Passing Glances
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Disclaimer: The Lost Boys, sadly, do not belong to me.
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1. Heart Of Darkness
People who visit this town for the first time see only its brightness: the whiteness of the blazing California sun, the neon glow of the lights on the Boardwalk.
They see brightness and they hear laughter, the joyous shouts of people on the rides, the drunken giggles of teenagers enjoying themselves.
They hear laughter and they taste salt and sugar, the scent of the ocean and that of the gooey sweets sold on the Boardwalk.
People who come here for the first time want to taste freedom and fun, and usually, they get both of it.
For a little while, at least.
What they don't know is that behind the lights, behind the laughter and the exciting scents there lies darkness.
For we are at the heart of this town.
Santa Carla answers to our every beck and call. She belongs to us, and to us only, and so does everything which lives in her.
We are the heart of Santa Carla. We are her heart of darkness.
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2. Amaranthine
A vampire can never truly leave this earth.
Even if its form is destroyed, its shell shattered, its ghost still lingers on, clinging to its former hunting grounds as well as to the place of its destruction.
Its spirit transfers into the wind that, when gentle, teases the hair of the girls and, when angered, raids a family's home to the ground.
It is alive in the whisper of a stream, the crashing of the ocean waves, the forlorn chirping of drowsy little birds and the angry cry of the seagulls.
When it touches you, an icy chill runs down your spine.
A vampire whose form has been destroyed becomes ingrained even deeper into the place it calls its home.
It's like a grain of sand enclosed by an oyster – but it very rarely transforms into a beautiful pearl.
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3. Memories
As a rule, Grandpa doesn't talk much, and so he doesn't talk much about the vampires either.
He starts cleaning up almost immediately, beginning with the bodies. It's Michael who helps him to gather up the parts in the living room, and it's Michael again who aids him in lifting the skeleton out of the bathtub. Since everything still oozes blood, they are forced to put them into trash bags, though Grandpa secretly would have preferred to wrap them in sheets.
It's a decidedly unpleasant task, but it's even harder with the body in his taxidermy workshop.
This one has not disintegrated. Grandpa doesn't want to, but somehow it happens all the same, and he finds himself looking at the creature's face. It seems so very young now, handsomely boyish, and without a trace of malice.
Grandpa swallows hard and, with an effort, lays his hands on the vampire's shoulders, propping it up and holding it tight so that Michael can pull out the antlers. The things are way to unwieldy to manoeuvre the body through the house with them still sticking out of it.
They carry the corpse out into the horse pasture, then go back to fetch the trash bags holding the remains of the other two. Everything is emptied onto the ground, and under the pale light of the moon, this everything is a truly terrible sight to behold. Grandpa is far from being a wuss, but he feels his knees grow slightly weak as he stares at what's left of Santa Carla's infamous pack of vampires.
He doesn't have to look up and into his grandson's eyes to know that Michael is no better.
"We've got to fetch the other one," the boy mutters almost inaudibly.
Grandpa just nods. It won't do to leave Marko all alone in the cave. If they can do nothing else, they can at least grant them the small mercy to be together in death.
As Grandpa strides to his truck, his grandson following in his wake, he briefly has to close his eyes to chase away the lingering picture of the Lost Boys in all their past glory and the feel of David's cold lips on his own.
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4. Brothers
As time goes by, Sam wonders more and more about the vampires.
In the cave, when asleep, they seemed almost human. Sam knows that they had names and individual personalities to go with them. He's curious as is his custom, but Michael refuses to talk about them, getting cold and snippy every time Sam inquires – and Sam inquires a lot.
Michael has changed profoundly. Sometimes Sam hardly recognizes his brother. Even with the vampires gone, he still stays out all night and barely talks to his family. Michael has grown distant, and their mum appears to be sad all the time. She tries to hide it, but Sam still sees. He knows she worries about Michael, and he resents his brother for that.
With Michael unreachable and their mother so troubled, Sam has no one to turn to. Well, there are the Frog brothers, but he isn't really friends with them. In fact, they barely see each other anymore, except when he visits their shop from time to time to buy some new comics. Edgar and Alan have scared him a little with their remorseless lust to kill.
So, one day, Sam finds himself wandering to the place in the horse pasture where, weeks ago, they laid the remains of the vampires out in the open for the rising sun to take. He stares at the ground where their ashes have been scattered by the wind. There is nothing left to see, but still …
As time goes by, Sam comes there more and more often, bringing Nanook, a blanket, some chow and a comic book.
After a while, he starts to talk to them. Somehow, sometimes, he has the feeling that someone is listening.
He forgets how they have scared him. He remembers their faces as they were when asleep. They looked so peaceful up there, non-threatening, nearly innocent.
Sam wonders how it would be to have them as brothers.
He only goes there when the sun is up though. And while they seem to listen, and, sometimes, somehow, to even answer in the rustle of the grass or the passing of a bird, he is not sure if he can ever forgive them for stealing away his brother.
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5. Haunted
Even months later, Michael still dreams about them.
Sometimes, he sees them as they appeared to him when he first met them: sanguine, wild and vicious and oh so very tempting. In these dreams, Paul's always laughing and fooling around. Dwayne's doing tricks on his skateboard, shouting 'You're one of us now'. Marko smiles knowingly and tells him not to be scared, while David is looking at him in a way Michael doesn't understand.
Most times though he sees them as he made them: Shattered. Fractured. Dwayne has no head, no arms. Paul's no more than a skeleton, oozing slimy blood, pieces of half-melted skin sticking to his bones. A stake's protruding from Marko's chest, his face withered and ashen. David carries a pair of antlers with him, their bloodied tips sticking out of his body in an obscene way.
In both types of dreams, they dare him as they did back then, taunting him, chanting his name, and sometimes it's a lure, and sometimes it's a threat.
Michael's more afraid of the lure though, and it's Paul's carefree laughter, Dwayne's silent camaraderie, Marko's elfish smile and David's ambiguous gaze that scare him more than any ghostly appearance of their shattered shells ever could. Out of these dreams, he bolts awake, cold sweat on his skin, heart pounding, his blood singing David's name. Even as his fumbling fingers find the switch and the room is bathed in artificial light, their shadows refuse to back down, whispering, closing in on him, almost but never quite touching.
Michael knows they're going to stay with him for years and years to come, and then maybe some.
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6. Lost
Lucy is very worried about her boys. Michael seems more distant than ever, whereas Sam still hasn't made any friends and spends most of his free time out in the horse pasture, stuffing himself with sweets and chips while reading his comics.
Her dad is no help at all when she tries to share her apprehension with him, only grumbling that they each have to find their own ways to cope with what has happened.
He has been a great help in disposing of Max though. While the rowdy vampire boys won't be missed by anyone (And how sad that is, Lucy thinks), Max surely would be if he failed to turn up in his store without any explanation at all. So her dad staged an accident including the head vampire's Corvette, a winding road and a cliff. The authorities assume that the body has been carried away by the ocean waves and that no foul play has been involved.
Lucy is very surprised to discover that Max has bequeathed his employees with equal parts of his business if anything should happen to him. From one day to another, she finds herself owning a quarter of the video store on the Boardwalk, among other things. So she continues to work there as an associate and uses a good deal of the inherited cash to finance the repair of the house, feeling slightly guilty whenever she thinks of Max – especially as she mops his ashes up to carry them out into the sun and scatter them in the horse pasture.
As for the house, an exterior wall has to be rebuilt, the whole plumbing to be renewed and the sanitary facilities have to be interchanged, but somehow not one of them speaks of moving, not even her boys.
While the house is cleaned and fixed relatively easy (though Lucy absolutely detests washing the blood of the walls and floors, shuddering about the fact that it once belonged to living, breathing, sentient beings who appeared to be no older than Michael), she finds herself at a complete loss about how to fix her sons.
Sam plays cheerful and unaffected for her, but Lucy knows better. What happened has shaken her son to the core.
And Michael … She feels so disconnected, no longer able to reach him. He has not returned to school, instead working on the Boardwalk, operating one of the rides. He is out all night and stays in his room all day.
She does not know who his new friends are, but she has seen him with various men and all of them seemed like bad company. Thrice, she has caught a glimpse of him hiding in the shadows, making out with a guy. She has tried to talk to him about it, but he just brushed her off. She thinks she could live with it if he at least introduced his boyfriends to her, but he doesn't.
All that she knows is that it were three different young men, and that all of them had very fair hair.
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7. Doubt
Edgar knows that Alan has accidentally swallowed vampire blood when they killed the night-stalkers of Santa Carla. It happened in the cave, as Edgar staked the little one and its blood came gushing out, soaking them to the skin.
Alan had been slightly unsteady on his feet after that, so that Edgar had had to help him climbing the stairs up the cliff, but he had recovered quickly and seemed quite alright during the rest of the day. Then they had annihilated the remainder of the brood, amongst them their head bat, and that should have taken care of any and all repercussions of Alan's mishap.
Only it hadn't.
Alan's not a half, that's for sure. He's not affected by sunlight or holy water, he still has his reflection and enjoys pizza with lots of garlic. But regardless of that … he has changed.
Though a year younger than his brother, Edgar had always been the leader, Alan tagging along in his wake without complaining about it. But now he has turned gruff and defensive towards Edgar, refusing to follow his direction. Every other night he leaves on his own, denying his brother to accompany him, not telling him where he goes or what he is planning to do.
Alan also has started to meet with Sam at his place up in the hills without taking Edgar along, and that happens always in the evenings too. For months after the extermination of the Santa Carla pack they had hardly seen Sam, and now he and Alan have suddenly become best buddies, excluding Edgar from their friendship.
Edgar and Alan have always been together, sharing everything. It hurts to be suddenly left alone, and without an explanation, at that.
Alan has become scornful, rebellious and reclusive, and he seems to enjoy the night way to much.
And Edgar wonders …
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8. Longing
Alan knows that it should scare him, but somehow it doesn't. It's more like … exciting. He never expected to feel this way, and he actually enjoys it.
What he currently feels is completely contrary to what he had been feeling for the past five or so years. He is now almost sure that they made a mistake – "they" meaning himself and his brother.
But Edgar would never understand.
So one day, when Sam makes one of his rare visits to their store and Alan sees something in his eyes, something that resonates with himself and his newly unfolding views, he turns to Sam instead – for Sam understands.
They are as brothers now.
Alan and Sam spend a lot of their evenings together, sitting on a rock at the edge of the Emerson property, watching the sun sink into the ocean and the lights of the Boardwalk come to life. They don't talk much, just witness the night fall and harken into the twilight spreading around them.
Sam has confessed to him that he sometimes talks to them, and that they seem to have found ways to respond.
Alan doesn't know why this affects him so much, but it does. He finds himself wanting to connect with them too.
So Sam takes him out into the horse pasture where, more than half a year ago, the sun burned their bodies to cinder.
It is the first time, Sam says, that he dares to go there in the dark – and it is decidedly different. While everything he seemed to see, or hear, or feel during the day had been so weak that it could well have been a fragment of his imagination, their presence is so strong now that both boys immediately sense it.
It is not malevolent though, more like … curious.
There's a distinct desire to connect on their side as well.
Yes, Alan thinks.
He and Edgar have definitely made a mistake.
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9. Alone
It has been exactly a year now.
Star is standing on the beach, watching the black waves rolling out into the night.
She misses them more than she ever thought possible.
It had been only weeks she lived with them, and sometimes, they had scared her out of her mind, but still … They had been like brothers to her.
She never wanted any of them to die.
She'll never forget the gruesome state their bodies were in when they, the survivors, all gathered at dawn in front of the Emerson place to watch them burn. Even Laddie had been present, though both Star and Lucy had strongly opposed against it. But Laddie had desperately wanted to be there, and Lucy's father had declared that the boy deserved this kind of closure, so they had let him bear witness.
The night after that, he had vanished, and Star had never since seen him or heard of him again. Lucy had even inquired with the police, but to no avail.
Star often wonders where Laddie might be and if he's even alive by now. He was, and hopefully still is, just a little boy, after all.
As for Michael, their affair did not outlast the existence of the Boys. It had been them through which they connected, and after they were gone, that connection was broken.
She sometimes sees him on the Boardwalk, since they both work there, he operating one of the rides, she selling clothes and jewelry at a tiny shop.
He seems as lost and lonely as she feels.
Sometimes, Star wonders about their choices.
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10. Resolution
As the sun slowly climbs above the horizon, smoke begins to rise. At first, there are only thin wisps, spiraling upwards in the gentle morning breeze.
The birds seem especially loud today.
Then, suddenly, something catches fire. As the flames cackle and crackle, the smoke billows up in thick black clouds. An acrid smell fills the air.
While everyone else takes a step back, Laddie finds himself leaning forward, breathing them in.
It is his family burning.
He forbids himself to cry and fills his lungs with more smoke instead. Strangely enough, he does not have to cough. He can actually feel the smoke lining his insides, giving him a warm and fuzzy feeling.
Despite everything, he smiles.
They burn away quickly, and then, as if on cue, the wind picks up, scattering their ashes. Again, the others take several steps backwards, but not Laddie. He allows himself to be sprinkled with what looks like gray snowflakes, even tasting them with his tongue.
No one stops him.
Then it is over, and, hesitantly, everyone wanders back to the house, leaving only Michael, Star and Laddie standing out there on the meadow. Michael tries to pick him up, but he twists out of his grip and kneels down on the ground. He takes a handkerchief out of his pocket and makes it into a bundle, scraping cinder off of the grass and enclosing it safely in the fabric.
He does not allow Star to comfort him.
That night, he sneaks out of Michael's room he shares with both him and Star, down the staircase and out of the house.
He knows that they're not truly gone. And they can't have been the only ones. He will find others who will make him like them, and then he will come back to make his family whole again.
Laddie will do whatever it takes.
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11. Taking Shape
At first, being disembodied is kind of fun. They ride on the wind and the waves, trickle down with the rain and weave themselves into the cries of the nocturnal birds. They whisper innuendos into the ears of sexy girls and plant crazy ideas in the minds of young men.
They are enjoying themselves.
But after a year or so, things get a little old and they find themselves longing for a more corporeal form of existence again. They need bodies they can attach themselves to, and those bodies need to be inhabited by receptive minds.
They do not have to search for long.
In fact, they do not have to search at all.
Their first choice, although seeming maybe a bit funny, is Michael's little brother. Sammy has become quite enthralled by them during the past year, and he readily makes room for a mind rather similar to his own, if a bit darker and dirtier. It's like having a cool, older brother constantly with him, and he actually appears to enjoy it.
Certainly, they are little more than well behaved guests, trying not to take up too much space and not to be too annoying or frightening, lest they be pushed out again – in the beginning, that is.
Their second choice is Alan Frog. He and Sam are already best mates, and Alan is a bit of a silent brooder as well as quite interested in connecting with them. Both suits them well.
Paul and Dwayne are rather thrilled that through Sam and Alan, they can be together in the flesh again.
There is some debate about Star. But she has changed a lot during the past year and can likely be formed into what they need. With a bit of persuasion, she might even change her hippie attire into a cooler punk style.
Then there's, of course, Michael. They expect a bit of a fight from him, but there is none. He recognizes them immediately, and, this time, allows himself to be taken quite willingly.
The results of all of this need some time to unfold, but in the end, they turn out to be quite satisfying.
Sam and Alan somehow get much closer than they were ever aiming to be. But it's kind of fun, and they really don't mind – especially since it also serves to annoy Edgar, whom they kind of don't like anymore, though they don't exactly know why.
Star starts saving money to buy herself a motorbike. She cuts her hair shorter and becomes more of a tomboy, switching her skirts for skin-tight jeans. To her own surprise, she finds her interest in Michael rekindled and her newly awakened feelings returned by him.
Michael discovers his leadership abilities – though the gang he gathers around himself might seem a bit strange, consisting of him, a girl and two underage boys. He and his brother become as close again as they ever were.
Lucy Emerson, who worried a lot about her boys during the past year, finds herself relaxing more and more. She's very glad that Michael and Star are together now, for she liked the girl from the moment she first saw her. Since there'll be likely grandchildren from their part, she does not fret too much about Sam and Alan. She's a bit more strict with the children now though. With the remainder of the inherited money, she buys herself a silver sports car. One day, more than a year after Max's death, Thorn shows up on her step, and being the kind and caring person she is, she takes him in. In some way, she feels more complete with the dog.
The only thing left to do now is go and find Laddie – and some vampires who are willing to change their new vessels.
Then they will roam the night again, and Santa Carla will once again be theirs.
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