A/N: Happy Easter Weekend to everyone. I spent most of my day out in the beautiful weather with friends and now I am scrambling to get this update posted! But I will get it done before Friday turns into Saturday where I am! Anyway, this is my beta readers favourite chapter because of this beginning. We now call all people who are just ridiculous Tedious Foppish Civilians. We even added it as an inside joke to my Cards Against Humanity.
Chapter 10
"Tedious, tedious, tedious, bah! Samuel your old school chums are the most foppish, tedious, civilians I've ever met. How could you have befriended such a group of tedious people?" Dean grumbled and complained as their morning of social calls dragged on into the afternoon. "We'll never make the journey now, tedious people."
"Say tedious one more time, Dean..." Samuel warned.
"Tedious!" Dean said with conviction as a leather bound text flew across the room at his head.
"Now, now Samuel, is that any way to treat your precious collection?" Dean asked mockingly as he picked up the book and placed it back on the table before his brother.
"Tis a journal, there is nothing in it as of yet," Samuel retorted. "But I do agree with you at this time. We will not make it to the next stop on our tour today. Perhaps we should hold off on it."
"And wait for Mr. Castiel, or mother and father?" Dean asked as he stretched. "I could still use a ride."
"Yes, I believe that is best and we are in the moorlands, we might find entertainment in that," Samuel offered. "But I am surprised that you are not interested in the society here."
"I'm now very suspicious of the society here. How many of them are vampires parading as gentlemen?" Dean asked harshly. "Or ladies. I could not bring myself to flirt with them now. I would feel soiled in some way."
"There is one man parading as a gentleman; one for certain," Samuel countered.
"Yes, and he believes there to be many more here and still to come," Dean said and sighed. "We may be out of our depths and I wonder if we should not warn your friends to flee. After all the work we put in to verifying that they were not demons or vampires, we should have at least sent them away to safety."
"Perhaps, but we could also be very wrong about the whole situation," Samuel said, shut his book and walked across the room to where his brother stood by the window, looking out on the street below. "What if he comes only for diplomatic reasons, or to have mercy on those unwilling to share in his afflictions, what then? We have had no news of suspicious deaths, no farmers in uproar because of failed cattle, perhaps this will be a peaceful visit. And should we have turned to the truth with my acquaintance we may have been chased from this place as fools and charlatans."
"And yet I am unmoved Samuel, an army of vampires are coming to Whitby and we are but two men," Dean said. "If you are wrong and these vampires come to concur the country and to spread the scourge, we are all very much doomed and we'll have let that happen to good, albeit tedious, fellow country men. Our family has striven all these years to uphold our honour and to save those from the horrors they are unaware of. It is our duty and our business."
"I agree, dear brother, but what are we to do?" Samuel asked as there came a knock at the parlour door and the servant ushered in another visitor.
"Good to see you boys looking so well," Mr. Charles Shurley said and bowed as he was introduced into the room with the boys.
"What in God's name brings you to Whitby?" Dean asked and then stopped, shook his head to clear it, and then laughed at himself.
"Vampires, of course," Mr. Shurley answered. "One in particular who's story I have been following very closely for serval years. You?"
"We are here for the same reason," Samuel said.
"Yes, about that, why would you grant Vlad Tepes such powers and viral capacities as that. It is not your scourge to begin with, but Eve's." Dean stated indignantly.
"For the same reasons I keep returning the Winchesters to the land of the living, more than any other humans in all of my creation. It's about the curiosity of it. And I'm God and can do as I see fit," Mr. Shurley answered. "But alas, I believe it is time for rest, and that is why he comes. The story will soon be very much over, and then I will move on to the next great tale."
"Who's rest, yours or his?" Samuel asked.
"Both of ours, I expect. He reached out to me to have this meeting," Mr. Shurley answered and straightened himself to his full proud height, "The firsts, as I call them, are the only ones to know of me and my hand in their creation. Some of them choose to follow as servants aught to, others run from me and so that is why Eve rules over purgatory, or did, as you know. Thank you, by the way, for dealing with her while she walked this plane."
"So he's coming to see you? Then why must his followers too come into this part of the world, and why send for us?" Samuel asked.
"I did not send for you," Charles answered as he paced the length of the room. "I suppose, if the angels are concerned they would send for you but as was the plan, most of them do not know me like this, and I would like to keep it that way. And let me make one thing very clear, the Vampires are not, and were never supposed to be followers of Tepes. That is not his doing, it is Eve who plotted and twisted it. They come because they have no choice."
"If that is the case, has your sister come with you?" Dean inquired.
"Sadly no, I come alone to this meeting. She does not particularly approve of these creatures I've had a hand in creating, and which have been exiled to her realm, or what she see as a bastardization of her realm. So she had decided to further her education into everything else that lives within the light and the part the darkness plays in it, for she wishes to make her own way in the world and I do love a strong woman taking charge of things. They are so very entertaining and beautiful."
"Piano lesson and parlour games?" Dean asked sarcastically.
"Yes, actually, and she reads a very great deal and sometimes writes, to which I confess, I encourage. She too has a story to tell and as part of our healing we are trying to move forward in our writing together."
"I suppose she is looking for her place in this world now that she is no longer imprisoned," Samuel said thoughtfully.
"Perhaps, but I believe she already knows that much of this creation was build to honour her. One cannot have light without darkness, and I confess, I never meant for the darkness to be as misunderstood as my creation has made it, but with free will comes power and greed and all other manner of corruption." Mr. Shurley explained. "You see, nothing was ever supposed to leave the garden, but sin and my own temper cast them out onto this world to learn the errors of their ways, and perhaps they did not learn anything, but I did."
"And what lesson was that?" Dean asked as he fell into a chair and threw his feet up onto the table top as he leaned back.
"That Eden would have been terribly boring had they not been cast out. Nothing would have happened, they would not have learned to create on their own. This world would not be so fantastically interesting had the rules not been broken."
"It would also not be doomed by the coming vampire scourge," Dean countered.
"It is not doomed, flipped and tossed as it might seem, it is changing again. But it is not doomed. Where is your sense of adventure Dean Winchester? For it has always been a very great part of you. It's seems to lack as of late." Mr. Shurley shrugged casually.
Dean grumbled but did not answer.
"Then why would you create someone like Napoleon?" Samuel asked. "If you had not meant for things to be as they are, why create such evil?"
"I did not, he is a product of his upbringing and society," Charles countered. "Just as you are and your father before you. Monsters were not what I intended but have been made this way because of prejudice and power of humans, or the wills of other powerful beings."
"And so what is to be done with this first vampire of yours? Will you eradicate the scourge or is it to follow at his command? A command that you gave to him and, that if he does not know of the scourge that has spread as a result, he will know it, and will he be left to rule over it in pride and prejudice?" Dean asked.
"Heavens no," Charles laughed. "The spread will continue for generations to come, I do not purge anymore, that's for human kind to handle now. I did it once and it was a tragic and boring forty days and forty nights and it didn't solve a thing. The alphas, created by Eve, are the cause of the scourge, and though some of them will make it to this place, others will not. As for Tepes, his reasons for having the affliction that he requested, or rather the ultimate powers he possesses, is no longer needed. He has his country, his armies, and very few who dare to come up against him. It is my belief that he is tired, finished, and would now like to live out the rest of his natural life. I believe he wishes to find a nice girl to settle down with. Make babies. And then leave all the troubles in the world to his offspring."
"So what are we to do here?" Samuel asked to bring the conversation back around to their primary concern.
"Whatever you wish, I suppose. I simply heard that you were in town and I felt obligated to continue the acquaintance as is standard practice for your society. You see, even deities try to fit in most of the time. Perhaps to have you here to keep the peace, that may do well enough, but I do not know entirely what is to happen and that is the exciting part."
"Ha, a village full of vampires, that does not sound exciting to us," Dean said and his brother nodded his agreement.
"Then perhaps you should leave."
"We've already written to our parents. We must await their reply, and as you seem wholly disinterested in the rest of the scourge that is descending, and what they are capable of, if left to their own accord, we must stay to make sure that innocent people do not die because of this vampire calling," Samuel commented as if he were the only sane person in the room. "Just because he comes, does not mean that the lower scourge will follow his command. They are but creatures of their habits and will begin killing to feed themselves."
"And the angel Castiel, I presume, you've called out to him as well?" Mr. Shurley asked and then laughed to himself. "I know that you did, I heard your prayers to him." He added, ignoring all of Samuel's legitimate concerns.
"Yes, he comes as well, or at least I hope he will," Dean answer begrudgingly.
"Very good, I look forward to seeing him and your attempts at socializing him, but I really must go. I have been invited to dine with the Westbrooks and to give a reading of my new stories. They are very rich, I'm sure it will be very entertaining. Would you like for me to make the introductions, and then you may hear all about my stories as well," he offered.
"I would not be opposed to it," Dean said as he looked to his brother.
"You wouldn't?" Samuel asked in confusion. "Are you certain?"
"Yes, very much so, I think it is a grand idea," Dean said, "but perhaps not tonight, we wouldn't want to intrude."
"Of course not, but as I am staying in their house, I will see them and so I can seek out the invitation for you. I will send word, and you can arrive at seven," Charles said and bowed. "But until such a time as I see you again, I must bid you farewell."
The pleasantries were repeated on behalf of the Winchesters and then Mr. Shurley was shown out of the inn.