Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:

Moving Day

Notes by Anthony

“I floated out of the manor and across D.C., through the pink bubble and over the small town of Clifton, Virginia. I drifted down through the window of an old mill. Joan was huddled inside a broken part of the wall on the top floor. She had stacked some boxes in front of herself. She looked like a little kid playing hide and seek. I knelt and knocked on one of the boxes.

“She flinched at the noise before recognizing me. There was such reverence and concern in her voice as she called me ‘Prophet.’ God, I hope I never get used to that. I told her we tried to stop Damien from waking Ruth up, but we were too late. Joan knew it already. She had felt Ruth enter Alexandria and left OTCAL. Joan was convinced it was only a matter of time until Ruth found and killed her.

“I wanted to comfort her, listeners, but I didn’t know how. She sounds so old and like a little kid, all at the same time. I think she noticed my hesitance and asked how she could ‘assist the Prophet.’ I told her that Damien had done something to Cedric and Jordan. They were blind and deaf to us. Nothing could reach them, not even the Cobweb. 

“Joan nodded gravely. She had felt something terrible skittering on the edges of the Cobweb. A madness that could infect with a single glance. Joan knew of a legendary order of seven kindred who healed minds and bodies with a touch. I remembered Asa telling us he was the eighth of seven. I remembered the blue flash as he healed Ben’s arm. I told her I thought I had someone with me from that clan, but if he could heal them already, he would have. 

“I didn’t want to tell her this part, listeners, but she had to know. Damien wasn’t the only Camarilla Malkavian at Theodore Roosevelt Island. Jinx, her great grand-Childe, was with him. She might be infected, too. Joan looked crestfallen. She feared Jinx was lost to us. That Jinx had made a choice she couldn’t come back from. The only good news was that Jinx could not access the Cobweb and track us.

“I told Joan my plan was to find Theodore and Comet in the Cobweb and see if our powers combined could reach Cedric. Joan was optimistic but warned me that Damien could track us in the Cobweb if we weren’t careful. We said our goodbyes, and Joan cut the connection. I hoped it wasn’t for the last time, listeners.

“I woke up in Ben’s arms. He was stroking my hair. It felt nice, listeners. I wanted to stay. But we had work to do. I told Asa and Ben that Joan couldn’t help from where she was, but she agreed it was a good idea to contact the other Malkavians. I turned to the other whimpering man on the bed. We were losing moonlight, and if I couldn’t wake Jordan up, I’d have to find some other way to learn any important information Damien might have told Jordan.

“For those listeners of our show not already well-versed in the occult, what I tried next is commonly called ‘psychometry.’ The theory of psychometry goes: all objects are surrounded by a field of energy, and this energy is influenced by important people and events that occur around the object. By touching the object, one can “read” this energy field and recall those events. Now, the skeptical members of our society would tell us this practice is merely ‘cold reading’ by charlatans and sideshow hustlers, and its existence has been widely debunked.

“But, too, so has the existence of vampires.

“I looked through Jordan’s pockets and found nothing. The tux was rented, and cheaper than appeared on first inspection. Damien, despite his grandiose demeanor, had not sprung for the good stuff. I straddled Jordan, trying not to think about how this looked to Ben and Asa. I placed my hands on the lapels like I was straightening out his suit, as I imagined Damien doing before the ritual. No dice. Next, I tried clipping a piece of hair, but it crumbled to dust in my fingers. That is when I noticed the hair tie. The dark, thin elastic binding his low ponytail stood out sharply against his blond hair. I rolled it down and onto my fingers.

“I floated behind Jordan in front of a large, ornate mirror. He wore a tailored suit. A well-dressed ghoul placed the hair band in Jordan’s hands. Jordan expertly tied his hair while the ghoul laid out a set of cufflinks. Jordan removed the handle of his walking cane, revealing the first few inches of a long, silvery knife. 

“A flash. We were in a helicopter, flying over D.C. No sign of the riots.

“A flash. We were in the Smithsonian Zoo. Jordan started at a very large man in a royal outfit and even more flamboyant powdered wig. Prince George. There was electricity in the air. Prince George’s eyes rolled back, and he toppled from the throne. I was reminded of the egg from my very first vision as it tumbled from the wall and into the grey, sucking ooze of the sewer. Jordan staked Prince George with a flourish and was met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Congratulatory hands slapped his back and shoulders, brushing the hair tie.

“An explosion. Shadows and tendrils of flesh lashed out at Jordan and his companions. Wolves snarled and howled. The Sabbat had invaded Georgetown. Jordan and the Camarilla fought at first, but it wasn’t going well. I could feel the rumble of Domination in Jordan’s throat as he ordered others to stay behind and fight as he turned to flee. From the hair tie, I watched as one of the cultists appeared out of Obfuscation and drove a stake into the center of Jordan’s back. I knew him then as a Malkavian named Montbatton. He grinned above Jordan’s prone form and ordered the other Sabbat to leave this one alone. Jordan was needed for a little experiment.

“A flash. The hair tie sat next to a large, marble bathtub. Jordan slumped forward in the steaming water, eyes dull and staring, stake protruding several inches from his back. I watched as an unknown kindred bathed him. They ran their fingers through his long, blond hair, carefully detangling it and washing out the blood.

“A flash. The hair tie is pulled around Damien’s wrist as he faces Jordan. Damien cups Jordan’s face in his hands and smiles, calling Jordan his “pet Alexander.” Someone was pulling the stake out of Jordan’s back, but Damien was already inside his head. I’m glad, dear listeners, that I only felt a whisper of the madness Damien wielded from the perspective of the hair tie.

“I jerked awake and pulled the hair tie from my wrist. Though I felt as if I had been gone for hours, only seconds had passed. We left the fitfully slumbering Jordan and Cedric and met with Tala and Gwen in the funeral parlor. Paolo had made it clear we couldn’t spend another day in the Giovanni estate, but we couldn’t risk the Sabbat tracking or ambushing us if we left at night. 

“That left moving during the day. Apparently, the Sabbat don’t care for mortal allies like the Camarilla. The Giovanni ghouls could drive our slumbering corpses in refrigerated morgue trucks to Gwen’s apartment in Adam’s Morgan, and the Sabbat would be none the wiser. However, Gwen refused to take the staked thin-bloods with us. They were too much of a liability in the city and were safer here. Tala was furious. Apparently, as long as they have blood in their system, kindred remain conscious while they are staked. I can’t imagine staying awake for hours or days on end, in pain, unable to move. I’m surprised more of them aren’t as mad as we Malkavians. Tala said she would convince Allie, Chris, Pam, and Malcom to enter torpor, which I think is what happens when we fall asleep every dawn. Gwen assented, and we parted ways to get ready.

“Ben and I did laundry and packed our bags. I held my old University of Virginia sweatshirt under the tap and tried to scrub out a spot of dirt. Or maybe it was blood. I tried not to think about how these clothes were the last things I owned from my former life. I tried not to think about my landlord throwing my CDs and records out onto the curb after disappearing for three weeks without paying December’s rent. Or worse, him calling my parents. Did they know I was gone? Did they pay my rent, hoping I would return on my own? Were they looking for me?

“But this was no time to grieve, listeners. I forced a smile on my face and turned on the radio. Music always cheers me up. Only thing with a half-decent signal was a ‘60s rock station playing the Beatles. We sang and danced and packed and updated our notes. It was nice. Like we were moving into a new dorm for the next semester. It couldn’t last, of course.

“The music grew louder. George Harrison’s droning vocals on ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ distorted into the moans and screeches of dying animals. I was about to turn off the thing when Cedric sat straight up. He stared at me, eyes wide. He grinned so wide I feared it would split his face in two. His words reverberated like the sitar had jumped from the radio into his vocal cords.

“Cedric fell back on the bed, and the radio signal returned to ‘A Hard Day’s Night.’ Ben turned it off while I checked on Cedric. No response. Ben and I carried him downstairs with our things. Four body bags were laid out for us in the morgue, along with a hundred blood bags. Asa came downstairs with a bandana tied over his forehead. He quickly lay in the body bag and zipped it closed. I lay down in mine while Gwen and Tala bantered. Tala asked if Gwen had made a pass at her by asking to share the same bed yesterday. Gwen insisted that it was logical to sleep next to the most physically powerful kindred in the house. They bickered and Tala said she was making a pass at Gwen. Further discussion was stopped by the rising sun, thank goodness. Not that I mind if they like each other, it’s just hard to be a captive audience to their incredibly awkward flirting.

“I knew I was dreaming as I opened my eyes. I was beside a young woman putting lipstick and mascara on in her apartment. The rooms were large with nice furniture. She met a young man downstairs, and they walked hand in hand through the shuttered streets of D.C. There were checkpoints and police sirens wailing in the distance, but the couple paid them no mind. They wanted to party. They saw a line outside an old stadium and joined it. They watched a police officer tell the bouncer this party wasn’t sanctioned by some Office or Commission. The bouncer offered to show the officer their papers. The people in line grinned much too widely as the officer stepped inside, followed soon after by the lovebirds.

“A giant bonfire burned in the center of an overgrown football field. Two hundred or more vampires danced. Eight wore no clothes and danced as close to the fire as they could dare. Some looked like normal people. Others, well. Like those Tzimisce that attacked us at Gallaudet. Bound  and gagged vampires hung from the goalposts. Partygoers bit and drained them of blood, but the captives were kept alive by the blood of hundreds of rats and insects funneled into their mouths by small, fleshy tubes. The couple seemed oblivious. They danced until one man sunk his teeth into the neck of the boy. The girl didn’t have time to scream before jaws clamped down on her throat.

“I awoke in a fancy apartment. Thick blackout curtains covered the windows. Ben helped me out of the body bag. I could tell he hadn’t slept. I showered off the blood and we met the others downstairs. Tala told us she feared she would soon become a wight. The Beast had grown strong in her as she followed her monstrous, murderous impulses. Asa told Tala that he was on the path to heal souls, but it would take time. Listeners, I just hoped we would have enough.”