Chapter 3: Video Call with Mr. D...
After the alarm woke me up again, I exited the stasis chamber and went downstairs, not eating a thing, for nothing else would go down my gullet except for really strong, pure black coffee. After I finished the entire pot I had made in a matter of five minutes despite it being really hot, I left the house and went to Lala's manor to see her before she drove off in her Cadillac Escalade to Monster High. After I got up to the front door, I rang the doorbell and waited. That's when another vampire, from what I could sense, had answered the door. I telepathically identified this male vampire as Lala's uncle Vlad, Mr. D's brother.
"May I help you, young man?" Vlad asked.
I just cleared my throat and said, "Hi, I'm Lt. Aaron Marksman. I'm Lala's new boyfriend."
"Ah, so you're the boy Lala found in the middle of the street in downtown Salem." Vlad said, a happy smile on his fang-filled face. "I was wondering why she was so happy before she went to bed last night. All she would say is that she met someone new that she had a crush on. When I tried to pry her into telling me who this mysterious new crush was, she simply said it was someone who was starting his life over from scratch, as if he had just been born. Except that he would still retain his speaking skills and education."
"That's me alright." I said with a short bark of laughter. After I had stopped laughing, I looked back at Lala's uncle and asked, "Is Lala still here? Or did she already leave for school?"
"She's still here. She doesn't leave for another hour." Vlad said with a nod. "Come in, Lieutenant. I'll let my niece know you're here. You may wait in the living room. She'll be down to see you in a few minutes."
"Thanks." I said as I walked to where Lala's uncle pointed the living room was located. As I sat down, then song I had listened to while I was drifting off to sleep yesterday had come back to my mind again. So I summoned the instrument for the wind instrument part of the song and began playing that part of the song that was played by the flute. As I began to play it, memories began flooding back of the two and a half weeks that I spent in the desert without food or water, all the way from when I passed out before my dad brought me to Heaven and then to this universe. After I finished the entire five minutes and thirty-four seconds of the song, I then heard footsteps coming down the stairs in the lobby of the manor. I got up and, sure enough, there was Lala. When she saw me, she smiled widely and ran up to me, hugging me fiercely. I then kissed my beautiful girlfriend on the lips.
When we parted, she looked at me confused, saying, "I thought you said you weren't going to be here until 9:30?"
"I decided to come over an hour earlier to see you off to school." I replied a sly smile on my face. Lala smiled sweetly.
"Aw, that's so sweet of you, Aaron." Lala said to me. She then looked at the clock, then back to me and asked, "You wanna join me for tea? I usually have a cup of green tea with ginseng before I leave."
"Sure. Why not." I said, following Lala to the lounge, where her uncle Vlad set down a tea kettle and two teacups made out of authentic china. I made myself a cup while while Lala was already sipping her cup of tea. As I carefully sipped my cup of hot tea, Lala looked to me, a confused look on her face.
"What was that song, Aaron?" Lala asked me.
Now it was my turn to be confused. "Huh?"
"That song played with a flute." Lala said. "It sounded like it was a melody played on the wind. The only problem is that we're inside."
"That's because I played it with this flute." I said, summoning the same flute I played the song with again. I showed it to Lala. She saw that there was the symbol of a torn heart. "I don't know what kind of flute this is. But I do recognize it from my past, but I don't remember where I had seen or heard it from. All I know is that the song I played on it brought back a painful yet pleasant memory. Listen."
I then set my cup of tea down and took a few deep breaths as I then began playing the song again. I played it for the entire five minutes and thirty-four seconds of the entire song once again, this time with Lala listening to the melody. After I ceased playing the song, Lala looked like she had a concerned look on her face.
"That sounds like a really sad song." Lala said in a very observant comment. "It would definitely be a suitable song to describe the abuse you said you had went through before you lost your memories when you were wandering the Sierra Nevada Desert of your Planet Earth's United States."
"That's the exact memory I ended up remembering as I played the original MP3 song that I borrowed the melody from." I said, letting a single tear fall from my cheek. "I didn't think the song would spark the memory of my wandering the Sierra Nevada Desert before I ended up on this universe's Planet Earth." I then began sipping my tea again after I wiped my eyes. "But like I said yesterday, I feel that it was no accident that I ended up in this universe. I feel like I've found friends and a place here, since, in all technicality, I would also be a RAD myself, since aliens are a distant category of monster."
"True." Lala said with a nod. "But why keep thinking of your past when, like you said, you found friends and a place where you truly belong?"
"I guess that the memory of my wandering the desert for fifteen days and nights without food or water is my only punishment for whatever wrong I did before I lost my memory." I said in one single breath. When my breathing was normal again, I smiled lovingly at Lala, saying, "But I have something to help me carry that burden, sweetheart."
"And what's that, Aaron?" Lala asked.
"Starting my life over from scratch, with no memory of who I once was or what I had done." I said in response. "Plus, just the thought of us together as a couple, especially when I promised your human mother that I would protect you and be true to only you, will help me carry the burden of whatever sins I had committed in my past. And that alone is enough to comfort me in thinking that I can truly start my life over from the beginning, just like I had always wished to God for the chance to do."
"Well, as long as I'm your girlfriend, I promise to help you carry your burden." Lala said, coming over and sitting on my lap while embracing me with a kiss on the cheek. "I promise to stick by you as you carry the burden of your past, if only to remind you that no one is truly alone. Everyone always has someone behind them to help them through their trials and tribulations."
"You're beginning to sound like a religious human." I said with a sly smile. Lala smiled as we shared a kiss.
"Well, I better get in the habit of being religious, especially if I end up being a member of an immortal human-looking alien race that are known as the opposite of vampires, a.k.a an Eternally Blessed."
"True enough." I said with a laugh. That's when my watch beeped. When I looked at it, it said 9:55 am. Mr. D would be calling in the next five minutes. I looked back at Lala and said, "You better head to school, Lala. Your dad will be calling in five minutes. And I don't want to keep him waiting."
"Okay. I'll see you after school." Lala said, standing up from my lap and grabbing her car keys from where her tea cup was sitting. I walked her to the front door. Before she closed the door behind her, she looked back at me and said, "Mr. Stein had finished installing the other Gaia stasis chamber in here so that way you won't have to go back to his house to recharge your internal Gaia Reactor. So when you go to sleep in the stasis chamber tonight, just use the one in the room next to mine. He even transferred your music from the computer controlling the chamber in his house to the computer controlling the one here so you can still listen to your music while you sleep here. Okay, Aaron?"
"Sounds good." I said with a smile. "I'll see you after you get home. Oh, and take this CD. Play track 2. Just know that track is a song I burned just for you, sweetheart. Just know that even though someone else created the song, I made my own remix, just for you."
"That's so sweet of you." Lala said, gratefully taking the CD. "I'll be sure to play it as soon as I stick it in my car's CD player before I drive off. That's a promise." Then Lala closed the door behind her and left. As soon as I heard the song play with my super-hearing, Lala drove off in her Escalade, heading for school. That's when my watch beeped three more times right then. When I looked at the time, it said 9:58 am. Two minutes until Mr. D called by video conference. I headed for the video conference room where Mr. D, a.k.a Count Dracula, would be calling. As soon as I arrived in the room and closed the door behind me, the screen said 'Incoming Video Call'. I stood in the center of the view of the transmitter camera and pressed the only green button on the control panel for the massive video conference screen. As soon as I let go of the button, the screen lit up even more and revealed the face of a seemingly young-looking man, not much older in looks than Lala, whom I telepathically identified as Mr. D, a.k.a Count Dracula.
"Lt. Aaron Ray Bower Marksman, reporting, Mr. D, sir." I said, saluting him as I would my CO in the United Star Marine Corps.
"So you're the young man my daughter's been all over about." Mr. D said in a slightly condescending tone. "To be honest, I expected you to be a little more than a simple imitation of an old video game character."
"Excuse me if this sounds rude, Mr. D." I began to say, indignation building within me of who I was being made fun of. "But... what in the hell is that supposed to mean?!"
"And she said you had quite a temper." He said.
"Who said I had a temper?" I asked.
"Your mother said so." Mr. D said, rubbing some fresh suntan lotion on his arms. "Your mother, Mahlia Marksman, said you were always such a hot head. She said you would always get angry at the slightest instant that you start becoming mad. I didn't believe it at first, but apparently, she was right."
"My mother?" I repeated in confusion. Mr. D knew my mother? But how was it that he knew my mother when I don't even remember her?
"Oh, I forgot, you don't remember." Mr. D said, shaking his head at his stupidity. "Your father, David Silvers, also said that you had been born with a power that he never saw until after he died."
"You mean my biological father, right?" I asked, getting a most hateful look in my eyes. "As far as I'm concerned, he was never my father. Patrick Marksman was and always will be my real father."
"That's exactly what your real father said you would say." Mr. D replied. "But enough about your past. Tell me, Lt. Marksman, what's this my daughter said about a disease killing her that your archnemesis uses to take over the world?"
"It's called the Gaia Virus." I said, recalling what I had seen in the Prophecy Lake. "I'm one of the only few humans who have been infected and survived the Gaia Virus. And so I can never get the disease again because I have eternal antibodies to the original strain and any and all future strains that will appear at any year in the future."
"Then how do you plan on saving my daughter, who's taken a liking to you when Clawd Wolf was mean to her?" Mr. D asked. I simply smiled.
"I was told I give her a blood transfusion using my own blood." I said. "And even though Gaions and vampires are complete polar opposites, Gaions eternally blessed and vampires eternally damned, the transfusion doesn't kill her. Instead, it changes her on a molecular and genetic level."
"In what way?"
"In a way that it transforms her into a full-blooded Gaion like me." I replied. "According to my dad, Patrick Marksman, I use a direct transfusion method that I saw in an old episode of Walker: Texas Ranger that the old man used to save the life of a sheriff who was shot, and I transfuse my blood directly into Lala's bloodstream from my own. And when it changes her as she recovers, like I said, she'll then be a full-blooded Gaion, but the only thing that she'll retain from being a vampire is her fangs, but she'll no longer be a vampire. And I can do the same for you, Mr. D."
"You would change me into a Gaion when you don't even know me?" Mr. D asked, sounding and looking genuinely surprised. "Why would you do that for me?"
"Because if mine and Lala's relationship ever goes far enough," I began to explain, "and we get married and have kids, then I could do the same for you so that way we're all on the same side of the spectrum."
"I see." Mr. D said, nodding as he understood what I meant by when I said 'same side of the spectrum'. "I'll have to think about it for a while. And even though I don't trust you just yet, I'll accept the fact that my daughter is in love with someone on the opposite side of, as you say, spectrum, and you're in love with my daughter, making a vow to my dead human wife that you'll keep my only child safe. Until I get to know you more, I reserve my right to deem whether you're fit to date or marry my daughter or not. Is that understood, Lt. Marksman?"
"Yes, sir." I said, saluting him, both out of respect and, I hate to admit it, a small amount of fear for the most feared monster throughout history. "I'll prove to you that I'll always remain true to your daughter when Clawd Wolf was not. You won't regret this."
"I hope for your sake you're right." Mr. D said. "Because, if you don't live up to the expectations I have for you at the moment, then you will regret it." Then Mr. D looked at his watch and said, "This call is over. I only wanted to hear what you told my daughter of her future straight from you in person. Goodbye, Lt. Marksman." Then the video screen turned to a pure blue screen, which I guessed was its' standby mode when a call wasn't being made.
I then went back downstairs and joined Lala's uncle Vlad for a steak and eggs lunch. After I had my fill, I went up to the Gaia Stasis room where my stasis tube was and decided to take a power nap, setting the computer to play one of my favorite live-action movies from my home-universe in my mind's eye, in a cerebral implant way of seeing the action of the movie as if I was right there. After I closed the hatch, my eyes closed right then and there as my cerebral implants were activated and the movie played in my mind's eye with me there as if I was in that world, just like I always dreamed.
After about five hours of sleep, I woke up after the third movie in my favorite toy-turned-live-action movie series ended. The hatch opened after the outside front cameras showed me in my cerebral implants that Lala was entering the cul-de-sac. As soon as I had stretched and activated a nanotech-based stimulant and woke up, I headed downstairs to meet her. As soon as I stepped off the last stair step, Lala walked through the door. When she saw me waiting there for her, she was surprised that I had been waiting for her.
"Hey, Aaron." Lala said with a fang-filled smile. "Have you been waiting there for me this whole time?"
"Actually, I've been asleep, taking a power nap in the stasis chamber." I replied, yawning a little bit. "After I finished the video call with your dad, I decided to take a power nap. And while I took the power nap, I watched the three live-action Transformers movies, with my cerebral implants putting me in the movie as if I had actually been there, in that world."
"Oh, cool." Lala said. "Hey Aaron, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Lala." I said, sitting down in the living room with her. "What's on your mind?" I wanted to know what she was thinking, with her telling me instead of reading her mind.
"The Monster High Junior Prom is coming up soon." Lala said, looking embarrassed. "And I was wondering. Would you... like to go with me to the prom?"
"Sure." I said automatically. Lala looked surprised, yet excited.
"Really?"
"Anything for you, sweetheart." I said, standing up as Lala hugged me. I willingly hugged her back, thinking that I would do anything to make her happy, unlike what Clawd did. Lala then looked up at me.
"Fangtastic!" Lala said. "Also, my dad called me after school ended for the day. He said that since your our guest, and you don't have anywhere else to go, he enrolled you in Monster High. He even had the same stasis chamber installed in a special room that only you can access. But it's programmed for you to learn there instead of sleep, though it also keeps your Gaia Reactor at a constant charge level as what it is when you enter the stasis chamber to learn."
"Awesome." I said. "So then... when do I start?"
"My dad said you start tomorrow." Lala said. "He said to just catch a ride with me and we'll go to school together everyday."
"I'd like nothing better." I said, giving my girlfriend a kiss. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay." Lala said, all of a sudden not looking very happy. I looked at her, concerned.
"What's wrong, Lala?"
"I'm afraid of what Clawd will think when he sees me together with you tomorrow." Lala said, shedding a few tears. "He's been calling me names ever since we broke up, like 'bitch' or 'slut'." She then looked at me again as she asked, "I'm just afraid of what will happen if he sees you. I swore never to go out with a jerk like him again, and I'm afraid that he'll try to pick a fight with you, since he's always done that to some of the new kids. He's practically become a bully."
"You don't have to worry about me." I said, feeling a sense of calm that I know I haven't felt in many years. "Even though I'm a Gaion, we Gaions had developed a discipline over the 2,000,000 years that we've been around to never let our emotions get the best of us in a fight, even if the fight is a losing one. And even if he tried to pick a fight with me, we Gaions are essentially mentally programmed at birth to avoid all fights unless we absolutely cannot get away from such a fight."
"Are you sure?"
"Would I ever lie to you, sweetheart?" I said, smiling at her. Lala smiled, wiping away her tears and shaking her head.
"No, you wouldn't." Lala said. "You've been more honest to me than Clawd ever was. And that's saying a lot."
"I know." I said. "I was shown by my dad what Clawd has been doing to you since you broke up with him. And I've gotta say, he should be banished from this planet if he acts like that to other girls."
"I know." Lala said, looking angry. "Sometimes I wish he was never in my life. He's been nothing but a jerk!" She then calmed down and looked at me, saying, "But then you appeared the way you did, with my human mom telling me that you were the one she predicted that would be more true to me than Clawd. Hence why I rushed to your side when you were on the ground in pain, and I had you drink that potion to take the pain of traveling through the wormhole away."
"Yeah, I remember that." I said. "How could I forget that moment. That was the day that I thought for the first time that you were the most beautiful girl I had ever met. And I know now that my dad meant for me to protect you as his only mission for me while I'm on this Planet Earth."
"I know." Lala said, hugging me softly, of which I returned the gesture. "I'll wake you up at 5:30 in the morning since your dad told me that you always liked to get up early to have some fun playing video games before you went to school."
"Yeah, that's true." I said with a laugh. "You just helped me remember that I liked playing video games before school. I just never thought I'd still get to do that. I thought that I was going to die when I laid there exhausted in then Sierra Nevada Desert of my Planet Earth."
"Well, like you said," Lala began to say, "you were given a second chance in our world like you always wished you could." Then Lala looked at my chest, as if she could see the miniature Gaia Reactor that kept me alive. She then looked back up at me and said, "You're gonna need to go back to bed in the stasis chamber, because I can sense that you're down to ten percent the Reactor's capacity."
"How could you tell?" I asked, confused. "I thought you didn't have any powers? My father told me you wouldn't have any powers until I save you with the direct blood transfusion."
"I don't know how I could tell." Lala said, confused in her own way. "I just could tell. It could be that God is giving me a taste of what powers I'll soon have when you save me from dying."
"I see." I said, scratching my head in confusion. "I'll have to consult my father about this. As far as I know, only Gaions have the power you just used. But anyway, I'll see you in the morning, sweetheart."
"Okay." Lala said softly. She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed me on the cheek goodnight. "I'll wake you up at six, okay?"
"Okay." I said, smiling, noticing how tired I was getting already. I walked up the stairs to my Stasis Room. After I arrived in the room, I knelt down before the huge wooden Cross that was in there. I prayed to God, thanking him for another day of new beginnings. I also said to God that I would like to speak to my dad about what Lala did, saying that normally only Gaions should be able to do what she did, sensing the charge level of my miniature Gaia Reactor. After I did the Sign of the Cross across my chest, I climbed into the stasis chamber, closing the hatch and falling asleep as soon as the Gaia Energy had completely filled the chamber. And as I fell into that darkness called Sleep, I began to dream. And in this dream, God answered my prayer of letting me see my dad in my dreams to seek his counsel.
Except that Clawd was the one who haunted my dreams that night, weakly asking for my help. Then I saw his body fuse with a darkness version of his own, like Sora's Dark Form in Kingdom Hearts II, and then becoming an evil version of himself, though the spirit that took him over acted like him. Then he tried to attack me in my dream.
Right as soon as his Dark Gaia Sword was about to pierce my stomach, I woke up in a cold sweat, patting my stomach to feel for a stab wound. But there was none. I wondered what the dream meant, but I couldn't think straight at that moment, for I began to doze off back to sleep. And as I fell back into the darkness of Sleep, I used my astral form to meet my father in heaven, wanting to seek his counsel on what my dream about Clawd meant.
And though I saw him that night, I never remembered what he said when I awoke the next morning.