Wednesday, May 18, 2011

FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

Kadeema and Lorenzo lived like animals, nocturnal beasts preying on victims and shattering lives. Did she call him by name? No, he was simply her mate. Verbal communication was not necessary. Vampires, even the least talented, have enough telepathic ability to cover the simple stuff.  Hunger? Lust? Fatigue? Danger? Shelter? Warmth? No need to verbalize that. Do wolves? Well, all right. You have me there. Wolves do howl and whimper and growl, yet so do 'noxious' vampires.. You know what they're really like? They're like werewolves, just minus that thick, glossy coat and dog show good looks. And they hunt like werewolves too.Sometimes just for fun. Not every unfortunate human gets drained dry. Occasionally they just play, flaying skin and flesh from off  the rib cage,  sucking out particularly enticing eyeballs, commiting sundry and varied sexual violations, or maybe just lighting fires. In some parts of the Old World, they ARE vampires, since rarified NOBLE types usually affect a discreet lifestyle and eschew such declasse theatrics.

Now, if we consider our own position in the space-time continuim, that means Lorenzo has been a feral being for about one hundred annd thirty years. Pretty good run for a 'noxious.' They're the ones townspeople usually come after with  pitchforks and torches. True, they are strong and difficult to eradicate.. Still, gobble up a few too many Red Riding Hoods in the woods and people start avoiding those woods. If the pickin's get too thin, the uncouth bastards move on. I don't know too much about Kadeema. She's old, real old. I know that. But she throws up a good veil and it's mighty hard to penetrate. Some say she was brought back to Genoa by a fourteenth century sea captain, a 'wild woman' curiosity locked in an iron cage. Don't know how or what they fed her though. I heard she was from Cyprus, or some such place as that. One truth is as good as the next.

Edith, the New Jersey, Piney Woman 'seer,' lodgin' with the state-side vampires picks up stuff. She worries about Jonathon and Sarah. She wants them to succeed. So she sends 'em stuff. Stuff from her head, from her brain, from her mind. Somethin's out there. She knows it. But can she focus? Can she see them? Lorenzo and Kadeema, I mean?  Who the hell knows? I am just another disembodied spirits they got floatin' 'round this joint.

But our two noble travellers are beginning to notice a certain 'thin'n' out' of the wild life. Empty caves are gettin' easier to find. Golden eyes stare back less frequently in the dark. And even the spiders have gone away. There be monsters here. I know it...........

So wrap that cloak tight around your shoulders. Say your prayers (yes, the nobles pray...boy, DO they). And step carefully through the world. But most of all, listen...listen...listen.........Nighty-nite.....

KADEEMA SETS HER VAMPIRINO FREE

The noxious vampire woman known as Kadeema continued to dig. The light from a yellow moon lighting the way. Her grunts heard only by the moths and night birds. Few humans from the village vemtured out this way. They heard the stories. They knew the history. Strange cargo rests in that ground, bodies unshriven by the church. Souls in thrall to unnamed powers. Children of the dead. And so she toiled unmolested, a night-fiend at her work. Lorennzo heard her voice. He felt her call. It calmed him,  for salvation (of a sort) was at hand. So he fought to compose his mind and lie still. Now a human carbinerro (the local dialect for 'miner.') would have taken three or four days to uncover the crypt. But this somewhat more than human made it in six hours. Cuts and scraps spangled her body. She ignored them. The red hot pain would soon subside. A vampirina heals in heartbeats.

 And as  to Lorenzo? He felt the soft thud of her strong, peasant feet upon the lid. She knelt down. She spoke to him, cooing softly. But each valley has its own tongue, so her words were lost, yet the music of her voice told it all. She found him. She rescued him. And a lonely vampirina had her vampirino now. Oh, but would he stay with her? How could he do otherwise? She could not even imagine it. There are secrets. There is knowledge. He would need her. She could help him. Such is natural. For in the wild world creatures often band together. Look to the wolves. Observe the sharp-beaked crow hordes, as they tear across the sky.

First she clasped her hands before her, as humans do in prayer. Then rearing up on her knees, she steeled herself  and brought them crashing down against the fire-hardened wood with a force and a passion known only to her kind. Ten times. Twenty times. Brittle cracks appeared. Shards of wood flew all about, as the screams from he still trapped below rose up to join her own. Then she found a stone, a hand axe lost when ice lay all about. She hefted it and used it like a true Cro-Magnon woman, making quick work of the almost shattered lid.

Lorenzo gasped, sucking the crisp night air down into the very core of his body. Did he still need it? No. But human comforts die hard. Some vampires never let them go. With a mighty heave she grabbed his arms  and pulled him to his feet. But where were the chains? How had he slipped them?  What magic made it so? Later, he'd  come to understand the talents vampires possess and would become quick and adept at using them. But in these first hours sublimation was a mystery. His body did so reflexively, passing through the chains in a mad, panicked rush. There! See? Look into the crypt. The thousand links still lie there, tangled like a nest. And he kicked free of them, along with the gory, slippery tissue that was once his human skin.

They clambered up to the surface, two feral, naked creatures , running wild through the night. And a new terror was set loose upon the land, a terror our more domesticated twosome would one day soon encounter.