I pointed this out to Ballard, who just shrugged. Somebody tapped my shoulder. “Need to know,” they said. “And you don’t.” I got a little chill.
It looked like they were letting the VIPs in first. I suddenly worried that it would be packed to capacity before we ever got there.
But before I knew it, we were in. I saw Ballard tip the door guy. He was an astonishing mix of naive and shrewd, Ballard. I would’ve missed that one. It got us through, no questions asked.
“What are we supposed to do, now?” he said, being naive guy again. I shrugged. I didn’t know either.
I had to shout over the loud noises. “We should probably start with figuring out what this place is, exactly!”
Ballard nodded.
Everywhere were couples.
Awkward. There was no worse feeling than being around a bunch of people dancing, and I wasn’t one of them. People continued to crowd in.
I saw a flight of chrome stairs leading to the first floor. “We gotta go to the second floor,” I told Ballard.
He rolled his eyes. I pointed it out with my hand palm down, as was customary in Italy. Italians must have done that because they were always pointing to something beautiful––so the gesture had a bit of an appraisal to it. In any event, he got the gist.
We slipped through the humping and gyrating bodies and made it to the second floor––and it was subtly different than the first. In my diary I would have written, See, you can go to the first floor––and stop there. Or you can go to the second floor, and see what’s up. The few go to the third floor.
But I could see no way to get to it. “I don’t get it,” I said. “If Romans don’t point––” I jabbed my finger at Ballard, “what’s with the hand of the Colossus? Never mind,” I said, when I could see that he didn’t get it, either. He was too preoccupied.
He was trying to figure out how to be one of the few. “How do you take the road less traveled, if you can’t find the road?” he asked.
The answer came to me all at once. “If everyone could find the road, it wouldn’t be worth taking. It must be hidden,” I said. Maybe I was taking it right now.
Ballard got out the flyer. He unfolded it. “Do we just wait?” he said. I perused it with him. “I think we just wait,” he said.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Look!” he said. He pointed with his palm down.
I could see what he was appraising. The light show had changed. The splitter was making the laser beam make strange shapes. “Weird,” he said. Then, “cool!”
A ball of light exploded, scattered, reconstituted.
Before we knew it, triangles began to form in the sky; from the second level, it was like they were right in our faces, endlessly repeating, one inside the next.
Then the lights that had scattered at the initial, big explosion, gathered at the edges of the light show, and built themselves into a giant circle that enclosed the triangle, and behold, there was a flame in the center––the flame of the light; and I Saw.
My head felt dizzy, seeing the images spin....
“Ballard. I think I need to sit down. Ballard?”
But Ballard wasn’t looking at the light show. He was looking somewhere else.
“Ballard?” I said. I turned to see what had gotten his attention. An elevator opened out of the wall. It must lead to the third floor, I realized. A procession of robed figures was departing from it. With their deep hoods it was impossible to tell who they were.
“Don’t drink anything they give you, Ballard,” I said. He nodded. Suddenly, it felt as though we had stumbled upon a cult.
* * *
We were being herded down to the ground floor. Surrounding the three robed figures was their staff of bodyguards. At the same time, someone gave the order to lock us in. The music had cut out. Over the speakers, a voice was saying, “If you’re not in by the time the doors close, then you’ll just have to wait until next time. Thank you so much.”
A nervous twitter went up.
I saw the speaker before I went down the chrome steps. He was holding a gold-tipped microphone. Everywhere there were excited noises. I didn’t know what was going on. The bodyguards took their places at the bottom of the stairs, huge arms folded across their too-tight muscle shirts, effectively cutting anyone off from getting past them. It was their bosses I concentrated on, now. I felt Ballard reach for my hand; he took it, forcefully.
The guy with the microphone handled the preamble.
“Welcome,” he said, “to Club Change.”
Huge cheer.
“And to the first night of the rest of your lives!”
“Actually every night is the first night of the rest of our lives,” I said.
“Halls, something is wrong here,” said Ballard.
“How come? Wait... you’re not getting one of your feelings again, are you?”
He told me not to draw attention to myself
The doors were locking. More guards stood over them.
Ballard steered me back into the throng.
“We’re here, tonight...” said the voice over the microphone––
But whatever he said after that I couldn’t hear. The sea of figures raised their arms and danced around, drowning him with their cheers. Suddenly, the three robed figures stood forward, and removed their hoods. There was a gasp as the audience saw them for the first time.
Ballard said, “You know that bad feeling I have?”
“Shh. I want to listen.” I was just as enthralled as the rest of them.
When I looked at them all, however, it became apparent I was not. The sight of the faces of the robed figures had done something to the audience. It was like they were transfixed, focused on the eyes of the three faces.
A murmur was going through the crowd. Something was happening. People in front of me were passing something back.
“Take one!” said the speaker over the microphone.
Ballard shook his head. “Don’t,” he said. I grabbed one and looked at what everyone was holding. Chew tablets.
Couples were feeding them to each other, letting them melt on their tongues. Everyone focused again, high overhead.
“Good,” said the speaker.
He signaled and the lights went out.
Laser beams began cutting through the air. Everyone went “Ooh,” “Ahh.”
As the voice spoke, images formed. It was like going to the planetarium. The soundtrack was terrifying. “Long, long ago: there was War.”
Figures clashed, drums beat. We saw figures dancing through the air. They had evil, pointed faces, triangles for bodies. Their shields were circles.
An army of the undead was rising from the earth. The laser beams went up close on a hand. It poked from the earth, then twisted into a cruel claw, its flesh falling off––and it climbed from the earth.
“It was called the First War,” said the voice, “and it was fought by the Beginners.”
I felt Ballard poke me in the ribs.
“What?” I said.
“We need to find a way out of here.”
“I want to listen to this,” I said.
He groaned.
“In the beginning, there was darkness, and things were neither better nor worse. Then light chased away the darkness and it hid where darker things dwelt,” said the voice. “Scared, it came back to the light, but the light was too powerful for darkness. It obliterated the night.
“But, behold!
“Before night died, it brought with it, Evil.”
I saw an army rise up and defeat Light. The sun bounced off Evil’s shields. The triangle of one vicious warrior, left its neck, and flew before us. It righted itself, and stood like a pyramid in the sky. The delta symbol.
The speaker was talking again.
“It was the strongest shape, delta. The pharaohs themselves built with it.”
The bits of the exploded figure, that hovered in the background, offered up “...The shield,” said the speaker. “And
its center. The circumpunct.”
Ballard wasn’t poking me anymore.
The delta and the theta had formed––and I knew what the symbol meant, finally. I waited, to see if I was right.
“Original Evil needed a shield from the sun, otherwise it would perish. So it constructed it out of the theta symbol to mock Light. Instead of light and the sun, theta became synonymous with Death.
“The light, you see, had provoked the night,” said the speaker. “In response, Night sent its darkest emissaries. Warriors. They were not so invincible Light could not offer up its own warriors, to fight them back––which was all of us.
“But here is where Light had either a mistake or a stroke of genius. Instead of creating warriors as powerful as itself, Light made them weak, to tempt Evil, and so be tempted in return.
“The warriors of Light could be changed, you see.
“Their blood mixed with the blood of Evil, and so weakened Evil for all time.
“The warriors that had seemed so unstoppable, were not any longer. The sun that had bounced off their shields, now struck them down. They were forbidden to wander under the sun.
“But Light no longer held dominion. The day, that was long, was halved, into Darkness and Light. And that is how Darkness was reborn into the world.”
“So neither side won?” someone asked. The crowd listened, in awe.
“The first war was ended,” said the speaker. “But Light could not be happy about that. It had never encountered anything that could stop it. Neither had the Night.
“They were at loggerheads, you see.
“Light said, ‘I sent you humans, and you turned them.’
“Dark said, ‘I sent you my best warriors, and you tricked them.’
“Then Darkness had an idea, because it thought that it could win.
“‘If I agree not to interfere,” it said, “and you agree not to interfere, then we agree not to interfere.’
“And Light said, ‘They will settle it for themselves.’
“So they agreed to withdraw from the field of combat, together.
“But Dark, though the sun could weaken him, knew that it was only a matter of time. After all, thought Dark, what could humans do?
“Dark’s Army, though weakened, was still the master of change. They alone could transform, both themselves and Light’s insignificant forces. What could Light do in return?
“It was only a matter of time.
“For his part, Light thought, ‘I have made my warriors wise in lore, and they have met the Night. They will confound it.’
“Both withdrew. But time, as it does, caused darkness to forsake the light. Day and night withdrew to their respective sides. And humans forgot that evil existed.
“It came back again.
“Behold! It saw that humans had thrived and multiplied; they were capable of building great cities and great works of art. Evil saw that it could take them unawares. But something had happened to Evil; maybe it was the time apart. It had grown weary, had old Evil.
“It no longer thrilled in things, least of all killing all of Light’s creations.
“Evil was dying. But something happened. Evil saw that the light in the eyes of its victims went out, but their flame of humanity never dwindled. Their flame was immortal, by way of their children. And it learned its greatest trick, did old Evil.
“If, instead of killing them, it sired new of its kind, not only would Evil last––with a renewed sense of evil––but it could take the flame of Humanity for all time. But it must be scrupulous in its selection, and protect its numbers, otherwise the humans would be overrun.
“Evil had never forgotten the trick of the light––that the light had tempted it, and so diluted Evil’s powers. Even now, the Darkness realized that it could not live without the Light, whereas before it would have destroyed it, if it could; it would have destroyed Humanity. They were bound, you see.
“The Dark Host needed to feed upon the cattle of the sun, to live and pass its curse, if it so chose. It, too, had forgotten, it seemed, for Light had had a plan.
“Certain of Light’s warriors retained knowledge of Good and Evil, and so set about to do as Light had intended them from the start: To confound.
“They created Schools. In them, they passed down knowledge of the First War. And that it was only a respite. That eventually Evil would learn of a way to forsake humanity forever.
“But they grew proud of their accomplishments. It seemed that vanity was everywhere. First one school grew up, then another. The brightest sought to carve for themselves. And they grew competitive against one another. They forgot the true purpose of their craft. So fractured.”
“Evil smiled, because the threat to it was destroyed. They were too busy fighting one another, to mind that Evil took what it pleased. But it must never take from one of them––from one of the disciples of the Schools. It must never draw their blood. Evil had learned that lesson long ago. It preyed upon what it knew, instead of risking being weakened once more. It preyed upon human beings.
“Time passed. Evil’s memory grew dim. The warriors whom it had built grew tired with age; they passed. New warriors grew up. But they had no memory of the Schools, nor of what they taught. So grew ignorant. And ambivalent of their ignorance.
“Life was a full plate, with many new meals to experience. With always the knowledge that they must not make too many of themselves.
“Then it happened.
“The humans Light had entrusted with the protection of Humanity had failed. Even if Evil had forgotten, it at least knew that it hunted unperturbed.
“Until they came.
“They were like the Sun, these new warriors; they fought into every crease and crack. And they rooted out Evil’s dark brood.Suddenly, Evil was hunted wherever it turned.
“By this time, the world had advanced by an exceptional amount. Europe was the center of the universe. And though each side would make salvos, eventually they grew tired of warfare. They drew lines.
“To Paris, Evil withdrew, and with its mocking spirit, it became known as the City of Light. And to Rome, the Guardians, who would protect Light’s Eternal City from Evil at all costs.
“But then time passed again.”
* * *
Ballard and I waited with drawn breath. The speaker had turned off the golden microphone. He was speaking with the figures in robes; they nodded, silently. Their faces were beautiful, ethereal, hard as stone. I thought they looked unhappy about something. They were a man and two women. I wondered what they were so angry about.
“Suck me! I want you!” cried a woman, down in the audience.
What followed, I will never forget.
Chapter 14 – Halsey
A hand reached out and grabbed me from behind. I turned, reflexively, prepared to swing my handbag at whoever it was, only stopped. “Oh,” I think I said.
He was a vampire. According to that New Age shadow play I and Ballard had just witnessed, such were the minions of Evil. I knew that now.
Only this one didn’t scare me.
He was frightening, to be sure: his eyes were black and they shone even in the dark, better to hunt his prey, but it was who he was with, and how they behaved together, that put me at my ease.
Lennox was with him. Lennox was a vampire. He only came out at night....
I briefly made eye contact, but he didn’t focus on me. Ballard’s jaw hung open. “Halsey... what?”
“Later,” I said.
The new vampire’s hand, where it gripped me through my shirt, was big and firm and startlingly ice-cold. He smiled. I could see his fangs. He was beautiful and marvelous and gigantic. At least six seven. He looked dangerous, a rebel. The glint in his eye was mischievous. He had dark, almost wild-looking hair. It hung to his shoulders.
But there was something untamed about him––as though he wandered through existence. He was well muscled and firm looking––even through his clothing, I could tell.
Bot
h he and Lennox looked above us now, high overhead at the three vampires who threatened to kill everyone.
When people turned and saw the two of them, I could feel their excitement. Ballard gripped my hand. I wanted to reach out to Lennox. Ballard wouldn’t let me.
“What do you think?” said the vampire who had touched my shoulder. He looked askance at Lennox, waiting for the other’s response. Something was worrying Lennox, whereas this new vampire seemed to like to jump into things.
The door guards came at us, flexing their muscles. I could see the ones from the stairs also converging. I tried to warn Lennox; he just shook me off. “They know some things,” he said.
“Shall we?” asked the vampire whose name I didn’t know yet.
“After you, Marek,” said Lennox.
They turned, intercepting two guards, who lunged at them. I remembered thinking we would never get out of Club Change alive––and not caring, so long as I got to hear the rest of the story. Now I was excited for a whole new reason.
Marek and Lennox took the guards and threw them bodily through the glass. My jaw dropped. The other guards came at them, but Lennox and Marek moved too fast for them to see.
Next thing I knew, there was a pile of bodies outside, lying on top of the shards of broken glass, and people were screaming, heading for the exits. Ballard and I just stood there. Lennox and Marek were back, now. “By the way, this is Halsey,” said Lennox. He introduced us. “And her friend. I don’t know who he is.”
“Ballard.” Ballard shook Lennox’s hand.
Marek winked at me. I didn’t think I could have said anything, even if I had wanted to. I was too stunned at the news that there were vampires, that they really existed, and that I knew two of them. When did this happen?
“Shall we?” said Lennox to Marek.
Something passed between the two of them––a look, an understanding... I didn’t know what it was.
Finally, Marek said, “Die young... Live forever, my old friend.” Then he rushed the three vampires, with Lennox in tow.
I watched them fight the three vampires faster than the eye could see––but some of it made sense to me, before they began to battle each other too fiercely.
The Wiccan Diaries Page 16
