Chapter 2 Excursion
Priscilla stared out of the passenger window of their car at the rain beading on the glass, and tried not to feel uncomfortable in the silence between her and her dad. She was in so much trouble. "I'm sorry Daddy," Priscilla whispered. "I didn't mean it."
"You shouldn't do things you don't mean." Keeping an eye on the road, George didn't even look at his little girl. This moment was too reminiscent of the misunderstandings and confrontations he'd fought through with her older brother. At least Alex had waited until high school to become a sullen rebel. Pris was seven for God's sake. To be fair, he hadn't even heard her side. "Just tell me what happened from the beginning. Did Sara start it?"
"Sort of..." Priscilla bit her lip and tried to think of a way to tell this story that would make her dad understand and not be mad anymore. "I'll tell you the truth, but you're probably going to get really mad at me."
"I love you, Pris, even when I'm mad. I can't ask anything but that you be honest with me." George took his eyes off the road for just a second to touch his girl's face and comfort her. "Tell me."
"I borrowed this book from the library, Vampyres – A True History. You probably remember taking it away from me. I wanted to learn about what happened to Alex since you and Mom won't talk to me about it. Well, I did learn a lot before you took it away."
"I told you I didn't want you reading things like that. I'm going to find Alex..." ...vampire or not. "If he's alive and out there, I'll handle it. You have to stop obsessing over this. Focus on being the happiest and best seven-year-old you can be. Let me take care of everything else."
If he's out there...If you could drop the if from that statement, maybe I could let you handle it. "Right, well I was being happy and good tonight, but Sara was lying. I called her on it and she pushed me. See, we were telling ghost stories and it was Sara's turn. She was doing this whole thing about a vampire cheerleader and how she didn't have a soul and horrible untrue stuff. I couldn't let her lie about vampires like that. Alex still has a soul. How dare she say something like that? I pushed her back and then we were fighting."
George sighed and prayed for the wisdom to figure this one out. How was he supposed to scold her for defending her possibly-undead brother's right to have a soul? "Did you tell the other girls why you were so serious about this?"
"No, I promised. I never talk about Alex with anybody except you and Mom." But you and Mom won't talk to me...maybe if I start it we can talk for real. "I was doing some reading on the internet about the dark time with the dragons in the city, and I found some information about that guy Alex mentioned, Eckimus. There were pictures and he looked so scary, all tall and gray. I printed them out if you want to look when we get home. There's an old church on the lower east side that he was supposed to crash in."
"And you got all this information from where on the internet?" George asked. "I thought you knew better than to trust just anything you came across."
"It wasn't just anything." Priscilla rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "It was Indian Joe's Website. He has some of the best information from that bad time. He was a vampire that got cured..."...and he knew Alex.
"Pris, please tell me you don't believe this nonsense. This Indian Joe is probably some kid making up stories." George shook his head and gripped his wheel tighter. "I don't want you visiting web-sites with scary stuff. I have a detective and he's going to find Alex for us. He does this for a living."
Priscilla snorted and sighed. "Right, I'm sure he finds vampires for a living. If he doesn't understand what he's looking for, he'll never find anything. Why won't you let me help? I bet I know ten times what your detective does about what happened to Alex. I e-mailed Indian Joe and he told me..."
"You what?!" George pulled over to the side of the road as quickly as the slick conditions would allow and turned to his girl with a fierce frown. "I don't want you e-mailing people like that. Do you understand? He could be anybody. If he has a web-site with the kind of things you say he does, he's probably dangerous. Are you hearing me?"
"It was just an e-mail. Joe knew Alex. I didn't tell him who I was. I mailed him from my anama_fighter e-mail account. There's no way he could have know I was Priscilla Elder, and I didn't ask specifically about Alex. He shared it on his own. Dad he really knew Alex, and he hears from him sometimes."
"When we get home, I want you to show me, okay? I'm not happy with you, but I'll listen and look at what you've found." George rubbed at his temple and nodded to himself. "Whatever you do, don't bring this up with your mother. She doesn't want to think about this stuff."
"I have a better idea," Pris said. She pulled a little crumpled sheet of paper out of her pocket. "I want to go to Eckimus's church where he lived with Alex. If you won't go with me I'll find a way to go by myself, but I'd feel better if you came with me." She tried to sound strong and grown up, but her request ended in a hoarse whisper.
George couldn't say anything for a long moment. "You're serious. You'd sneak out and do that, wouldn't you?" When did I lose control of this situation? "If your mother or I lost you, Pris, there wouldn't be anything left. Do you understand me? I won't let you act out like this. If I have to send you away to boarding school, I will. I don't want to, but I will."
"Why can't we just be a team? I wouldn't tell Mom, but I'd tell you everything, and you could keep me safe all you want," Priscilla begged. "We'd find Alex and help him, save him. I know we can do it."
If I send her away, she'll never forgive me, but if I keep an eye on her, I can at least control the situation. "If you promise to tell me everything and to always ask before you do anything like visit this church, we can be a team. We'll look together."
Unbuckling her safety belt, Pris threw herself into her dad's arms. "Thank you so much. I was afraid to go to the church alone, and I really needed some help."
She was such a brave little angel. "You can always come to me baby. Don't ever be afraid to come to me. Now buckle up. We're going to visit a church, aren't we?"
Pris couldn't help wondering if her eyes were as big as they felt. Her dad actually drove her to the church, and it was huge, all gothic arches. It looked like the kind of place a vampire would haunt. "Joe said that the bad element of the neighborhood don't go in here. Eckimus lived here so long, that they're afraid of it." Stepping out of the car, Pris didn't even approach the door until her dad was at her side.
George took his girl's hand and tried not to be overly anxious about their excursion. At least it had stopped raining, and there weren't any thugs or homeless people lurking about. In and out, George told himself. "I want you to stay right with me every step. Don't let go of my hand. This place is condemned, and the first sign that there's any danger, we're leaving."
Priscilla brandished the flashlight she'd packed for the slumber party and nodded. "Let's do it." The inside of the church wasn't much different from the outside. Dark and musty like some kind of crypt, the place smelled of mold and something rotten. Old drapes hung in tatters along the tall arched windows, not really blocking out the dim glow of the street lights. Pris squirmed a little, pulling her hand free of her dad's, but he didn't seem to notice.
Did Alex really live in this place? George almost choked on the smell lingering in the air, and tears welled in his eyes. "Stay close, Pris."
"Oh my God, Dad," Pris murmured. She shone her light into the rafters an illuminated a wall of her family. There were a hundred newspaper clippings, most of them were Dad, but he was in the paper more than anyone else. Most of them were old and wrinkled and yellowed. She couldn't find any fresh clippings. "Do you think Alex collected them?"
"I don't know. God, everything is here from after Alex disappeared, even your mother's social listings and the articles about your school's new wing. If it wasn't Alex, I don't want to know who collected this. We should go home now, just to be safe. I'll send the detective, Mr. Kent, out here tomorrow to check this out in detail." George groped for Pris's shoulder but she moved forward out of reach.
"Wait, Dad. I think I see something." Pris scrambled up one of the tilting rafters and just managed to get a fingertip on a little bound volume of something. "I almost have it." Straining onto her tiptoes, she managed the get a hand solidly onto the treasure she'd spotted. Then she was falling and screaming.
"I've got you," George said. He managed to catch his little girl before she could hit the old marble floor. "We're going home now, okay?"
Priscilla nodded and clutched the book she'd almost injured herself over. Shining her light down on it, her heart fell. It was just a stupid Bible. She'd thought maybe it was a journal or something personal of Alex's. God wasn't looking out for her family, and Pris wasn't going to read his stupid book. Why did God let things happen the way he did?
In the rafters, invisible to simple human eyes, an ethereal creature, beautiful beyond reason, spread her wings and prayed for the little girl and her family. Zophiel couldn't touch Priscilla or speak to her, but she could feel her anger and disappointment toward God. "God loves you," Zophiel whispered. "He's sending your Alex home, even though it's dangerous. God believes in you Priscilla like he believes in Alex. Don't give up on him. Have a little more faith." Zophiel leapt from the rafters and followed Priscilla and her father home. She went with Pris into her bedroom and while the little girl showered, Zophiel flipped open the bible to the first page. "I have to go check on your brother now, but this will help you, I hope."
"I can't believe Dad really took me to the church," Pris told her Teddy. "Can you believe it?" She wasn't such a baby that she really thought Teddy could hear her or anything, but the old bear was her favorite sounding board. "Alex lived there. He was undead at the time, but he was there. Do you realize how close he was?"
Still damp from the shower, Pris plopped down on her bed next to the bible she'd rescued. It had fallen open, no wonder considering how tattered and worn it was. She was about the sweep it off her bed, when she realized that the pages weren't crisply printed. Her brother's handwriting was scribbled over the dedication page and the cover. "No way, are you a journal after all?"Snatching the book up she read what he'd left behind.
This is officially my first real present since dying.
Eckimus gave me this old Bible and told me it would
help me keep my faith and not despair. I don't
know if he's right, but if I find anything in here that
helps, I'm going to write it in the covers, so I'll be
able to get at it fast when things turn bad.
The rest were scripture references. Pris picked one and turned to it. It wasn't hard to find after she located the chapter. Alex had underlined it in red. There were a lot things underlined in red from what she could tell from just flipping through.
Lamentations 3:19-22
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the
bitterness and the gall. I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I
call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because
of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for
his compassions never fail.
Was she supposed to take this to heart? So Alex read a few bible verses and maybe they comforted him a little, but she wasn't going to forgive God that easily. He let evil steal her brother, and when Alex helped beat back the darkness, God wouldn't even let him be cured with the rest of the vampires. It wasn't fair. Pris closed the bible and set it on her nightstand. She'd show it to Dad tomorrow.
Cuddling down under the covers, Pris didn't pray like her mother taught her. Instead, she sent a wish to her brother. "Be well. Come home. I love you."
Author's Note:
I'm in my third year of vet school at the moment and my writing goals include one chapter every two weeks. I have approximately half-a-dozen fics running in three different fandoms, so I can't say when Crimson's number will come up again. Hopefully soon, right? Thanks so much for the reviews! They were a pleasant surprise :)