THE LUCIFRACTOR HUNT
Jane, atypically, wanted to go along to search for the Lucifractor.
Sarah wondered why this would be. Sarah believe she knew why Jane wanted to go. Sarah had spent a lot of time with Jane while babysitting; that was one of the reasons liked her to babysit. Obviously, however and whenever Trixie whined her way into babysitting Jane, she didn't bother to hang out with Jane. Or, even allow Jane to do things with the teens, like watch (or try to watch) Jacuzzi Time Machine.
Sarah could see Trixie now. Sitting in the living room painting her nails, or making out with Ethan, while expecting Jane to stay upstairs alone.
"What a bimbo!" thought Sarah bitterly.
"You can't go, Jane" said Ethan, having returned in his room to hand out water guns filled with holy water to the teen girls. And handing out the paranormal-detector to Sarah. "It's a rotting, abandoned building and there's some sort of invisible monster that will go for our gullets the moment we find this Lucifractor. How do you use it, BTW?"
"As far as I know, you point it and say "Behold the Power of the Lucifractor" Sarah replied dryly. "That's how you destroyed Jesse's creature the last time. And knocked me out in the fallout."
"Behold the power of the lucifractor?" Ethan scoffed. "Who talks like that? Whoa, am I ever a geek."
"We know" said Erica.
"What about me?" demanded Jane.
"You're short" Erica retorted.
"Think of this. The place probably has rats" tried Ethan. "Aren't you afraid of rats? Trixie says little girls are afraid of rats"
Ethan looked down at his little sister sternly. It was a variation of his old shooting-laserbeams-from-my-eyes glare. Jane returned the look. The contrast between the husky athlete and the young girl was astonishing. But there was a similarity in their hard stares that made it believable the two were brother and sister.
"First, I'm not little" said Jane. "Second, Trixie might be afraid of rats and mice but I'm not. And don't forget; I've had a vampire for a babysitter, a werewolf for a brother, and had a wizard and his grandma for neighbours. Do you really think I'm afraid of rats?"
"We don't have time for this. Here's five bucks" said Ethan. "Stay home."
Jane pocketed the money.
Leaving Jane behind, the teens entered Ethan's vintage Brunner-made car.
"You swear this car is no longer haunted?" demanded Sarah as she opened the passenger-side door.
"I swear it" said Ethan, looking around. "Oh, need to take care of something."
Ethan immediately left the car.
"What . . . oh, it's Jared" said Erica exasperatedly.
"Bro, where you going with Sarah?" asked Hodges, punching Ethan in the shoulder. He spied Erica. He deepened his voice. "Hey, Erica!
"Yeah, that's Erica" said Ethan, punching Hodges back. "Yeah, we're going . . . ."
"Let's talk privately" interrupted Erica, leaving the car and talking flirtatiously.
The Hodges and Erica disappeared around what should have been the Weir house, leaving Ethan and Sarah together.
There was an awkward moment as Ethan returned to the car, and sat side by side in the front seat, neither saying a word.
"You probably think I'm a colossal jerk" Ethan said at last. "Going out with Trixie Valentine's Day when I now know I should be going out with you. But you gotta see it from my perspective."
This had occurred to Sarah, but she had dismissed it for the same reason why she felt she couldn't be jealous of Trixie. In spite of her being nothing but the worst type of bimbo.
"I think it's more jerky for you to risk doing anything the night of the full moon, talisman or not" Sarah replied seriously, noting that Ethan winced at that remark. "But as far as Trixie goes, I understand your reality has been different than mine. It's only the fault of Tempus Mercator we're even in this awkward position."
"You know Sarah, I always had a crush on you" Ethan confessed.
"I had the impression" Sarah said, and read Ethan's eyes. They were their authentic brown. "I know the Sarah you know accepted whatever personality changes you went through these last couple years. And for a werewolf, you mostly handle it well."
"But now if we date . . . ."
"You'll be two-timing" Sarah said wryly. "Dating, hanging-out with and kissing another girl."
"Dating, hanging-out with and . . . only kissing?" Ethan asked, in a disappointed voice.
"Yes" said Sarah firmly. "Dating, hanging-out with and kissing!"
"Would you say making out?"
"Depends on what you mean by making out" Sarah replied.
"That's more than I expected of . . . me" Ethan acknowledged, adding in a wistful voice. "But I remember I dreamed of you and me steady girlfriend and boyfriend."
"That's what we are."
"And if you date me, you'll be two-timing me . . . with me" said Ethan regretfully. "Even though it's me all the time."
Ethan and Sarah suddenly laughed at the ridiculousness of the idea.
They then looked at each other. Ethan leaned over toward Sarah . . . and was interrupted by Erica's return.
"That's okay" whispered Sarah. "Even though you're the exactly same guy as the Ethan I know, it is like betraying the Ethan I know. And you'll be definitely double-crossing Trixie."
"Yeah, it's for the best" Ethan agreed.
Ethan, however, still had an annoyed and wistful look as Erica walked up to the car, and roughly pushed his seat forward as she climbed in the car behind him.
"I can't figure out why Hodges didn't ask to come along" Ethan said. "Still, the dude's hair turned white at the front after meeting Valerie Mudrap. It'll plain drop out if he finds out what he's doing at the hotel."
"Because I lied" said Erica tersely. "I told him you were taking us to a spa and a hairdresser. And you were so nice you were going to pick us up afterwards."
"A spa?" said Ethan in disgust. "Yeah, I can see why Hodges didn't want to come. Hodges actually believed it? What the hell does he think I want to go?"
"It's a lie" Sarah reminded Ethan.
"Oh, yeah. Whoa, I can't believe how happy I am to be going to a moldering, haunted hotel instead!
"You're going to get groceries for your mom after you drop us off and before you picked us up" explained Erica. "That's what I told him. And I know you've picked groceries up for your mom before."
"At least that's believable" said Ethan. "But I hate it when my old lady gets me to do that."
Sarah, still suspicious of the car, hated the ride. Especially since Ethan had changed from a cautious driver to a very impatient driver. When the Toyota Corolla in front had the temerity to stop when a traffic light went from green to amber, Ethan swore and angrily drummed his fingers on the dashboard.
"That loser had two seconds before the light turned red and he knows it!" Ethan muttered.
"I know" said Erica. "That's the problem with having to rely on cars instead of your own super-speed. All the other drivers on the road."
"That's the way you learned to drive" Sarah told Ethan. "Super-cautiously."
"Don't remind me" Ethan muttered. "It makes me want to stay the way I am now."
The hotel stood on what had since the 1940's turned into an industrial street, dominated by warehouses and small offices. The place stood several yards back from the road, with a short circular drive headed up to the boarded-up main entrance. It was flanked by an auto salvage yard (although not the same one where Ethan's car should have been) and an abandoned warehouse.
Still, there are strictly everyday problems you has to face when you break-in to a long-abandoned hotel in midwinter. It was still early in the evening, not yet sunset, so teens breaking into an abandoned hotel had to be discreet. That meant parking the very noticeable blue vintage car out back in a small, poorly plowed alley between the abandoned hotel and the abandoned warehouse.
Ethan parked with the front of the car rising half-way up a snow-bank, which was only tolerable as the car was rear-wheel drive.
"I can't believe Benny and Rory managed to get in this place" Ethan remarked.
"Rory pushed Benny here in a wheelbarrow" said Erica.
"Why?" asked Ethan.
"It was an idea you three had the last few months Rory was a vampire" Sarah explained, "Rory didn't mind, and that way you could all travel at super-speed."
"That makes sense" Ethan admitted, reluctantly. "Using evil vampire powers to fight the powers of evil is cool."
"Why did you paint your red car blue?" demanded Erica, who was annoyed by Ethan's frequent vampire-criticism.
"Red bugs me" said Ethan, shrugging. "Too much of it puts me on edge, I dunno . . . ."
"Because you're a werewolf" said Erica.
"Well, I won't be day after tomorrow."
The hotel had sat and mouldered for many years. Going into an abandoned hotel reminded Sarah of their recent adventure at the ghost hotel in Northern Ontario, though that place had been made by the late unlamented Stephanie's powers into a reflection of the way it had looked on a summer's day some sixty years before. This was an abandoned hotel that actually looked like an abandoned hotel.
Dingy brick, faded advertisements were posted on the side facing the street out front, and plywood boarded up all the windows that once peered out of the crumbling brickwork.
After a moment or two gazing at the old wreck, the teens got down to business.
"Have your flashlights, the paranormal detector, and water guns?" asked Ethan, who "loaded" his blue water-gun and stuffed it in his letterman jacket, as if he were carrying a handgun.
Sarah thought Ethan was a little theatrical about it. She simply put hers in her right-side pocket.
"All we know is that the Lucifractor is somewhere in the basement" said Erica irritably, as she continued looked with annoyance at the old structure.
Crawling around old, decrepit, buildings just wasn't her thing! It was something from the wrong kind of monster movie.
Erica considered that whenever she was with Ethan, what should be a Dusk-style romantic conflict turned into an awkward clash between good versus evil. The search for the Lucifractor, under Ethan's management, was turning into an action fight against the invisible monster Jesse summoned to guard it. Or, even worse, one of those old-school detective movies. At least Ethan wasn't a fan of those! Or he'd be here right now in a trench coat! But then again, he probably didn't fit in any of his old costumes the way he'd grown the last couple years . . . ."
While Erica was busy sulking, Ethan and Sarah were busy examining the building trying to guess where Benny and Rory had broken in.
Eventually the trio wandered furthered along the back alley. Finally, they reached a dead end as the laneway met the brick wall and boarded up loading dock of the old warehouse next door. It was very dark as the area was beyond the reach of the rays of the winter sunlight.
This was also the loading area for the hotel. Here was a steel door with the faded words marked delivery above. Next to them was a much larger, rusted red steel garage door undoubtedly meant for much larger items.
"They must have gone in here" said Sarah. "It's out of the way, out of sight, and Benny could have opened that door easily with one of his spells."
"Maybe" said Ethan, looking at the steel door doubtfully. "But you're forgetting, Benny wasn't the timid sort of guy. And Rory, he was insane . . . in a good way. If Benny felt like it, he'd take the chance and go in the front instead of crawling around the back through the snow."
"Even Benny and Rory didn't want to be seen pulling off the plywood and breaking into a building" Sarah argued. "Besides, they went in last May . . . or should have gone in. There wasn't any snow to walk through to get back here."
"Good point"
"Are we really going to stand here playing what did Benny do?" asked Erica.
"Too bad we can't use Benny's doorus openus spell" Ethan said petulantly, looking daggers at Erica.
"There wasn't a doorus openus spell" Sarah pointed outu. "Benny made it up, he had a door opener when he released Erica and Rory from the bloodsucking nurses wagon."
"Oh yeah, when Rory and Erica kissed" Ethan observed.
"Hmph!" interrupted Erica. "I only agreed so he's shut up!"
". . . . I can't believe I misremembered that!" continued Ethan.
"In your experience, Benny died two years ago" Sarah said sympathetically. "You probably must overlook at how bad at magic he used to be."
"And still is" Erica said. "How about Ethan breaking down the door of the service entrance?"
"It's steel!" said Ethan. "What do you think I am?"
"The power tailback on the football team" Sarah reminded him.
"Yeah, but that's different" Ethan argued, looking at the steel door and thinking of the pain involved in running straight into a solid metal object.
"Make a running start and put your shoulder into it" Erica said severely. "It's only the hinges you have to break. If you can't do it on two legs try four."
"Erica, he can't run on his hands and knees" Sarah pointed out.
"Your lower legs bend backwards, don't' they?" Erica stated, looking towards Ethan. "After being a werewolf two years? You can bend your legs forward and run on your hands and feet?"
"You can't be serious!" laughed Sarah, but she stopped as soon as she saw Ethan's face.
Ethan had turned silent, and became very red in embarrassment.
"I found out last summer" he said quietly. "By accident" Ethan added, not expounding how exactly he had found out he could do that.
"The curse does that to you?" asked Sarah with some surprise.
"Even that" said Ethan shamefacedly. Ethan's eyes regained their yellow, as he growled angrily "NO ONE KNOWS THAT BUT ME."
Ethan gulped down his anger. "Sorry!" he added in his normal voice.
"I heard it mentioned as one of the weirder werewolf powers, back at a Vampire Council party" Erica said casually.
"It won't help us anyway" said Ethan sulkily. "All it can do is give me speed, as the expense of all my self-respect. But I'll ram the door, and put my shoulder into it, that's give it the most force. You're right about me only having to break through the rusted hinges."
Ethan backed up to the wall of the abandoned warehouse opposite.
He started to run, but slipped in the snow and sprawled on the ground between Sarah and Erica.
"I'll try again" said Ethan, brushing the snow out of his hair.
"Werewolves shouldn't slip" observed Erica. "Why don't you try going barefoot?"
"I don't go barefoot . . . in winter . . . in public, alright?" snapped Ethan. "I'll try again."
Ethan again walked back toward the old warehouse, this time kicking a small offending mound of snow out his way.
This time Ethan made it; in a blur, he ran past the girls and crashed his shoulder into the door. The rusted hinges screeched, the steel door gave way, and so did Ethan who landed atop the fallen door with a bitter growl.
"It was only a little more painful than being tackled when I'm running at top speed" Ethan muttered, as he brought himself to his feet, waving away Sarah and Erica's offer of help.
Ethan brushed himself off. He put on his flashlight, as in fact the girls already had.
They were in what looked like an old storeroom, with water-stained and mouldy plaster walls and ceilings. The floor was a dull, grey, cracked concrete.
Here and there were the remains and shreds of brown cardboard boxes. Everything valuable in the place had obviously been removed a long time ago.
Ethan looking beyond the beams of his flashlight, suddenly walked over in the murky darkness.
"We know you don't need a flashlight, Ethan" said Erica irritably, as she and Sarah followed him. "Just drop it."
"It's a good idea to act as human as possible" Ethan retorted. "So I don't forget. Besides, I am mainly human."
"He's right" Sarah told Erica under her breath.
"Right or not, he can hear us" Erica replied. "That's why he's smirking again."
Ethan shone his flashlight on a very large metal cabinet; he opened it revealing a large array of fuses and switches. After a moment's study, Sarah reached in and pulled the big one on the end.
A few dim light-bulbs blinked into life above them.
"Way'd it go Sarah! But how did you know which switch to pull?" said Ethan. "I was still studying the panel."
"You don't have to be a geek to know the main power is probably the largest switch" said Sarah. "It even says main power."
"On to the basement" Ethan said, as the trio walked across the storeroom. "Too bad this freight elevator doesn't work."
"Are we sure it's in the basement?" asked Erica. "I don't remember Benny or Rory mentioning where it was."
"I don't remember for sure" said Sarah. "It was almost a year ago now, and I wasn't expecting to need to go and here and find the Lucifractor myself."
"I think it's a good place to start" said Ethan, amicably with a shrug.
Finding the way to the basement was easy. For everyone but Ethan. He again had to put his shoulder through the locked door leading from the storeroom to the first storey hallway of the hotel.
But after that, the hotel, stripped of everything that was worthwhile to take, proved easy to traverse. The door opened onto a hallway with half the wiring and light fixtures ripped out of walls papered in a faded green and gold pattern. Old doors hung off their hinges.
Above it all shone dim incandescent bulbs, all of them older than the three teens wandering through the old building.
Ethan, needlessly, shone his flashlight into the empty rooms as they passed.
Erica, for a former vampire, was surprisingly disgusted to come across cobwebs, mould and spider-webs.
"In Dusk there weren't any cobwebs or demons" she muttered to herself.
Sarah, seeing a glint of light, looked in one room. It was the large hotel kitchen; most of the appliances were gone but old pots, pans and cooking utensils were littered here and there on the floor.
"At least they're wooden doors now" Ethan commented. "Wait . . . there's the stairs down to the basement.
Rounding a side corner around the rusty and useless fire extinguisher, were the back stairs. A faded sign, black letters on dirty white read "Basement. Employees Only".
The trio rounded the corner only to halt.
"You!" said Ethan.
"It's me" said Tempus, who decided to blow cigarette smoke in their faces just to be annoying.
He had a bright red hat strapped to his chin, a bright red double-breasted uniform with polished brass buttons, a bright brass nameplate on his chest, and brightly polished black boots with brass coloured laces.
"Remember this uniform?" said Tempus to Sarah and Erica. "But alas poor Stephanie. She couldn't' live up to her side of the deal."
"How could we forget the geekiest undead bellhop ever?" Erica scoffed.
"I did like her idea of putting the seer and the spell-master out of commission" observed Tempus. "Even if she was self-serving and hopefully incompetent."
"Huh?" said Ethan, who had little idea what the rest were talking about. "Is this that counterfeit curse thing I read about?"
"You should switch to Pall Mall, Morgan" said Tempus. "Now, I want you three to look here! You're not a seer, but you ought to be able to look into your future!"
The three of them jumped as an ancient television set in a wooden frame, and rolling atop casters, sped down the hall. It flickered to life.
It was a black-and-white set, so it showed a blur of black-and-white scenes.
"An easy trick. Even a ghost can do it" said Tempus. "As you well remember, Morgan. It's a little harder now that you're not a seer, but nothing for me to do. Do you want to see into your future? Don't deny it!"
"I don't want to see anything that you have to show me" said Ethan.
But Ethan was plainly lying; his eyes were glued to the television set. He was looking wistfully at the future.
"Don't trust him, Ethan" said Sarah, crossing her arms and looking at Tempus.
She had her water gun in her hand, but she decided to let Ethan see whatever Tempus had to show him with a word from Erica.
"You might as well get this trick of his out the way" Erica advised. "Or else he's going to be wondering about it. You're right about his sincere eyes! He's curious."
"Morgan, high school turned college hero. You're on most of the teams. But your sport will be football. Here's you accepting an athletic scholarship at one of the top American Colleges with one of the biggest football stadiums. And look at that B.M.W? Some wealthy alumni perhaps? Now . . . interviewed and interviewed again. Oh, and look at this. Some of your future girlfriends. Her. Her. Her. Her. Her. Her. Her. And you can always go back to Trixie. Of course, you'll be spending your life as a werewolf, but that repugnant talisman you have takes away the major drawback. And you'll go into business with you buddy Hodges. Fist bumps as you open that wilderness lodge. You got the name, Morgan, Hodges has the connections and the knowhow. And it makes so much money here's your own personal future rustic wooden 32-room wilderness cabin downriver from the inn."
"Now, let's look into the past. Your old trajectory. Here's you getting beat up. Beat up again. Laughed at. Laughed at . . . . you get the point" said Tempus. "You know, I usually deal in souls, but you got this new future free of charge."
"Because I can fight evil better as a seer than as a werewolf" Ethan pointed out in a growl.
"I can make you human again . . . for your soul" Tempus pointed out.
"No deal" said Ethan.
"Or Sarah's?"
"No way" said Sarah.
"Nothing you can show me will make me change my mind" said Ethan, in a pained voice, as he tore himself away from a view of himself scoring the winning touchdown in front of a legion of fans.
"Then how about this" laughed Tempus. "You didn't take the other Ethan's word for it. But these two are the pals you're trying to bring back from the dead."
There was a puff of sulphurous smoke.
Ethan yelled in terror. Sarah and Erica screamed.
It was Benny and Rory. But what a Benny and Rory.
Benny was as he was when he was fourteen. But he had a set of massive claw-marks across his trunk tearing his shirt to shreds and going deep into the flesh. But was nothing compared the other pair of claw-marks; these crossed his face and had literally torn off his nose leaving a bloody pulp underneath. His right eye was gouged out, the eyeball hanging from the socket by a vein. And finally, his neck was torn up: his throat had been ripped out by the teeth of some gigantic animal.
"That's what he looked like" said Ethan weakly.
"That's why he looks like that now" observed Tempus, blowing smoke rings.
As for Rory, he was a pair of yellow eyes peering out of a dark muddy mass of compressed dust.
"That's what he looked like as he crumbled into dust?" asked Sarah nervously.
"Of course" said Tempus, blowing smoke rings.
"Whazzzzzzzzzzzzz up!" said Rory, in an unearthly dull voice devoid of emotion or enthusiasm.
"Yeah, buddy!" said Benny. "About time you looked us up!"
Benny laughed, which sent blood squirting out his nose, throat and eye-socket. It even sent blood through his shredded shirt. Apparently the claws had cut through to the lungs.
"I . . . didn't . . . mean . . . .to" Ethan pled, and he backed up.
Then he fell to his knees and literally begged. Guilt and fear were written all over his face.
"Please, guys, I didn't mean to do this to you!"
"He didn't!" said Sarah, stepping beside Ethan. "This was never supposed to happen . . . ."
"Wait just a minute!" demanded Erica. "I know enough about the geeks' past adventures last summer to know that only ghouls . . . seriously evil ghosts . . . look like they did the moment they died. This is just another trick of yours."
Erica aimed a blast of holy water at each of the spectres. The fake Benny and the fake Rory disappeared in a puff of flame.
"You think you're so smart" observed Tempus. "I've only just begun. And don't you even think of aiming those guns at me!"
And with that, he too was gone.
Ethan collapsed, looking at the ceiling face-upwards.
"Ethan!" said Sarah, kneeling beside him.
"I'm sorry!" said Ethan, bringing himself up. "It just took a lot of out of me. Can that demon actually fight or does he just play mind games?"
"We don't know" said Erica brusquely.
"Either way, he's dangerous" Sarah observed. "But so far, he prefers mind games and trying to cheat us of our souls."
The basement looked much the way it did when Benny and Rory were down there, in the real timeline. A stripped, bare hallway. Dull, flickering lights.
Sarah led with the paranormal detector. Erica followed, and Ethan brought up the back where his lycanthropy wouldn't interfere with the device.
It was surprisingly easy. The detector pointed to the old elevator's control button.
Ethan, without ceremony, punched in the panel with one hand and took out the cloth holding the Lucifractor.
"Is this all it is?" Ethan said, looking at the clear-whitish jewel.
"Be careful, it's powerful" said Sarah, empathically. "It also corrupts."
"We also don't know what it does to werewolves" observed Erica.
"It doesn't do anything" said Ethan, abruptly unfastening the cloth and holding the jewel in his hand.
He in fact, smirked as he seemingly weighed the jewel in his hand.
"Because whatever you are" said Sarah thoughtfully, "you're living and breathing and your soul hasn't been corrupted. You haven't been cursed to survive off dark energy. Spellmasters and seers . . . my guess is even ordinary human beings just get corrupted by the powers."
"And werewolves" sighed Erica, looking at Ethan as his eyes began to flood with yellow. "Maybe he's not the best one to hold it?"
"I can feel the power" Ethan said, continuing to smirk. "Uh . . . too much power."
In fact, Ethan's eyes started to literally glow with their werewolf yellow.
"Uh, where's that monster?" said Ethan hoarsely, clearing his throat.
As if in reply, a loud growl was heard down the hallway.
"I know what to do!" said Erica.
"Hand it to me" said Sarah. "I'm the one who can probably best handle the power."
"No problem, I can handle it" said Ethan, holding out the jewel.
The white jewel began to glow.
Ethan's eyes glowed in unison with the Lucifractor.
"BEHOLD" said Ethan, as the growling grew closer. "THE POWER OF THE LUCIFRACTOR!"
A beam of light hit the invisible monster square. This time Sarah and Erica, not being vampires, weren't knocked out.
The monster was vanquished. But the impact shook the hotel to down to the basement. The trio heard the fall of plaster, loose doors, and the creaks and shudder as the building again began to settle.
"Let me take that, Ethan" said Sarah, taking the Lucifractor and the cloth holding it.
"You're right about it being corrupting" muttered Ethan, rubbing his eyes trying to get rid of the yellow glow. "I can't believe I . . . ."
Ethan was interrupted by the cement wall next to the elevator cracking from the floor to the ceiling.
"That can't be good!" he said.
"In our timeline" Sarah said. "You killed the monster at the vampire restaurant. Not here!"
"The building's going to come down" said Ethan.
"Not on top of us!" said Erica.
It was only a few minutes out of the hotel. But it wasn't even close!
Although their way out was accompanied by a good deal of creaking of the walls and floors accompanied by the falling chunks of plaster, they were soon safely out of the hotel, in the car, out of the alley and down the street. It was only then that the old place collapsed into a pile of splintered wood, powdered bricks and dust.