if their connection was broken, or if he was simply too busy to respond. Abigail sobbed, staring down at the remains of her only friend.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, lying on the floor beside Katya, hugging her corpse.
Suddenly, Abigail felt someone in her head.
John?
“No,” the voice said. It was Talani.
“You made me kill her!” Abigail screamed. “She’s dead.”
“Dead?” Talani said, seeming surprised. “What happened?”
I did what you said. And then when I tried to save her, to turn her, you left me! Now she’s gone!
“Oh God, Abigail, I’m so sorry.”
Why did you leave? Why?
“Our connection broke. I couldn’t feel you anymore. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear. I thought you had pushed me away.”
Abigail said nothing, just stared at Katya’s body, wishing she could reverse the energy and put breath back into Katya. She would gladly surrender her life to bring Katya back.
She was nice. She shouldn’t have died. I should have.
“It’s not your fault.”
Yes, it is!
“No, Abigail. You were trying to help her — trying to share your gift.”
Gift? You call this a gift? It’s a curse! I wish John had never brought me back.
“You don’t mean that, Abigail. You’re just scared.”
I do mean it. I don’t want to live like this. I don’t want to be a monster.
“You’re not a monster. You’re just with the wrong people. They don’t understand you. It isn’t their fault. It’s not that they don’t love you. They just can’t understand you.”
John understands me. We’re the same.
“But he’s not there, is he?”
It’s not his fault. He has to work.
“Sounds like my father. Always working. Never had time for me. I never would’ve been turned if he had been home when the man tried to kill me.”
What man? What are you talking about?
“It was a man who lived next door to us. He knew my parents were never home. He came over and tried to … touch me. I fought back and he stabbed me. Sixteen times before he left me for dead. I crawled out onto the street. An old woman saw me. She called an ambulance once she stopped screaming. I died while being wheeled into the hospital. Someone brought me back.”
Who?
“A woman who happened to be at the hospital when I was brought in. She snuck into my room and saved me. Now I’d like to save you, Abigail, to offer you a place with others of your kind.”
There’s more? How many?
“There are four of us like family. But there are even more out there, an entire community of people like us. Like you.”
All vampires?
“No, not all of them. But all are different, and all are people you can feel safe to be yourself around. People who won’t look at you as the monster you’re not. Come, Abigail, please. Let me introduce you to them.”
I don’t know.
“Listen, Abigail, I won’t speak ill of your friends. But I will ask you if they are there when you need them most? Where are they now?”
Talani had a point, even if it hurt Abigail to see it.
Larry and John were off fighting monsters, or whatever it was John had to do for the government. What was to say he would ever have time for her? If she was losing control of her abilities now, then surely she would hurt Larry soon, or someone else John cared about. She thought of John’s love, Hope. What would happen once they were reunited? Would John try to become human again? If so, they wouldn’t have room for an out-of-control vampire child in their life or home.
What was I thinking? That we could all be one big happy family?
Abigail felt foolish.
Everyone would be better off without me.
“You don’t need to be alone,” Talani reassured Abigail from inside her head. “Come, meet my family. Then decide if you want to stay. If not, I’ll bring you back home.”
Okay, Abigail thought back, though she wasn’t sure she even had a home, not once Larry found out about Katya.
Abigail grabbed her coat and was about to head out the door. But realizing she had no money, Abigail went back, grabbed Katya’s purse, then dug for her wallet, phone, and credit cards. She took them all, shoved them into her coat, and headed out to find the voice in her head.
Abigail walked to the corner gas station, called a cab, then took the taxi downtown following Talani’s directions. She arrived at a cyber café located at the far end of a strip mall with a grocery store, bar, bank, and few other places, all closed. The café was small, lined with a dozen or so surfers, all sitting at cramped desks, lining each wall and running down the small shop’s center aisle. Most of them seemed to be playing some sort of car game or another.
Near the shop’s rear sat an old black woman in a bright pink floral dress, looking up from behind a larger desk with a computer and register. In front of the woman sat a romance novel, face down and open to the center, a long haired man’s bare chest gleaming from the cover.
“Ask for me,” Talani had said. “Edith will bring you to the back room.”
Abigail approached the old woman, nervous, feeling as if she were doing something criminal by asking for Talani.
“Hi,” Abigail said, her quivering voice betraying her timidity. “Is Talani here?”
The woman eyed Abigail up and down, as if trying to determine if she belonged. The woman, probably Edith, nodded then pointed to a door behind her. “In there.”
“Thank you,” Abigail nodded, then went to the shop’s rear and tried the doorknob. At first, it didn’t budge.
Edith pushed a button behind her desk and the door clicked unlocked. Only then did Abigail spy the shotgun sitting on a shelf under the desk, within Edith’s easy reach.
What kind of place is this?
Abigail turned the knob and slipped through the doorway, into a narrow hall with another three doors on either side, plus one at the end with tinted glass leading outside. She saw a camera above the rear door with two lenses, one aimed at the door below and the other directly at the door where she’d entered.
Before Abigail reached the hallway’s end, one of the doors opened and a thin, black girl with long, dark hair and a stylish, black coat and dress stepped out, studying Abigail. She seemed maybe 16.
“Abgail?” the girl said, her voice the same as the one in Abigail’s head.
“Yes. Talani?”
“Good to meet you,” Talani smiled, a big, genuine-looking smile, walking toward Abigail and reaching out to pull her into a hug, as if they were long-lost friends freshly reacquainted. Abigail pulled back out of instinct, forgetting she was harmless to a fellow vampire. Talani smiled and Abigail relaxed into her embrace. Her newest friend wore the scent of a faint but sweet perfume which Abigail instantly liked.
“Come,” Talani said, “there’s someone I want you to meet.”
Talani led Abigail back through the door and into a small storage room piled high with cardboard boxes. Abigail looked around, confused, seeing no one.
“Just back here,” Talani said, leading Abigail back past the boxes and through a doorway leading to a second storage room, also filled with boxes. She opened a door which spilled into a much larger room, the boarded up storefront beside the cyber café.
Is this some kind of secret place that you can only get to by passing through their security in the cyber café ?
The room was lit by a solitary candle sitting in the center of a table. Several folding chairs surrounded the table as if it were a regular meeting place of some sort. At the table sat a short, blonde with medium length hair who appeared mid-30s. She wore thin, round, red-framed glasses. “This
is Judith,” Talani said. “She saved me.”
“Hi,” Abigail said, standing at a distance and waving.
“Sit,” said Judith in a friendly voice, waving her hand at the other chairs.
Abigail sat across from Judith. Talani took a seat to Abigail’s right. Abigail looked around, “What is this place?”
“A special sort of meeting place. Talani tells me you’re one of us? A vampire?”
“Yes,” Abigail said.
“And so young.” Judith sighed. “Who turned you?”
Abigail felt protective, and didn’t want to give John’s name. “A man who saved me after I was shot.”
“And where is he now? Why is he not taking care of you?”
“He was, but he has a busy job. He has to travel a lot.”
“Yes.” Abigail thought she might have heard the slightest hiss in Judith’s word. “I heard he works for our enemy.”
Abigail wondered how she knew that. Abigail hadn’t told Talani. The girl must’ve been poking around in her head and found out about John. Abigail felt a chill run down her spine, afraid she’d made a bad mistake meeting Talani.
“He’s not a bad man,” Abigail said, shifting nervously in her seat.
“It’s okay,” Judith smiled. “I’m not interested in persecuting your friend. We all make our choices, and who is anyone to judge another’s decisions until they’ve walked in their proverbial shoes?”
“Good,” Abigail said, fidgeting, uncertain what she should say and feeling like she might have offended the woman, though she had no plans to apologize.
Judith smiled. “You’re among friends now. We run a meeting for our kind here twice a week at 8 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.”
“What kind of meeting?”
“Support, Abigail. We offer a place for outcasts to come and feel accepted. It’s sort of like church, but without a false God to pray to.”
“Oh,” Abigail said, not sure what else to say. She was feeling uncomfortable and wished she’d called Larry rather than following Talani’s call.
“Show her the place,” Talani said.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Judith said.
Abigail wondered what place Talani was talking about.
“You have to!” Talani pleaded, for the first time sounding like a teenager instead of the authoritative voice Abigail had somehow grown almost used to hearing in her head.
Judith met Abigail’s eyes. “Would you like to see something only five others on Earth have ever seen?”
“Okay,” Abigail agreed, again shifting in her seat, still uncomfortable behind the thick curtain of uncertainty.
Judith held her hands out in front of her, cupping them as she muttered and whispered into her palms. Abigail could barely hear, and the few words she could make out were foreign, and somehow off. It was a language she’d never heard, and yet it seemed vaguely familiar.
A dim light was born in Judith’s palms, then glowed brighter as an image hovered above them. It jumped and flickered, like video seeking reception, until it cleared enough for Abigail to see the rich, green mountains, a waterfall larger and bluer than any she’d seen even in the glossiest pictures, and something flying high in the richly purpled sky. As the image closed in on that something, Abigail saw that it wasn’t a bird, but rather the impossibility of a Pegasus instead.
“Whoa!” Abigail breathed, lost inside the beauty of a winged horse, so rich with details it couldn’t be fake.
Judith closed her hands around the image, and Abigail watched as it faded into ashen wisps of nothing.
“What was that?” she asked, mesmerized.
“That is the world I’m from,” Judith said. “Home to our kind, the Valkoer.”
Valkoer? That’s what we’re called?
“It’s so beautiful,” Abigail whispered, wondering if that was where John was from, too. And the world his brother, Caleb, had gone off to. It had to be. John and Larry didn’t speak much of the world in front of her, or Caleb. She’d only picked up on bits and pieces. But they had never described it so beautifully, or mentioned something so mythic as winged horses.
“Yes,” Judith said. “Those are my final memories of home. I’ve not been back in thousands of years.”
“Thousands?” Abigail said, shocked. “How old are you?”
“I stopped counting long ago,” Judith smiled. “How old are you?”
“I’m almost 13. Well, I stopped growing when I was 11. So, I guess eleven.”
“Do you like being 11?” Judith asked.
Abigail looked at Talani who smiled sweetly, then back to Judith. “Not really. Everyone treats me like a kid.”
“Yeah, I imagine that’s rough,” Judith said. “Given a choice, what age would you choose to be?”
“I don’t know,” Abigail shrugged. Memories from Katya flashed through her mind — the girl’s twenty-first birthday in particular. A large party with many friends, a cute boyfriend who wore his hair long. He liked to laugh and loved her a lot. The party had been one of the best nights of her life, and memory said she thought of it almost every day.
“I think I’d like to be maybe 20. Or 21?”
Judith smiled. “Ah, yes, those are good years.”
Abigail turned to Talani. “How old would you choose?”
“I like being this age. I’m young enough that people are still nice to me, and it’s easy to take advantage of nasty old men.” Talani laughed.
Abigail joined her, though she didn’t think the comment was that funny.
“Tell me, Abigail,” Judith said. “What would you do if I said you don’t have to be 11 forever?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if I said you can choose your age?”
“I can? Nobody ever told me that.”
“Of course not. Men who turn girls into vampires want to be needed. They don’t like when girls grow into women and find their independence. If they could have their way, they’d keep us all in boxes on shelves, serving only their whims.”
Abigail shook her head. “No, that’s not John. He loves me. He didn’t even want to turn me. He saved me after I died.”
Judith smiled. “Well, perhaps he doesn’t know the spell.”
“The spell?”
“The spell that allows us to alter our age. You can be any age you want to be, Abigail. Any age at all.”
“How?” Abigail whispered.
“I’m glad you asked,” Judith said, her smile growing wider, reminding Abigail of the Cheshire Cat.
Forty-Two
Hannah
Hannah waited for Greg in the small office, furnished with a chair and desk, but no phone, computer, or any other sort of communication device. She wondered what sort of work was done in such an empty office. She considered opening the desk drawer to see if there was anything inside — maybe the office wasn’t assigned, or it was an office for field agents to temporarily use — but she didn’t know if there were cameras, or if she was somehow being watched. She probably was, so Hannah fought the urge to investigate, along with the one to nod off as her head grew heavy. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but they’d been there a few hours, and it felt late.
Hannah was tired, hungry, and wanted to be anywhere other than the FBI building where Greg had brought her — a place that didn’t say FBI anywhere outside, but instead looked like any of the typical buildings Hannah filled with flowers each Monday for the week’s standing orders. Yet, inside everyone looked like agents, straight from a movie, and she was surprised to see the number of people working so late.
Since their arrival, Greg had barely been there, off talking to his bosses or doing God only knew what, while Hannah’s patience was disappearing. When Greg finally returned, he wasn’t alone.
He stepped into the office behind one man and in front of another. The first man — introduced as Commander Mike Mathews — was about 10 years his senior. His jaw was chiseled like a G.I. Joe, though his body was short, and slightly soft. He looked like a
ny number of asshole frat guys Hannah thought she remembered from college. He gave her a big fake smile and extended his hand. “Hello. It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Hannah said, shaking his hand. She tried not to laugh as he showed the strength of his handshake. What a tool.
The second man was older. Tall, thin, and pale looking, with dark hair and darker circles blotting the skin beneath his nose. He reminded Hannah of a cartoon villain, enough that she had to suppress a smile.
“Hello, ma’am,” said the cartoon villain in a German accent, making him seem even more like a cliché, nodding toward Hannah but not offering his hand, as if too shy to shake.
Okay, he’s not weird at all.
“This is Mr. Skinner,” Greg said. “He would like to examine you.”
“What?” Hannah couldn’t hide her alarm. “What do you mean, examine me?”
Mathews took a step forward wearing his big fake smile. “It’s nothing like you’re thinking, Ms. Quinn. Mr. Skinner isn’t a doctor. He’s something of a specialist, here to help us find something.”
Not a doctor; oh, that’s a relief.
“I’m confused. What’s happening, Greg?”
“Just relax,” he said, his voice reassuring as he stuck her in the neck with something. She could barely register what it was before seeing the needle.
“What the … ” Hannah fell back before she could finish her sentence.
Greg caught Hannah and set her gently back in the chair.
What the hell are you doing?
She could barely feel her body, or his touch. Hannah could only sense it as if it were happening to someone else. She felt as if she were swimming through the middle of a weird dream that barely belonged to her. She turned to Greg, their eyes meeting for a breath, but focus was difficult. She tried to ask why but Hannah’s mouth ignored her mind.
The tall German leaned closer and placed his hands over Hannah’s chest. She tried to move, repulsed by the thought of the strange man touching her, but she couldn’t even twitch with her entire body, which was numb and unresponsive.
The man continued to hold his hands over Hannah, moving them back and forth, hovering centimeters above without touching herb body. He turned back to Mathews and pointed directly at Hannah’s chest. “It’s here. Next to her heart.”
