Chapter 2 - Cruel Dissolutions of Fate

“Damn me father, for I must sin; with every victim, I pray for my own death; And as much as I love the night, I curse the moon’s eerie glow; This bloodlust that drags me to forever; the toxic rays of dawn that condemns me to hide. I am forced to live in gray lifeless twilight. I am suspended in dust...”

The words linger into the vampire’s mind as he stares mindlessly at the city below. His feet dangling from the edge of the gargoyle statue on top of the building. It’s a beautiful twilight, with the moon smiling forth on the Cainanite. The vampire leaned at the statue… like a child in the arms of his mother.

********************

Sgt. Jacob Rinus sat staring at a picture of Sgt. Lilah Sorena, his partner… former partner… The young man returned to work only to find his partner and bestfriend missing from an encounter with the creature that nearly cost him his life. Club Romanus Deus… 5 bodies… and not a single trace of Lilah… his partner is now presumed dead. The man whom they met about those weird insignia also disappeared. And the police chief also sat clueless on what really happened that night that cost him several officers dead. Lt. Leronio doesn’t even know what to explain to their families…

Coffee break… Jacob silently indulges himself in watching other people try to hide from the impeding rain. The café is now packed with weary stranded people. He could hear them talking to each other, some clamor on being wet and others on how fucked their life is. The sergeant kept on stirring his cup of coffee… Then a girl caught his attention… standing in the rain across the street… he tried to get a better glimpse at the girl only to find that she was gone. Jacob walked home that night.

********************

The city docks… an abandoned dry docking area. Some teenage gang members are enjoying the evening. The dry docking area is like their private territory. Booze and drugs was the name of the game.

Minutes later, a guy wandered lost into the docks. Ignorant so it seemed of the complexities of the territorial gangs in the area. The lad walked as if he owns the place. The teenage gang finally saw him approaching. “Hey you…” the leader called out to him. “What the hell are you doing here?” The guy ignored his questioning. The leader now signaled his men to get ready.

They surrounded the guy, armed with clubs and steel pipes… “You are trespassing… all who wants passage must give tribute or else…” the guy just ignored them. “Why you!” one gang member swung a bat right at the guy. The guy never evaded the blow, yet he still stood there silent. The others are puzzled at how things turned out. Without further thinking they all attacked the guy. The guy’s eyes glow in delight… revealing a smile in his face…

Early morning, the radio ranted about the incident at the dry dock area. Jacob basically ignored the radio as he tried to catch more sleep. The phone finally rang and he struggled to find where he placed the darn thing. “Yep…” he muttered at the phone... “Be right there…”

Déjà vu… that’s what he thought to himself as he finds himself in the middle of a blood bath. The kids littered the place. Most have some sort of bite mark on their necks… all died due to loss of blood. Though some lost their heads literary… their weapons scattered across the dry docking area.

********************

The Kindred Elder looks out towards the city Hillingdon. The elder bathed himself in the rays of the moon. Enjoying the moment, the elder lost himself in contention. Then a vampire enters his quarters.

“Pardon my grace… another impure nouveous has been wrecking havoc on the human population. A handy work of Lieondah, it seemed she has created nouveous as well...” the vampire reported.

Valgathri the elder paused for a moment. “So it has really begun?” he puzzling ask himself. “Gather more information about these nouveous, Rayne. And try to gather all of the Kindred as soon as possible. And send somebody to find my vampire prefect”

“As you said it my lord, so shall it be done...” Rayne bowed and left the elder. “Cain… it seemed that your prophesies are starting to reveal themselves…” the elder said as he stares at a portrait on the wall… The portrait is so old that basically it is reduced almost into dust.

A young lady stared at the police station across the street. Standing behind a lamp post on a gloomy night, she forced herself to be contented of leaving her past behind. “Flu…” a voice came from the shadows behind her. “You can never go back Flu…” Rayne slowly revealed himself to her. “You are one of us now, and Lord Valgathri summons all of you to be in his presence… “

“I understand, Rayne …” Flu answered. “And what about him?”

“Him as well, the vampire prefect will be there…” Rayne replied. “If they could find him…”

“Stubborn buffoon…” Flu jokingly complained. She left with Rayne.

Jacob now struggles to decipher the current blood bath. Clues here may give him an idea on the fate if his partner. A stressful venture that left him asleep with all the files littering his office.

********************

The house on the hill stood majestic. To the human eyes, the estate is owned by a very large corporation. The bitter reality is that through the corporation, the vampire kindred occupy the stately mansion. Heavily guarded by sensors and cameras, technology has made this place a safe haven for the undead. Sentries of human guards also patrol the area like a high security prison.

The hall way now is filled with lost souls chatting with each other. There seemed to be something really important that the elder summoned all his children under such short notice. Flu began to find herself lost in a sea of vampires. A nouveou herself, she finds her presence rather intimidating to the other vampires. Some now show a bit of discrimination for the newly-awaken. A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, “Know your place, young lady…” a vampire said to her. “It is unwise to wander among the clans when you are unsure of your own. Some vampires are that arrogant. You’re lucky though… some are very hostile towards nouveous but Lord Valgathri despises such hostilities in his presence.” the Tremere added. “Who is your maker anyway?”

“Ahh… umm…” Flu was about to answer when… “I’ll take it from here, Deudonne.” A vampire suddenly said, the Tremere then just bowed his head and left. Flu now found herself in front of a very familiar face. A smile came into her face.

“Stay by my side and no other vampire may touch you, understand?” the vampire instructed. Flu merely nods in response. “Good… now come with me..” The two weaved through the crowd of vampires until they are in front of everybody. The elder Valgathri slowly approached the balcony. All the damned bowed in respect. Seeing the man beside Flu, the elder then began to talk.

********************

Weeks after that, a series of disappearances in the city had caused much panic at the station. Unidentifiable bodies littered the streets of Hillingdon City. Jacob now found himself facing a very large jigsaw puzzle. Yet all his effort gave him no justifiable proof about his partner.

“Hunt all of them, all impure bloods…” the vampire in black instructs Flu. “These impure vampires are causing havoc in this human city. A killing spree that may cause us to lose our alliance with the humans.” The vampire added as he stared at the city streets below. “We cannot allow that, now that the prophecies of Nod are upon us.”

Flu looked puzzled at the vampire. She basically understood half of all he has been saying lately. Being a nouveou of a vampire prefect has placed her in the middle of the political complexities of the vampire kindred. And she finds herself unable to decipher information the vampire prefect has been explaining to her. She is a vampire for a year now… and she barely knows how to be one.

The prefect then suddenly became attracted into a direction. “Impure bloods…” that’s all he muttered as he suddenly disappeared from sight. Flu just stared at the direction.

A body lay lifeless on the table. The girl on the counter had her head smashed into a cash register. Two vampires feast on a corpse lying beside the counter. Another vampire stood on the entrance to the deli shop.

Hands suddenly grabbed the vampire standing and tore off his neck. The other vampires stood surprised as the body of their fellow vampire fell lifeless on the floor. “What the?..” one muttered as another received a silver bolt into his chest, nailing him on the wall. The vampire lunged at the attacker only to meet the blade of a claymore sword impaling him. The vampire on the wall screamed in pain as his comrades now flood the floor with their own blood. Removing the arrow bolt from his body, the vampire ran towards the back exit. The man left in the shop just returned his sword in his scabbard.

The vampire left alive ran as fast as he could in a dark back alley. He ran fearing the man may be after him still. Flu suddenly showed up in front of him and threw him on the ground. “Going somewhere?”

The vampire growled at her as he suddenly leaped towards Flu. The lady dodged his first attack and grabbed his hands. She then maneuvered the vampire in which she broke both his hands in process. The vampire now groaned in pain as Flu then held him by the neck. She took a dagger and slowly thrust it into the vampire’s heart.

Letting go of the vampire’s body, Flu now stood in the back alley alone. “Good work nouveou…” the prefect said as he slowly showed himself from the shadows. “We shall paint this city red with blood until all of these impure bloods are cleansed.”

Flu just stared at the vampire she just killed. “The night shall be red if that is the case…” she finally whispered.

Jacob looked at corpse in a back alley. The sun slowly emerges from its hiding place as the bodies were taken. Another figure into the unidentifiable clowns that has been adding up like sheep in his list. A list he is expecting to add up in the coming days.

********************

Flu looked worried as she stares at the city from a distance. How she had missed the sun. The night sky glows in the attempt of comforting her woes. The city lights illuminates in betrayal of her soul. “We can never go back…” Rayne stood beside her. “No matter how hard we try, we will never be the same.”

“A curse we must endure throughout our endless miserable lives…” Flu said in confirmation. “True...” Rayne replied. “But ours is the burden of perfection… Death has placed us at the pinnacle of reality… Immortality is the quest we now have achieved. What to do with our immortal lives depend on us… What we are, who we are before doesn’t matter anymore… For our existence now shall be endless… It is on how we meet immortality that matters now… Everything else is a waste of our time.”

Rayne then left Flu. The vampire now stares at the moon with tears flowing from her eyes. The vampire prefect stared at his nouveou from the balcony. He knew that this was barely the start of her journey.

********************