Chapter One: Oh My...
"Stand up," he sobbed. The words doubled for an agreement.
Mitchell felt a tremendous weight lift from his shoulders, the weight of fear, of terror. Still kneeling, he tilted his chin downward and sighed. Good, faithful George… Tears fell from his best friend's eyes as Mitchell finally stood. Nina and Annie wept nearby. It stunned Mitchell. He never expected this, to be grieved, not after everything he'd done, after all he had caused. Words, memories had been assaulting him for days now, for years really.
"Do you have any idea how inadequate that sounds?!"
"Oh god… Is this really happening?" Again, George barely got the words out past his tears.
Mitchell felt himself relaxing. Unnecessary breaths started to come easier now. Just the promise of freedom, the stake in George's hand, was such a relief. I will never kill again, never… The tears that followed were not from the despair that had held him so firmly before. Nodding to George, Mitchell added his hands to the one that gripped the stake.
"I want to tear your spine out through your mouth…"
"This is a good thing you're doing." Mitchell's voice was raw from pleading.
Mitchell assured his best friend he had lied with all the horrible things he had just said. It hurt Mitchell to see them crying, but he allowed himself the luxury of this goodbye. He remembered telling Annie once, all those years ago, you're lucky, not everyone gets a chance to say goodbye. He had laughed at her reply; "I know, but fucking hell!" He just never expected to have the chance himself so he savored it ignoring the feeling of guilt. I don't deserve this. Slowly, Mitchell let the realization settle in. This was it. After all these years, finally…
"But if you don't know what's there, then why the hell are you going?!"
"Because it's an end."
"I guess I'm finally doing the decent thing," he said.
Mitchell held George's hand that held that lethal piece of wood. It was all so solid now, so immediate. The terror felt distant and inconsequential. Then, even Nina graced him with kind words. She promised to remember him as he was in this moment, making the right choice – finally – to die. Die to save the world, or at least someone, from him. Mitchell felt ready. He saw Nina shift uneasily, looking to George. Then he was given one more surprise in a gesture of, what was it? Forgiveness?
Annie.
"I kissed you once, do you remember?"
She touched his arm, face soaked in tears. Stepping between himself and George, she caressed his face, pushed his hair back out of the way. Oh god, Annie… And she kissed him. Mitchell could hardly believe it. He never expected to be allowed such a beautiful moment. He remembered that farewell from years back, as her Door stood looming behind. "Don't kill anyone…" A pang of deep regret seared through him. Jesus, why… But he didn't question further. "This is what I am..." Vampire. And the vampire won.
What can I say to her? I need her to know, to understand… The words just came.
"You were the love of my long life." You were… And he realized he had already accepted his fate. This is it…
Because it's an end…
"And you were the love of mine."
Another wave of comfort ran through him. Never did he expect to be loved. And never to hear Annie confess this after all that he'd done. Maybe it was the heightened emotions talking, but Mitchell believed her. He knew he could trust her, always. Dear, constant Annie. Why didn't I see it sooner, he lamented; she could have saved me. Not Lucy. Oh god, Annie, I will miss you…
"Thank you," he said to her, not thinking that it might be a strange response. He extended the gratitude, adding, "You made me human."
Then he started crying again, a mix of the sadness in knowing he'd never see them again and the fear of what, or who, may await him on the other side. If I get another side to this life…
He closed his eyes. In a brief flash Mitchell saw a familiar face staring back at him with that twisted smile. That man. From years ago, standing at the end of corridor, surrounded by men with ropes. It was last face he saw before he woke as vampire. Mitchell shuddered. Are you there, still?
"I'll be waiting, Johnny boy. See you later…" The laughter was a throaty cackle.
Mitchell released a ragged sigh and searched for the necessary courage. This, this is why I needed you George… "Let's do this…" He breathed harder now. It didn't help. The fear had become the dominant emotion. Suddenly, strangely, he remembered Lauren. The girl who got hay fever and was afraid her parents would find out she smoked… She had done this before him. Mitchell had saved her, the way George was about to save him.
He echoed her dying words, "Oh my…"
George raised the stake. Mitchell had to force the vampire in him to not fight back, to not retaliate.
Let George do this.
"I'll show you retaliation…"
No. Let him.
Here it comes…
A voice interrupted like a knock on the door. Confusion replaced dread as Mitchell began working out who it might be. Oh god, please, not him… His wish was not granted.
Wyndam strolled through the front door into the house as if he owned the place. Annie demanded to know who he was, but he ordered Mitchell, John, to answer. The fear that shook Mitchell to the core was evident as he obeyed.
"His name's Wyndam." He all but whispered through that fear, "He's one of the Old Ones…"
"Retribution is coming from across the sea."
Wyndam made a show of sticking a reprimanding finger in Mitchell's face. Mitchell felt the chill of dread and terror sink in. He noticed his friend's tears had stopped flowing as well. All were silent before Wyndam, trying to gauge the situation. Mitchell alone knew that no matter how bad they assumed the circumstances to be, they would be wrong. It's far worse than they could ever guess.
They are all so, so young. They haven't seen what I've seen. Yet.
George spoke the way he would have to Herrick. As he compared familiar vampire to the intruder, the Old One froze in indignation. George backed away slightly as Wyndam moved in close to him. Mitchell stepped in, shielding George from a wrath he could not have anticipated. The look he gave his best friend was a severe, unspoken warning. He knew George had never seen him like this before; that will help get the point across.
"He doesn't mean it, Wyndam. He doesn't know who you are."
He backed off and Mitchell finally saw the proper fear moving in on George. With dreadful finality, Wyndam's words sealed the terror that gripped Mitchell, talon-like, deep around the heart. The Old One turned away from George and began his systematic explanation.
"This is what's going to happen…"
He spoke as a businessman before a conference table.
"…Mitchell, you're coming with me. I think you're going to come in useful one day, so this…. martyrdom is not an option."
Fighting the push of tears, Mitchell pleaded again. He knew it was pointless, but he at least needed his friends to hear it. He needed them to know. I don't want to be him again. John... Mitchell spoke from the despair that had pooled in the pit of his stomach.
"No, please… I don't want that. No, th-this…this has to be the end." He could see George calculating, understanding. Please George… I'm so scared…
Wyndam rejected the plea flippantly. He explained all the ways he would use Mitchell. Attack dog. The similarity to the vampire insult for werewolves was not a coincidence. Mitchell knew he would be on a very short leash, used, abused.
Kill. Rampage…
Wyndam continued to box him in, explaining in gruesome detail what would happen to George and Nina if he resisted. Crucify. The Old One circled them, getting in Annie's face, then crossed around behind their makeshift bar. All the while he confidently recited orders and explanations.
Mitchell stayed near George, hoping. Hoping without expecting. "Trust me, you want me out of the picture…"
Wyndam passed out of eyesight for a moment. Good, faithful George took up the discarded stake and held it high. Oh please…
"It's all so inevitable."
Wyndam smirked at the stake. "Oh George. Really?"
Then something happened that stunned them all, especially Wyndam.
Mitchell threw an arm up to shield himself from a bright spray of sparks as every bulb flared and ruptured at once. The house, the entire house, began shaking. Pitch black was replaced by a ferocious deep-blue light. Mitchell was astonished to realize the light came from Annie. It was Annie. Her words from weeks ago echoed in his memory. "You have no idea how strong I am!"
All eyes were on Annie and none without fear. Even Wyndam's face betrayed uncertainty. He hadn't calculated this burst of force. "I think you're more powerful than you imagine," he had said.
"You're not fucking taking him!" Annie raged.
A whirl of unnatural wind suddenly ripped through the sitting room, with Annie and her friends at the calm center. Only Wyndam was affected. It pushed him back and pelted him with the debris gathered by the whirlwind. Rage flooded across the Old One's face, "You will rejoin us Mitchell!" He had to lean into the gale, "We will find you and make you watch as we pluck the flesh off your little dogs!"
Mitchell looked to Annie. He saw her ice-blue eyes narrow. Her hand raised and, with the smallest flick of her wrist, Wyndam lost his hold on the ground. The angry wind launched him up and around, past Nina, sending him through the bay window in an explosion of glass and splinters. They never saw where he landed, but it couldn't have been nearby.
For the first time, Mitchell looked at Annie with fear-widened eyes. He had given George that look many times, all on transformation nights. But Annie… "I killed a vampire," he remembered her words. "I rammed a stake through his back."
She looked at George, commanded, "Go out the back." George still gripped the stake as he and Nina moved toward the kitchen. The wind died down for them, but the house still shook on its foundations. Annie's eyes met Mitchell's.
"They're afraid of us," he had said to her.
"They should be."
Mitchell watched, holding his breath, as Annie placed an immaterial hand on his shoulder. An electric tingle spread through him. What happened next surprised and confused him. Annie was no longer in front of the crumbling wall, and neither was he. They were outside, all at once, standing in the garden where George and Nina had emerged. They were equally surprised to find Mitchell staring back at them.
I never knew you could do that, Annie…
George regarded Annie and Mitchell, then peered through the window at the empty sitting room. He looked back, the question on his lips, but it was never asked. Interrupting, two black-eyed vampires surged forward, fangs bared.
Mitchell's eyes were still on George when the stake was ripped from his hand. It tore through the air past Mitchell's face, smashed through the chest of the first vampire, and turned sharply to erupt through the second vampire's chest from behind. Both were dust before they hit the ground.
Annie turned again to Mitchell. Her eyes were ice and he had yet to breathe.
"Take us to your car."
Mitchell nodded, obeyed. Nina supported her pregnant belly with one hand and clutched George's with the other. They followed close behind, their fear mixed with shock. Only Annie didn't look back at the resonating sound of Honolulu Heights collapsing in on itself, leaving nothing more than a billowing cloud of brick-dust.
Annie had already stopped emanating the blue light, but her eyes remained changed.
I think about who and what I love, and I think about them in danger and,
I could tear this bloody house down with my teeth!
You have no idea how strong I am…