Darkness Falls

Glen

Aaron

Glen sat perched on a tombstone in the graveyard behind the church watching Aaron who sat on a crypt, twisting the ring around his left ring finger. They were silent for the most part, each lost in their own thoughts. Aaron was thinking about Eden’s turning while Glen was thinking about much, much more. Not the least of which was Aaron himself. Glen nodded towards Aaron’s hands as he took a drag off his cigarette; a habit held over from his breathing days. “Why do you still wear that, man? What’s the point? It’s been years,” he asked. Aaron looked down at the ring, realizing he was fiddling with it for the first time and stood, shoving his hands in his pockets as he shrugged. “I wore it so long, I feel weird without it,” he replied. Glen raised his eyes to Aaron’s face. “So.. what is it, then? Like a talisman or something?” he asked with genuine curiousity. Aaron shook his head. “No,” he said. “It’s a reminder.” Glen nodded, knowing what Aaron meant. It was a reminder that Aaron had once been human, had once had a family, a life. Something more than this. Something they both knew was beyond his reach now. But while this wasn’t much, it was better than nothing. Glen looked off into the distance. “When I first got turned,” he began, “I tried holding on to my old life. Kept goin’ to work, pouring people drinks, smiling. All that crap. I listened to the people tellin’ me how shitty their lives were. They lost their job, their girlfriend was cheating on them or had left. They were broke. Same story every time. And I started realizing, gradually, that I’d heard all the same shit before. And usually from the same people.”

Glen took another drag from his cigarette and exhaled into the darkness, watching the grey smoke dance through the weak light of the street lamps. “The same people who couldn’t pay their bills cuz they’d lost their jobs always seemed to have just enough cash to down a bottle or two, spend on the strippers, whatever. And it always seemed to be the same girlfriends cheating on the same guys who didn’t kick them to the curb or who were tellin’ me their story while I was makin’ the drink they bought for the girl at the end of the bar.” Aaron looked over, listening to Glen as he talked, unwilling to ruin one of Glen’s few moments of self revelation. Glen shook his head. “And after a couple of weeks of that, I started thinkin’… fuck you. I started thinkin’ how stupid and petty their problems were. I started thinkin’ that half of ‘em didn’t have the first clue what *real* pain and tragedy were like. I thought about my family, how they were all taken out in that accident on the highway cuz some half asleep truck driver hit an ice patch and took off the top of their minivan with his trailer, and how I got up night after night and forced myself to smile for these people, to make them feel a little better about their shit lives. I thought about how I couldn’t keep a girlfriend cuz there was always some asshole that had more free time on his hands and was better at bein’ a dick than I was. About how I busted my ass at two jobs to keep a roof over my head because I wasn’t any better at keepin’ a roommate. And all the sympathy I used to have started fading. The more I thought about it, the more pissed off I got about it. At them.” Glen hit his cigarette again. “So, one night, when I’d had enough and was listening to yet another douchebag whine about his girlfriend fuckin’ around on him, I slammed the bottle down on the bar, looked him in the eye and said, ‘yanno what? I really don’t give a shit. Go home and cry to your mother or your sister or daddy, cuz at least you have one. Go call one of your fuckin’ friends, cuz you actually have time for a social life you jobless fuck. And quit bitchin’ to me about how broke you are cuz you won’t get off your ass and get *one* job while I’m standin’ here serving *your* sorry ass at *both* my jobs.’ And I walked out. Just like that, in the middle of the shift, I walked my fuckin’ ass right out of the bar.”

Glen looked over at Aaron. “I started walkin’. I wasn’t goin’ anywhere in particular, I just didn’t wanna go back to an empty apartment. And when I stopped walkin’, I looked up and found myself here. In front of the church my family used to drag me to every Sunday when I was growin’ up. The church my mother cried over when they abandoned it for the newer building over by the residential area.” Glen turned his attention to the church, his thoughts going back to that night, his voice distant as he lost himself to the memories. “I walked in and it was *so* dark. I walked up to the dais and looked up at the giant crucifix that hung from the ceiling. And I started chewing Christ a new one. At one point, I threw up my arms and yelled, ‘why have you forsaken me?’. And at that moment, the moment when I threw my arms up, these.. tendrils.. of black.. shot up from the darkness around my feet, grabbed a hold of the crucifex and tore it from the ceiling. And they held it there, while more tendrils wrapped around the figure of Christ, ripped him from the cross and threw him to the ground, shattering him against the stone.” Glen smiled but there was no joy in it. “And suddenly, the shadows around me, around the inside of the church, started moving, wrapping around me like a blanket. And it felt… amazing.” Glen looked at Aaron. “That was the first hint I had that I could manipulate them. So, I packed my shit up and moved out of the loft without sayin’ shit to Hannah and Camille and moved in here. I started working with the shadows obsessively, honing my skill. And the better I got, the less I cared about the world outside and the people in it. The more detached I became. Until one night, Hannah came banging on the door demanding an explanation, demanding to know what the fuck was goin’ on with me. So.. knowing she was stubborn as fuck and would *never* go away, I brought her in and I showed her. And then I turned her.” Glen shook his head. “Not just to give her incentive to keep the secret, but because she’s an ambitious little bitch, but she’s not stupid about it. She’s not the kind of girl who will stake you in the heart and keep all the power for herself. She’s the kind of girl that understands there’s safety in numbers and power taken is better held with an army than with nothing.”

Aaron nodded as he listened. Glen looked at Aaron again. “That was goin’ on while you and Ciara were fallin’ apart. I used to watch her come into Tramps and the Confessional after she left you. I used to watch her smiling and having a good time, hooking up with one guy or another, moving on with her life while you were holed up in that cabin in the preserve. And after I turned Hannah, we started goin’ out to the same places as everyone else and I’d watch Ciara doin’ the same old shit and everyone else. I watched them through your isolation. I watched them smile and move on with only the briefest of pauses when Tara’s body was found butched in that alley. The world just kept turning. And it reminded me of my life. How my life had all but stopped, swallowed up by the job and all the meaningless shit while everyone else’s kept on keepin’ on. I started realizing that neither one of us had any family left. That we’d both been through some similar shit. And that’s when I decided to find you.” Glen smiled and shook his head. “I remember when I found your Grizzly Adams lookin’ ass in that cabin. Hair halfway to your waist, beard that wasn’t much shorter. I remember watching you talkin’ to the shadows… to the things in them. You didn’t even realize I was there at first. And when you did, you thought I was one of them. I remember dragging your ass out of there and bringing you here.” Glen looked at Aaron. “It might not be much, but it’s better than nothin’. I couldn’t give you back your life, but I could give you a purpose.”

Aaron nodded again. “Nice speech,” he said non-comittally. “Now.. tell me the punch line.” Glen smiled again. “The punch line is… we’re takin’ out Alexander.”

Hannah

Camille

Glen and Hannah left the party then Hannah went to find food. She’d gotten good at feeding over the years and it didn’t take her long to find her prey. She’d learned to disconnect and not kill. It had been incredibly difficult to overcome. It was their basest instinct. She was limited to the commercial district for hunting, something that somewhat cramped her style, but she was okay with it. She hadn’t gone far when she spotted the good looking man leaving a nondescript bar. Hannah could tell he had a buzz on, she could also tell he’d been rejected many times over the course of the evening. The fact that he was leaving the bar alone told her that much. She stumbled over to him knowing exactly which ploy she’d be using tonight. She “accidently” bumped into him as she passed, looked over at him and blinked. Smiling she looked him over blatantly, “Hey Gorgeous.” He looked her over, “Like what you see, sweetheart.” Hannah smiled brilliantly, “I can appreciate the male form in all of it’s shapes.” The man looked her over and arched a brow, “You out here all alone?” Hannah nodded, “Yeah, my boyfriend and I had a fight. He left me here.” Hannah shook her head, “He does that sometimes.” The guy looked at her, she could see the pity in his eyes, “If you were mine, I wouldn’t leave you for a second.” Hannah smiled sweetly, her eyes drifting from his to the full lips, her own lips parting, he read the response and was on her, pushing her back against the wall. Hannah went with it, giving him a chance to get into his groove, as soon she felt him go for her shirt she turned the tables, he was against the wall and she was feeding. She drank deeply from him, her body pressing against his as his hands moved over her back. Hannah licked the wound closed, looked him in the eye. “You will remember you picked a dark haired girl up in the bar, you fucked in the alley, it was good but not so good that you got her number. You will go home and sleep off the hangover. Go now.” Hannah watched as the man walked away.

She went to her sister’s house, the apartment she used to share with Glen and Camille. Camille wasn’t home. Not yet. She would be any second. Hannah let herself in and sprwaled on the couch, her feet propped on the coffee table. She’d had some good times here. She remembered the night Morose had come home from Portland and come here, that was the night they’d decided they were a couple. She remembered the dinners here with Glen, before he’d gotten together with Camille. She smiled as she waited for her sister. Camille didn’t know what she was or even that vampires existed. Hannah would have to tell her and possibly even vamp out on her for her to believe. Hannah heard Camille’s key in the lock and waited for her to come in.

Camille entered the apartment carrying grocery bags. She wasn’t expecting Hannah and Hannah didn’t make herself known. She waited for Camille to notice her sitting on the couch. Camille headed for the kitchen. Hannah could hear her putting the things away, the rattle of the fridge door and the thunk as it closed, the opening and closing of cabinets. She heard Camille’s movements as she put coffee on and then the footsteps as she headed toward the living room. Hannah turned as Camille entered the room and screamed. “Jesus, Hannah. I didn’t hear you come in.” Hannah shook her head, “Really, Cam. You should pay more attention to your surroundings.” Camille shook her head, as Hannah continued, “I’ve been here since you walked in. If I’d've wanted I could have killed you already and been gone.” Camille blinked, “Hannah! What the hell?” Hannah shrugged, “Camille, I have some things to talk to you about but…not here. You should come see where I’ve been living.” Camille sighed, “Now? Can’t this wait until tomorrow? I’m really tired Hannah.” “It’ll be the same tomorrow as well. This is the only time we can do it. At night.” Camille looked confused, “Why?” Hannah sighed dramatically, “Because this is the only time I can get out.” Camille nodded assent, “All right, Hannah.”

The girls left the apartment, catching up as they went to the abandoned church. Camille looked up at the church. “Here?” Hannah nodded as she led Camille inside, “With Glen and Aaron.” Camille looked around glancing at Hannah occasionally, “Why? It’s creepy as hell and the way the shadows move in the candle light…is just spooky.” Hannah nodded, “It’s great isn’t it?” Camille shook her head, “What’s happened to you Hannah?” Hannah led Camille to a pew, “That’s part of what we need to talk about.” Hannah sat on the hard wooden pew, Camille sat next to her, and looked over at her younger sister. “I’ve changed Cam. I’m not what I used to be.” Camille nodded, “That much is obvious.” Hannah continued, “No Camille, you don’t understand. I’m not human anymore.” Camille looked at Hannah closely, her nurses training taking over. “Hannah, are you feeling all right?” Hannah smiled, “Yes, I feel fine.” “Are you sure? I mean you’ve always been…uh… ambitious.” Hannah nodded, “I know. And now I’m an ambitious vampire.”

Camille blinked, “What did you just say to me?” Hannah smiled, “You heard me, Cam.” Camille shook her head, “Vampires don’t exist, Hannah.” Hannah responded by bearing her fangs in a smile so wicked that Camille screamed and scurried away from Hannah. “How do you like me *now*?” Camille’s jaw worked but nothing came out. Hannah quietly, “Camille, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m telling you because I need your help. I can give you a longer life. Make you stronger.” Camille shook her head again, “Does Glen know?” Hannah nodded, “He’s the one that turned me.” Camille softly, “I don’t want to be a … vampire.” “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about ghouling you. You’re the only one I trust, Cam.” Camille frowned, “No.. no way… you want to turn me into Renfield. No.” Hannah rolled her eyes, “No Camille. Not Renfield. You’d be able to have kids, and a family. You’d take care of me during the day when I sleep. You’d…” Hannah sighed, “Come on let’s go find Glen. He can probably explain it better.” The girls stood and headed deeper into the church.

Sorrow: <walks into the house through the garage, takes off his coat and hangs it on the rack by the door, heads through into the house, rubbing his hands together> Ava?! I’m home, baby!

Ava: <comes to the top of the stairs> Hey baby. <smiles down at him> Payne, is asleep.

Sorrow: <looks up at the sound of her voice, smiles> I’ll go see him in a couple of minutes. Tell me there’s coffee.

Ava: Freshly brewed. And dinner .

Sorrow: <nods> Good. I’m starving. <heads into the kitchen and makes himself a cup of coffee>

Ava: <comes down, pulls his dinner from the oven where it’s been warming, smiles>

Sorrow: <takes a sip of coffee, walks over to her, kisses her as he takes the plate, heads over to the table> How was your night?

Ava: <smiles> It was good. Quiet. Payne and I did homework, made dinner, he took his shower and we watched a movie. How was your’s?

Sorrow: <takes a seat at the table, putting the coffee and plate down, smiles as he picks up his fork> Quiet. <looks at her> Quieter than usual. I guess it’s that party Morose was telling us about.

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