Urban Fantasy 2x02 "Christmas in February"

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Of course, if you don't have any money to spend, and trust me I know how that feels, I'm gonna keep releasing chapters, every Friday. And even though this is Book 2 of my suburban vampire saga, doesn't mean you can't start here. The prologue and chapter 1 are below, but they're mainly just set up. You could really just start here, I try to keep chapters somewhat self contained, and fill in all the necessary character bits. I dunno how well I did, but my point is you can probably start here, and tackle this stuff in any order you want, it'll be enjoyable. This is the first chapter where things actually happen, including two main characters meeting for the first time, and a classic Marvel Team-up fashion of beating the shit out of each other before working together (and a bit during). This was also a Christmas themed chapter having come out last year almost exactly.

Hope you guys are liking what you're reading and you keep coming back. I also hope someone might work up the courage to post a comment. I promise I don't bite. Be as positive or as negative as you want, I take all comments and criticisms. Now, without further ado...

*     *     *

Previously on a Suburban Fantasy and Urban Fantasy (Book 1 and 2)

Rachel Lin Smith was just a quiet shy teenage girl, until a serial killing vampire turned her into a monster like him against her will. Getting away, she was able to cope with the changes in her life thanks to the help of her geeky friends Ian, Andrew, Bilal, and Jason. They shared adventures pitted against time traveling mayors and Toronto gangs before finally stopping Rachel's Ex from ever hurting anyone ever again.

A new kid, Jon, has moved into town with his seeming bodyguard Erika. The time travelling mayor Dixon finally came clean to Rachel's mom about magic and the realities of the world she lives in. He did manage to leave out the part that her daughter is a vampire, though. Ian is in love with that vampire, and was desperate to give her a present worthy of the way he felt for her. He meets a modern day practicing blacksmith and she agrees to make Rachel a new sword to replace the one she lost fighting her sire.

Oh, also Rachel and Tanya had sex.

CHAPTER TWO
“Christmas in February”
Released on www.patreon.com/99geek December 23 2016 

“And he said no?” Jason asked, scratching his buzzed head in confusion. His dog tags clinked against his camo shirt from where he sat on the other side of the computer lab. Andrew was pretty sure Jason had gotten a haircut since last they’d met, but it was hard to tell. It looked the same as it always did, buzzed short as if he was in the military.

“She was so hot too,” Andrew told his friend, wondering if he had been clear on that point. He had been recounting to his friends how close he’d gotten to having a threesome with that Wiccan Michelle. “I wish I knew why he wasn’t interested.”

“Uh, maybe it was two too many,” Jason joked.

“Maybe he just didn’t want to see your junk,” Bilal suggested from beside Andrew. “I would never be in a threesome with another man. I don’t wanna look across and see your dick in my face. Awwww. I have to go to school with you the next day.” Bilal made a face.

His expression lingered and Andrew frowned. “Stop imagining my junk.”

“Bilal,” Jason said, turning his chair to face his brown-skinned basketball-shorts-wearing friend. “If a woman offers to open herself up to you, you thank her graciously and accept. You don’t get all picky. You don’t ask questions. You just drop your pants and get all up in there. It’s your duty as a man.”

“That’s disgusting,” Bilal said, pointing to Jason. He then pointed to Andrew too. “I find you both disgusting. You want to know what else I find disgusting?”

“Women?” Andrew asked as a joke. He knew it would get Bilal riled up.

“I love women,” Bilal insisted as his voice rose. “I certainly respect them a hell of a lot more than you two do.”

“I respect women just fine,” Andrew insisted to his friend, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of Bilal’s statement.

“You would have corrupted and desecrated an innocent girl last night if you’d had your way,” Bilal said succinctly.

“Desecrated?” Jason repeated.

“She wanted it!” Andrew exclaimed, getting angry now. “This is all coming from someone whose culture forces their women to cover up their entire bodies and be obedient to their husbands.”

“My family doesn’t follow those aspects of our culture,” Bilal told Andrew and Jason. “What’s your excuse?”

“Did I just walk in on Racist Debate Club?” Gordon asked from the door. Andrew hadn’t even noticed him come in. “Cause I swear to god I will walk the hell back out.” Gordon was a large scary black man, the kind that were often spotted on US streets in hoodies and getting shot at by cops. He was taller than Andrew, and had enough muscle to pick Andrew up and lift him straight over the man’s broad shoulders. He was like Luke Cage who, if Andrew remembered the show right, also dressed in hoodies and got shot at by cops. Racial tensions seemed high, and not just in the US.

But Andrew wasn’t about to let growing ignorance and prejudice get the best of him. Instead of cowering from Gordon, Andrew fist bumped him in greeting. Gordon certainly had an attitude, and Andrew had seen him threaten people who deserved it, but he’d never seen Gordon actually get violent with anyone. He was a thinker more than a fighter, and pulled out his laptop and external hard drive to set up beside them. He could do more with that laptop in an hour than Andrew could do in a day with the entire computer lab at his disposal.

“You’re the smartest guy I know,” Bilal told Gordon. “So who do you think is more respectful to women?”

“I really could not care less,” Gordon told his friends. “Had a wack night. Ma finally saw my basement. And she freaked.” He looked like he was about to cry. “Spent an hour ripping computers and screens from the wall. It was a rampage; the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Said I ain’t allowed to use computers anymore, n’ I’ll have to write out my homework by hand.”

“Tell me she at least didn’t find captain cold?” Bilal asked, and Andrew remembered how they’d helped Gordon rig the computer to his fridge.

“Not just captain cold, but PC Principal too.” Gordon said, the name he had for his powerhouse main machine. It was named after a character from South Park. “All I managed to save was this laptop and a backup archive of my server. She just kept telling me I was wasting all my money, and hoarding everything for myself.”

“Well at least you didn’t lose any data,” Andrew said, a fate he imagined to be worse than death. If Gordon’s set up was anything like his, that black box that was his external hard drive was the most important part of his set up. Everything else could be rebuilt.

“If our parents knew we were saving lives,” Jason mused, “Maybe they wouldn’t always be so shitty to us.” Jason’s parents were notoriously awful to him.

“Ma wouldn’t believe me if I told her I helped stop the bee swarm last year,” Gordon told the group.

“Neither would I,” Bilal admitted to Gordon. “Pretty sure Tanya and Rachel did all the work.”

“That must have been hard for you,” Andrew told Bilal, “Giving credit to a couple girls.” Bilal shot him a dark glance and Andrew laughed.

“Speaking of giving Tanya credit for her work,” Bilal said, and Andrew knew he wasn’t going to like what was coming, “there’s a vote after school for the new Editor in Chief of the school newspaper. I was going to nominate myself and I’ll need votes to back me up.”

“Against Tanya,” Andrew said out loud because Bilal didn’t.

“Well yeah. That was the general idea.”

Gordon also seemed to have stopped what he was doing. No wait, Andrew noted that Eve Online was loading on his laptop. “She’s the most popular girl in school,” Gordon reminded Bilal, ignoring his screen.

“Popularity is subjective,” Bilal told his friends. “You could argue that I’m the most popular guy in school,” he continued over everyone’s laughs. “No, hear me out.” Bilal raised a finger. “The grade twelves think I’m funny. The grade 9s look up to me and my crazy antics. It’s really just this grade, which is split fifty/ fifty, and the grade elevens all drama nerds who will side with her.”

“Have you even told Tanya yet?” Jason asked. “Does she know you’re trying to usurp her?”

Bilal shook his head. “I was hoping it would all be over before she even noticed.”

Jason guffawed deeply, and Andrew chuckled a little too, but he couldn’t help but shake his head.

“Oh my god Bilal,” Jason said deeply. “That’s so bad.”

“Whatever,” Bilal said angrily. “She deserves it. She hasn’t been to a meeting in weeks. Hasn’t contributed an article since last semester. She’s gonna get exactly what she deserves. You wanna help or not?”

“I’m sorry,” Andrew told his friend. “Bilal, she’s too hot. I can’t help you take her down.”

“I’ll help,” Gordon said, laughing into his keyboard. “I’ll be there if you just promise me you’ll run for school president next. I’d love to see her face then.”

“That’s next,” Bilal told Gordon. “Jason?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” he told his friend.

Gordon leaned back in his seat as his spaceship launched from dock on his computer screen. “Your first story as Eee Eye See should be on the new kid in our grade.”

Andrew was also leaning back, as he usually did, but immediately fell forward upon what Gordon said. “A new kid?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Andrew said excitedly.

“I just said something,” Gordon pointed out flatly.

“I mean like sooner!” Andrew wasn’t ready for this. Usually he had a welcome gift picked and everything.

“Dude,” Gordon said in his defence, “the announcements haven’t even started yet.”

The large black man just didn’t get it. “There’s a very small window when a kid comes into a new school where they have no allegiances,” Andrew explained, “They belong to no clique. And the person they become from there on out is very much dependant on who can get to them first.”

“Then you’d better run,” Gordon told Andrew in such a way Andrew could tell he didn’t care at all. “Guy seemed exactly the sort of dweeb you’d like.” On his laptop screen, his little spaceship was circling an asteroid shooting it with a little mining laser. As Andrew watched, it just repeated the same thing over and over again while Gordon poised ready at his keyboard.

“Is that all that game is?” Andrew asked his friend.

“Sometimes another player flies past,” Gordon said. “We lock on to each other and if he shoots, I drop my cargo and run.”

“That sounds like fun.”

They were interrupted by a chime over the PA, but it wasn’t the morning announcements. Instead it was the voice of a secretary calling Tanya to the office, and everyone in the room ignored it.

“So what if you don’t like the new kid, but you’ve already put all the work into wooing him?” Bilal asked Andrew, and Andrew was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

“I’ll drop him like a sack of bricks,” Andrew confirmed for him. “Wish me luck. I’m gonna Paul Revere this shit.”

He sprinted out the computer lab, and waved at a random student in the hallway. “There’s a new kid in school!” He proclaimed happily though the random student didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

*

The PA system rang again. “Could Tanya Daytton please come to the office. Tanya Daytton to the office, thank you.” The voice was hollow as it bounced off the lockers down the hallway.

“I know,” Alice mumbled to herself, frustration growing. She knew that when she got really frustrated her eyes got really big and glistened. She was trying to keep her breathing under control. If she focused on her breathing it helped. “We all want to know where she is.”

“You okay?” A passing grade niner asked her. She was often teased for crying a lot, but really she could swear she had extra sensitive eye ducts or something. She certainly didn’t mean to look like she was crying ALL the time.

“I’m fine,” she told him sternly, and the look she gave him was enough for him to run fast along on his way. She WAS fine.

It was just that Tanya did this to her ALL THE TIME. They had been friends for years. Tanya was in fact the closest friend Alice had in the whole world. But then someone new comes around, and they get closer and Tanya starts ignoring everything else in her life. That’s what she did. She’d get obsessive about things, want to control everything. And there was always a price.

Oh no, Vice Principal Hurley had spotted her, and she still had cry face. Quickly wiping her face with her sleeve, she steeled up as Mrs. Hurley came to a stop in front of her.

“Have you seen Tanya?” Mrs. Hurley asked and Alice frowned.

“No,” Alice said quickly, “And if I had seen her, I’d have told her you wanted her in the office. The announcement has only played repeatedly in EVERY room of the school. If she were here, I think she’d have heard you.”

“Not every room,” Hurley told her, lowering her voice as she got closer to Alice. Alice really wished she wouldn’t. “The men’s bathroom downstairs and the science supply closet on the second floor.”

Alice did not have the patience, or the strength, to deal with Mrs. Hurley this morning. “I don’t think she’s going to be in the men’s downstairs bathroom.” Alice took a deep calming breath to keep her from doing or saying something that would get her in trouble. “Mrs. Hurley when I find her I’ll send her your way, I promise.”

Hurley seemed to study Alice’s face closely, and even though the woman hadn’t said anything Alice knew Mrs. Hurley was thinking about what a crybaby she was. “Alright,” Hurley said at last, and turned to return to her office. “I just thought it would be nice to go over the announcements, just once, with her before air time.”

Alice ducked into an empty classroom and quickly wiped her face again, taking a deep breath and steadying herself. She was worried about the price Tanya would have to pay this time. Rachel was a great person, though her friends were hardly tolerable. And Alice didn’t even care she was a vampire, a secret Tanya had shared with her only after Rachel’s sire had mind controlled Alice into not being able to speak.

But it seemed like Tanya had gotten so absorbed in Rachel and her dweeby problems, that Tanya had been shirking her own responsibilities. Alice understood that there was something special about Rachel, but why couldn’t Alice be a part of it too? For that matter, why hadn’t she ever even been invited over to Tanya’s house? More often than not, being friends with Tanya felt a lot more like being her groupie.

Stepping back out into the hall, she saw someone and cursed herself. She considered hiding back in the classroom she’d just come from but he’d already spotted her. One of Rachel’s dweebs, Andrew, was running down the hall, yelling something to people as he passed. He stopped when he came to her.

“There’s a new kid in school,” he told her excitedly. He seemed to almost be jumping out of his blue jeans. They were baggy enough that Alice wondered how they even stayed up. She almost wanted to reach out and pants him, but she held herself back. “Gordon said I’d like him.” Great, that meant another dweeb.

“Great, you can go be gay with him, I really don’t care,” Alice told him. “Where are you coming from?”

Andrew frowned as she threatened to bring down his mood. He probably just thought of her as a loser downer, but what did she care what he thought. He was a bigger loser than her. “I was just in the computer lab.” That wasn’t a surprise.

“Was Tanya there?” she asked, hoping maybe Tanya was hanging with Rachel or something. “I need to find her.”

“I haven’t seen her,” Andrew told Alice, and he didn’t seem to have any reason to lie.

“Well help me find her,” Alice growled out the words, grabbing Andrew by his shirt.

“Have you asked Rachel?” Andrew uttered as Alice shook him. At this point it was like she was seeing red.

“I have tried to cover for her,” Alice said, her heart sinking at Andrew’s answer. “And how does she repay me? It’s like she’s just constantly on the prowl for a new best friend.”

“Are we talking about Rachel or Tanya?” Andrew asked, and Alice realized he didn’t need to hear any of what she was saying. “Is this even my problem?”

“Where are you headed?” she said, releasing him.

“The office,” Andrew told her, which was about in the direction she had planned to go anyway. “I was gonna spread word of the new kid if you wanna join me.”

“Lead the way,” she told him, as he started down the hallway past the cafeteria. It was the opposite direction than Hurley had come, but they would all meet up in the end.

“You know,” Andrew told Alice as they went, nice enough not to be a complete dweeb and continue shouting out at the top of his lungs to people as they passed. “Maybe Tanya wants more from Rachel than just friends.”

The way he said that made Alice’s stomach turn. “In your dreams,” she told him with a push. What a creep, he probably imagined her as a lesbian too, knowing all men ever.

They came to the front lobby just as Rachel was coming in through the front doors across from the main staircase to the second floor. Rachel had a black hoodie pulled over her head and earbuds in her ears, keeping to herself as she trudged behind some grade elevens.

“You!” Alice roared, and she pointed at the crowd of kids who all immediately parted so Alice could step through and get Rachel’s attention. It seemed she had heard Alice through whatever song she was playing, and already was pulling the earbuds from her ears.

“Me?” she asked quietly, looking around as if hoping Alice had been looking for someone else.

“Watch out, she’s scary today,” Andrew warned Rachel. Alice shot Andrew a glance to make him retract his remark but instead he said, “Scarier than usual,” and backed away.

Behind her shoulder she heard Andrew whisper “There’s a new kid,” but he was so quiet Alice could barely hear him. Rachel certainly hadn’t.

Or maybe she had. “In our grade?” she asked Andrew over Alice’s shoulder.

Alice turned as Andrew nodded and responded. “I was hoping I’d get to him first. See if he’s worthy of our group.”

“Maybe don’t lead with the vampires and magic is real stuff,” Rachel warned him and Andrew nodded in agreement.

“Excuse me,” Alice said to Andrew. “Do you mind?”

“A little, yeah.”

Alice turned back to Rachel. “Have you seen Tanya?”

“The student president,” Andrew reminded Rachel unnecessarily. “You might have heard of her.”

Rachel gave Andrew a wry smile. “She’s not with me.”

“Well where is she?” Alice exclaimed, feeling ready to explode. “She missed the student council meeting this morning. Again. With elections coming up I don’t know if she’s likely to get re-elected.” The other two didn’t seem to care about this nearly as much as she did.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be re-elected,” Rachel suggested.

“Do you know what this place would be without her?” Alice asked them, and they both shrugged.

“About the same,” Andrew said after some thought. They couldn’t be more wrong. But how could she make them understand?

“She’s been the rock in this place. She’s given us everything. Every dance, every fundraiser. Every theatre production.”

Andrew shrugged. “Yeah I don’t go to those things.” Rachel shrugged in agreement with him.

“Look Alice,” Rachel said, pulling back her hoodie. Alice supposed Rachel didn’t need her umbrella on such an overcast day. The way this winter had been, she expected there’d be many more days ahead Rachel would be able to walk outside uncovered. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be the rock anymore.”

“Yeah,” Andrew agreed with her. “Some people just want to be Dwayne Johnson. It’s a lot of pressure being the Rock. Always expected to bring the people’s elbow.”

“I’ve never watched wrestling,” Alice told Andrew flatly, extra careful to not even crack the slightest of smiles. “Your reference to WWF is completely lost on me.”

“Well yeah,” Andrew said. “For starters its WWE now, since like forever. Also if you wanna become a part of the group like Tanya, you’re gonna have to come to one of Bilal’s wrestling pay per view parties.”

“I would really rather slit my own wrists,” Alice said, turning back to Rachel again.

“Well no one LIKES going to his wrestling parties,” Andrew mumbled.

Ignoring him, Alice pleaded with Rachel. “Do you know where Tanya might be?” Alice was feeling her frustrations rising again, and she really didn’t want to cry in front of Rachel too.

“I’m not her keeper,” Rachel muttered. Alice was ready to snap again, when Rachel added, “But I can help you find her.”

“I’ve already tried texting her,” Alice told Rachel. She was pretty sure if Rachel didn’t know where the student president was, there was no way she could help. Pretty sure.

“She didn’t charge her phone last night,” Rachel reasoned, and Alice wondered how she knew that. “If she’s within a few kilometers I should be able to sense her.”

“With the force?” Alice asked, most definitely missing the briefing where vampires were Jedi. She was having more and more questions, after knowing these two, than she was getting answers. Is this what Tanya was going through?

“My vampire senses,” Rachel explained bluntly with a raised eyebrow.

“What, like your sense of touch?” Alice asked Rachel.

“Sure,” Rachel went on to explain. “All my senses are enhanced. I can see in the dark, hear sounds from a mile away, or pinpoint a single sound in a commotion. But the one that will be most useful right now is my sense of smell.”

“Eew,” Alice said, covering herself with her sweater.

“Did Tanya not explain all this to you?” Andrew asked Alice. Tanya had certainly had a lot to say on the topic, and Alice had tried to follow it the best she could.

“Nothing about all this,” Alice told them.

“I can distinguish individual unique scents,” Rachel explained her sense of smell, “differentiating one human from another.” Alice thought she was going to have some dramatic crinkle of her nose like Bewitched, or Teen Wolf, or Six Million Dollar Man. But instead Rachel just cocked her head a little to the side ever so subtly and smiled. Her skin was a pale white, and her Asian features were only complimented by her milky white skin.

“She’s in the parking lot,” Rachel told her, starting past Alice towards the hallway. “She’s smoking in her car and listening to the radio.”

“See,” Andrew said to Alice. “Sometimes it pays to be friends with a vampire.” Except when they stole your best friend, Alice supposed. Andrew moved to follow Rachel.

“Ian’s looking for you,” Andrew told his half-Asian friend. It seemed no surprise to her. “He wanted me to tell you something, and I swear to god I’m only going to say it once. Happy Christmas in February.” Andrew gagged. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”

“What?” Rachel asked, looking back at Alice who was still following a little behind them.

“Don’t ask me,” Alice said, wanting to get to one more thing. “You sure you don’t wanna come with me to see Tanya?” She figured maybe if she encouraged them to spend time together, maybe they’d include her more. She just had to get them used to the idea of the three of them. Definitely no Andrew.

“Nah,” Rachel said, continuing past the office. “So where you need to be?” she asked Andrew.

“This is my stop,” Andrew told her. “I figure I’ll catch the new kid as he signs in for the first time at the office. Put some moves on him there.”

“Wait,” Alice called after Rachel with frustration. “That’s it? I thought you two were getting along?”

“If Ian is looking for me,” Rachel said, “I’d rather he didn’t come upon me and Tanya together if I can help it.”

“Why?” Alice asked, not understanding what the connection was between the three of them. It was obvious though, the was some kind of tension that seemed to be keeping Ian at as much of an arms length from Rachel as Alice was being kept from Tanya.

“No reason,” Rachel said quickly. “I just don’t want him to get the wrong idea.”

“What wrong idea?” Andrew asked before going into the office. “That you two are bumping uglies?” He was gone before either girl could respond, and before Alice knew it she was alone in the front lobby. Alone, as in surrounded by a mass of students heading to class, but she felt alone all the same. She didn’t understand any of it, she had tried so hard to be popular. How did everything go so wrong?

In frustration, Alice screamed and stomped her foot on the hard concrete floor. Everyone turned to stare, and students began passing around her with a wide berth.

*

Tanya didn’t want to go into that school. She didn’t want to go back to normal, she was tired of the normal. What did that damn building even have to teach her that she hadn’t already taught herself. She pulled an apple juice bottle she’d refilled with whiskey from the glove compartment and took a swig. Then she considered herself for a second.

Sure it looked like apple juice in the bottle, but who would believe it? Open liquor in a car, on school property. Made the cigarette in her fingers look like a lollypop. If Tanya was caught, well it would be an easy way to not have to go back to school. As much as Tanya wanted that, she hid the bottle back in her compartment and shut it. Better save that for another time. She didn’t want out of school so bad as to ruin her whole life, as crumbling as it was already.

“A protest has been growing outside Oakville’s city hall this morning,” the newsman on the radio went on and on, “with concern growing among parents towards the increase in missing children in the suburb. No word yet from the mayor, and there’s concern that his non-reactive stance has only encouraged this string of potential kidnappings.”

The radio DJ transitioned smoothly into weather. “The protesting parents will be cold this afternoon and potentially snow drowned as two cold fronts crossing baths around New York is threatening to build into quite the storm and roll north right over the entire Greater Toronto Area. A heavy storm warning IS in effect, and both Toronto’s John Tory and Mississauga’s Sylvia Gray have begged businesses to close early and that everyone stay indoors until the storm passes.”

Tanya took a drag from her smoke, and ashed it out the window, noticing her red haired friend approaching the car door in her rear view mirror.

“Alice,” Tanya said her friend’s name out loud. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around a lot lately...”

“No you’re not,” Alice told her. “There was a student council meeting this morning.”

“I was going to be there,” Tanya insisted, taking another drag of her smoke.

“You didn’t know it existed,” Alice corrected her.

“But if I had known,” Tanya continued to insist, though she could tell Alice wasn’t buying it. “I would have been there.” She opened her car door and stepped out to lean against her car beside her freckled friend. “What did I miss?”

“You mean you want me to give you the cliffnotes?” Alice translated. “For the seventh time in a row?”

Tanya knew Alice had her back. “I’ll follow up with anyone that matters,” she hugged her friend. “You know I can’t do this without you. You’re my rock.”

“That’s the problem,” Alice told her friend. “Maybe I just wanna be Dwayne whoever.”

Tanya didn’t get it. “What has you feeling this way?” she asked. “Is there anything I can do?”

Alice seemed about to say something, but her mouth closed. Her eyes, welling with tears, shut too. When they opened they were cold as ice. “Hurley needs you in the office,” she said, leading Tanya through the chilly breeze towards the front doors of the school. “You can see what she wants.”

“Yeah,” Tanya said, zipping up her jacket and pocketing her hands. “Okay, I can do that.”

They stepped through the doors of the school, Tanya regretting herself with every step. Hurley immediately spotted her through the glass windows of the office, and she came out with a tall blonde short-haired kid. He was pale, with blue eyes and a sort of awkward pained expression on his face.

“There you are,” Mrs. Hurley said as Andrew ran after them.

“Hey,” Andrew introduced himself. “What’s your name?”

“Mason,” The new kid said, suddenly changing his mind. “Alexander, Mason. Mason Alexander. Mason.”

Andrew almost retracted his offered hand in confusion. “Which one of those was your first name?”

“Mason,” The new kid said quickly, and shook Andrew’s hand. They were mid shake when Hurley pulled the kid away from him.

“Don’t talk to Andrew,” she insisted. “Tanya, where the hell have you been?”

“Looking for you,” Tanya threw back sarcastically, looking to throw Hurley off.

“She was cleaning up cigarette butts in the parking lot,” Alice chimed in with an excuse from beside Tanya.

“Don’t thank me,” Tanya said quickly, not wanting praise for something she didn’t do. “With all the wind I think I just made things worse.”

“Well thanks for trying,” Hurley said in such a way that implied she didn’t care and just wanted to move on. Tanya walked and talked with them into the office, where Tanya took her place behind the PA mic. “I’ve told you before that I want to go over what you’re gonna say before you go on the air.”

Tanya was tired of Hurley’s prattling. “And I’ve told you before I don’t know what I’m going to say until I’m at the mic.” This was the moment. Her one favourite part to doing the morning announcements. That thrill just before she hit talk, where she had nothing planned and the realization set in that she could mess everything up here and freeze. The panic, the stage fright. It was adrenaline to Tanya, and she thrived off it.

“So what are you going to say?” Hurley asked Tanya after a long silent moment as they all stood there watching her.

Tanya hit the switch. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you want. Or who to be.” Tanya didn’t know where she was going with this, but that didn’t stop her from opening her mouth to speak again. “There is no normal life. No one can tell you what your comfortable with, or what’s right for you. No one has a say on the trajectory of your life but you. Though people will try. So many out there are looking to take advantage of people who do not have the confidence to stand strong to what they fully believe about themselves. Don’t give in to hurt feelings. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Stand up and be happy with what you want from life. It doesn’t have to be what everyone else wants.” Tanya paused, and cued up the tape. “Now please stand, sit, or kneel for the playing of O’ Canada.”

Tanya heard Andrew whisper from the back of the room as the song played, “I bet I could be a good Student Council President.”

“Except nobody likes you,” Tanya heard Alice retort.

“That’s always a snag.”

“Shh,” Hurley said to Andrew loudly and with a rude look. “Why are you even here?” Mrs. Hurley was talking louder than Andrew had been.

 “To greet Mason,” he said with a smile. He turned to the new kid. “So where you from?”

“The US,” Mason said quietly. He seemed very pale, especially getting whiter since the music started playing.

Andrew nodded as if he understood. “Trying to run from the corrupt president?”

“You have no idea,” Mason replied with a shake of his head.

“You okay?” Tanya said across the PA panel to him. “You look sick.”

“I get headaches,” Mason told them, digging into his pocket and pulling out a bottle of pills. He swallowed down a couple of what looked like Tylenol. “They come and go.”

“I want you to give him a tour of the school,” Mrs. Hurley told Tanya as O’Canada continued to play. “And I don’t want you waiting till I’m gone and giving the job to Andrew.”

“At all costs,” Mrs. Hurley said, stepping in close with Tanya, “keep him away from Andrew. I know about all your absences. Some of your teachers have said your grade average has dropped down to a C in some cases.”

She was being black mailed. Of course the vice principal had the power to take away the student presidency. And of course she wanted to keep Mason away from Andrew. Andrew always had a problem with authority. It wasn’t until you got to know him that you came to realize he was, mostly, harmless.

“I’ll do it,” Tanya said through gritted teeth. “But I’m doing it together. With Andrew.”

It was obvious Hurley wanted to complain, but the song was about to end. “Fine. Just take him around the building, and to all his classes. I’ll write you both notes for your absences.”

Mrs. Hurley turned to go into her office, and then turned back suddenly. “If this goes well, I might even write some notes for some of your other absences, and talk to your teachers about boosting your grade.”

She looked over to where Andrew and Mason were still talking. “So anything strange or unexplained ever happen to you?” Andrew asked the new kid. “Ever hear of any weird happenings around your town?”

“Stay close to them,” Hurley warned Tanya with an exasperated sigh before disappearing into her office. Tanya hit the switch on the PA.

“The announcements will be posted outside the office,” Tanya said abruptly, too tired to read all the cards in front of her this morning. “Stay strong Abbey Park.”

*     *     *

A protest was waging outside the ornate glass structure that made up city hall, as Hana approached with her car. Parking quickly around the side, Hana Lin would have to go through the crowd to get to her job, and the people protesting didn’t look like the calmest bunch. One had even thrown what looked like a brick at her windshield, though now she was standing outside she could see why it hadn’t cracked her glass. It was a stuffed red dog.

She picked it up, the fur coarse and matted from being on the ground, and she carried it with her around to the steps of the building. The crowd that had formed there were mostly women, with some middle aged men sprinkled in. There were a few toddlers on shoulders; any children were under very watchful eye. The picketing signs all had pictures of children that had been lost.

“We want our children back!” one woman yelled at Hana Lin who didn’t know what the woman wanted her to do about it.

“Our children have been taken!” another man yelled, “And yet the mayor does nothing!”

Hana frowned. “The mayor sympathizes,” she told the man, addressing the crowd. “I too am concerned for your children and I promise we’re doing everything to find them and ensure that they are brought home to you safe.”

“You’re lying!” A woman in a baggy sweater shouted at her. “That’s my daughter’s favourite stuffed animal! Your promises won’t put her back in my arms!”

Hana squeezed the dog in her cold hands, imagining what it would feel like if it was her daughter who had gone missing. It wasn’t hard, her daughter had been missing only last year, and for two whole days Hana had been worried sick. She had been lucky in the end. Rachel had come back to them. But these parents couldn’t rely on just luck.

A police officer approached the crowd and leaned in to whisper in Hana’s ear. “Mrs. Lin? Mayor Dixon wants his employees to proceed into the building and not directly address the protestors.” Well that was bully for Joseph Dixon, Hana wasn’t just another of his employees. She was his personal assistant and as far as she was concerned it gave her equal jurisdiction as him.

“I’d like to speak to the police chief as soon as possible please,” she told the officer who nodded for her.

“He’s inside.” The officer beckoned for her to join him, and after a moment longer to consider the stuffed dog in her hands, finally she did as the officer asked and followed him inside. They passed through the automatic glass doors into the main lobby and ascended the escalator past the waterfall and stream of fish to the front desk.

Melissa, the wheelchair bound ginger receptionist, had a radio on and the DJ was talking about the weather. “The snowfall, likely to hit its peak sometime this evening, is currently estimated at ten centimeters with some reports warning that yields in parts could hit those same numbers but in inches.” The DJ started playing everyone’s favourite Christmas song from Band Aid. “People have been labeling this coming storm as Christmas in February.”

The DJ raised the volume on the Christmas carol as he finished talking, and Hana leaned across the large gleaming granite counter of the front desk to shut the radio off.

“It’s bad enough they start playing those songs on the first of December,” Hana complained to Melissa with a groan. “We don’t need it bleeding into the next year too.”

“You seem like you’re in a good mood,” Melissa said from behind her computer, throwing the Asian woman a tired look.

“Are you a mom?” Hana asked Melissa.

The wheelchair bound woman shook her head, her red hair falling over her shoulder. “Nothing works below the waist.”

“I’m sorry,” Hana said, feeling bad she even brought it up.

“Well don’t hold back,” Melissa told Hana. “Whatever you were gonna say, just say it. At least let me live vicariously through your family drama.”

“Okay,” Hana said, bracing herself. “What’s too old for someone to have a sleepover?”

“Oh my god,” the mayor’s secretary said, dropping her voice. “Are we talking for you? Oh honey, I don’t think there is too old. My aunt’s doctor volunteers at an old folk’s home and says they bump uglies more’n teenagers.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Hana insisted with a wave of her hand. “I mean the kids. Kids have sleepovers too, you know.”

“Yeah,” Melissa said, obliviously. “But not exactly the same kind of sleepovers.” She gave Hana a silly look.

“Well exactly,” Hana said, trying to figure how to word this. “What age does the one type of sleepover become the other type of sleepover?”

Melissa stopped what she was doing and leaned back to think for a moment. “Is this a riddle?” she asked at last.

“Forget it,” Hana told her co-worker. She spotted an older man in uniform on the bridge in the atrium. Mayor Joseph Dixon had an entire forest ecosystem built into the second floor of city hall with a path leading from the front lobby to the offices. In the middle of that path there was a bridge leading over a stream. That stream actually fed into the waterfall that greeted people who entered the building.

The man standing on the bridge had silver hair and was holding his hat in his hands. “Is that the police chief?” Hana asked Melissa and the secretary nodded a confirmation.

“I told him the mayor wasn’t it, but he said he’d wait.”

“But the mayor is in,” Hana accused Melissa, not really knowing that she was right but going off a hunch.

“I was told not to let anybody in, under any circumstances,” she complained, and Hana hissed in disapproval. Moving from the front desk, Hana approached the police chief, past the overhanging vines from branches grown over the path.

“Sir,” she called to him.

“I told my men I would brief the mayor personally and I don’t plan to leave until I do.” His voice was rough, and he seemed tired.

Hana got to his side, and saw what he had been looking at. From the bridge, you could look out the glass wall to the entrance below and see the protestors with their signs and chants.

“We haven’t told the media how bad it is,” the chief told Hana. He leaned in close as if to whisper to her. “We’ve done everything we can to keep as much of things quiet as possible. But we believe the number missing is up to twenty seven children.”

Hana gasped audibly. She couldn’t believe it had gotten that high. When? How long had this been building up? The police chief lit a cigarette, and dragged away almost half the smoke in one drag. Suddenly it seemed he realized where he was.

“I’m sorry,” he said, taking the smoke in his hand and looking to toss it. “I forgot we were inside.” He gestured to the trees around them, and the stream.

Hana reached out her hand to take the smoke. “My name is Hana Lin. I’m the mayor’s personal assistant,” she told the police chief. “You might have better luck sharing your report with me.”

He handed her the cigarette. “Commissioner Benjamin Cox, ma’am.” Instead of tossing the smoke, she took a drag from it herself. He gave her a wry if withered smile. “And I think there’s a good chance you’re right.”

“What kind of team do you have working on this?” she asked, taking another drag and handing the smoke back to him. A few of the protestors had noticed that they were being watched from above, and had taken to slinging nasty insults up at both Hana and Benjamin. What the protestors didn’t know was that the glass was sound proof.

“We have our best detective on the case,” Commissioner Cox said. “But he’s getting nowhere. Besides their approximate ages, he can’t find anything linking these kids together.”

“What are their approximate ages?” Hana asked, despite knowing she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Young,” he told her, confirming her fears without getting specific.

Hana massaged her face with her hand. “Maybe if you had more people investigating. One detective sounds a little more like Captain America than Criminal Minds. Put the entire department on this. Put every police officer you have.”

“Ma’am,” Benjamin spoke with exasperation, “We don’t have anyone qualified to run an investigation of this magnitude. No matter who I add to the case, they would have no idea where to begin, much as has happened with every person I’ve already tried to assign to this case.”

The police officer dropped his smoke onto the bridge and stamped it out with his foot. “We only have one homicide detective,” he explained. “In the entire suburb. He’s been the one putting everything together so far and he’s seen nothing like this in his life.”

“I need something to give them,” Hana told the commissioner with a glance at the protestors below. “What if I talked the mayor into increasing your budget?”

“It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at us,” the commissioner insisted, his frustration growing. His voice was rising, even as he seemed to be trying ever so harder to whisper. “What we need is outside assistance. We need detectives from other precincts. Other cities. We need federal intervention.”

He also looked to the people below. “I heard some of the parents are looking to take justice in their own hands. Well frankly at this point I’d open up the investigation to the public to solve it on their own if I thought they could do it.”

“I’ll tell the mayor everything you told me,” Hana assured the commissioner, “except for the part where your best hope right now is Batman showing up out of nowhere to save our collective asses. I need something else. And I can’t ensure outside cooperation. I don’t have that level of jurisdiction. All I can do is ask for it. You have to have a plan B.”

“I don’t know what is happening to those children,” Commissioner Cox told her, his hands clenching as he finished setting his hat on his head. “My stomach turns at the myriad of possibilities. And what makes it worse is that I know it’s going to happen again. And again. I would take every child and throw them in a prison cell if I thought I could get away with it.”

“Come up with a plan C,” she said quickly. “Can I come by?” Hana asked the commissioner. “Oversee your efforts. Maybe I can contribute, or see something I can take to my superiors that will urge them to help you do your job.”

“Absolutely. You’re more than welcome.”

She turned towards the mayor’s office even as Commissioner Cox turned to leave, but he stopped, and she looked back to see what final thing he had to say.

“I’ve thought about stepping down,” he said, after a long moment of finding his words. “Gods I would in an instant if I thought it could help.”

Hana didn’t know how to respond. Finally she simply told him, “I understand,” and they each continued on their way.

Hana knocked on Mayor Dixon’s office door, made of glass like most everything else in the building. She could see through to him, of course, and he was having a contemplative discussion with his private and professional advisor and strategist William Spender.

“Hana Lin!” the mayor exclaimed from his seat behind his magnetically levitating desk. He beckoned her in, spotting her through his glass door. She opened it and stepped into his office. “I was just telling Mr. Spender about the events of yesterday.”

“And do you believe all this magic mumbo jumbo?” Hana asked the man who never stopped smoking E-cigarettes. Hana didn’t know someone could create as much smoke with an e-cig as that man did, lingering around him as he spoke.

“I was the one who brought it to Dixon’s attention,” Spender told her.

“He used to be a member of the same cult that tried to kill us,” Mayor Dixon explained to her. “Before I even came out of my time bubble. They recruited him at a young age, but there was a rift in their own cult.”

“I was one of a number who tried to fight back,” Spender continued the story. “We were all cut down until I was the only one that was left. I managed to get to Dixon, and we escaped to here. I’ve been working with him ever since.”

“Did you know the commissioner was outside in the Atrium waiting to have a meeting with you?” Hana asked the mayor, benching one crazy topic for another she felt much more passionate about.

“Yes,” Mayor Dixon said in such a way it made Hana want to slap him. “You have to understand, my life is in danger. People are trying to kill me. I have to be very careful who I allow in here.” Dixon sighed, and Hana was wondering how much of yesterday’s events had left Joseph Dixon feeling scared. “Frankly everyone I trust is already in this room.”

“Well too bad,” Hana said, not willing to let up. She put her hands on his desk, and leaned closer to him. “Benjamin Cox was a very important person whose time was very valuable and you should have respected it.”

“I want it to seem to the people like we are doing everything we can to find those children,” Hana told them.

“How do you expect that we do that?” Mr. Spender said in a large puff of water vapor.

Hana Lin crossed her arms, satisfied at least that they were listening to her. “I want us to do everything we can to find those children,” she told them in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’ve already told the commissioner that I would come down to the precinct personally to oversee the going investigation.” She put a finger on Dixon’s desk. “He told me that they need outside resources. From other cities, possibly even federal.”

“And what about the cult that’s after me?” Mayor Dixon asked his assistant. “If we put all our resources and time into finding these kids, won’t it leave me open to attack?” Dixon too tried to cross his arms, but Hana could tell he was running low on confidence. “What good am I to the kids if I’m dead?”

Hana slid the desk aside, something she didn’t even know was possible until she tried it. Stepping forward, she leaned down until her nose was almost touching the mayor’s.

“About as much good as you are locked up in this room wasting everyone’s time.”

*     *     *

“I know he did something,” Jacob Lin Smith muttered to Sabrina. He was still watching Hassan, had in fact been keeping an eye on him all morning through their first couple subjects of the day. There was something about how smug the bully was that really irked Jacob.

“No matter what you do I’ve got your back,” Sabrina told Jacob, something she seemed to do quite a lot lately. “Though maybe we should proceed with a bit more restraint than last time.” They were still covered in the muddy reminders of what happened the last time they tried to confront Hassan.

The bell was about to ring, signalling recess, and this would be Jacob’s only chance to get some answers from the creep who had tortured them for so long. He would do it in the classroom, where things couldn’t get too out of hand.

“Okay,” their teacher said from the front of the room. “With time permitting we can hopefully fit in this one minute math pop quiz--” The bell rang then, dashing the teacher’s hopes but filling the classroom with cheers as the kids had been saved.

Jacob sprang to his feet, easily the first person up, and stormed down the aisle to where Hassan had set up all his empty desks to create his own private area to himself.

“What did you do to Billy?” Jacob asked his nemesis, leaning against the boy’s desk and slamming his fist down upon it.

“What happened to restraint?” Jacob heard Sabrina mutter behind him, but he ignored her.

“Hey,” Hassan said raising his hands in the air. “Whatever Billy stayed home crying about this time, it wasn’t my fault.” Jacob tried to push the desk aside, but it was a heavy desk. It jostled, and the jostling was enough for Hassan to rise to his feet. “Yo! Does Romeo and Juliet want some more poison?” he raised his fists, implying they were the poison.

Sabrina seemed momentarily taken aback at their schoolroom nemesis referencing Shakespeare, but Jacob had a one track mind. Grabbing a book he lifted it over his head, ready to use as a weapon and bring down on Hassan.

But a hand grabbed the textbook and held it in place. It was Mr. Jefferies, their homeroom teacher.

“What’s going on here?” he asked the three of them.

“Hassan’s the reason why Billy isn’t here today,” Jacob told his teacher, struggling to pull the book free of the man’s hand.

“That’s not true!” Hassan roared at Jacob. “More than likely he ran away from home.”

“He’s lying,” Jacob yelled at Mr. Jefferies.

“I’m not,” Hassan insisted. “He was always whining about it, you know as I was pounding his face in the pavement. Kept threatening that he was gonna run away.” Hassan’s voice was lowering, and Jacob released his grip on the book. Was that the slightest glimmer of empathy? “Go to his house if you don’t believe me. See for yourself.”

“We don’t know where he lives,” Sabrina argued, and Jacob was thankful she took over. He was spent.

“I’ll take you then,” Jacob’s nemesis promised them. “After school.

Mr. Jefferies clapped his leathery hands together. “Then it’s settled,” he told the kids. “See what talking can accomplish? There is no conflict that can’t be solved by explaining each other’s point of view and most importantly listening to what the other person has to say.”

*     *     *

“This isn’t the way to the cafeteria,” Tanya noted, having been following Andrew up till then. She’d been lost in thought, and was more than happy to see that Andrew had been hitting it off with the new kid. Meant that he was willing to do all the work.

“Weren’t you listening to me?” Andrew asked. It was something Tanya tried to avoid whenever possible, but she kept that comment to herself for once. Maybe she was growing as a person. “We’re gonna swing by the computer lab first. Check on the gang.”

Great, Tanya thought to herself. She always loved babysitting the dweeb squad. Worst of all, Mrs. Hurley had made it pretty clear that she was glued to Mason’s side until the bell rang at the end of the day.

“But hasn’t the PS4 sold like six times the units?” Mason asked Andrew, returning to their previous conversation. Tanya realized it had been some dumb nerd debate, and she regretted even bothering to snap back into reality.

Andrew shook his head in disagreement. “Okay yes,” he said contradicting himself. “But people are dumb. Look who’s President of the United States right now. The Xbox One is the stronger system. It just has a better interface, there’s more you can do with it. I have both, and I use the Xbone like a hundred to one.”

“Eew,” Tanya said, really wishing she had kept minding her own business. “Never use the word Xbone again. Oh god, now I’ve said it.”

“Okay,” Mason said to Andrew, his blonde hair looking more red now than blonde. His voice was a little wheezy and he reminded Tanya of the kind of kid who needed a lot of sick days. “But doesn’t the Playstation Four have way more exclusives?”

Andrew spread out his arms and Tanya had to take a step back to avoid getting hit. “I never said it didn’t pay to have both,” he told his new friend.

Tanya was holding onto hope that Rachel would be among the geeks hanging out in the computer lab that lunch, but upon entering the room her hopes were immediately dashed. Worse yet, instead of Rachel there was Ian. Tanya had been specifically trying to avoid Ian, largely in respect to Rachel and her love for him. Tanya knew all about Rachel’s feelings for him. It was okay, Rachel’s fingers hadn’t been inside IAN last night. Ian probably wouldn’t have liked it if they were.

“Merry Christmas in February!” Ian told them as they came in, and Andrew turned to pretend vomit into the hall. Ian was wearing some kind of festive hat, and had a fanny sack around his waist overflowing with candy canes.

“I don’t get it,” Tanya said.

“It’s what they’re calling the storm now,” Gordon told the gang. Also in the room was Bilal and Jason.

“And it just happens to coincide perfectly with my special day planned for Rachel,” Ian explained to Tanya. He offered her a candy cane. She didn’t want to take it.

“Oh yeah,” Andrew said, stepping up close beside Tanya and following her gaze to Ian’s offered candy cane. “You didn’t know about Ian’s big day, did you? I knew.”

Tanya could tell when she was being patronized. Even by a pro. “What exactly DO you know?” Tanya wondered if perhaps Rachel had confided in him about their time last night. She wouldn’t have confided in Ian, obviously. But would Andrew really be Rachel’s second choice for gay sexual confidant? He didn’t seem remotely mature enough.

Maybe he just had a really accurate gaydar.

Tanya took Ian’s offered candy cane and thwacked Andrew over the head with it. The cane literally broke in half. “Don’t mock Ian’s special day,” she chastised Andrew as he groaned in pain. She gave Ian a big fake smile. “I think it’s great. Good Luck.”

“Well I think its offensive,” Bilal piqued in from a computer. As Tanya looked at his screen, she thought she recognized the logo at the top of the document he was working on. He seemed to notice that she’d noticed, and the fact that he seemed concerned that she’d noticed only made her more suspicious.

“Well I think it’s exactly what this world needs,” Jason said, possibly just to disagree with Bilal. “More Christmas.”

Tanya knew what Bilal was working on. “Is that for the school newspaper?”

Bilal hit ctrl alt del on his keyboard. And then again. “Abort,” he yelled at his machine. “Abort!” It wasn’t seeming to respond, and Bilal unplugged the whole machine from the wall. Grabbing his bag, he ran from the room at top speed. It only took seconds for him to be just gone.

“What was that about?” Tanya asked no one in particular. For the most part she tried not to concern herself with the crazy antics of this bunch.

“I think another Christmas sounds great,” Mason spoke up to the group for the first time. “I missed Christmas last year.”

“That’s so tragic.” Andrew beckoned at Mason for everyone to see. “Oh yeah, Everyone. This is Mason Alexander. He’s the new kid so let’s all point at the outsider and laugh.”

“I’m kidding,” Andrew reassured Mason who seemed to enjoy the joke more than anyone else in the room. “So this computer lab is like our headquarters. It’s our private place where we can be ourselves and talk about whatever we want whenever we want.”

“Excuse me,” a familiar voice said from the entrance. “The debate club has this room booked for the next hour, you’ll have to leave.” It was Scott. ‘Hippie guitar-playing’ grade eleven Scott.

They’d dated, when she was in grade nine and he was in grade ten. At the time it seemed like the most mature thing to do. By the end of her ninth grade she’d really matured to the point where she realized that there was nothing mature about what Scott stood for. It was then, that summer, that she had been with a girl for the first time. And then Deisha, more than once. And now Rachel.

“Wait what?” Andrew asked absentmindedly. “Did you say the racist debate club?” Tanya didn’t get the joke, and Scott’s jaw dropped as he was clearly offended. “Of course not,” Andrew said, reading Scott’s expression. “That’s not a real thing.” When Scott didn’t move, Andrew reconsidered. “Is it?” Still nothing. “It isn’t,” he seemed to try to say with confidence.

“Tanya,” Scott said, noticing her and immediately forgetting all about Andrew. “I didn’t see you there.”

“I know,” she told him, leaning casually against the teacher’s desk. She began examining her fingernails.

“I haven’t seen you around for a while,” he told her.

“I know,” she said again, this time more matter of fact.

“I’ve missed you,” he admitted, and there was a long awkward silence.

“I know,” she said at last, already having happily closed that chapter of her life.

Scott looked around the room at Andrew, Jason, and Gordon. “I didn’t expect to find you hanging out here,” he told her.

“I was giving the new kid a tour,” she explained to him. “We can move on to the cafeteria. Come on guys.” Being around her ex only reminded her why she didn’t want to be around her ex.

*

Coming to the cafeteria, Andrew spotted a missing member of their crew and it wasn’t Bilal. Rachel had found a table to herself, and seemed to be working on something in her sketchbook.

“This is the cafeteria,” Tanya told Mason, though Andrew could see she wasn’t paying attention anymore. She’d followed Andrew’s gaze. “You can buy food here,” she concluded quickly. The two of them made for Rachel’s table as everyone else went to do exactly what Tanya had just finished talking about.

Gordon got to the table first, his legs too long for either of them to compete. He set down his laptop, and opened it to continue playing his space sim MMO. “Hey,” he said to Rachel who nodded back. They were people of few words.

“What’s that?” Andrew asked, taking a look at what she was working on. In the past, some of the things she’d drawn in her sketchbook had been true stories. Andrew could really use a lead on something magical right about now. He had been getting frustrated in his search for magical artifacts and ancient knowledge. It seemed a lot of things that were once lost had already been found by other people.

“It’s just something I’ve been dreaming about,” Rachel said of her work. The picture was of some kind of massacre in a classroom. There was blood everywhere, and child’s bodies. And viscera.

“You are a disturbed little girl,” Andrew told Rachel, handing the book back to her. “Did that happen somewhere?”

“I don’t think so,” Rachel told those at the table. “My brother was there, and he’d been turned into a vampire.”

“Yeesh,” Gordon said from his laptop where his ship seemed to be under fire. True to his word, he had turned to run, and was now blasting his engines at full.

“Was I in your dream?” Andrew asked, but Rachel shook her head.

“Tanya was.”

Tanya seemed to look up, as if she hadn’t been paying attention. Except she’d been staring at Rachel the whole time. Andrew felt that way sometimes looking at Tanya. It was strange how often that feeling was only ever one way.

“I was in your dream?” Tanya asked.

Rachel nodded again. “Together we killed Ian.”

As if on cue, Ian came out of the cafeteria store with a tray of food, and a bag slung over one arm like a large handbag made out of paper. He was wearing his Santa hat, and Christmas lights hung from his neck like a scarf. How he’d rigged them to glow without being plugged in, Andrew didn’t know.

“That must have been the most believable part,” Tanya joked to Rachel quickly.

“Have a holly jolly Christmas,” Ian started to sing as he sat down, but Gordon reached out without looking away from his screen and grabbed Ian by the throat.

“No.”

Ian nodded his understanding and Gordon let him go. After all, he was a big cuddly teddy bear. Most of the time.

“Thanks,” Rachel jokingly thanked Gordon. “But I can defend myself.”

“I got you this,” Ian said, handing Rachel a Christmas pack of lottery cards. “It’s actually a regift, I got one from my grandma and never bothered to open it.”

Rachel was clearly laughing, but she also seemed concerned. “Is this about not getting me a Christmas present? Because I told you not to worry about that.” Ian had, in fact, gotten Rachel a Christmas present on time. A friendship ring. He just didn’t realize that it was actually an engagement ring, and had chosen to hang onto it at the last minute.

“It’s too late,” Ian told her. “Merry Christmas in February Rachel. Will you come with me after school to pick up your new present?”

“Pick it up?” Rachel asked, putting her hand to her mouth. “Oh my god is it a car?”

“Uh no,” Ian admitted to her, “but almost as expensive.” He pulled a piece of chocolate mousse cake off his tray. “I got this for you,” he told her. “Christmas cake. But since you can’t eat it, I guess I’ll have to eat it in your honour.”

He was about to take the cake back, but Tanya grabbed from him. “Uh no,” Tanya said, grabbing a fork from Jason’s tray to start shoveling the cake into her mouth. “She’ll take it.”

“Hey!” Ian complained, grabbing his spoon and digging into the cake from the other end. Rachel seemed to just be sitting back and enjoying the show as the two were leaned over the table engaged in battle for the cake. “It’s my cake!”

“You gave it to her,” Tanya insisted. “And she gave it to me.”

“That never happened,” Ian insisted. “Rachel! Did that happen?”

Rachel didn’t respond directly. “Maybe YOU two should date,” she said instead, a smile forming on her lips. Andrew didn’t know what was more awkward to spectate. Ian and Tanya fighting over a piece of cake, or Ian and Tanya fighting over Rachel like she was a piece of cake. One thing Andrew DID know was that he did not want to imagine Ian and Tanya dating. Neither, it seemed, did Tanya who dropped her fork in disgust.

“There’s more,” Ian said, digging other things out of his bag. He produced a large woolly behemoth of a thing, ugly and green and adorned with Christmas paraphernalia. “A Christmas sweater,” he said, showing it off.

Andrew caught Rachel’s giggle. “I’m not wearing that,” she told Ian and he nodded with understanding.

“That’s good,” he said, throwing it over his head. “Cause this ones for me.” Once the ugly sweater was snug in place, Ian posed for his friend and gave his best smile. “So will you come with me after school?”

“Of course,” Rachel told him, and Andrew suddenly remembered Mason. He’d been quiet since they’d got to the cafeteria, and was currently digging into his macaroni and cheese. He seemed to be enjoying it. Which was impossible of course; the mac and cheese was school renown for being the worst thing on their menu.

“How’s your first day going so far?” Andrew asked the new kid, trying not to remember the not so cheesy aftertaste as Mason shoveled another fork full into his mouth.

“It’s good,” Mason said between bites. “The mac and cheese I mean.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Andrew said quickly, his insides turning. “Your hair looks red again. But earlier it was blonde.”

Mason nodded as he chewed. “It does that. Depends on the lighting I guess.” Andrew tried moving his head from side to side, and watched as Mason’s hair changed colour.

“I told you I’d show you to some good people,” Gordon said sarcastically to Mason. Andrew didn’t think Gordon had actually done anything, but okay.

“I like your friends,” Mason told Andrew after swallowing. “You must be so popular.”

“I’ve been told that,” Andrew lied, and Gordon gave a laugh. Andrew ignored the big smart ass. He liked the new kid. “You sure you’re okay? You’ve been quiet.”

“Yeah,” Mason assured Andrew. “I just dunno if your crowd is for me. I’m not really the crowd type to be honest.”

“Neither am I,” Rachel said from across the table, her attention on the new kid.

“You heard me?” Mason asked in surprise, his voice rising so they could hear him across the table.

“I have good hearing,” Rachel told him. “And I know how hard it is to feel like an outsider. If you stay with us I promise we won’t treat you like one.”

“That’s right,” Jason spoke up. “We can all be outsiders together.”

Andrew glanced outside through the one wall of the cafeteria made of pure glass, and it looked cold as frozen over hell itself out there. There were few students choosing to eat their lunch outside today. Okay none, but there were one or two students running from the school to the lot or back to the warmth inside.

And there was one student out there who wasn’t moving at all. She didn’t even look young enough to be a student. She was short, and the way she was standing Andrew bet she could kick his ass if she wanted to. And it looked like she wanted to. She was wearing torn jeans and a black leather jacket that was a little too big on her. She had her hands crossed in front of her, pale white in the cold, and she seemed to be staring directly at him.

“Does anyone know that girl?” Andrew asked. “She’s pretty hot.”

“Yeah she is,” Tanya remarked as everyone looked.

“Oh shit,” Mason said, getting up suddenly as if he’d just sat in a puddle. “She’s with me. My guardian. I’ll be right back.” He left the cafeteria at a brisk pace.

“Guardian?” Andrew repeated, checking her out again. “To mend and defend,” he quoted the old 1995 cartoon Reboot.

*

Jon Mason stormed outside, in such a hurry he didn’t even bother to grab his jacket. Of course his jacket was in his locker, which was on the other side of the school. Life was a cruel mistress.

His first day as Mason Alexander was going well enough. He really did think Andrew’s friends were pretty great. But they were such a tight unit he didn’t see how he was going to be able to slot himself in. And then Erika showed up to ruin it all.

“Shit it’s cold out here,” Jon swore, stuffing his hands in his tight jean pockets. “Why do they make pockets this tight?”

“Try being a girl,” Erika told him. She looked cold. “It’s supposed to get colder today, and going into tonight.” She didn’t seem happy about it, but she also seemed quite determined not to move from her post diligently keeping him safe.

“It gets colder than this?” Jon didn’t want to be around to find out. A white flake drifted casually past Jon’s view, landing on his arm and melting. Now snow, too? Did it always start with just a single flake?

Jon was certain he could see Erika’s hands shake and shiver, especially as the wind picked up. She seemed dedicated not to show how much she was suffering however. “What are you doing?” he asked even though he knew. “You can’t do this.”

“I have to watch out for you,” Erika told him, and Jon felt like he was understanding his friend at least well enough to know that every time someone told her Oakville was safe, it only made her more paranoid.

“I’m fine,” Jon insisted. “I’m safe. I’m surrounded by twelve hundred students.”

“That’s not exactly my idea of safe,” Erika told him with a sly look.

“Are you armed?” he asked, again not needing an answer. “It’s illegal in Canada to carry a concealed weapon in public.” Ian told her, something he had just learned in Law class. “If you were caught on school grounds they’d lock you up and throw away the key.”

“Nobody’s locking me up again,” Erika said, and her hand reached to pat reassuringly against something under her jacket. Jon wondered if Erika had ever been well adjusted, before everything that had happened to the both of them. He hadn’t known her then, he only knew the broken version of her now.

“Please go,” he begged her. “If you’re so worried about this town, then explore it. Patrol or whatever, and report back to me what you find tonight. Just don’t do it here.”

Jon’s body had its own thermostat, and right now that was flashing a warning in the corner of his eyes telling him he was at risk of mild frostbite in the next ten minutes if he didn’t get inside. That was one piece of advice he didn’t need help from his Synesthesia abilities for. He was also about thirty two minutes away from full hypothermia.

“Get warm,” he told Erika. Rubbing his hands together and taking a step back towards the school. He looked at her, as if he wasn’t going to take another step until she agreed to leave. He didn’t know how dedicated he was to that stance, however. Luckily she didn’t push it.

“Okay,” she said. “Alright I’ll go.” She turned to leave and Jon stopped her.

“Can you grab some Kraft Dinner on the way home?” he asked. “I used to love that stuff before…” he trailed off but Erika knew what he meant and nodded, even if his request seemed mundane.

Turning back to head inside, Jon noticed that Rachel was watching him through the glass wall of the cafeteria. He was reminded of something she’d said. That her hearing was really good. Well it couldn’t possibly be that good.

Right?

*     *     *

Hana hit the intercom on her desk, from her office beside the mayor.  “Hello Melissa? Can you make copies of the children’s files involved with the case. I’d like to try and go over each kid, so that I can better individually deal with the parents.”

“I’ll do that right away,” Melissa’s voice rang out through the speaker. “Hang on. Miss? Miss” it sounded like Melissa put down the phone as her voice got more distant. “Ladies, do you have an appointment?”

“I don’t need one,” said an old woman’s voice.

“I’m afraid Mr. Dixon isn’t in right now,” Hana could hear Melissa repeat as she rolled after the intruders.

“Yes he is,” said the voice.

“Hana! Hana!” Melissa was heard screaming both through the speaker and from down the hall. Hana was already out of her chair and leaving her office.

“Ma’am,” she called down the hall, and turned the corner to see a tall older woman in a pant suit and sneakers just crossing the bridge with a short portly woman at her side carrying a large tablet. “I’m afraid the mayor isn’t seeing anyone right now, but if you’d be willing to tell me everything, I’m confident that we can help each other find those missing children.”

“Yes,” The older woman said, slowing to a stop as the portly woman was quick to copy her. “It is quite a protest brewing out there. I can see why you would be desperate for any glimmer. But isn’t it usually the police that deal with such matters.”

Hana was going to respond honestly, then stopped herself. How much should she tell this woman?

“I’m considering starting a personalized task force in my city,” she told Hana. “You should consider doing the same once everything calms down.”

“Let the Mississauga mayor through,” Joseph Dixon’s voice was heard from his office.

“You’re the mayor of Mississauga,” Hana repeated, recognizing the woman now from pictures in the paper and on TV.

“That’s what they tell me at the end of every election cycle,” Mayor Sylvia Gray said to Hana, passing her to step into Joseph’s office. Hana and Sylvia Gray’s assistant followed close behind.

“Mrs. Mayor,” Joseph Dixon said, getting off his chair. “I don’t think you’ve ever graced my city hall with your presence.”

“I have specifically tried to avoid it,” Mayor Gray told the middle-aged man. “But I always knew one of your failures would bring me into the belly of the beast sooner or later.”

“Maybe you should leave, Mrs. Lin.” Mayor Dixon said, looking over Sylvia Gray’s shoulder at her. “I can guarantee you’re not going to want to witness this.”

Mayor Gray raised a hand to stop her. “I think Mrs. Lin might find what I have to say quite interesting in fact.”

“And what about YOUR assistant?” Dixon asked the Mississauga mayor. “Or am I to believe she’s unarmed?”

“She is most certainly,” Mayor Gray said with insult in her voice. “We both are. But she can leave if it will give you peace. Jane.” The mayor said her name without looking.

“Misses Mayor,” Jane started to protest but Sylvia Gray looked at Jane and she left both promptly and courteously.

“Mrs. Lin was it?” Sylvia Gray asked, sitting down in a chair across from Mayor Dixon, and offering the other to Hana. “Do you know Rachel Lin Smith?”

“She’s my daughter,” Hana said, sitting down. Was this somehow about her?

Mayor Gray looked to Dixon as she told Hana, “Rachel is an extraordinary girl.”

“Yes,” Dixon interrupted them. “We all know she’s special.” What did they mean? What were they talking about? “Can you get to why you’re here?”

“I’m here because of a discussion I had over lunch with Justin Trudeau,” Sylvia Gray told the room.

“So? I had lunch last week with JJ Abrams,” Mayor Dixon told Mayor Gray with a smirk. “I can name drop too.”

Mayor Sylvia Gray didn’t seem amused at his joke. Instead she just called for her assistant. “Jane.” The portly woman re-entered the room, and placed her tablet down on the table. “Thank you Jane. I’ll take a tea.”

Jane nodded, and pulled a small kettle from her purse. She poured water into it from a water bottle, and plugged the kettle into an outlet along the side of Dixon’s office. Pulling out a saucer and cup, she placed both upon Mayor Dixon’s desk.

“Nice table,” Sylvia Gray commented pleasantly.

Dixon didn’t seem sure how to respond, watching her most critically. “Yes,” he said at last, peeling his eyes away from the mayor to look down at the tablet in front of him.  Hana followed his gaze to what seemed to be satellite footage of Mayor Dixon and her battling the cultists at the archaeological dig. Hana’s heart skipped a beat, and she looked to Dixon to see how he’d respond.

“This footage was taken in Indiana,” Mayor Gray told them, with a wry smile. “And this is the weird part. Those look like you two. Mmm and now the fun part. That.” The helicopter came into view, firing down on the cultists, and the footage paused.

Jane handed Gray her tea, and the Mayor thanked her assistant. “That helicopter belongs to us. It’s military grade, and Prime Minister Trudeau would know because he remembers signing the order granting you use of it over a 24 hour period. There were stipulations on that of course, including that it wasn’t to be taken outside of the Continental provinces of Canada.”

“I stayed within the continent,” Dixon muttered.

“But not within Canada which we both know is the worse of the 2 infractions,” Sylvia Gray chastised the Oakville mayor with disappointment in her voice. “You have to know better than to conduct military operations on foreign soil without full authorization of parliament.” She punched the table so hard it tilted. “You could have started a war.”

Mayor Dixon shook his head in denial. “Those weren’t American troops we were killing.”

“Just American citizens,” Mayor Gray interrupted.

“If I’ve upset the prime minister,” Dixon continued, “assure him that I had not planned to be attacked.”

“And yet you thought something would happen,” Sylvia mused with a sip of her tea, “or else you wouldn’t have procured the helicopter escort. Prime Minister Trudeau’s feelings have nothing to do with this. The footage came to us from the president himself.”

Dixon swallowed heavily, and Hana could tell he was intimidated by the much older woman. “The president was here? In Canada?”

“Someone I wanted to talk to less than you,” Sylvia admitted to him. “Least of all about something that wasn’t my problem. What you did, Joseph, was an act of war. And with this new president, we can’t tell how he’ll react. You risked the very peace between our countries, and for what?”

Dixon seemed pale. “I’m in trouble, Gray.”

“And now so are a lot of other people,” the Mississauga mayor said unsympathetically.

“So he sent you here to reprimand me?” Dixon asked as his anger rose. “You’re the mayor of Mississauga. Just because you’re closer to Toronto doesn’t mean you outrank me.”

“We’re mayors of cities, Dixon.” Sylvia Gray drank another sip of her tea and placed it gingerly on the table, her gaze narrowing in on Dixon. “We’re not military commanders. I’ve been sent here to tell you that there will be no more reallocation of military resources to your city. Not for a very long time.”

“What about you?” Dixon accused her, Hana knowing full well the mayor’s anger was coming from a place of fear. “What about what you’ve been up to in your off hours?” he asked her.

Sylvia Gray took a deep breath, finally handing the cup and saucer to Jane and getting up from her chair. “What I do in my off time is none of your concern, Joseph,” she told him sternly. “And as long as I’m not carrying loaded weapons onto foreign soil they aren’t any of the Prime Minister’s concerns either.” She beckoned Jane to lead the way out the door. “I’m saving lives Joseph. You might want to try it some time.”

“I’m trying to save lives,” Joseph Dixon insisted. “I’ve just been a little preoccupied with one specific life.”

“See that’s your problem right there,” Sylvia Gray said, stepping forward to grab her tablet. “To quote a popular Vulcan, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” Instead of leaving with the tablet, she seemed to be searching on it for something. “Whatever trouble you’ve gotten yourself in, I won’t be the one to dig you out. And now neither will the government. I’m sure whatever you’re going through, it’s no more than you deserve.”

“That’s a little harsh,” Hana accused the Mississauga mayor. “Don’t you think?”

“What I think,” Sylvia Gray told Hana, “is that the President has agreed not to declare war as long as we give him open borders for a military operation of his own.”

She placed the tablet back on the table, this time with pictures of two teens. One was a girl with long black hair and dark eyes. The other was a scrawny sickly kid with reddish blonde hair and a sickly look in his blue eyes. “He’s looking for these two kids,” Sylvia told them. “Do either of you know who they are?”

Hana shook her head. “I’ve never seen these kids before in my life.”

“I try to avoid children, myself.” Dixon didn’t give it much of his attention.

“Including your own?” Hana mused, only imagining what a horrible father he probably was to his daughter. Turning her attention back to Gray she asked, “Who are they?”

“I don’t know yet,” Sylvia Gray admitted to the two of them. “But if I’m to find them before the US does, I’m gonna have to figure that out.”

*     *     *

Alice was watching the new kid from her spot in the hallway, and she didn’t like what she saw. Red hair and blue eyes was HER thing!

“All day I’ve been beside that guy,” Tanya said, joining Alice. Tanya didn’t have any make up on and seemed to be keeping things casual, and yet Alice thought Tanya was still prettier than her.

“How is he?” Alice asked her friend, not really all that interested.

“He’s a nice guy,” Tanya told her. Well if he was so nice, maybe Tanya should go be his friend instead.

Tanya seemed to notice Alice’s frustration. “You okay? I’m sorry I had to leave you all day. It was Hurley’s orders.” Tanya handed Alice an imaginary rope. “Now YOU hold my leash.”

“That’s not enough,” Alice said, dropping the imaginary rope on the ground. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“What is it?” Tanya asked with concern. “What did I do?”

“You keep me out of everything,” Alice told her friend.

“I told you I had to give this tour…”

“Not that,” Alice corrected Tanya. “Your new friendships. Whenever you get a new friend you throw me away like a used diaper.” She was fuming now, her anger had been building for some time. “How come I was never invited to any of your sleepovers with Deisha? I don’t even know where you live. I want to share in the relationship you have with Rachel.”

“You want to have a threesome?” Tanya asked with bewilderment. What the school president meant by that didn’t immediately sink in for Alice. But after a few seconds it did, and her mind broke.

The thought unsettled again. It couldn’t be true. Tanya wasn’t a lesbian. Though it did make a lot of sense didn’t it? No. But what Andrew said. But how would Andrew know? What about Rachel, the way she’d been acting? Oh god, what about Deisha? Oh god Deisha. Gross.

What did this mean? Tanya was looking at Alice expecting a response but what would she say? “I think I’ve made a mistake,” she said at last, coming across a bit like a computer. Her mind felt numb.

Tanya went into the classroom where they were having the school newspaper meeting, and Alice’s feet dutifully followed behind her, even though the redhead’s mind was stuck in a feedback loop.

“Sorry I’ve been away so long,” Tanya told the group, but stopped so fast that Alice walked into her back. “What the hell is this?”

Bilal was at the front of the classroom, pitching his new design for the newspaper. Andrew, Jason, and Gordon were among the twenty or so students who had showed up for the meeting, and Mrs. Phelps was watching from her desk in the corner.

“Aww,” Bilal said to Tanya. “Didn’t you get the memo? I sent it to your email.” Tanya checked her phone and then raised it for all to see.

“One thousand seven hundred and twenty seven unread emails,” She told the group, showing her phone around for all to see. “Good luck on yours being the one that gets through.”

“Well there was a vote,” Bilal told her. “It was unanimous. I’m the Editor in Chief now.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tanya said, looking around the room.

“That’s democracy at work, dear.” It was Mrs. Phelps. “If you don’t appease the people, they’re just gonna find someone else.”

Alice thought Tanya was going to punch Bilal. Her fists were certainly balled, and the looks she was giving him were like daggers. “Let’s just go,” the school president said at last.

“You don’t have to leave,” Bilal insisted. “You can always work under me.”

Andrew had a particularly annoying grin on his face. “I could use a partner,” he suggested. “I was just about to pitch an article. It’s on the rise of homosexuality in schools.” There was no doubt about it. He knew about Tanya and Rachel. “Personally I think it’s the opening of people’s minds through the growing impact of gay culture in our society.” Again Tanya looked like she was going to respond with fists and knock the very grin off Andrew’s face. “I think the more people talk about being gay, the more others realize it’s okay for them to be gay.”

Tanya let him finish, then grabbed Alice’s hand. “You think you’re so funny?” she asked Andrew, her voice threatening like a volcano about to explode. “You know, Alice was telling me how she wants to be more involved in what I’ve been getting up to with Rachel. Since you know so much, why don’t you tell us. Huh Andrew? Come on. Tell her, and everyone else. What have Rachel and I been up to at night?”

Andrew was quiet, for perhaps the first time in his life, and he shook his head with what seemed more like a squirm in his seat.

“Tanya,” Alice called after her friend, pulling on the hand in an attempt to convince her friend to leave but it was no use.

“Nothing?” Tanya asked. “Alright, let me show you. And you can put it on the front of next week’s paper.” Tanya swung Alice around in front of her in one smooth motion, and planted her lips on the ginger’s mouth.

Alice was surprised that it was more than just a stage kiss, that Tanya’s tongue stroked against hers. Alice was picked up and sat up on Andrew’s table, where Tanya splayed her out painfully on top of all of Andrew’s things. Alice could feel a pen dig into her side, but she ignored it as Tanya’s body pressed up close against hers, and their lips met once more. Andrew was watching very closely with his mouth wide open.

Alice had never kissed a girl before, and she was starting to understand why it was becoming so popular. Tanya on the other hand was no longer paying attention to her. Instead Tanya had grabbed a water bottle from the table and poured it over Andrew’s head as she got off Alice.

“Did you like that?” Tanya asked, leaning in close to Andrew’s ear as she passed him for the door. “Merry fucking Christmas.”

Alice couldn’t move, still breathless from what had happened. She’d never in a million years imagined a scenario in which Tanya would have kissed her. Well maybe that wasn’t true.

Andrew seemed to be watching her, and she looked back confused.

“How was it?” He asked her in awe.

*     *     *

Ian and Rachel got off the bus into the freezing cold. The wind had picked up, as had the snowfall, and Ian hugged tightly to his jacket. Rachel, it seemed, had no problem with the snow. In fact, without the sun, she was able to take off her hoody, and Ian had to admit she looked good in her tight jeans under a black skirt, and black spaghetti strap undershirt. She still had her long black gloves, and carried her sweater in one hand.

“You look good,” he told her, speaking his mind. “Cold, but good.”

“I don’t even feel it,” Rachel said, looking down at her phone. “It’s your turn.”

Ian looked at his phone. They were playing Magic the Gathering Duels, battling each other with digital decks they’d made. Hers was a blue deck, and it was wiping the floor with Ian. She still had four untapped mana, and Ian had to wonder what she was planning.

His fingers were freezing quickly, as Ian led Rachel towards the apartment building he was looking for, and looking back to his phone he selected a dragon card from his deck.

“Maybe this Summon 8/8 dragon will do the trick,” Ian said, using up all his mana.

“I don’t think so,” Rachel said, countering it. Ian could have countered her counter, but he was out of mana.

“Dammit,” Ian swore, putting his hands away as they were too cold. “I get it, you win.”

Rachel giggled. “You’re a sore loser,” she told him, grabbing his arm and cuddling in close. Ian was surprised at how warm she was to his touch. She was usually so cold. But the way she was leaning her head on him, he wondered if a vampire’s sex drive warmed their body to make themselves more appealing for sex. To attract prey to feed. After all, he didn’t think a cold vagina would be very appealing to any guy; his dick was already shrunken as it was in the cold weather under three layers. The frost was so penetrating he felt like his balls were lifting up into his chest.

But then Rachel’s hands reached under his shirt and he felt her warmth spread through his body. He wanted to kiss her, but he knew his best chance would be to wait.

“I think Mason is hiding something,” Rachel said, and it took Ian a moment to remember who Mason was.

“The new kid?”

“Remember that girl he talked to at lunch,” Rachel asked. Ian didn’t really, at least until she mentioned it.

“Let me guess,” Ian said, “you listened in on their conversation.”

“I happened to overhear,” Rachel corrected him with a slight giggle, “That she was armed. And she said something about being locked up, and not wanting that to happen again.”

“Can you blame her?” he asked Rachel as they got to the front doors of the high rise. “I wouldn’t want to be locked up for any amount of time. Also we’re here.”

“Posh,” she said, impressed at the inside. “But so what if they’re running from something or someone? What if they’re wanted criminals?”

“I dunno, Rachel.” Ian typed the room number into the intercom. “It seems to me that you, like Andrew, are trying to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and start trouble. If she’s armed, and we don’t even know if that means guns, swords, or hot sauce…”

The door opened without anyone even talking through the intercom, and Ian let Rachel go first.

“I’m just saying,” he continued, “Maybe the right thing to do is stay the heck out of it.” They passed the security guards and got in an elevator. He hit the right floor number.

“Wait till you meet this woman I’m taking you to,” Ian told her in an attempt to change the topic. “She’s a blacksmith.”

Rachel shrugged. “I didn’t think anyone was a blacksmith anymore,” she admitted honestly.

“Seriously I think you’ll like her,” he told his vampire friend as the elevator reached its floor.

The blacksmith was waiting at the door to her apartment. She was wearing some kind of long lacey night dress. “I thought that was you, Ian,” She said as she beckoned them inside. “Sorry we’re gonna have to do this quick. I have a dinner with my parents in ten minutes.”

“Sorry about that, Helen,” Ian said as she went around him to grab something from her workshop.

“Not at all,” she called out from where they couldn’t see her. “Oh I hope neither of you need to use the bathroom, I just took a massive dump.”

“Oh yeah,” Rachel muttered sarcastically. “She’s great.”

“Here it is,” She came back out carrying a thick black cane.

“A cane?” Rachel asked, looking at Ian in confusion. “You got me a cane?”

Helen the blacksmith raised a finger and shook her head, her fancy dinner earrings rattling against her cheeks. “Not just a cane.” She held it out for Rachel handle first, and the teen vampire took it by the smooth straight hilt. It was adorned with a diamond and was quite pretty, Rachel had to admit.

“Turn,” Helen instructed Rachel, who did as she was told and seemed surprised to find the handle came loose from the rest of the cane, and a sword came out with it. It was small, bigger than Arya Stark’s needle in Game of Thrones but smaller than a normal length sword. The blade was as wide as the handle, and flat. Sharp. And rectangular at the tip. Almost like a small agile machete.

“This is amazing,” she told Helen, who seemed proud of her work.

“I was told you were short,” she said, “So I tried to design it with your size in mind and I think it payed off.” Rachel took a couple swings.

“How does it feel?” Ian asked his friend, feeling excited with her.

“Like it’s a part of me,” she told him. “Better than any sword I’ve ever held in my entire life.”

Helen smiled, something all three of them were doing now. “That’s what I was going for,” she told the two teens, and Ian knew this was going to cost him. He’d been saving his money for quite a while now, and this seemed more than worth it.

“I based the design of the weapon on the Ninjutsu Tanto short sword, often used as an offhand weapon. The round handle that goes right to the blade is based off their traditional Tanto style.”

“This is so cool,” Rachel said, looking at Ian in such a way as to make his heart skip.

“The handle is usually non-descript,” Helen continued giving Rachel the tour of her new weapon, “but I included that diamond on the hilt. The blade is thin, but the metal is strong. And it’s said the diamond will keep it even stronger.”

“How?” Rachel asked, looking closely at the diamond. “It’s beautiful.” Ian wasn’t sure if she meant the diamond or the whole sword.

“She got the diamond off a wedding ring I bought you for Christmas,” Ian told Rachel at last. The cat was going to be out of the bag, eventually, it seemed.

“You told me you didn’t get me anything,” Rachel said, looking at Ian as her sword dropped to her side.

“I didn’t want the ring to push you away,” Ian admitted. He hadn’t known how to break that to her, but he was pretty satisfied with what he landed on.

“Two months and you said nothing?” Rachel mused, and Ian knew it had been awkward between them lately. Awkward and angry. “Why can’t we get this to work between us.”

“Love is hard,” Helen suggested to her. “The diamond in the hilt should be capable of amplifying your love for Ian into the strength of the sword. At least that’s what I read in a book. I’ve never seen it done successfully.”

“But what if my love is complicated?” Rachel asked, pointing her sword at him in such a way as to encourage him to sidestep.

“It doesn’t matter,” Helen told Rachel, helping her slide it back into its cane shaped scabbard. “Love is love, no matter what form it takes. It always comes from a place of power inside of you. Again, in theory.”

“It really could all just be a dumb wives tale,” she admitted to them.

“We’ve seen some unbelievable things before,” Ian told the blacksmith. Though he was usually the more Scully of the group, he wanted to believe this time in the magic of love. Wasn’t any crazier than the blood magic he’d seen in Detroit.

 “There’s another thing,” Helen told Rachel. “While the sword is in the scabbard, turn the handle the other way…” she trailed off as Rachel did as she was told, and the cane transformed into an umbrella. It seemed what looked like a hardwood cane had actually been camouflaged fabric that expanded outward like Batman’s cape.

“He mentioned you like umbrellas,” Helen told her, and she giggled, sharing a glance at Ian.

“Thank you,” she mouth to him.

“It’s extra durable, I thickened the arms and the track, and built it into the cane  so that it all hides away perfect when you’re done.”

“You can’t even tell it’s an umbrella,” Rachel said, closing it up again.

“It should even slow your fall, if you happen to find yourself falling out of a plane or something. Not much mind, but maybe enough to hurt really bad, instead of actually kill you.”

“You’re kidding me,” Ian said, hoping Rachel didn’t plan on testing that any time soon. For one thing, he found Mary Poppins to be an exceptionally irritating film.

“When I said I designed all this,” Helen corrected them as she grabbed her keys from inside a Viking helmet. “I actually had help from my father. He owns a pawn shop downtown but he also did all the mechanical work on the scabbard.”

“You’ll have to tell him thanks for me,” Rachel said, placing the foot of the cane on the ground and smiling at Ian. “How do I look?”

“Just like I imagined,” he told her, and he felt like swooping her into his arms.

“I think he wants to kiss you,” Helen told Rachel, and Ian blushed.

Rachel didn’t blush, however, but instead stepped forward and leaned onto her tippy toes to plant a kiss on Ian’s lips. Only she didn’t plant it, she held it. Ian embraced her and her tongue traced around his upper lip, giving it a little flick as they parted.

“See. Young kids in love,” Helen said, beckoning them out of the apartment. “Now you too probably want to be alone right now, and I really need to go to this dinner.”

Before Ian knew it he was back out in the cold. The snow was getting worse, and it was starting to pile up a little on the pavement.

“Here,” Rachel said, activating her ‘cane’brella and passing it to Ian to hold. He held it over the both of them as they made it back to the bus stop.

“Thank you Ian,” Rachel said. “It’s awesome, and exactly what I didn’t even know I wanted.”

“I care about you Rachel,” Ian started to say, but Rachel kissed him again. He wasn’t quite sure why she kept doing that. She seemed to be so much more aggressive than usual, but this time he was okay with it.

She pushed him into the bus shelter, thankfully abandoned, and he dropped the umbrella. As it fell, it also compacted back into a cane. The snow was coming down hard now, and Ian was glad it was getting hard to see for passing drivers because Rachel sat him down on the bench and started grinding against him heavy. He’d never gotten this far with a girl before, and never imagined in a million years it would be Rachel.

He was in for an even bigger surprise, as she slid off him and dropped her jeans. She was only in her skirt and strapless shirt now, and Ian leaned forward to slide his hands under her shirt. Her skin was cold to his touch, but no colder than anything else, and he could tell how much she hungered for him. Her lips caressed his skin, her hands all over his body. His fingers traced around her nipple, and she lowered herself down on top of him, inhaling sharply as he entered her.

She rose and sunk on him, again and again, faster and faster, a smile forming on her lips. She almost felt warmer, her flesh soft. Maybe he was warming her with his body heat? He was grabbing at her, couldn’t get enough, and suddenly her hands grabbed his wrists. She held his arms out, and kissed his neck. It seemed like she was giving him a hickey. And then she bit him.

He tried to struggle, but she was holding his arms in place. And to be honest, after that first moment of minor discomfort, it actually felt kinda good. She was still rising and falling on him, and it seemed feeding on him had only got her more into it. She was groaning loudly now and Ian was pretty sure he was making noises he had never made in his life.

“Shit,” he swore, and he felt himself release. He was pretty sure he felt and heard her release too, but he didn’t have time to linger on it as suddenly she disappeared and the bus was pulling up to the stop.

“Shit,” he said again, zipping up his pants, and grabbing Rachel’s jeans and shoes from beside him. Where ever she’d slipped away to, she must have been feeling pretty naked right now. At least she took her new sword.

*     *     *

“So have you two done it yet?” Hassan asked Jacob and Sabrina. He was kicking an empty bottle down a disturbingly vacant dirt path. Hassan had insisted this was a shortcut to his neighbourhood, and Jacob had to admit if Hassan took this route often, then it was no wonder why he was so tough.

“Done what?” Jacob asked, trying to ignore a rustling in the leaves. It was probably just the snowfall, which thankfully was largely obscured on their path. Still Sabrina grabbed tightly to Jacob’s arm.

“Have you done it?” Sabrina asked Hassan, though Jacob still didn’t know what they were talking about. If they meant walk down this creepy alleyway, than he was doing it right now and not liking any second of it.

“I’ve done stuff,” he told her.

“What did it feel like?” she asked him, and he picked up a stick to poke her with it.

“I dunno,” he said. “How would you describe it?”

Sabrina looked at Jacob who was still in the dark. “He hasn’t done it.”

“Done what?” Jacob asked one final time.

“Man,” Hassan said, stepping ahead of them again. “He doesn’t even know what we’re talking about. Why would you want to waste your time with him?”

Sabrina clenched Jacob’s hand tightly, and he wondered if maybe they’d been talking about sex.

“Maybe that’s what I like about him,” Sabrina told Hassan, and she kissed Jacob on his cold cheek.

“If you were my girl,” Hassan said with a whistle, “I’d bend you over and have my way with you for hours.”

Jacob frowned. “I feel like I should be offended.”

Sabrina patted his arm. “It’s okay,” she told him, “I don’t think Hassan knows what he’s talking about.”

“I do too,” Hassan insisted.

“Why are you so mean to people?” Jacob asked their bully and his long time nemesis.

“It’s probably because his dad is mean to him,” Sabrina told Jacob.

“I wouldn’t know,” Hassan said, whipping the stick angrily at them. It wasn’t heavy and bounced harmlessly away but he wasn’t trying to hurt them. This was, in fact, the most open Jacob had ever seen Hassan. “He’s never around. Works two full time jobs to pay the bills. When he’s not working, he’s sleeping. I’ve been taking care of myself for years since…” Hassan stopped talking and trudged on ahead alone, in silence.

“Since what?” Sabrina called after him. “What happened to your mom?”

“Nothin,” Hassan yelled back to her. “Just mind your own damn business.” Jacob knew what had happened to his mom. It had been the talk of the town for a while. She’d shown up at a lot of the parent council meetings and there was always gossip amongst the parents when things went bad.

“She suffered from chronic pain,” Jacob told Sabrina, remembering the story. “It wasn’t deemed severe enough for treatment to be covered by the government, but it got severe enough that one day she took her own life.”

“Oh my god,” Sabrina muttered.

“This is it,” Hassan called from up ahead. He was standing in front of a small one floor house with a messy unkempt lawn. “My place is further up that ways, so I’ll catch you losers later.”

“You’re not coming with us to talk to his parents?” Sabrina asked, but he was already leaving them.

“Hell no,” Hassan said over his shoulder. “It’s not my problem.”

Sabrina shook her head with disgust. “He’s despicable,” she said, and Jacob hugged her.

“Come on,” he said, and the two of them made their way up to the porch. The wood of the porch seemed to be rotting, and Jacob wasn’t sure he wanted to take another step.

“What if Hassan led us to the wrong house,” Sabrina asked, talking so fast Jacob could tell she was anxious. “What if inside there’s just crack dealers with guns, and they take us and sell us to be medical experiments or sex slaves?”

“Should we just go?” Jacob asked. Suddenly the door opened, and a tall black woman in clothes that looked more like rags and a handkerchief in her hair stood towering above them in the doorway looking down on them.

“Are you two kids here about Billy?” she asked them, and it looked like she’d been crying.

“Is he okay?” Jacob asked, stepping forward so Sabrina could hide behind him. “We didn’t see him in school and we were worried something had happened.”

“I’m sorry kids,” the woman said, and it looked like she was going to start crying again. “He disappeared last night.”

“I’m so sorry,” Sabrina said from behind Jacob. It was just like Hassan had said.

“Was it Hassan’s fault?” Jacob asked, determined to pin it on the bully.

Sabrina stepped in front. “He means, did Billy mention Hassan at all?”

“No,” the woman said with a shake of her head so that her black dreads swung around to cover her face. “I never heard that name afore.” There were tears, Jacob could see them, but he tried to be respectful and ignore them. “His friend must be devastated though.”

“Friend?” Sabrina asked. Jacob didn’t think Billy had any friends at school.

“Yes,” the woman said. “I can’t remember her name, but she’s grown quite a lot this year.”

“Stacy,” Jacob and Sabrina said at the same time.

“Yes that’s the one,” Billy’s mother told them, leaning in closer. “If you see him, please tell him to come home. Tell him his father isn’t too mad at him, we just want him back safe with us.”

“Speak for yourself,” a booming scary voice said from inside. “The boy ain’t dumb Petti! He knows the ass whoopin that awaits him if he shows his face ‘round here again.”

Petti, Billy’s mom, really started balling now. “You just tell him,” she told the two kids. “You tell him what I said.” With that she closed the door, and they could hear screaming coming from inside.

“How come everyone’s parents are shit?” Sabrina asked Jacob.

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Jacob told her, his parents seeming like the best parents ever in comparison. They were going to have to confront Stacy now, and he didn’t even know where she lived. That meant waiting till tomorrow on the school ground.

Sabrina was looking around for street signs, but the snow was really coming down now. “Where are we?” she asked.

Jacob had no idea, but he had one perfect tool for the job. His phone was equipped with the Uber app, and connected to his mom’s credit card. For emergencies of course.

*     *     *

Rachel didn’t know exactly why she’d had sex with Ian. She knew that she loved him, and had thought about what it would be like having sex with him, but she’d never actually thought she’d do it. Perhaps when it had been so easy with Tanya, she had just assumed it would be just as easy with Ian. And it had been.

What about Tanya? What would she think if she knew? Rachel knew she couldn’t keep playing them against each other, but at that moment she was with Ian, all she wanted was to feel him inside her. To bite down into his neck and taste him.

Had it been HER having sex with Ian, or was it the vampire? Was she even acting remotely as herself anymore? She sprinted across the rooftops, her bare feet padding softly in the snow, paying absolutely no attention to where she was going. She wished she had taken her jeans and shoes with her, but her mind had been so preoccupied.

She hadn’t needed to feed. She had still felt satiated from her time with Tanya, and yet she’d wanted to feed anyway. And when she wanted something, now it seemed, she took it.

A cold breeze drifted under her shirt, and drafted through her underwear. Any heat she’d felt when close to Ian, or Tanya the night before, it was all gone now. She only felt that way when she was intimate with someone, or her adrenaline was pumping. She wanted to feel that way again. She wanted to get into a fight. But as usual, Oakville was quiet.

*

Erika had to admit it, as much as she didn’t want to, maybe Jon had been right. Maybe there was really nothing to worry about here in Oakville.  She’d gone up and down its streets, from Bronte to Trafalgar, and found nothing amiss.

She was on Lakeshore now, and had found the closest thing Oakville seemed to have to a bar district. Even the drunks seemed docile, there wasn’t even a bar fight to break up. Erika didn’t know what she expected, maybe a secret operation somewhere. Perhaps an entire van full of the president’s men come to take her away.

But it really seemed Oakville was quiet. Peaceful. Nothing bad ever happened in Oakville, except it seemed bad weather.

And then Erika heard the scream.

*

Rachel heard the scream, and it wasn’t far from her. Slipping, she came to the edge of the nearest rooftop, and looked down at who had made the noise for help. It seemed a woman was being attacked in an alley. By a child.

It was a girl, no older than seven or eight, and it seemed to have jumped onto the middle aged woman, and was tearing at her skin. Blood splattered onto the wall of the alley, the child being far less delicate than Rachel had been with Ian.

Rachel slipped to the floor of the alley, even as another girl got to the edge of the alley. She had long black hair and dark eyes, wearing a baggy leather jacket over tight jeans. Rachel ignored the new person in the alley, and slipped to the middle aged woman to rip the child off her with one hand. The child flew five feet and skid along the ground another foot, getting up quickly and gnashing her teeth.

“Help her please,” the woman said to Rachel, holding her neck in a futile effort to keep her artery from spilling out blood onto the alley floor. “She’s my daughter, but I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I found her here, and she just attacked me.” The woman had tears in her eyes, and didn’t seem too concerned about her own safety.

“I’m hungry!” the kid screamed in a harsh voice at the top of her lungs. The child was a vampire, that much was obvious, but it wasn’t the same one that Eckhart had turned last year.

“I don’t think that’s your daughter any more, lady,” the other woman in the alley said, pulling out a pistol from her jacket.

“What are you doing,” Rachel asked, slipping across the alley and trying to grab the woman’s gun. The young lady raised her gun and kneed Rachel in the stomach. This woman was fast.

“She’s just a girl,” Rachel said as she doubled over.

“That ain’t a girl anymore,” the woman said, leveling her gun on the child vampire.

Rachel was sure she recognized the dark haired older teen, and finally she placed it. “You’re Mason’s friend, aren’t you?” The woman hesitated for a second, long enough for Rachel to reach out with her cane and knock the gun out of her hand and into the snow. The woman was able to twist her movement in such a way that Rachel was disarmed too.

Rachel jumped to her feet and jump kicked at the mysterious woman, who easily blocked the kick, and Rachel’s two punches that followed it. The woman was a brawler, it seemed. Like her and Tanya. Kept her arms up, didn’t bring too much flair to her moves. Rachel tried to match her, as the mysterious older teen went on the offensive, and hit Rachel with a flurry of punches.

Rachel blocked a few, but the lady in the leather jacket knew exactly how to get around her defenses, and hit her good. Every time Rachel got hit, she got worse at deflecting the punches and more got through. Soon all the punches were getting through and the lady finished her off with a kick. At least it would have finished off a normal human, but Rachel fought hard to keep on her feet. She planted them into the pavement, and the other woman looked impressed.

The mother, on the other hand, did not. “She’s escaping,” the mother said, pointing to an open window in the nearby abandoned town house.

“Damn,” Rachel swore, turning away from Mason’s friend and chasing after the child vampire into the building. Behind her, she could hear the other teen pick up her gun from the snow before going after her, but Rachel couldn’t worry herself with that now.

The hallway she’d jumped through the window into was definitely abandoned. There were holes in the walls, and cobwebs over the abandoned furniture. Everything was dusty and Rachel could smell death.

“Hello?” she called into the dark. She could see well enough to know the girl wasn’t there, but she could hear scurrying in the other room. She couldn’t smell the girl, but her sense of smell didn’t work on vampires.

“You really think she’d answer you?” Mason’s friend asked.

Rachel didn’t want her here, but didn’t seem quite ready to go five more rounds with her. “No guns,” she warned the older teen who nodded like she understood.

“You always fight barefoot?”

 Together they turned the corner into the main foyer where they found quite a sight waiting for them.

It was the child vampire, but it looked like she had friends. A lot of friends; maybe twenty or more. They all hissed at the two intruders, and Mason’s friend started reaching into her leather jacket again.

“Screw this,” the older teen said, but Rachel grabbed her arm.

“I said no guns,” Rachel said, and Mason’s friend punched at her.

“Let go of me,” She said to Rachel, as Rachel ducked under her punch. The teen kicked her and she slid back a couple feet towards the child vampires.

One boy in a blue t-shirt jumped at Rachel and she caught the kid in midair by the throat. She couldn’t let this woman hurt the kids, even though they were clearly not in control. The kid she caught was gnashing his teeth at her, and drooling. She threw the kid away into a wall where he made a deep dent.

“Get them!” A girl yelled, and all the kids went into a flurry of motion. They bounced off the walls, or climbed onto furniture. It was chaos. “They’re food!” the little girl continued to yell. “Kill them, eat them! String them up and bleed them!”

Mason’s friend had two guns out now, and was blasting away at the vampires encroaching on her. They seemed afraid of the guns, especially as one kid got hit in the shoulder and whimpered away almost like a dog. Rachel tried to move to stop Mason’s friend, but the vampire children were on her too. They jumped all over her, scratching at her. She caught one girl by the foot and threw her into another girl in mid lunge.

The kids were far easier to fight than Mason’s friend, but there were also a lot more of them. One kid scratched Rachel across the face, and a boy with spikey hair jumped on her back and bit into her shoulder.

Rachel screamed and fell to her knees.

Hungry Feed! Kill!

It was the thoughts of the kid, somehow she could connect to his mind while he bit into her.

Feed! Hungry! Help ME! Afraid!

Rachel could tell the child was still in there, fighting against the monster. But it was a losing fight. They were afraid, always hungry. Rachel knew how that felt, and she pitied them.

She could feel him probe at her mind as well. She tried to pull him off her, but other kids were jumping on her, beating her into submission, scratching at her skin, and gnashing their teeth at her. She decided to give them a bit of their own medicine, biting the hand of one girl who held her arm.

PAIN FEAR KILL

Rachel could feel the conflict within the children, and it threatened to overpower her mind. The girl let go of her hand, and Rachel grabbed the kid on her shoulder. She ripped him off, and he took a bit of her shoulder with him.

“Dammit,” she heard the older teen yell from across the room, and Mason’s friend open fired on Rachel, hitting the children around her. The kids scattered, and Rachel finally felt an opening.

Rachel slipped across the room, her vampire powers letting her move faster than a normal human. Appearing again in front of Mason’s friend, she hit the dark haired woman in the chest with both her palms flat, and the teen flew across the foyer and through the railing of the stairs leading up.

The gun happy teen had lost both her weapons, and had to force herself back to her feet. She pulled a large splinter out of her arm and threw it aside. “Alright,” she said to Rachel. “That really hurt, you Asian midget.” The woman planted her feet and took up a fighting stance. “And after I just saved your life? You’re gonna pay for that.”

Rachel slipped behind Mason’s friend, trying to subdue her in one hit. However, it was like the older teen knew exactly where Rachel was going to reappear. She turned and caught Rachel’s arm with her left hand, and swung a nasty jab across Rachel’s jaw with her right. Rachel was really rocked now, but the older teen wasn’t done.

The black haired teen in a leather jacket jumped into a flurry of punches, landing hit after hit on Rachel. As a vampire, she could take the hits and recover, but she wasn’t getting anywhere. Every time she tried to go on the offensive, this woman would just block and counter. How were her reflexes so strong?

The older teen kicked Rachel with enough force to throw her off her feet and into the side of a doorway hard with her back, tumbling into the kitchen. If this woman was going to keep blocking everything, then Rachel would have to hit the girl hard enough that it didn’t matter.

Grabbing a piece of plywood from the floor, Rachel swung it as hard as she could at this new girl. The older teen raised her arms up to block, but the wood shattered against her forearms with a hit that clearly left the teen reeling.

Quick to take advantage of the situation, Rachel kicked the girl as hard as she could. Still the teen tried to bring her arms up to defend, but again the hit was hard enough to throw the black haired teen into the nearby fridge. She left a dent in the door, and didn’t seem ready or eager for a third strike.

Rachel was about to finish the woman off, and then supposed she would drag the teen’s body from the building before coming back for the kids, but suddenly arms grabbed her from a hole in the ceiling and she was lifted up to the second story with inhuman strength.

*

Erika watched the small Asian horror get pulled into the ceiling by the weird creepy monster children, and she was thankful for the reprieve. She had hit that girl with multiple finishing blows and yet the high school teen refused to just stay down.

If Erika was being very honest, she had been about to beg for mercy when the girl had been pulled away. What was that girl’s deal? And how was she able to move so fast? Hit so hard?  Since what the US government did to her, Erika had never met anyone who was her match before.

Erika had to focus. She was in the center of a vampire nest, and she could hear the other girl still struggling with them upstairs. Up until that evening she’d had no idea vampires were even real. But she HAD seen the movie From Dusk until Dawn, and she knew exactly what she needed to do.

Searching the cupboards, Erika found exactly what she was looking for. She didn’t know if the half drunk bottle of whiskey had been left by the previous tenants or a homeless person staying there for a night, but she was thankful for it. Soaking a dirty dish rag with the alcohol, she stuffed the rag into the bottle and lit the other end. Opening the cupboard under the sink, she saw enough cleaning products and aerosol cans to serve her purpose. She threw the bottle inside, and it exploded with fire that quickly engulfed the entire cupboard. It wouldn’t be long now.

Erika should have left the building then, but she knew she’d never be able to live with herself if she didn’t at least try and save the kid. After all, the Asian girl seemed to know Jon Mason. She owed him at least an effort.

Erika’s abilities highlighted in her vision exactly where her pistols had landed, and she ran to pick them up. A child vampire came sprinting in on all fours, screaming and gnashing with his teeth. He jumped at her, swinging with his claws to scratch at her but Erika’s vision glowed with red to her left, and she brought up her arm to block it. Erika punched the boy in mid-air, and as he dropped she kicked him in the chin so hard he did a summersault and landed on the ground with a painful thud. Unlike the Asian girl she’d just been fighting, this kid knew to stay down.

Erika picked up her guns and quickly reloaded the only one she still had spare clips for. She then slid the empty one in her belt and headed for the stairs, careful to skip over the hole she had made previously with her body after that girl had hit her. Her ribs still hurt, and she wouldn’t be surprised if that crazy Asian kid had broken one or two.

She got to the top floor and sprinted into the master bedroom where she found the Asian kid being overwhelmed by the vampire children.

“Alright you creepy children,” Erika yelled into the crowd. “Leave the crazy Asian lady alone.” She opened fire with her remaining gun, and the children scattered to either side, some jumping back at the Asian teen, and others going after Erika. Suddenly the very floor beneath them exploded as the chemicals reacted exactly as Erika had hoped they would.

The kitchen below them was aflame, and the fire was quickly spreading to engulf the floor itself where they stood. The child vampires were really scattering now, jumping through holes in the wall and roof.

“We have to get out of here,” Erika yelled at the younger teen. The Asian disappeared from where she was standing and Erika’s vision lit up in warning. The Asian teen reappeared in front of Erika and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.

“What did you do?” The girl yelled at Erika, throwing her painfully through the wall and downstairs onto the floor of the front foyer. Erika was winded now, and her entire body rung from the impact. Her head was ringing; she could barely concentrate. The fire was spreading into that room. Erika tried to get up but everything hurt.

The Asian teen appeared at Erika’s feet. How the girl kept moving so fast, she had no clue. But she couldn’t fight her. Not now. The girl crouched down over Erika and bared fangs just like the children. She was the same as them! No wonder she was so strong and fast. The teen vampire roared, and Erika grabbed her by her torn up undershirt. They were both dirty, and charred, and cut and bleeding and hurt.

“You wanna play like that?” Erika asked, headbutting the vampire as hard as she could. The vampire stumbled off her, but Erika’s head was ringing only just as bad. She splayed out, unable to move, when suddenly her abilities warned her of imminent structural damage above. She rolled aside just as the ceiling collapsed on where she’d been, and Erika got unsteadily to her feet.

“Now they’re all gone,” the teen Asian vampire yelled at Erika through the blazing fire, lunging at her over the flames. Erika grabbed the vampire and tried to use her momentum to knock them both into and through the front door onto the street.

They both rolled apart from each other, and got shakily to their feet even as the building behind them collapsed in on itself.

“Why are you so desperate to protect those monsters?” Erika asked the Asian teen, yelling to be heard over the raging fire as she tried to reason with yet another monster.

The Asian teen punched at Erika but she blocked it. The teen punched again, and again Erika’s abilities gave her the forewarning to block the hit with her arm. But each punch was heavy hitting, and her arms were really starting to hurt. Suddenly the younger teen lunged at Erika, dropping her into the snow. Erika got a foot underneath her attacker, and threw the Asian vampire over her head.

“They can’t control themselves,” The teen vampire said, gasping for breath. Erika knew this girl wasn’t like the other vampires. She had tried to save that mother in the alley.

“They’re going to hurt others,” Erika tried to reason with her. “They’re going to kill.”

“They never asked to be the way they are,” The vampire pleaded with her. Erika thought the teen would come in for an attack, but instead she fell to her knees and started sobbing. “They’re hungry, and scared. They have no one to show them what’s right, no way to fight against the voice in their head. The urges that compel them -- It’s too strong for undeveloped minds like theirs.”

Erika dropped down beside the girl.

“Don’t you get it,” the girl whispered to her. “They’re me. If I ever lost control, if I ever gave into the vampire. I could be just like them. Everyday I risk becoming exactly like them.” Erika put her arm around the girl, scantily dressed as she was, and the teen sobbed into her shoulder. “And it would be so easy.” A chill ran down Erika’s back.

“Kill them,” the vampire muttered at last. “But start with me. Because we’re exactly alike. We’re the same, and if it’s their blood you want to spill you might as well start with mine.”

“I don’t think it matters now,” Erika told her new friend. “All your brothers and sisters have scattered into the night.”

Erika tried to help the Asian teen to her feet, but girl fell back on her butt, still dizzy from all the fighting. Erika wasn’t feeling great herself, and was surprised to look around and find all the snow nearly reaching her knees.

“Is this stuff gonna keep piling up?” she asked the younger teen she had only just been fighting. “Do we have to worry about drowning in it?” Coming from Texas, she’d never seen snow before. Certainly nothing like this.

The Asian teen vampire laughed and fell onto her back in the snow,  making a snow angel with her arms and legs. “Merry Christmas in February,” she said, still giggling.

Erika cracked a smile, and fell back into the snow, making a snow angel of her own. Only, hers was better.

Obviously.

Next Time on Urban Fantasy

It's code black, the emergency code sign Rachel and her friends use to signal a meeting. Usually only when there's a problem. A vampire related problem. And their problems have never been bigger. Also next week, we learn the origins of Jon and Erika. Where did their crazy powers come from? Tune in next friday, or read the screenplay on my patreon called Synesthesia. Finally, Rachel's brother Jacob gets into more trouble than he's prepared to handle.

*     *     *

This is the part of the show where I blog about whatever for a bit and then give my top picks of the week.

But I'm really tired today, so I don't have much to say. Just pulling all the rest of the post together has kind of zapped me of all strength. Maybe I should have set this all up before hand, so I wasn't trying to blah my way through it right off a long ass night shift. Did I mention I work nights at a coffee shop to make ends meet? It's not fun, but all I care about is my writing.

That said, I picked up a PSVR with black friday. IT's pretty amazing, and will probably show up below.

I hope people are enjoying this free writing, cause it's been a lot of hard work writing everything I've written so far (Four chapters, this length of each of the three books on my patreon) and I have many more chapters to write. I'd love to hear feedback, or just some acknowledgement that people are there, and they're coming back. I love you guys. Give me strength. Comment below, subscribe @AndrewGeczy on Twitter, or subscribe on my patreon at patreon.com/99geek

Top Picks of the Week

1.  PSVR Told you above that this would show up here. It's a lot of fun. I got the SKyrim bundle, with a second generation headset that knocked out all the kinks from the first generation apparently. I didn't even mean to be so lucky. Skyrim is intense, being able to reach out and interact with things from the comfort of my bed. I have my camera set up high so I have almost a perfect 360 degrees of motion, something I hear a lot of other PSVR owners consider it's biggest flaw. I really wanna get the Star Trek bridge crew VR game, that game looks amazing. So yeah, totally worth getting, but get it with the second gen headset, the camera, and the waggle dildoes. It's worth the extra hundred bucks.
    
2. South Park Finished another amazing season this year, though I did think the finale was a little anticlimactic. I liked a lot of what the creators did with the show, and the themes they continued through the season. And I don't think I'm giving that last episode enough credit. There's a lot to appreciate.
   
   
3. Mr. Robot
    Mr. Robot has been really good this season. I wasn't a huge fan of season 2, I found it dragged in a major way, but season three has been intense as fuck. I love when Darlene and Dom were drunk at her place, she was so adorable and giddy and happy, it was rare to see her like that. I hope things work out for the two of them.