110.15 pm Sunday, 8 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Summer Hill
There were still hours until closing at the Summer Hill Hotel, and the place was pumping. Besides the old locals getting one last round of drinks in before the start of the working week, there was a lively group of eight dominating the pool tables and the song selector. In their heart, having the best time of his unlife, Stallion, buying the rounds and making friends.
“Stay here, guys, I’m just going into the T.A.B.,” Stallion said to his crowd…what he was starting to think of as his herd.
“Oh yeah, what are you doing?” They asked back with curiosity about their new friend’s interests.
“Just putting a bet on the fillies. How do you think I got my name?” He replied with a snap of his fingers and went into the small room set aside for the legalised betting on horses, greyhounds and other sports. He put two hundred dollars down on the counter and filled in his ticket for the next horse race on the board. Three horses spoke to him, and he marked Crimson Jewel for a Win and Place with Golden Scheme and Raven Knight to place. Satisfied, he put the ticket in his pocket, as some of his friends followed his example and placed bets on the race.
Watching them, Stallion wondered what now?
10.15 pm Sunday, 8 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Crow Bar
Dominic was at a loose end. Without the children creating fires he needed to put out every five minutes, he found he had time to burn. Maybe it was time for a little… adult fun. He texted Giuseppe.
IT’S TIME FOR A BASEMENT PARTY
BYO?
YES, BYO.
ALRIGHT. INVITES?
LET’S KEEP THIS A WALK IN AFFAIR. TIME TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN.
Grabbing his car keys, he left the bar and drove out of Leichhardt, on the lookout for some potential entertainment. Cruising through the back streets of Newtown he hunted for a woman, 30-35 years old, who was game for a party on a Sunday night. He didn’t have much success. After a few near misses with some of the more colourful residents of Newtown, the chirp of a siren caught his attention.
YEELP! YIP!
A flash of blue light, and Dominic glanced in his rearview mirror at the cop car behind. The officer was alone, cruising, like he was, for potential marks. Unfortunately for Dominic, he had found one. Dominic pulled over and let the Police Officer park his car just off his right flank. This was just a small nuisance, soon taken care of. No need to panic.
“How are you doing this evening, sir?” Said the Police Officer, a fit man in his mid-thirties. Dominic noted no body camera. Good. Though, there would be a camera in the car, there was nothing recording Dominic or their conversation. Very good.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“Yes, it’s 10 O’clock. Is there a problem, officer?”
“Are you looking for something? It seems an odd time of night to be cruising the backstreets, sir.”
“That’s when the real parties start. Hospitality workers only get off shift about now and will party until dawn.”
“I’m going to ask you to step out of the car while I check your vehicle.”
“What for?” This was getting boring. In a moment, he was going to have to do something about this annoying gnat.
“Partying at 10 pm on a Sunday night. Your talk of ‘real’ parties and the nature of you cruising through the back streets, I have a suspicion of illicit activity. I’m going to need you to get out of the car.” The officer’s tone was cool and relaxed, although his words carried a hint of tension.
Dominic allowed his beast to stir, and his eyes flashed with a predatory light. He turned on Dominate and looked up to catch the police officer’s gaze.
“Just forget about it, Officer. I’ll behave myself.” As he manipulated the man’s memory to forget all about him and the incident.
The Officer’s eyes went blank. Then nerves beside his eyes twitched. They bulged in fear as Dominic realised the Dominate had had more of an effect than he’d intended.
“Whaaaa!” The Officer screamed as his mind tried to make sense of forgetting what was right in front of him. Panic flashed across his face as his hand automatically dropped down to his service pistol.
Shifting the car back into gear, Dominic pulled away as the Glock levelled with his head. Two shots were fired in quick succession, one through the rear passenger and the other exploded the rear window. The first bullet hit Dominic in the back of the head below his right ear, ripping off a chunk of his cheek before entering his mouth, taking part of his jaw and teeth. His ear rang as blood sprayed the whole front of the car’s dashboard and windscreen in a fine red mist. Chunk of flesh, and foaming blood dripped from the dashboard, the steering wheel and into his lap. The second bullet hit the rear windscreen and disappeared into the upholstery of the luxury vehicle. The third and fourth thumped against the metalwork, nothing more. After that, the horror car was no more than a black dot of travel lights fading, as it turned the corner and disappeared.
“Ahhhh!” The man screamed as he saw the car drive away, a terrible, unknowable thing at the wheel. As the Lovecraftian car of horror pulled away, he kept shooting until the clip was empty, and still kept pulling the trigger until fifteen minutes later, when another patrol car arrived, investigating reports by locals of shots fired.
“‘Uck! ‘Uck! ‘Uck!” Dominic swore as he spat out pieces of teeth and jawbone into the passenger well. So much for a fun night out! Drawing on the blood, he stopped the bleeding and continued to spit out pieces of his face as he attempted to put as much distance between himself and the insane police officer as possible. Through the hands-free, he made a call to Bruce.
“Yes, Boss?”
“I’’ need a ‘river and anudder car da ne and ‘dis un needs a keen uf,” Dominic slurred, as clever tongue found no purchase for its front of mouth vowels and consonants.
“Ah huh.”
“Neet ne on Nar’ion ‘ane, Ne’to’n.”
“Okay.” It was to Bruce’s credit that he didn’t ask questions and just let his boss speak through what was left of his face.
“And ‘ring da car ‘uif tints.”
10.30 pm Sunday, 8 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Summer Hill
The horse race concluded with a place for Golden Scheme in Second and nothing for Stallion’s other two picks. So much for two hundred dollars. Still, it made for a good story around the pool table.
10.30 pm Sunday, 8 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. The Rocks
“You guys don’t know how to dispose of a dead body, do you?” Mads asked as she, Eclipse and me got into the Audi.
“Ah, you could come to some sort of an accommodation with Mr Giovanni,” I said, remembering Dominic’s more theatrical way of disposing of an unwanted body. Besides his ability to make a corpse turn to dust, I was sure he could remove a body from existence through his morgue or the farm.
“Ah, I’m racking up a bit of a tab there. Never mind, it should be fine.” I didn’t like the sound of that, but neither did I want to be involved, so I dropped the subject.
We’d found the car just where we’d left it and got in, Eclipse in the front passenger seat and Mads in the back seat. Straight away, Eclipse pulled up the blueprints to the Museum again and was going over the details, her brow furrowed. I eased the car out into the traffic on George Street and pointed it west with no particular destination in mind. I just wanted to leave the Museum environs and whatever Mads had stashed away in the Rocks far behind.
“Sandstone, huh? Something tells me you weren’t looking at the Museum for its brickwork.” Mads started her proposal by letting us know we were made. How sweet of her.
“Look, this was between…us,” I swung my pointed hand between Eclipse and myself. “I would have asked Izac’s help, but as he’s gone walkabout…”
“Well, I don’t know much about architecture.”
“Neither do I. That’s why I asked a favour. Eclipse has kindly said she will help me. I want a piece from the Museum,” I glanced over to see if there was any movement at my little fiction from Eclipse, but she was absorbed in the blueprints and did not react.
“A piece? I didn’t take you for the larceny type.” Mads almost purred, not revealing what she did take me for. After her little scare in The Rocks, she was feeling pretty comfortable riding around in the back of Dominic’s Audi. Her sad silver and bitter brown disappearing into calm light blue with a rim of excited violet. To presume she knew who I was…well, I found that a little irritating.
“I’m all sorts, honey,” I replied, not attempting to smooth out sharp edges.
“Sure you are,” She replied just as catty, “So, what are you wanting to pilfer from that illustrious place?”
I looked for a place to stop, not an easy thing when you’ve just turned off the city streets to the flyover of the Western Distributor. When we were past the ANZAC bridge, I turned left into Glebe and found a parking spot where I could pull out my phone. Having scoured the Museum’s website previously, it was a moment’s work to pull up the image of a piece I remembered, a piece that had always spoken to me. I showed Mads the image of a paper and ink sketch, a composite made of millions of straight lines that formed at their heart, the impression of a face. I made sure Eclipse also got a glimpse of the substitute target.
“Not happy with just a copy from the gift shop?” Mads commented, and I could see she was unimpressed. Fine, as long as she didn’t cotton on to the real reason for the break-in, she could think what she liked.
“Before, before I was…this, I used to visit the Museum all the time to see that piece with the idea that some day I would make it mine. Now I can.”
“Well, that sounds like an interesting proposition,” She replied blandly as if unsure what to say. Good.
“An interesting venture, to say the least. I’m happy to help. I didn’t realise you were thinking of stealing from the place.”
“What? B and E but no stealing?” Eclipse chimed in, and I was thankful that I was driving as I hid my smile, staring out the front windscreen.
“I thought you were just doing it for the funsies,” Mads shrugged, obviously a little uncomfortable at the turn of the conversation.
“Larceny is funsies,” Eclipse and I replied at the same time. This time I didn’t hide the smile.
“And now I’ve learnt something new about you, Eclipse,” Mads said brightly, trying her best to make friends. Still, unlike Izac, who’d I knew belonged with us from the start, Mads felt like someone trying too hard to belong. No matter how endearing she made herself, I at least held her at arm’s reach. And I was getting the feeling that Eclipse was, too.
Still, quid pro quo.
“If we’re to work on this together, I’d like to learn a little bit about you,” I said, guiding the car through the dark, tree-lined streets of Glebe.
“Hmm,” She replied noncommittally as she leaned back into the leather seat.
“We know what you came for,” Eclipse said as she put away her study of the blueprints and concentrated on the conversation, “But we don’t know…you.”
“What is it you want from all this…after you’ve asked your question. What does Mads hope to achieve by it all? What’s the point?”
That made her very quiet and still for a long time as I threaded our way west through suburban streets full of houses once rented by working-class families and now owned by offshore investment conglomerates. Nothing lasts for long, everything changes, including the minds of stray vampires.
“Look, I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t know. I came back to find him. There’s a whole slew of reasons why. At first, it was revenge. I can’t deny that he killed everyone I cared about. I thought, ‘Hell, I have the power. Take the power and use it against him.’ Over time, I understood. The beast can make us do insane things. Then revenge again, as I heard his name spoken in hushed tones. The mystery man. Now, I just want to know why, and isn’t that pathetic.” She said the last, not as a question, but a recrimination of herself.
“You’ve been going at this for so long, you’ve lost the reason why,” Eclipse said, and for the longest time, Mads only nodded.
“Yeah. If I were a mortal, I’d probably be dead by now. It’s been almost seventy years since I was born, and… sad as it is to admit, if I get what I want, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m like a fucking dog chasing a car.”
I had, until now, kept my focus on driving and let Eclipse steer our part of the conversation. Now, as Mads seemed to be opening up, I peered through the rear vision mirror to try and discern if she really believed what she’d said. I noted Eclipse do the same, turning in her seat to get a good view of Mads, lost in the black of the back seat. Mads’s aura was a swirling mess of white, light blue, brown and red. Purity, or honesty, calm, bitterness and anger. She was speaking plain, unadorned truth, at least as she saw it. She was a woman reaching out for a…semblance of truth, looking back at a time when she knew where she belonged and things made sense.
As Eclipse’s hand reached back to give a little comfort, I realised what Eclipse had already picked up on. Mads was lonely and was just looking for someone or something to be with.
Oh, God. What a mess of losers we are.
As if reflecting my inner thoughts, Eclipse seems to linger in her comforting touch. What should have been a brief contact, stayed longer and gave a very different impression to the raw and exposed Mads. Mads almost flinched, instead moving her legs across so Eclipse’s hand dropped away, out of reach. Eclipse withdrew her hand, seeing her mistake and immediately regretting it. I reflected on the change in her once more. Her touch so, gentle and caring when I’d lost my friends, was now heavy and awkward. It was like she was only acting at the gentle, silent kindnesses she once did without thought.
“Thank you for your honesty, Mads,” I said without taking my eyes off the road.
“Honesty is a rare thing in this town,” She murmured almost to herself. She turned and watched the city landscape roll by the window, her expression a landscape of melancholia.
“Regardless, I have debts to pay off to Eclipse, and I was also coming to you for a little help, actually.”
She mentioned something like this in The Rocks, but for the life of me, I wasn’t sure what I could do for her.
“In regard to what?” I asked, as the suburban street we were on emptied onto Parramatta Road, the old artery from Sydney to the West. We were going to have to make a decision about where we were going before I ended up driving us out to the farm. A sudden pang of guilt reminded me to check the tree. Surely it would wait another couple of days?
“Necromancy,” Her phrase almost perfectly matching my thoughts, I nearly steered the car into oncoming traffic, “Can you do it?”
I reclaimed control of the car and myself, “I’m known to dabble.”
“Mr Giovanni pointed me in your direction.”
“Well, maybe if you explain what you would like, then I could tell you if I can do it.”
“I want to find some…people. I want to see them.” And in that instant, the distorted memory of the alleyway flashed across my memory. I decided to pull over before I caused an accident.
“The Alleyway?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Mads wiped her face as if trying to wipe away the last few minutes, “I can’t bring myself to go see them at their graves.”
“They’re not there,” I said with all confidence. If life experience and studies had taught me that much, I knew we cling to things, people, and places from our lives after death. Graves were for the living, a memorial to our loss. If we were looking for the dead, we had to go to where they died.
“If they’re going to be anywhere, they’ll be in the alleyway.” I qualified, for once, enjoying my role as the expert, “But you know, they may have passed on. There’s a lot to the Otherside, whole cities of the dead. They also may be sleeping, waiting until the end of days.”
“I have to know,” She replied adamantly, and our path was set, “If they’ve gone, gone or struggling to communicate…I’ve got to know.”
“Are you okay with an open-ended agreement?”
“I’m helping you with your little… endeavour, aren’t I?” Was she? “Can’t we say one for one?”
“Possibly,” I replied, unsure what she was asking was even possible or what it would cost, “I must say I’m very intrigued to see what’s there.”
“That makes two of us.”
As the conversation had turned Necromatic, I was aware Eclipse had gone silent. As much as I wanted her there for my first official seance, I knew she had answers to find about her new nature and people to speak to that may hold the answers.
“Eclipse, do you want to be a part of this, or can I drop you off somewhere? I’m happy for you to come along, there just wouldn’t be much for you to see.”
“Oh, I’ll go down the alley,” She replied in such an odd way I wasn’t quite sure if she meant now or that was now her general modus operandi. To walk the dark alley, the path untaken. I nodded and smiled regardless, knowing that whatever happened, I’d have someone watching my back.
And that was it. We were going to seek out Mads’s lost family.
11.00 pm Sunday, 7 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Summer Hill
A roar of cheerful voices rose up from the Summer Hill Hotel. The gang had found a leader, and they thought he was cool. Throwing down Bradman’s on the ponies as if they’re spare change. Handing out the rollies like lollies. He was the life of the party.
As for Stallion himself, he looked out over his herd and was pleased. Yes, these could be a reserve, a backup for when times get tough. He would call on them later, if or when he needed them. Hyping up the group, letting them have a good time, this was what he’d wanted now and was pleased to sit back and watch their happy faces.
And they were having a great time. There was no sign that this party was ending anytime soon. He started giving out his phone number to everyone in the group. In the future, it may be useful to have a contact that brought them all together, a bottom bitch, but right now, he was happy being everyone’s friend equally.
What could go wrong?
11.00 pm Sunday, 7 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Camperdown
Dominic wasn’t made to wait long in the dark alleyway between Newtown and Camperdown. Soon, a staff member rolled up, silently with a replacement car, and the keys were swapped. Thankfully, as requested, it was one of the tinted cars.
He’d been able to get control of the bleeding, but he was still a mess with days of healing ahead. His jaw and teeth alone were going to take some time to reform. What had started as a fun night out had turned into days of self-imposed isolation…and right before the big event.
What else could go wrong?
11.00 pm Sunday, 7 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Pyrmont
John Street Square, Pyrmont. We were back home. The old Harris Street house was less than a block away. My new place was at the end of the street. Whatever we found, this was my patch. Mine to use as I liked, but also, my responsibility. With not a little trepidation, we left the car and I followed Mads to a nondescript set of stairs leading to a small park, and the light rail station. All liminal spaces, belonging to no one, especially in the dead of the night. Fitting that it was here we’d come to talk to the dead.
I turned on Shroud Sight, parting the wall between the living world and the next. Suddenly, a squeal of tyres caught my attention. I turned to see a car swerve from the road and head straight for us on the stairs. I leapt back, pushing back against the wall as the car rode up the stairs, picking up a body on its way before stopping with a jolt. The car disappeared, and once more the squeal of tyres, the rush of the car climbing the stairs, a body smashing the windscreen and stopping. Over and over. I don’t know what the others thought of my antics, as for them, the stairs remained quiet and empty. I described the scene, and Mads nodded pale and trembling, gesturing further down the alleyway.
“Not here…down there.”
I turned my back on the recycling car crash and looked around me for the first time. The buildings in the Otherland stretch on into the red sky. Building built on building, built on building, all here to be read like a visual history of the place. I headed up the stairs, careful of my step as older sandstone stairs showed through the more recent cut granite ones.
Here, little changed besides the material the walls were made of, the constant movements of the living, and a murmuration of whispers, cries for help, and stifled breath. This was not a good place.
“There’s a lot of suffering here,” I tried to condense my experience to a few words. “Is there someone I can focus on? A name or description? Something they owned?” I let the blood awaken Lifeless tongue in me, ready to speak to whatever I found.
“Alex.” Was all she offered up.
I repeated the name and listened for an echo, something to tell me the name had found an owner. Instead, I heard only the crying, the mindless pleas for help and the constant winds of the Otherland.
“Nothing,” I turned back to Mads, wondering if we had the right spot. It had been more than forty years ago, maybe she had misremembered…all the landmarks had changed.
“What about Joel?” She said, not quite a question. She knew Joel was dead, “Joel Mitchell.”
I repeated the name, calling out into the Otherlands, and this time got a response. A echo back. Something remembered that name and was coming.
In his denim jacket and jeans made in a time before mine, a man in his twenties walked casually down the alleyway towards me. His right arm missing between the shoulder and elbow, the wraith headed towards me as if summoned to the door by a stranger, a lopsided grin on his face.
“Hello?” He said, and I breathed a little sigh of relief. At least he wasn’t angry. At least I wouldn’t have to pull out Lupara in front of Mads.
“Joel,” I said and smiled.
“Yes…I’m Joel. Who are you?” He said slightly more confidently, though he did look at me curiously, as if not sure what species I was, “I don’t think I’ve spoken to someone like you for a while….”
“I’m Rain…” I began as Joel expression changed from curious to shocked.
Memories of the last time he spoken came to him, “Ah! Shit! Fuck…last time I saw one of you…it wasn’t the best experience, no offence.” He gestured to his missing arm. It must have been harrowing to have experienced the memories again, but he was still friendly, still willing to chat.
“I can well imagine,” I empathised, “It might help you to know I’m here with Mads.”
His expression changed from haunted to curious again. I liked Joel. He seemed the sort that didn’t stay depressed for long. Life, even unlife, didn’t get him down.
“Mads? You mean…Mads? She’s alive?”
“She’s asked me to talk to you,” I replied as he spoke over me, trying to make sense of it all.
“I mean…how long has it been…like…are you…what? Are you taking advantage of old women or something?’
I laughed at that. Mads struck me as someone who would never be someone’s ‘Old Woman’. I did note one thing in all his bluster. Though Mads was standing beside me, Joel could not see her.
“This is a new con for kindred, isn’t it? What am I saying? I’m sure it’s pretty common.”
“She’s looking pretty good for an old woman, I assure you,” I said without connecting the dots for Joel. If he didn’t work it out, it was better for him to remember Mads how she was, not what she’d become.
“Regardless of how she looks, I can assure you she has sent me.”
“Whatever you do, please don’t turn her into a fucking meal, please?”
“Only if she asks. But, I don’t think she will,” I turned to look at Mads as Joel continued making derogatory comments about vampires. She was oblivious to his concern for her. Time to get her involved in this conversation.
“Joel…Joel…yes…this is somewhat new for me as well. Is there something only you would know that I can tell her? Something to confirm I have the right Joel.”
“Um…Alex Holmestead. Her husband, we were good friends,” He said with confidence, and I repeated Alex’s full name back to Mads.
“He says you were all good friends, is that right?”
“Yeah, Mad’s melancholic mood brightened a little at the sound of her husband’s name, “Is he here?”
“Joel’s here,” As for Alex…it looked like we were out of luck, “Is there something you’d like to tell him?”
“Does he know where Alex is? And ask him if he’s okay…I mean. Ask Joel if he’s okay and if he knows where Alex is.”
Now we were getting somewhere, I turned back to Joel who had spending his time trying to work out how long he’d been dead.
“Firstly, she’s worried about you. She wants to know if you’re okay.”
“That’s a really interesting question, but not one that can be easily answered. I’m dead and this…” He wriggled what was left of his arm, “I’m okay…I’ve lived a proximity of life…I get around. Like I have an affinity to this place, but nothing serious, so I can go travelling around.”
I nodded in agreement, “There’s a lot to see on that side. Whole cities of the dead you could be part of.”
“I’m aware. I’ve talked to one of your kind before about this stuff. And then I tried to speak to this one lad… but we didn’t share the same language.”
I was intrigued as to who he could have been referring to, but it seemed the topic for another conversation. We were here for Mads.
“Secondly, she wants to know where Alex is? He doesn’t seem to be here.”
“I…haven’t seen him,” Joel shook his head.
“Did he pass on?”
“I don’t know. I came back to here and he wasn’t.”
I repeated what Joel said to an ever more agitated Mads. This was not giving her the closure she was looking for. After forty years of not knowing, she found herself in a position to find out the truth, only to be turned away again.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Mads yelled, unable to restrain her anger any longer. She looked like she could frenzy. Certainly, Eclipse was looking at Mads as if she needed restraining. Instead, blood tears rolled down her face, and the blood found release through crying. She covered her face, ashamed and unable to hide.
“No, sorry. Alex was never here,” Joel confirmed, oblivious to Mads weeping beside me, “I did spend some time looking for him on his side, but never did find him.”
“So, he may still be alive,” I theorised. Or maybe like Mads, he was turned and has lived quietly all these forty years…without Mads knowing? Didn’t seem likely.
“He might be,” Joel replied as if it hadn’t occurred to him, “Like I said, I came back and he wasn’t here. I was kind of pissed in the beginning. You know, I was dead. I don’t know who got me or him, but I think it got me first. A kindred. That’s for sure.”
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said without letting on I knew the kindred in question.
“It’s all in your nature, isn’t it?” He said, and I tried not to take the racist slur personally, “Lure people into secluded areas and then tear their throats out. That’s the M.O., right?”
I didn’t comment, and Joel, the chatty sort, continued.
“Though I can see it’s handy to hold onto people like you. We can make deals from either side. I help you on this side, you help me on the other.”
This was in line with what I’d hoped when I started studying Necromancy. Communicate with the deceased and establish beneficial networks for mutual benefit. I had to restrain myself from gushing my plans for Kindred-Wraith communications.
“It’s why I learnt this little trick. A whole other world of people to communicate with. Learn about.”
“You’re quite the entrepreneur. You’ve done well.”
“Thank you, I’m trying to be.” I appreciate praise as much as anyone…more perhaps, but I was very aware of Mads quietly crying, Eclipse silently watching.
“Is there anything you’d like Mads to know?” I asked, steering the talkative Joel back on the subject at hand.
“Augh, Jeez. There’s a million and one things I’d love Mads to know. Just tell her that I’ll be here keeping an eye out for her…and keeping an eye out for Alex as well. Tell her not to….na, tell her to be herself. To remember to be herself. Is she just as kind as she was before?”
Conning the client is a given at seances, but lying to the dead….that was something new.
“She wants to help, if that’s what you mean.”
Joel sighed, a gesture that meant as much to his corpus as it did to my dead body, “You kindred and your wordplay.”
“She needs people. She really misses you.” I said plainly, and this time Joel saw the truth in my words and not the deception.
“Perhaps I’ll see her on this side some day,” He said, and I kept my thought to myself. Besides a few highly trained, there was no place for kindred on the Otherside. And as for her dying? That wasn’t worth contemplating.
I turned to Mads and repeated what Joel had said. For her to be herself, to be as caring as always. She’d gained control of herself somewhat and acknowledged the message with a nod.
“Tell Mads I haven’t seen Alex,” Joel caught my attention again, “Maybe he passed, or he could still be out there somewhere. Maybe he got away from you blood suckers, I don’t know.”
“Maybe,” I said, acknowledging his last thoughts.
“Anything else you need? Anything else from me?”
“Not at the moment, Joel, but it has been very nice talking to you. I may come by again, this is my local area.”
“Okay, well, I’m always around. If you need any help, I’m happy to cut some deals…desite, past events. I’m happy to look to the future.” His lopsided smile reappeared, and I knew that I would be back to talk to Joel Mitchell.
“That’s how I like to think about things too,” I wanted to shake his hand, but without the ability to touch the undead, the gesture would have been awkward, and I dismissed it.
As Joel stepped back into the Otherplace and out of sight, to turn back to Mads again, her face streaked with blood, but otherwise herself again.
“Is there anyone else you’d like me to ask about?”
“There is no one else here,” She said with such finality. She had lost everything she ever cared about that night. I couldn’t help but empathise.
“No. No, it’s fine. Thank you, Rain. I appreciate the effort. Just tell him goodbye from me. I miss him.”
I turned back to the alleyway, but knew he’d already gone. She didn’t need to know that, though, and I spent a moment contemplating a life as a mediator between the living, the undead and the dead. It was odd being the telephone in a conversation over the barrier with death, but it was one with privilege, a window onto other people’s lives that I found appealing. Yes, it wasn’t a bad life at all.
11.50 pm Sunday, 6 hours until sunset, 5 days until the S.C. Enroute
Driving carefully back to the Crow Bar, Dominic held his damaged face and contemplated the rest of his night. He rang Giuseppe, “There’s been a slight snag on the party plans. It will be a red wine dinner, no party.”
“Understood, thank you, Uncle,” Giuseppe replied without question or reproach and hung up to change plans.
*****************************************************************************************
A Collector, a Grenade and a Void
Cars are pocket dimensions.
Cramped places parading as a comfortable living room.
The people I sit with in these automobiles reveal something about myself or themselves.
I did not pity her.
Madeline is a grenade with a loose pin.
But a deep part of me… a piece of me… she walked into the pit but did not walk out.
I carry her in the back of my mind. I keep her at arms length but sometimes she reaches out like right now.
Madeline is a lonely woman.
She has no one, not even herself. She does not know where she is going, only where she has been.
Her path paints a tale of nothing to tell. Dead ends and empty alley ways.
That small part of me. The one who refused to die but now sits in the back of my mind like a caged, muzzled dog. She is not restrained, only quieted. She stays there, unmoving and yet this moves her. She stands up and pushes me.
Do something, she begs, you can understand.
The touch I give is awkward. Fitting as everything is foreign to me now.
Like caring…
We’re going to a place. Somewhere I heard from a yelling voice. A voice with a mask of anger over a face covered in cold pain.
Izac, I know you have hurt people. I have the testament against my heart.
This place… is it not your own pit?
It’s not the same.
There is no serpent here.
Is it not similar?
Here, his humanity bleeds from the limbs of the people he called friends.
After all that turmoil, after the horror he created with his own hands he swore to be better. To build a palace of peace with nothing but his mind.
“Am I focusing on a name?” Rain asked an anxious Madeline.
“Alex.”
I’ve heard that name before. Izac talked in his sleep. Or in his night terrors. He would whisper a handful of names.
Madeline continued, “or Joel …”
If this was bingo, Eclipse would be calling her card.
Here, Madeline was struck with a car.
Here, Joel died and Alex is better off dead.
Rain dances between this world and limbo. Alex, Madeline’s husband is not here but the dead friend Joel is. Mad’s is filled with anger and I know why.
It’s her weakness. She’s run into another situation that does not give her closure. An open path with no satisfactory ending.
“Tell him I miss him.”
They are dead here or a part of them died here. The world they knew was completely fractured by happenstance.
The one to live, the one we know of, is filled with unanswered feelings of the man who ruined her human life.
Joel does not seem to know who killed him from what this broken and fucked up game of telephone is providing.
Madeline, as broken as before this game, sways with her head to the ground. The outcome of Alex not being here is more unnerving than it is comforting.
It seems this is a life not worth giving to another.
There are worse things out here than monsters with sharp teeth.
Notable NPCs
Abram: Ventrue, and one of six founders of Sydney Masquerade
Agaricus: Children of the Moon, and one of six founders of Sydney Masquerade
Alex Holmestead: Husband of Mads. Location and status unknown.
Alicia: Toreador Vampire met at the Crow Bar
Ambrogino: 5th Generation Vampire, Cappadocian and Elder of the Giovanni Clan.
Avel: Rain’s mother, a wraith.
Beelzebub: Fallen angel, demon entity in Rain’s pocket watch.
Blanco Falzo: A man who had made into the likeness of Stallion’s dog for a time. Now deceased.
Bobby Lisner: Malkavian seer who lives in an old Sewer pipe in The Rocks.
Brendan Virgil: A.K.A. Miss Divine Intervention. Rain’s close friend.
Bruce: Ghoul of Mr Giovanni
Cabolut Hazzim: the name given by a vampire who cleared out the homeless at Rain’s old squat. Prince’s Assassin.
Days of the Week: Pseudonyms for members of the Baali group Eclipse (Luna) is now part of.
She is Sunday, and they are missing Wednesday. Tuesday seems to be their nominal spokesperson, though they seem to have no leader.
Delith: Ambitious Ventrue bar staff at the Crowbar.
Detective Woodman: NSW Police ‘premiere’ detective and a sufferer of schizophrenia. He has an assistant currently called Notetaker.
Doctor Willis Hodge: Ghost acquaintance of Dominic Giovanni’s from the Coroner’s Court.
El Torcedor: “The Twister” or ore accurately, “The Fleshcrafter” A Tzimisce from South America
Founders of Sydney Masquerade: Those still alive: Abram, the Ventrue, in Canberra, Wid, the Nosferatu in Wollongong, Agaricus, Child of the Moon, Tasmania, Montague Layton, Toreador current whereabouts unknown.
Francis Tuttle: Name given in charge of the investigation into the deaths of homeless in Surry Hills.
Garcia: Sire. Unknown location.
Giuseppe Giovanni: Ghoul of Mr Giovanni and nephew.
Joel Mitchell: Mads’ friend. Deceased.
Kenneth Stahl: South African Giovanni (exiled)
Lady Merritt Stone: A very old and powerful vampire that has taken an interest in Izac. Rain spoke to her about the Coterie and Izac’s mission
Lambach Ruthven: Kin met at the theatre. Sire of Dracula. Drug addict.
Lenny: Rain’s Ghoul and artist friend, now with mages. Location unknown.
Lucretia: Childe of Ambrogino, now caretaker of the Pyrmont House and teacher to Dominic
Madeline Blackwell: Ghoul of Mr Giovanni, working at the State Coroners Court.
Montague Layton: Toreador, and one of six founders of Sydney Masquerade
Night Rider: Red-haired vampire? Works for the Prince.
Pangea: a Nosferatu (tunnel builder)
Padre Craneo: Nagaraja vampire met at the Crow Bar
Paul: a Nosferatu of the sewer rats
Prince Lodin: Prince of Chicago (until his final death in the 90s) and sire of Al Capone.
Prince Sarrasine (Sar-ras-seen): Toreador Ruler of Sydney*
Sebastian Melmoth: Kin met at the theatre. Powerful Toreador. Oscar Wilde.
Shara-had: Banu Haqim (Assamite).
Sparrow: a Nosferatu of the warren in Pyrmont, closest to home
Teeth of Titanium: Werewolf dingo met in Leichhardt.
The Prestiege: The speak for the four Tremere met at the Blavatsky Lodge.
The Woman: A powerful being of unknown name who kidnapped Izac and enchanted Rain.
Tom: A sleeping head awakened by Dominic in the Dreamtime.
Wid: Nosferatu, and one of six founders of Sydney Masquerade
Glossary of terms:
Anarchists: a faction of Vampires. Caused issues in Los Angeles recently, killed the Prince.
Antediluvian: from before the time of the biblical flood. The third generation that were the progenitors of the thirteen clans of vampires.
Baali: A bloodline bent on keeping beings old before time from waking up and destroying everything. Eclipse and the Days of the Week are Baali.
Banu Haqim: Also know as Assamites, Assassins though sometimes just mercenaries for hire.
Bone Gnawers: A pack of werewolves
Blood hunt: A process to destroy a vampire who has broken a tradition. Specifically mentioned in the sixth.
Blood worm: What a possessed vampire can turn into.
Black Spiral Dancers: A pack of werewolves that worship a being of entropy.
Brujah: One of the twelve clans of Cain.
Canaanites: Those descended from Cain, the first murderer and vampire.
Camarilla: a faction of Vampires closest to the Princes. Believe in hierarchy and order.
Children of Osirus: Bloodline outside the Caine family tradition who practise Bardo, a discipline to control the beast. Izac’s current Bloodline.
Children of Seth: Bloodline the Prince is rumoured to be (originally?)
Clan or Bloodline: From one of the children of Caine or subsequent established lines of vampires.
Christopher Charlton: Rain’s pseudonym.
Marauder: A mage gone mad. Living in his own pocket dimension that answers to the whim of his broken mind.
Diablerie : the drinking another vampire blood and soul
Favour: How Vampires pay for things they want or need doing.
Fetter: A place, person or thing that binds a wraith to the Shadowlands.
Gangrel: A bloodline of vampire. Stallion’s Bloodline.
Ghouls: Servants of a vampire who have been fed vitae. They are loyal, stronger, and more resilient, and sometimes, they show other powers gained from the blood. They must receive the blood at least once a month or they return to being human. Can be addictive.
Giovanni: A vampire bloodline that keeps within genetic family ties. Dominic is a Giovanni.
Glasswalkers: A pack of werewolves
Hunter: Members of the Society of Leopold, a branch of the Catholic Church. Fanatical vampire hunters and killers.
Kin: Short for Kindred. Vampires, a name among themselves
Kine: Humans
Marauder: a rouge mage, often mad. They are likely to act in a way that exposes the Otherworld of the Masquerade to exposure.
Masquerade : The rule that keeps vampire society safe. Hiding ones nature from the world.
Nagaraja: A bloodline that are obligated to eat the flesh as well as the blood of their victims.
Men in Black: An international unit dedicated to controlling supernatural and alien entities.
The Red List: a universal kill list of vampires. Maintained by the Camarilla, anyone on the list can be mudered without question.
Sabbat: a faction of Vampires that believe that the progenitors of the clans will one day awake and eat all their young.
The Theosophical Society: A private society of learning and tolerance based out of the Blavatsky Lodge, St. Leonards (https://sydney.theosophicalsociety.org.au)
Tremere Pyramid: A strict hierarchical structure that all Tremere are part of. Every member knows their place within the Pyramid. The antidiluvian, Tremere, sits at the top of this pyramid.Below him, the number seven is repeated through the clan’s structure.
Toreador: Bloodline of Vampire. Rain’s Bloodline.
Traditions: Six laws that vampires live by.
Vaulderie: A ritual where Kindred swear loyalty to each other.
A Strange Life 