Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:

Passion of the Dark Father, pt.1

Notes by Anthony

“Saturday, December 24th. I awoke just before 5’oclock with no dreams. I’d like to think that whatever lies inside my head had given me the day off. Maybe it was pleased I was following its directives. Asa pulled me to the bathroom just as I’d finished changing into my jean jacket. He pulled off his beanie and a bright blue eye blinked open at me from the center of his forehead. Listeners, you’d be proud of how much I only screamed a little at it.

“Asa asked me for help in hiding the eye. I told him to duct tape tinfoil to his forehead, wrap it in a bandana, and cover the whole thing with his beanie. Even if someone ripped off the beanie, he’d still have a few layers of protection. And he could blame the “crazy Malkavian” for the tinfoil, who told him it would protect against telepaths and spirits.

“Gwen left early to arrive at the Ball with Carlo, and Tala joined us after putting on some make up. She looked amazing, listeners. Almost inhumanely beautiful. Gwen had helped her, apparently. Nice to know the two of them can get along. 

“The five of us piled in the car and Cedric drove us to the Giovanni Embassy. The city was too quiet. A few holiday decorations collected snow and dirt. I remembered driving through the snow with Ben one year ago to the House of Dynasty. It’s a stereotype, I know, but the food is really good. We had fun coming up with harebrained stories for all the other patrons eating Chinese on Christmas Eve. The well-dressed Jewish family with three kids running around a sugar high were definitely FBI agents stopping a rogue terrorist cell from stealing state secrets encoded into the menu. The recently-divorced dad staring with confusion at the menu was in fact an alien crashed landed on Earth and was preparing his digestive system to survive whatever horrors lurked in the Lo Mein. I wish we’d been driving there, listeners. The Sabbat Ball terrified me.

“Fortunately, Gwen had agreed to let Ben stay at the Giovanni Embassy while we attended the Ball. I saw what had happened to the human partygoers in my dream, and I refused to let that happen to Ben. I could tell Ben needed some convincing, though. I held Ben’s hands and told him that he was my rock. He gave me strength. I needed to know he was safe so I could focus my full attention on surviving the night. I told him that if Gwen didn’t come back tonight, he should find Joan at OTCAL. I hugged him and left him behind. I prayed I’d see him again, listeners.

“Cedric drove us to the tent encampment where the rioters huddled together against the cold. We picked up Comet, tried desperately to look aloof instead of terrified. Cedric promised to stay nearby and keep the car hidden in Obfuscation. Asa, Tala and I walked through the tents to RFK stadium and joined the line to enter. I recognized the police officer at the front as the one who asked to see their permit, just as I had dreamt. Those waiting outside laughed as he was escorted inside, and their features shifted to something far less human. Three looked muscular and animalistic. Gangrel maybe. A young woman with a cherubic baby face and far too long limbs smiled beatifically at us. A man with thick, seeping pustules on his neck calmly waved at us.

“I could feel Asa and Tala behind me, tense and uncertain. I was terrified as well. But I had to make friends. The Camarilla were gone. And unlike the Camarilla, maybe these new neighbors would heed my warnings if I just made the right impression. I introduced myself as DJ. DJ stuck his hand out to the young woman. She laughed and shook his hand. Tendrils of flesh caressed DJ’s inner arm as he tried not to flinch. DJ must have succeeded, because she smiled approvingly and introduced herself as Barbie from the Dead Kennedys. The man with pustules on his neck called himself Zanzibar Reese. He was a Nosferatu priest.

“DJ felt lighter than air, listeners, as he spoke with Barbie and Zanzibar. Being a D.J. again, entertaining the crowds and telling stories. It was good, listeners. His smile felt genuine. Listeners, you can always tell when the smile isn’t genuine. DJ told the assembled line that we were from here, but we were excited to meet our new neighbors. Not Camarilla as he was a bit of an illegal Embrace, but not Sabbat. 

“That raised their hackles, but Tala and Asa clarified that we were Anarchs. They apologized for the fact that DJ, an addled Malkavian, liked to speak in riddles a bit too much. DJ huffed and commented that ‘calling ourselves Anarchs like we’re a unified anarchical group kind of defeats the purpose of being anarchs,’ though he smiled at the joke. The partygoers relaxed, and Zanzibar eagerly told us ‘new Recruits’ about the Sabbat traditions. It was a perfect set-up, listeners. DJ could act impulsively and get information, while anything strange he said would be written off as just “Malkavian bullshit.” Meanwhile, Tala and Asa were accepted as DJ’s long-suffering friends and handlers.

“Forgive me, listeners. The rest of the night was long and, frankly, a little traumatizing. My exact memory of Sabbat religious tenets is a little hazy. In essence, the Sabbat worshipped Caine. Caine loved his Children, Enoch and Irad, whose names I recognized from Genesis. But Enoch and Irad had been slain by their Children, the Antediluvians. The Sabbat formed to stop the Antediluvians and Methuselahs, who they believed would try and stop Caine from completing whatever great purpose he had. What seemed important, however, was that once a vampire was Sabbat, Antediluvian lineages no longer mattered. While Camarilla kindred cared deeply if they were Ventrue or Nosferatu or Malkavian, the Sabbat were unified as one.

“Those at the front of line spoke into the ticket booth as DJ conversed with Barbie and Zanzibar. Later, Asa told me that the doorman was quoting from the Book of Nod, and the person entering was responding with the following phrase. Since we were new recruits, however, once it was our turn the thing in the ticket booth eagerly waved us in, telling us to follow the doorman, Ralphie, to Samantina to prepare for our initiation.”