Events from “Power of a Name”

Notes by Anthony

“I’ll set the scene for you, dear listeners. One mugger sat before me, eyes welling with tears as he was presumably overwhelmed his mother’s disappointment in all the life choices that had led him here. I sympathize, dear listeners, believe me. The other stared in shock at the superhuman feats of violence Thaïs was performing behind me. He turned to flee. I knew had to stop him no matter what.

I suppose I could rationalize that impulse for you, dear listeners. He could call the cops, get our descriptions plastered all over the nightly news. The Camarilla government would also become aware of our activities, as the mugger had clearly seen Thaïs and I perform some crazy magical stunts. A ‘Masquerade Breach,’ I believe it’s called. But I’ll admit to you that these considerations were far from my mind. All I could think of was the Hunger. The Beast inside me baying for blood.

“The Dracula movies lied to you, dear listeners. Biting the neck of someone struggling for their life is a lot harder than Bela Lugosi makes it look. I grabbed the back of his hoodie, and the fabric bunched in my fingers, completely blocking my target. I could have tried to tear the cloth while holding him down, but I’m not a fighter, dear listeners. I talk, and people listen. I shifted my grip into an awkward, one-armed hug around his shoulders and met the young man’s terrified eyes. ‘Relax and stay calm.’ I told him. ‘This will all be over soon.’ 

“The young man stopped struggling, He leaned into my hug, head nodding forward. We turned to face Thaïs. She’d caught the other mugger who tried to run away and dragged him and the mugger she had beaten into unconsciousness into a nearby alley. I returned to the seated, crying mugger and led them into the same alley. I watched, fascinated, as Thaïs began to feed on the mugger still struggling in her grasp. He went limp in her arms as his eyes fluttered shut. His final scream trailed off into a contented sigh. The instinct to turn away from Thaïs feed on one of my own muggers was at war with my conscience. I had to make sure she stopped before he died. We didn’t come here to kill. I had to know that we could feed without killing. 

“Thaïs pulled away from the mugger, and I was relieved to see that he was still breathing in her arms. I asked her to wait and watch me feed. If I lost control, she could stop me easily. Thaïs nodded, and I turned to my – I don’t know the right word, dear listeners. Prey? Victim? Meal? Unwilling blood donor? George called it “The Kiss,” but I don’t remember him saying a word for the person we Kiss. Perhaps Kindred don’t care enough about people to even give them a title? I won’t let that happen to me. Hold me to that promise, won’t you, listeners?

“I held the young man against the wall of the alley. My teeth sunk into his neck. All at once, visions of his life flashed inside my head. Andrew celebrating his 23rd birthday party, memories hazy with too much drink. A string of detentions and suspensions until Andrew walks out of the principal’s office for the last time, cheeks burning hot as he pulls torn notebooks and thirdhand textbooks from a beat up locker. He is unhappy with himself and angry at the world. I pulled off him and he slumped to the floor, a dreamy smile on his face. He looked paler than he had been before, but his breathing was even.

“We repeated this routine with the two remaining muggers. Thaïs fed on hers while I watched, and she watched while I fed on mine. Brandon coloring on a newspaper in a small bedroom, parents shouting at each other across the house. Brandon’s mom, yelling at him about his grade in math class. A smaller apartment. Mom telling him he’d be a fuck up just like his father. The only good thing in Brandon’s life was his friendship with Andrew. The connection burned brightly in his mind. A secret hope that even I couldn’t name lurking underneath. A girl at a bar, eyeshadow glittering in the lights. Dates. Kisses. A proposal. I pulled my teeth out of his neck and licked the wound closed. Brandon collapsed in my arms, and I laid him on the alley floor.

“We debated how best to set the scene and decided on a mugging. Thaïs took the cash from each wallet, $127.36 in total with several mall and arcade coupons. She drew a gang sign on the wall next to them. While she worked, I used Dominate to rewrite their memories as best I could. They had seen a group of men and jumped them, only to be beaten up themselves. I think it worked. Let me know if the newspapers tomorrow report on a mysterious man hypnotizing muggers and a tall lady running faster than the Flash, won’t you, listeners?

“We drove to H&H ranch to do a little light reading. I asked Thaïs if she knew anything about the Lady in the Lake. I didn’t say her name aloud, but wrote down the words ‘Hi Ruth’ and crossed out the H. I don’t quite know the consequences of saying Ruth’s real name aloud, dear listeners, but it was enough to freak Joan out something fierce. Better safe than sorry. While I read about old Mesopotamian rituals, Thaïs appeared to be lost in thought. After a few minutes, she asked Normandin for a map and pointed to Theodore Roosevelt Island nestled in the Potomac between DC and Alexandria.

“I’ll admit, I felt foolish. I had even recognized the statue from my first dreams of the cornfield Temple as Theodore Roosevelt! I suppose I should have partaken in all the tourist traps when I had the chance, right? Take that as a lesson for you, dear listeners. We left Normandin and Elijah, Desirée’s husband, at the Ranch and returned to Desirée’s penthouse slash nightclub.

“Thaïs and I exited the truck just as Desirée walked out of the club to greet us, trailed by Ben and four young strangers. They didn’t appear to be a threat, but I’d learned over the past nine or so days that appearances can be deceiving. I tried to read their auras. It was strange. They were paler than Ben’s, but more colorful than mine. Like they were something between vampire and human, or a very human vampire. They felt scared. Wary. With my heightened senses though, I realized something much worse. We were being watched. Maybe it’s just my paranoia – you know I was already crazy before all this even started – but it felt like we were being watched physically and…magically. Like a wizard scrying through a crystal ball from the perspective of the poor sods trapped inside. Thaïs and Desirée appeared to notice it too, and we quickly made our way inside.

“In the penthouse, we turned on Desirée’s very fancy audio sound system and blasted classical music. Hopefully, this would confound mundane and magical listening devices. I tried to contact Joan with the cobweb as Thaïs caught Desirée and Ben up on what we learned, but all I felt was static. I hoped that she was still in OTCAL, or hiding with Obfuscate. 

“I was suddenly pulled from the Cobweb by a vision. The young Black man in the scrubs and military fatigues was being chased by someone. He leapt over a fence, upper back smoking. I looked around to see that Desirée and Thaïs were recovering from the same vision. Desirée called one of her ghouls, who confirmed that the man she had painted was Asa, a palliative care nurse who went missing a month and a half ago. 

“Tensions were high, listeners. We knew Asa was or would be in danger but had no clue where he was in Alexandria. We crowded around the painting, looking for any clue as to his location. One thing caught our eye – a faded, unlit YMCA sign. A start. We grabbed a guidebook and a map of Alexandra and piled into one of Desirée’s vans. Ben and I in third row backseat. Desirée in the middle row. Thaïs in front with Normandin driving. We studied the map. There were at least six YMCAs, and no logical way to decide between any of them. 

“Well, dear listeners, it’s a good thing I’m crazy and don’t need to rely on logic. Someone else has taken up residence in the rat’s nest that is your DJ Prophet’s brainpan. And if he’s the one that gave us the visions of Asa, then he wants us to find Asa. And if so, then maybe he can be a little more helpful than a magic 8 ball emitting terrifying visions with every roll. Maybe this was a mistake, but I had seen the terror in Asa’s eyes and knew we didn’t have the time to try every damn YMCA in the city. I’ll let you be the judge of that, dear listeners.

“I closed my eyes and confronted the freeloader in my skull. Told him that if Asa was so damn important to us, then I was going to hold my hand above the map, and I’d better find myself pointing at the right location. A chuckle resonated between my ears, and when I opened my eyes, I found my finger digging into the map at a derelict, industrial part of town. In the Alexandria guidebook, it was listed as a closed YMCA. Given that this was better than rolling dice on the other six open YMCAs, we started driving. 

 “I know we were expecting it, dear listeners, but it’s still surprising to see a six-foot man in a scrub jacket leap over a fence and run right in front of your truck. Normandin slammed the brakes and squealed to a halt. I figured I was the least intimidating of the group, so I reached forward to roll down the window in the middle row and called out:

“Get in the car! We’re vampires and we’re here to save you!”