99% Geek: 2022

My name is Andrew Geczy. My brand is 99% Geek found at 99geek.ca

I'm a writer, writing monthly chapters of novels like episodes of TV shows, releasing them in weekly parts (a teaser and three acts) on Sundays on my Patreon page at patreon.com/99geek At the end of the month the finished chapter is added to the PDFs attached at the bottom of every post. Finally, the finished books are self-published on Amazon.

Like what you read? The books of the current phase are outside the paywall (The pay wall is down for the remainder of phase 3) which means you can continue reading with the attached PDFs below this and every post, readable on any device, and certainly easier to read than the walls of text on here. Subscribers get access to my entire PDF library with thousands of pages of content. (Not anymore, the most updated PDFs are just attached to every post for all readers until the start of Phase 4 -- but you could still subscribe to show your support) I also release an entertainment blog every Saturday that ranks the TV of the week, tells you about all upcoming pop culture for next week, and goes over the news you might have missed -- and I do video game streams on Twitch and eventually post them all on my Youtube and Patreon pages.

So say something, comment here or follow me on Twitter @AndrewGeczy Your fandom is worth more to me even than money.

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My first book, for those who haven't been keeping up or are new to this site, was a novel about a teenage girl who gets turned into a vampire against her will by a serial killing creep. She escapes to her friends who help her cope with the changes and rebuild her life, and she goes on to become like a superhero for her town (And eventually a distant alien world). It's like Stranger Things with Vampires... and I wrote it before Stranger Things.

The full novel is attached at the bottom of the post, but I'm also going to attach a sample chapter from Act Three, when a swarm of bees ovetakes their town and Rachel Lin Smith begins to accept her role as a protector.

If you like what you read, please leave a review on Amazon, Good Reads, or just post it here, or tweet about it, or talk about it on Instagram. Speak your love out loud, and every person who does impacts my life in a very real way.

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Previously on A Suburban Fantasy:

Rachel Lin Smith was just a shy teenage girl until she was turned into a vampire against her will by an evil serial killing monster. Escaping from his evil clutches, she returned to her friends Ian Fletcher, Andrew Grezzy, Jason Stride, and Bilal Valenta, who have been trying to rebuild her old life, and help her cope with the changes she’s going through. She met the vampire Eckhart Ghens at the birthday party of the most popular girl in school, the student council president Tanya Daytton, who has taken a strange and romantic interest in Rachel. It was upon being attacked by a vampire hunter that the two girls escaped to the girl’s bathroom and hid, sharing a kiss in a moment of vulnerability.

Rachel has been having dreams about women her sire had previously killed throughout history, and she’s been drawing the people in her dream in an artbook -- one Ian and Tanya stole from her to work together and seek answers about what happened to the other victims like Rachel. Their search took them to Detroit where they were attacked by another vampire and learned that there might be more to one of their teachers than they had thought. Confronting Mr. O’Burn they learned that he had been hunting Rachel’s sire for many years. Meanwhile -- that weekend -- Rachel, Jason, and Mike Johns visited Mississauga and were witness to a strange anomaly caused by a rip in space time that they closed with the help of a modern day wizard, the current mayor of Mississauga Sylvia Gray. When Monday came, Rachel was shocked to find Eckhart had killed and taken the place of her Gym teacher. She didn’t have time to deal with that, however, before the entire city was covered in a swarm of bees. Just outside the city limits Rachel’s mother Hana Lin was trying to track down the Oakville mayor and her employer Joseph Dixon after he went missing, and she might have found someone who knows the secret behind the sudden bee swarm.

Chapter Twelve
“Alright, Here’s What We’re Going to Do”

April 24th 1904

I have been privy to many breakthroughs in science, but never have I seen a person twist nature's forces with such perversion. I despise my part in it, and myself by correlation. I dare not look anyone in the eye, even as I explain the events that led to my laboratory's destruction in West Orange, and the loss of power that was felt throughout New Jersey and most of Manhattan. No one could see my horror, or else attract more attention than Joseph deserved. Maybe it was best that our little secret remain buried in the wreckage.

I was not the only man involved on the project, but I dare not say any of their names else risk implicating them in this catastrophe. I speak not of them for they are not to blame. That twisted beast lies solely on the young Joseph Dixon, and I use his name freely, knowing that he has gone now far beyond anyone's reach.

When he had first come to us, I had thought like everyone else that he was mad. The things he was proposing were taken straight out of HG Well's science fiction, but when he showed us the science, it all suddenly seemed to be attainable. He just couldn't do it alone.

Joseph was a brilliant theoretical scientist, but a horrible engineer. He needed someone especially knowledgeable with the workings of electrical systems. Who better than the inventor of the light bulb?

So I helped him build his machine. It started in a small wing of my lab but our ambitions quickly grew to engulf my entire facility. I was a fool; foolish to believe all of Joseph's fantasies not because he was wrong, but because he ended up being right.

And it's not like the signs of his madness were well hidden. He often spoke of his fear of death, and his predictions of a future without such petty things. Where humanity would master immortality and answer all the questions of the universe. He hungered to get there. He was a man obsessed.

Even as everything fell apart around us, he could not be talked out of continuing the experiment. Even after the bees.

By all accounts it never should have worked, and yet -- the last thing I can remember is seeing him step into the bubble, and smile out at me with a look of triumph mixed with fear.

And then the building came down on us along with the swarm. Either Joseph died and is still buried there under all that rubble, or else he's in a whole other world beyond my very comprehension.

- Ripped pages from Thomas Edison's lost journal

Hana dropped the aged piece of paper, and it floated slowly to Kiran's floor. Hana had been invited upstairs by the paranoid woman, and shown to the woman's apartment where she had walls covered in pictures and post-it notes. She'd pulled one particularly old parchment off the wall and handed it to Hana.

"Where the hell did you find this?" Hana asked Kiran, after reading it.

"Tore it out myself," the woman responded, folding her arms.

Hana couldn't believe what Kiran seemed to be trying to tell her. She knew Joseph was capable of a lot, she could sense it the moment they first met.

But time travel?

"How do we even know this is the same Joseph Dixon?" Hana asked.

Kiran shot her an angry look. "Why do you think they've been after me all this time?" she asked rhetorically, some of her exhaustion and paranoia shining through her otherwise picture perfect poker face.

But what she was saying didn't make sense. "Who's after you?" Hana told Kiran. "You were fired, that was it."

"You're wrong," Kiran said, turning on the TV. "I only got away from them by going incognito."

"As who?" Hana asked, eyeing the woman's long red pig tails. "Pippi Longstocking?"

Kiran ignored her comment, her attention rooted to the screen. "You remember the bees Edison mentioned in his journal," she asked. Hana tried to see what had caught the other woman's eye and saw it was a view from the sky of a large bee swarm, the largest Hana had ever seen. So they'd finally figured out where all the bees went.

Then she started to recognize the surrounding landmarks. "Is that Oakville?" she asked with horror. No answer was needed, Hana already knew it was.

"Naw," Kiran said, jabbing her finger at the screen. "That's Joseph Dixon."

Hana's kids were in that -- her husband. She approached the TV slowly, her mind freezing in abject terror. "Do you know how we can stop him?" she asked Kiran. It was down to them to save her family, and her town, and she would do it with or without this woman's help.

"We can't stop him without driving into that swarm," Kiran told her, pointing again to the horrible sight on the TV.

They were replaying the same footage over and over again showing one of their news anchors reporting on location for a different story when she is suddenly, and quite to her surprise, overtaken by bees. She falls, startled and screaming, into the mass just before the camera goes to static, and the clip is restarted.

"You'd have to be crazy to do that," Kiran continued, and Hana knew that, though still paranoid, the woman was right.

* * *

Rachel found the child. It wasn't hard, even without her sight she followed the screams to a baby stroller. It was covered in bees, but so was everything and everyone. She'd already led the mother to the shelter of the school. Grabbing the baby, she held it against her so that no more bees could get to the boy.

It was still crying but Rachel tried to ignore it, closing her eyes and slipping back through the swarm to where the mother waited. It was hard focusing on her powers with all the noise. The bees were so loud it was deafening. Almost as deafening as her hunger, but she couldn't think of that now.

Counting her blessings, Rachel had to admit that for the most part the bees were ignoring her. She'd been stung a few times, to be sure, but the other's she'd passed were being overwhelmed. Bees, Rachel supposed, were smart to stay away from vampires.

Especially hungry ones.

"Oh thank you," the woman said as Rachel came through the front door and passed the woman her baby. The woman was crying almost as heavily as her baby, more so as the boy quieted upon sighting his mother.

"Here take this!" the mother tried insisting, fumbling for cash from her purse. Rachel hadn't saved the boy for a reward. If she hadn't of acted, the baby would have died. And she'd do it again in an instant.

"Pay it forward," Rachel told the woman.

"Oh god," the vampire heard a teen girl yell from out on the street. "Someone help me, PLEASE!"

Rachel went back into the dark of the swarm, slipping through thousands of bees until she got to the girl who screamed, crying and writhing in agony over her boyfriend, who was himself spasming on the concrete.

The girl grabbed at Rachel's shirt, pulling on her in a panic. "He's allergic to bees," she screamed loudly at Rachel over the roar. The vampire couldn't slip away with both of them; she still hadn't fed and was starting to feel tired. Her powers were a drain on her, and she knew she needed blood but she didn't have time to feed -- not while the kid died on the street.

Rachel lifted the boy easily, carrying him in her arms. "Hold onto me," Rachel told the girl, who grabbed her sleeve. She could smell the nearest house was just across the street. She could lead them there and find help.

He was foaming at the mouth, and squirming against her grasp. There was no way he was going to make it, and yet Rachel couldn't give up on him. She moved fast, but not too fast that the girl behind her wouldn't be able to keep up.

It took ten agonizing seconds to get to the door, and she kicked it open, uninterested in whomever might live there. The teen's life was more important than breaking and entering.

The girl closed the door behind them. The two kids were both ninth graders, from the looks of them but Rachel didn't recognize either one.

"Does he have one of those pens," Rachel asked the girl. She'd placed the boy on the carpet but he was still writhing and gasping for breath. Drool dripped down his cheeks and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head.

The girl shook her head. "He had a reaction to chocolate two days ago at my grandma's birthday. He ordered another epinephrine shot, but it doesn't come in till Thursday." Her eyes filled with tears. "If he dies because of that stupid Piñata, oh god." She shook her head. "I'd never forgive myself," she muttered quiet enough that Rachel wouldn't hear her.

"Alright," Rachel said in a bit of a panic. "So we need an epi-pen or like five and that should work?"

The girl shook her head again, almost deliriously so, as the tears flowed freely. "I don't know," she said, defeated.

"Alright," Rachel said again. "Just stay right here. I'll be right back." She slipped out into the swarm again, moving at speeds beyond human, to appear at the nurse's office inside her high school.

"I need an epinephrine shot," Rachel said before even looking around. The nurse, a Russian man with a long black beard, was staring out the window in awe.

"Ah," the man said, looking away from the window to eye Rachel. "Anaphylactic shock from a bee sting?" he asked the vampire. "Do not taunt the dog if you do not wish to be bit," he said with a gruff laugh. Grabbing the handle on one of his file cabinets, he tried to open it but the drawer was locked.

"I've got the key here someplace," he said searching his pockets, but Rachel was very impatient. The boy out there didn't have time for Mr. Pankovic to find his keys again. Crossing the length of the room effortlessly, she pulled the drawer free despite the lock, and pulled out a number of long syringes.

"Are these what I need," she asked the Russian nurse.

"They vil work," he told her, his voice surprisingly unsteady. It was only then did Rachel smell what she had never noticed as a human visiting the office. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. He'd likely been drinking from the bottle of Vodka in his desk only just before she'd shown up.

She supposed she should have thanked him for sticking to the Russian stereotype, but she didn't have time. Disappearing from beside him, she figured he would simply blame the drink and think nothing else of it. She slipped across the street again and rejoined the two grade niners.

The boy was still struggling for life, gasping frantically for air he just couldn't find. Rachel had the answer. She stabbed the epi-pen into the writhing boy and almost immediately he was breathing again.

He took a couple of deep loud breaths, rolling to his side and then puking onto the welcome mat beside them. "Guh," he gulped, overly happy to be alive.

"You alright?" the brown haired ninth grader asked, leaning down beside her boyfriend.

The boy nodded. "I can't even explain to you how horrible going into shock feels."

The girl hugged him. "I'm so sorry," she said sobbing.

"Oh hey now Millie," he said, seemingly happy to be getting so much attention. "I also can't describe how amazing epinephrine feels," he told her with a grin.

"You should stay here until the swarm passes," Rachel told the two as she tried to steel herself to going back out there. After all, there were other people out there who could use her help. She'd have time to feed when it was all over.

The girl, Millie, got up and thanked Rachel. "I've seen you around school," she said to Rachel. "Always thought you looked cool, but I was too shy to ever say hi." Rachel supposed no one in her grade ever really put much effort into opening themselves up to the ninth graders, though in her defense she'd had no idea any of them thought she was cool.

"Don't sweat it," Rachel said to them, blushing to herself.

"You serious?" the boy said. "You saved my life."

"I'm so voting for you for student president this year," Millie said.

"You don't have to do that."

The boy tried to sit up, still looking weak. "I owe you," he told her. "There's got to be something we can do."

Rachel went to the door. "I dunno," she said. "Add me to Facebook."

* * *

Ian had never seen anything like it, of course. He doubted anyone in the school with him had any clue what was going on, and still everyone gathered in the halls and talked frantically to one another.

Ian pushed through the crowd in a hurry, looking to meet his friends in the computer lab. Andrew had sent everyone a text moments before, suggesting they bring the think tank together again.

If there ever was a code black situation -- Ian supposed it was then, though it had occurred to him that this wasn't the first code black of the day. It had only been minutes since he was helping his best friend battle a brainwashed bully, and now things had gotten -- oh, so much worse.

"And it's all my fault," Ian heard another student say loudly. It was enough to turn Ian's head, and he recognized the speaker as none other than his peer Gordon.

"What did you say?" Ian asked the teen, who was rubbing the dark skin of his bald head with worry.

"Damn man," he cussed angrily. "I'm sayin I dreamed all this, Fletcher. Bee's been messin with me ever since I shot that nest with my experimental laser."

"Your-" Ian began, thoroughly confused now. "Wait, what?"

"I pissed off the bees by killin one o' their hives," he tried to explain to Ian. "and now they're here for revenge."

"You know that's ridiculous, right?" Ian asked, questioning the foul mouthed genius.

"Have you looked outside lately?" Danny McGreed asked from beside Gordon. "It's all Egyptian plagues out there."

"Yeah," Gordon said. "And it's my fault."

"Your average is like three grade points higher than mine," Ian reminded Gordon. "Surely you know there's a more reasonable explanation." He realized then that their think tank might just need the smartest kid in school.

"Just follow me," he told Gordon. "We'll figure it out."

"Ian," yelled another familiar voice. At this rate he'd never get to his friends.

This time it was his science teacher Mr. O'Burn, rushing to join them after hearing Ian talking to Gordon. "I took care of Eckhart," he yelled across the hall at Ian.

"Yo Burns," Gordon said.

Ian's jaw dropped. "Like killed him?" he asked O'Burn hopefully.

"No," Mr. O'Burn admitted. "But he shouldn't bother you guys again." Ian knew better than to assume that was the case. But they had bigger issues.

"We're meeting in the computer lab to try and figure out what our next move should be," he told the teacher.

"Can I come," O'Burn asked, seeming intent to make himself useful to them.

Ian shook his head and said, "No adults allowed." O'Burn looked like he'd been slapped in the face and Ian chuckled. "I'm just kidding." He for one would feel safer with O'Burn around. Especially if the teacher had really gone toe-to-toe with Eckhart and lived.

As they approached the computer lab, they could already hear Andrew's voice yell out over the horrific noise of the outside swarm that engulfed the whole school. "This site says that if all the bees in the world disappeared, humans would follow in four years."

They came in as Jason leaned back in his chair and glanced out the window. "We really have nothing to worry about then," he pointed out.

"That quote about bees is bullshit," Gordon told Andrew. "Like the other joke about us only usin' ten percent of our brains, some dumbass made a bold statement with an incomplete understanding of his own damn subject matter. One thing very few people consider, ninety nine point nine percent of all species that have lived on the Earth are already extinct."

"What the hell is he doing here?" Andrew asked, turning in his chair. Seeing Mr. O'Burn he added, "They're not in the gang!"

"Neither is she," Ian said, motioning to Alice. The red haired girl opened her mouth in protest, but Bilal placed a finger on her lips.

"Don't waste your breath," Bilal told her unnecessarily. "He doesn't listen when he's in these kinds of moods." Ian ignored him, but Alice didn't. She shot him a look that would break a mirror and grabbed his finger from her lip, twisting it violently.

"Aww!" Bilal screamed as he fell to his knees.

"So wait," Mike said, and Ian noticed him for the first time behind a row of computers. "If we use more than just ten percent of our brain, does that mean the movie Limitless was completely fake. Cause I've been looking for one of those pills that make you smart."

"It's called Ritalin," Gordon said with a shrug. "Amazin' what an ordinary dude like you or me can do with even just a little focus. Without all the damn distractions of the world."

"If you ignore all the side effects," Mr. O'Burn said, crossing his arms. "Can we put a little focus back on our bee problem?"

"Alright, new rule," Mike said to O'Burn as Ian took a seat beside Jason. "If you wanna hang with the cool kids, you're not a teacher anymore. Just one of the boys." He crossed his arms. "So, no talking like a teacher!" O'Burn raised his hands in surrender.

"I've been running searches since I got here," Andrew told them from over his three monitors. "A lot of people don't realize that the Earth has been around for a long time, and things that happen usually have happened before -- and if it's happened before you can always find it on Google."

His eyes darted from one monitor to the other before continuing. "Only I was unable to find anything quite to this scale," he admitted to them.

"Not surprising," Ian said but Andrew stopped him.

"Except for one reported swarm over New Jersey in nineteen oh-eight." Andrew smiled as everyone was suddenly interested in what he had to say. "I'm e-mailing you a couple links," he told Jason.

Jason pulled up the article he was sent, and Ian leaned in to read it.

"Whoa," Jason said, as he scrolled down. "Two days later and one scientist is still missing. A Dr. Joseph Dixon. And look at this." He showed Ian the picture of the scientist. "Look familiar to you?" he asked.

Ian studied the black and white picture of the scientist. "No," he admitted. "A young Alec Baldwin?"

Jason frowned. "Of course not," he mumbled. "No one bothers to pay attention to politics anymore." He pointed to the screen. "This guy looks exactly like our Mayor."

"Mayor Dixon?" Andrew asked from across the room as he typed furiously into his keyboard. He must have found what he wanted because he stopped. "No way," he said in surprise as he studied the picture on his screen. "They look the same, and have the same name." He tilted his head to the side as if it would give him a better view.

"I know this one," Mike said, joining Ian and Mr. O'Burn at Jason's computer. He had his hood up over his baseball cap, as if the combination of the two would protect him from the swarm if they got inside. "He's a vampire."

Bilal left Alice's side to join them at the computer, and saw the picture for himself. "Well then he didn't get turned into a vampire for another thirty years."

Jason pulled a new window, and started a search. "When you run for any political office all your private documents become public," Jason told them, "Like his Canadian citizenship. He applied in nineteen seventy-eight. And he was twenty five." Jason laughed. "And here's a picture." He pulled up a picture, likely from the mayor's passport, showing a young man with much shorter hair than in his nineteen oh-eight picture.

Other than that, though, they were easily the same person.

"The article from nineteen oh-eight says he was twenty-four when he went missing,” Andrew told them.

"Man I'm trippin shit," Gordon told the gang. "You guys can't be thinkin' what I am, cause I'm losing my mind."

"Time travel," Mr. O'Burn said, quietly at first with little confidence. When no one said anything for a moment, he added loudly, "It has to be."

"He's a time traveler from the past?" Andrew asked. "I don't get it. Are they invading? Do they seek to kill us all with their muskets?"

"They didn't use muskets in nineteen oh-eight," Jason corrected sharply.

"This is crazy," Gordon said angrily, stepping away. "You guys are all mad. First vampires, then time travel."

Mr. O'Burn shrugged. "You once told me you thought time travel was possible," he reminded Gordon.

"I meant theoretically," Gordon told their teacher. "Not literally, Holmes."

"But I don't get it," Andrew said, scratching his chin. "The bees show up when he travels through time?" he asked. "Does that mean the guy is travelling again? Is he going back to his time to tell his people of our superior weaponry?"

"I don't believe it's possible to go back in time," Mr. O'Burn said. "If my theory is right, travelling forward in time is more than simple, we do it everyday. Every minute. Every second."

"But if time is a dimension," Gordon argued, "then what's stopping us from traversing it any which way we please." He then quickly added, "You know, theoretically."

"I don't believe time is a dimension," Mr. O'Burn told them, going to the white board and writing the word time before erasing it. "I believe we invented time as a tool, a unit of measure to help us plan our days and live our lives. But to the universe, our time means little. To the universe change just happens. There's just forward motion."

"To go back in time would mean to reverse all the changes in the universe," he continued. The teacher grabbed a glass from Mr. Martin's desk and dropped it on the floor. The noise it made upon touchdown cracked like a whip over the whole classroom making everyone jump.

"It's easy to drop a glass and shatter it," he told them. "But it would be much harder to put those pieces back together again and return it to my hand. Once things reach a state of entropy and lose their potential to do or be anything, there's no going back."

Ian was trying to keep up but he had to admit he wasn't the greatest scientist. "So our mayor wants to travel more forward in time?" he asked with disbelief.

"Yeah," Gordon agreed, crossing his arms. "Why would he even stop in seventy-seven?"

"Hello," Andrew said as if it was obvious, "Star Wars."

Jason was reading through the article again. "Says there was a black out at the exact same time that he turned on the machine," he told them.

O'Burn nodded. "What if he couldn't find enough energy before to go as far as he wanted, and now he's trying again?"

Mike raised a hand and everyone looked at him. "We're not in class," Ian told Mike. "You can just talk."

"Oh Right," Mike said, lowering his hand. He threw Mr. O'Burn a dirty look. "See what you do?

He turned to the rest. "I just wanted to say that when Jason and I were trying to mend a hole in space that threatened to kill us all-" he high-fived Jason and continued, "-there were only like a couple hundred bees."

He looked around the room to gauge everyone's expressions as the roar of a million bees raged outside. "What can the mayor be doing that is this much worse than a hole in space?"

* * *

Joseph Dixon had never been a perfect man.

Like everyone who had ever loved life, Joseph Dixon was afraid to die. He was a rational man, and a man of science. He knew he would never be able to answer every question about the universe that he wanted to answer before he died. Especially not when he realized the answers only lead to more questions.

He just couldn't fathom it: leaving the world without ever learning the point of living at all.

At twenty-four he had already begun questioning the meaning for everything. Nothing made sense. Why were they clinging blindly to a rock hurtling through a vast expanse of nothing, and pretending that the business they got up to on that rock meant anything at all? Even in nineteen oh-eight he could see how pointless it all seemed to be.

A dark time was coming for humanity. Joseph already knew exactly what he could expect from his life, and it had a certain banality he just wasn't interested in indulging.

So he built a time machine. It didn't just come to him in a dream or anything like that even; Joseph had luck to thank for stumbling upon the first and most important ingredient to the whole puzzle.

Had anyone else stumbled upon the rock, they likely would have sold it to a local pawn shop for a couple hundred bucks blown away that night on liquor.

A smarter man would have taken the rock to a jeweler, who would likely give the man ten thousand dollars for the most unique and rare material they had ever seen. It would be a rip off, of course, as the jeweler would make millions turning that one rock into a hundred beautiful trinkets and accessories. Eventually the government would catch wind of the material and even more down the road learn how to unlock its true power -- but that was not what happened.

Joseph had seen the meteorite come down that night, and he knew no one else had. It was three in the morning, everything was quiet. The impact barely even made a sound.

It had landed in a wooded path behind his town house. He found it there in a surprisingly small crater and immediately took note of its strange glow. The rock wasn't in the least bit reflective, and yet it seemed to shine with light. He took it back to his lab and ran experiments in secret.

Alright, it hadn't been HIS lab. He'd done an internship at Thomas Edison's laboratory in Orange County, and it had been there that he'd brought the rock. In secret, of course, from everyone as his keycard access had actually been revoked after he'd finished his term. It was standard operating procedure, but he'd spent enough time there to know other ways in.

The tests he ran on the rock were inconclusive at best -- complete contradictions upon all the rules of physics at worst. What he got from bouncing different types of atoms off the hard surface were numbers far slower than seemed possible, and recalculating important physics equations with the new values provided results he could never have dreamed.

What was even more exciting was how the rock reacted when bombarded with electrons.

Within a matter of weeks he was ready to take a proposal to the board heads of the lab, and it was a good thing too as security had begun sniffing him out. He brought to the table all the data he'd collected along with his plans to create a time machine. He didn't tell them his personal interests in the project, of course, or that he didn't plan to take them with him when he went into the future.

Still, the men with the money were scientists and it didn't take long before he had them eating from the palm of his hand. Never before had someone been able to suggest a viable form of time travel, and never before had the science community ever seen an element quite like the one Joseph had stumbled upon.

Some had their doubts, and Joseph could still remember Thomas Edison's words the morning before the first and only test of Dixon's machine.

"You can't do this," Edison had said, joining Joseph in the lab. They were the only two people there, as all five of Joseph's assistants had been sent home early. As far as they all knew, the test was still almost a week away.

"Whether you think you can do something," Joseph quoted, "or you think that you can't -- you're right." He'd patted his colleague on the back as he passed the older man to grab the rock from its secure place in a thick lead safe.

Edison had followed him angrily. "I really don't think Henry Ford was aiming to stroke your ego when he said that."

"He was right though," Joseph told the man he'd once looked up to. "With nothing but a dream, I have been able to bend the universe to MY will. I have made time travel an actual thing, just by believing it so."

"And what place does God have," Thomas Edison had pleaded to the younger scientist, "in a world shaped by your consciousness?"

"What right does god have to stop me?" Joseph had asked. "Why do we die, when humans of the future get to live forever?"

"We're not talking about immortality," Edison said, though he had been wrong. He just didn't know it yet.

Joseph lifted the rock from the safe, and raised it for Edison to see. "I found this rock," he told the man, "and with it I shall meet god. You say I'm being egotistical? I say I'm accepting an award far more prestigious than any Nobel Prize." He smiled. "If anything I'm being humble just entertaining you right now."

"What are you even doing with that dixonite?" Edison had said, finally taking note of the bizarre situation he'd walked in on. "The tests aren't till next week!"

He had stepped back and looked around the lab. "Where's all your assistants?" he'd asked. That was when he'd noticed the movement of the centrifuge.

Joseph could still remember the expression on the man's face, even after thirty years. To think that the centrifuge they'd built back then was only a couple meters wide and yet it had seemed a wonder. He'd learned from their mistake last time. The one he had now, the one that was going to send him all the way to the inevitable future was as tall and wide as a ten story skyrise.

And today he would become the first human being to have traveled in time not once, but twice.

* * *

Tanya had been parked over the best make-out spot in Oakville; the one overlooking the harbour. She wasn't making out there, but it was one of the few places she liked to go to hide and think. And she had a lot to think about.

Only minutes after finding out the shyest girl in her school was a vampire, Tanya had lured her into the girl's bathroom and kissed her! Her life had been insane since, but she'd been going with it because, like it or not, Tanya was in love.

Now she felt like she was living a lie with every passing day she wasn't Rachel's girlfriend. She'd always been the sort of girl to go after whatever she wanted, completely unconcerned with the consequences. This time just wasn't so easy.

Did Tanya really have any right getting between the two biggest geeks at her high school? Ian liked Rachel as much as Tanya did, perhaps even more so. They'd been friends for far longer than Tanya had ever even known Rachel existed. What if Rachel didn't like girls like that? She never did seem to show much interest.

The fact of the matter was that Tanya could question her windshield all day, but she'd never get an answer until she just manned up and asked Rachel. She knew Rachel had kissed back in that bathroom. Just before Tanya had pulled that arrow from her shoulder.

People were allowed to act irrationally in extreme situations.

Tanya didn't know what to make of her feelings. She was conflicted and confused, and pretty much ready to drown herself in the putrid waters below when the swarm of bees hit. And sure there was a quick hesitation as Tanya tried to process what was going on, but all her thoughts eventually halted and were replaced with one clear objective.

Find Rachel Lin Smith.

At first she tried calling the vampire's name. After all, couldn't that girl hear a mouse squeak from a mile away? Tanya said the name quietly, and then again louder.

Finally she screamed "Rachel!" at the top of her lungs but it didn't seem to be of any use. Also she felt like an idiot screaming to herself in her van.

The bees were everywhere, pattering against the hood and blocking all sight in any direction. The buzzing alone was thunderous to the point of making her deaf. Of course Rachel would never hear her over all that.

Tanya quickly checked her phone, and wasn't much surprised to find herself with no reception. Didn't that always happen at the worst times? She supposed she could try to get closer to a cell tower. Better doing that than nothing at all.

Turning the key in the ignition, she was relieved to find that the van started without any trouble. She put the vehicle into reverse, and backed out of her parking spot. Though completely blind, Bronte harbour was one of Tanya's favourite places, and she'd always known deep down she could navigate it blind. She'd just never expected to be put to the test.

She started off slowly, turning the corner onto the small road that led out to the main street. She flicked on her high beams, which helped not at all, and continued to inch forward. Slow and steady would win the race this time.

She glanced down at her phone. Still nothing.

There was a strange bit of motion just out of view, and a loud crash that drowned out even the bee swarm for a moment. From what Tanya could gather, a car had almost hit her and gone straight past into what she was going to guesstimate was the old ma and pa ice cream parlour.

She kept going, completely ignoring how close she had just come to being that ice cream parlour, and as she came to a stop at what she hoped was the intersection, her cellphone beeped.

One bar. Enough to send Rachel a text -- and hope the vampire had more bars.

Tanya Daytton: I'm at Bronte Harbour

It was a quick text, but she hoped it would be enough. The message took a long time to send, but the familiar swoosh finally rang out and Tanya leaned back in her chair. She turned on her Grateful Dead CD, and closed her eyes for a moment while taking in 'Touch of Grey'.

Suddenly there was a tapping on her window, and Tanya jumped sky high. It was Rachel; that was fast. Tanya unlocked the passenger door as Rachel slipped instantaneously around.

As soon as the teen vampire opened the door, the bees started to swarm inside. Tanya gave a girly shriek as a number came in on her, one tangling in her hair. Rachel got in quickly and closed the door behind her but the damage had been done. There were a good fifty bees inside now, and Tanya angrily squashed one with her palm against the driver side window.

Rachel's hands suddenly began striking out faster than Tanya could even see, and within seconds all the bees were dead.

Tanya could feel her jaw drop. "That was kinda hot," she said at last.

Rachel grinned beneath her now messy black hair. "I know," she said. "You okay?"

"Oh yeah," Tanya assured her. "You?"

"Hungry," Rachel admitted. She blushed beneath her locks. "It's been a crazy day," she said, "but I promise not to bite."

Tanya wanted to say she wouldn't much mind if Rachel DID bite, but memories of the last time she'd been bitten by a vampire reminded her why that wasn't true. Instead Tanya changed the topic. "So how far does this swarm go?"

Rachel shook her head, "Haven't seen an end," she told Tanya. "Could be all the way from one side of Oakville to the other." She pulled her phone from her pocket and read a text message. "Andrew wants to video chat. Is there anywhere close with free Wi-Fi?"

"There's a McDonalds somewhere over there," she said, pointing to her left while putting her van into drive again. "Buckle up," she told Rachel. "I'll get you anywhere you need to go." Driving blind was hard, but with Rachel's superior senses the whole thing seemed almost doable.

"I THINK the intersection is clear," Rachel said, peering into the swarm with a look of concentration on her face as Tanya inched the vehicle forward again.

"You're just filling me with confidence," Tanya lied, looking both ways before crossing the intersection though it did her little good. And how would she know if she'd driven far enough to turn into the McDonalds? She had to make the turn eventually.

It was a miss, as she felt the wheels of her van go over a curb. She lightly hit something, the dull thud sounding much like the bark of a tree. Tanya was about to voice defeat but Rachel smiled. "I've got it," she told Tanya.

She hit a button, and put her iPhone on the dashboard.

"Rachel," Andrew said through the phone, his face showing up on its bright display. "What's the buzz on the street?"

Tanya winced. "How long did it take you to think up that terrible pun?" she asked.

"Tanya!" Andrew said in surprise. Evidently she was out of frame. "Where were YOU when the swarm struck?"

"In my van," Tanya told the phone.

"Bronte Harbour," Rachel told everyone listening on the other end.

Mike squeezed his way into frame. "Bronte Harbour?" he repeated. "Don't they also call that make-out harbour?" he asked Andrew who didn't seem to have a clue.

Ian pushed them both aside. "We've come across some fairly radical theories that we wanted to run by you," he told Rachel, holding a picture of a man up to the camera. "Do you recognize who this is?" he asked.

Tanya stole a glance and couldn't keep from snorting. Everyone turned their attention to her. She leaned into the frame and asked, "You're kidding right?"

"We think he's a time traveler," Ian continued, and Tanya openly started to laugh. Ian frowned but still kept going. "We think he came to our time from nineteen oh eight and he's looking to travel through time again."

"That's ridiculous," Tanya said, straightening out of frame.

"Vampires are ridiculous," Rachel told her with a funny look.

Tanya didn't respond but reached over and turned off the video chat.

"What the hell, Tanya?" Rachel asked. What the hell indeed. Tanya was feeling sick, her knuckles white and clammy wrapped around the steering wheel. Was she really going to tell someone else her secret? Last time she'd done that, it had gotten messy. This time threatened to be even more so.

"There's no way the mayor of Oakville can be a time traveler from nineteen oh eight," Tanya told Rachel. “Or any year.”

"I know it sounds crazy," Rachel said.

"He's my dad," Tanya said. "Joseph Dixon is my father."

"What?" Rachel asked in surprise. Tanya took a deep breath and held it, waiting for Rachel to freak. "But your name," she said. "Isn't it Daytton?"

Tanya shook her head. "My real name is Shawna Dixon," she told Rachel, "though I've been going by Tanya Daytton since starting school."

"Why?" Rachel asked, to Tanya's surprise.

"I didn't want to be treated any differently," Tanya said. She thought it was obvious. She thought Rachel especially would understand why someone might want to hide being special. "I didn't want to be the center of attention all the time."

"You should have thought of that before running for president," Rachel said quietly and Tanya blushed with embarrassment. The vampire had a point, of course, but once Tanya had realized that she could win, her pride just got the better of her. It wasn't her fault she was so damn popular.

"You must hate me," Tanya said.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't."

"I betrayed your trust," Tanya argued. "I lied to you."

Rachel shrugged. "You lied to everyone," she rationalized. "I'm really all right with it."

Tanya breathed a sigh of relief. "Please don't tell the others," she told Rachel. "Especially Andrew."

"My lips are sealed," Rachel said, "but I can't believe you've been living a lie all this time." She seemed to stare off for a moment, deep in thought. "Just these last couple weeks, the world has turned out to be so much more complicated than I ever expected."

Tanya laughed. "I know exactly how you feel." Then she frowned. "My dad can't be a time traveler." she threw Rachel a worried look and asked, "I mean I would know, right?"

* * *

Andrew's phone rung again, but this time it was Ian that answered. "Andrew's phone," Ian said to the camera as Rachel's face showed up once more on the screen. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "It's just been a crazy day."

"So," Tanya said, taking the phone from Rachel and peering through at Ian. "How exactly DOES someone travel through time?" She raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a theory for that?"

"Honestly," Ian said, "I have no idea what's going on." He turned the camera around so the two girls could see O'Burn at the white board. "But he might."

"Mr. O'Burn's with you?" Tanya asked with surprise.

"Hello Tanya," O'Burn said into the phone. "You don't look so sick."

"And you don't look crazy," Tanya said through the phone. "You can't honestly believe it's possible to travel through time."

"Well we travel forward in time everyday," O'Burn argued. "It couldn't be that hard to just speed it up." He stroked his chin.

"Yo," Gordon said, passing into view of the camera. "You wouldn't need to manipulate time at all. Just freeze it within a confined space. Like a bubble."

"Wait," Rachel's voice called out from Andrew's iPhone, "What the hell is Gordon doing there?"

"We needed his brains," Ian insisted, flipping the camera to face him. "We didn't tell him about the --" he suddenly noticed Gordon and Alice's eyes on him, and his words stumbled. "Err, the bitey stuff."

"Hey Ian," Tanya called through the phone, "that was real subtle." Ian flipped the camera back towards O'Burn and Gordon before he slipped up again.

Gordon grabbed a marker and drew a circle on the board. "I actually got this idea from Star Trek," he admitted to them. "'Course we all know what a warp bubble is."

"I don't," Tanya said through the phone, rolling her eyes. "I'm not a dweeb."

"Well," said Mr. O'Burn stepping in. "Warp bubbles allow the ships in Star Trek to travel faster than light. The way it works is that the bubble travels at super high speeds, but everything inside the bubble is really standing still."

Gordon drew a stick figure inside his circle. "Keeps all bad side effects of traveling that fast from affecting the people inside," he told the group.

Tanya's voice rang out from the phone, asking, "So you think the mayor is using one of these warp bubbles to travel through time?"

"Not really an intended use," Andrew muttered from his seat behind three computer monitors.

"If time isn't a dimension though," O'Burn argued. "If it really is just a measure of the forward motion of the galaxy..."

"...and there is no motion inside the bubble," Gordon said, coming to the teacher's conclusion. "Damn Burns, this dude ain't traveling through time at all. He's just freezing himself."

O'Burn took Gordon's marker and started writing out an equation. "The length of time the bubble remained open would be completely proportional to the energy provided," the teacher explained. "In Nineteen oh Eight, I bet Dixon wasn't capable of getting enough energy to send him as far into the future as he wanted."

"So we're talking less Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and more Demolition Man right?" Tanya asked through the phone.

"Oh," said Andrew, "you've seen Demolition Man, but not Star Trek."

"I like Sandra Bullock," Tanya said in her defense.

"You've explained almost everything," Rachel said, "Except where this swarm of bees came from."

"Well," Mr. O'Burn said, scratching his chin and staring at Gordon's crude drawing. "I suppose if time literally doesn't exist within the bubble, then it could be said that everything inside the bubble is outside of the universe itself and existing in just two places: here and some time in the future. Taking into account what Jason and Mike told me of your encounter with a literal tear in space, I can surmise that the mind state of the bees probably incorrectly identified the bubble as a similar tear."

"See NOW you're talking crazy," Gordon complained.

"And yet it happened in nineteen oh-eight," stated Jason.

"So what we're dealing with here isn't apocalyptic?" Mike asked. "Cause if not, this is SO beneath us."

"I'm not sure," the science teacher admitted. "I don't even pretend to understand the workings of the universe. I'd give the chance of his machine causing major harm maybe -- fifty / fifty?"

"That's reassuring," Bilal called out from beside Alice.

"In nineteen oh-eight," Gordon started to recap, "some punk-ass scientist named Dixon builds a time machine and almost has his trip to the future ruined by a swarm of bees. When he tries again over a hundred years later he -- what? Builds a big box around it first?"

"And the bees are all just like swarming around this one super fortified position," Mike tried to explain, finally understanding. "This is trippy. All the guy wants to do is travel through time and he inadvertently caused the worst natural disaster to ever hit Oakville."

"I'm still not convinced it's the mayor," Tanya said through the phone.

"You haven't seen the evidence we found," Ian told them, still holding the phone away from himself. "Either it's the same guy from nineteen oh-eight or our mayor is Clayface," he said, referencing the Batman villain who could shapeshift.

"Well they could always just go ask him," Andrew suggested.

"I'd love to have some words with the guy," Tanya said with a surprising amount of venom in her voice.

"Well that can be arranged," Andrew said. "I have a theory on pinpointing his location. I just need to find a top down view of Oakville." He began typing furiously at his computer.

"I get it," Gordon said, joining Andrew at his computers. "He'll be at the very center of the swarm, right?"

"Exactly," Andrew said.

"Well move aside Grezzy," Gordon said, pushing Andrew's chair. "Google Earth won’t be recent enough. You're going to need a live satellite feed."

Ian followed Gordon with the phone, and Tanya caught sight of Alice sitting in the corner.

"Hey," Tanya said abruptly. "What's Alice doing there?"

Andrew looked up from his screen. "She was mind controlled by Eckhart so we're keeping an eye on her," he recapped quickly.

Tanya didn't take the news well. "When the hell did that happen, and why didn't anyone tell me?" Tanya called out through the phone, "Alice, honey? Are you alright?"

"She can't talk," Bilal said from beside the red headed girl. "Or really make any sound at all."

"Can she text?" Tanya asked bitterly.

Alice's eyes lit up, and her phone was instantly in her hand.

"So when the hell did she come into contact with Eckhart?" Tanya asked.

"First period," Rachel said so quietly that Ian almost didn't hear her through the phone.

"Wait," Tanya said. "You knew?"

Ian handed Andrew his phone back. "That could get messy," he said with a grimace. "I'm running to take a piss."

"Grab me a coke from the cafeteria on your way back!" Andrew yelled after him.

Ian didn't get far before turning a corner and bumping directly into Eckhart's large frame. He was leaning lightly on a cane, a big smile spreading across his lips. Ian's heart stopped in fright and he backed away slowly.

"Come with me," Eckhart said, their eyes meeting for just a moment. It was enough.

"Alright," Ian said. Sounded like a good idea to him. Of course he still had to pee, but that would no longer be a problem as he let it flow down his leg before following after the serial killer vampire.

* * *

Hana burst from the front door of Kiran's apartment building in a hurry to get to her car. She'd already spent far too long in Burlington. Her family was in Oakville and she was doing the only right thing she could think of -- going home.

"You can't go," Kiran called after her. "You're the only one who knows about me now. I'm begging for your help."

"Then come with me," Hana said, shrugging impatiently and leaning against her car.

Kiran looked out at the black swarm in the distance. "What if it gets worse," she said, and Hana was reminded of her earlier judgments of the woman. Namely accusing her of being paranoid. Hana now saw that it was much more than that.

Underneath Kiran's tough exterior, the role she plays in public -- the force to be reckoned with -- was all a mask to hide the sad truth that she was little more than an afraid little girl.

"You know I'm scared too," Hana told the woman.

"Don't go," mouthed Kiran.

"We're all scared," Hana said, opening the door of her car. "But I have a responsibility. To the Mayor, to the city, and most importantly to my family."

She stepped into her car, and lowered the window. "Stay here or come with me," Hana said, no longer caring which the woman would choose. "But tell me where his secret lab is. Let me help my husband and my two kids, Kiran."

Kiran's features softened in defeat. "You know that new hotel opening up in Glen Abbey?" she asked.

* * *

"I always thought that thing was bullshit," Rachel said with triumph. "I mean how much tourism could Oakville possibly attract?"

Tanya couldn't help but frown at Rachel's comment. She'd always tried not to criticize her father's decisions in office because she knew how hard it was to make everyone happy.

She respected her father, and always thought she could trust him. She'd never realized how self-centered she'd been. He'd always taken an interest in her life and yet she'd never once asked him about his. Never even crossed her mind that there might be more to him than just her loving father.

"I think I have an idea on how to get us there through this swarm," Tanya said, changing the topic. She turned on her GPS, and typed in the address of the hotel. "With turn by turn directions we should have no problem navigating the roads."

"Please find the street," the voice said in her annoyingly monotonous tone.

Tanya rolled her eyes at the machine. "Easier said than done," she muttered, putting her van in reverse. There was a large bump as she went back over the curb, and suddenly they were on the street again.

"Keep straight for three kilometers and then turn left," the computer voice said loudly through the car speakers.

"That's what I'm talking about," Tanya said with satisfaction. She was back on the road again. She probably felt the happiest when she was travelling. She liked to be in motion. After all, wasn't it true that life was all about change?

"Do you want to talk about your dad?" Rachel asked.

"We don't know it's him yet," Tanya said. She wasn't quite ready to accept it, and really didn't want to think about it anymore. "Why don't we talk about why no one told me Eckhart was at school today?" she suggested instead.

"Well," Rachel said with irritation, "if you're going to skip school you have to accept that you're going to miss a thing or two."

Tanya couldn't believe her ears. "Are you nerd-lecturing me?"

"You know," Rachel said, "I don't know if I really appreciate the way you treat my friends. Last time I checked, nerds were cool or something."

"Something," Tanya said, peering across at Rachel. "I only like nerdy on you."

The computer chimed in suddenly. "Make a left now," it said, and Tanya followed the prompt. She was trying not to go too fast, and was happy that she wouldn't need to drive much further.

"Straight another eight kilometers," it said.

"I'm sorry," Tanya said to Rachel. "I'm a bitch, I know." She sighed. "It's been a rough day."

Rachel laughed. "It really has," she said between breaths.

Neither girl talked for a number of awkward moments, and then Tanya moved to make things even more awkward.

"I was going to ask you out this morning," she admitted to Rachel, blurting it out before she really even knew what she was doing. "I don't know why it was so important to me. I kinda fixate on things." It was true, she'd been just fine staying below the radar, but it wasn't enough for her. Last year's student council president had been easily the coolest guy, and Tanya had fallen in love with him. It had been to get his attention that she ran for president and won.

"Maybe not things," Tanya admitted. People; it went without saying.

Rachel didn't say anything for a moment. "Ian tried to ask me out today too."

"Yeah," Tanya said, "I heard."

"Well," Rachel said, "I'm going to tell you what I should have told him. I'm not ready for any kind of relationship right now. I feel so messed up, my entire universe has been thrown into chaos and the last thing I want to do is bring someone else down with me."

Tanya wanted something to say, but couldn't think of anything, and Rachel just continued. "I don't even know if I swing that way."

"Did you like the kiss?" Tanya asked, coming across as more self-conscious than she really was.

"That doesn't make me a lesbian," Rachel refuted. "Does it?"

"Yes," Tanya said. Rachel shut up, and Tanya laughed awkwardly. "I'm just kidding. Go on."

"Make a right in five hundred meters," the GPS chimed in.

"I'm just not comfortable in my own skin," Rachel concluded. "Until I am, I don't think I can open up to anyone. You or Ian."

"What about Matt Damon?" Tanya asked, trying to make light of the situation in an attempt to mask the emotional punch she had just felt in her gut.

"Well," said Rachel with a grin. "Maybe Matt Damon."

The GPS chimed one final time. "You have arrived at your destination," the female monotone voice said before silencing for good. Tanya studied the screen. "The hotel should be just ahead"

"Alright," said Rachel, taking a deep steadying breath. "I'm going to take a look inside; you should stay in the car till I get back."

Tanya was going to protest, but then the door was open and Rachel was gone. Tanya almost even considered doing as she was told, but that idea was quickly struck down. "Like hell that's going to happen," she muttered to herself, opening the door and following Rachel into the swarm.

It was worse than she could have possibly imagined. She couldn't breathe without bees trying to get in her mouth, or up her nose. They were everywhere, getting tangled in her hair, and her clothing. She was stung, and again, and again and again and again. She wanted to just curl into a ball and cry until death embraced her, but she was far too stubborn for that.

She tried to block out the pain, as well as the instinct to run around waving her hands in the air like a crazy person. Instead she tried focusing on just placing one foot in front of the other. Really really quickly.

So quickly that when she ran into the metal gate she'd completely forgotten was even there, she hit it so hard her nose broke. She fell to the ground, her face suddenly awash with a different kind of pain. Her vision was fuzzy -- and the bees were everywhere. She felt dizzy and sick and completely overwhelmed. Maybe it was from all the bee stings, oh there was another one. Or maybe she'd just been concussed on impact.

She could have given up then and let the blackness envelope her, but a figure leaned over her. A hand was offered, and Tanya let the teen vampire pull her to her feet.

"We have to keep moving," Rachel said, not seeming at all surprised that Tanya had gone after her.

"Stupid gate," Tanya tried to say, but the words came out as little more than a whimper.

"Stand back," Rachel said, and there was a loud crash as she presumably broke the gate down. Suddenly she was back and grabbing Tanya's hand. "Come on."

Tanya was more being dragged along than keeping up, her legs giving way under her more than once. There was a burning in her lungs, and a bee had flew awfully high up her pant leg.

They came to a stop, and Tanya could only hope Rachel had found a sliding door. Forcing it open, the teen vampire threw Tanya into a dark room where she collapsed against a wall.

Rachel came in behind her, through the swarm of bees pushing to get their way inside. The vampire finally got the door closed and, as soon as the seal was in place, the lights came on. There was a strange loud crackle in the air and Tanya could feel the hairs all over her body stand on edge just before every single bee in the metallic room suddenly plummeted straight to the ground. And then there was silence.

Tanya was thankful for the moment to breathe, her mind replaying the horrible journey from her van again and again in her mind. She couldn't speak, couldn't move, could do nothing but stare at the perfectly smooth and polished metal wall of the strange quarantine room they'd now found themselves in.

Rachel leaned over her and frowned as she gingerly touched Tanya's nose. Tanya flinched away from the pain.

"That looks bad," Rachel said. "You really should have stayed in the car."

"I'm alright," Tanya said, catching Rachel's eye stubbornly. She wiped the blood from her nose with her arm and said, "I just need a moment."

Somewhere close to her boot a bee struggled valiantly under some imaginary weight. None of the bees were dead, just seemingly incapable of moving. Reaching out with her leg, Tanya stomped on the bug angrily. "I think I'm going to be scarred for life," she admitted to Rachel.

"So not alright," Rachel said with worry.

"Just saying that was the worst experience of my life," Tanya said. She could still feel them all over her. Her skin felt like leather; she felt sick.

Rachel just nodded. "Top three," she said. Tanya knew things had been really hard for Rachel lately, but what Tanya hadn't seen was how strong the teen vampire had been in facing them. Tanya saw now that she wasn't stronger than Rachel. She knew right then that she was in love with the vampire not because of how fragile she was, but because the small girl was stronger than any of the rest of them.

Taking a scrunchie from her pocket, Tanya tied her hair back and away from her face. "Have you found anything," Tanya asked, wanting desperately to focus on the problem at hand. Mainly the accusation that her father was attempting to tear a hole in space to travel through time. Again.

"There's a control pad," Rachel said from across the room. "Requires a numbered password." Rachel shrugged. "I don't know what it could be. The door looks reinforced but I could probably break it."

"Wait," Tanya said, getting to her feet. "If it's really my dad then I should be able to guess his password." After all, he only ever used the same four digit code. One nine zero eight.

And then Tanya's brain connected the dots, all as the control pad accepted her input and turned green. "I'm starting to think it might really be him after all," Tanya understated.

There was another crackle, and an electric shock zapped the floor, killing all the bees. Tanya and Rachel both shrieked in surprise and pain, but they quickly turned silent as the door swung open.

Tanya didn't know why, but she was sort of expecting a normal hotel lobby on the other side of the door. It seemed silly afterwards of course, but she certainly hadn't been expecting what awaited them as they stepped into the main part of the building.

The skyscraper was in fact completely hollow, except for a large metal column in the center towering to the ceiling and covered in wires and glowing power conduits -- and all sorts of other things Tanya couldn't even explain. There was a system, or perhaps maze was a better word, of catwalks surrounding the column, and a number of large rotating arms spun lazily in circles around the center.

Though they had just come through the front door on the first floor, the building didn't just span out above them. There were even more catwalks below the one they'd stepped onto, and the tower continued for another number of floors beneath them.

"Ladies and Gentleman," Rachel muttered as she tried to spot the bottom. "Our tax dollars at work."

"You don't even pay taxes," Tanya rebutted bitterly. She didn't care whether or not her dad was guilty. She was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt; in a way she supposed she kind of had to. He'd earned at least that much from her.

"Dad?" she called out as loud as she could. The rotating arms were quite loud as they whooshed over her head. There was motion high above her, and Tanya looked up to see her dad's frame watching them.

"Mr. Dixon," Rachel yelled at him. "You have to stop your machine."

Tanya's father didn't say anything but simply watched from above like a silent observer.

Two security guards, one Asian and one Caucasian, stepped out from stairs leading out of sight. They were both jacked up as if on steroids. "We've been told to escort you out," the white guy said. "You should probably just turn around now. My friend knows kung fu."

The Asian guard flashed a white smile. "Don't mind him," he said, "Ayman is just really racist." He laughed and continued, "Of course, I really don't need to know kung fu when I can bench press two hundred and fifty pounds." And Tanya believed him. They were big and using their size to push Rachel back.

"Of course," Rachel repeated.

"Excellent," Ayman said. He cracked his knuckle against the palm of his other hand, and smiled, "Now we're clear, why don't you ladies make your way back out into that swarm."

"Mr. Dixon won't give us an audience?" Rachel asked quietly, planting her feet. They kept pushing, pressing right up against the girl's small frame and looking down on her. She crossed her arms and it was a standoff.

"This is completely unnecessary." Tanya tried to push past Rachel. "Listen," she told the guards, "My name is Shawna Dixon. I'm his daughter; I think he'd want to talk to me."

"Well you're wrong," the other guard said. "If you're really his girl, then he's the worst father of all time. We have our orders." His muscles tensed, making it quite clear that his orders included possibly roughing up a couple teenage girls.

"We're all friends here," Rachel said softly, not at all impressed. She burst into a flurry of motion, climbing the Asian's tall frame and kicking off his face to leap on to Ayman's back.

Ayman screamed and spasmed sharply in an attempt to shake Rachel off. Dangling from his neck, she choked him out with a sleeper hold and then kicked the other guard in the chest as the man rose to fight back, knocking the air out of his lungs and his ass back to the floor.

"Holy crap," Tanya complained, secretly relieved she hadn't shrieked again. "Those are people, Rachel!"

"I get cranky when I'm hungry," Rachel said with a shrug. "If I don't deal with this quickly and get home for a drink, I think I might bite someone."

Tanya's dad finally spoke up, his voice ringing through the building. "Interesting friend you have, Shawna."

"We met at school," Tanya called up to him, trying to play it cool. "Guess you and I both have secrets. I know all about nineteen oh eight."

"My password?"

Rachel didn't seem to be watching Tanya's dad anymore, instead she was searching the machine with her gaze. "You think that's important?" the vampire asked rhetorically, pointing to a glowing yellow rock a couple catwalks below them. It was situated in the center of the pillar, and every wire Tanya could see seemed to lead directly to it.

"I would strongly advise against touching that," Tanya's father called down.

"I bet you would," Rachel grumbled. She was already looking for a way down.

"Rachel wait," Tanya said, not quite sure what she was going to say even as she said it. "Let me talk to him."

"Good luck with that. Talking," Rachel said with a snort, "not my style." She was already climbing over the railing and grabbing onto a hose that trailed around the base. She flung herself to a control box a few feet below her, and shimmied along sideways as one of the rotating arms passed underneath her.

She dropped from there, to hang from a power conduit leading into the glowing rock. "How much you wanna bet if I remove this, his whole big machine just stops working," Rachel called up to Tanya.

She reached for the rock and, as her hand touched the glowing surface, there was a bright flash. Rachel was thrown like a rag doll across the lab, hitting the far wall head first with a loud crack.

"Rachel!" Tanya called as Rachel's body slumped to the ground. Her head had crumpled in an odd angle and she wasn't moving at all. Could vampires survive breaking their necks?

"I tried to warn her," Dixon said with little concern in his voice.

"Shut up," Tanya yelled after her father, really starting to panic now. What if Rachel was dead? And without her, who was going to stop Tanya's dad from leaving for the future? Tanya didn't think she had the strength to do it herself. She didn't even know if she wanted to try.

Still, almost dutifully, she found the nearest ladder leading up the center of the spire and she started the climb. She wasn't quite like Rachel though. Woman on a mission or not, Tanya had to say something.

"How could you keep such a big secret from me and mom for so long?" she asked loudly to be heard. She just didn't get it. "Did you ever love us at all?"

"It's so much more complicated than that." Her dad said -- and he was on the move, crossing the catwalk, and typing something into a control panel. He then hit two buttons on the wall and pulled up a lever.

"In nineteen oh-eight I'd stumbled onto something so powerful that I was ready to use it without even considering the consequences," Her father rambled on as she got off the ladder onto another catwalk. She jogged the distance across the catwalk to a rickety metal staircase leading up to an even higher catwalk.

"What consequences?" Tanya asked as she took the stairs two at a time. A rotating arm passed so close to her she was almost blown off, and had to grab the railing for support. "Like how you couldn't go back?" she asked once she'd regained her balance.

"No," her dad responded, "like how I didn't have enough energy to go far enough." He dropped down onto a lower catwalk and lifted another lever. "Like how the dixonite would be one use only."

"I didn't think I would ever get another chance," he said, leaning over the railing to be sure Tanya would hear him. Tanya reached the top of the stairs, and crossed yet another catwalk. This one had a ladder in the middle leading straight up.

"I arrived in nineteen seventy-five, and for a while I just tried to keep a low profile." He dropped to a lower catwalk yet again, and started making adjustments on something out of sight. "Turns out there was in fact a cult that knew about my time travelling. They'd read about it in Edison's journal, if you can believe that. They'd been awaiting my arrival. Ironically I'd heard of them before they got wind that I was here. To escape their gaze, I moved to Canada."

"And became a mayor?" Tanya asked.

"That was after. First I met your mother," he explained. "And to answer your question, yes I love her. And you. I thought I could make it work. I married your mother thinking I was ready to grow old and actually die." he seemed to shudder at the thought.

They were finally on the same catwalk. "You have to turn off your machine," she said crossing her arms. "There's a swarm of bees outside plaguing your city and it's completely your fault."

"Yes it is. The bees are an unfortunate side effect," her dad said, not seeming to be much concerned, "but we're well protected in here."

He tightened a knob, and pushed two red buttons. They turned green and he lifted another lever. "As for the machine," he told his daughter, "believe it or not, I haven't even turned it on yet." He smiled to her. "I still need to lock in all the safeties."

"But it shocked Rachel," Tanya argued.

"Yes, well -- the element IS live," he explained. Changing the topic, he pointed over her shoulder and said, "There's a lock behind you. Do you think you could be a dear and seal it for me?"

Tanya didn't move. "So what was the plan then?" she asked instead. Was he just going to leave them without even saying goodbye? "Did you even think about me at all, or mom?"

"Of course," he told her. "I've left you both a lot of money." He laughed. "Like I mean a lot. Printed as American one dollar bills, it would fill this entire building."

"I don't care about the money," Tanya said angrily.

"That's just because you've never been without it," He told her, once again treating her like a kid. "That's when you realize the true worth of money."

He stepped around Tanya and pushed the buttons himself. Tanya wanted to hit him; she wanted to start a fight. He was a bad guy after all. Wasn't that how it was supposed to end? She almost felt like he was daring her to strike him, to break the familial truce between them.

She couldn't do it. He was still her father. "When did you decide we weren't enough for you?" she asked instead as he pulled the lever up, locking it in place.

"About fifteen years ago," he told her. "I mean, I really tried."

"Oh I forgive you then." she said sarcastically.

"You wouldn't understand," he complained, leaning against the railing and bowing his head. "Growing old doesn't get any easier as you get older. I tried to be strong in all the ways a father is supposed to be, but I wasn't ready for my life to end like that."

He started climbing back up even as he continued, "So I decided I had to get resources if I was going to attempt the impossible twice." Tanya was following close behind him. "I had to be careful how to do it, or else risk catching the attention of that cult. I decided to hide in plain sight. Run for office, and become such a public figure that I would be untouchable."

"It worked," he lamented, "Better than that, it opened me up to federal resources like satellites I could use to monitor global radiation levels and find another source of dixonite."

"I think I know how the story ends," Tanya said, as her father reached the top and helped her up. "You found your dixonite and now you're only too quick to get rid of us." The catwalk there opened up into a platform at the top of the spire. In the very center was a small glass chamber with a single chair. The room was surrounded by computers and her dad started typing away at the nearest one.

"It's not like I was just going to forget about you," He said, looking away from the screen to meet her eyes. "In the future I was going to look you up at the first library I found, and learn all your wonderful accomplishments."

"Just think," he said, getting inside the small glass chamber. "If I were to stay with you now I'd never know all the things you would accomplish late in life. Now I'll get to see it all."

"F--k that," Tanya said as the glass chamber sealed itself, the hiss drowning out her curse. She was starting to feel sick. She couldn't listen to any more. There was just no way that she was going to stand there and let her father walk out on their family.

"Didn't you think it curious that all these bees showed up even though I haven't even turned the machine on yet?" Tanya's father asked. "Don't you know what that means?"

He sat down in his chair. "It means that this was inevitable." He pushed the only button in the chair, and Tanya realized she was too late.

"No!" she screamed through the glass. All the monitors surrounding the glass chamber flashed with a five minute countdown.

"Time dilation initiated," A voice through the computer said. "Five minutes until full chronolization."

"Did you hear that?" Tanya's dad asked from his chair. "I came up with that word. Chronolization. Dixonite too."

"Yeah I figured," Tanya mumbled. Raising her voice she leaned against the glass and asked, "Dad what's going on? What did you do?"

"I've started the process" he said, "This chamber is being flooded with the energy from the dixonite as we speak. Like an invisible dixon beam. I'm going to gradually slow down from your perspective."

Oh no. That was not good. "I don't think so," Tanya said, grabbing the nearest computer and ripping it free.

"Please don't do that," her father begged. "It's all automated anyway; you'll only be causing a mess."

Tanya stepped back and then threw the computer as hard as she could into the glass. The computer hit it and shattered into pieces but the glass remained perfectly intact.

"I'd hate too brag," he said with an annoying smirk, "but the chamber is made oout of the same glass as the new iPhoone."

"Unbreakable," he said. "It's tempered, yoou knoow. Quite thick." Tanya was already starting to notice his voice getting sluggish. She slammed her fist angrily against the glass. Her dad always had a way of -- getting his way. He was annoyingly like her in that regard. Only she supposed he was better at it.

"I'm not letting you get away with this," Tanya yelled into the glass.

Her father got off his chair and slowly approached the glass. "I have anoother idea," he said to her, placing his hand opposite her fist on the glass. "Coome with me."

Tanya was pretty sure her jaw dropped, but she was too busy having her mind blown to notice. Did she want to go into the future? Was that a thing she wanted to do? She'd never really thought about it before. Who wouldn't want to see the future? And was it worth it if she couldn't ever get back?

Also, if she went with him, her dad would be getting away with trying to abandon her. Was she alright with giving up such an opportunity just for petty revenge?

Absolutely.

"I can't come with you," she told her father. "I don't abandon the people I care about." She glanced at a computer monitor. "How much time do I have?" she asked herself out loud. "Four minutes. Plenty of time."

"Foor whaat?" Her father yelled after her as she started for the ladder down. "Yoouu caan't stoop mee!"

Tanya climbed over the side of the platform, and took the ladder three rungs at a time. She was going too fast, apparently, and almost slipped to her certain death as a mechanical arm passed close by. Holding tight to the bars, she swung in a little hard, slamming her nose against a metal rung. Like she needed a reminder she'd broken that.

"Maybe I can't stop you," she yelled back at him, jogging across the catwalk. "But I think I know something that can."

She was surprised to hear her dad's laughter over the hum of the machine as it powered up. The arms were spinning faster, and the catwalk shook as an arm passed directly beneath her.

"Yooouuu sooouuund liiikeee aaa chiiipmuuunk."

She probably only had three minutes left, she estimated as much as she reached the bottom of a rickety staircase and started down another ladder. She supposed James Bond would have synced his watch with the timer or something, but it was too late for her to be thinking of that now.

She was almost there. She could see Rachel lying inanimate at the bottom, but getting to the teen vampire wasn't Tanya's immediate aim. What she needed was the front door, and she was almost there.

She got to the control pad beside the door and typed in the password to open it. Slowly, almost stubbornly so, the large blast doors unsealed and opened. That was one door. The problem was that the outer door wouldn't open unless the inner door was closed. Unless maybe it was jammed.

Tanya searched the area for something, anything, that she could jam the massive doors with. There wasn't much not bolted down, except for an assortment of construction equipment littered all throughout the lab. Clearly construction had been rushed to get done on time.

Amongst small tools and a ladder, nothing strong enough to keep the door wedged open, Tanya spotted a couple left over panes of that tempered glass her dad had been talking about. Would that work?

There wasn't time to think it through. She had to just take the plunge. She crossed the catwalk, stumbled down the tight chain staircase and grabbed the pane of glass. The trip back was more awkward but Tanya made it in even better time. She put the code into the console again and the doors started to close. She quickly wedged the glass in between and there was a loud disturbing creak.

Tanya stepped away from the glass, worried it might explode into shards at any moment. Again, there was no time for worry. She just had to go with it. There must have only been thirty seconds left, it was now or never.

She hit the switch for the outside door. Halt a screen warned. Door two is ajar. Emergency release?

"Yes!" Tanya yelled, as if it would understand voice commands.

It did, and the release hissed as the door began to open. Tanya didn't stay to watch her plan in action, knowing the spot she was standing on would be swarmed with bees in no time. She crossed the catwalk, and took the chain staircase down.

Looking back was perhaps the worst decision of her life. She would never in her life see a sight more sublime in its horror than the swarm of bees surging through the doorway like a long tendril, reaching up and around the spire. It surged through catwalks, ripping through them with pure brute strength. The swarm tore one of the spinning arms free from the spire, and it took out numerous catwalks on the way down, including Tanya's.

Tanya let go of the ladder, leaping the last two stories to Rachel's side. Her landing hurt, but the pain was the last thing on Tanya's mind. She pulled Rachel close to her, and cowered as sparks flew around her. Wires were spinning free and fires were starting.

The bees weren't done either. They continued around and then down, smashing through the spire once, and then again below that. The entire thing began to collapse into three pieces, throwing up dust and debris as it crumbled heavily to the ground.

Tanya was surrounded with some really horrific things, but nothing scared her more than the blank look on Rachel's face, the vampire's head tilted disturbingly in her lap.

Tanya shifted Rachel's head until it looked normal, wincing at the crack her neck made. Leaning in, Tanya covered the vampire as something exploded behind her. Tanya couldn't even care less for the bees or the damage they caused.

Rachel's eyes fluttered open, and she groggily looked up at Tanya with a smile spreading on her lips. "Shawna," she whispered.

Tanya sobbed, laughing despite the tears rolling down her face. She gave up even trying to hold them back, and just let all her emotion explode from her in waves.

Rachel pulled herself up, and they held each other tightly. "You okay?" Rachel asked, seeing the disaster from over Tanya's shoulder. "I thought you were just going to talk to him."

Tanya laughed, which only made her cry harder. "If I'd lost you too..." she managed to mutter.

"But you didn't," Rachel said, pulling away from Tanya and grinning. "You're a little more squishy than I am." Rachel said. "Shouldn't I be the one fussing over you?"

"I can take care of myself," Tanya said, wiping the tears from her cheek and trying to take a deep breath. "I mean, I did all this."

Rachel laughed, and Tanya moved in to kiss her, but the vampire pushed her away.

"You have no idea how tasty you smell right now," Rachel said.

"Right," Tanya said, her voice still unsteady. Pulling her pack of cigarettes from her pocket, she lit one and took a long drag. "If ever a girl needed a smoke."

Tanya could feel her sense of gravity returning with each inhale. She wasn't used to falling apart like that. "Today has been one helluva day," she said.

"Tell me about it," Rachel said, getting to her feet. She looked around, "What happened to your father?"

Tanya shrugged; it had gotten to the point that she frankly couldn't care what had happened to him. "The future," she suggested. "Or dead."

Rachel crossed her arms. "Well there's three heartbeats in the rubble," she said, and Tanya almost dropped her smoke. Three. The two guards AND her father!

He had said the chamber was indestructible. Maybe it survived all that devastation and he was sitting there even now, untouched and waiting to be found.

"Little prick," Tanya said, taking another drag of her smoke. "Can we be out of here before anyone finds him?"

* * *

It was good they left when they did; as they got in Tanya's van Rachel's mom pulled up right past them. Her attention was elsewhere and Rachel was fairly certain she hadn't noticed them or certainly she'd have reacted.

"That was close," Tanya said, tossing her smoke out the window.

"It's good she's here," Rachel told Tanya. "She'll call a crew to get your father out."

"I really couldn't care about that asshole," Tanya said, buckling her seatbelt.

Rachel couldn't help massaging her forehead while Tanya put the van into drive. Her head was fuzzy, woozy ever since breaking her neck. Or maybe it was from her debilitating hunger.

At least the loud buzzing sound was finally gone, and the relative silence was golden.

The swarm of bees were gone, and it was in fact a beautifully sunny day almost as if there had never been any bees at all. But everything was exceptionally quiet, and lawns were strewn with litter and debris.

There were a few people unsteadily getting to their feet, and many more not getting up at all, but most everyone else managed to get to shelter and they were only now peeking their heads into the light.

The radio was blaring some ballad, but under that Rachel could hear the theme song to Reboot. It had been her favourite cartoon as a kid, and Rachel quickly realized that it was coming from her iPhone. "My mom," she said, with a glance at the large screen.

Tanya turned off the radio, and pulled to the side of the road. Rachel hit the talk button as Tanya slowed to a stop and turned off the engine.

Bringing the phone to her ear, Rachel tried her best to sound concerned as she said quickly, "Mom! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," her mother said. "Are you still at school?"

"Of course," Rachel lied. "We all gathered together in the Gym."

"Good," her mother said through the phone. "I'm glad. Look can you pick up your brother. I'm going to be held up for the next while. Also check in on your father. And tell him I love him."

"She hung up," Rachel said as she lowered the phone from her ear. She supposed that conversation had gone better than she hoped, but she was kind of disappointed her mother hadn't been more concerned for her.

Tanya started the car again. "So where to?"

"I'm supposed to pick up my brother," Rachel said, almost forgetting. All she could think about was the beating of Tanya's heart. She liked Tanya's heart, as much as the rest of her -- it had its own rhythm.

Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump

"Rachel!"

"What?" Rachel asked, rudely awoken from a trance by her friend.

"I was asking if you had any ideas on how to help Alice," Tanya said.

The truth was that Rachel had been trying not to think about what had happened to Alice. It was easy when everyone was in emergency mode, but now that code black was over -- well she supposed a new one would begin over Alice.

She was tired of it. She'd had quite enough action for one day. Breaking her neck and blacking out for half an hour was scary enough. She could have died -- again.

More importantly she was tired of Eckhart destroying everything in her life. "Plan A is killing the vampire who brainwashed her," she told Tanya.

"Do we know if that will work?" Tanya asked.

"It's unproven," Rachel admitted. She still thought it sounded pretty darn good on paper. They honestly didn't even know if the brainwashing might not just wear off on its own after any amount of time. Days. Weeks. Even years...

"Couldn't we just find Eckhart," Tanya suggested, "and try to get him to reverse what he did?"

"I'd really rather kill him," Rachel said honestly.

"And can you?"

"I've been training in my dreams," Rachel told Tanya, fully aware of how crazy she sounded.

Tanya took the news well. "Like the Matrix," she suggested.

Rachel nodded. "I've got a sword at home and I'm going to use it to cut off Eckhart's head," she said out loud with confidence. Tanya didn't need to know her confidence was only skin deep.

"And if you succeed but Alice still can't talk?" Tanya asked. "What's plan B?"

"I dunno," Rachel said with a sigh. "I could turn her into a vampire. It worked for me." It wasn't a suggestion she made with any intention of follow through. She wouldn't wish her hunger on anyone.

Better to be silent.

They drove up to Abbey Park High School just as their friends were celebrating on their way out the front door. Tanya found an umbrella in the back seat and handed it to Rachel before finding a place to park.

"Hey guys!" called Andrew, following Mike and Jason out the school's side door. "Nice weather we're having!"

"I don't think I see a single bee anywhere," Mike said, spinning in circles.

"I'll be happy if I never see those bugs again," Tanya yelled after them. Alice was the next through the doors, and Tanya swept her up into a bear hug.

Seeing them, Andrew turned and spread his arms. "Yo Rachel," he said, "you got a hug for the A-dog?"

Michael stopped spinning long enough to punch Andrew in the gut. "Never call yourself that again," he said sternly.

Andrew fell to his knees and muttered, "That really hurt."

"Had to lay down a whoop ass so you'd learn," Mike told his friend. "It was for your own good, you'll thank me one day." He offered Andrew a hand.

"Speaking of," Andrew said as he got back to his feet. "How much ass did you whoop today, Rachel?"

"Not enough," She said, unsure of how much to tell them. Tanya didn't want them to know the mayor was her father, right? "I was out cold for half an hour. Tanya did all the hard work." Why hadn't they gotten their stories straight on the drive over? Or had they? Why hadn't she paid attention?

Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump

"Ass got whooped," Rachel heard Tanya say, her arm still around Alice. "I brought the whole thing down on top of the guy."

"Nice," Mike said, throwing Tanya a high five. Andrew moved to follow, but Tanya lowered her hand.

"No way."

"Where's Ian?" Rachel asked the boys, as Bilal was the last one through the door.

Jason shrugged. "He was with us back in the lab."

Alice started typing into her phone, and hit send. A moment later Tanya's phone beeped and she pulled it out.

"Alice says Ian went to the bathroom an hour ago and never came back," Tanya read to them.

Rachel looked to Andrew, Jason, and Bilal for more but they all just shrugged.

"Maybe he ran home to check on his family," Bilal suggested.

Jason nodded in agreement. "I'd have done the same, but I really don't give a crap about my family." Rachel knew where Jason was coming from. His family really did suck.

"My parents probably didn't even notice anything was wrong," Andrew said.

"And my mom lives in Burlington," Bilal said, his house being outside the swarm.

"Well I have to go check on my brother," Rachel told them. "After we take him home we can try to find Ian." She didn't mention grabbing a pouch of blood, but that was the underlying reality. Everything at that point was secondary to her need to eat.

"I'm going to stay with Alice," Tanya told Rachel, as Alice said something to her via text. "She has a right to know everything." Tanya stated, though the look she shared with Rachel seemed much more like she was asking for permission. "Every gory detail."

"Alright," Rachel said. She DID feel bad for Alice, and couldn't imagine what the auburn haired teen was going through without even knowing why. Tanya was right, it wasn't fair.

"I should split too," Mike told them, pulling sunglasses from the collar of his shirt and putting them on. "I've got my own brother to check up on. See you losers later."

They parted ways, with Tanya leading Alice into the school, and soon it was just Rachel, Andrew, Jason, and Bilal.

"You know," Andrew said as they crossed the street. "I think the cool quota of this group just went down like one hundred percent."

"Speak for yourself," Bilal said, stepping with disgust over a dead squirrel.

"What's a hundred percent of zero?" Jason asked.

"You know," Bilal said with a look around, "I was expecting so much more mess." He scratched his head. "And I thought everything would be a lot more sticky."

"Like a big coat of honey over the entire city?" Jason asked Bilal. Rachel saw him raise an eyebrow at Bilal's clearly inaccurate understanding of bees; as if they just flew around excreting honey everywhere.

People were still just beginning to come out of their homes, and there was a lot of chaos and confusion with people asking complete strangers for more information. "How'd it happen," seemed to be a common question. "Where did all the bees come from?" was another. Rachel could hear a parent in a nearby house soothing her kid who'd been caught playing outside when the swarm hit.

She couldn't quite piece together what had happened to the kid, besides getting stung of course. There was more to the story though, Rachel could smell his blood all over the front yard.

Ba-dump Ba-dump Ba-dump

A sudden thought occurred to Rachel that made her almost stop. Could she be trusted at a school? Could she be trusted in a building filled with little hearts beating proudly to the beat of their own drums? What had her life come to if she couldn't even trust herself around kids?

Was she still even herself anymore? Or was she some kind of vampire monster now pretending to be her? Was she the one hungering to eat little kids, or was that a completely different entity just sharing her body?

There were heartbeats everywhere, a cascade of drums beating down at her from all sides. Every house they passed -- hundreds, and then hundreds more from the school. She couldn't even guess at what her friends were talking about anymore, but nor did she care. She just wanted to feed.

And then her ears noticed a different beating. One she'd never bothered to listen to -- had forgotten it even existed.

Rachel heard the sound of her own heartbeat. She'd figured her mind usually filtered it out automatically so as to keep her from going into a frenzy just anytime, but she supposed with her ears actively seeking any beating hearts, the sound just sorta snuck through.

She couldn't even be a vampire very well; weren't they supposed to be dead? She supposed it made sense to have a beating heart. After all, even vampires need to be able to pump blood through their bodies, or else why drink so much of it? Also why would a stake through the heart be so deadly if the heart wasn't important?

All that said, the heartbeat meant so much more to Rachel because it meant she wasn't the monster portrayed on TV. Maybe the Underworld vampires, didn't they have heartbeats? The point was, she was still fundamentally human, and it was that thought that allowed her to suppress her hunger, at least for the moment.

They were only five minutes from home after all. She could make it.

"There's your brother," Bilal said, snapping Rachel from her semi-trance. She could smell him, from where he was running up the hill to join them. There was a girl following behind him, but absorbed in her Nintendo handheld.

"Hey sis," Jacob said. "Try not to get a tan or anything?" he joked to her as she waved to him from under Tanya's umbrella.

"You're back," the little girl following him said.

Jacob pulled his own game from his pocket and quickly opened it. "You finished the wave on your own?" he asked with surprise.

"I told you I was good," she said with a mischievous grin. She had brown hair short enough for the tips to just touch her shoulders. She was also Jacob's height, and the two looked a little creepy walking side by side with their faces planted firmly in their game. Like the creepy kids from a Stephen King movie.

"So who's your friend?" Andrew asked, eyeing the girl's ninja turtle backpack with respect. It was shaped like a turtle shell.

"Sabrina," the girl introduced herself without looking up from her game.

"And did either of you notice the bee swarm?" Rachel asked while walking backwards to keep an eye on her brother, "or were you both too distracted by your game?"

"It was impossible to miss," Sabrina said, rolling her eyes. "Everyone was freaking out except for Jacob. He wasn't even scared a little."

"The boy without fear," Andrew said, offering the kid his hand for a fist bump.

Jacob accepted. "Yeah," he said with a shrug, "I had that shit in check."

"Where've you been learning language like that?" Rachel asked. "Have you been talking to Gordon?"

"No," Jacob told her with a roll of his eyes. "Our class has a black kid too. Seven actually, though the five guys are all cool enough and none of them talk like that. It's just those two white girls from the UK who talk like they’re in high school."

"And that really bad mouthed Palestinian boy," Sabrina was quick to point out with a raise of her finger.

"The one who looks like he's ten?" Jacob asked.

"You're only twelve," Rachel reminded him.

"Yeah, and yet when he stands next to me I feel like Andre the Giant," Jacob said. "He reminds me of like an ugly little Poodle or a Shih Tzu that wont stop yapping at all the bigger dogs."

"Speakin of that annoying twerp," Sabrina said as she finally glanced around at the group, "What's a donkey punch?"

Rachel flinched, and noticed Jason fidget awkwardly. Bilal didn't seem to know the answer, but Andrew thought he had the tact to tackle the girl's question.

"Sometimes when a man loves a woman," the nerd said carefully, "he -- um -- surprises her with a punch to the back of her head after sex."

"Ah," Sabrina said as her attention returned to the game. "Now I understand what he was trying to tell me about him and my mother."

"That's horrible," Bilal said with a shake of his head. "My family should have a talk with his family."

"Bilal lets his family do all the fighting for him," Jason said.

"Don't make fun," Bilal said. "In my culture, family is most important." Rachel considered what Bilal said, and knew she wouldn't hesitate to give her life to save any of the people she cared about. Maybe their cultures weren't so different.

Jason shrugged and said almost too casually, "If that's true, then all you guys are my family, cause blood doesn't stand for shit. You guys are more like my family than my parents have ever been."

"Same," Rachel said.

"Eew," Jacob complained, his lip curling at his sister. "I don't want to be related to you." Rachel stuck out her tongue at him.

They passed a man handing out pamphlets; the red in his eyes suggesting that he had been crying openly only very recently. The jitters in his hand implied he hadn't slept. Rachel took his pamphlet out of pity.

"Please," he told Jason. "My daughter's missing. If you see her, just call that number."

"There was supposed to be an assembly about her," Jacob remembered. "It got cancelled when the bees attacked."

The page had a picture of the girl, but it was rather blurry, and it had been taken from a weird side angle. From what Rachel could tell the girl couldn't be any older than three years.

"Man that kid could be like right in front of me and I'd have no clue," Andrew admitted as he snatched the paper from Rachel and compared the picture to a group of kindergartners leaving the school. "All these toddlers just look the same to me." He pointed to one in particular. "Is that one even a boy or a girl? Or neither?"

"I like your older friends," Sabrina whispered to Jacob with a nudge to his ribs.

"Yeah," he said with disinterest, "They're pretty alright."

"Feel the love," Andrew muttered, scratching under his sling. He was going to have to wear it for another week until the stitches had time to heal.

Rachel could see her house, and the thought of blood took control again. Her pace quickened, heading straight for the open door.

The vampire stopped.

"No one's home," she said, her arms coming out in warning for the others behind her to stop.

"How can you tell?" Jacob asked, but Rachel just ignored him. Where was her dad? Was he out somewhere when the bees hit? Was he alright? Why did he leave the door open?

And why could she smell his blood on the porch?

Jacob, being as impatient as he was, pushed past everyone and hopped the front porch into the house. "Dad?" He called, but as Rachel expected, there was no answer. There was however a thick letter in the mail box, and she carefully pulled it free.

"Who's it from?" Jason asked, as the gang crowded in around her. Their hearts were too distracting and she tried to shrug them away. Stepping inside, she tore open the envelope and pulled out a plain white folded card. There was nothing on the front.

"It says," Rachel read after opening the card, "You are cordially invited to witness the union between the late Eckhart Ghens and the young Ms. Rachel Lin Smith."

"Nice of him to invite you to your own wedding," Bilal pointed out.

Rachel finally convinced herself to start breathing again, and kept reading. "It's at St. Reynold's Catholic Church tonight at eleven." She dropped like a bomb onto the stairs, her mind spinning with horror.

"That place is so tacky," Andrew told them, "Have you seen the inside?" She had in fact, and even if she would even want to get married, she knew she'd never be getting married there.

There was one more thing on the invite. "Confirmed guests include Ian Fletcher and Eric Smith," Rachel muttered, the note falling from her hand.

Everyone had suddenly gone really quiet, except of course the steady beating of their hearts. Jason stepped forward and picked up the invite to read it himself. It was on very thick parchment, and seemed to have been handwritten.

"We can assume now that Ian didn't run home after the bee swarm," Jason said, trying to put everything in perspective. "He's been taken hostage with your dad and the only way it seems we can get them back is to meet him at this church tonight."

"Wait," Jacob said, rejoining them in the front hall. "Who's taken dad and Ian?"

Rachel didn't want her family to know her secret, but how could she not tell her brother now? And now was the worst possible time. "Jacob," she said, "take your friend up to your room."

"No," Jacob said, folding his arms. "I'm old enough. I want answers."

"Fine," Rachel said, getting up. "Then I'll go." She climbed the stairs, leaving Jacob incredibly flustered in her wake, and slammed the door to her room behind her.

Her life was falling apart. And Eckhart had known exactly where to strike; it was as if he'd been watching her. Would she have noticed? She was only sure of one thing.

She was hungry.

Grabbing a pouch of blood from the mini fridge she'd installed in her closet, she bit into it and began sucking back the miracle juice like an alcoholic with a forty of Jack Daniels. She didn't even notice Andrew open the door behind her.

"Please tell me you're coming up with a plan up here," Andrew said, sneaking into her room with Bilal and Jason close behind.

"Right," he said as Rachel just continued to suck away at the bag. "We'll just wait for you to finish drinking your blood, then."

Andrew couldn't, of course, stay quiet that long and continued, "But we have to go. Ian needs our help and, you know, your dad."

"Are you insane," Bilal told Andrew, his hands going to his hips in a pose that too closely resembled one his mother often made to him. "If we go into that church there's no guarantee any of us will be coming out alive."

"It IS most likely a trap," Jason added his opinion, "but we can't leave any man behind. That rule is ever more important when vampires are involved. That shit is contagious like an STD."

"It's not your fight," Rachel said, dropping the empty blood bag on the floor. She then grabbed a second one; after all she'd need all her strength when taking on Eckhart. "You should all go home and let me take care of Eckhart myself."

"It's sad when the vampire is the rational person in the room," Bilal said. "Besides me," he added quickly. "And maybe Jason."

"I can be rational," Andrew argued. "I have a plan."

"Oh this should be good," Bilal said.

"Rachel will distract Eckhart," explained Andrew, "while we rescue Ian and Rachel's dad."

Bilal asked, "And then what?"

"We go home and play Xbox?" Andrew suggested in the form of a question.

"That's not really a plan," Jason said.

"Whatever," Andrew said with a frown. "Planning is hard."

"If we're going to do this," Jason said, "We're going to need to arm ourselves." He put his hand down his camo pants, and Bilal was about to complain when the military obsessed teen pulled out a wooden stake.

"Holy shit Jason," Andrew said, and Bilal's jaw dropped.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Bilal asked.

Jason looked around at them, surprised by their overreactions. "It's mine," he told them. "I whittled it when all this began." He crossed his arms. "Surely all of you took similar precautions."

"Not really," Bilal admitted. "Honestly I didn't even know whittle was a word."

"I've been eating a lot of garlic lately," Andrew said. "Though I really like garlic."

"Well we'll need more of these," Jason told them, raising his hand crafted weapon. "And anything else we can think of. This isn't the time to fight fair. We need to throw everything we have at him, and maybe a little more. We have to be smart about this."

"Alright," Rachel said as she lowered her blood bag and let it fall from her hand. "Here's what we're going to do..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

My name is Andrew Geczy and my brand is 99% Geek found at 99geek.ca

I'm a writer, writing monthly chapters of novels like episodes of TV shows, releasing them in 4 weekly segments (a teaser and three acts) on Sundays at noonish on my Patreon page. Every month it's a different book, over a range of genres, and they sometimes even crossover and connect. At the end of the month the finished chapter is added to the PDFs attached at the bottom of every post. Finally, the finished books are self-published on Amazon.

There's a Dark Fantasy story about a post-apocalyptic world where powerful royals rule and enslave the remaining peoples struggling to survive on the last remaining land mass. There's also a sci-fi story about a people on a dying world who have built a ship to a new one, but their project is almost brought down by a terrorist organization within their own ranks. Finally there's a crossover story where characters from my other books are brought into the distant future where the princess of a far advanced civilization, one that lives in a solar system sized mega-structure around a Dyson Sphere, needs help defeating her twisted power-hungry brother. And all these stories will be outside the paywall for all to enjoy as new episodes release weekly, and the finished chapters will be attached to the bottom of every post on the site in convenient PDF format readable on computers, tablets, ebook readers, and phones at the end of the month.

But that's not all my stories. There's also Urban Fantasy tales about a teenage girl turned into a vampire against her will, or a scorned lover investigating paranormal phenomena, or a journalist covering news and politics in the Middle East. And there's a fantasy story about a fallen angel trying to stop the end of the world. All these stories are published and available on Amazon, and are also safe and sound behind the paywall in PDF format attached to an archive at the top of my Patreon page. Only viewable by subscribers, my entire library of work, thousands of pages worth, is easily accessible to every subscriber at any level. (The paywall is down, as my library is being refreshed. Find all finished content attached below)

There's even a "Geekly Weekly" blog which covers all the news you may have missed over the week, as well as ranks the week's worth of television, and makes predictions on what new pop culture things might be in the public consciousness for the next week. It releases every Saturday.(Somewhat inconsistent since October, as my life has been focused on saving myself from poverty, starvation and homelessness)

Finally I do Video Game streams both multiplayer matchmaking as well as single player campaign playthroughs. You can see me play games like Final Fantasy, Call of Duty, Hitman, and more. Watch them as they happen at twitch.tv/wingcommanderIV or wait till I release the recorded videos on days when I have nothing else to release.

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So stay tuned, and maybe subscribe. It's only a dollar and the support you show will go a very long way, I promise. There are also higher tiers. Give 5 dollars one month and you can name a character, or location, or suggest a thing you might want to see. Basically you get to give a noun, and then I promise to incorporate that noun into one of my stories somehow. Maybe not the same month you give the suggestion, but within three months guaranteed. No matter how crazy, you can't sabotage me. I promise. Think of it like a fun improv game. And you can keep giving nouns, for every month you pay at the 5 dollar tier. Or if you give 10 dollars, you don't get two nouns, but you can give a description to go with your noun. Describe the personality of your character, or the look of your location, or the importance of your item. For 10 dollars you get a noun and a description. You can also give a dollar towards supporting my efforts at Video Game streaming, or my weekly blog if that's more where your interests lie. And all subscribers at every tier will get early access to my writing, unedited but released a week early if you finish the current week and feel excited to find out what happens next. (You can also give at paypal.me/99geek if you just wanna support me in this tough time without a subscription)

I'm as poor as it gets, living pay check to pay check (and sometimes starving) (Recently especially. Things have never been worse and my life is on the verge of complete collapse). So I understand if you are too. I don't wanna take food out of your mouths. Your attention is enough. Say something, comment here or at the very least, follow me on Twitter @AndrewGeczy or Instagram @WingcommanderIV Remember to leave a review if you read one of my books, any reviews on Amazon/Goodreads or subscriptions here or comments on social media will just encourage more people to check out my work and allow me to grow. I can't do it without your efforts. That's three different ways you can help. Write reviews on any site that lets you, subscribe here for as low as a dollar, or at the very least use your voice to let me and the world know you like what you read here.

Live Long and Prosper, May the Force Be With You, Long Live Marceline the Vampire Queen, remember that Kong bows to no one, but Godzilla is King of all Monsters. We are the 99% geek.

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Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Previously on A Suburban Fantasy:

Chapter Twelve“Alright, Here’s What We’re Going to Do”

Chapter Twelve
“Alright, Here’s What We’re Going to Do”