Resurrection
I knocked on the heavy door of the Carfax building, flashing my security pass up at the camera so the guards would open the doors. Once they had, I entered, my heavy cloak sweeping around me impressively. I smiled at the two men behind the desk as I approached.
"Good afternoon," I said pleasantly (hey, if I was going to be allowed access to the building, I might as well get in good with the guards). "I'm looking for my mother, Tereza Dragulia. Where can I find her?"
The guards smiled at my polite tone. Personally, I felt I was overdoing it. "Take the elevator up to the third floor, down the hall to the left, second door from the last on the right side."
"Thank you." I turned to go and, not for the first time, noticed a huge vault door behind a metal lattice. "What's that?" I asked, suddenly feeling it was imperative that I find out on the instant.
"That's the previous owner's private abbey," said one of the guards. "Now only his daughter, Mrs. Sheppard, has access to it."
"I see." I walked away slowly, never taking my eyes off the door. I found Mom easily enough, and she was so thrilled that I had made a new friend so quickly that she readily agreed to let me go to his house that night. In leaving the building, I passed by that door again; only this time there were no guards.
"Hello?" I called experimentally. No answer, save for my own echo. There was no one there. Grinning wickedly, not even realizing what I was doing, I slipped up behind the desk and hacked into the security system mainframe. I had learned to hack computers for fun from Hob before he tried to have me killed. I found that there were four keys to opening the door: an encrypted passcode, a retina scan, a fingerprint scan, and a voice recognition (not necessarily in that order). Just for giggles, I decoded the passcode, just to see what would happen. The metal lattice rose creakily, baring the safe door behind it. That should have been enough for me, but I was suddenly seized with the desire to see if I could bypass this security labyrinth, the best security system in the world, broken only once with inside help. I guessed I wouldn't be able to bypass the retina, fingerprint, and voice locks then and there, but I found out that they were encrypted to Mary Sheppard now instead of her father. This was an important development. I hacked further into the computer mainframe and managed to find the keys for the locks; that is, what the computer expected to see and hear in response to each lock prompt. I recorded Mary's voice saying "Mary Van Helsing". That was the easy part. Then I dusted the fingerprint scanner and lifted the prints I got. Finally I got a sort of schematic for the retina scan and printed it out. Then I closed everything up nicely so no one would know what had happened. Glancing at my watch, I saw I had some time before I was to go to Damien's place. I knew exactly what I was going to do in that time.
A gel pad fingerprint scanner might have stumped me, but not an optical one. I took a latex glove and patiently and painstakingly etched Mary's prints into it. It took several tries before I was satisfied, but I was tolerant. The eyeball was tougher, though. I'd need a 3-D eye to fool the retina scanner. Knowing that, I went to an old acquaintance that Hob had introduced me to when he taught me to steal. My acquaintance to the eyeball schematics and promised me a likeness by that night. I decided I'd pick it up on the way home from Damien's. Thinking of him, I went back to Carfax, grabbed my bookbag, and headed to his house.
Study and horror flicks eventually led to a long discussion about whether Robert Englund's "Phantom of the Opera" could really be classified as 'horror', and an overnight stay at Damien's, but neither of us minded. Still, I was eager to test my 'tools' and see what was in the vault, so I told Damien I needed to go back to Carfax quickly, grab some sleepover stuff and see my mom (in light of the shooting, he understood completely) and promised I'd be back soon. Carfax wasn't that far from Damien's place, actually. When I returned, the guards were gone again on a coffee break or something (geez, with such lax security it's no wonder the safe was looted!). I had only a few minutes to act.
I began typing almost in a frenzy, staring intently at the screen, my eyes growing wider and wider until I thought they would fall from their sockets. The passcode was simple, as before, but I was worried about the fingerprint scan as I pulled on the glove carefully and placed it on the scanner. I held my breath, waiting…and the computer accepted the scan. The voice recognition was easy, and the eyeball I had picked up was an exact match to Mary's. The great safe yielded to me and I stared, unbelieving. I had broken into the world famous Van Helsing safe? Wicked! Obviously, I had to see what lay inside.
Still grinning that devilish grin of mine, I crept into the great vault and made my way down the creepy, caliginous tunnels. I suddenly realized two things: one, I was walking through the tunnels from my dream, and two, I had no idea where I was going. Yet something seemed to be guiding me, for I found I could not stop walking and my steady stride remained unbroken. I finally came up to a door barred by a great cross. I snorted softly at that. It was chained, however, denying me access to the unimaginable secrets that lay behind it. Or did it? I was somewhat telekinetic, but I didn't know if I had the strength to break the locks. Still, I wanted to try. I concentrated intently on the lock, narrowing my eyes, pursing my lips, staring in utmost concentration.
Break! I commanded it silently. Break, and let me in. But it didn't break. It squeaked and twisted, but didn't break. I sighed silently and started to relax, thinking I would just go back quickly before I ended up sealed in here, when something seemed to give me an extra burst of power. The lock shattered. I stared in surprise, then collected myself enough to lift away the heavy cross and open the doors. There was the silver coffin. And into my mind came that furious voice…only it wasn't furious now.
"Oh, hello again, child."
"Again?" I whispered, my voice barely a creak in the darkness.
"Yes, again. You don't remember?"
"How could I forget? I just was never quite sure…"
"Yes. It's real. I'm real."
"And do you need…me?" I asked, suddenly unable to even think the word 'blood' in this place, in this presence.
"Afraid?"
"…Yes."
"Don't be. Please. Need you. Help me, child."
How could I say 'no'? He so obviously needed me. I had never felt needed by anyone, not that I could remember at least. I reached into my pocket and took out a Swiss Army Knife that had once belonged to my father. I had taken possession of it after he died. I went over to the coffin slowly, and twisted one of the silver crosses to open it. The rank stench of death and decomposing bodies hit me full in the face like a slap. I gagged and jumped back briefly, then realized that in doing so I might have offended…well, whoever he was. I approached, trying to hold my breath as much as possible, breathing in only through the corners of my mouth as I reached out and slashed the palm of my hand with the knife, holding it out so the blood spilled over the head-shaped part of the pulpy black ashes that filled the coffin. As in my dream, they began to reform again as the blood spilled. I wasn't standing there long, but the ashes reformed completely in the short time that I was. I was dizzy from this assault on my senses and reason, and started to fall back. I waited to hit the stone, but I didn't. The strange creature from the coffin caught me in his arms. But he didn't look quite like in my dream. His skin was chalky and wrinkled, his hair stringy and colourless, his eyes a scleral bluish-white.
"Oh, Ebony," he breathed softly, gazing at me almost in disbelief. "You are…real." He smiled at me as he kissed my bleeding hand. The wound healed, leaving no trace. I stared at it, marveling at what I had just witnessed. I heard a gentle laughing, but when I looked up, he was gone and I was standing on my own. I was alone again in the crypt. Shivering, still staring at my hand, I hightailed it out of there before anyone found out. I would have closed up the vault, I really would have, but the guards were coming. I got out of there quickly, flipping open my cell phone and calling Damien to let him know I was on my way back. But all the while, I kept thinking about the frightfully fascinating reforming of the bloody mess of ashes, forming that strange creature. Could he really have been the dark angel from my dream, the one who had visited me in the hospital? I did not know. But I'd be damned if I didn't try and find out!