Greetings all.
This is just a short, two-chapter story that looks at the relationship between the Boys and Fay and it delves into the truth behind the actions of the vampires and the witch. It is not set in any specific time line and is really just an off-shoot from my main story-line. It answers the questions that I have been asking myself for over a year now. Why the hell does Fay care so much about these guys and why do the Lost Boys, a bunch of punk rebel vampires, bother spending time with a solitary witch whose best friends are cats? They are unlikely allies to say the least but maybe this brief glimpse into their world might bring to light the answers to my questions and maybe make sense of it all.
Happy Reading
The sun slowly crept below the horizon of the glittering Pacific Ocean as the residents of Santa Carla came out in droves to revel in the early summer warmth and to experience the freedoms of the Fourth of July. The multi-colored carnival lights of the Santa Carla Boardwalk blinked on as the sky's deep purple shading merged into a dark blue. A few stars twinkled dimly through the smog and illumination of California's nightlife but a few stars were enough. It was the Fourth of July and every American was out to enjoy the national holiday. Everyone that is, except a certain Italian witch who busy running around the small kitchen of her three-story house in what can only be describe as a mad-panic, waving around a wooden sauce spoon in one hand and a half-chopped carrot in the other.
"Out of my way Fig!" Fay hissed as she slid across the recently washed tilted floor as she made her way over to the stove that had all four burners on. The gray striped tabby ran from under Fay's feet and leapt neatly onto an empty kitchen chair as he gave her a scandalized look, one that Fay ignored as she quickly stirred the simmering tomato sauce with one hand and put the carrot down on the cutting board with the other.
"Ok, now where is that pepper. Pepper, pepper, pepper, where the hell is the pepper?" Fay muttered to herself as she tapped the spoon against the side of the pan to get rid of any leftover sauce while she blew a strand of fly-away hair out of her face. Grabbing a dishtowel, Fay quickly cleaned her hands and tossed the dishtowel over a shoulder as she gave the produce covered counter a quick scan. Seeing that the pepper was nowhere is sight, Fay hurried over to the refrigerator and flung it open, tossing this and that out of it as she scrambled to find the key ingredient to her mother's famous sugo.
Elvis poked his head in through the cat flap on the kitchen door and carefully looked around to see where Fay was. Figaro looked over his shoulder as the fluffy black cat ducked back out for a few seconds before creeping into the kitchen rear first while dragging a dead crow through the cat flap. Figaro blinked in surprised and narrowed his eyes as he glared down at Elvis.
"Where did you get that?" The tabby meowed quietly as he looked over to the fridge to make sure that Fay was still occupied.
"Where the hell is that god damn pepper! Ow!" Fay yelped as a container of cream cheese rolled off of the top shelf and landed on the back of her head.
"It's mine! I found it by the side of the road and you can't have any." Elvis growled in response as he proudly pawed the three day old dead crow with a paw, feeling mighty pleased with himself at his find. Figaro's skinny striped tail twitched in annoyance as he hissed softly at the black cat but made no move to get off the chair. Seeing this, Elvis got a firm from on the dead bird's wing and began to drag it across the immaculate floor, leaving a trail of bent feathers and crusted blood in its wake.
"Boys you better be behaving yourselves. If you two decide to ruin tonight, I'll beat your furry tails. You hear me? ELVIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Fay screamed as she nearly dropped the red bell pepper that she was holding in her hands when she saw the dead crow.
"Busted!" Figaro mewled with pleasure as Elvis froze to the spot, not knowing what to do. Fay stared at the cat wide-eyed and opened mouthed as Elvis slowly let go of the crow and looked up at Fay, his yellow eyes wide and innocent. The corner of Fay's left eye twitched as her surprised stare turned into a searing glare, one that both cats shrunk from.
"Ok, now we run." Figaro meowed in alarm as he jumped off the chair and tore out of the kitchen as fast as his manicured paws could carry him. Elvis was two steps behind as both cats nearly flew out of the cat flap just as Fay screeched to the high heavens as a maggot that had been working its way through the crow's skull landed on the white tiles, squirming and wriggling.
"FIAGRO! ELVIS! YOU GET BACK HERE!" Fay screamed at the top of her voice as the cats booted it over the front lawn and then across the empty street. Fay's elderly neighbors, the Grisham's, looked at each other as they sat on their front porch, enjoying the nice weather while drinking glasses of home-made ice tea. They both turned in their whicker chairs as the front door was flung open and the mangled corpse was flung out onto the front yard while Fay screamed something in Italian about spending five hours cleaning the house before she slammed the door shut with a shuddering slam.
"I wonder what's gotten into her." Mrs. Grisham asked as she picked up her knitting needles and began to click away while her husband just snorted and went back to reading the daily paper.
While Fay's cats were making a run for it, down in the sea-side cave the boys were getting themselves ready. They had just grabbed a 'bite to eat" and were about to make their way over to Fay's for what they fully anticipated to be a ten-course food fest complete with as much home-made wine that they could possibly drink. And for once they were dead on.
"God Paul will you do something with your hair? It looks like the bats have been roosting in it." Marko snorted as he hunted around the cave for his leather biker gloves that were nowhere to be seen. Paul was sprawled out on one of the battered couches that were set up along the walls of the cave, leafing through a battered issue of Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition.
"Does not. And who cares? It's not like we're going to the ballet or something. It's just dinner." Paul said as he arched an eyebrow as he eyed a busty blonde in a practically non-existent bathing suit, fantasizing seeing her in certain poses.
"You wanna bet on that?" Dwayne said as he seemed to magically appear out of thin air right beside Paul. Before Paul could tell him where to shove it, Dwayne snatched the magazine out of his hands and smacked him over the head with it before darting away too fast for the eye to follow. Marko looked up just in time to see Paul launch himself off of the couch and catch Dwayne in a mid-air tackle and could only shake his head as his two fellow vampires fought over the magazine like a pair of dogs duking it out over a bone.
"What's the matter Paulie? Did I interrupt something?" Dwayne asked as he gave Paul a knowing smile, while keeping the magazine out of Paul's reach. "You know you don't have a snowballs chance in hell of ever getting her."
"Don't know what you're talkin' about pinhead, but if I were you I wouldn't be waving a red flag in front of the bull." Paul growled as he grabbed Dwayne's arm and twisted it behind his back. The magazine ended up on the floor as the two boys wrestled one another to gain the upper hand with Paul hanging on gamely while Dwayne tried every trick in the book to break his hold but to no avail.
"Bull eh? With what horns Bessie?" Dwayne snickered as he pulled a fast one and dropped to his knees, catching Paul completely off guard. Sizing his chance, Dwayne wrenched his arm away from Paul and kicked his leg out, sweeping Paul's feet from under him. Paul landed flat on his back with a colorful curse and as Dwayne laughed victoriously, the blonde vampire lashed out with a booted foot and nailed a direct hit to Dwayne's nether regions. From somewhere in the back of the cave Marko winced in sympathy as he heard Dwayne yelp and collapse to the floor in pain.
"That's big bad Bessie to you pal." Paul spat as he picked himself up off the floor and dusted himself off the best he could as he oh so casually stepped over Dwayne, the heel of his left boot dragging slightly so that dirt was flung into Dwayne's face. Talk about adding insult to injury.
"Are you two finished? Because if we're late again I think Fay'll make good on that threat and end up putting holy water in whatever she's making and feed it to us. I don't know about you blockheads but I think she was serious." Marko muttered over his shoulder as he continued his search over to where they kept their tools and spare engine parts for their motorcycles. He managed to find one glove hiding under the red metal tool box but the second glove was still nowhere to be seen.
"Oh she was serious. Dwayne out of every girl that you've ever met, you had to go with the only Italian in Santa Carla. Why?" David asked as he appeared at the mouth of the cave, running a hand through his hair as he gazed down at the others, taking note that Dwayne was having trouble getting to his feet and that Paul had one hell of a smug smirk on his face.
"What can I say," Dwayne replied as he winced slightly while straightening himself, "I like them feisty."
"Yeah, sure ya do. Hey Marko, get this. I hear that Italian chicks really dig submissive guys. Is it true Dwayne? Are you…submissive?" Paul asked with mock curiosity as he cocked his elbow on Dwayne's shoulder, returning the knowing look that Dwayne had given him. Instead of beating the snot out of Paul Dwayne just smiled and shrugged his arm off, not saying a word. Paul gave Dwayne a curious look before he glanced over at Marko who just shrugged his shoulders, neither of them knowing what to make of it. However before Paul could ask what that was all about David cut in because frankly he really didn't want to know what Fay and Dwayne had been up too. Unlike Paul, he had a pretty firm grip on his sex drive and didn't need a verbal commentary to get himself in a decent mood. But, then again, David wasn't you average run of the mill teenaged vampire. Truth be told he hasn't been a teenager for over forty five years and this was something that Paul liked to bring up time and time again, just to annoy David.
"You guys ready to go?" David asked as he looked over at the large black and white picture of Jim Morrison that hung on the far side of the cave. He eyed Jim for a moment before he shook his head ever so slightly, wondering to himself why he put up with all of the political niceties that came with knowing Fay Prima. Honestly he hated the girl and she hated him so there would be no love lost between them if he didn't show up tonight but then again, if he didn't go, she'd just end up using that against him later on down the line. For some unfathomable reason, women have the memory spans of elephants and they never forget the tiniest detail or misdemeanor. Whereas David could hardly recall what he did last week, Fay could put a time and date to something he said months ago.
"Yeah, just let me get my keys." Paul said as he breezed past Marko who had finally found his missing glove that had been tucked away in the empty basin of the ruined fountain. How it ended up there, God only knows.
"Don't bother man; we're not going that way." Dwayne said as he grabbed his leather jacket off the jagged iron chandelier arm that he had hung it on and shrugged it on, flicking off a speck of unwanted dirt that made itself known on his right shoulder. Like David, Dwayne was a stickler when it came to his clothing. Worn and faded that it might be, Dwayne's style tended to fall along the lines of mostly clean whereas Paul tended to favor the grime look, and his used-to-be white jeans were a testimony to it.
"Why not?" Marko asked as he looked from Dwayne to David with a questioning look on his face. David didn't even bother giving an answer. Dwayne tapped his left wrist to indicate the time and Marko quickly caught on. "Oh right."
"Well then let's get going. We're not gonna get any older just standing here." Paul said as he grabbed Marko from behind and got him in a headlock while heading for the cave entrance.
"Jeez Paul, watch the hair man!" Marko muttered as he tried to free himself without tripping over his own feet as Paul marched him up the ramp and out of the cave with David and Dwayne following. Before he let his best friend go Paul whirled him around while giving him a world class noogie, messing up the curly locks that Marko was so paranoid about.
"Kids." Dwayne snorted as he and David watched Marko land a round-house punch into Paul's stomach before chasing the metal-head up the steep wooden stairwell while shouting out various threats. The two were gone within minutes as they continued the spat in the air, taking off once they reached the cliff's edge. Instead of following the two right away, Dwayne and David took the stairs two at a time before walking towards the distant lights of the Boardwalk as they passed a joint between them, enjoying the Paul-free moment while it lasted.
"Dwayne," David began as he took a hit and exhaled slowly, "can I ask you something?"
"Sure. Whaddaya want to know?" Dwayne asked as he squinted up at the sky, checking to make sure that Paul and Marko were still in sight and not dive-bombing the locals in plain view. The two tended to forget that secrecy was the key to survival and it would not be the first time that Dwayne and David had to fix a rather sticky situation by knocking off any late-night witnesses.
"Why Fay?" David asked as he handed Dwayne the joint. "I mean how can you stand her? Honestly, tell me because I don't know how you put up with it."
"Put up with what?" Dwayne responded as he took the joint and inhaled, looking over at David with a questioning frown. David just sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, trying not to get too frustrated.
"With her. She smothers you! I mean she's like a clucking hen that won't shut up. You do whatever she tells you to and trying to argue with that chick is impossible because she'll bite your head off if you so much as disagree with her. She's like…she's like, god I can't even describe how obnoxious she can be. Fuck it if she's Italian, Italian has nothing to do with it. It's like she's trying to mother us and be the world's greatest bitch at the same time. Look at how she treats Marko. The guy's 18 and she treats him like he's six! And Paul…well, she puts up with Paul." David muttered as he stalked forward, ignoring Dwayne's curious expression as he finally got that nagging feeling that Fay had instilled in him off his chest.
"I don't know how you could let her get away with it all. She's got you by the balls Dwayne and you don't even know it." He growled as he turned to look over his shoulder. Dwayne slowed somewhat as he took another hit, exhaling slowly as he mulled over David's words. They all knew that David had a grudge against Fay but now was the first time the vampire ever went into detail about it.
"Oh I know she does." Dwayne said simply as he walked forward and handed David the joint. David's sullen expression turned to one of puzzlement as he took the joint, watching Dwayne as if the guy were some sort of newly discovered animal.
"You know?" David said, stopping where he was. Dwayne came to a halt as well and flicked a few wayward strand of hair out of his face as he did so.
"Yeah." He said calmly, his brown eyes gazing unblinking at David. The two guys just stared at one another for a few minutes, David not really believing what he had just heard and Dwayne just standing there, laid back, waiting to see what else David had to say.
"Hang on, let me get this straight. You know that Fay is a control freak who would like nothing better than to lock you up in a protective bubble for the rest of your undead life and you're ok with that?" He asked skeptically, arching an eyebrow as he finished off the rolled joint. "Dwayne…are you ok? She didn't put any sort of mind-controlling spell on you did she? Please tell she didn't do what I think she did." He exclaimed as he quickly looked Dwayne over, trying to make sure that he still as masculine as the day he was born.
Hearing this, one would think that Dwayne would take offense and do something stupid like say, attempt to knock out David's teeth or something. But no, he was cool about it. Instead of throwing a fit he just laughed.
"Relax man she didn't take a knife to me. She may be a bit over the top but she's not a psycho." He chuckled as he watched David reaction, finding it extremely funny. For a vampire who was supposed to be the poster boy of rebellion and all things rock and roll, seeing David act like a fish out of water was one of those rare moments that you never forget.
"David, when was the last time that someone gave a damn about you?" Dwayne asked as the vampire leader tried to wrap his head around what Dwayne was telling him. David blinked at Dwayne's abruptness but didn't respond. It wasn't that he didn't want to it was just that David honestly didn't know.
"I thought so." Was all Dwayne said before he turned around and started walking towards the Boardwalk once more, scanning the sky to see if he could figure out where Paul and Marko had vanished to.
"What do you mean by that?" David asked as he appeared in front of Dwayne, blocking his way so that Dwayne was forced to either stop or go around him. Instead of going around him, Dwayne just stopped because he knew that David wasn't asking him a question, he was demanding an answer.
"You really what to know why I "put up" with Fay and why Paul and Marko are head over heels for that girl?" Dwayne asked, the casual laid back easy-going manner that he had moments ago vanishing and was replaced by a stern front that was spoiling for a fight. David looked him in the eye and nodded while reminding Dwayne where his place was with a simple glare. Since he was one to never take stuff like this lying down, Dwayne walked up to David until the two were about an inch a part and made sure that the blond vampire understood every word he said.
"Because she gives a damn. No one ever gave a rat's ass about me when I was alive or even now. It's the same with the others. You and the rest of the world may think it's a load of horse shit and you know what, you might be right. But I'll tell you this David. Do you honestly think that Fay harps on your ass as much as she does because she has nothing better to do? You know what David? You can be as blind as a god damn mole rat sometimes." Dwayne snorted as he gave his head a shake and side-stepped David, leaving him to chew over the meaning of his words. "If you think I'm bullshitting you, you watch what happens tonight. If you still think I'm wrong by morning, I'll break up with Fay and eat my words." He called over his shoulder as he headed away from the twinkling lights and noise of the Boardwalk and stalked into the shadows, leaving David where he stood.
"You mean that?" David called out as he watched Dwayne's figure recede into the night, a deep frown knitting his eyebrows together as he questioned the sincerity behind Dwayne's bet. If Dwayne was willing to put his relationship on the line just to prove his point, there might be more to all this then David first thought.
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't. But if I'm right David…I guess we'll cross that bridge if we come to it." Dwayne shouted back before he took off in a gust of wind, following the scent trail of the two metal-head vampires without bothering to look over his shoulder to see if David was following. Knowing David, the guy would show up at the last possible second and Dwayne wasn't going to be bothered by it. There were some things that no one could change and David's ego was one of those things. Dwayne just hoped that Fay had made enough for thirds because it had been over a month since he had last had the pleasure of enjoying her cooking and if he ever saw another Chinese take-out carton again, it would be too soon.