Chapter 3 – Meeting the Ghouls
September 25, 2004 = Saturday
I awoke, still leaned against the wall. I stood up and stretched, eying the new towel hanging in front of me. I opened the bathroom door to see sunlight pouring in on the desk. Oh-K! and slammed the door to prevent a serious case of sunburn. Wow, I was up before sunset, or was it sunset? Deciding I didn't want to risk it, and not having much else to do, I showered. After drying off with the fresh towel, decided to use the new toothbrush and generic toothpaste to brush the fangs. I then got back into my clothes.
This time I opened the door to find the room halfway dark. Creeping out, I took notice of the changes in the room. A computer had been setup on the desk and was on. On the bed was a sheet set in cheap plastic along with a small pillow. Deciding someone had a case of hysterics, I left them and went to the computer. Tapping a computer key, it switched to a login screen for the Lacroix Foundation.
It asked for a password, and I had a momentary feeling of shock. A look on the desk revealed a cheap notepad. The top page had a note signed by a Mercurio. He told me the password was "sunrise", then joked I'd never see one again. I suddenly felt a bolt of anger about joking at my expense. I didn't ask for this life. I entered the password into the computer and that brought me to a list of all emails received into the account. It was pretty basic really, more like Macintosh from the early 90's as opposed to recent Yahoo.
I started cycling through them, most of them being spam. One was from "Mysterious Friend," and I wrote it off as spam too as the sender was talking about opening moves in chess. The last was from Mercurio. He left me directions to his apartment, which was only a few blocks away. Also, he told me he left a hundred bucks in the drawer to the desk along with keys to his apartment. Thank god, a man that leaves money.
Taking the money, I left the apartment, locking the door on my way out. Out in the alley, I met a bum, though the rank smell was a definite turn off.
"Got some change lady?" he asked, edging close enough to make me nauseous.
"I'm hungry," I told him, then grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him hard against the wall. With his head lolled to one side I bared my fangs and bit him, drinking his precious blood and slaking my thirst. When I let the bum go, he fell against the wall, groaning. He was still breathing, and the bite holes disappeared as my teeth left.
No longer having to worry about my thirst, I followed the directions Mercurio gave me, walking by a clinic on my way. Soon, I found a nicer building that seemed to be the one I needed. Stepping around the fresh blood pool on the stairs I went through the double doors, using my key to get in. The blood trail turned out to be a trail right to the needed door, and I worried something had happened I was going to get blamed for.
I opened the door to find a guy laying on the couch, covered in blood. He was trying to bandage some of his more serious wounds with a first aid kit, and failing miserably. I knelt by the couch, and took over without a word.
"Those mothers...ripped me off," he panted, the pain he was in obvious. He should be in an emergency room, really. I reached for the phone to call one, but he grabbed my arm.
"Whatcha doin?" he asked. He had a grip like iron, which was surprising considering the blood loss.
"Calling for an ambulance," I told him, wondering if I could overpower him.
"What? No, I gotta record back East. I'm heat bait."
"You sure?" I said, looking him over again. He was pretty bad, but maybe as some kind of supernatural he was resilient to this.
"No cops!"
"Fine, Mercurio I take it?"
"Yea, your the new kid everyone is so riled over. Looking for the Astrolite? I got shanked by those bastards! Blood ain't working no more."
"Blood?"
"Once a month I get fed vampire blood. Heals me, keeps me young. Wouldn't know it by looking but I'm over seventy."
"Can't I just give you mine?"
"No. Has to be the master's. I'm a ghoul, newbie. Any order I'm given I'm compelled to obey, even up to one that will cost me my life. That third sip of his blood sealed my fate."
He looked down from where he'd propped himself up. "What is this lump? Is it my rib? My ribs poking out my side?! I'm all numb…you gotta look and tell me!"
I looked under his coat, finding a small bottle top lodged into his side. I pulled it out with very little blood coming out and showed it to him. He relaxed back into the couch and I threw the broken bottle shank away.
"Goddamn chemist. Can't trust any operators in LA. I verified him, organization seemed reliable. Guy mixes stuff, his crew sells it. Sometimes he does explosives. So I set up a drop. I show up with the money, right? Four of these guys, they jump me out of nowhere. Junkie pricks. Head feels like a horse kickin' it. Amateur move. Never should have gone alone. Now they got the money, they got the Astrolite."
"Where can I find them?" I didn't know what I was going to do when I caught up to them, but I was an undead creature. What harm could they do to me?
"Small time sons of bitches live out in a dump on the beach. Four of five, I think. The one's got the explosives is Dennis. Got my money, too. You gotta get it back from them. Maybe reason with 'em, maybe break in. God I wanna kill 'em. Do whatever you people do. I blew it."
"Is there anything I can do to help you?" I asked, his wounds had stopped bleeding, but he wasn't healing.
"If you could get something for the pain," he said, still breathing heavily, then seemed to pass out.
I left him on the couch. It was better for him if he didn't move, anyway. I left his apartment and headed for the beach, rather easy to find since all I had to do was head west, when a thought entered my brain. Any chemist worth his salt was always looking for the next best drug, and I had one in my veins. But how do you make a chemist suck on a bare wrist?
I turned and headed back to the clinic. If I could get access to the right equipment, most of which was readily available in the right cabinet in public access, I could offer my blood as a simple drink. All he had to do was drink it, and maybe somewhere along the way I could find some pain meds.
As I got back to the clinic, a man got in my path.
"You, you're a vampire aren't you?" he asked excitedly.
I was torn between running for the hills and listening to the voice I could hear saying "kill him!" I decided to stay calm and reasonable.
"Vampire? What are you smoking?" Just stay calm, and let the nutcase go away, I thought.
"C'mon, you are too! Don't bullshit me, girl! Just come clean. I just wanna talk!"
What is this? This guy was too clean cut to be one of those Gothic vampire wannabe types. I got to thinking that maybe I should see what he knew before I offed him on basic principles. I was on thin enough ice without heating the water.
"So talk." I needed a gun so I could make the next guy sidewalk meat.
"Hell yeah! Oh man, I knew it! I could just tell. And then I saw your teeth an-and I was like, damn! The name's Knox Harrington. Pleasure to meet you."
"You too. Are you vampire? How do you know all this?"
"I'm a ghoul! I didn't know any of this until a few months ago. Then this nasty dude showed up and well, all of a sudden – bam! Whoa man! Vampires are real and in front of my eyes! Blew my goddamn mind."
Well, at least my neck wasn't on the line here as he was a ghoul, already. And he seemed to enjoy it. I glanced at the sky, knowing that the hours of the night wouldn't hold forever before I'd have to head for the apartment. "Knox, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have things to take care of before the sun rises."
"Oh, I understand," he said, never once frowning. "That's usually what I get asked to do; pick up blood packs, equipment, or pass on messages."
"So as a ghoul, your a kindred's servant?" I asked, making sure I heard him right.
"Yep, but its all good. He takes care of me, and apparently I won't age! I do get time for myself, so if you want me, look me up at the Asylum, its just a few blocks south of here."
"Thanks, Knox," I said, as I opened the door to go inside the clinic. He was an ok guy, but he really needed 'lady friends.'
Inside the clinic, I found a lobby full of the sick and injured. Making my way past the registration desk, I was stopped by a nurse asking me to wait. Knowing that they couldn't keep track of everyone, I just told her I was bringing a friend some personal items, and they let me go on back. The first room I tried had a young red haired woman in a yellow shirt who looked far worse than Mercurio did. She was hacking up blood, which was never a good sign, and had several blood bandages trying to hold her precious red stuff in.
Thankfully, I wasn't thirsty, but seeing so much was making me want to take a lick. I looked her over, and what little bit I knew of physiology said she wasn't going to make it. I hated to leave her like this, but did I want to take the risk of ghouling her?
Looking at her again, I decided I couldn't let her die without trying. Baring my fangs, I bit my wrist and drew blood. Holding my wrist over her open mouth, she seemed to follow it like a babe to its mothers breast and drank my blood. After several mouth-fulls, I pulled my wrist back, and she seemed to come around a bit.
"Who...who are you," she asked, as if she was really tired, which she probably was with all the blood-loss.
"Just a nurse," I replied, settling her back onto the examination bed. "Just rest, I must be going now."
The red haired woman passed out, but her color was better. Hopefully she'd survive, now I just had to find her again. Rummaging the cabinets, I managed to find a blood draw kit and several test tubes for blood. Taking it all, and hiding it in my bra, I walked out of the room, and headed deeper into the clinic.
Down a hallway, I managed to find a supply closet. Ducking inside I scanned the bottles, finding the usual bottles full of antivirals, antiseptics, and weak pain killers. Finally, in a rack that was supposed to be reserved for anti-fungal meds, was a single bottle of vicodin. Taking the bottle, and shoving it in a pocket, I left the clinic.
Heading back out to the beach, I found the parking garage filled with police cruisers, lights flashing erratically. Searching around, I found the beach access stairwell was still open, so I took it down. It led me through a long, dark tunnel that opened up on the sandy beach. I hadn't even gotten a good look around before a dark haired woman ran up to me.
"Up there. Through that chain link gate and up those stairs," she said, her accent carrying a deep hint of Spanish.
"Thanks," I replied, not caring she knew who I was after. I am a vampire after all, so what else is new in the night?
I went up the stairs, stopping on the last platform. After looking over the last stair, I could see a guy with a bat guarding the entrance to the house. The area looked too bright to sneak through. Ducking back out of sight, I took a blood draw kit and cracked it open. Taking the butterfly needle, I stuck the one end in my arm and into a vein. Attaching the hub, I then took a tube and inserted it into the hub, watching it fill with my blood. After the first, I filled the other four, tucking each full one into my bra.
Only after I was done did I take the butterfly needle out. I didn't have a sterilization pad, but, hey, I'm already dead. What more could happen to me? Poking my head over the top stairwell again, I decided it was time to pull my courage together and face these men down. Climbing the last stairs, I stepped forward just as the thug nearest me lit his cigarette. He turned to face me, and blew his smoke in my face.
Oh, yea. We're off to a great start.