This is a little short I wrote, at the time I was contemplating a Iraq or Afghan vet who accidentally kills his parents during a blackout caused by a careless fire cracker.
***
Sam called at seven in the evening as he had said on the note Lionel found under his windshield wiper. Sam asked him to bring Danny and meet him under “the overpass”, a worn out and rarely used bridge the three had played under and later used as a refuge from their perspective world. Lionel agreed and hung up, he opened a drawer next to his bed and removed a 9mm pistol and tucked into the rear of his pants. He called for Danny and told him of the situation. They both headed to Lionel's car and headed off, driving almost ten miles before Lionel broke the uncomfortable silence.
“Do you think we’ll be able to convince him to turn himself in?” Lionel asked
“If not then we just call the cops but it will look better if he turns himself in.” Danny replied
“There is no way he did it. Sam just isn’t a killer. He loved his parents.”Lionel said shaking his head as if trying to magically understand the insanity of the afternoon.
“I know but the neighbors heard gunshots and saw him tear off in his car. It’s doesn’t look good. There has to be an explanation, His parents were great to him, he had a perfect model of the perfect family. Sam would never hurt them, or anyone for that matter.” Danny replied, as if he were still clinging to the hope that Sam was innocent even though in his heart he knew his old friend had changed.
Lionel turned onto the isolated road leading back to seemingly nothing but an old bridge from a road no longer used. They saw nothing on the slow mile or so trip back to the bridge. As they pulled up Lionel pulled out his pistol and chambered a round before ensuring the safety was on and tucking it back into his belt line.
“Jesus Lionel, what the fuck is that for?” Danny asked with a look of disbelief on his face.
Lionel placed his hands hon the steering wheel, let his eyes close and head bow before releasing a deep breath that seemed to go on for minutes.
“Listen Danny, Sam has changed, something happened to him over there, I just want to ba careful dealing with him. I don't want to believe he did it any more than you do but still have consider the possability that he did it.” Lionel said without moving or altering himself.
“You really think he would hurt us?” Danny said with mick contempt, not really needing a response.
“I am only saying that if he killed his parents then what is to stop him from trying to hurt us if he doesn't like what we have to say? We have to consider that.”
“I know.” was Danny's simple reply. He did know.
Sam was in a state of remorseful panic“Danny I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? I didn’t mean to. It just happened.”
Danny “You mean you did it?!?!?”.Danny yelled in a mix of disappointment and confirmation.
“I couldn’t help it Danny, Fluffy started sniffing my nuts and one thing led to another after that and…Oh God Danny I didn’t mean to. I am so sorry.”
“What?” Danny replied, confused.
“Why Sam. Why’d you do it?” asked Lionel, his voice breaking, his eyes tearing up.
“I don't know, one moment Dad was telling me about how he lined a job up in the shop for me, then I heard a bang and blacked out, when I came to they were dead. Oh my god guys, my mom and dad, I love them so much....” Sam became unintelligible as he drifted off into sobs.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Mob Goes Green
I wrote this in a moment of humor fueled creativity. It is meant as a sketch not a written story but never the less I hope you find it enjoyable.
***
Open in a small butcher shop or grocery store or other small mom and pop owned business. The man behind the counter is cleaning up and getting ready to close for the day. Two large Mafioso walk into the store and the man closing the store looks surprised.
Owner “Gentleman. What brings you back to my store?”
Mafioso 1 “We’re here to collect your monthly protection dues.”
Owner Instantly annoyed “But I just paid you guys three hours ago.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah unfortunantly the price went up. Nothin personal you understand, it’s just business.”
Owner “You gotta be fuckin kidding me?!? Business isn’t the greatest for me right now. You guys know that, I was barely able to pay three hours ago!”
Mafioso 1 “We understand that Charlie but you have see things from our position. With the economic downturn of the last 7 years many small business owners are really taking a hit. Many of our clients have been unable to pay their insurance premiums.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah Charlie, many of our clients have even been forced to close down even further restricting the amount of money flowing into our community centered organization. This forces us to not only raise the premiums but to also collect premiums more aggressively for our services. ”
Mafioso 1 “Yeah Charlie we provide a public service. We’re here for people like you Charlie.”
Mafioso 2 “An economic downturn like this sends ripple effects felt all throughout the small business world. If we could just protect one of those corporations, now there’s some motherfuckers who always have cash.”
Charlie “Look guys, I sympathize but it doesn’t change the fact that I just don’t have the money to pay you guys again. My wife just lost her job, my boy needs a good kick in the face but I can’t afford decent boots, and I’m afraid I may have to close down too if things don’t improve, and don’t improve fast.”
Mafioso 1 “Charlie we know and we’re sorry but business is business.”
Charlie “But I don’t have enough to pay you again.”
Mafioso 2 “Gee Charlie, it’s really too bad to hear you say that.”
At this point the mob guys drag Charlie over the counter and begin tying him to a chair while the other mobster shuts the blinds and locks the door.
Charlie “Beating me won’t change the fact that I don’t have the money to pay you.”
Mafioso 2 “We know, besides Eddy here has already chipped two of his knuckles on deadbeats faces over the last few months and we lost our health coverage and workmans comp in the form of benefit take backs and cuts as a result of the downturn.”
Eddy (formerly Mafioso 1) “So lucky for you we’ve been forced to scrap beating you mercilessly until you pay up. It hasn’t been working anyway.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah so all we’ve ended up with for our trouble lately is medical bills we can’t afford to pay.”
Mafioso 2 begins dumping gasoline around the store much to the shopkeepers horror.
Eddy “So you see Charlie, the rotten economy has forced us to become much, much more aggressive in our attempts to get the money we need to sustain our standard of living.”
Charlie (Beginning to scream hysterically)“How the hell is burning my store down going to bring you more money?!? I’ll be out of business and you will have reduced a negative cash flow position into a non-existent cash flow position.”
Eddy pulling his gun “Don’t get feisty on me now.”
Mafioso 2 moving onto his second gas can “It’s the insurance money. The combination of your small business insurance and your life insurance will provide us with enough money to make it through for a while and faster than if we waited around for your business to pick back up. Of course we’ll have to extort the insurance money out of your grieving widow.”
Charlie “You’re going to kill me?!?!?! Oh god no! Please don’t. I want to live, I’ve always paid you guys and have NEVER been late. Please, please, please don’t shoot me.”
Eddy “Relax we’re not going to shoot you.”
Charlie “Oh thank god.”
Mafioso 2 “You see Charlie, with times bein so rough we have to continually find ways to curtail expenditures. We have wasted thousands of dollars over the years in pointless execution style murders when we was already taking the time to burn down the joint anyway. It’s more efficient to just let you burn with the place.”
Charlie “WHAT!?!?!”
Eddy “Yeah, and that way it will look like an accident too, and we don’t have to waste even more gas driving out into the woods to bury you. That’s a plus for the environment too.”
Mafioso 2 Finishing the last gas can “That’s important Charlie, we have to start worrying about the kind of planet we are going to leave our children. Find more ways of using green energy and being responsible with the resources we do have. Like Gas. Driving 60 miles into the wilderness to get rid of your corpse wouldn’t be very green of us.”
Charlie “Well burning down my shop isn’t very green either.”
Eddy “Yeah but it is an investment. You see with the money we make off of burning down your shop and your life insurance award we can then re-invest that in research toward finding a greener source of arson.”
Mafioso 2 and Eddy move toward the door and Eddy pulls out a matchbook.
Eddy “Well it’s been nice serving you Charlie, I mean that. I’ve always enjoyed collecting from you.”
Mafioso 2 “Same for me Charlie. Your good people.”
Eddy lights the match and the store erupts into flames and Charlie screams.
Charlie (now out of frame) “Oh god I am on fire!!! Please shoot me in the face guys! Please!?!? This is so painful! OH GOD MY DICK IS ON FIRE!!!!!!”
Eddy “Can you believe this guy Tony? Now he wants us to shoot him. Un fucking believable.”
Tony (Formerly Mafioso 2) “This is exactly why I will be so glad when I finally promote out of collections. People are so ungrateful and hypocritical.
End
***
Open in a small butcher shop or grocery store or other small mom and pop owned business. The man behind the counter is cleaning up and getting ready to close for the day. Two large Mafioso walk into the store and the man closing the store looks surprised.
Owner “Gentleman. What brings you back to my store?”
Mafioso 1 “We’re here to collect your monthly protection dues.”
Owner Instantly annoyed “But I just paid you guys three hours ago.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah unfortunantly the price went up. Nothin personal you understand, it’s just business.”
Owner “You gotta be fuckin kidding me?!? Business isn’t the greatest for me right now. You guys know that, I was barely able to pay three hours ago!”
Mafioso 1 “We understand that Charlie but you have see things from our position. With the economic downturn of the last 7 years many small business owners are really taking a hit. Many of our clients have been unable to pay their insurance premiums.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah Charlie, many of our clients have even been forced to close down even further restricting the amount of money flowing into our community centered organization. This forces us to not only raise the premiums but to also collect premiums more aggressively for our services. ”
Mafioso 1 “Yeah Charlie we provide a public service. We’re here for people like you Charlie.”
Mafioso 2 “An economic downturn like this sends ripple effects felt all throughout the small business world. If we could just protect one of those corporations, now there’s some motherfuckers who always have cash.”
Charlie “Look guys, I sympathize but it doesn’t change the fact that I just don’t have the money to pay you guys again. My wife just lost her job, my boy needs a good kick in the face but I can’t afford decent boots, and I’m afraid I may have to close down too if things don’t improve, and don’t improve fast.”
Mafioso 1 “Charlie we know and we’re sorry but business is business.”
Charlie “But I don’t have enough to pay you again.”
Mafioso 2 “Gee Charlie, it’s really too bad to hear you say that.”
At this point the mob guys drag Charlie over the counter and begin tying him to a chair while the other mobster shuts the blinds and locks the door.
Charlie “Beating me won’t change the fact that I don’t have the money to pay you.”
Mafioso 2 “We know, besides Eddy here has already chipped two of his knuckles on deadbeats faces over the last few months and we lost our health coverage and workmans comp in the form of benefit take backs and cuts as a result of the downturn.”
Eddy (formerly Mafioso 1) “So lucky for you we’ve been forced to scrap beating you mercilessly until you pay up. It hasn’t been working anyway.”
Mafioso 2 “Yeah so all we’ve ended up with for our trouble lately is medical bills we can’t afford to pay.”
Mafioso 2 begins dumping gasoline around the store much to the shopkeepers horror.
Eddy “So you see Charlie, the rotten economy has forced us to become much, much more aggressive in our attempts to get the money we need to sustain our standard of living.”
Charlie (Beginning to scream hysterically)“How the hell is burning my store down going to bring you more money?!? I’ll be out of business and you will have reduced a negative cash flow position into a non-existent cash flow position.”
Eddy pulling his gun “Don’t get feisty on me now.”
Mafioso 2 moving onto his second gas can “It’s the insurance money. The combination of your small business insurance and your life insurance will provide us with enough money to make it through for a while and faster than if we waited around for your business to pick back up. Of course we’ll have to extort the insurance money out of your grieving widow.”
Charlie “You’re going to kill me?!?!?! Oh god no! Please don’t. I want to live, I’ve always paid you guys and have NEVER been late. Please, please, please don’t shoot me.”
Eddy “Relax we’re not going to shoot you.”
Charlie “Oh thank god.”
Mafioso 2 “You see Charlie, with times bein so rough we have to continually find ways to curtail expenditures. We have wasted thousands of dollars over the years in pointless execution style murders when we was already taking the time to burn down the joint anyway. It’s more efficient to just let you burn with the place.”
Charlie “WHAT!?!?!”
Eddy “Yeah, and that way it will look like an accident too, and we don’t have to waste even more gas driving out into the woods to bury you. That’s a plus for the environment too.”
Mafioso 2 Finishing the last gas can “That’s important Charlie, we have to start worrying about the kind of planet we are going to leave our children. Find more ways of using green energy and being responsible with the resources we do have. Like Gas. Driving 60 miles into the wilderness to get rid of your corpse wouldn’t be very green of us.”
Charlie “Well burning down my shop isn’t very green either.”
Eddy “Yeah but it is an investment. You see with the money we make off of burning down your shop and your life insurance award we can then re-invest that in research toward finding a greener source of arson.”
Mafioso 2 and Eddy move toward the door and Eddy pulls out a matchbook.
Eddy “Well it’s been nice serving you Charlie, I mean that. I’ve always enjoyed collecting from you.”
Mafioso 2 “Same for me Charlie. Your good people.”
Eddy lights the match and the store erupts into flames and Charlie screams.
Charlie (now out of frame) “Oh god I am on fire!!! Please shoot me in the face guys! Please!?!? This is so painful! OH GOD MY DICK IS ON FIRE!!!!!!”
Eddy “Can you believe this guy Tony? Now he wants us to shoot him. Un fucking believable.”
Tony (Formerly Mafioso 2) “This is exactly why I will be so glad when I finally promote out of collections. People are so ungrateful and hypocritical.
End
David
“Fucking deer.” David muttered to himself. For as long as he could remember there had been a small group of deer bedding down somewhere in northern forty of his land. Quite handy come black powder season but every couple of years one of them would die on his property for whatever reason. This one had died somewhere to the southwest of his house, probably in the grove, enabling the southeasterly winds to carry the stench of decay right into the open window of his bedroom. David hastily dressed and headed out to find the corpse, stopping to grab a gas can from his shed. David opened the door to his house again and called for Buck, Buck's nose would lead him to the deer more quickly than his own woefully less sensitive human nose. Not that he needed Buck, the stench only became stronger the further into his small chunk of woodland David walked. The Maples were still the green of late summer and their strong scent was normally intoxicating. The smell of decay was overpowering the maples this morning though, at least until David could find that damn deer and begin it's cremation. He was close now, the smell was so strong he could almost taste the decay and it was making vomit seem reasonable. Buck let out a bark and a David shifted toward his Springer companion. It became,e obvious that the stench emanated from something other than a deer as soon as David saw the tattered old overalls peeking through the shallow undergrowth. It was Marvin, surrounded by a few empty Schlitz cans. He had come to the grove to sit and drink away from his wife as he sometimes did. Dave never cared as long as he cleaned up after himself.. “Must've been a heart attack or stroke.” David uttered to himself as Buck sniffed cautiously around the body. Then David wondered why Marvin's wife never reported him missing.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
More Dominick
This is a very rough set which means everything you are about to read is stream of conscious rough. I found myself thinking about a 500 plus Healer sitting around watching television and the reactions he might have to our culture as opposed to other cultures and fads etc. he had experienced in his life and how they compared. Comments welcome.
***
Dominick sprawled out on his decayed purple couch and turned on the television. The channel 5 morning show was in mid swing and the host was a pleasant looking woman with a warm and fluid voice that reminded Dominick of a Nun he had known in the late nineteenth century. This woman however suffered from vanity, which he noticed was much more than mere affliction in this era, it was a rampant and aggressive plague. Dominick understood wanting to look nice, but he found the pains both sexes went to in order to appear attractive not just to the other sex, but all who lay eyes on them deplorable. Dominick had lived long enough to see that people have suffered from vanity through every era he has lived, but in the past eras it was confined more or less to the upper classes. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the sexes had their painted faces and powdered wigs, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the wigs and paint gave way to corsets, conservative dresses, and blush along with the suits of democratic rule which men wore in their congresses and parliaments. In the twentieth Century was born mass media through movies, television programs and commercials as well as mass produced magazines such as GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Esquire which brought the obsession with appearance down from the upper classes and into the worlds of the middle and lower classes. Dominick saw the effects of such superficial obsessions and the importance placed upon them in this era’s society. Girls in the various hospitals he has visited over the past fifty years in particular, suffering from such needless diseases such as bulimia and anorexia. Men in the hospital for various injuries to their bodies from the exercises performed incorrectly and religiously in the never ending quest for the body of Zues. Women implanting bags of salt water or silicone into their chests regardless of how unnaturally erect they made their bosom, just as long as those unnaturally erect breasts appear attractive through a shirt. Men who would have the same bags of substances never meant to exist in the human body implanted into them to look muscular because even though these men felt the pressure of needing to be fit and look good, they lacked the will to actively change their lifestyles to achieve these ends. Most of all Dominick was disgusted by the ever growing number of people having their stomachs stapled shut or a rubber band secured around their stomachs because the gluttonous fools cannot control themselves around the ever present temptation of horrible food.
This era and her temptations placed perhaps the strongest test upon Dominick’s faith, the technological advances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had pushed humanity further away from their Father. More and more scholars wrote of the illogical belief in a God who, if he did exist, turned his back on his children long ago, most cosmologists were quick to promote the theory of the big bang but expressing belief in a God creating the universe was considered crazy. Dominick believed in Darwinism actually, he believed it was the way in which God chose to work on this world, to weed out the unworthy. Scientists called this process natural selection. However the educated elite, for the most part, refused to even consider a universe governed by His hand, to consider his role in all things. Quite the contrary, the idea of an “intelligent design” was quite offensive to most of the educated elite of this era, they used their mathematical formulas invented by man and theories based on those inventions of man in an attempt to deny God. As far as Dominick was concerned, knowing or having an idea of how some of His creations worked did not negate the fact that they were still His creations. Despite these feelings Dominick also felt the pull of doubt, not because of physics or the work of any human scholar, but because of the cruelty and injustice humanity brings to His world. He felt the pull of doubt when he read (and witnessed) the cruelty of humanity toward one another. The hardest on him was by far the cruelty inflicted on His chosen by the Nazi regime, the fact that these cruelties were known to the mortal leaders of the Vatican at the time and their silent consent in trade for their continued existence. Dominick never agreed with the council’s standpoint that God condoned their actions and the survival of the Vatican as well as their continued existence was proof of his approval. As familiar as Dominick is with his bible he could not bring himself to believe that God would or could be so cruel, this had actually always been a point of disagreement for Dominick. Humanity has always mistreated itself, the mass killings of war and the unpunished murders committed by the wealthy when the peasants would not fall in line. Most appalling for Dominick were the murders committed by those supposedly chosen by Him to rule and ‘protect’ His people, all out of fear of losing their earthly power or simply for the perverse pleasure of taking human life. Many of the kings and queen Dominick suffered in his lifetime were anything but Godly. The Nazi holocaust changed something fundamental in his faith he realized, for the first time in his existence Dominick truly struggled with doubt. He has fought it every day since he recognized it was there but it is an everyday struggle for him. What made the holocaust so different and powerful for him was a combination of different factors. At the forefront was that fact that these were supposed to be God’s chosen people, regardless of their acceptance of Christ. They would be made to see Christ was their savior during the tribulation and would thus be saved. Why would God allow them to suffer like this again after they had already suffered slavery, still suffered prejudice, and still remained faithful to him. It seemed to Dominick that if ever there were a more faithful people it was the Israelites. Yet God seemed unaffected by their suffering, Dominick tried to tell himself at first that God had no control over the free will of His children, even those behind such destruction and death, but couldn’t He intervene? Still, to this day the Jews honor and love God with a love, passion, and peaceful devotion that few faiths, even Christianity can claim. No matter what cruel fate God allowed to pass upon them they will never gave up on Him, now that is picture perfect devotion and love. There was also the inaction, in fact the silent condolence of the Nazi holocaust in return for their independence from the fascist war machines was, at least to Dominick, a betrayal of everything Jesus had stood for. The Vatican could claim ignorance all they wished however Dominick knew there were healers in the area who had discovered the camps and reported they’re existence to both the council and (find out popes name during WWII) only to have them told to be quiet about their discovery and put their faith in His will. Were they not a representative of His will? Seven healers could have liberated every camp with minimal loss of life yet this was not done. The importance of the physical church was placed above the lives of His chosen. How could this have possibly been His will? Thus the seeds of doubt were sewn and more and more as the years and centuries dragged on did humanity drift farther and farther away from God, the longer Dominick lived the more distant, faded, and empty did the words of Jesus seem to be to his Children. How faded at times they now seemed to him.
***
Dominick sprawled out on his decayed purple couch and turned on the television. The channel 5 morning show was in mid swing and the host was a pleasant looking woman with a warm and fluid voice that reminded Dominick of a Nun he had known in the late nineteenth century. This woman however suffered from vanity, which he noticed was much more than mere affliction in this era, it was a rampant and aggressive plague. Dominick understood wanting to look nice, but he found the pains both sexes went to in order to appear attractive not just to the other sex, but all who lay eyes on them deplorable. Dominick had lived long enough to see that people have suffered from vanity through every era he has lived, but in the past eras it was confined more or less to the upper classes. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the sexes had their painted faces and powdered wigs, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the wigs and paint gave way to corsets, conservative dresses, and blush along with the suits of democratic rule which men wore in their congresses and parliaments. In the twentieth Century was born mass media through movies, television programs and commercials as well as mass produced magazines such as GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Esquire which brought the obsession with appearance down from the upper classes and into the worlds of the middle and lower classes. Dominick saw the effects of such superficial obsessions and the importance placed upon them in this era’s society. Girls in the various hospitals he has visited over the past fifty years in particular, suffering from such needless diseases such as bulimia and anorexia. Men in the hospital for various injuries to their bodies from the exercises performed incorrectly and religiously in the never ending quest for the body of Zues. Women implanting bags of salt water or silicone into their chests regardless of how unnaturally erect they made their bosom, just as long as those unnaturally erect breasts appear attractive through a shirt. Men who would have the same bags of substances never meant to exist in the human body implanted into them to look muscular because even though these men felt the pressure of needing to be fit and look good, they lacked the will to actively change their lifestyles to achieve these ends. Most of all Dominick was disgusted by the ever growing number of people having their stomachs stapled shut or a rubber band secured around their stomachs because the gluttonous fools cannot control themselves around the ever present temptation of horrible food.
This era and her temptations placed perhaps the strongest test upon Dominick’s faith, the technological advances of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had pushed humanity further away from their Father. More and more scholars wrote of the illogical belief in a God who, if he did exist, turned his back on his children long ago, most cosmologists were quick to promote the theory of the big bang but expressing belief in a God creating the universe was considered crazy. Dominick believed in Darwinism actually, he believed it was the way in which God chose to work on this world, to weed out the unworthy. Scientists called this process natural selection. However the educated elite, for the most part, refused to even consider a universe governed by His hand, to consider his role in all things. Quite the contrary, the idea of an “intelligent design” was quite offensive to most of the educated elite of this era, they used their mathematical formulas invented by man and theories based on those inventions of man in an attempt to deny God. As far as Dominick was concerned, knowing or having an idea of how some of His creations worked did not negate the fact that they were still His creations. Despite these feelings Dominick also felt the pull of doubt, not because of physics or the work of any human scholar, but because of the cruelty and injustice humanity brings to His world. He felt the pull of doubt when he read (and witnessed) the cruelty of humanity toward one another. The hardest on him was by far the cruelty inflicted on His chosen by the Nazi regime, the fact that these cruelties were known to the mortal leaders of the Vatican at the time and their silent consent in trade for their continued existence. Dominick never agreed with the council’s standpoint that God condoned their actions and the survival of the Vatican as well as their continued existence was proof of his approval. As familiar as Dominick is with his bible he could not bring himself to believe that God would or could be so cruel, this had actually always been a point of disagreement for Dominick. Humanity has always mistreated itself, the mass killings of war and the unpunished murders committed by the wealthy when the peasants would not fall in line. Most appalling for Dominick were the murders committed by those supposedly chosen by Him to rule and ‘protect’ His people, all out of fear of losing their earthly power or simply for the perverse pleasure of taking human life. Many of the kings and queen Dominick suffered in his lifetime were anything but Godly. The Nazi holocaust changed something fundamental in his faith he realized, for the first time in his existence Dominick truly struggled with doubt. He has fought it every day since he recognized it was there but it is an everyday struggle for him. What made the holocaust so different and powerful for him was a combination of different factors. At the forefront was that fact that these were supposed to be God’s chosen people, regardless of their acceptance of Christ. They would be made to see Christ was their savior during the tribulation and would thus be saved. Why would God allow them to suffer like this again after they had already suffered slavery, still suffered prejudice, and still remained faithful to him. It seemed to Dominick that if ever there were a more faithful people it was the Israelites. Yet God seemed unaffected by their suffering, Dominick tried to tell himself at first that God had no control over the free will of His children, even those behind such destruction and death, but couldn’t He intervene? Still, to this day the Jews honor and love God with a love, passion, and peaceful devotion that few faiths, even Christianity can claim. No matter what cruel fate God allowed to pass upon them they will never gave up on Him, now that is picture perfect devotion and love. There was also the inaction, in fact the silent condolence of the Nazi holocaust in return for their independence from the fascist war machines was, at least to Dominick, a betrayal of everything Jesus had stood for. The Vatican could claim ignorance all they wished however Dominick knew there were healers in the area who had discovered the camps and reported they’re existence to both the council and (find out popes name during WWII) only to have them told to be quiet about their discovery and put their faith in His will. Were they not a representative of His will? Seven healers could have liberated every camp with minimal loss of life yet this was not done. The importance of the physical church was placed above the lives of His chosen. How could this have possibly been His will? Thus the seeds of doubt were sewn and more and more as the years and centuries dragged on did humanity drift farther and farther away from God, the longer Dominick lived the more distant, faded, and empty did the words of Jesus seem to be to his Children. How faded at times they now seemed to him.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Healer
My one hour mental theater inspired a story. I had feedback from my IR and it inspired a different story with some of the same themes I used in my one hour mental theater. The idea came to me in a flash and I have written a few chapters now. I want to share my polished prologue with you with the hope of getting some honest feed back when compared to my one hour mental theater story. I have become so involved in this story that my discussion boards have suffered a bit for it. No matter, I am taking a short break from my story to reinvest in the DB. Thank you all for your time and attention.
***
The Healer
Prologue
Breaking a Vow
The dying woman lay in her hospital bed adrift in morphine induced sleep as Dominick approached her bedside. The room was dark with the exception of the ambient light given off by the television above the foot of the dying woman's bed. The television was tuned to CNN and one of their anchors was rattling off tips on how to survive a natural disaster which meant it was a slow news day. The dying woman had the grace and privacy of occupying a single bed room which made it easier for Dominick to remain a shadow. There was a photo album on the hospital tray next to the dying woman's bed, Dominick took time to gently page through it. The photos were of the dying woman when she was younger, the woman looked to be approaching middle age but her illness had aged her prematurely and she looked to be a woman in her late forties with graying hair and deepening age lines on her forehead, crows feet around her eyes, and distinct laugh lines around the corners of her mouth. The photo album also had many pictures of what Dominick assumed was her son and husband spanning what was most likely the past eight years or so. Dominick was surprised they were absent with this woman being so close to death. Dominick finished his little game and prepared to Bond with the woman. When possible, he liked to use the personal effects around a person to see how much he could learn of the nature and past of the person before he Bonded to them. There was no real need for this as the Bonding would lay the person's soul bare to him, Dominick simply felt it helped keep his powers of observation and reasoning sharp and attuned., more importantly he felt it helped to keep him grounded. Dominick would use the Bonding to learn the accuracy of his conclusions based on the information available If he could learn to be at least 75% correct when assessing information without using his gift he would still be a very effective judge of character. He never wanted total reliance on his abilities, he felt to do so would make him lazy and dependent on a gift which could be taken away if he were to ever be judged no longer worthy. No healer had ever been stripped of his or her blessing although the council made it clear that it was not an impossibility.
Dominick intertwined his hand with the dying woman's and opened his heart to hers. The familiar feeling of disorientation washed over him as the woman's life spilled into his conciseness. Her name was Beth, she was 38 years old and dying of breast cancer. The cancer had metastasized and spread to her lungs, pancreas, and bones and as a result she was in near ceaseless agony which modern medicine was near powerless to control. Beth was on comfort measures and the doctors told her she had a week at best. Dominick absorbed Beth's life in what for anyone observing the Bonding would have seemed only moments, but for Dominick he absorbed an entire life of memories and emotions. Beth's childhood of beatings and molestations by her often drunk and abusive father who blamed her for her mother dying while giving birth to her. The ridicule and humiliations she received at school because her father pissed away most of the money he earned as a factory worker on beer and never could afford to buy Beth decent clothes. How Beth would walk to school early so she could shower in the girls locker room because their water and utilities were off more than they were on. Memories of how her mother's parents rescued her from her father when she was 14 and showed her the first real love she had ever known. Her vow that her children would never know the pain she had suffered, her denial of how much her past affected her and the confusion and heartache it would lead to later in life. Her first years in college where she fell in love for the first time with a girl named Lisa and how much her first heart break devastated her when Lisa left her for another girl her sophomore year. How she stayed single afterward until graduation before meeting Dennis and falling in love for a second time. How much she loved Dennis and how Dennis had loved her, how kind and gentile he was and how terrified Beth was that he would leave her if he ever found out she had dated a woman. Dominick absorbed the self-loathing and blame Beth held for herself both from her memories of abuse and her relationship with Lisa. Beth's life with Dennis went from happy to perfect, at least for a short time, when her son Jacob. Arriving with Jacob was a love and devotion for her new born son which was so strong she had nothing to compare it to. Her chance to give her child the love her mother denied her, a mother's love. Then the depression set in a few months later and the happiness rapidly faded. Dennis changed after Jacob's birth and she found out that he was sleeping with her friend Sarah. Beth didn't have the strength or confidence to take Jacob and leave him, even after Dennis punched her in the face when she confronted him and asked him to end the affair for the sake of their family, he continued to hit her for the next five years after. The love had died and Beth was once again trapped in an abusive life. She felt she deserved it, as long as she had Jacob to love and care for she did not care what happened to herself. Beth went to a function sponsored by her old college on a weekend Dennis was out of town on “business” and Jacob was staying with Dennis's parents. Lisa was there, they reconnected and ended up back at Beth's place. After some conversation Lisa had sensed something was wrong and prodded Beth in to telling her everything. Beth told Lisa about Dennis cheating and hitting her when she confronted him about it. How she had nothing and no one to run to because her grandparents were now dead and she had no other family. What started and empathy and sympathy from Lisa quickly re-lit old fires and they ended up in bed. Dennis's parents arrived early to drop off Jacob and caught them which led to a nasty divorce. Beth lost custody despite the fact that she had a stable, well paying job with benefits and Dennis had cheated repeatedly, a fact Beth's lawyer was able to prove in court thanks to two jilted mistresses who were happy to testify on Beth's behalf. The Judge was more concerned than anything on Beth's apparent “deviant” life style and it's potential negative effect on her son. When all was said and done all Beth had was her job at R.E.I. and a ratty apartment in downtown Minneapolis. It wasn't long after she moved in that Beth noticed the lump in her breast and chose to ignore it. She worked and lead a miserable existence of self loathing and borderline suicide until the pain set in and finally became unbearable. By then it was too late. The doctors had originally given her six months but that estimate quickly dwindled once they found out the cancer had spread. Surgery wasn't an option and Beth welcomed death, she longed for it. She had no one, her mother's parents were dead, her father had died as a result of his drinking years ago and Dennis promised her she would never see him or Jacob again. He told Beth that her deadly cancer was icing on his cake.
Dominick broke contact and backed away to collect himself. By doctrine she was an adulterer and a homosexual and therefore deserving of her fate regardless of any strife suffered. Dominick stared at Beth and considered her pathetic and tragic form. After a moment he stepped to her bedside again and knelt over her. He hesitated for a moment considering the consequences again before continuing with what he felt in every fiber of his being to be the just and only course of action. He moved his mouth to her ear and whispered to her.
“I take your pain, your death, your confusion, and self-doubt in the name of Jesus Christ who died for you. Who, despite the pain both physical and emotional inflicted upon you, loves you.”
Dominick moved to Beth's neck and opened his mouth, he lowered his fangs and sank them into Beth's jugular. At once her eyes opened wide and she tugged at his head and began thrashing. She tried to scream but her voice had left her. Dominick waved his hand toward the door while drinking and it locked firmly as though he had walked over and done it himself. After a few seconds her strength left her and she lay motionless as Dominick drank. Her hair regained it's former color, her prematurely aged skin smoothed and regained a look closer to that of her actual age. Her breathing became normal and her muscles grew from their atrophy and became as they should be for a healthy 38 year old woman who has taken care of herself. With an eerie precision Dominick ended his feeding with less than a pint of blood taken from Beth. Beth would be paralyzed for close to 30 minutes, this was normal, but her cancer was gone as was her pain, mental as well as physical. The fang marks also healed themselves instantly leaving no evidence of his presence. Dominick did not realize there was a single tear slowly descending his cheek below his right eye as he moved his face to lock eyes with hers, he used his favorite modified quote from William Makepeace Thackeray.
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.” He said unable to nor caring to hide the love he felt for her. “You are not at fault for what your father did to you, you did nothing to deserve it. God called your Mother home because that was his will, your father was a weak and wicked man who has received his comeuppance. Dennis shall receive his if he does not shed his wickedness, no one is beyond saving but Dennis cannot be saved by you, Jacob however can. Be the mother you were born to be, go to him, reclaim him, give him his mother back, this is God's will.” Dominick got up to leave only to stop, turn back to her, and slowly sit back down and look again into Beth's eyes.. “Love is love, regardless of gender, if the love is pure, it is love all the same and all love is an extension of God.”
With that Dominick kissed her forehead and left her room. He left the hospital, he was spent, Beth was the last of seventeen he had healed in past month. Dominick's pilgrimage was nearing it's end and a century of pilgrimage had exhausted him long ago. He would return to Rome soon for his five years of study and cleansing. He felt good dispute the fact that for the first time in over 500 years he had broken one of his vows. Dominick had never broken any of his vows, no matter how he felt personally. Who was he to question God's will? As time went on, particularly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and with it the opening of minds, so did his increasing doubt in the infallibility of his bible. It was after all written by men, true these were men who had been blessed personally by the savior but they were men just the same. The swelling tide of questions and doubts in Dominick's heart had finally rolled over the breaking wall and now he feared he was no longer a healer.
He feared he was damned.
***
The Healer
Prologue
Breaking a Vow
The dying woman lay in her hospital bed adrift in morphine induced sleep as Dominick approached her bedside. The room was dark with the exception of the ambient light given off by the television above the foot of the dying woman's bed. The television was tuned to CNN and one of their anchors was rattling off tips on how to survive a natural disaster which meant it was a slow news day. The dying woman had the grace and privacy of occupying a single bed room which made it easier for Dominick to remain a shadow. There was a photo album on the hospital tray next to the dying woman's bed, Dominick took time to gently page through it. The photos were of the dying woman when she was younger, the woman looked to be approaching middle age but her illness had aged her prematurely and she looked to be a woman in her late forties with graying hair and deepening age lines on her forehead, crows feet around her eyes, and distinct laugh lines around the corners of her mouth. The photo album also had many pictures of what Dominick assumed was her son and husband spanning what was most likely the past eight years or so. Dominick was surprised they were absent with this woman being so close to death. Dominick finished his little game and prepared to Bond with the woman. When possible, he liked to use the personal effects around a person to see how much he could learn of the nature and past of the person before he Bonded to them. There was no real need for this as the Bonding would lay the person's soul bare to him, Dominick simply felt it helped keep his powers of observation and reasoning sharp and attuned., more importantly he felt it helped to keep him grounded. Dominick would use the Bonding to learn the accuracy of his conclusions based on the information available If he could learn to be at least 75% correct when assessing information without using his gift he would still be a very effective judge of character. He never wanted total reliance on his abilities, he felt to do so would make him lazy and dependent on a gift which could be taken away if he were to ever be judged no longer worthy. No healer had ever been stripped of his or her blessing although the council made it clear that it was not an impossibility.
Dominick intertwined his hand with the dying woman's and opened his heart to hers. The familiar feeling of disorientation washed over him as the woman's life spilled into his conciseness. Her name was Beth, she was 38 years old and dying of breast cancer. The cancer had metastasized and spread to her lungs, pancreas, and bones and as a result she was in near ceaseless agony which modern medicine was near powerless to control. Beth was on comfort measures and the doctors told her she had a week at best. Dominick absorbed Beth's life in what for anyone observing the Bonding would have seemed only moments, but for Dominick he absorbed an entire life of memories and emotions. Beth's childhood of beatings and molestations by her often drunk and abusive father who blamed her for her mother dying while giving birth to her. The ridicule and humiliations she received at school because her father pissed away most of the money he earned as a factory worker on beer and never could afford to buy Beth decent clothes. How Beth would walk to school early so she could shower in the girls locker room because their water and utilities were off more than they were on. Memories of how her mother's parents rescued her from her father when she was 14 and showed her the first real love she had ever known. Her vow that her children would never know the pain she had suffered, her denial of how much her past affected her and the confusion and heartache it would lead to later in life. Her first years in college where she fell in love for the first time with a girl named Lisa and how much her first heart break devastated her when Lisa left her for another girl her sophomore year. How she stayed single afterward until graduation before meeting Dennis and falling in love for a second time. How much she loved Dennis and how Dennis had loved her, how kind and gentile he was and how terrified Beth was that he would leave her if he ever found out she had dated a woman. Dominick absorbed the self-loathing and blame Beth held for herself both from her memories of abuse and her relationship with Lisa. Beth's life with Dennis went from happy to perfect, at least for a short time, when her son Jacob. Arriving with Jacob was a love and devotion for her new born son which was so strong she had nothing to compare it to. Her chance to give her child the love her mother denied her, a mother's love. Then the depression set in a few months later and the happiness rapidly faded. Dennis changed after Jacob's birth and she found out that he was sleeping with her friend Sarah. Beth didn't have the strength or confidence to take Jacob and leave him, even after Dennis punched her in the face when she confronted him and asked him to end the affair for the sake of their family, he continued to hit her for the next five years after. The love had died and Beth was once again trapped in an abusive life. She felt she deserved it, as long as she had Jacob to love and care for she did not care what happened to herself. Beth went to a function sponsored by her old college on a weekend Dennis was out of town on “business” and Jacob was staying with Dennis's parents. Lisa was there, they reconnected and ended up back at Beth's place. After some conversation Lisa had sensed something was wrong and prodded Beth in to telling her everything. Beth told Lisa about Dennis cheating and hitting her when she confronted him about it. How she had nothing and no one to run to because her grandparents were now dead and she had no other family. What started and empathy and sympathy from Lisa quickly re-lit old fires and they ended up in bed. Dennis's parents arrived early to drop off Jacob and caught them which led to a nasty divorce. Beth lost custody despite the fact that she had a stable, well paying job with benefits and Dennis had cheated repeatedly, a fact Beth's lawyer was able to prove in court thanks to two jilted mistresses who were happy to testify on Beth's behalf. The Judge was more concerned than anything on Beth's apparent “deviant” life style and it's potential negative effect on her son. When all was said and done all Beth had was her job at R.E.I. and a ratty apartment in downtown Minneapolis. It wasn't long after she moved in that Beth noticed the lump in her breast and chose to ignore it. She worked and lead a miserable existence of self loathing and borderline suicide until the pain set in and finally became unbearable. By then it was too late. The doctors had originally given her six months but that estimate quickly dwindled once they found out the cancer had spread. Surgery wasn't an option and Beth welcomed death, she longed for it. She had no one, her mother's parents were dead, her father had died as a result of his drinking years ago and Dennis promised her she would never see him or Jacob again. He told Beth that her deadly cancer was icing on his cake.
Dominick broke contact and backed away to collect himself. By doctrine she was an adulterer and a homosexual and therefore deserving of her fate regardless of any strife suffered. Dominick stared at Beth and considered her pathetic and tragic form. After a moment he stepped to her bedside again and knelt over her. He hesitated for a moment considering the consequences again before continuing with what he felt in every fiber of his being to be the just and only course of action. He moved his mouth to her ear and whispered to her.
“I take your pain, your death, your confusion, and self-doubt in the name of Jesus Christ who died for you. Who, despite the pain both physical and emotional inflicted upon you, loves you.”
Dominick moved to Beth's neck and opened his mouth, he lowered his fangs and sank them into Beth's jugular. At once her eyes opened wide and she tugged at his head and began thrashing. She tried to scream but her voice had left her. Dominick waved his hand toward the door while drinking and it locked firmly as though he had walked over and done it himself. After a few seconds her strength left her and she lay motionless as Dominick drank. Her hair regained it's former color, her prematurely aged skin smoothed and regained a look closer to that of her actual age. Her breathing became normal and her muscles grew from their atrophy and became as they should be for a healthy 38 year old woman who has taken care of herself. With an eerie precision Dominick ended his feeding with less than a pint of blood taken from Beth. Beth would be paralyzed for close to 30 minutes, this was normal, but her cancer was gone as was her pain, mental as well as physical. The fang marks also healed themselves instantly leaving no evidence of his presence. Dominick did not realize there was a single tear slowly descending his cheek below his right eye as he moved his face to lock eyes with hers, he used his favorite modified quote from William Makepeace Thackeray.
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.” He said unable to nor caring to hide the love he felt for her. “You are not at fault for what your father did to you, you did nothing to deserve it. God called your Mother home because that was his will, your father was a weak and wicked man who has received his comeuppance. Dennis shall receive his if he does not shed his wickedness, no one is beyond saving but Dennis cannot be saved by you, Jacob however can. Be the mother you were born to be, go to him, reclaim him, give him his mother back, this is God's will.” Dominick got up to leave only to stop, turn back to her, and slowly sit back down and look again into Beth's eyes.. “Love is love, regardless of gender, if the love is pure, it is love all the same and all love is an extension of God.”
With that Dominick kissed her forehead and left her room. He left the hospital, he was spent, Beth was the last of seventeen he had healed in past month. Dominick's pilgrimage was nearing it's end and a century of pilgrimage had exhausted him long ago. He would return to Rome soon for his five years of study and cleansing. He felt good dispute the fact that for the first time in over 500 years he had broken one of his vows. Dominick had never broken any of his vows, no matter how he felt personally. Who was he to question God's will? As time went on, particularly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and with it the opening of minds, so did his increasing doubt in the infallibility of his bible. It was after all written by men, true these were men who had been blessed personally by the savior but they were men just the same. The swelling tide of questions and doubts in Dominick's heart had finally rolled over the breaking wall and now he feared he was no longer a healer.
He feared he was damned.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
One Hour Mental Theatre
Justin fed early, not more than an hour or so after rising. He had to be to work at ten so he made quick work of his meal and hurried off to the plant. Justin made it a point to never kill his victims, to feed just enough to keep his hunger at bay so he could function. He never liked death and he certainly had no desire to cause it, despite what many supposed experts would claim were his kind's “true nature”. This time it was a young man sitting in his car at Todd Park listening to Pink Floyd's “Comfortably Numb”. Todd Park was his location of choice when it came to finding a quick meal. There were often people after dark partying or just trying to find some solitude. His method was flawless, he would move in silently, grab his victim and sink his fangs into that oh so juicy artery in their neck, and when finished he would reach into their mind and erase all memory of the incident. The victim would never know what happened. The wound on their neck would seal itself almost instantly due to the healing nature of his vampire saliva, and contrary to common belief it took a mere pint of blood to satisfy a vampires thirst. Not that there weren't gluttons among the population, but killing ones prey was becoming increasingly taboo in the vampire culture. There was simply no need to other than sadism. The old ways of seeing humans as mere livestock had been dying away since the late nineteenth century. Not to mention that there was always discretion to consider. A worst thing that could happen was for a vampire to drink too much blood and kill his victim or leave them in an obviously weakened state. Such activity draws suspicion and the attention of the governments anti-vampire task force; a branch of the FBI affectionately nicknamed VAMP by humans and vampires alike.
Justin worked in the dry sausage department at the local meat processing plant. The entire department was a giant cooler which he liked because it gave him an excuse for having cold hands. His entire body was cold after all, but having cold hands in a giant cooler wasn't considered odd. This was another misconception among the masses that after feeding a vampire's skin would warm as the blood flowed through his or her body. Perhaps it did marginally, but even if it did it was very short lived.. The minor amount of heat given off by the warm blood consumed would be quickly dispersed in the cold tissues of a vampire's body. After all, vampires generated no heat of their own, they were dead. The blood would give his flesh a more life like hue for most of the night though, however toward the end of the night as his body finished processing it's nutrients he would again take on the appearance of a walking corpse. Luckily his shift would be over by then and he would feed again to avoid a ghoulish appearance. Justin worked his shift and punched out at six in the morning. By then the sun was on it's way or already over the horizon which made his trip home a long one. While sunlight did not kill vampires, it was uncomfortable for them to be in the light of the sun. Some did so just so they could feel human, Justin had no such desire. He felt human regardless, he considered himself human in fact, a human with an incurable disease which robbed him of the ability to lead a normal life.
Justin walked home with a coworker who lived in the same building next to the local Pizza Hut as he did. Her name was Lisa and even though Justin tried to deny it to himself, he was extremely attracted to her. He walked her to her first floor her apartment and politely refused her invitation for breakfast.
“One of these mornings I am going to quit offering and invite another man into my kitchen.” Lisa teased playfully and closed the door. Justin went to the top floor and knocked on a random door. When the occupant, an attractive young redheaded woman he had clearly woken up, answered he pushed her inside and immediately fed on her. He needed to feed once before bed as well as upon waking.
For a human, being fed upon was not a painful experience, if they were allowed to remember it. Justin remembered being made and how the bite of his maker felt like a sustained orgasm. He even ejaculated a few time during, so to say being fed upon by a vampire was pleasurable would be an understatement. Justin drained a little over a pint of the young woman's blood as she quivered and moaned. At one point her legs gave out and Justin had to hold firm to keep her from falling to the floor. Justin could smell the intoxicating aroma of her sex as she became steadily more aroused. Feeding on a woman was unlike feeding on a man. There was still a potent sexual arousal, however most of the women he fed on had a slow build up of arousal before climaxing, of course there were the few who climaxed continuously while he fed as well as those who were only stimulated and did not climax at all. Justin finished feeding and drew the memory of him and his feeding from her mind and left her apartment after laying her temporarily unconscious form gently on her couch. He descended three floors and entered his apartment.
Justin let himself into his small second floor one bedroom apartment. All of his windows were covered with thick black fabric to block out any sunlight and the walls were painted a pale green. Justin had leather furniture which matched the color the walls. He grabbed a Samuel Adams lager from his fridge and settled into his living room to play his X-Box for a bit when he was startled by a voice he had not heard in nearly seventy five years.
“At least your taste in beer has improved over the years but your taste in lodging had decayed significantly. I mean seriously Justin, this green is atrocious.”
Justin stood up so quickly that any human eye in the room would have only seen a blur and heard the whooshing of rapidly dispersed air like when one swings a stick through the air violently.
Vampires can also drink and eat like a normal human although they do not need to. Any food or drink they ingest is processed as it would be if they were living, provided they have had at least a pint of human blood within six hours prior. Any food or drink they ingest however provides absolutely no nourishment to their dead body what so ever. It is all processed as if it did, it is digested and expelled as it would be in any human, but it does a vampire absolutely no good. It is merely his or her body going through the motions it remembers from when it was still human. The alcohol in Justin's beer would have absolutely no effect on him no matter how many he drank, but with the blood he had just ingested he could taste the hops distinctly as well as the many minor ingredients of his beer of choice. It would also be an understatement to say that vampires had significantly better senses than humans.
“Jesus Michelangelo, you scared the shit out of me.” Justin said, surprise overpowering any annoyance Michelangelo's intrusion might have inspired.
“I go by Mike now, it's much more modern.” Mike said still looking around Justin's apartment. “I'm serious about the green Justin. It's just awful.” repeated Mike in a boorish tone. Mike was an older gentleman with thick silver hair and a neatly groomed beard. He was a rail of a man giving the false impression that he was frail and weak. He wore clothes too ritzy for the small meat packing town he found himself in. Mike wore a silk lavender shirt, expensive black dress pants and black dress shoes shined to a mirror gloss.
“Why are you here?” Justin asked regaining his bearings.
“Really?” Mike asked putting a mock look of saddened shock on his face. “Seventy five years of catching up to do and your going to start by interrogating me?”
“Answer my question.” Justin replied coldly.
“I missed you.” Mike replied with a cocky grin.
“Stop fucking around and tell me why you are here or get out.”
In a flash Mike was across the room and face to face with Justin.
“It is not wise or hospitable to be rude.” Mike said with a look of genuine annoyance on his face, Mike's eye contact also became more hostile.
After a tense moment Justin relented and sat back down on his couch looking up at Mike as he took a drink of his beer.
“Fine, have a seat but don't pretend you're here just to catch up or socialize.” Mike said.
“Aren't you going to offer me a beer?”
“They're in the fridge.”
Mike's swiftness surprised even Justin. Then again, Mike was over five hundred and thirty years old so it shouldn't have come as a surprise but it did nonetheless. In the time it would take for light to reach from one end of the Metrodome to the other Mike had his been and was already taking his first sip.
“I'm serious about having missed you you know.” Mike said after finishing his sip.
“That's great, why are you here?” Justin replied dispassionately.
“I'm glad to see you missed me too.”
“Stop this. Why are you here ?”
Mike let out a sigh of exasperation. “Fine Justin but someday you are going to have to forgive me. Eternity is a long time to hold a grudge.”
“Not nearly long enough, why are you here?”
“For fucks sake. Fine Justin you win.” Mike tipped his bottle, draining it dry. “You've been summoned.”
“By who?”
“Who do you think?”
“My maker is dead.”
“But his maker is not.”
“That does not affect me. I am owned by no one.”
Mike's demeanor became more hostile again. “Do not let this “vampire renaissance” cloud you ever troubled mind Justin. There are still laws which must be obeyed. Zachariah may be dead but Leonardo is far from it and he wishes to see you.”
“Then why does he not come himself.”
“Because he is in Rome and he hates the U.S.”
There was a moment of silence between them as Justin as Justin pondered the possible reasons for being summoned. It had been sixty years since he left the vampire world to live among humans.
Even so if anything were amiss he would have heard about it through the underground channels. Everything was going smoothly in the vampire world as far as he knew. Justin finally looked at Mike who had never taken his gaze off of him.
“You're guess is as good as mine Justin but the fact remains that you have been summoned and you will answer that summons.” Mike had a knack for knowing what was on Justin's mind.
Sometimes Justin truly hated being a vampire.
Justin worked in the dry sausage department at the local meat processing plant. The entire department was a giant cooler which he liked because it gave him an excuse for having cold hands. His entire body was cold after all, but having cold hands in a giant cooler wasn't considered odd. This was another misconception among the masses that after feeding a vampire's skin would warm as the blood flowed through his or her body. Perhaps it did marginally, but even if it did it was very short lived.. The minor amount of heat given off by the warm blood consumed would be quickly dispersed in the cold tissues of a vampire's body. After all, vampires generated no heat of their own, they were dead. The blood would give his flesh a more life like hue for most of the night though, however toward the end of the night as his body finished processing it's nutrients he would again take on the appearance of a walking corpse. Luckily his shift would be over by then and he would feed again to avoid a ghoulish appearance. Justin worked his shift and punched out at six in the morning. By then the sun was on it's way or already over the horizon which made his trip home a long one. While sunlight did not kill vampires, it was uncomfortable for them to be in the light of the sun. Some did so just so they could feel human, Justin had no such desire. He felt human regardless, he considered himself human in fact, a human with an incurable disease which robbed him of the ability to lead a normal life.
Justin walked home with a coworker who lived in the same building next to the local Pizza Hut as he did. Her name was Lisa and even though Justin tried to deny it to himself, he was extremely attracted to her. He walked her to her first floor her apartment and politely refused her invitation for breakfast.
“One of these mornings I am going to quit offering and invite another man into my kitchen.” Lisa teased playfully and closed the door. Justin went to the top floor and knocked on a random door. When the occupant, an attractive young redheaded woman he had clearly woken up, answered he pushed her inside and immediately fed on her. He needed to feed once before bed as well as upon waking.
For a human, being fed upon was not a painful experience, if they were allowed to remember it. Justin remembered being made and how the bite of his maker felt like a sustained orgasm. He even ejaculated a few time during, so to say being fed upon by a vampire was pleasurable would be an understatement. Justin drained a little over a pint of the young woman's blood as she quivered and moaned. At one point her legs gave out and Justin had to hold firm to keep her from falling to the floor. Justin could smell the intoxicating aroma of her sex as she became steadily more aroused. Feeding on a woman was unlike feeding on a man. There was still a potent sexual arousal, however most of the women he fed on had a slow build up of arousal before climaxing, of course there were the few who climaxed continuously while he fed as well as those who were only stimulated and did not climax at all. Justin finished feeding and drew the memory of him and his feeding from her mind and left her apartment after laying her temporarily unconscious form gently on her couch. He descended three floors and entered his apartment.
Justin let himself into his small second floor one bedroom apartment. All of his windows were covered with thick black fabric to block out any sunlight and the walls were painted a pale green. Justin had leather furniture which matched the color the walls. He grabbed a Samuel Adams lager from his fridge and settled into his living room to play his X-Box for a bit when he was startled by a voice he had not heard in nearly seventy five years.
“At least your taste in beer has improved over the years but your taste in lodging had decayed significantly. I mean seriously Justin, this green is atrocious.”
Justin stood up so quickly that any human eye in the room would have only seen a blur and heard the whooshing of rapidly dispersed air like when one swings a stick through the air violently.
Vampires can also drink and eat like a normal human although they do not need to. Any food or drink they ingest is processed as it would be if they were living, provided they have had at least a pint of human blood within six hours prior. Any food or drink they ingest however provides absolutely no nourishment to their dead body what so ever. It is all processed as if it did, it is digested and expelled as it would be in any human, but it does a vampire absolutely no good. It is merely his or her body going through the motions it remembers from when it was still human. The alcohol in Justin's beer would have absolutely no effect on him no matter how many he drank, but with the blood he had just ingested he could taste the hops distinctly as well as the many minor ingredients of his beer of choice. It would also be an understatement to say that vampires had significantly better senses than humans.
“Jesus Michelangelo, you scared the shit out of me.” Justin said, surprise overpowering any annoyance Michelangelo's intrusion might have inspired.
“I go by Mike now, it's much more modern.” Mike said still looking around Justin's apartment. “I'm serious about the green Justin. It's just awful.” repeated Mike in a boorish tone. Mike was an older gentleman with thick silver hair and a neatly groomed beard. He was a rail of a man giving the false impression that he was frail and weak. He wore clothes too ritzy for the small meat packing town he found himself in. Mike wore a silk lavender shirt, expensive black dress pants and black dress shoes shined to a mirror gloss.
“Why are you here?” Justin asked regaining his bearings.
“Really?” Mike asked putting a mock look of saddened shock on his face. “Seventy five years of catching up to do and your going to start by interrogating me?”
“Answer my question.” Justin replied coldly.
“I missed you.” Mike replied with a cocky grin.
“Stop fucking around and tell me why you are here or get out.”
In a flash Mike was across the room and face to face with Justin.
“It is not wise or hospitable to be rude.” Mike said with a look of genuine annoyance on his face, Mike's eye contact also became more hostile.
After a tense moment Justin relented and sat back down on his couch looking up at Mike as he took a drink of his beer.
“Fine, have a seat but don't pretend you're here just to catch up or socialize.” Mike said.
“Aren't you going to offer me a beer?”
“They're in the fridge.”
Mike's swiftness surprised even Justin. Then again, Mike was over five hundred and thirty years old so it shouldn't have come as a surprise but it did nonetheless. In the time it would take for light to reach from one end of the Metrodome to the other Mike had his been and was already taking his first sip.
“I'm serious about having missed you you know.” Mike said after finishing his sip.
“That's great, why are you here?” Justin replied dispassionately.
“I'm glad to see you missed me too.”
“Stop this. Why are you here ?”
Mike let out a sigh of exasperation. “Fine Justin but someday you are going to have to forgive me. Eternity is a long time to hold a grudge.”
“Not nearly long enough, why are you here?”
“For fucks sake. Fine Justin you win.” Mike tipped his bottle, draining it dry. “You've been summoned.”
“By who?”
“Who do you think?”
“My maker is dead.”
“But his maker is not.”
“That does not affect me. I am owned by no one.”
Mike's demeanor became more hostile again. “Do not let this “vampire renaissance” cloud you ever troubled mind Justin. There are still laws which must be obeyed. Zachariah may be dead but Leonardo is far from it and he wishes to see you.”
“Then why does he not come himself.”
“Because he is in Rome and he hates the U.S.”
There was a moment of silence between them as Justin as Justin pondered the possible reasons for being summoned. It had been sixty years since he left the vampire world to live among humans.
Even so if anything were amiss he would have heard about it through the underground channels. Everything was going smoothly in the vampire world as far as he knew. Justin finally looked at Mike who had never taken his gaze off of him.
“You're guess is as good as mine Justin but the fact remains that you have been summoned and you will answer that summons.” Mike had a knack for knowing what was on Justin's mind.
Sometimes Justin truly hated being a vampire.
101 ways not to have a girlfriend
“Will you just drive and forget about your phone please?” Sara asked in that annoyed tone of voice she used right before she became truly angry.
“But it might be important.” Danny said still driving with one hand on the wheel and the other frantically fidgeting in his pocket for his ringing cell phone.
“Damnit Danny It's always one of your doofy friends wanting to play. You promised to spend the day with me and by god that is exactly what you are going to do. I don't ask much.” Sara was now on the brink of tears.
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