by Ran Cartwright
...............�Okay, so what�s this all about?� Lenny questioned.
...............A beast in the night came to Briarwood. It was crazed and deadly, and had once been human. It kept to the dark, skirted rooftops and alleys, and places where there were no street lights to shed a soft safe glow upon those still braving the streets after dark. Six innocent people were murdered, their throats ripped out, before Lenny finally paused on his rampage through the Briarwood night, his violent anger spent.
...............Jan stood at the parking garage entrance. With her were two other vampires. A couple. All members of the Children of the Light. Together they awaited the rising sun. They had chosen the parking garage of the old Northland Telecom building because it was in the old part of town where hardly anyone ventured. And because it faced east where they could watch the purpling sky, the ambient glow of blue, then pink, then orange, then yellow, fading to the blue light of day. But before the sun�s disk broke the horizon, they�d walk into the street and remove the hooded robes they now wore.
...............Then she heard the song of another bird, faint at first, then louder. It wasn�t a nightingale. This song was different, and it brought her back to reality, back to a trash littered street of decay, back to Darktowne and the rising sun. Jan looked up and saw a lark perched on the edge of a roof. It was looking down at her, a light of understanding and wisdom in its eyes, seeing her through the rising sun. And then she heard Lenny�s voice again, calling to her, calling her name. She slowly turned. Her eyes scanned death and destruction. Here she slowly walked with two friends, fellow Children of the Light, never to see another night come to Darktowne. And there was a momentary emptiness in her heart and soul for the brief fantasy she had just lived.
...............Lenny Newman sat atop the 13th Street Bridge truss listening to the night. To his right, the upscale Briarwood suburb of Darktowne. To his left, the dark and decaying Franklin Heights suburb. Below, beneath the bridge, rolled Mill Creek where so many bodies ended up for so many different reasons. Briarwood and the other suburbs of Darktowne hadn�t succumbed to the dark yet. Not like Franklin Heights. But whatever had happened to Franklin Heights was beginning to happen elsewhere. The change was coming. It was inevitable.
...............Various neighborhoods in Franklin Heights were dotted with pockets of dark during the night. No power. And no one cared to restore it. Those neighborhoods were avoided after sundown. Only scavengers, street gangs, and vampires plied the dark there. Those unfortunate enough to be caught out in such places after dark usually found themselves beaten, eaten, raped, dead, or undead.
...............Vampires plied the dark in Franklin Heights. Lenny chuckled at the thought. He preferred upscale Briarwood. Better blood. Richer. Taking blood in Franklin Heights was dangerous. You never knew if a victim�s blood was tainted with...Blood. Lenny smiled at the irony, blood tainted with Blood. But it was no laughing matter. Blood was a designer drug manufactured and put out on the streets of Franklin Heights when Chains and his street gang took over the suburb. They called the drug Blood because once an addict was addicted, their lives depended on another fix. Either take the drug or live in excruciating permanent pain. For vampires, Blood had dire consequences. Blood tainted with Blood didn�t mix well. And many vampires had found out the hard way. Best to avoid tainted blood.
...............Yeah, better in Briarwood, Lenny mused. Much richer. And safer. He laughed. The thought passed as his mind began to drift to the Hells Gate Tavern, a onetime posh nightclub. It was nearly 1 AM. Jan would be there waiting for him. Earlier that evening they�d been talking. Something had been on her mind, something important. She wouldn�t say what, only that she needed time. Meet me at Hells Gate at one, she�d said. I�ll tell you then. Lenny nodded as he looked back on the conversation while is eyes scanned the dark lane of Riverview Boulevard. She�d said one; one it would be.
...............Lenny jumped from the bridge truss and glided to the sidewalk along Riverview Boulevard. Few streetlights worked here, mostly those a few blocks to the north in the Riverview red light district. Chains made sure they worked. He didn�t want his prostitutes ending up victims of scavengers or vampires. Scavengers and vampires were the only things left in Franklin Heights that troubled Chains. Rival gangs had long been decimated and there hadn�t been any blue suited law enforcement in Franklin Heights since Chains and his street gang had destroyed the last police precinct on Baden Street. The police that hadn�t died in the shootout had been shot execution style. Only a twenty three year old dispatcher had been spared, and Chains had forced her into prostitution on Riverview. She was now long gone.
...............There were rumors that a male/female partnered patrol unit from Darktowne�s Claremont suburb were victims of Chains in Franklin Heights. How they ended up in Franklin Heights was anyone�s guess, if they ended up there at all. Their patrol car was found parked miles away in the south Darktowne suburb of Southside, the policeman seated behind the wheel, his decapitated head stuck face first between his legs. The bra and soiled panties of his partner were found hanging from the patrol car�s rearview mirror, but she was never found. Some whisper that she set her partner up; some that she�s at the bottom of the river; some that Chains forced her into prostitution in Franklin Heights. Some claim that she�s still in Franklin Heights somewhere, that Chains keeps her locked up, keeps her hooked on Blood, and keeps taking from her what he wants when he wants. But no one really knows. Since then other police units from elsewhere around Darktowne refused to enter Franklin Heights, day or night. The only law that remained was Chains� law. And that was whatever he saw fit.
...............Lenny smiled inwardly. He knew Chains was a minor player in the greater scheme of things. Sure, the thug ruled over Franklin Heights, but the real power rested with Shadow, Lord of all Darktowne vampires. All Shadow had to do was exercise that power, and Chains and his gang of thugs would be destroyed in minutes. For now, Shadow was content to laud over his flock of devotees in his roost beneath the art museum in Mill Creek Park. He rarely ventured out. Most of Shadow�s dirty work was done for him. When he needed blood, a victim was generally brought to him. Shadow was content with his system. And Lenny was content to go out in search of blood. To Briarwood where it was safe.
...............Jan leaned forward, crossing her hands over the book she had been reading, Shakespeare�s Romeo and Juliet. �Have you given it any thought?� she asked, hopeful.
...............�About what? This Children of the Light garbage you�re involved with? No, and I don�t intend to.�
...............Jan�s eyes shot open wide; she glanced hurriedly around the tavern, felt a hundred prying pairs of eyes watching her, hoping they weren�t Shadow�s spies. Leaning further across the table, nearly spilling her drink, her eyes narrowed and she glared at Lenny. �Keep it quiet, if you�ll please,� she whispered angrily.
...............�Oh yeah, I forgot, it�s secret,� Lenny nodded, his voice laced with sarcasm. He sat back and began to tap fingers on the table top.
...............Hells Gate�s clientele echoed around them - the murmuring, the gaiety, the angry whispers, the laughing, the crying, words of defiance, words of submission. Mostly deviants, degenerates, and a few vampires hung out at the Hells Gate Tavern. A few Normals came in occasionally for the thrill of it. Some came to surrender themselves to eternity. They didn�t always get what they wanted. There were people with spiked hair, colored hair, short hair, long hair, no hair, people with tattoos and piercings, people of all colors, shapes, sizes, male gendered, female gendered, trans-gendered. They drank, smoked, drugged, mingled, mixed, sized one another up for later prospects. By dawn some would be dead. Some would be undead. Some would wish they were dead. And some would return the following night.
...............�So why all the secrecy anyway?� Lenny asked, softening his tone of voice.
...............�We don�t know how Shadow would take it,� Jan replied.
...............�If you�re so worried about Shadow, then you�ve got to know that what you and these kooks are doing is wrong.�
...............�No, it isn�t,� Jan said softly.
...............�Look, Jan,...�
...............�No, you look, Lenny,� she interrupted, her voice forced so as not to shout. �It wasn�t all that long ago that we were hiding in the dark.�
...............�Yeah, but now we don�t have to.�
...............�Have you lost your humanity?� Jan was incensed. �Are you satisfied with what you�ve become?�
...............�Yes, I am. Aren�t you?�
...............�No. I don�t like being a blood sucking animal.�
...............�Blood sucking animal?! Come on, Jan!� Lenny�s voice began to rise again. He paused, noting Jan�s glare of contempt, and changed his tone and attitude, hoping to change hers. �I can be debonair, raid a local tux shop, find some silk threads, black and red.� He grinned and then put on his best Bela Lugosi impression. �Juzz call me Drak-kul-lah; the children of the night, what music...�
...............�Knock it off, Lenny,� Jan snarled, further angered. �That�s not funny.�
...............�Aren�t you the least bit interested in immortality? To live...�
...............�No, I�m not,� she interrupted.
...............Lenny paused and sighed. �Look, this isn�t what you wanted to tell me.�
...............�No, it�s not.�
...............�Then what?� Lenny was becoming increasingly frustrated.
...............Jan glanced around the tavern then turned her eyes back to Lenny. �Let�s go outside. It�s getting stuffy in here.�
...............They wound their way through the pressing flesh of the hazy nightclub, slipped through a side door, and found themselves in a side alley. A scream echoed in the dark, then faded obscure. It had been wrenching, pain filled - a scream of terror and submission. When it faded, the silence was unearthly, the silence of death. Nothing moved. Something glinted in Jan�s eye. She paused and glanced at a knife with a broken blade that lay nearby. The blade, sprinkled with blood, glinted in the feeble glow of a streetlight. Jan frowned.
...............A nightingale lit out of the night to perch on a ledge above. It peered down at the two vampires as they ducked into a narrow passage between two buildings. Jan turned to face Lenny. Her arms were crossed, her book cradled against her chest. The two of them stood face to face, inches apart. There wasn�t much space between the two buildings.
...............�Come with us into the light,� Jan pleaded.
...............�What do you mean Light?� Lenny asked. �Children of the Light. What the hell is that? Some religious movement or something?�
............... �Look Lenny, we�re under no illusions...,� Jan was saying.
...............�No illusions?!� Lenny interrupted. �Illusions of what?� He shook his head. His patience was wearing thin. �Never mind. You still haven�t said what you really wanted to say.�
...............�We can�t see each other anymore,� she said softly with no hesitation.
...............�What are you talking about? We were going to get married before...�
...............�Things have changed, Lenny,� she interrupted.
...............�I�ll say they have!� He paused, sighed, searching for an avenue of reason. �Look, Jan, so we�re vampires. We�re not animals. None of the old stories are true. We�re not afraid of crosses, garlic doesn�t hurt us, a stake in the heart doesn�t kill us, we don�t need to sleep in coffins...�
...............�We�re active at night, avoiding the day,� Jan said over Lenny�s list.
...............�So,� Lenny shrugged his shoulders. �At least we don�t think we...no one has ever...� The pieces of the puzzle were suddenly coming together and Lenny was becoming increasingly alarmed. �Wait a minute, Children of the Light, you don�t mean...?�
...............Jan nodded. �Yes. Sunlight.�
...............Lenny�s patience snapped. His animal instinct took over. His eyes flared yellow and he hissed as he quickly buried his fangs deep into Jan�s neck. She gasped, hissed back, and rolled her head, her eyes glowing. Red began to flow behind her eyes. Her breath quickened. The scent of fresh blood, the kill, the feeding, was overpowering. Tensing her muscles, Jan buried her fangs deep into Lenny�s neck. There in the dark between two buildings, pressed together, they fed off of each other. Her blood passed into him, and his blood passed into her. Simultaneously. There was a tingling sensation, a rush, a rapidly growing feeling that bordered on orgasm. The book slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground at their feet.
...............A soft voice suddenly whispered in Jan�s thoughts. The voice was faint, desperate, pleading. She knew the source. Her own inner self, her consciousness fighting for humanity, to save herself from the dark and the animal instinct that was overwhelming her. Her eyes shot open wide; the light in them dimmed. And she pulled away from Lenny�s grasp, threw herself back against the brick wall, stumbled sideways and fell on her back. She shuffled backward a few feet, peering up at Lenny who stood there, animal-like, looking down at her. He was lost to her; he had become what she deplored. A blood thirsty animal of the night with no humanity left in him, nothing to save.
...............�It�s over,� she said, her voice gruff. �Goodbye, Lenny.� She faded into shade and fluttered into the night like a piece of paper whipped about on a breeze.
...............He sat behind a dumpster in a trash littered alley, his back against a wall, his knees drawn up under his chin. His breath was heavy, raspy. He wiped the blood from his face on his shirt sleeve and stared blankly, wide-eyed, realizing what he�d done, proving Jan right. An animal, just an animal, he thought, some semblance of rationality returning. He glanced at the fresh blood on his sleeve and sighed. Just an animal. No matter how you color it.
...............�Jan,� he muttered, and then a sudden thought occurred. A rose by any other name... �A rose...,� he softly repeated, staring blankly into the shadows.
...............Lenny sat up, crossed his legs, and laid a hand over his heart. But it was the paperback book in the inside pocket of his jacket that his hand sought. It was still there. Jan�s book. The one she�d dropped in the narrow passage outside the Hell�s Gate Tavern. She had left it behind when she disappeared into the night, and Lenny had picked it up.
...............Gingerly he took it from his jacket and stared at the cover as he ran his fingers lightly over it. There were spots of fresh blood on the cover. Jan�s. From their exchange in the narrow passage. And the cover was well worn. She had had the book a long time. Lenny knew she carried it everywhere with her. Until now.
...............The soft glow of a streetlight at the end of the alley caught the yellowed pages of the book as Lenny began to thumb through it. Here and there he paused, noticing that some of the passages were marked � underlined or checked with an asterisk. He paused at one page where two lines caught his attention, and read them silently.
..............................It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
..............................Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,...
...............He paged on, scanning acts, scenes, lines, stage directions, Jan�s notations, until another line caught his eye.
..............................A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.
...............Lenny paused, sat back, and sighed. �To want thy light,� he said softly, his thoughts focused on Shakespeare�s words. Pages turned. Lenny was lost in a tragedy. Another passage caught his attention and his thoughts picked out fragmented dialogue -
..............................JULIET �
.................................It was the nightingale, and not the lark,...
..............................ROMEO �
..............................It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
..............................No nightingale:...
..............................Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
..............................Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
..............................I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
...............There was a soft purpling in the east. The day was coming fast. Jan would be waiting for the dawn. Lenny was certain of it. Somewhere in Franklin Heights, Jan was waiting for the dawn, waiting to become a child of light, waiting to commit suicide. In one swift fluid motion, Lenny shot up into the dark sky, arcing over the river and across the decaying and dying Darktowne suburb of Franklin Heights. Lenny would find her before it was too late. He could sense her, pick her out from all the others. If only there was enough time before the sun rose.
...............The eastern sky had faded from pink to orange. Gray/black clouds dotted the horizon, tending to a solid mass above the city of cloud and churning smoke from the many fires. It was nearly time, and Jan and her two friends exchanged glances.
...............�Are we ready?� the male vampire asked softly.
...............There was a brief pause as they again exchanged uncertain glances. But it was too late to turn back. They nodded, resolved to see it through.
...............The sky directly above was graying with the light of dawn and cloud cover as Jan and her two friends left the parking garage and slowly started down the middle of the deserted street. Immediately they could feel the heat. It trickled through them like pricking needles. Jan smiled, realizing that of all the falsehoods of legend and Hollywood, this was one that was true.
...............�Think good thoughts, something that pleases you,� the male vampire said softly. �It will be over soon.�
...............The first trace of wispy smoke curled from their garments as they continued on, devoid of cover, and with no chance of turning back. Although uncomfortable in the growing heat, Jan was comfortable in her thoughts. She did as her friend had suggested, concentrated on something that pleased her - living another life, another place in time...
..................found herself in a finely decorated bedroom � an ornately carved dresser with a large framed mirror, a velvet covered settee, large portraits of Veronese vineyards. The bed was a large four poster with a canopied top. The canopy cover was white lace, the bedspread white satin. Soft blue draperies framed an opened second floor window, the sheers billowing on a gentle evening breeze.
...............Outside the sky was darkening. Stars were beginning to come out, heralding the approaching night. The shadows of a grand orchard stood like protecting sentinels. From a nearby pomegranate tree the call of a nightingale echoed through the open window.
...............The surroundings were new, yet familiar. Jan had been there many times, in her thoughts and in the book. She smiled and turned toward the window, her eyes taking in the beautiful Capulet room, her ears taking in the soft singing nightingale. And then there was another sound, a voice calling to her. Jan smiled. Lenny had seen the light in the window and had come to her.
...............A few short hours before they�d been at the Hells Gate Tavern. And in the alley Lenny had bitten...but it seemed so long ago, not merely hours. This was a new life now, a new place � the home of the Capulets. She closed her eyes and the room began to swim. She felt dizzy, weak, and hot. A fever. Fingers slowly reached up, gently touched her neck, and felt...the teeth marks. So long ago... It was like a dream, but it was no dream. She shook her head feebly. She was growing hotter. The fever seemed to be worsening. A strange feeling began to overwhelm her. Her arms began to feel like lead. She tried to raise them, found she couldn�t, tried to move her feet, found she couldn�t. Disjointed images began to flash through her mind. She tried to concentrate, but couldn�t. The heat was becoming unbearable.
...............Time seemed to slow as Jan turned to Lenny. Her footsteps were leaden, dragging. The smoke erupting from her garments watered her eyes, partially obscuring her vision. But she saw her two friends enveloped in churning smoke. One suddenly erupted in fire and crumpled to the ground. Still Jan turned, looking back toward the parking garage they had left. Tears roll down her cheeks.
...............Lenny stood there in the shadow of the roof only inches from the light of day. A blanket was draped over his head, meager protection against the light of death. In his right hand he cradled the Shakespeare book that Jan had left behind. He was shouting to her, reaching a blanket shrouded arm into the morning light, smoke curling from the blanket.
...............He paused as he saw Jan turning to face him, her two friends now collapsed and burning in the street. Lenny slowly looked up at the cloud covered sky above Darktowne. A moment passed through his thoughts and heart. He remembered another time and place that seemed so long ago, before there was a Darktowne, back when Jan was his Light. And he suddenly realized that she was still his Light. A warmth of compassion settled over him. He smiled, glanced at the Shakespeare book, then Jan, and then rolled the blanket off his shoulders.
...............�I love you,� he said softly as he stepped out of the parking garage.
...............Jan didn�t hear him, but she knew what he said. Something eternal passed between them there in the street. She smiled, knowing that he was the old Lenny before the dark had come to Darktowne. A profound peace settled over Jan as she suddenly erupted in flame that began to consume her.
...............Not long after, fire consumed Lenny as well. The lark sang one final song, and then took to the air. By afternoon, the ash that had been the four vampires had scattered on the wind. Soon the sun would be going down, and the night would rush in.
...............Time passed. A figure scurried through the lengthening shadows of an alley in fear of something unseen. It ducked into an abandoned building and crouched in the shadows, clutching it�s new found prize � a lightly charred book it had found lying in the middle of a downtown street. All about were cries of pain and anguish as night began to fall. The ground cooled where there were no fires. Mist began to form, crawling through the darkened alleys and byways, malformed things lurking within. A child of night lit on the edge of a rooftop. And then another. They waited. Soon it would be time to feed. Night had again come to Darktowne. And somewhere in the dark a child of light planned for the coming dawn.
