FicWad

In A Darkened Room
By Mishi

Chapter 1
The Calling

Maire = Irish version of the name Mary, pronounced Maw-rah.

Touya = pronounced Toe-yah.


It had been raining as she sat watching the streets fly by on the bus, but as she stepped off the bus and into the night, all rain had stopped. The sky was clearing overhead, with the first touch of stars just visible over the street lamps. The air had that early fall chill to it, and the rain hadn’t helped to warm anything up. The burgundy windbreaker that she wore was keeping the top of her body warm, yet her legs where freezing. No thanks to the black wool skirt, which did pass her knees and hose she was wearing. They were just not helping to keep her warm as she had hoped. A gust of wind was blowing through her wavy red hair, and right up her skirt; forcing her to shiver.

‘It’s going to be an early winter, I just know it. I so hate the cold!’ she thought as the bus made its way back onto the street.

She stepped away from the curb and looked up, silently wishing that she could see more stars, but the light of the lamps wouldn’t have it. That’s what she got for living in the city. At least she didn’t need a car in the city, which was the one big bonus she could think of. Of course, living outside of the city would take more money than she made at her little clerk job. She worked with good people, but the family owned business was not the highest paying job she could find. Most months the Stack Shack sold just enough books to pay the bills. Thanks to the patrons with special interests in hard to find and foreign books, the shop owners managed to get by. And luck would have it; there really wasn’t a better way for different ethnic groups to get printed items from their homelands in the city. Yep, Lu and Peggy could find anything from anywhere; they had enough friends overseas to make foreign diplomats look bad!

Though the street was busy with traffic, it was a pretty quiet night in the way of pedestrians. There was normally more movement on the street which had an Asian market, corner diner, and a few ethnic food joints on it. All the shops had closed before nightfall, and it was fairly late on a Sunday night; so it shouldn’t have surprised her.

She wasn’t normally out at this time of night, but Iris was pressing her to go to St. Pat’s. How do you tell a persistent angel to bugger off and let you sleep? You just didn’t do that sort of thing. Iris was pushy in her own sweet way, so far be it for Maire to tell her to kiss off. Besides, when angels speak it’s usually because God put them up to it. That sort of upped the stakes and made it harder to refuse to do what they wanted. In short, she got herself out of her comfy bed and hauled butt to the corner of 19th Street so she could make everyone happy.

The church was just around the corner and up a block on the South side of the street. If the air had been warmer, she wouldn’t have minded the walk. As it was, she walked as fast as her short legs could carry her. She hated cold weather, and the slightest bit of cold air bothered her. Being only five foot two inches with a petite frame, it seemed like the wind could blow right through her. Not even being twenty pounds overweight changed the fact that the wind was sturdier than she was.

As she rounded the corner onto Poplar, the church came into view. Made of white limestone, the structure had one white steeple and two large steel doors. The stained glass windows that were beautiful in the light of day were dark and without detail. There were four small windows in view with one larger one towards the back of the building. The side that she couldn’t see was set up in the same pattern. All the smaller windows were visions of the Virgin Mary, while the larger ones were of Christ. Next to the church lay her destination; a small building that was connected to it, which from the outside looked like a side entrance to the church. Actually, it was St. Pat’s Sacrament Chapel, a special chapel where the Holy Eucharist, or bread that has been turned into the Body of Christ, is on display for all to see. This is a holy place where anyone can go to pray, read, or just set quietly in the presence for God.

The chapel was empty except for one parishioner who sat in the front pew. There were two rows for eight pews total, but most parishioners either sat in the first two pews or the last two. The chapel was a smaller version of the church sanctuary; seeing the inside of it was like seeing the inside of the church. The altar was set within a large domed indention that was called the front of the building, which would be the back in any normal structure. The ceiling inside the dome was covered by angels with blue, red, and golden robes. Just above the altar was a tall stained glass window with a large wooden crucifix in the center of it. On the altar sat a long handled, golden objected with a circular frame at its top, called a monstrance. The frame was surrounded by what resembled gold beams of light, and nestled behind the round glass of the frame sat the Holy Eucharist. Kneeling angels made up its base, and it was set up in such a way that it looked like the angels were holding up the monstrance with their hands.

Maire looked at the man in the front pew and wondered what he was praying about. She admired him for coming to do this at the same time every week. She didn’t know from personal experience that he was here every Sunday, but because she knew you had to sign up for an hour with the Lord, and keeping the same hour every week was how it was done. It was difficult to keep around the clock watch with the Holy Eucharist, but it was an important task that some took great pride in. It also meant that she would not be alone when she talked to Iris. Like always, she was going to look really crazy. Maybe she would cut her some slack and this would be a short message.

She looked around and waited for Iris to appear before taking one of the pews. Like magic, the angel appeared in the last pew to her left; and as always, there was the scent of irises after rain. Choosing the sit closest to the wall, Iris turned to look at Maire and flagged her over with a smile. Light danced around the angel as she drew her wings in behind her. Looking at Iris was like looking at a white and gold sun that didn’t burn your eyes. Well, at least they didn’t burn Maire’s, who knew what the angel did to the eyes of others.

The angel remained quiet as Maire walked over and knelt down on the kneeler in the pew beside her. Iris even allowed her to get in a quick prayer before joining her on the kneeler, bending close, and whispering, “The Boss has a doozy for you this time. It’s not going to be easy, but I think you’ll like what He has in mind for you.”

Maire never understood why Iris bothered to whisper, it wasn’t like anyone could hear her unless she wanted them too. It just seemed so ridiculous.

“What makes this so special?” Maire whispered back.

“Wait, let me get all official. I’ll give it to you just as He made me rehearse it.” The angel’s smile got wider. “There is a man who you must find. He is special and not like other men. He will test you in many ways, and he will not easily trust you. He has been on this earth for some time, and he has seen many things that would cause him to disbelieve. But take heart for God is with you, this man has been searching for someone like you to minister to him. You alone can help him heal; you were made for this purpose.”

“You’re telling me that this is my big job for the Big Guy?” She whispered in disbelief.

“In a manner of speaking…you’ve struck gold, Hunny.” Iris giggled.

“Where can I find him?”

“I’ll lead you to him. Wait till you see how cute he is.”

“Will you just once act like a messenger of God and not a school girl?”

“Will you lighten up and let me have some fun with this?” The angel pushed out her lip and started to pout.

“Oh, stop that!” Maire snapped, which resulted in the gentleman in the front row to turn and look over his shoulder in her direction.

“Ok, time to go.” Iris giggled.

****

Touya sat at the far back corner of the bar nursing a glass of Bourbon. He sat casually in the seat with one arm resting on the table and the other in his lap. Slumping in the set, he had one leg stretched out before him. His long black hair framing his face as it lay across his shoulders and half way down his back. His eyes were so dark brown that they looked as black as his hair in the dimly lit room. His gold, long-sleeved shirt made his skin look darker than it was, which was what he was going for since his complexion was so pale. The black leather pants he wore left little to the imagination due to their tightness, but he liked how they looked. He topped this all off with a pair of black cowboy boots that he had bought years ago, and he would grieve for them when they finally fell apart. On a whole, this was his “fitting in with the locals” attire; which meant very little since he was the only one of Japanese descent in the bar. Surprisingly, he went so unnoticed that the waitress even overlooked him. If he had not purchased his drink when he entered the bar, he would have sat there with nothing.

Drinking wasn’t the purpose behind his being in the bar; Touya had been watching the stranger for several hours now. He had not been noticed as he followed the evil young man inside. The stranger in the red baseball cap had been too busy stalking a young woman who had wandered to the bar with her friends from campus. He could tell there would be trouble soon as he looked into the minds around him; the girls were pairing off, leaving the pretty blonde girl alone. The rain had stopped and the girl was thinking about giving up and heading home. Touya could see that Mr. Baseball Cap was getting anxious too.

He had just gotten in two more sips of his drink before Blondie decided to get up and head for the door. Mr. Baseball Cap waited a few seconds and started to follow. One more sip and Touya picked up his black full length leather coat, and was out the door and walking the shinny street. He could see that the stranger was about a half a block behind the girl. The blonde was watching the sidewalk as she moved, and was paying no attention to the two men who followed her. Touya thought her stupid for leaving herself so open to such danger.

As the girl rounded the corner onto a dark side street Mr. Baseball Cap closed some of the distance between them; causing Touya to quicken his pace as well. It was too late by the time the girl had realized that she was being followed, because the man had her by the arms and was dragging her into the alley. She tried to scream, but a hand flew over her mouth as she was being pulled backwards.

Two tall, brick buildings made up the walls of the alley. There were two large dumpsters, one on each side. One had several bags setting next to it, because it had been spilling over the top. Between the overflowing dumpster and trash bags was where he had decided to stop and force her down, but she was giving him a hard time and remaining on her feet.

From the top of the building behind the man, Touya swooped down upon him. With a grip nearly tight enough to break bone, Touya took hold of the man’s forearms and forced his grip to release from the blonde woman. She stumbled forward and fell, righting her self as quick as she had went down. Mr. Baseball Cap let out a growl that didn’t sound at all human.

“Get the hell out of here!” Touya yelled as she hesitated long enough to look back. Not needing to be told a second time, the girl bolted for dear life.

“You’re going to pay for that, you bastard.”

“You won’t be doing anything else in this form,” Touya commented before sinking his fangs into the neck of the man in his grip.

The man let out another of his hellish growls and tried to fight the hands that held him. Touya ignored him and sucked at the blood fast and hard. As he sucked, Touya forced the man’s mind to open to his suggestions. The man struggled against the invasion, but his mind was not strong enough to win the battle. Suddenly the man lost all power in his legs and started to fall, Touya kneeling with the movement brought them both to the pavement. Then, rearing back his head, he let the man fall completely.

“He won’t die, but you will have to come out, demon; that body is not strong enough for you to stay in now.”

Red mist burst from the man’s open mouth and swirled about in the darkness for several moments before taking on solid form. What had been red mist was now a towering mound of muscle and gray flesh that glared down at Touya. Touya was an average height at five foot seven, but this demon would have made a tall man seem small.

The stench of rotten eggs filled the air; Touya shook his head in defiance of the smells assault on his nose and throat. “Damn that smell of yours!”

In a voice that was very close to the sound of nails on a chalkboard, the demon responded, “You should have left me in the human.”

No sooner than the words had made it out of the demon’s mouth, had the creature lunged with claws bared at the vampire before it. Dodging slash after slash, Touya managed to draw out a silver short sword. No, the sword was not practical for cutting, but to the demons that he usually fought, it left more than a fair share of damage. As he used it to cut at the demon’s arms and chest; the purity of the silver caused the blood to foam and boil as it seeped from the opened flesh.

Spinning away from a massive arm, Touya sliced the beast’s belly and discarded his coat at the same time. The wound was deep and the demon roared in pain. Like a mad animal it flew towards him with almost blinding speed, lashing out with its gigantic hands and razor sharp claws. Touya managed to sidestep the attack, but was not quick enough to escape the damage. Claws shredded his side and left him spinning to the ground. He recovered quickly and was on his feet again before the creature could come at him, but he was losing blood. Touya would have to take the demon out of the picture quickly or become too weak to fight.

Since you can’t actually kill a demon, the idea is to wound them so bad that they can’t hold on to material form. Demons are quite vulnerable after leaving a human host, because it takes a great deal of power to take on material form. If there is not another human to enter, its only choice would be to return to the dark realm from which it was called. There it would be forced to stay until conjured up by another fool, who thought they could control a demon. Touya needed a clear shot at the neck or heart. The bad thing about such a damaging blow was that he had to be damn close to the thing to pull it off, and close was not where he wanted to be!

The demon rushed Touya again. Planning to keep himself clear of the thing’s claws and jaws, Touya looked for an opening as the beast lunged again and again. He could see the small cuts that he was able to get in were starting to take their toll on the thing, for the creature’s strength was also fading. There they were wearing each other down, only the demon was far worse for wear.

At long last, the shot that Touya had been waiting for was open and he lifted the sword to slice the creature’s neck; however, the thing had seen it coming and moved just enough out of the way so that his hand could wrap around Touya’s jaws. Touya was completely thrown by the maneuver. With eyes forced wide, he sailed backwards, still in the creature’s grip, when his head smashed into the brick wall behind him. White light exploded in front of his eyes before darkness took over.

The demon stood before him, watching the blood flow down the wall. “Now, I’ll rip your heart out and you will be no more,” the demon laughed.

Out of nowhere, came the smell of irises and a blinding golden light. It was as if the sun had risen in the alley. The demon turned to see a woman with an angel floating above her.

“What do you want of me?” It shrieked from the pain of being exposed to the light of the angel.

“In Christ’s name, go back to the Hell from which you came!” Maire commanded.

Too weak to fight off an angel, the demon shrieked once more and let go of Touya. Just like it had materialized, it became a swirl of red mist and disappeared.

Maire ran to the man that lay in a heaping mess before her. He was face down on his stomach and she was afraid to move him. She looked at the back of his head which was a mess of blood and hair.

“What do I do?” Maire gasped, kneeling down beside him. Then it hit her, the cell phone that she kept for emergencies. “Cell phone! Iris, can you do something for him while we wait for the ambulance?” She asked, fingers fumbling in her purse to find the tiny phone.

“Don’t worry about calling for help; it’s not needed,” Iris assured her, placing her finger on the vampire’s forehead. Instantly, the bleeding stopped and the wounds began to close.

“Are you kidding me? Look at him, Iris!” The blood terrified her, and she knew that nothing could have survived such a beating. Demons did damage when they possessed people, but she had never seen one up close and personal like that. There was no way that this guy could survive something like this without some medical attention. “Should I try to move him, he can’t possibly be able to breathe the way he is, all face down in the dirt like that.” She inched closer as Iris watched. Reaching out Maire was determined not to panic at the sight of the poor guy’s face. “I hope I don’t do more harm than good by doing this.”

With Touya on his back, she tried to wipe some of the dirt off with a tissue. His face was so pale and his body felt cold to the touch. She reached for his jugular, trying to find his pulse. Finding it, his heart seemed to be barely beating at all.

There were hands on his face and neck. He could smell the scent of human fear and irises, of all things. There was also a strange power coming from something. It felt soft and pure, which couldn’t be the demon he had been fighting. He fought to open his eyes and see what was going on until his lids snapped open. Fangs out and ready to attack; Touya’s upper torso sprang up to find him staring into a young woman’s panic filled eyes.

“Iris, it’s another demon!” Maire cried as she scrambled backwards.

Trying to get to his feet, Touya growled angrily, “Do not insult me, I’m no more a demon than you are!” He looked around himself for the power that he felt, but could find nothing. He was also surprised to find that there was no one else in the alley. Whoever this female was talking to was nowhere to be seen. Could they be in the building waiting to gun him down? It didn’t really matter. He needed blood and he needed it badly. He had to get out of this alley and find a victim fast. He looked back to the other man, who was lying out of sight near the dumpsters. He cared less if the young woman saw him feed or not, he needed blood, and he choose the evil man who had summoned a demon to possess him, instead of an innocent that had happened upon the wrong place at the wrong time.

Even in his weakened state, Touya moved faster than her eyes could follow. The man that he had fed from earlier was more than able to give him what he needed, because Touya had done more to the man’s mind, than to his actual body. As it was, the man was only suspended in a deep trance that Touya could easily break at any time. Bending over the body, he took in as much blood as he could to regain his strength, but as little as possible to keep the human alive; it was a delicate balance that he had learned long ago.

It had taken a few moments, but Maire’s vision caught up with where Touya had gone. Rising to her feet, she walked over to him as he cradled the stranger in his arms.

“Oh God, you’re drinking his blood aren’t you?” She gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

Touya turned away from his meal to look at her, “It’s how I heal myself. Sorry that it displeases you so much,” he said sarcastically before returning to his business.

“Darn it, Iris! Why didn’t you tell me that he was a vampire?” She looked behind her, her voice holding an edge of anger to it.

The angel was leaning against a wall with her arms crossed over her chest. Dryly she asked, “Would you have believed it until you saw for yourself?”

“Considering that I talk to angels on a constant basis, I think that my mind would have been open enough to handle the information. What the hell do you think, Iris?”

“Oh calm down, sweetie, I was only playing it out the way that I was told. I don’t write the dialog, I just deliver the lines.”

He bit his thumb and placed a drop of blood on the wound showing on the man’s neck. After seeing that the marks had vanished, and releasing the hold over his mind, Touya let go of the man he held. He had taken all that he could from this man and needed to find someone new to feed from to regain all of his strength. He would have to go home and clean up before heading out and finding new prey. You don’t blend in when you look like the victim of a mob hit. He wiped his mouth and stood, turning to the young woman, he glided towards her. “You did not see what happened here. You will go home and sleep…”

“Whoa, hold on with the Jedi Mind Tricks, I don’t think that you can make me forget this,” Maire warned, hands out in front of her, as she backed away from him.

Stunned, Touya looked her over. “Your mind is too strong for you to be crazy. Maybe I was wrong about that.” He looked around the alley again, and up at the windows, but could see no one. He reached out with his mind and found no one. Flustered he asked, “Who the hell do you keep talking too? Is there someone in one of the buildings?”

“Iris.” It was more of a plea than an answer, but Iris was more than happy to keep herself hidden from the vampire.

“Iris?” He spun his hand, gesturing her to continue.

Turning to face the angel, Maire cried out, “Come on, Iris, stop playing around!”

Iris shrugged, “I can’t help it, I’ve not been told to reveal myself to him.”

In frustration, Marie threw up her hands and yelled, “Great, just great. Thanks God, thanks for making me look like a total nut again!”

“Well, at least you know you’re crazy.” He had walked over to pick up his sword, and was moving towards his coat, “I would have liked to take some of the shock from your mind, but oh well…it’s not like anyone will believe you anyway.”

She whirled to face him, “I’m not crazy, it just sounds that way. I was sent here to find you. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now, but I’ve got instructions to stick around. The salvation of your soul depends on it.”

“The what…?!” came from him with a chuckle. “You’re here to save my soul? Oh, now I know you’re a basket case.” He put the coat over his shoulders and went to stand in front of her. “I have been this way for nearly five centuries, and you think that you can save my soul? I have taken human life!” He placed his hand over his heart, “I feed off the lives of others, and you think there is anything in this body left to save?”

“It isn’t for me to ask why; I just do what they tell me.”

“Well the next time the voices tell you to do something, go to the hospital and tell them to strap you in for the night.”

He started to move past her and out of the alley, but stopped cold when a wall of energy hit him. Stepping back a pace, he watched the opening of the alley as if something would come around the corner to reveal itself at any moment.

Maire took this as the chance to make her finally plea. “If you want to find me, my name is Maire Shannon O’Fergus, and I work at the Stack Shack. We’re open until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Or I have a chapel hour at ten this Tuesday night at St. Pat’s on Poplar.”

“Fine,” he commented and the power seemed to disappear. Not giving her another chance to block his exit, he bolted.

Maire stared at the end of the alley when Iris came to her side, “Aren’t you going to say thanks?”

“For what? For making me look like a psycho as always?” She lifted her arms and let them crash down at her sides.

“I was given permission to hold him back for a second.” Iris crossed her hands over her chest and smiled proudly.

“Oh, that,” Maire let out slowly while rolling her eyes. “Why couldn’t you do anymore than that?”

“The Boss seems to think that prince charming needs to believe in Him without all the drama.”

“Could you have told me that before hand?” Maire through her hands wide.

“Now what fun would that have been?”

“Thank you Lord for this lesson in humility,” was what Maire mumbled over and over as she called an ambulance for the stranger who had been left in the alley.