Wings of Blood and Cruelty

A Hemlock Grove fanfic by Glamoured By-Eric

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.-Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 6 - Confessions

While Roman, Peter and the baby slept, Amanda Eaton had wandered about the house exploring, taking the small baby monitor with her in case the baby woke up. The kitchen smelled atrocious like the bathroom at a college fraternity house during Greek week. She wrinkled her nose, took the garbage can out the back door and, not seeing any place to take it, set it just outside. She went back inside and closed the door. Under the kitchen sink, she found a can of vanilla Glade and sprayed the room thoroughly. Then she washed her hands.

Amanda walked by the parlor and saw an unshaven Norman Godfrey in a drunken stupor stretched out on the fancy sofa, snoring loudly. She shook her head and headed for the winding staircase. She passed the second floor and tentatively went up to the third floor. Her nose led her to Shelley's old room, which still smelled strongly of bleach. There was a huge bassinet covered with a black veil and tall, ritual black pillar candles in a circle around it. In awe of the sheer size of the bassinet, she chuckled to herself that it must have been for the infant of the Jolly Green Giant.

As she looked around at the windows, the floor and the candles, she had a feeling that this would be the perfect place for her ritual as a blood sacrifice had already been made. There was still some dried blood on a few of the candles. Normally, what she needed didn't require blood, but it would only make her effort more productive as failure was not an option. The little Godfrey baby was a nice distraction from her goal, but she didn't fill the void from the loss of her own child. As if listening in on her thoughts, the baby woke and started crying over the monitor, so Amanda left and hurried back downstairs to care for her charge.

Roman gulped at Peter's words that next morning, thumbed his nose and sniffled loudly. "Well, I don't know about you, but I have to drain the lizard."

After they both took turns in Roman's en suite, Roman stood behind his bar and poured himself a whiskey. "Hair of the dog. You want one?"

"No, I'm good."

Roman downed his quickly. He walked over to his bed, opening the drawer on his night stand, and shuffled through condoms, a tin of Altoids, packets of cocaine and finally found what he was looking for: a bag of rolled joints. He retrieved one and then used his silver lighter from atop the night stand to light it up. He inhaled deeply, blew out a ring of smoke and then passed it to Peter.

Peter braced himself for what was to come by taking a long drag himself and waited.

Roman looked at Peter. "You know how I am able to influence people by staring them in the eyes and giving a command?"

Peter nodded and took another drag.

"Well, my mother could do it too only she's a hell of a lot better at it than me. On my birthday, she took me to the attic where Shelley's room used to be. She had Shelley's old bassinet covered with a black veil and candles surrounding the bassinet in a circle. Fuckin' goth shit. She let me know everything she'd ever had me do over the years with one single world, 'Remember.' Everything I had been doing for her or that she had told me over the years came to me in a flash."

"She ordered me to... fuck Letha, my own cousin, and then to use my ability to make her think an angel had visited her. Then she ordered me to forget. I didn't know... how could I? All I knew was that something was gnawing at me. Tearing me apart. I was jealous of Letha, even with you, and I... Jesus, Peter! She made me hurt Letha! I've been so messed up for months and didn't know why. Acting out shit. Going into these semi fugue states and doing things I didn't remember. Things that I normally wouldn't do."

"I swear, Peter. I didn't know I was the father. I... Jesus fucking Christ! How could I know? I freaked out when I found out Letha was pregnant. I demanded to know who the father was because I was going to kill the motherfucker for touching her. All the time, all this fucking time, it was me!" Roman said, trying desperately not to cry in front of Peter.

Peter was quiet though a pulse in his neck stood out as Roman continued. "Then she wanted me to kill Michelle as some kind of birthday initiation. That's why we were all told the baby had died. She intended her to die. By my hand! My own daughter! I couldn't do it."

"When I found out all of this, it was too much. I tried to kill myself." Roman raised his sleeves up and showed Peter the scars.

"How the hell did you heal so quickly?" asked Peter.

"I died," replied Roman as he watched Peter's eyes get big. "And then I came back as something different. I was healed, but I was more than I was before. I have fangs now when the blood craving hits me, and I've developed a taste for raw meat. One of the things that my mother didn't reveal when she made me remember was what we were. That's all I know."

Peter grudgingly said, "Upir."

Roman looked back at him and said, "What?"

"I think you are upir."

"Upir? What the fuck is that?" asked Roman.

"A type of vampire according to Russian folklore. Did you ever see 'Blade'? It is kind of like that."

"Is there a serum out there that would take away the hunger like it did for him?"

Peter scratched his beard on the left side of his face and replied, "Not that I know of."

"Do I inherit his mad skills with the sword and his martial arts abilities? Those would come in handy," said Roman, trying to lighten the mood.

Peter handed the joint back to Roman who took a drag, then Peter said, "I doubt it, but you might want to practice with your medieval weapon. The only thing I know about upirs is that they are strong and have a mind control ability like the old Jedi mind trick."

"What? 'These are not the droids you are looking for.'" Roman grinned.

Peter responded, "These are not the droids we are looking for."

"Shee-it."

"Shee-it."

Roman was solemn for a moment but then he said, "You want to clock me? I certainly deserve it."

"Nah, like you said. Your mother is a real piece of work. By the way, where is the evil bitch?"

Roman met Peter's gaze without malice and admitted, "I killed her, Peter. I bit her, drank her blood, and ripped out her tongue with my fangs. Maybe her body went to the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Research. That's where the clean up team came from anyway. I honestly don't care."

Peter's eyes went wide at the same time his eyebrows went up, and his mouth dropped open. "Well, remind me never to piss you off. I like my tongue."

Roman looked at Peter. "I was hurting after Letha died so I had my mother drive me to your trailer. The place was cleared out, and your hair was in the sink. Why did you go, Peter?"

"It is what we gypsy people do. We run. I was hurting as well and leaving felt like a good idea at the time. So, we went. The cops weren't looking too favorably in my direction either which also spurred our decision."

They were content in each others company for a bit when Peter said, "I saw Shelley. In a vision, I think. As we were driving away from here, she was standing by a tree. I blinked for a second and then it was a smaller girl, with longer dark hair. She waved at me."

"You saw Shelley? Both of them?"

"Yeah, I think Shelley is gone though, Roman. We'll only see her in visions or in our dreams. I'm sorry man. I had a dream about her when we were on the road. She comforted me and then she told me to come back here. That you needed me. So, I came. Plus, my balls told me that something was wrong back here in Hemlock Grove."

"Don't tell Uncle Norman that. He'll try to have you committed. I told him about my mother's ability and what she'd been doing all these years. He didn't believe me. Wanted me to go in for a psych evaluation."

"Did you tell him what happened to your mom?"

"Hell no. He thinks he's in love with her. He would have me committed or arrested."

"He's probably in the same shape you are in right now. He was pretty wasted when he let me in."

"I'll bet. He'd just discovered that Michelle was mine."

"I met Michelle and Amanda earlier when I was looking for you. Michelle is beautiful. Looks just like Letha. Mom and Destiny will definitely want to meet her."

"I named her Aletha Michelle Godfrey after her mother and my sister. It suits her."

"Yes, it does."

Roman's stomach growled at the same time as Peter's did, and they both laughed.

Roman suggested, "Let's see if we can find something to eat downstairs."

As they walked to the stairs, Peter asked, "What has been going on here in town lately? There were cops at Sworn's earlier yesterday and then again at the cemetery when I was driving over here last night."

"Sheriff Sworn resigned. Other than that I haven't heard anything. Too busy. Body to hide, nurse to hire, phone calls to make, Uncle Norman to deal with, a nursery to set up... my day was full."

"Do you get the local paper? Maybe we can get a handle on what's up."

"Conchita usually puts it on the kitchen table in the morning when she gets here. Maybe she'll fix breakfast for us if she's in a good mood. We only have to warm up some bacon though."

Peter rolled his eyes as he caught onto the bacon reference and shook his head.

Dr. Clementine Chausseur's brother Michael had been watching the comings and goings at the Godfrey estate for two days, waiting for his opportunity to avenge his sister's death. According to the Bishop, Roman had killed his sister, and he planned to see justice served.

Michael raised his rifle to sight it properly should Roman emerge. He had a good feeling that today was the day.

Tom Sworn woke up cuffed to a hospital bed but his head was pounding, and he could barely think straight. As he shook his head, the events of the night before came back to him and he gasped out, "Demon dog. Demon wolf. It was the wolf."

The nurse looked furtively about and then smiled. She had something to report to her reporter boyfriend.

"Just look at this," said Peter, sitting at the breakfast table and holding the newspaper toward Roman. The headline read: "Two Down in Sheriff's Department."

Roman skimmed the article. "Jesus! Sworn was going to blow up the white tower!"

"Not cool."

"No shit! That's my bread and butter. Oh, and that no neck, fat fuck of a deputy was killed last night. His arm was torn off, and he was disemboweled. Not how I'd want to go. They say it was the demon dog who attacked both of them."

"What?" Peter asked and then hit himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand. "Dammit. She wasn't beheaded!"

"Who?"

"Christina Wendall. They buried her. I told you that bad things happen to our kind if we aren't beheaded. Like getting buried and coming back after you died only to find yourself six feet under. If she were embalmed, I can't imagine how... "

"... that would fuckin' suck."

"Yeah. If she has turned, it would be like dealing with a creature who is much larger than my wolf, with superhuman strength, one who could walk on two feet, and who was irrevocably insane. How are we supposed to fight that?"

"With my trusty battle axe," Roman kidded.

"Don't joke," said Peter. "We're going to need some help on this one."

"What help? Are we going to light Wet and throw them at her so she had get her fix?"

"Wet?" asked Peter.

"Yeah, Wet. It is marijuana soaked in embalming fluid. It burns at a slower rate. They call it Wet on the QT. Works like PCP."

"Don't tell me you've tried it." When Roman opened his mouth to say something, Peter said, "Nope. I don't want to know."

Peter continued, "I should probably get going. Thanks for breakfast. We really need to check Christina's grave to see if it has been disturbed though."

Roman pushed his chair back as Peter stood up, and they headed for the front door. Roman walked out to Peter's car with him and gave him a manly hug, breaking away as quickly as he could and putting a little distance between them.

"You're coming tonight?" asked Roman.

"Yeah, I'll be there."

"See you..."

A shot rang out, and Roman dropped silently to his knees and then sideways onto the ground.

AN:

Ending credits would be Imagine Dragons - Radioactive.