CARLISLE: Bella, I'm so sorry... your father's weird friend was killed by a feral plot point. – Movies in 15 Minutes
“Are we sure we want to do this?” James said for what seemed like the thousandth time.
“Cal said so and I kind of want to find out what happened myself. You didn’t see Sabrina, James. She was completely different,” Arthur replied turning a corner. I don’t know what Cal did to her, but it must have been something major.
A still groggy Cal sat up and blinked. “Where am I? Why isn’t this leather?”
“You are in Arthur’s car and he doesn’t believe in leather, you atrocious reprobate,” James replied.
“Arthur? Where’s Sabrina?” Cal asked woozily.
“She’s evil and we don’t know.” James reached back and slapped Cal cheerfully.
“Hey! Stop!” Cal swatted the hand away. “I remember now. Are we headed to Carnage Quarter?”
“Yes. We’re there.” Arthur stopped the SUV and got out. He helped Cal out of the back. They walked slightly into the nearest dark alley. Cal’s cane tapped out a sharp sound in the silence.
“Do you know where we are supposed to be going?”
“Just barely inside. The corner of Dresden and Bainbridge. I got the feeling he had never done this before.”
The two tall people nodded. The trio walked down the road and came to the corner. There was a man standing in the dark, next to a street lamp. He looked as if he was shivering.
Cal stepped into the flickering street lamp. “Hello.”
The man stepped into the light. He was a squirrelly little man with graying hair and dark green eyes. He was very pale and his neck was vibrantly red. He rubbed at it absentmindedly. His eyes darted around as if he were afraid someone was following him. “Cal Hardwick?”
“Yes, do you have the information?”
“Do you have the cash?”
James held up a random briefcase Arthur had borrowed. “Give us the info.”
The man opened his mouth, but a black blurry object swooped – as if it was flying – down from the buildings surrounding the group. It grabbed the man, who shrieked, and ran further down Bainbridge street. The trio followed the blur as quick as they could. It was moving faster than a normal human could. They stopped when the figure stopped and bent over the man. He cried out for a split second before slumping lifeless.
The figure looked up briefly giving the boys an intense gaze. It’s long blonde hair covered most of it’s face, except for the gleam of too white teeth and the dark red wetness dripping from it’s mouth. Cal and Arthur gasped and Cal fell to his knees.
“Please no… Not again…”
The figure – who looked to be vaguely female – dropped the man and sprinted off faster than Arthur’s eyes could follow. James looked from Arthur to a cowering Cal. “What’s going on? Shouldn’t we help him?”
Arthur glanced at James. “Who? The dead man or Cal?”
“Cal. We obviously can’t help a dead man; he’s dead. Besides, do we really want to have to fill out all the paper work and talk to the cops?”
“Good point.” Arthur bent down to poke Cal, who had his arms over his head, his head between his knees. “Come on, Cal. Get up.”
“No, she… she will… she will… consume me. I won’t go through that again.”
“She’s gone. James and I will protect you.”
“Can’t. Kill you too. Stronger. Faster.” Cal rocked back and forth on the ground.
James motioned at Cal. “What’s wrong with him? Finally checked into Happydale?”
Arthur couldn’t resist. “I thought you knew everything about Cal Hardwick.”
“I knew everything about Cal Hardwick. Now, what’s wrong with him and how do we snap him out of it?”
“That figure was Sabrina. At least it looked like Sabrina. Apparently, she’s a vampire… or thinks she is.” Arthur paused and thought about the movement of the creature before shaking his head. “I have no idea how to snap him out of it.” Arthur sighed, stood and stared down at Cal. “I can only imagine what he went through.”
James squatted down till he was eye level with Cal, which was quite a feat. He pursed his lips, thinking. His hand lifted, hesitated, caressed Cal’s face and slapped him, knocking the billionaire into a puddle.
Cal laid in the fetid water shivering.
James sighed and sat him back up again. He waved his hand in front of Cal’s face. “Cal? Hello?”
“We should probably get him to a hospital,” Arthur stated watching the proceedings.
James pondered again. In one swift motion, he brought Cal’s lips to his own. Cal didn’t respond for a few seconds before his eyes went wide as he felt James’s tongue against his lips. He pushed James away.
“Shit, James! What did you do that for?”
Arthur chuckled and grinned. “Nice, James. Now, we better change tactics and visit an occult shop to arm ourselves against Sabrina.”
James and Cal nodded and the trio proceeded to find a vampire shop.
Hours later, well into the middle of the night, the trio fell against Arthur’s vehicle. Cal sank to the ground, his make-up gone, wounds standing out in stark contrast to his rapidly pale-ing skin. James fingered his necklace and glanced at Cal. Arthur sighed and closed his eyes.
“How can there not be a shop that sells stuff to kill vampires?” he asked.
“That last shop I thought looked promising, but no, just junk for wanna-be vampires.” Cal replied and leaned his head back against the SUV.
James was still fingering his necklace staring at Cal when he looked up suddenly. “We’re such idiots!”
“Speak for yourself,” Cal muttered.
“Like I would speak for you,” James said and turned to face Arthur. “We’ve been going about this the wrong way.”
“And how do you suppose we go about this, Sherlock?” Cal asked.
“Internet. Hello? I’m sure there are plenty of sites that could tell us how to kill a vampire.”
“That’s actually a good idea,” Arthur said.
James beamed. “I know.”
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Cal said with forced cheerfulness. “We’ll just head right over to an internet café at four in the morning and see what kind of weirdoes reside there.”
“Alright! Let’s go!” James picked Cal up and opened the SUV door. He put him inside, closed the door and got in the passenger seat.
Arthur walked around the front, wishing it wasn’t so high so he could slide across the hood he was in such an adventurous mood, and got in himself.
“Uh, I don’t know where one of those internet-thingers are.” Arthur said blushing and turned to look at James.
“I do. One of my friends is the manager. He can help us,” James replied.
“Ooo, one of your ‘friends’?” Arthur heard the finger quotations in the sarcasm.
“No, not one of my ‘friends’, Cal. An actual friend.”
“You don’t have many of those, do you?”
“More than you.”
“Doubt it.”
“I don’t. Everyone is only you’re friend for your money.”
“People are only friends with you because they want some ass.”
“That’s not true!”
“Is so!”
“Is not!”
“SHUT UP!” Arthur yelled from the front seat. “Now, focus! James, where is this place?”
“In the middle of the block on 7th street. Big neon green and purple sign. Says Tony’s Café. You can’t miss it.”
“Biggest gay sign in the whole damn city.”
“Actually, it’s not. There’s a bigger one on the other side of town.”
Cal scowled and folded his arms.
“So, it’s relatively close?” Arthur prodded.
“Yes, a mile or less.”
“Good.” Arthur floored the gas pedal on the SUV and hoped there wasn’t any cops around.
“James, darling, it’s so nice to see you again. Come in, come in!” Tony said.
“Thanks, Tony.” The two friends hugged and led the way into the café.
“I don’t feel entirely safe in here,” Cal whispered to Arthur.
“People aren’t going to randomly jump you and rape you out here in the open. Relax, Cal.”
“I’m not scared of gays. They’re just like you and me, except they are sexually aroused by men.” Cal pointed toward the street. “Sabrina’s still out there. She could burst in and take all of these people single-handedly.”
“And while she was distracted, I would tie her up and put her in front of some windows and wait for sunrise.”
“What would you tie her up with?”
Arthur opened his mouth, but closed it moments later. “Good point.”
James was sitting at a very nice laptop and motioned for them to come over.
Arthur and Cal walked over and leaned over James’s shoulders.
“All of the sites I’ve looked at so far, say that you have to stake a vampire and cut off it’s head.”
“Well, cutting off anything’s head is going to kill it,” Arthur pointed out.
“Not true. If you cut off one of the Hydra’s heads, two more would grow back in it’s place,” Cal said surprising everyone. They looked at him like he had grown two heads.
“What? I enjoy mythology…”
“Probably ‘cause Zeus was a player,” James muttered.
Cal glared at James. “Is there anything else you can tell us from your webventures?”
“Nope.”
“Now what do we do? We have next to nothing on what to do about this vampire problem and no way to get more information,” James said.
“Hey, now. I don’t want to hear that pessimistic attitude,” Arthur said.
“It’s hopeless,” James said happily.
“Yes, that’s much better.”
“But still…” James turned to Cal who had been quiet. “Cal?”
Silence.
“Cal, don’t make me kiss you again. ‘Cause you know I will.”
Cal looked up at his companions and smirked. “I think I know someone who can help us.”
Author's Note: I did have something important to say here. Something other than my usual plea for comments. But now I can't remember... hmm... sorry, no important information for you.
