Figured I'd post the prologue for my in-progress novel here. I hope to get it finished - and published - by 2013.
Scream Queen
The Law Unto Herself Chronicles
Volume One
By: Jennifer L. Barnes
New York, New York
February 14,
1931
Anthony Necchi stared at the figure on the screen in
wonder and fear. He leaned forward from
seat as he gripped the seat in front of him as he looked into the bright black
eyes of the man on screen. His voice was
commanding, beckoning everyone in the room to listen to each word he uttered
through his carnage through London. Tony watched as the Count Dracula enthralled
and terrified everyone in the room.
For over an hour Tony was captivated
by the man on screen, this Count Dracula.
He was so chilling with his odd voice and the slow, deliberate way he
pronounced things. Then the camera would
focus on his dark, haunting face with deliberate attention to the man’s
piercing dark eyes. Tony watched as if he was enthralled by Count Dracula
himself.
"There really are such
things as Vampires!” the narrator proclaimed at the end right before the
theater was flooded with light again.
Tony’s eyes
widened at such a thought, monsters like Dracula prowling the night in the
search for blood. Even after the movie
was over and the lights had gone back up, he was still staring up at the blank
screen in awe. He quickly got up before
one of the ushers saw him and headed to his papa’s office. He ran past the concession stand and there
were a few of the workers who called to him in greeting, but Tony ignored
it. He had to share with his Papa the
movie he’d just watched, and then the two of them would not mention a word of
it to his mother. She’d have a fit if she found out that he’d seen such a film
and would proclaim that he would have nightmares from it.
He skidded
to a stop in front of his father’s office as he saw three unfamiliar men with
slicked back dark hair wearing hats, suits and long coats walk into his
father’s office. They were rather
interchangeable from their clothing and size and they certainly not anyone that
Tony recognized. Curious, Tony crept
close to his father’s door to listen to the conversation inside.
“We’re here
to collect your payment for Mr. Sergetti’s protection, Necchi,” the voice that
Tony had heard was low and gruff sounding with an edge to it.
He
swallowed as he heard his father’s voice reply, “Nor will he get it. I didn’t need ‘protection’ until Mr. Sergetti
and his band of hooligans moved in.”
“You
understand this is business, Necchi. If
you don’t pay, then we don’t know what’ll happen to this little theater,” a
smooth voice said with a tiny snort.
Tony was
gripping the door as his father snapped, “Now you’re threatening my
business. Get out, get out.”
“You have
until next Saturday, Necchi, and if Mr. Sergetti isn’t paid in full we will
come to collect one way or another,” that smooth voice said with a chuckle.
The door
swung open and the three men walked out of his father’s office. Icy hazel eyes saw Tony looking at him wide
eyed and the man with the smooth voice said, “Maybe you can talk some sense
into your father, kid. After all, it
seems like you have a lot to loose, Necchi.”
Benicio
Necchi rose from his chair and snapped, “If you think you can threaten my
family too, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“We have
power Necchi, power that you obviously don’t have. It means we can do whatever we want,” the man
with the smooth voice said with a smile as he tilted his smart looking hat to his
father. “Good day, Necchi. Hopefully you’ll come to your senses.”
Benicio
glared at the men as they filed out of the office one by one. Tony swallowed as he quickly walked into the
office and closed the door behind him.
He asked, “Who where they?”
“Low lives,
predators, monsters who think they can just own everyone and everything, but
someday they’ll be shown that they’re wrong,” Benicio said as he shook his fist
at the closed door.
Tony
swallowed and asked, “What did they want, Dad?”
“Nothing I am going to give
them,” Benicio answered with a scowl before smiling at his son. He asked, “So, how was Dracula?”
“It was
really swell and scary, Dad,” Tony said with a smile.
Benicio
walked over and ruffled Tony’s hair, causing the young boy to laugh. He said, “Well, I won’t tell your mother if
you won’t.”
“Sure won’t
Dad,” Tony said with a smile.
***
Tony bit his lip at the lurid
pictures before him and rocked back and forth on his feet as he stared at the
pulp magazines before him. His allowance
had been cut in half for this week due to him sneaking to watch Dracula, and he only had enough for one
magazine instead of two. He scowled at the muscular man in purple standing in
front of a stone cave in the jungle painted on one cover and the other had a
man in a silver suit holding some sort of shinny gun with a half naked girl
grabbing his leg as he faced off some giant monster with too many arms. He jingled the change in his pocket as he
looked at the two covers, trying to decide which magazine he was going to buy.
“Wicked, a Phantom story this month,” a husky,
feminine voice with an odd, lilting accent that sounded kind of like the one
person who worked the concession stand that his dad said was Irish but not said
behind him. Tony watched as long,
elegant fingers with the nails varnished a bright red reached out and grabbed
one of the magazines with the man in purple on the front. Curious, he turned to see a tall girl smiling
as she began to thumb through the magazine.
She was
dressed in a black suit with grey pinstripes and was wearing a long black coat
that hit her calves. Long, blond hair
was braided back from her face and her smile was the same sort of smile he knew
he had when he read the Pulps. She
looked up, then looked down as wide eyes that weren’t really purple or blue but
mixed met his. Her smile broadened at
him and he found himself smiling back despite heat rushing to his cheeks as the
urge to look down at his feet became near crippling.
“Hey, this
isn’t the public library lady,” a gruff, familiar voice barked behind
Tony. He jolted and spun around to see
Cipriano, the guy who ran the newsstand scowling at the blond. His dark eyes
flickered down at Tony and said, “Heya Tony, you come to get your Pulps this
month?”
“Of course
Cipriano!” Tony said with a smile before scowling, “Even though I can only get
one. Mom cut my allowance.”
Cipriano
chuckled and said, “Well, that’s what happens when you sneak behind her back to
watch movies about monsters, my boy.”
“For my
browsing, I’ll get the boy’s magazines,” the blond said with a smile as she
reached into her pocket and gave Cipriano some crisp cash.
Cipriano
said, “He usually gets Weird Tales and
Amazing Stories.”
“Mm, the
lad’s got good taste then,” the blond said with a wink to Tony as she picked up
both magazines and handed them to him.
Tony blinked and stared up at her with a frown.
He
swallowed and said, “Miss, I can’t take these.”
“Humor
me. I get laughed at because I like this
stuff, but I can’t help it,” she said with a shake of her head, “Besides, save
up your allowance and buy a copy of Dracula.”
“Tony’s dad
owns the theater up the street, they already have a copy of Dracula,” Cipriano said with a chuckle.
The blond
shook her head again and replied, “No, the book. The movie’s good, but read the book. I think
you’ll be surprised, Poppet. Okay, the
prose gets a wee bit purple at times and there’s a giant boring part, but give
it a try.”
“Dracula’s based off a book?” Tony asked
as he took the two magazines.
Cipriano
nodded and said, “Yeah, a real book instead of those bits of stories you’re
rotting your brain out with.”
“Ah, but
it’s good rot,” the blond said with a laugh as she moved away from the
newsstand with a wave.
Cipranio
frowned and said, “She forgot her change.”
“I could
run it to her,” Tony offered as he felt his cheeks heat up again.
The older
man looked down at him with a laugh.
“Look at you, already wanting to chase after pretty girls my boy. Dames like that though are trouble,” he said
while waggling his finger at Tony, “I mean, look how she’s dressed, like one of
those hoodlums that run with Sergetti.”
Tony
frowned and said, “Yeah, some of those guys came to talk to Dad last week. They were kinda spooky.”
“Yeah, this
use to be a nice neighborhood until that lowlife ruffian came into town,”
Cipranio said with a sigh and a shake of his head.
Tony asked,
“Who is that guy anyway?”
“Trouble,
which you’re going to be in if your momma finds out you’re out this late! Get yourself home Anthony before she has your
hide!” Cipranio proclaimed as he pointed his finger towards Tony’s home.
Tony
gathered up his magazines and said, “See ya later, Cipranio!”
***
Tony was
whistling to himself as he headed back home, occasionally stopping at a street
light to thumb through his magazines. He
knew the sooner he got home, the sooner he could read them for real, but he
couldn’t wait. He squinted his eyes as
he used the street light to make out the words on the page when a voice
drawled, “Reading
in this light will hurt your eyes.”
His head
jerked up right as a hand with a grip like iron wrapped around his forearm and
drug him backwards. Tony opened his
mouth, drew a quick breath and was about to scream when a heavy hand that
smelled like old ham clamped over his mouth.
He kicked, wiggled and flailed his other arm, but he was still moving
backwards. His eyes darted around as he
had to inhale and exhale through his nose. His eyes began to burn, his chest
was tight and he shook his head furiously back and forth, but the old ham hand
was clamped tight on his lips.
In the
darkness, Tony could make out that they were surrounded by walls on either
side, and the only noises he could hear were cars a far distance away. He felt his feet planted on the ground and
cried out beneath the hand holding his mouth as he felt his legs spread apart
with vice grips on his ankles. There was
a low, thick thumping sound over and over again as the same man who had talked
to his father last week when Tony had snuck in to see Dracula stepped in front of him.
“See, we
warned your dad about paying us, Kid, and he didn’t cough up. Now we’re going to take his payment one way
or another,” he said smoothly as the baseball bat patted the palm of his hand
repeatedly. “Hold him still, boys,” he said with a smirk as he used the bat to
tilt his hat up.
Tony cried
out beneath the hand and began to thrash, but now arms were holding his arms
back and his legs were being held. He
looked around sharply and just saw trash and the sides of buildings around
them. The man in the suit drew the bat
back for the swing and Tony clinched his eyes shut.
He heard
the whirl of the bat as it was swung, and his eyes burned while he felt liquid
warmth spread through his pants. He
expected pain, but it never came, he just felt the hands holding his arms and
legs, and he heard the man curse loudly, “What the fuck?”
“Now, what
did I just stumble on, four fairly large sized men of Italian descent picking
on a little boy? That’s not very fair odds now is it?” a low, female voice said
with that same not quite Irish accent that Tony had heard at the newsstand.
His eyes
flew open to see the tall blond girl standing beside the man with the bat and
holding it up while he struggled to dislodge it from her hand. “I’m going to
smash your face in, you crazy dame,” he snapped as she let go of the bat and
stumbled back.
She was
dressed in the same pin stripe suit and long coats as the guy with the bat was,
but while his fit him, hers was a bit loose on her thin frame. She lifted her hands, spread her legs
slightly apart and twisted to the side.
With a grin, she said, “You can try if you want to, lad.”
With a
yell, the thug with the bat charged the tall blond girl. He swung at her face and she nimbly bent
backwards. She tilted to the side and
stood up to avoid another swing and waggled her finger at him. “You fucking bitch,” the thug cried out as he
swung sloppily at her again.
This time
her hand thrust out lightning fast and wrapped around the bat. She had her arm extended as she held the
front of her bat in her hand. He jerked,
but she held fast again as she slid her hand down the shaft of the bat, jerking
the thug closer with each slow easy movement.
“Come on, there’s what? Four of you against me. I know I’m not a wee lad, but you shouldn’t
have this sort of problem with me should you?” she asked with a crooked grin as
her eyes gleamed with merriment at the thug.
“Let’s
teach this bitch a lesson!” the thug shouted as he let go of the bat and
stumbled back.
Tony cried
out as he was dropped and the three men that had been holding him rushed at the
blond all at once. She stepped swiftly
to the side to avoid the men rushing her and spun around to face them, the bat
still in her hand. Instead of holding it like a bat, she was holding it with
one hand and swung with her wrist, and not with her hips. She hit one of the thugs rapidly in the face,
snapped her wrist again to hit another one in the stomach before pivoting from
the last one to launch her foot straight up to his face. That thug’s head whipped back and his feet
flew up right before he crashed to the ground with a groan.
She pointed
the bat at the lead thug and said, “Now that I have your attention, I want to
know who your boss is.”
“We’re not
gonna kill this whore, not yet. We’re
gonna make her remember a woman’s place,” the lead thug said with a low, shaky
laugh.
She sighed
and said, “Now if I had a quid for every bloody time I heard something
ridiculous like that from some snot nosed underling wanker I’d be even more
wealthy than I already am.” Then she looked at Tony and said, “You’d better get
along lad. This part is going to be
messy and I don’t want you watching.”
Tony
swallowed as he managed to stand on shaking legs. His stomach was churning, he tasted hot bile
in his throat and his chest was tight.
Yet as he stared at the slim blond who winked and smiled at him, he felt
some of the tightness on his chest and the fluttering in his stomach ease. He nodded and began to move out of the alley,
as fast as his legs could carry him, his Pulps forgotten.
***
“Dad, Dad!”
Tony cried out as he made it back home and in the door. His nose was curled at the smell of pee
staining his pants, but he wasn’t shaking and didn’t feel like throwing up
anymore. He considered that a huge
victory, but he needed to tell his Dad what was going on.
A plump,
middle aged woman with a head of dark hair curled up into a bun walked into the
hallway. She was wearing a starched,
white apron over her plain blue dress.
Round hands rested on her ample hips as Maria Necchi scolded, “Anthony,
what do you think you’re doing, coming home at all hours of the night and
screaming like a demon?”
“Ma, I need
to talk to Dad,” Tony said as he took a giant gulp of air.
She scowled
at him before her eyes raked over him.
His mother’s dark eyes widened as she moved over to him and gently
tilted his head up. She frowned as she
looked at his face and then at his hands.
He blinked as he realized they were burning, the skin was a deep red with
little bits of white skin sticking up from his palms. “Good Lord, Anthony, what happened to you?”
she asked as she looked him over, “Who did this to you? I want names!”
Tony
swallowed and answered, “It was those goons who were at Dad’s office last week. They grabbed me and made me drop my Pulps and
were gonna hit me with a bat!”
“They
what?” she asked as her eyes widened and the color drained from her olive
face. Her hands were shaking as she
stared down at him with trembling lips.
Tony held
up his hands and said, “But I’m okay Ma, this girl came and saved me!”
“Girl?’
Maria asked with a frown.
He nodded
and said, “She was really tall, with long blond hair and moved . . . Well, like
no one I’d seen before! It was like in
the stories! She just appeared, beat the
bad guys, told me to run and saved the day!”
“The
nonsense that garbage puts into your head, Anthony, I raised a better boy than
that,” she sighed as she shook her head.
Benicio
walked into the hallway and asked, “Good Lord Tony, what happened to you? And . . . I thought my boy was a lot older
than to wet himself like a baby.”
“He was
attacked by those ruffians who have been lurking around the theater. The ones who work for that no good
Sergetti! I told you to just pay them,
but no, you gotta be the hero and resist!
So they come after my baby boy,” Maria said as she shook her fist at
Benicio.
Benicio
frowned and asked, “How did you get away, Tony?”
“This girl,
she saved me! She beat up the bad guys
like in the Pulps!” Tony said.
Benicio
shook his head and said, “Well, go clean yourself off and head for bed. You’ve had enough excitement for one night,
Tony.”
Tony nodded
and head for the washroom. He made a
face as he peeled off his clothing and began to wash off. He was surprised that he wasn’t scolded more
for wetting himself and he was even more surprised that they believed his
story. He heard the voices of his
parents arguing in the kitchen but ignored it.
His mother seemed to thrive at belittling others or just yelling at them
in general, so it was something he’d long ago grown accustomed too.
Once he was
clean, he headed to his room to put on his pajamas. He turned on the lamp beside his bed to read
his Pulps only to realize that he dropped them in the alley. With a sigh he rolled over to grab last
month’s magazines to reread when there was a light, musical tap on his
window.
He sat up
and spun around to see the blond girl crouched at his window and holding new
copies of Weird Tales and Amazing Stories in her hands. She smiled at him, waved and he ran over to
the window. He popped it open and whispered, “How did you know where to find
me?”
“I know all
sorts of neat stuff like that. Figured
you’d want these back. Well, the ones
you dropped weren’t very readable so I got you another set,” she whispered back
with a smile.
He blinked
at her and took a step back. He said,
“Come in.”
“Are you
sure?” she asked as she pulled one long leg into the window before swinging the
other over. She ducked gracefully in and
rose to her full height as soon as she was inside. She was clutching the magazines to her chest
as her violet-blue eyes curiously darted around his room. A smile stretched across a pretty face at the
movie posters on his walls that his Dad had given him when the theater didn’t
need them anymore and didn’t have the heart to throw away.
Tony said,
“My dad owns the theater off West Houston.”
“I go there
from time to time, it’s rather nice,” she said with a nod before moving over to
his night stand and laying the magazines there.
She held out her hand and said, “I’m Forest by the by and by.”
“Tony,” he
said with a grin as he shook her hand.
He frowned at the coolness of his skin and said, “Maybe you need a pair
of gloves or something. You’re gonna catch a cold if you keep that up. Or at least that’s what Ma says.”
She smiled
and replied, “Well, your mum’s a smart woman, just I really don’t have to worry
about catching cold. As well as those
pillocks today? Well, you can tell your
dear da and mum that they won’t be bothering you or anyone else in this
neighborhood ever again.”
“Really?”
Tony asked as he looked at her with wide eyes.
She nodded
and replied, “Really.”
New York, New York
1941
Tony was
standing rod straight at the box office, his neck itching under the heavy
starch that his Ma poured onto the collar of his uniform shirt. The little red cap was digging into his head,
but it was part of the whole ordeal. Besides,
other than the monkey suit Tony liked working the box office. He liked suggesting movies to folks or giving
his opinions on movies and the like.
Plus, he
liked the extra pocket money as well.
The rest of America
may have been in a Depression, but business was booming at the Theater and
that’s all the Necchi’s cared about. Well, that and a few good movies, he
thought with a smile as he gave tickets and took money.
It was a
Saturday night and he was itching to be in the theater himself to see what just
opened up. His Ma hated his choice in
movies, but he couldn’t help it. After
seeing Dracula over and over as a
kid, he thrilled in the macabre and the horrific. There was something about it that he couldn’t
help but to adore, and his dad was fond of them too. He looked up to see a very familiar blond
walk up to his box office.
Tony’s eyes
widened as he saw Forest, looking exactly as
she had when he’d been a kid, even dressed the same except her hair was flowing
freely around her face. She hasn’t
changed, she looks about my age, he thought wildly as he shook himself as
she pushed money through the hole in the bottom of the glass.
“One for The Wolfman please,” she said in that
same accent that he now knew to be Scottish.
He smiled
at her and said, “You haven’t changed.”
“What?” she
asked as she blinked at him.
He took her
money, gave her back her change for the movie and said, “Come on, little kid,
pulp magazines, mobsters aiming to break my legs with a baseball bat. Surely not an every day occurrence right?”
“Oh. Oh,
Tony?” she asked as she blinked at him.
He smiled
at her and said, “So, you remember all the little boys you save?”
The blond
fidgeted with the tie around her throat and looked around. She leaned forward and asked in a soft voice,
“Would you meet me after the movie?”
“Sure, my
shift’s over then anyway,” he said with a smile, “How about at that little
diner around the corner. They’ve got the
greatest blackberry cobbler there. My
treat.”
“You really
don’t have to do that,” Forest said with a
wavering smile as her violet-blue eyes darted around.
He grinned
and said, “Eh, it’s the least I can do. Payment for the Pulps and the whole
saving my life thing.”
“Well fine,
we’ll meet after the movie. Is it as
good as Dracula?” she replied as she
backed up from the glass.
“Mm, I
think I liked it better. I really felt
for him, ya know?”
The blond
grinned at him and said, “I’ll see you then, Tony.”
“It’s a
date,” he called out to her as she walked away.
***
Plumes of
blue-grey cigarette smoke swirled up in idle eddies to the hanging lights over
head, on the radio a slow big band tune played, and Tony was surrounded by the
sound of people talking. He was sitting
at a booth at the window with two servings of blackberry cobbler with two
glasses of milk. He didn’t know if Forest drank milk, but the waitress at the dinner would
pitch a fit at his Ma if he ordered coffee.
Ordering dessert and drinks for two people would be enough trouble, as
would being seen with a girl dressed like a man.
He was
hoping she’d arrive before the cobbler became cold, but there were still tiny
puffs of steam rising up from the fruit and dough confection as the blond swept
in. She slid into the booth seat facing
him and shrugged off her coat. Tony
smiled at her and said, “I hope you like milk.”
“I prefer
orange juice actually,” she said with a smile herself as she looked down at the
dessert in front of her. Tiny, even,
pristine white teeth worried a plump bottom lip as blue-violet eyes looked down
at the cobbler. She then smiled, picked
up the fork and said, “So, why did you want to meet me? I’m surprised that you even remembered me at
all. That was what? Six years ago?”
Tony
grinned and said, “Something like that.” He began to eat his cobbler, smiling
as the tartly sweet mixture of the cobbler met his tongue and sighed. He said between bites, “No boy’s going to
forget a girl that’s as tall as most guys they know, knows who The Phantom is, bought them Pulps and
proceeded to beat the living tar out of four mobster muscle men like it was
nothing.”
“That
wasn’t beating the tar out of them, that was a mild scolding,” she said with a
snort as she took a delicate drink of milk, “And there are lots of girls who
know who The Phantom is.”
He grinned
and said, “Plus, I’d never seen anyone move like that before.”
“Go to China or Japan,” she
said with a grin. Her eyes met his
before she asked, “Did anyone have any other problems with those wankers here?”
He shook
his head and said, “Nope, after that night no one heard anything from them
anymore, and none of the other gangs took turf here. That we had some mysterious protector or
something.” He shoved another forkful in
his mouth and promptly chewed it before swishing it down with the thick, sweet
milk.
Forest smiled at that and replied, “Well, something like
that. I’m just glad at least this area
stayed clean. I’m still surprised you
recognized me though.”
“Dames like
you don’t cross around here that often.
No offense
Forest, but you stand out
like a sore thumb,” he said with a grin as he gestured to her with his milk
glass.
She sighed
and said, “I know, I was hoping the clothing would help.”
“Nah,
someone would be half blind to pass you as a guy,” he said with a smile.
She grinned
at him and said, “I’ve done that before.
I guess I’m getting lax.”
“So, I
wanna know why the hell haven’t you changed in six years?” Tony asked her.
Forest
looked up, shook her head, sighed and then her eyes met and held Tony’s. He squirmed slightly under that intense gaze
as she said, “Well, if you run or bolt, you’re not going to remember this
anyway.” She smiled and then said, “Look
at the window and tell me what you see.”
Tony narrowed his eyes as he looked at the
window. He saw a few cars driving on the
night street, people walking around as well as lights gleaming from the street,
the cars as well as the buildings around them. He saw his own ghost reflection
inspect himself as the table and booth he was sitting in. In the distance the rest of the diner was
seen in the misty reflection of the glass.
His eyes
widened before he spun his head to see Forest
grinning lopsided at the window. However
there was no indistinct blond grinning back at them in the glass. He stared at the lack of reflection before
swallowing. He stared at the blond
sitting in front of him as she continued grinning that sardonic grin.
"There really are such things as
Vampires!” the narrator proclaimed at the end right before the theater was
flooded with light again.
He was a
little boy again, seven years old staring up at the screen in fear, awe and
wonder. His heart was pounding in his
chest as her eyes never left his. He
shifted slightly at her unblinking gaze and blinked three times himself before
swallowing. He ran a hand through his slicked
back hair and looked around before meeting her gaze again.
He blurted,
“Can you turn into a bat?”
“What?” she
asked with a bark of laughter before staring at him in disbelief.
He flapped
his hands like wings and asked, “Can you turn into a bat?”
“Um, no,”
she said with a chuckle.
He looked
around and asked, “A wolf?”
“Not
really, but I know people who can.
They’re closer to Lon Chaney than Bela Lugosi though,” she said with a
shake of her head.
He asked,
“Mist or fog?”
“Nope, what
you see is what I am and I can’t turn into anything else,” she said with a
bemused grin as she curled her fingers into a fist and pointed her thumb at her
chest.
He
whispered, “Drink blood?”
“Reluctantly,
yes,” she said as her shoulders slumped and she looked down at the half eaten
cobbler in front of her.
He then smiled and asked, “Can
you hypnotize people?”
“Yes, I
can. I can also talk to people without
speaking and read their thoughts,” Forest said
with a smile of her own.
He whistled
low, shook his head and said, “Wow, that’s amazing.”
“You’re not
scared,” she said as her smile turned into a teasing sort of grin.
He shook
his head and said, “I already know you’re one of the good guys, why should I be
scared?”
“Well . . .
I mean you know,” Forest said awkwardly with a tiny wince and grimace.
He smiled
and replied, “Like I said, you came in the nick of time, saved me from walking
with a crutch, beat up the bad guys and made sure they never came back to hurt
my family or the rest of the people in the neighborhood. And you like The Phantom.”
“I also
like Batman and The Shadow a lot too,” she admitted with a grin.
He frowned
and said, “I don’t think I’ve read about Batman.”
“Yeah, he’s a comic book
character. He’s sort of based on Dracula
you know,” Forest said as she began to eat her
cobbler again.
He lifted
his brows and chuckled at her before finishing the last bite of his
dessert. He pointed his spoon at her and
asked, “So, you read so many pulp and comic book stories that you decided to
become a hero yourself?”
“There have
been heroes in stories long before the Pulps or comics you know. Cú
Chulainn, King Arthur, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Hercules, and so on and so
forth. The pulp heroes are just the
mythological heroes today,” Forest said as she
grabbed her milk and delicately sipped on it.
He blinked
and said, “I only know who two of those people are.”
“Well,
you’re not a Celt or have Celtic background, that’s why. Even though Cú Chulainn could trounce all of them with one arm behind his back
you know,” Forest said with a smile before
setting her glass down. She then started
to get up, readjusting her long coat around her. Tony stood up as well and felt heat rise to
his cheeks as he fumbled with his hands for a moment.
She said,
“Well, thank you for the cobbler, it was lovely.”
“Wait,
you’re going to tell me that you’re a vampire and just leave?” he asked with a
shake of his head.
She winked
and said, “You’ll see me around. I
promise. I just have bad guys to pummel,
boys in distress to save and all of that.
Evil’s afoot and I must be off.”
“Ah, well,
thank you,” Tony said as she started to head out of the diner. She turned to smile at him before walking out
the door. He jumped on the booth to
track her progress, but she was gone.
1960
Tony
stretched in his office as he looked around at the various movie posters he had
framed over the years. He checked his
watch and looked outside. The sky still
had streaks of pink staining the deep blue and there was a faint glimmer of
red. He still had a few minutes, but
those few minutes were always seemed like lifetimes to him. He lowered his arm and stood up from his
overly plush seat at his desk to walk around the office.
Outside he
heard mulling about and teenagers laughing.
The popcorn machine was popping at a rapid rate, the soda fountains were
gushing enthusiastically, and the theater was turning a profit on cinema and
junk food. He chuckled at the sounds as
he wrapped his hands around his left thigh to move the prosthetic leg
there. His joints creaked in protest,
but he kept moving to get the blood flowing back into the stump so he could
walk without too much of a limp.
It was
ironic, but even after almost forty years cellulite still held its precious
spell over him. As he had once joked to
a friend it was in his blood, and if you cut him film would spill out and not
red liquid. It was one of the reasons
he’d taken the old theater from his father and was turning an even bigger
profit by showing first run movies and special nights were he’d show the old
Universal monster movies when school wasn’t in session.
However,
this new studio from England
named after some tool had been getting quite a bit of buzz with its brightly
colored blood and heaving bosoms of nubile young women. He hadn’t seen any of that stuff yet, but
he’d gotten it and he was going to see it with his friend. If she
ever shows up on time, he thought with a sigh as he ran a hand through his
peppering hair.
“Hey, I’m
on time, your watch is fast,” the familiar husky voice said petulantly behind
him.
He spun
around to see the slim blond standing there in tight dark blue jeans, a black
T-shirt and a black biker jacket complete with zippers over the outfit. Her hair was up in a pony tail, with a red
scarf tied jauntily at her throat, she always had her throat covered by
something, and she was wearing red lipstick.
He smiled at the sight of her looking so much like a rebel youth even
though he knew that she was over a thousand years older than he was. Tony limped over to him with his arms out and
she hugged him with a chuckle.
He said,
“Ah, you haven’t changed a bit!”
“It’s my
lifestyle,” she drawled as she let him go and looked him over. She said, “You look great though! How’s the leg?”
Tony
grinned as he knocked on it and said, “Knock on wood, Fore. It only really bothers me when it rains.”
“I’m
sorry,” she said with a sigh as she looked away.
He shook
his head and said, “Don’t be. Wasn’t
your fault. Besides, I have this neat
little Purple Heart I can show off to the kids, showing that Daddy was a real
war hero.”
“How’s your
wife anyway?” Forest asked with a grin.
He twisted
the white gold band on his finger with a smile and answered, “Pregnant again
actually. I bet she’d be pitching a fit
when she finds out I’m with some pretty blond girl.”
The
vampire’s smile was sad as she said, “Congratulations, are you still trying for
a girl?”
“Yeah,
that’s what Mia wants, but I think by kid number four all I’m shooting out is
boys,” Tony said dryly as they started to head out of his office.
She asked,
“So, are you ready to see if Christopher Lee’s Dracula holds up to Bella’s?”
“Fore,
Bella Lagosi was a better vampire than you are,” Tony said with a grin as she
helped him to the theater.
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