The Sunlight streamed through the blinds in Mrs Marguiles's classroom. The desks were set in neat rows in the middle of the room, and every desk was labelled with the pupil's name. Every child was present and was either beaming brightly or resting their chins on their hands bored.
"Ships and Boats...used since the beginning of civilisation..."
A red headed girl raised her hand. "Err miss...aren't we supposed to be designing war posters?"
"Yes Alice we should, but I've decided we should do something a little different for today...we've made lots of posters over the past few days and now I think it's time we take a break from it all." The children looked at her shocked. "-I know we're in the middle of a war...but I think America will forgive me for just this lesson."
"As I was saying...Ships and boats, used since the beginning of civilisation...a man made object for transporting people and cargo across rivers, seas, and oceans." Mrs Marguiles paced in front of the blackboard while hitting a ruler into the palm of her hand.
"You're probably thinking...why is she telling me all of this, this is supposed to be an art lesson. Well children I believe before we make something, we have to know it's origins, and most importantly, how it works? Because I don't just want you to build a boat out of lollipop sticks...I want you to be the boat." Several sniggers erupted around the classroom, the teacher rapped the ruler against her desk for silence.
"Now if you please...turn to page 55 in your books." The sound of pages being turned filled the room as the children in unison flicked through their text books. "I would like some readers...?"
Not single pupil spoke or raised their hand.
"Okay?...How about." Mrs Marguiles cast her metre stick across the class, pondering over the many nervous faces at each desk.
"Amy...would you do the honours?"
A girl's brown skirt rustled slightly as she stood up from her desk with her book held close to her face. "For thousands of years, people have wanted to move on the water. They have used boats and ships to fish, to travel, to explore, to trade or to fight. Throughout the time that people have been building boats and ships, they have made changes to them, to make travelling on the water easier, faster and safer."
Meanwhile a chubby blonde boy slowly opened his desk to pull out a folded piece of card, after checking the teacher wasn't looking, he passed it to another boy on his left. "It's the latest."
The boy half opened it. A smile slid onto his face, he closed it. "Piiisst...Jacob." He whispered, Jacob's ears twitched, and he brought his hand behind his back and opened it, his friend slipped the card into his hand.
He brought it in front of his eyes. "Wow she's pretty...what's her name?" Jacob asked, keeping his voice low.
"Betty Grable."
Jacob glanced at the teacher. She was sitting at her desk with the book in front of her, following what Amy was reading.
"...No-one knows exactly when the first boat was invented. Long ago, people probably discovered that they could keep themselves afloat by clinging onto fallen logs or bundles of reed. Gradually, they learnt how to hollow out logs to make rafts. Dug-outs and rafts meant that people could cross water without getting wet. They could also carry things and animals."
Jacob leaned over to pass the pin-up picture to a small boy on the other desk, who was doodling on the inside cover of his text book. "Jack...take a look at this."
Jack took the picture in his hand, looked at it and gave it back to him uninterested. "I'm seven Jake, we still have another 6 years until we should start taking an interest in girls."
"Oh come off it...we have to be prepared for high school."
"We have plenty of time before -"
"JACK BE QUIET!" Mrs Marguiles ordered after spotting him.
Jack's little aristocratic face held an icy coldness as he pursed his lips and focused on his book. The voices in his head had started up again, they weren't just anybody's voices, they were his own. The dark side of his mind - not entirely a different person, but another half of him which tells him to do stuff. He wasn't a skitso, or somebody that liked to create imaginary friends...Jack was just someone that had rash thoughts. But when they began to corrupt him, they weren't just rash thoughts, they were sick fantasies which he believed he had to accomplish.
A misty haze had clouded his mind as he stared uncomprehendingly at the book. Amy's voice had began to drift further away, as he was sucked into his own little world. 'Time to kill Jack, kill everybody... no the teachers.' Jack smiled inwardly. Then a bright light took up his entire vision, the light faded, and he saw himself wondering into a science lab. He reached up for a bottle of disinfectant sitting on the top shelf. Then his little hand pawed through a tray of test tubes, he selected one and slipped it into a holder, Jack placed a funnel at the top of the test tube. With both of his small his hands he held the bottle and clumsily poured some disinfectant into the funnel which then filtered into the test tube below. He put a cork in the test tube and slipped it into his dungaree pocket. Another blinding light flashed before him, he jumped and found he was sitting at his desk, Jack could still feel the weight of the disinfectant filled test tube in his pocket.
Later...recess came, the teacher filed out the children in lines to the play ground. Jack went inside, pretending he was going to the bathroom, but instead he snuck into the teachers lounge, he stood on the tips of his toes as he poured the test tube content into the staff teapot.
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Jack slowly opened his eyes, he was staring at a rusty ceiling. He sat up feeling terribly weak, he had just recently fed and it felt like he hadn't, he pushed the corpse off his bed and stood up. Jack caught sight of his reflection, his eyes were slowly returning to their unearthly blue. He took a glance at the dead woman lying naked on the floor, her skin was deathly pale and her eyes remained wide open, but her expression was blank. Even though she had spent the last few moments of her life screaming her head off in terror. A few lumps were protruding under her skin around her neck, from her fractured vertebrae. During her struggle, he had attempted to silence her, but in the process he had sharply twisted her neck back at a dodgy angle. The woman had panicked because she had felt like something was being drained from her after her orgasm, and she didn't fail to notice Jack's eyes which had slowly turned crimson.
Jack sat down on the bed. 'The other bag packers are going to wonder where their friend is...could just say she's using the bathroom, no...or else they'll come in and use it...Catrina could be found or heard.' He leaned forward with his head in his hand, he could feel himself getting weaker again. He hated being an Incubus, it wasn't to what it was all cracked up to be. Jack was still worried about how he was going to cope with Catrina. He knew he wasn't going to be able to have any fun with her, if he touched her something could start. 'How am I supposed to keep her in check with out touching her?'
He needed to eliminate the bag packers, and take their souls. They had to be on the boat because it's the only way to keep them in one place, a place separated from the rest of the world. The massacre in the bar had been pointless, he had claimed every single persons soul in that Alaskan bar, but they would remain there, so it would be harder to for him to control them, or transport them to hell. Jack glanced at his watch 5:00 pm. He scratched his scalp and yawned tiredly.
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Maureen had been walking down the same bit of tunnel for 10 minutes, every bit of natural light had gone, and her torch shone brightly on the ground below. She brushed her hand over the walls either side of her as she walked, the rock was rough and crumbly. 'What if there's gas down here?' She hadn't taken any precautions with her.
Suddenly the earth above her head began to shake violently, she shone her light upwards worried about a cave in, she had taken her eyes off the path ahead of her and then - drop. Maureen yelped as she tumbled down a steep slope, she landed with a thud at the bottom. When she raised her head, her eyes came to a fire burning magnificently in a grate a few yards away from her, she groaned as she lifted herself off the floor.
"Mrs Dodge." Maureen jumped in surprise when a dark figure stepped out of the corner and into the fire light.
"Do I know you?" Maureen edged away little, still taking in her surroundings.
"I wouldn't say you know me, but I know you...and over half the population of the Night World know about you." The person lowered their hood, thick black waves of hair tumbled out over a pair of pointed ears, their dazzling purple eyes focused on Maureen's shocked stare. "Permit me to introduce myself, I am Pavlov, Priestess of the Night World."
Maureen stood still, gaping at her.
"It's not as impressive as it sounds, for really I am but a mere mistress of the Priest...which is kind of -"
" -Were you expecting me?" Maureen butted in impatiently.
"Ah-well, when we heard you and your husband call, we opened up our little porthole...well I did, all I needed to do was wait, and here you are!"
"So are you going to help me?"
"Sorry... no can do honey, helping is not the type of thing I do."
"Well then what is the type of thing you do, who's side are you actually on?"
"I don't take sides Mrs Dodge." Pavlov placed her arms behind her back, and walked about slightly. "I'm somebody that stands on the boarder and observes the goings on of both worlds. So far I'm a bit confused with your daughters...situation."
Maureen stiffed. "Situation."
Pavlov tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Yes, it seems to me she is a cross between being in great danger and being perfectly safe at the moment." Maureen's mouth had gone dry, she bit her lip in anticipation.
"C-can you explain to me why?"
"Certainly my dear." Pavlov waved her hand. Maureen heard a swishing sound, followed by bash in the back of the knee, she yelped as she fell back into a chair. The priestess had made her way to the fire place, her arm rested casually on the mantel. "Ever since management noticed Jack was getting obsessed with Catrina - Oh...you do know who I mean by Management don't you?"
Maureen nodded in response.
"Well management thought if they gave Jack promotion early he would take more of an interest in his new powers and finish off Catrina like that." The priestess snapped her fingers as she said the last two words. Maureen dug her fingers angrily into the arm chair. "But he didn't, instead he accepted his new powers with remorse and is at the moment concerned about Catrina's safety."
Epps furrowed her eyebrows and stood up. "Concerned...that's good isn't it? He won't hurt Catrina."
The priestess held a disapproving look on her face. "Yes- I thought you would like that, but management don't. Jack is still working on his new job, but not enough."
"-Because of Catrina?
"Yes, know listen." Pavlov flicked her hand out and an invisible hand knocked Maureen back into her seat. "Catrina could be disposed of by management, if that happens, you won't be happy and Jack won't be happy. He would be so angry he might do something such as; give up his job or worse, turn against the big bad."
"Woaw...Catrina is at the centre of a little war in the night world, wouldn't the big bad just take away his new powers...if they know that's bothering him."
Pavlov walked towards a table which appeared next to Maureen's chair. "They would - but they can't just get rid of them just like that...it's time consuming process. Also they believe if they give it time, Jack will eventually let his feelings dominate his conscience, and kill Catrina with his new powers." She waved her hand over the table and two glasses containing a see-through orangey liquid appeared on it's surface.
"What sort of powers do you speak of?" Maureen questioned taking a glass which Pavlov was now offering her.
"Well fire ball manifestations, and a thing I like to call 'night night glances'" Maureen shifted uncomfortably, Pavlov took a sip of her whisky before continuing. "It's all within a standard incubus package."
Maureen stiffed -time had stopped around her and she felt totally cold. She swallowed back tears of fear and sadness. Her eyes looked up to see Pavlov looking down at her questioningly.
"By the look on your face I assume you know what an incubus is."
Maureen nodded and chucked her whisky down her throat, she placed the glass on the arm and fondled with the rim as she spoke. "My baby...my angel, imprisoned on a ship with a..." Maureen felt lose for words.
"-Sex maniac?"
"No."
"-Pervert?"
"No -well yes, but."
"-Nice pervent?"
"Can you stop finishing off my sentences!...What I was going to say from the start was a sexually frustrated Jack."
"-Hm better." Pavlov nodded while pursing her lips. "You know what I think?" She placed her butt on the arm of the chair.
Maureen slid over to one side not giving her a glance. "What?"
"I think this is the perfect time to rescue her." Pavlov ran a hand through her black hair, and then flipped it over shoulder. "It seems to me he doesn't want to hurt her."
"But he could - just one mistake could harm her, and if he denies what he wants and gets sidetracked...Catrina will be killed by management, and if I go and rescue her...I'll be killed by Jack." Maureen leaned forward and put her head in her hands.
"Ouch, when you put it like that, the rescue does seem a little scandalous."
"-Scandalous...but doable."
Pavlov gave a little nod and went over to the fire place to warm her hands. Maureen watched her with ease, with a thoughtful gaze pressed on her features. "Are you going to help me?"
Pavlov smiled inwardly and turned towards her company. "I don't do help remember...I just pass on information...or give advice."
"-The last time I looked, to pass on information and giving advice was helping." Epps heaved herself out the chair. "Is there anything else you can tell me which will help me on my future journey."
The black haired woman pouted her lips attentively, while swishing the remaining droplets of her whisky in the glass. "Nothing springs to mind."
Maureen stared at her strangely as she slowly backed away and turned to go back the way she came.
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Catrina shook at random as she lay curled up in a ball on her bed, she had the eerie feeling something bad was going to happen. She rolled over onto her back, and tilted her head back so she was looking upside down at the porthole - Life was passing her by and she had no way of stopping it or changing it. Catrina hastily pushed herself up, her hair cascaded around her shoulders as she narrowed her eyes on the door. 'Probably locked.' Her feet went over the side of the bed and onto the floor, she walked towards the door and tugged on the handle, it remained stuck. She pouted her lips and rolled her hips round as she turned and headed to the porthole. A sigh escaped her lips, as she contemplated her hatred for Jack once again...then right on schedule a sudden pang in her stomach would follow. Normally she would get these when she was either thinking of what her and Robert might get up to in the back of a car in lovers lane, or the result of a bad breakfast burrito. 'Quit it with the sappy thinking, and get down to business.' Catrina balled her hands up into fists, either she was going to knock the door down or barricade it.
Catrina grabbed the armchair and pulled it away from the door and then with all her might, rammed it into the door. The outer wood splintered inward, she pulled the chair back and pushed it forward again to get the desired effect, after a great crack...a hole had ripped through the door, big enough for her to climb through. She carefully stepped through and trotted down the corridor.
Catrina hadn't yet decided where she wanted to go, but she knew where she shouldn't go...firstly not down the stairway and secondly not into the room she believed to be Jack's. Her womanly intuition - common knowledge told her never walk into a room which belongs to a man who could have indecently assaulted you. 'Well duh.'
'Well I can fight him off if I have to.' Catrina found herself laughing at her own statement, and put down her tightly clenched fists which she had unintentionally held in front of her. What was she kidding trying to fight off Jack, she was a half developed woman, and he was a fully grown man...with a nice neck. She stalled as her thought caught up with her, after mentally kicking herself she continued down the length of the corridor. Suddenly without warning a door opened behind her further down the hall, she frightfully jumped around, her hand had came up over her mouth. A dim light was shining through the open doorway, and no one was between the frame. Catrina nervously backed away, hoping against hope she would have managed to turn the corner before Jack or anybody could come into view. She was too busy concentrating on the door to notice Jack standing behind her, holding an open bed blanket as if waiting to abduct her.
A secret smile played on his lips. 'This is going to be a lot of fun.' He waited patiently as she slowly backed up, her arm briefly touched the sheet and just before she could jump away, the blanket enshrouded her - she was wrapped up like a sausage roll. Catrina's cry was muffed slightly as he scooped her up and carried her back to her room. She was terrified of the tight space, and the lack of air, so Catrina fidgeted helplessly in his arms. What made it worst was she could feel herself getting turned on by the warmth radiating off his body on the other side of the sheet. Her ears picked up his shallow breathing, 'Surely he wasn't having trouble carrying her.' She felt her bum touch the floor, and the tightness around her waist disappear, Catrina raked her dishevelled self out of the heap of cotton.
"Jack can't you get me from one place to another with manha-." She noticed he was just standing in the doorway over her with his eyes closed.
Catrina pushed the hair out of her face while adding "What are you doing?"
Jack took a sharp intake of breathe, he squinted one eye to look at her. "Stay in this room."
"You can't tell me what to do."
Jack huffed out an amused laugh showing his pearly whites. "Honey I've been telling people what to do most of my life, if you think I'm going to listen to you... then you're pretty much stupid."
Catrina got up. "Well you're a stupid little prick, who should get a life instead of wasting it on idiotic bargains."
"-Spoilt brat."
"Murderer!" Catrina added, kicking the blanket towards his feet.
His eyes were still closed as he angrily stepped over the blankets towards her, she sucked in her lips timidly as her worried eyes looked up at him. Jack tipped his neck to the side. "Don't call me a murderer...think of me as the bogeyman." He said huskily. Catrina's lips parted subtlety, she stared at his closed eyelids.
"Why Catrina...I can smell your fear, and I can smell your -"Jack dug his fingers into his palms, he could hear his heart beating...which wasn't a good sign. Catrina saw that he was backing out into the corridor, his handsome features strained. She watched as he rolled his head while closing the door at a snail's pace. She heard the click of the locks, then a large metal panel slid in front of the gap at the bottom of the door from the outside. Catrina eerily waited for Jack footsteps to disappear before barricading the door.
As Jack entered his room, he opened his eyes, they were pink. "I was being so fucking careful!" He then slumped onto his bed breathlessly. 'First I'll nap then I'll feed.'
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Catrina held her right hand, it was shaking violently. She pressed it to her lips to calm it. The energy in the room had gone warm, and somehow sensual. She crossed her arms in front of her and gripped the hem of her shirt as she pulled it off. A light draft blew on her bare skin, and she looked towards the door wearily. Her green orbs came across a small pale figure leaning against the door.
"Katie?"
"I see you haven't made much of an attempt to get off this ship." Katie floated forwards with her arms tucked neatly behind her back. The sunlight passed through her transparent form, her face which was similar to Catrina's, held a dull happiness.
"I've made many attempts- non have been successful, it's hard when you've got nothing to get on when I've got off the ship."
"Oh you mean like a dingy, or a life boat?"
"Well yes." Catrina observed her younger twin while crossing her fingers in front of her. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find one, would you?"
Katie pursed her lips. "I've kept an old dingy under the floorboards in my wardrobe."
Catrina rolled her eyes irritably. "You could of told me that before."
"Sorry... Are you going now, 'cause if you are thinking about it...now's the best time -Jack's having his afternoon rest before he goes off feeding."
"Err- goes off feeding?"
"Yes, you know when I said Jack was a soul collector?"
Catrina looked up at the ceiling unconvincingly. "Vaguely."
Katie narrowed her eyes, and placed her hands on her hips. "You still don't believe me do you?"
"What is there to believe...some cock and bull about black magic and devil worshipping?" Catrina sat down on her bed. Katie copied her actions.
"You have to believe it because it's true...he is trapping us all here to fill his quota." Catrina looked off to the side and rolled her eyes as Katie spoke. "Worst of all he collects souls differently now, he can only drain souls using sex."
Catrina snapped her head around. "You're a bit young for talking about those type of things?"
"What sex?...Naaa, I've seen some pretty nasty stuff over the years."
Catrina's eyes looked down at her sympathetically "I bet you have." She stiffly patted the air of where Katie's hand was. "So Jack." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Can he produce sexual energy, you know like...the lusting after type."
"He certainly can." Katie replied watching hopefully as Catrina stood up with the look of bewilderment on her face. "Ah- I think you starting to believe me."
"Err...I don't think so."
Katie disappeared and startled Catrina by reappearing in front of her. "He does have magical powers Catrina, given to him by the devil, well, when I say devil I mean bad people." Catrina circled around Katie as she bit her nails in thought. "Has there been anything in your life you have been unable to explain?"
Catrina froze, and looked back concerningly at the little girl. "My dad, one time...went flying through a door?" Katie nodded intriguingly. "Also I believe Jack was disguised as my mum, before I was abducted." The little girl approach her and placed her icy hand on Catrina's arm.
"I think it's time for you to start believing." Katie said in a low whisper, a glint appeared in her eye. "I might have to show you."
Catrina felt slightly aggravated as she felt a terrible chill pass through her shoulder as Katie's hand came up, for few seconds Catrina felt she was being guided into a refrigerator, her stomach did a flip and jolted slightly as she felt the returning presence of the room. She looked at Katie questioningly, who was returning the same look. "Katie...what just happened?"
The little girl looked into her sheet pale hands perplexly. "Nothing...but something was supposed to happen."
"Like what?"
Katie looked up to reply. "It was supposed to transport you to a past memory." Katie raised her hand wondrously towards Catrina's shoulder. "It won't allow you to go through."
Catrina smiled weakly while looking downward, she then stood up to put on a new shirt. Katie watched her slightly baffled. She could read the fear and innocence in her eyes, but the rest of her face held a determined expression. 'Keep fighting Catrina...keep fighting.' The little girl's form disappeared through a wall.
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Dodge bashed his feet up against the side of the hole in his basement while whistling a merry tune. His eyes wondered to the ceiling which had small grains of dirt falling from it, caused through the recent earthquake. He brought his head back to the tunnel his wife had disappeared down, a beam from a torch was flickering across his boots and a sense of relief came to his well being.
"Maureen is that you?"
A set of dirt incrusted finger nails came around the side of tunnel entrance, he smiled slightly to see the top of a woman's head merge from the darkness. Maureen looked up earnestly at her husband. "We're in deep shit."
"Why what happened?" He brought his hand down for her to reach, she gratefully took it and pulled herself out of the hole. When Dodge looked full on at Maureen's face he noticed her eyes were red and puffy, he returned a grave look. "She's not dead is she."
"No Dodge she's not." She ran a hand across her damp eyes, she sucked in a breath. "Dodge, I want you to go upstairs and pack some clothes for me and you, then I want you to load it in the car." She brushed pass Mike towards a table.
"Honey what's going on...are we going to get her now?"
"We sure are?" Maureen grabbed her tool box, and shoved it into a duffel bag nearby.
Her husband rushed towards her and placed a hand over the tool box to prevent her from loading it up any further. "Shouldn't we make a plan first?"
"Nope."
"I'm not going without a plan...that's suic-"
"Dodge listen to me...we have to get to that boat now."
"This seems awfully familiar?" Dodge added, his wife turned around releasing what he meant. 'I want you and dodge to stay here and control the rudder.' '-But you just sai'
'Dodge listen to me.'
"Dodge we don't have to think back to the past, only forward."
"Maureen we've been trying to do that our whole lives, and look where it's got us, we take our eyes off of Catrina for a few years and then look what happens."
"I know, I know, but going down memory lane is not going to get our daughter off the ship, is it." Maureen forcefully knocked Dodge's hand off the toolbox and zipped up the duffel bag, she then pushed by him and hurried up stairs. Dodge was in hot pursuit behind her.
"Oh yes trying to put out of your head who's fault it is in the first place!" He exclaimed grabbing her wrist. Maureen whirled around, she looked close to tears.
"How dare you say that, how dare you bring that up!"
"-Well it's true, the reason Catrina's on that ship is because of you!"
"We wouldn't of had a daughter in the first place if I hadn't saved you, Greer wouldn't have been married, Munder wouldn't have found his true career, and Murphy wouldn't have said what he had said." Maureen yelled glaring into Mike's face. "I was stupid okay, but at the time my intensions were good...I was hoping Jack would have forgot the bargain."
Her husbands face softened a little. "Well he hadn't Maureen, he hadn't." His wife's lip was still quivering from her speech she had made as she slowly sunk down, water leaked from her eyes.
"It's all my fault Dodge, it's all my fault." Her husband sunk down to the floor with her, his eyes full of compassion.
"It's okay, it's okay, I'm sorry I brought it up." He stroked her hair as he guided her head towards his shoulder. "Please tell me what you saw down there."
"It wasn't what I saw, it's what I found out." She mumbled into his shoulder, snuffling slightly.
"And what was that?"
Maureen brought her head up. "Never you mind...let's just get going, I'll explain on the way." She pulled herself up and headed for the door, her husband lurched in front of her.
"Honey, honey, honey, we're not leaving until you tell me."
Epps released a sigh. "Fine...Jack's an incubus, happy!"