9. They Come by It Honestly
With my eyes on the horizon, it was but a few moments before my body broke through like a sledgehammer into a sonic boom. And a few moments later, I had already arrived at Alice, and had landed in front of a small abandoned farm house, with its windows and doors boarded up with rotted two-by-fours.
I headed inside, barely noticing that I had pulverized the barriers. Everything inside was broken furniture and dust powder. I continued looking for the insistent purring through the living room and the kitchen, and finally I found them, all of them sitting down on the ground in an empty larder. My sudden appearance among them caused disbelief and confusion in the beginning, but after a few seconds all of them withdrew to the opposite end of the room, stumbling one on top the other, and piling around a bearded young man, who stood there looking daggers at me.
"What is it that you were saying?" I looked at him with my head tilted to the side, making small waterfalls of all the dried-out blood flakes that covered my whole body. "Why did you want me to flee? And how is it that you can place words inside my mind?"
Instead of replying, he rushed at me, followed by the half-dozen kids around him, all of them with hands like hooks in front of them and a feral expression on their faces. I was surprised into backing up by reflex to the other side of the small room, bumping off empty shelves. They were coming at me at normal walking speed, and when they got close to me, about to put their hands on me, I felt qualms about letting them touch me, so I raised an open hand with the palm towards them.
"No!" I thundered with a voice like the Angel of Revelation.
Immediately, they all fell flat on their backs. Well, well, I thought, I can't pick up little pebbles but I can bowl over homeless jerks. Interested in this new discovery, I bent my concentration on the kid closest to me, at my feet, and extending my hand in a dramatic gesture, I made him rise into the air with only the power of my mind. I laughed and laughed when I saw the kid's ridiculous gyrations, who kept yelling for help as he twisted slowly in mid air. His buddies had been crawling on their butts away from us, with mixed expressions of dread and anger on their faces. When my eyes found the bearded guy again, I lost all interest in playing around with floating-skinny-kid so, with barely a gesture, I flung him through the doorway, all the way into the kitchen. Twisting around and screaming through the air, he landed like a sack of potatoes. Then, once more I faced the beard guy, but this time I brought him towards me by making him float in the air.
"You still haven't answered me… What are you all doing here, and how do you place words in my thoughts?"
Beardy moaned, whined, cried, drooled, and babbled. But after a few seconds he mustered a tiny amount of dignity and asked me to please put him down. I agreed, amused with the impotent tantrum I'd just witnessed. Almost in a docile manner, he informed me that his name was Joachim and that he was the most powerful vampire in Texas. I couldn't help myself and laughed at him. The poor guy seemed on the verge of tears. He tried to tell me some of the very numerous events in his glorious life as a vampire, which had been going on for over a hundred years. But the only thing that interested me was to learn who had made him a vampire, and which powers he possessed.
"Did Benjamin also make you? Can you fly? Can you read minds?"
Joachim seemed reluctant to answer. He was working himself up into taking control again, and started insulting me for having exposed the vampires' existence to the armed forces, and tried to tell me off for having been careless. Supposedly, you shouldn't go out in daylight because it was very obvious that the vampires are walking dead bodies, and that you were supposed to be very careful because we had very fragile bodies that could very easily be consumed by fire. But I got tired of listening to him quickly, and so I tried to read his thoughts. I was quite surprised to find myself incapable of doing it.
"Get out! Do not try to get into my thoughts!"
I didn't know if he had spoken out loud, or if Joachim had only though it. But, in order to avoid useless arguments, I suddenly grabbed him and bit him. The rest of the vampires shrieked, but remained at our feet, still intimidated.
Ah, the blood! There was hardly any blood inside Joachim, but whatever little I managed to suck out was a concentration of all the pleasant sensations that I had just enjoyed with the platoon of marines in the Navy base. Through the blood I learned all the answers I was looking for…
Distracted and with lots to think about, I let Joachim drop to the floor. He hadn't even lost consciousness, and was writhing weakly on the floor. Right away two other vampires jumped on him and started biting him, trying to suck out the rest of the blood. I looked at them for a little while, somewhat bothered by the unseemly vampiric cannibalism, when suddenly I remembered the most important power in Benjamin's memories.
Holding my breath, and concentrating really hard, even biting my tongue to the side, I ordered the spirit to come out from them. Instantly seven human-shaped torches appeared on the floor of the house, amid sobs and howls. Their flames and their moans lasted quite a long time, and I stood there, looking at them while it happened. Long minutes after the house itself had been swallowed by the flames they were still groaning, even though they were just piles of hot charcoal by then. Their sighs didn't stop until I went around kicking, so as to scatter their ashes among the debris. Walking slowly, I emerged from the fire, unscathed. In the distance you could hear a firetruck's siren, rushing to come and put out the fire before it could spread all over the dry grass of the prairie.
I left, walking out into the empty valley, walking slowly, naked, smudged with ashes, and meditating on everything I learned from Joachim's blood, and whispering time after time, like I had been doing all the while I had witnessed the pyre:
"Burn! Burn!"
With my eyes on the horizon, it was but a few moments before my body broke through like a sledgehammer into a sonic boom. And a few moments later, I had already arrived at Alice, and had landed in front of a small abandoned farm house, with its windows and doors boarded up with rotted two-by-fours.
I headed inside, barely noticing that I had pulverized the barriers. Everything inside was broken furniture and dust powder. I continued looking for the insistent purring through the living room and the kitchen, and finally I found them, all of them sitting down on the ground in an empty larder. My sudden appearance among them caused disbelief and confusion in the beginning, but after a few seconds all of them withdrew to the opposite end of the room, stumbling one on top the other, and piling around a bearded young man, who stood there looking daggers at me.
"What is it that you were saying?" I looked at him with my head tilted to the side, making small waterfalls of all the dried-out blood flakes that covered my whole body. "Why did you want me to flee? And how is it that you can place words inside my mind?"
Instead of replying, he rushed at me, followed by the half-dozen kids around him, all of them with hands like hooks in front of them and a feral expression on their faces. I was surprised into backing up by reflex to the other side of the small room, bumping off empty shelves. They were coming at me at normal walking speed, and when they got close to me, about to put their hands on me, I felt qualms about letting them touch me, so I raised an open hand with the palm towards them.
"No!" I thundered with a voice like the Angel of Revelation.
Immediately, they all fell flat on their backs. Well, well, I thought, I can't pick up little pebbles but I can bowl over homeless jerks. Interested in this new discovery, I bent my concentration on the kid closest to me, at my feet, and extending my hand in a dramatic gesture, I made him rise into the air with only the power of my mind. I laughed and laughed when I saw the kid's ridiculous gyrations, who kept yelling for help as he twisted slowly in mid air. His buddies had been crawling on their butts away from us, with mixed expressions of dread and anger on their faces. When my eyes found the bearded guy again, I lost all interest in playing around with floating-skinny-kid so, with barely a gesture, I flung him through the doorway, all the way into the kitchen. Twisting around and screaming through the air, he landed like a sack of potatoes. Then, once more I faced the beard guy, but this time I brought him towards me by making him float in the air.
"You still haven't answered me… What are you all doing here, and how do you place words in my thoughts?"
Beardy moaned, whined, cried, drooled, and babbled. But after a few seconds he mustered a tiny amount of dignity and asked me to please put him down. I agreed, amused with the impotent tantrum I'd just witnessed. Almost in a docile manner, he informed me that his name was Joachim and that he was the most powerful vampire in Texas. I couldn't help myself and laughed at him. The poor guy seemed on the verge of tears. He tried to tell me some of the very numerous events in his glorious life as a vampire, which had been going on for over a hundred years. But the only thing that interested me was to learn who had made him a vampire, and which powers he possessed.
"Did Benjamin also make you? Can you fly? Can you read minds?"
Joachim seemed reluctant to answer. He was working himself up into taking control again, and started insulting me for having exposed the vampires' existence to the armed forces, and tried to tell me off for having been careless. Supposedly, you shouldn't go out in daylight because it was very obvious that the vampires are walking dead bodies, and that you were supposed to be very careful because we had very fragile bodies that could very easily be consumed by fire. But I got tired of listening to him quickly, and so I tried to read his thoughts. I was quite surprised to find myself incapable of doing it.
"Get out! Do not try to get into my thoughts!"
I didn't know if he had spoken out loud, or if Joachim had only though it. But, in order to avoid useless arguments, I suddenly grabbed him and bit him. The rest of the vampires shrieked, but remained at our feet, still intimidated.
Ah, the blood! There was hardly any blood inside Joachim, but whatever little I managed to suck out was a concentration of all the pleasant sensations that I had just enjoyed with the platoon of marines in the Navy base. Through the blood I learned all the answers I was looking for…
Distracted and with lots to think about, I let Joachim drop to the floor. He hadn't even lost consciousness, and was writhing weakly on the floor. Right away two other vampires jumped on him and started biting him, trying to suck out the rest of the blood. I looked at them for a little while, somewhat bothered by the unseemly vampiric cannibalism, when suddenly I remembered the most important power in Benjamin's memories.
Holding my breath, and concentrating really hard, even biting my tongue to the side, I ordered the spirit to come out from them. Instantly seven human-shaped torches appeared on the floor of the house, amid sobs and howls. Their flames and their moans lasted quite a long time, and I stood there, looking at them while it happened. Long minutes after the house itself had been swallowed by the flames they were still groaning, even though they were just piles of hot charcoal by then. Their sighs didn't stop until I went around kicking, so as to scatter their ashes among the debris. Walking slowly, I emerged from the fire, unscathed. In the distance you could hear a firetruck's siren, rushing to come and put out the fire before it could spread all over the dry grass of the prairie.
I left, walking out into the empty valley, walking slowly, naked, smudged with ashes, and meditating on everything I learned from Joachim's blood, and whispering time after time, like I had been doing all the while I had witnessed the pyre:
"Burn! Burn!"
To Be Continued…
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