Chapter 6: Candle in the Night
"It doesn't matter now what happens.
I will never give up the fight."
- Tony Harnell, It Doesn't Matter
Jenny looked morose as she climbed on the raucous school bus.
"Cheer up, Jen," said Sara.
Brian who climbed behind her, glanced at Sara, but didn't say anything.
They sat a few rows back, silently at first, until Brian spoke up. "I've been thinking Jenny. About everything that's happened these last few days. Last week, you were afraid you weren't going to get a hit in the baseball game. Now, you want to hunt a vampire."
"Brian..."
"Let me finish. I was the one trying to insist that you'd do fine. Then, when something actually important comes up, I'm the one insisting that its too risky."
"Brian!"
"So I've decided. I'm going to help you. This could be the most important thing we ever do in our life, saving other people. Pretty deep, huh?"
"Brian, I found April last night. She had been turned into a vampire," Jenny began.
"My God," he said, slumping into the bus's seat. "What happened?"
Brian listened to her story, his eyes growing wide. He lowered his face when she described what happened after their classmate got staked.
"Do you still want to help?" she asked.
"Yes, If it means no one else ends up like her. What do we tell her family?"
"John volunteered to work on that," she told him.
"John?"
"His dog isn't just man's best friend. It's ours too."
"Oh."
"After school then?" she asked.
"I'll see you then. We'll meet after school at his house. Knock on his window."
-----------------------
I just wish that was only thing I had to do.
April had been a child vampire in a twelve year old's body. Capone, as I had begun to think of the ultimate adversary was another matter entirely.
A coworker of mine had once said that my car had carbon scoring, and had seen a lot of action. The nickname 'Battle Wagon' had stuck to it. It was still a good car, capable of getting me places.
After Jenny had left, I had ran some more website searches, and came up with some places to visit.
Stop one was finding some way to get my sword sharpened. All the sites I had been to had recommended a professional only. That wasn't an option, so I stopped by True Value for a "Tri-Stone Sharpener". I had to hope it was going to work.
Stop two was what I had thought was an ethnic food store, a little place just on the other side of Lakecook Road. Well, I'm sure it was ethnic to someone, I'm just not sure who's ethnicity included 'Bat's Wings'. What they had for sale was holy water. They came in little vials with crosses on them.
"What?" I mumbled to myself, "No garlic?"
"We don't carry anything you can find in the Jewel, dearie," said the shopkeeper, a fifty year old polish woman. "We carry items for a more discriminating Wiccan."
I swallowed, packed up a dozen bottles, and put them on my charge card.
Therefore, stop three was a Jewel, on the way back, for garlic. I picked up three cloves, fresh.
Stop four was the Vernon Hills mall, containing a small jewelry stand. There, however, I had to consider my purchase. According to some of the sites I had read, it wasn't the holy symbol, but the faith behind it. What this meant in light of holding off a vampire with a pewter Unicorn, however, I tried not to think about.
I selected two small, silver crosses, and paid with a check.
My final stop was Gamestop for Microsoft Game's 'Freelancer'. I was going to need some way of passing the time.
Shopping list completed, I returned home. Two O'clock, I had a little while to play around with my new toy. It worked, at least as far as I could tell, trying my blade out on a convient apple.
Then I sat down to try to write my letter.
********************
There is a war, that nobody talks about.
It is a war between darkness and light. The darkness envelops, feeds. It is destructive, by its very nature.
There is a light, that shines away the darkness.
But the light can't be everywhere, and I'm afraid April was a casualty of this fact.
Pray for us, for we have gone to confront that darkness. We will continue to fight that darkness.
Signed, those that walk in the light.
********************
I read it over, twice, folded it over, and stared at the computer. Eschewing the still wrapped Freelancer game, I turned on Winamp, cranked up Kaz Silver's "Believe in Myself" and let it play.
Multiple times.
I was finally interrupted by a knock on the window, at about quarter to four. I went out to meet the knocker.
"Brian, I think, right?"
"Yeah. Jenny's parents are making her finish her English paper before coming out tonight. We're both having early dinners, and should be out around seven thirty."
I winced. Sundown wasn't terribly long after that. "All right. Be quick."
Brian nodded, headed back off.
--------------------
Brian and Jenny were sitting as they had two nights ago, in my bedroom. No music this time.
"So. Do we have a plan?" Brian asked.
"Well, I have stakes. John has a sword."
"What do I get?" he asked.
"That depends, how are you with grenades?" I inquired.
"Grenades!" said Jenny, standing suddenly.
"Not quite the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch," I said, grabbing at a plastic bag on my bed. One could hear glass clinking together. "Holy Water. Other then breaking glass, it's not going to hurt us much."
"Phew," said Brian, wiping his forehead. "Don't do that to me again. I'm nervous enough."
"How are we going to find him?" asked Jenny.
I handed over a pair of printouts. "This is a list of for-sale houses in Lake Bluff. We think he's local, right?"
"I thought...oh, if there's nobody *living* in them, good idea. We'll drive up to each one, and see if I can feel it," she said.
"We better hurry. The sun's about to set," Brian said.
* * * * *
I think it was at this point I realized my life was going insane. I was sitting in a station wagon driving around a pair of kids younger than the car was. The boy had a dozen vials of holy water, the girl was not only stronger than me, but used my own weapons better, and we were all hunting down a vampire more then double my age. Oh, and we all were wearing a clove of garlic.
And to think, Mom said D&D was going to do strange things to me.
The sun was, indeed, setting as we began to check out each temporarily unoccupied house.
Near Lake Michigan, on Sunrise between Prospect and Ravine, we hit pay dit.
"I feel something," said Jenny. "All sorts of icky vibes. That's got to be it."
I parked the car, circling the house. "There's a forced window in the back. All the shades are otherwise drawn. I think this is the place, all right."
Jenny walked to the front door.
"You're kidding right, Jenny?" I asked.
Brian began, "No sane Vampire would..." Jenny opened the door with a click. "...leave his door unlocked?"
"More likely, any intruder is lunch."
I got my sword. Brian got a vial out, and we took up flanking positions on Jenny. "Can you feel him?" I asked.
"Down," came the answer.
It took us a few moments to find the basement door. I motioned for us to hold up. "Jenny, I know you want to go first. I'll go next. It's sundown right now, Brian. Make sure he doesn't come back up the stairs, I don't want him to make a run for it."
"This is it?" Brian asked.
"This is it," replied Jenny.
Jenny opened the door, and was relieved to find a light switch at the top of the stairs. She clicked it on.
"That's rude," came the voice from the bottom of the stairs. "Shouldn't you at least warn people before turning on the light?"
"Jenny!" I cried, as she charged down the stairs, stake out. I followed her, rapidly, making sure to hold on to my sword. Brian clambered down behind me.
Jenny realized very quickly that they had made an error. There was not a vampire down the stairs of this abandoned house.
There were two. One newly risen, and Capone himself, Jenny prepared for battle.
Brian and I, however, weren't so enthused. I quickly surveyed. "Brian, one at a time. Let's get Capone first."
"Oh, that's hardly fair, you brought friends. But I guess I did, too," Capone said as his partner growled. Then his game face came on, ducking as Brian threw a vial at him.
Jenny went straight for Capone with a stake, but he dodged it, landing a kick of her own that knocked her back.
I tried to come to her aid, but was intercepted by the minion. I launched a downward slash that he just wasn't ready to take. "That's a cut above the belt," I said, focusing on him.
Capone tried to pounce on Jenny, to knock her down. He was himself interrupted by a burst of pain to the body. Brian pitched a strike directly home. The water was clearly burning the vampire, so that worked out.
"Garlic?" asked Capone. "That'll be useful when I serve your intestines with a white wine sauce. Only Dracula couldn't..." he was interrupted by a punch to his chest.
I was having my own problems. I was the owner of the sharp pointy metal weapon, so that was one up for me. The vampire was stronger, faster, and tireless, three up for him. I took a raking to the side with some kind of claw.
"You should get those cut. Ouch." I was starting to waver.
Jenny's kick was followed up by Brian delivering another fresh water delivery to the vampire's noggin. Jenny threw a kick to the groin, and despite not needing them any more, doubled over in pain.
Grabbing her other stake, screaming, Jenny stabbed it into the vampire's heart. Capone looked up, meeting Jenny's eyes...and then poofed.
I was down on one knee, sword up, but merely defensive. The vampire was going to win, and he knew it.
He just didn't know to look behind him.
I was treated to a moment of absolute shock on the vampire's face as the stake pierced his heart from behind, and he crumbled into dust.
I was not prepared for the pure anger in Jenny's face, as she raised the stake to stab again.
"Jenny! I'm...NO!"
The stake hovered there for a moment before lowered slowly down.
"We did it?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, we did it. Let's clean up the broken glass and go home," said Brian.
"Yeah. Let's do that," I said.
-----------------------------
"You went berserk, didn't you?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Jenny asked.
"You lost control of yourself, in the fight."
"I...guess I did. I kept thinking about April, and how he was going to pay."
"He's dead now, and you..."
Ding! "You've Got Mail!"
"That reminds me," I said. I filled Jenny in on the mail I got from my Fark posting the day before. "Want to come with me?"
"I can't," she said quickly. "I have a baseball game!"
"It doesn't matter now what happens.
I will never give up the fight."
- Tony Harnell, It Doesn't Matter
Jenny looked morose as she climbed on the raucous school bus.
"Cheer up, Jen," said Sara.
Brian who climbed behind her, glanced at Sara, but didn't say anything.
They sat a few rows back, silently at first, until Brian spoke up. "I've been thinking Jenny. About everything that's happened these last few days. Last week, you were afraid you weren't going to get a hit in the baseball game. Now, you want to hunt a vampire."
"Brian..."
"Let me finish. I was the one trying to insist that you'd do fine. Then, when something actually important comes up, I'm the one insisting that its too risky."
"Brian!"
"So I've decided. I'm going to help you. This could be the most important thing we ever do in our life, saving other people. Pretty deep, huh?"
"Brian, I found April last night. She had been turned into a vampire," Jenny began.
"My God," he said, slumping into the bus's seat. "What happened?"
Brian listened to her story, his eyes growing wide. He lowered his face when she described what happened after their classmate got staked.
"Do you still want to help?" she asked.
"Yes, If it means no one else ends up like her. What do we tell her family?"
"John volunteered to work on that," she told him.
"John?"
"His dog isn't just man's best friend. It's ours too."
"Oh."
"After school then?" she asked.
"I'll see you then. We'll meet after school at his house. Knock on his window."
-----------------------
I just wish that was only thing I had to do.
April had been a child vampire in a twelve year old's body. Capone, as I had begun to think of the ultimate adversary was another matter entirely.
A coworker of mine had once said that my car had carbon scoring, and had seen a lot of action. The nickname 'Battle Wagon' had stuck to it. It was still a good car, capable of getting me places.
After Jenny had left, I had ran some more website searches, and came up with some places to visit.
Stop one was finding some way to get my sword sharpened. All the sites I had been to had recommended a professional only. That wasn't an option, so I stopped by True Value for a "Tri-Stone Sharpener". I had to hope it was going to work.
Stop two was what I had thought was an ethnic food store, a little place just on the other side of Lakecook Road. Well, I'm sure it was ethnic to someone, I'm just not sure who's ethnicity included 'Bat's Wings'. What they had for sale was holy water. They came in little vials with crosses on them.
"What?" I mumbled to myself, "No garlic?"
"We don't carry anything you can find in the Jewel, dearie," said the shopkeeper, a fifty year old polish woman. "We carry items for a more discriminating Wiccan."
I swallowed, packed up a dozen bottles, and put them on my charge card.
Therefore, stop three was a Jewel, on the way back, for garlic. I picked up three cloves, fresh.
Stop four was the Vernon Hills mall, containing a small jewelry stand. There, however, I had to consider my purchase. According to some of the sites I had read, it wasn't the holy symbol, but the faith behind it. What this meant in light of holding off a vampire with a pewter Unicorn, however, I tried not to think about.
I selected two small, silver crosses, and paid with a check.
My final stop was Gamestop for Microsoft Game's 'Freelancer'. I was going to need some way of passing the time.
Shopping list completed, I returned home. Two O'clock, I had a little while to play around with my new toy. It worked, at least as far as I could tell, trying my blade out on a convient apple.
Then I sat down to try to write my letter.
********************
There is a war, that nobody talks about.
It is a war between darkness and light. The darkness envelops, feeds. It is destructive, by its very nature.
There is a light, that shines away the darkness.
But the light can't be everywhere, and I'm afraid April was a casualty of this fact.
Pray for us, for we have gone to confront that darkness. We will continue to fight that darkness.
Signed, those that walk in the light.
********************
I read it over, twice, folded it over, and stared at the computer. Eschewing the still wrapped Freelancer game, I turned on Winamp, cranked up Kaz Silver's "Believe in Myself" and let it play.
Multiple times.
I was finally interrupted by a knock on the window, at about quarter to four. I went out to meet the knocker.
"Brian, I think, right?"
"Yeah. Jenny's parents are making her finish her English paper before coming out tonight. We're both having early dinners, and should be out around seven thirty."
I winced. Sundown wasn't terribly long after that. "All right. Be quick."
Brian nodded, headed back off.
--------------------
Brian and Jenny were sitting as they had two nights ago, in my bedroom. No music this time.
"So. Do we have a plan?" Brian asked.
"Well, I have stakes. John has a sword."
"What do I get?" he asked.
"That depends, how are you with grenades?" I inquired.
"Grenades!" said Jenny, standing suddenly.
"Not quite the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch," I said, grabbing at a plastic bag on my bed. One could hear glass clinking together. "Holy Water. Other then breaking glass, it's not going to hurt us much."
"Phew," said Brian, wiping his forehead. "Don't do that to me again. I'm nervous enough."
"How are we going to find him?" asked Jenny.
I handed over a pair of printouts. "This is a list of for-sale houses in Lake Bluff. We think he's local, right?"
"I thought...oh, if there's nobody *living* in them, good idea. We'll drive up to each one, and see if I can feel it," she said.
"We better hurry. The sun's about to set," Brian said.
* * * * *
I think it was at this point I realized my life was going insane. I was sitting in a station wagon driving around a pair of kids younger than the car was. The boy had a dozen vials of holy water, the girl was not only stronger than me, but used my own weapons better, and we were all hunting down a vampire more then double my age. Oh, and we all were wearing a clove of garlic.
And to think, Mom said D&D was going to do strange things to me.
The sun was, indeed, setting as we began to check out each temporarily unoccupied house.
Near Lake Michigan, on Sunrise between Prospect and Ravine, we hit pay dit.
"I feel something," said Jenny. "All sorts of icky vibes. That's got to be it."
I parked the car, circling the house. "There's a forced window in the back. All the shades are otherwise drawn. I think this is the place, all right."
Jenny walked to the front door.
"You're kidding right, Jenny?" I asked.
Brian began, "No sane Vampire would..." Jenny opened the door with a click. "...leave his door unlocked?"
"More likely, any intruder is lunch."
I got my sword. Brian got a vial out, and we took up flanking positions on Jenny. "Can you feel him?" I asked.
"Down," came the answer.
It took us a few moments to find the basement door. I motioned for us to hold up. "Jenny, I know you want to go first. I'll go next. It's sundown right now, Brian. Make sure he doesn't come back up the stairs, I don't want him to make a run for it."
"This is it?" Brian asked.
"This is it," replied Jenny.
Jenny opened the door, and was relieved to find a light switch at the top of the stairs. She clicked it on.
"That's rude," came the voice from the bottom of the stairs. "Shouldn't you at least warn people before turning on the light?"
"Jenny!" I cried, as she charged down the stairs, stake out. I followed her, rapidly, making sure to hold on to my sword. Brian clambered down behind me.
Jenny realized very quickly that they had made an error. There was not a vampire down the stairs of this abandoned house.
There were two. One newly risen, and Capone himself, Jenny prepared for battle.
Brian and I, however, weren't so enthused. I quickly surveyed. "Brian, one at a time. Let's get Capone first."
"Oh, that's hardly fair, you brought friends. But I guess I did, too," Capone said as his partner growled. Then his game face came on, ducking as Brian threw a vial at him.
Jenny went straight for Capone with a stake, but he dodged it, landing a kick of her own that knocked her back.
I tried to come to her aid, but was intercepted by the minion. I launched a downward slash that he just wasn't ready to take. "That's a cut above the belt," I said, focusing on him.
Capone tried to pounce on Jenny, to knock her down. He was himself interrupted by a burst of pain to the body. Brian pitched a strike directly home. The water was clearly burning the vampire, so that worked out.
"Garlic?" asked Capone. "That'll be useful when I serve your intestines with a white wine sauce. Only Dracula couldn't..." he was interrupted by a punch to his chest.
I was having my own problems. I was the owner of the sharp pointy metal weapon, so that was one up for me. The vampire was stronger, faster, and tireless, three up for him. I took a raking to the side with some kind of claw.
"You should get those cut. Ouch." I was starting to waver.
Jenny's kick was followed up by Brian delivering another fresh water delivery to the vampire's noggin. Jenny threw a kick to the groin, and despite not needing them any more, doubled over in pain.
Grabbing her other stake, screaming, Jenny stabbed it into the vampire's heart. Capone looked up, meeting Jenny's eyes...and then poofed.
I was down on one knee, sword up, but merely defensive. The vampire was going to win, and he knew it.
He just didn't know to look behind him.
I was treated to a moment of absolute shock on the vampire's face as the stake pierced his heart from behind, and he crumbled into dust.
I was not prepared for the pure anger in Jenny's face, as she raised the stake to stab again.
"Jenny! I'm...NO!"
The stake hovered there for a moment before lowered slowly down.
"We did it?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah, we did it. Let's clean up the broken glass and go home," said Brian.
"Yeah. Let's do that," I said.
-----------------------------
"You went berserk, didn't you?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Jenny asked.
"You lost control of yourself, in the fight."
"I...guess I did. I kept thinking about April, and how he was going to pay."
"He's dead now, and you..."
Ding! "You've Got Mail!"
"That reminds me," I said. I filled Jenny in on the mail I got from my Fark posting the day before. "Want to come with me?"
"I can't," she said quickly. "I have a baseball game!"