Hello, my lovely readers. I really love the character of MG and came with a possibly AH version of how he became a vamp. On with the show…
Guardian Angel, What Sharp Teeth You Have:
You never know when your whole world will end and you'll find yourself at the beginning of a brand new story. Everyone's hero has an origin story. Unfortunately this one did not begin with the bite of a spider and end with my flinging my mighty webs all over town. Nope. I got bit alright, by a pretty lady, on a warm, sunny, Sunday… That's when my real life began.
Whistling, I entered my favorite comic book story, Taggart's. Taggart's, named after the owner's grandfather, Tobias Taggart, run now by Russell Taggart who continued to keep the aisles clean and the shelves stocked. I worked here during the last summer and planned to this coming one. I would be seventeen then, with one more comic-filled summer before college.
"Hey, MG!" Russell called. He was cleaning off the counter with a rag and watching customers roam the aisles.
"Hey, Mr. Taggart. How's Lucy?" Mr. Taggart had an old, orange tabby which lived in the apartment above the store with the comic book vendor.
"She's probably looking forward to my getting off my shift so I can dump her some Fancy Feast into her bowl. Cat eats better than I do," Russell Taggart grinned and showed his false teeth. He'd be working here until his death.
Starting down one of the aisles, I stopped when Mr. Taggart called to me. "MG, I think I know what you came in here for." He held up a finger and then walked into the back of the store to the stockroom. I moved to stand by the counter, smiling at the little boy and his mother.
"But mom!" the boy cried, looking at the comics.
"It's late. We need to get going if we're going to make it to Aunt Olivia's," the mother replied. With a quick shake of her head, she pulled her son right behind her and out the door while the boy looked, longingly at a new copy of Superman.
Mr. Taggart came out with a copy of The Flash. A very new copy of The Flash. My sharp intake of breath and the look of awe on my face told Mr. Taggart all he needed to know. This was no ordinary issue. This was unique. This was a gold mine. Collectors would fall to their knees in awe of this copy.
In Mr. Taggart's hands was one of the original printings of issue #106, "The Menace of the Super Gorilla," or when Gorilla Grodd was first introduced to Flash fans. My heart pounded in my chest. "Mr. T. No, I can't take that."
"Consider it a rental. I know that you'd appreciate it. And since Lucy's not going to enjoy it near as much you will, I thought 'Why not?'" Mr. Taggart slipped the precious comic into a brown paper bag.
"No! Seriously!" I could not keep my hands from not reaching for the bag. "Thank you! I'll make sure nothing bad happens to it."
My mom had given me twenty bucks to buy some comics with. Now I could give it back to her because this one comic meant more to me than all of the new copies I could get my hands on. I would buy some plastic gloves to use while flipping through the pages. They shouldn't end up with a kid's grubby fingerprints on them.
All of my attention was on getting home, to begin paging through my special present for the day and I did not note the two men who slipped out of the shadows of an alley and began to follow me.
"Hey, kid! Got a dollar?" one of the men asked me.
Turning, I stared at the man who jiggled on the tips of his sneakers. This was Alexandria, Virginia, and I usually felt fairly safe here. Usually.
"Um," I felt a pair of fingers encircle my shoulder and then turn me around. "Why couldn't I be big and strong?" were my thoughts when I came face-to-face with a man who was six foot four and weighed twice what I do.
"Money, kid," the big man snapped. He held out his hand and I stared back at him and gulped.
"I've got a twenty," I said. Reaching down, and into my pocket, I jerked out the twenty. My fingers were shaking when I held it up for Mr. Big's inspection.
"A twenty?" Mr. Big cracked a smile and I smiled back. But Mr. Big's smile did not seem all that friendly and I told myself not to piss my pants.
"Hear that? Kid says he has a twenty?" Mr. Big turned to his friend, I'd call him Mr. Slim. If I were the Flash I'd just zoom out of here, or do something heroic.
Mr. Slim came to stand beside Mr. Big. Folding his arms over his chest, Mr. Slim shook his head. "Twenty? Really? Twenty? A well-fed kid like you?" He chuckled, running a hand over his three-days-worth of beard. "That is really too bad, kid."
Turning around, Mr. Slim inclined his head and Mr. Big reached out and took my money, shoved it down in his pocket and then he withdrew something that made everything in the world dim. The little click and the long glint of silver in the sunlight made my mouth go dry. Yes, I was going to piss myself.
"I can…I can call my mo…my…moth…my…my…my…" Stuttering. Not my best moment. Did any hero every stutter their way through an encounter like this? I didn't know. I couldn't remember. I wanted to be Batman and kick these thugs' asses.
"Your…your…what?" Mr. Big was still grinning and I felt a warm trickle down the side of my leg.
"Finish it," Mr. Slim said. His impatient tone made my heart stop.
The glint of silver was gone. And when I looked down, I thought I knew where it was. It really, really hurt. Mr. Big's hand came down on my shoulder. Nothing in my entire life felt heavier than that hand and then the twisting in my stomach. "Ow!" I cried out. Pitiful. Not a scream, a faint cry. No one would hear that. No one would come running over that meek little cry.
Then I was on my knees. The silver was gone. Red running onto the nice, clean, suburban sidewalk. And my tears ran onto my shirt front. Mr. Big and Mr. Slim were already leaving while I pressed my hands to the wound. My mind went around in circles. What do I do?
My eyes found Mr. Taggart's comic book. It had fallen out of the bag. It laid on the grass, facing me. I'd never be able to keep my promise, to get it back to him. Man, this wound hurt. My bloodied fingers came out of my shirt. I forced them into my pants pocket, finding my cell in my jeans and I tried to slide the screen, to get to call 911. But the screen would not move. The blood would not allow it.
The cell slipped to the sidewalk and I fell forward, on top of it and moaned in pain. It hurt. It hurt so much. "I'm so sorry, mama," I cried out, half on the sidewalk and half in the grass.
"Oh, my God!" a voice gasped and then a pair of arms were around me. A sweet smell enveloped me. Like a lady's perfume. My eyes opened and I saw a pretty angel staring down at me. Her blue eyes were full of concern.
"Is this heaven?" I asked her.
"No." She shook her head. A ghost of a smile curled her lips upward. She had a kind smile.
I watched her eyes go to my wound and for a moment I thought her eyes turned red and little veins exploded from under them. No. I was losing it. Dying did that to people.
"Okay. Can you tell me your name?" she asked, her left hand moving to press down on my wound. She was strong for a woman. No. That was wrong. Women could be as strong as men. I wanted to think clearly. But my stomach hurt so much. And I was so tired. I just wanted to go to sleep.
"Honey, name?" the angel repeated.
I blinked up at her. She sounded like one of my teachers now. With just a touch of that "I just asked you a question" in her tone.
"Milton. Greasley. But I like to be called…M…G," I felt happy to get this out.
"MG, I am going to show you something. Okay? And I want you to tell me how you feel about it. I promise. This will be quick," the angel told me, caressing my cheek with her free hand.
"Okay, Angel Lady," I replied. I heard her laugh before something strange happened to me.
"Relax," the woman said. "Close your eyes…"
Closing my eyes, I found myself in a lawn. A very large lawn. Kids of various ages were playing in the lawn. Some were in groups, laughing and talking. Other kids were walking toward the front doors of a building. Or a set of buildings. Was I at an exclusive college? What was going on?
"MG," the angel called and I turned to her.
With a wide smile, the angel held out a hand. "Come with me," she opened and closed her fingers like my kindergarten teacher did when I refused to leave my mother's side on the first day of school. "I won't bite," she told me with a laugh.
I moved toward her and took her hand. She led me to the front door and opened it. I stepped inside of the building and looked up at the staircase. Kids were drifting up and down it in school uniforms. None of them stopped or took notice of us.
"Where are we?" I asked the angel.
"We're at the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young and Gifted. The kids here, well, they're a little different." The angel led me down a hallway and I took in kids levitating things and others fighting in another room. "We have witches. And werewolves. And a few vampires," the angel nodded at a pair of girls who were drinking from glasses and their lips looked red after.
"But none of those things are real," I replied.
"Yes. They are," the angel told me. Turning to me, she showed me her other face and I took a stumbled step backward. "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to give you a decision. A choice no one ever gave me. You can die. Medical help can't get here fast enough and this wound is fatal. I'm so sorry. Or you can be like me, a vampire. And you can come to my school, and learn how to be a hero."
"A hero?" I gulped. "Me?"
"Yes. You." She smiled. "I'm Caroline Forbes. And these are my girls, Lizzie and Josie." She turned and nodded at a pair of girls who sat on a table who grinned and waved back at their mother. "They'll be your classmates, maybe even your friends."
"Oh?" I looked back at Lizzie and my world titled to the side. She was…She made me want to be a hero and she made me want to sign off on this deal of an after-life-time without a single regret.
"Okay," I nodded vigorously. "Yes. One vampire, coming up!" I offered Caroline Forbes, my Guardian Angel a wide smile.
The vision ended and I was still nodding with the tiny amount of energy I still had left in me. Nodding back, Caroline lifted her wrist and pressed it to her mouth. Her eyes darkened and blood began to run down her arm before she lowered it to my mouth. "Drink," she told me.
Closing my eyes, I took a sip and gagged. I always hated the taste of blood. Taking another sip, I forced myself to continue drinking until I could feel the blood beginning to make me stronger.
Caroline pulled her wrist back and then laid my head in her lap. "Don't worry. It will be over soon," she whispered to me. And she was right.
~0~
Waking up, I found myself in a bedroom. My clothes were gone. I was in a pair of PJs with a big S on them. Oh, yeah. Now I remembered what happened to me.
"Hi!" a girl's voice called to me. I looked up to see one of Caroline's daughters, Josie.
"You're awake," Lizzie appeared right behind her sister with a wide smile. "Welcome to the Salvatore Boarding School." She came further into the room. "I come bearing breakfast." She held out a cup with a lid on it. "Mom says you need this for your transition. Your mom is coming in this weekend to visit the school and to have a sit down with my parents. You haven't met out dad yet, Alaric Saltzman. He's greet. You'll love him."
Lizzie sat down beside MG and he took the cup from her. "Thanks, Lizzie."
Lizzie looked confused. "How do you know my name?"
"Your mom told me." MG looked to Josie. "About both of you. And the school."
"Sounds like mom," Josie said with a wide smile. "I've got to get to class. It's nice to meet you." She waved good-bye before disappearing.
"If there's anything you need, just ask someone to find me," Lizzie said, patting MG's knee through the bedspread and then got up, smoothing her skirt. "My public awaits."
MG nodded again. He had no idea what else to say. As soon as the girl left the room, he took a long sip of the blood. He didn't want to feed in front of the human girl. Human. It sounded so weird. His eyes found the nightstand and he realized that Mr. Taggart's comic book was there, undamaged, to MG's relief.
Settling back in the pillow, MG decided to go ahead and begin to read the comic. He would get up in an hour, go on an official tour of the school, then go look for Lizzie Saltzman and find Caroline, to thank her for this new life. Maybe he'd even find a way to use his new superpowers today. The thought left him smiling.
I'll admit that I haven't read a comic in a very long time and I never read TheFlash comics; so the information included was pulled from some internet research.
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.
Peace,
J