Prelude

©2001-present Industrial Illusions

It happened two maybe three months ago. I was on my way home from work; I was working the late shift. Anyway, it was late and I decided to take a different route home.
I was driving along this street—I forget the name—but as I was driving the radio started acting up and when I looked down to change the station, I accidentally hit something. I got out of my car to see what I had hit and up popped this girl holding very tightly to a gun. She stood up and held the gun to my head.
“Get back in the car,” she demanded.
I of course did as she said.
“Drive.” She put the gun down once we were clear of the area.
I took a good look at her. There sat a beautiful girl with misty blue eyes, long golden blonde hair, and a body to die for and all I could say was, “You’re bleeding.”
“I’ll heal. Turn here.”
“Who’re you running from?” I asked hesitantly.
“Don’t let that concern you. Make a left.”
It took me a while to realize we were making a complete circle. “Should I keep circling or should I try a figure eight now?”
“You really shouldn’t make jokes when your life is in danger.”
“Sorry.”
“Keep straight.”
An hour had passed and the only time she spoke was when she was giving me directions. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Casey.”
Casey. For some reason that name didn’t fit her face. “Kevin Bradley.”
“Well, Kev, let’s pray I didn’t put you in too much danger.”
I sat there wondering what kind of danger I could possibly be in just from picking her up? I was the one who was kidnapped. I didn’t realize it then, but I was going to find out real soon.
“Turn off your lights and pull into the next alley.”
I did as I was told and parked in an alley that was two buildings away from a repair shop. She forced me out of the car with the gun in m back. We went into the shop and she yelled out a name. Some guy, medium height, dark hair and eyes, came out from a back room.
“C.K., is that you?” he asked, a little surprised.
“Last I checked,” she said, walking toward him.
“My God, you’ve been shot.”
“Yeah, I got hit in the arm and my leg.”
“Well, at least you’re still alive. So, who’s the guy? New boyfriend?”
“No, just someone I picked up.”
“More like kidnapped,” I mumbled.
“Gage, meet Kevin Bradley.” She looked back at me. “Kev, this is Gage, my guard dog,” she said, patting his chest. “I have to clean up. You boys play nice while I’m gone. Gage, try not to eat him.”
“Don’t worry, he’s too skinny anyway,” he said with a grin on his face. When she left he started a conversation. “So, how’d you meet Casey?” he asked, giving me the once over.
I felt sick and could hardly answer. “I…uh…sort of ran her over and she threatened to blow my brains out if I didn’t drive her here,” I answered nervously.
He took one good look at me and laughed. He knew I was scared. “It’s just like her to do something like that,” he said. “But don’t worry, she won’t hurt you unless you piss her off.”
I felt safer with Casey and her gun in my face than being left alone with Gage, and I was taller. “Is she your cousin or something?”
“More like a little sister.” He paused a moment and looked around as if he was listening for something. Not knowing why, I did the same. “Do you know how to use a gun?” he asked, walking over to a cabinet.
“No, why?”
“You wanna learn?” He pulled out three high-powered rifles and tossed one to me.
“I don’t know how to use this,” I said frantically.
“Just point and shot.”
Casey came out and grabbed a rifle.
“What’s going on?” I asked, only to be ignored.
“Go out back and wait for me,” he told her.
“Okay, but what if you don’t make it?”
“You know I will, but if I don’t, get out of here first chance you get.”
She gave him one last look before leaving. “Are you coming?” she asked, trying to cover up the pain in her voice.
When she was out of sight he stopped me. “Take care of her for me.”
I nodded and left. What in the hell did I get myself into this time?
“It took you long enough,” she said.
“I was getting some extra instructions.”
“Such as?” she asked in a serious tone.
I looked at her and smiled. “Don’t let that concern you.”
“I wouldn’t do that too often,” she said, loading her rifle.
“That doesn’t scare me anymore, I have one, too.”
“I hope you know how to use it.”
Before she could speak again, she stopped to listen for something. As soon as I was about to ask why, she grabbed my arm, forcing me to run away from the building with her. Once we got far enough away, the building exploded. I had to hold her to keep her from going back.
“Let go of me!” she screamed.
“Casey, he’s gone,” I told her.
“I said let go!”
I looked her in the eyes and let her go. “He’s gone,” I repeated.
“He’s not like you,” she snapped, and ran back to the torched building.
The fire had died before it really started. It was a pretty clean job. I just assumed the bombs that were used were designed to just destroy without flames. Whoever did it knew what they were doing. I eventually followed her, but I pulled my car in front first. When I found her, she was kneeling next to a body, but it wasn’t Gage’s and it wasn’t burned. He had been shot.
“Are you gonna be all right?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, calming down. “At least I know Gage is alive and where he is.”
“But did you have to kill him?”
“He was a messenger, he knew he was going to die,” she said.
I found it hard to believe someone would be willing to deliver a message knowing they would be killed for it. That whole situation scared the shit out of me and I didn’t like that she kept so much from me. But for some reason I felt compelled to help her. “Ready to go?”
She stood up and looked at me with a confused look on her face. “You don’t have to do this, you’re fee to go now.”
I smiled at her. “I know.” I walked out what was left of the door and got into my car. I waited a while for her to come out. She took her sweet time. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”
She sighed. “If you must know. The guy that’s after me is a hunter. He thinks I’m responsible for his family’s death and he vowed to take me out and anyone who’s like me or close to me.”
“Like Gage?”
“Yeah.”
I didn’t want to ask what she and Gage were. I felt I knew enough for the time being. That, and she looked tired and was beaten up pretty badly. “So where are we going?”
“Let’s find a hotel. We’ll look for Gage tomorrow night.”
Instead of a hotel, I drove back to my house. She looked so peaceful I almost hated to wake her up to come in.
“You have a nice place,” she said.
“Thank you.” I showed her to a room. “If you need anything I’m right down the hall to your left.”
She smiled at me and closed the door.

That night I had one hell of a dream about her. A cool breeze coming from my open balcony door suddenly awakened me. Right in the doorway stood Casey, wearing only the shirt I had given her to sleep in. You’d think at twenty-six I would have a better imagination, and she wouldn’t be wearing anything. Either way she looked completely breath taking. She slowly made her way to my bed in a sensual manner, discarding the shirt and revealing a well-toned body. I was looking at, at least twenty years of perfection. She didn’t speak. She just looked me in the eyes and straddled me, forcing me to lie down. Her lips grazed mine before kissing me fully on the lips. I easily fit inside her, but for no reason that I could think of, I pulled out. I had a beautiful girl in my bed, completely naked, who wanted me as much as I wanted her and I pulled out. She obviously got the idea that I didn’t want her in that way and left. The strange part was, she was smiling.
I woke the next night to the light of a full moon and a sore hand. I looked at my palm and a pentagram was there, but it disappeared right after I saw it. I wish I knew then what it meant. Perhaps I would’ve stayed in bed. “That’s it; no more working the lat shift for me.” I found a note on the pillow next to me. Apparently Casey felt the need to take my car and go to Hell’s Boundary—a very dangerous nightclub where you were more than likely to lose your car or your life. Sometimes both.
I got dressed and went to the club—which was what she didn’t want me to do, but I’m not one for taking orders when it comes to my car. When I got there, it didn’t take me long to find her, but now that I think about it…
“Are you illiterate or something?”
She found me. And she wasn’t happy at all to see me.
“Did you play football in high school?” I asked, when she dragged me over to a dark corner.
“Cute. Why are you here?”
“I came for my car.”
She reached into her pocket and handed me the keys. “Here, now get out of here.”
“I thought we were supposed to do this together.”
“You’ll only get in the way, and I don’t want to see you get hurt,” she answered.
“I can take care—”
“I said no,” she interrupted. “Now go home.”
One of the bouncers came up behind me. “C.K., is this guy givin’ you trouble?”
He looked almost twice my size and pumped full of steroids. “Where do you find these guys?” I asked in a concerned tone.
“Unlike you, they don’t run me over. Louie, get him outta here.”
“No problem,” he said, cracking his knuckles.
“Hey,” I said as he reached for me. “I can see myself out.” Who breeds these guys? I went into the crowd so Louie couldn’t see me, and this girl grabbed me and started dancing. She was medium height, long black hair, and green eyes. If it wasn’t for the different hair and eye color she could have easily passed for Casey.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Kevin,” I answered, trying to keep an eye on Casey.
“Girlfriend?”
“What? No, she’s just a friend I ran into. I just want to make sure she stays out of trouble,” I said, looking at her.
“Well, Kevin it was nice dancing with you,” she said, slowly backing away.
The song wasn’t even over and already she was running from me. I’ve always had bad luck with women for some odd reason. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“You never asked,” she countered with a grin.
“I’m asking now.”
She looked over in Casey’s direction, and like always I let my curiosity get the better of me. When I turned back to her, she was gone. I returned my attention to Casey, who was talking to some guy. He was a little taller than her, dark haired—from what I could tell through his bandana, and a round face with a goatee. He led her to a back room and closed the door. The girl I was dancing with came back right before I could follow Casey.
“Hey, Kevin.”
“I’m sorry, do I know you? You look familiar, but it’s not often that I forget a face, and I never forget a name.”
“You have the cutest accent. Where are you from?”
“Tell me you name first.”
“Genesis.”
“Kentucky. Genesis is an interesting name.”
“You can call me Gen,” she said, staring into my eyes.
I couldn’t help but stare back. It was like she had some kind of control over me, and I found myself following her into a dark room. I was hit over the head and was unconscious for I don’t know how long. When I came to, I was handcuffed to pipe. I managed to hear a conversation in the next room. It was a guy’s voice and Casey’s.
“I think I have something that belongs to you,” he said.
She sighed. “Let me guess. Is he at least six one, dark hair, green eyes, unnaturally thick eyebrows, boxed jaw, a goatee, and goes by the name Kevin?”
“Bring him out!” he yelled to someone.
It was so dark in the room that I didn’t notice the guy he was yelling at was in the room with me. He took the handcuff off the pipe and slapped it on my other wrist and forced me into the next room—at gunpoint.
“Oh goody, I got it right! Do I get a prize?” She spoke, with false excitement.
“I didn’t know you paid that much attention to me,” I said.
“I told you to go home, but you never listen to anything I tell you. Now you’re handcuffed with a gun pointed at you.”
“You get use to it.”
“Okay, let’s get this over with,” she said. “Just let Gage and farm boy go and I’ll take their place.”
Genesis came into the room with two guys carrying a badly beaten Gage. It was hard to tell it he was alive from looking at him.
“Gen? I knew you were behind this bullshit,” she growled. “I’m ashamed to be your twin.”
“I thought your hair looked dyed,” I commented when she came up to me. I quickly learned to not say stupid things when you’re being held hostage. She punched me in the stomach and I fell to my knees.
“I told you not to do that too often,” Casey spoke.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I coughed. If I didn’t know any better, I swear my pain amused her.

Genesis knelt in front of me and lifted my head. “You are a handsome devil, and I just love that accent.” She leaned in and kissed me full on the lips. “Not bad. Nothing but the best for my better half.”
“But did you have to bite me.”
“Genesis!” Casey yelled, almost as if she were growling.
“I feel sick,” I groaned.
“It happens. By the way, you’re bleeding,” Genesis smiled.
“I wonder why.”
“Hey, boss, what do you want us to do with this one?”
“I thought you were smart enough to drop him next to the other one and leave, but obviously you’re not.”
“I was wondering who was running things around here. You still seem like a lackey though.” I watched Casey as they dropped Gage next to me. His breathing and heartbeats were slow, and Casey was obviously up to something. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“He’s dying,” I said.
Casey carefully made her way over to us, watching her sister and her partner.
“Oh this is making me nauseous. Can’t I kill them now?”
“No, let them have their last moments together.”
“She’s right, you are a lackey,” I spoke. I was a glutton for punishment, but I was lucky they weren’t near me to do anything. “Case…”
Casey took out her gun, which made the lackey draw his.
“I’m sorry,” she cried softly, and shot Gage in the head.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” the lackey spoke.
“Why the hell did you do that?” I asked.
She stood up and aimed the gun at the lackey.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said.
“You’re not me,” she said angrily.
He grabbed Genesis and held his gun to her head. “I swear I’ll kill her.”
“Go ahead. In fact, I’ll do it for you.”
He dropped the body, exposing the fresh wound in his shoulder.
“Oh look what I’ve done. Now you have her blood inside you. It’s not much, but it’s enough to make you one of us. So, are you gonna kill yourself now or do you want me to do it?” she spoke, walking towards him.
Before he could get to the door, she had him by the throat against the wall. That was the first time I saw her do that and it scared me at first, but I knew what she and her sister were and I was obviously one. I could hear his heart pounding in his chest and could smell his fear rising.
“Please don’t kill me,” he pleaded.
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t. You forced me to kill my best friend and endangered another. Any last words before I put a bullet between your eyes?”
“I’m sorry?”
“If that’s it.”
“Casey, don’t kill him,” I said, touching her shoulder. “He doesn’t deserve to die.”
“Neither did Gage.”
“Hey, you blew his brains out, not me,” he mentioned. “But it save me the trouble of doing it.”
“Okay, maybe he does,” I said, breaking out of my restraints. “But two wrongs don’t make a right.”
She looked at me, and then back at him. She put a bullet right through the center of his skull. “True, but it damn sure makes us even.”
“My God! Don’t you have a conscience?”
“I’m a werewolf,” she walked away, “should I?”