Categories > Original > Romance > In A Darkened Room
In A Darkened Room
By Mishi
Chapter 6
The Power of a Name
It was an hour before sundown and Touya had already been up for most of the afternoon. Normally, he wouldn’t be up and dressed so early, but he wanted to be ready for the task of playing spy on “Little Miss Salvation.” Dressed in his typical black leather pants, a long sleeved grey shirt, and favorite boots; he had set out earlier for supplies. For now, the boots were off, and he was trying to relax as he waited on the sun. If he timed it right he could get to the building right at sundown. There had been a back entrance to the building, so he could go in from behind and not attract attention.
His idea of relaxation was surfing the news sites online; however, what he had stumbled across was far from relaxing. According to the local paper someone was killing women. He had found the same article which had upset Maire on the bus. The symbols were definitely ceremonial magic; at least, that’s what he could gather from the pencil sketches, but he wasn’t sure of what they stood for. For more than a few minutes he had wandered which was more important, hunting or spying? The best he could decide on was to do a little of both. He would only do the spying first and the hunting second.
By the time he got to the stakeout, Maire was eating what appeared to be a bowl of ice cream, and watching a bit of TV from her couch. Not wanting to attract her attention, he left the windows dirty; figuring he could clean them that night when she was in bed. He could make do with the way things were for now, but the dirt bugged him. Carrying in his supplies had been a quick task, thanks to his vampiric speed and strength. (Even he had to admit that he liked the super human speed and strength that came with the Nature.) Setting up his lawn chair and opening a bottle of vodka, he set in for the watch. He was setting parallel to the window, so he could be as close as possible, but covered by the darkness. He wouldn’t enjoy the sitting part of this, and looked forward to the part of the evening where he could explore. He knew that she would be going out at ten, during which he would follow her to her intended destination and double back to check out her apartment.
For a long time she sat on the couch watching TV. He watched her face go through the emotions that matched whatever it was she was watching. She would be serious one moment and laugh out loud the next.
‘She doesn’t seem to be doing anything in particular. I wonder if I should set the surveillance up?’ He wondered, taking a swig of vodka ‘Nah, I’ll probably miss something if I get distracted. If I’m going to do this, I have to deal with the boring stuff too. I wish I could see what she is watching. She seems so into it. And of all things it sounds like Buffy!’
****
It had been a last minute decision to go by the video store on the way home, but she was glad that she had. The two part pilot for Buffy the Vampire Slayer had more than met her expectation, and she was about to start on the third episode. If the rest of the season box set was this good, it would live up to all the hype she had heard about. No sooner had the opening theme ended when the phone rang.
“Hi mom, how are you doing?” she asked, walking around the couch to the open area behind it.
“I’m fine, dear, I just called to see how you were doing. I haven’t heard from you for awhile. Is anything wrong?” Her mother asked in concerned tone.
“No, mom, I’m fine. I’ve just not felt like talking on the phone. Besides, I don’t really have anything new to share; things have been really slow here.” Maire tried to sound cheerful as she started to pace back and forth.
“So work is going well, then?”
“Yes, Lu says we’ve done pretty well so far this month.”
“That’s good. I guess you’re still single?”
“Yes, mom,” there was a bit of aggravation in her voice.
“Sorry to press a touchy subject, but I’m still hoping for grandchildren.” Her mom actually sounded apologetic.
“You know I don’t really care about dating. It really doesn’t bother me to be alone. I like being independent.” Maire said defensively, informing her mother for the zillionth time.
Trying to keep it positive, her mother said, “I know you say that, but love has a way of changing all that; and catching you by surprise. It will happen to you someday, I just know it.”
“If you say so.” It was getting hard to hold onto the cheerfulness and Maire’s voice was starting to sound a little flat.
There was a pause before her mother’s next line of questions. “Did you see your psychiatrist today? It’s been a month hasn’t it?”
‘Ah ha, that’s why you called! I knew there was a reason.’ She though. Lifting her thumb to her mouth, she started chewing on her nail. “I saw him.” She gave up trying to sound cheerful and just settled for sounding calm.
“How did it go? Did he ask about Iris?” Her mother said cautiously.
“It was like always. I told him that I was still seeing Iris, and he threatened to send me back to James Davenport.”
The phone was silent for a long moment, then, “Did he suggest that you quit work again?” her mom’s voice sounded strained.
“Yes, but I’m not going to do that. I like my job. I like the people I work for.”
“But, dear, maybe it would be better if you would slow down a little. You keep yourself busy with church, and you have work. Then you have those missions that Iris sends you on. You end up using so much of your time on those…”
She stopped pacing. Maire raised her hand to her face and her fingers began to massage her forehead just above her eyes. Giving into the stress she was feeling, she let her mom have it, “Mom, just stop! I’m not quitting my job. And I’m not giving up any other part of my life. I like my life just fine. If this is all you want to talk about, then I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you. I just care what happens in your life. I don’t want to see you hurt,” her mother pleaded.
“Ok, but I really do need to go. I have chapel at ten. I should go and get ready to leave.” Maire couldn’t take anymore of the conversation, and the impatience to get off the phone was in every word.
“Alright, dear, I’ll let you go. I love you. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t. I love you too. Goodnight.”
In a low, dejected voice, her mother said, “Goodnight.”
She felt defeated and lonely as she sat the phone back on its base. “Why can’t they just leave me alone?” she mumbled, returning to the couch. She reached for the remote, but the desire to watch Buffy had passed. Tension had settled into her shoulders and back. The best she could hope was that one of the relaxation exercises she had learned could calm her before she had to head out to the bus stop in forty minutes. So straightening her back against the couch, she focused on her breathing, and tried to let the tension go with each exhale.
****
‘James Davenport Mental Health? Must have been a psychiatrist she was talking about seeing. So she is crazy. Or, at least, someone thinks she is.’ He thought as he watched her return to her seat. ‘It sure didn’t take much to put her on edge. Is she meditating or what?’
As much as he was cautious, he couldn’t help but feel a little pity for her. With her back against the couch she struggled to sit with her eyes closed; but she could only hold it together for a few seconds before slumping forward, and placing her face in her hands. She did this a few times before deciding to get up and walk over to a shelf with CDs on it. Picking one, she took Buffy out of the DVD player and replaced it with the CD. He wasn’t familiar with the band that she had picked.
‘To have that kind of power and be so unstable…This is not good. I don’t like this one bit.’
The CD had lasted her until it was time to leave. After putting on her shoes and coat, she headed out the door. Touya was out the window and in the alley within seconds, and waiting at the corner of the building for her to exit. Still feeling the impact of the phone conversation, and the anticipation of a conversation she might have with Iris, Maire was too distracted to pay attention to Touya. After all, it wasn’t like she could hear his footsteps behind her, because he made no sound as he followed.
He followed her on foot until she got into the bus, then he took to the air. Just as planned she got off the bus and walked towards Poplar Street. He waited on the roof of the building across the street as she entered the small chapel. When she was safely inside, he took to the air again.
***
He was happy to find her bedroom window as easy to enter as the building across the alley. Slipping in, he examined the contents of the dark room. Everything was neat and tidy, even the books, though, they were overflowing the bookcase. He walked over to the bed and let his hand trace the smooth material of the fluffy white comforter that had been spread across it. Its design of pastel flowers and ribbons seemed childish to him. Of course, the Eeyore pajamas on the pillow didn’t help to discourage that thought. He could smell a cat, but the animal was no where to be seen; or at least not in the bedroom.
Finding nothing of interest in the bedroom, he moved on to the living room. There were a few writing journals stacked under the coffee table. He picked one up to thumb through it while he waited for the laptop to boot. The page he had opened spoke of Maire’s dealings with a young rape victim. Apparently, she had used her own experience of being raped at ten years old to help the woman deal with her own grief.
‘I feel bad reading this,’ he though. ‘But how else am I going to find out what’s going on?’ Noticing that the laptop was waiting for him to sign in, he signed on the Tinkerbell account with a laugh. ‘How old is she, thirteen?’ With the laptop up and running, he was able to look at her programs and files. Again, there was nothing exciting to be found. So he turned on her internet browser and checked the internet history. ‘Well, someone’s been doing a little homework. I guess you’re as curious about me as I am about you. At least that tells me you don’t know much about what I am.’ He recognized most of the vampire sites in the history, because they were all topics of jokes in the community. All the sites accept one. The last site browsed was taken very seriously in the community and it was the homepage for Avalon.
Feeling satisfied that he had gotten all that he could from the laptop, he shut it down and returned his attention to the journal he had been reading. It seemed that she had helped more than one woman to deal with the pain and suffering brought on by rape or physical abuse. Her supposed angel kept leading her to these women. ‘So why was she lead to me?’ He pondered.
That was when Justin decided to make his appearance. “Murr,” the cat had said as it loved the end of the coffee table.
Touya had shifted to his side to sit on his hip, while leaning on the couch with his arm as he read. He hadn’t bothered to turn his head when he heard the sound, but instead shifted his eyes in the direction of the cat. Of course, he hadn’t expected the cat to be friendly once it got a good whiff of what Touya was. Most cats were spooked by vampires. However, there was something different about this cat, because he pranced right up to Touya and rubbed up against his knees. That got his full attention. “Hello?” He said, reaching out to pet the friendly animal. The cat purred and lifted his head to meet Touya’s hand. “Well, aren’t you something to see? Friendly little thing, aren’t you?” The cat meowed in confirmation and purred on.
“I guess I should get up and finish what I need to do, before I forget, huh?” He said, leaving the journal open on the couch. Walking to the bedroom he placed a small microphone on the bottom of the table next to the bed. This task would be harder to accomplish in the living room, because of the glass in the coffee table. Deciding to place it on the side farthest from the couch, he found he had to stick it as close to the corner of the table as possible to keep it form showing. He wondered if he should put a third mic in the kitchenette, but in searching the small area, he couldn’t think of a good place to put it. You would put your hands on the underneath of the bar too much when you sat at it for the bug to go unnoticed. While in the kitchen, he did note her work schedule, and took a piece of paper from a notepad she had on the bar to write it down. There would be other nights he could explore if he needed to.
****
Maire had gotten to the chapel about twenty minutes early. It was either that or be forty minutes late because of the difference in the bus schedule. So she had plenty of time to say her rosary and think about what she would say to Iris when she got there. After all, she had already been having the argument with God in her head during her rosary. Iris would just clarify things for her.
Mrs. Patterson knelt praying in the pew next to her. Maire was fond of this older woman, who always has a kind word for her. Mrs. Patterson was African-American with light colored skin. Her short curly hair was going gray, and she always had a smile on her face.
By five after ten, Mrs. Patterson had wished Maire a good week and left the chapel. She was finally alone, so she sat back in the pew and tried to relax. She let her mind wonder through the day and all the stress she had faced. This meeting with Iris wouldn’t be any less stressful, if it followed her usual line of luck.
‘If Allison is right, then Iris might not even be an angel. But how can that be? She can appear in the chapel in front of the Holy Eucharist. Things that are evil can’t enter here, so she has to be real.’ She looked at the rosary she still held in her hands. ‘I can’t doubt. I have to trust her; she has never lied to me before. Doubting her is like doubting my faith; she is just too much a part of me. She was there when no one else could help me; when no one else cared. I can’t forget that.’ She returned the rosary to her purse and called out to Iris.
The smell of irises filled her senses with ease. There before her, clothed with the light of the sun, stood Iris. Looking at the angel filled her with hope and peace. This was familiar. It was safe.
Iris looked down at her with a concerned look, “Look at you girlie girl, someone’s had a really hard day, huh?”
“I guess you could say that, and you already know whether it will get better or worse, don’t you?”
“Yep. Sorry, kiddo, the news from the flipside isn’t going to make your jump for joy.” Iris’s hands were on her hips.
“I figured.” She looked down and closed her eyes. “Hit me with it. It’ll be better if you just get it over with.”
Iris decided to take her seat in the pew across the isle. Her voice was light and bouncy. “It seems that Prince Charming is a bit of a skeptic. He needs hardcore proof of who you are.”
“Needs proof? What’s that supposed to mean?” She turned her head to look at the angel.
“He’s taking the stalker’s approach at getting to know you. He’ll be following you around; going through your garbage; bugging your apartment; you know, stuff a stalker would do.” She tried to laugh it off.
Maire shot up like a rocket. “What the hell do you mean, bugging my apartment? Tell me that was a joke!” Iris held out her hands and shrugged her shoulders. It didn’t help to calm her down. “You’re telling me that I’m going to have an obsessed vampire following me around; listening to my every word?”
“I guess you could put it that way. It’s really not as bad as it sounds.”
She headed towards the altar and started to pace before it. “I can’t do this. You may not think it is a big deal, but I’m scared to death. I don’t know how to deal with a vampire. He could kill me. He could kill anyone I put in his path. I don’t have the strength for this. I don’t think that all the faith in the world could prepare a person for this.”
Iris finally got serious, letting her voice take on a more authoritative tone. “Will you trust us please? Has the Big Guy ever failed you before? He would never let anything harm you beyond a point were you couldn’t be fixed. Remember, nothing more than you can actually bear?”
“Well it sure doesn’t feel like I can bear this. I’ve been nervous all day. My back is killing me.” Maire had stopped pacing, and started rubbing her forehead with her thumb and forefinger.
“Is all that really because of the vampire, or is it because of other things? You have been threatened, and had doubts put into your mind. I think that has put more fear in you than the vampire.”
Maire calmed ever so slightly as she thought about her guardian’s words. “I am still afraid of doing this. He scares me, Iris. You know I’m not good with men. This is the first man I’ve had to deal with. Really, isn’t there someone else who can do this?”
“Sorry, sugar, you’re it. The Boss was pretty clear; He wants you to do this.” She tilted her head to the side and asked innocently, “Are you sure you’re looking at this the right way? I mean, did you see what he looked like? He was pretty cute.”
“Iris! I don’t care about that. Am I helping him find Christ, or is this a hook up?”
“I’m just pointing out the perks. He might also be a really nice guy, you never know. Being a vampire doesn’t make you a bad person. Think of it like a handicap. You can’t eat eggs because you’re allergic. Well, he can’t eat eggs either. See you have something in common!” The angel had the nerve to be smiling from ear to ear as she said it.
“You are soooo not helping me.” Maire grumbled.
“Ok, here are the new orders from upstairs. You are going to win him by example. We don’t want anything to get in your way, got it? No closed window shades, because he’s watching you from the building across the alley. No locking your bedroom window. No sleeping with extra crosses or silver. Don’t try to stop Touya at all. Give him every access to you.”
“His name’s Touya?” She said as if the name had some magical significance to it. “Touya,” she whispered again, letting the sound of it float on the silence of the room. She thought back to the night in the alley and gave him his name. Somehow he seemed more vulnerable to her.
“Does knowing his name make you feel better?” Iris asked a bit surprised.
“Yes, for some reason it does. It makes him seem more human if he has a name.”
“Oh, goodie!” The angel clapped her hands and bounced in her seat. “See, everything is good now. It really is so much better when you don’t worry so much.”
“Well, if you would have given me his name to begin with this might not have gotten so bad.”
“You are such a kill joy, you know that? Will you just trust us for once?”
“For once? I trust you all the time!”
“Says you.” Iris crossed her arms, the teasing smile still on her lips.
“Ahem,” came a booming voice from the doorway. Maire looked toward the back of the room to see a middle aged man standing near the back pew with a questioning gleam in his eyes. Keeping with her pattern of bad luck, it was Mr. Sanders, the very man who had already gone to Michael about her last visit with Iris.
‘Michael’s going to love me this week,’ she thought as Iris giggled and vanished.
***
Touya was curled up on the couch with Justin in his lap, reading a journal, when he heard the elevator’s bell chime its arrival to the floor. Quickly moving the tabby off his lap, he put the journal back in place and sped to the bedroom window. He was in the safety of the darkened room across the alley before she had entered the front door and turned on the lights.
She locked the door like she did every night since moving into the apartment, and looked around as she made her way into the bedroom. She paused to turn on the lights before going in. To her relief, everything looked just as she has left it. Taking a hanger from the closet, she hung up her coat and looked out the window. All she could see was blackness in the windows across from hers. ‘What did I expect to see? It’s not like he’s trying to get caught. The point would be to blend into the shadows.’
She shut the blind so she could change clothes. ‘Sorry, no peeking. You’ll just have to go blind for a few minutes.’ She pulled off her clothes and put them in the hamper. Then picked up the Eeyore pajamas, which had been sitting on her pillow, she put them on. After sticking her feet in to her Eeyore slippers, she padded over and opened the shade.
As she puttered around her apartment, Touya adjusted the settings on the equipment in front of him. The large padded earphones on his head were picking up nothing in the quite of her apartment. “Say something. Make noise,” he grumbled.
The light was on in the living room, and she was on the couch with the cat. It looked like she was about to turn on the TV, but she stopped and went into the kitchen. He heard it when she opened and closed the refrigerator. He also heard the opening of the pop can. This was picking up things his normal range of hearing would miss, so he knew he was sure to catch everything with the surveillance equipment. He was pleased with himself for getting the high tech toy. Now all he needed to do was make sure that he remembered to bring enough gas for the small generator that powered it all.
Maire took her pop to the couch, and started up the third episode of Buffythat she hadn’t had time to finish before leaving. She figured it would help her to relax before going to bed. As she watched Touya watched and listened.
‘She’s calmer now. I wonder what changed? She was fairly messed up when she left.’ He took a swig of the vodka. Boredom began to set in as he listened to Buffy and Giles argue about cheerleader tryouts. He never understood the appeal of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Vampires with bumpy faces were a riot, but all the high school stuff never made a bit of sense to him. ‘Maybe it’s not a lack of experience that made me not like this show. Maybe I’m just jealous because she seems so normal. After all, what was the big deal? Didn’t she have a life to live and someone to love?’ He kept his mind busy with that line of though as the minutes ticked by.
Towards the end of the episode Maire’s mind began to wonder. “I wonder if Allison can do this kind of stuff?” She asked the tabby sitting on her lap. “I know they didn’t get the vampire stuff right, but I wonder about the witchcraft stuff. How true do you think they were to the witches, huh, Justin?” She scratched the cat’s head as he smiled up at her and purred. “Probably not very true at all, right? I’ll have to ask Allison what it’s like to be a witch.”
‘So she has spoken to Marcus’ daughter.’ He sighed and looked at that bottle of vodka. ‘What mood were you in when she talked to you, Allison? Are you for us or against us this week?’
As soon as the credits began to roll, she took the remote and turned off the player and TV. “Bedtime, little boy. Are you ready to curl up and get some shuteye?” She sang on her way to the kitchenette to get rid of her pop can. The cat waited for her to return to the living room before he meowed in acknowledgement. Flipping off the overhead light, she strolled over and picked up her bedmate for the evening and went into the bedroom.
“Here ya go, get comfy while I finish getting ready,” she cooed, sitting Justin on the bed and heading towards the bathroom.
Next door, Touya strained to catch what was happening to no avail. He could hear water running, and things being banged around. However, that was not satisfying his need to know what was going on. ‘Hopefully she is brushing her teeth and not performing some strange magical incantation. Damn, how long does she intend to be in there?’ He was starting to fidget.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, she returned to the bedroom and turned out the light to crawl into bed. Sitting in the middle of the mattress, she said her prayers and examined her conscience for the day. Touya listened to her prattle on about people he didn’t know and had no interest in. “…And as Touya watches, please let him find no fault in me. Let him come to trust me, so he might find the joy in You that I have found…” The words certainly raised his eyebrows.
“So you know my name,” he whispered. “And you know I’m watching you, or was that just a figure of speech?” He shook his head and looked around the room. He was a good five feet from the window. The light stopped at least two feet from him, so he was in the dark. The interior of the room was pitch black, so her human eyes couldn’t see him. “No, she can’t see me.”
He took off the headphones and moved into the next room, across from her bedroom. She fell back and pulled the comforter over her, resting her arms on top of it. He let himself think about her words for the next hour as he watched her try to sleep. Justin had given up his place on the bed and took to roaming the living room as she tossed in the covers. He could hear her whimpering and sighing with frustration. He recalled that she was fighting the bed the night before as well. ‘God, do you do this every night? No wonder you’re such a mess,’ he thought as he watched her.
Finally two hours in, she had fallen asleep, and Justin had returned to the bed as if this was his nightly routine. “Well, after all that, she’s not getting back up. I’m done,” he said picking up the chair and moving it back to the other room. It was time to do a quick wash of the windows and to head out.
By Mishi
Chapter 6
The Power of a Name
It was an hour before sundown and Touya had already been up for most of the afternoon. Normally, he wouldn’t be up and dressed so early, but he wanted to be ready for the task of playing spy on “Little Miss Salvation.” Dressed in his typical black leather pants, a long sleeved grey shirt, and favorite boots; he had set out earlier for supplies. For now, the boots were off, and he was trying to relax as he waited on the sun. If he timed it right he could get to the building right at sundown. There had been a back entrance to the building, so he could go in from behind and not attract attention.
His idea of relaxation was surfing the news sites online; however, what he had stumbled across was far from relaxing. According to the local paper someone was killing women. He had found the same article which had upset Maire on the bus. The symbols were definitely ceremonial magic; at least, that’s what he could gather from the pencil sketches, but he wasn’t sure of what they stood for. For more than a few minutes he had wandered which was more important, hunting or spying? The best he could decide on was to do a little of both. He would only do the spying first and the hunting second.
By the time he got to the stakeout, Maire was eating what appeared to be a bowl of ice cream, and watching a bit of TV from her couch. Not wanting to attract her attention, he left the windows dirty; figuring he could clean them that night when she was in bed. He could make do with the way things were for now, but the dirt bugged him. Carrying in his supplies had been a quick task, thanks to his vampiric speed and strength. (Even he had to admit that he liked the super human speed and strength that came with the Nature.) Setting up his lawn chair and opening a bottle of vodka, he set in for the watch. He was setting parallel to the window, so he could be as close as possible, but covered by the darkness. He wouldn’t enjoy the sitting part of this, and looked forward to the part of the evening where he could explore. He knew that she would be going out at ten, during which he would follow her to her intended destination and double back to check out her apartment.
For a long time she sat on the couch watching TV. He watched her face go through the emotions that matched whatever it was she was watching. She would be serious one moment and laugh out loud the next.
‘She doesn’t seem to be doing anything in particular. I wonder if I should set the surveillance up?’ He wondered, taking a swig of vodka ‘Nah, I’ll probably miss something if I get distracted. If I’m going to do this, I have to deal with the boring stuff too. I wish I could see what she is watching. She seems so into it. And of all things it sounds like Buffy!’
****
It had been a last minute decision to go by the video store on the way home, but she was glad that she had. The two part pilot for Buffy the Vampire Slayer had more than met her expectation, and she was about to start on the third episode. If the rest of the season box set was this good, it would live up to all the hype she had heard about. No sooner had the opening theme ended when the phone rang.
“Hi mom, how are you doing?” she asked, walking around the couch to the open area behind it.
“I’m fine, dear, I just called to see how you were doing. I haven’t heard from you for awhile. Is anything wrong?” Her mother asked in concerned tone.
“No, mom, I’m fine. I’ve just not felt like talking on the phone. Besides, I don’t really have anything new to share; things have been really slow here.” Maire tried to sound cheerful as she started to pace back and forth.
“So work is going well, then?”
“Yes, Lu says we’ve done pretty well so far this month.”
“That’s good. I guess you’re still single?”
“Yes, mom,” there was a bit of aggravation in her voice.
“Sorry to press a touchy subject, but I’m still hoping for grandchildren.” Her mom actually sounded apologetic.
“You know I don’t really care about dating. It really doesn’t bother me to be alone. I like being independent.” Maire said defensively, informing her mother for the zillionth time.
Trying to keep it positive, her mother said, “I know you say that, but love has a way of changing all that; and catching you by surprise. It will happen to you someday, I just know it.”
“If you say so.” It was getting hard to hold onto the cheerfulness and Maire’s voice was starting to sound a little flat.
There was a pause before her mother’s next line of questions. “Did you see your psychiatrist today? It’s been a month hasn’t it?”
‘Ah ha, that’s why you called! I knew there was a reason.’ She though. Lifting her thumb to her mouth, she started chewing on her nail. “I saw him.” She gave up trying to sound cheerful and just settled for sounding calm.
“How did it go? Did he ask about Iris?” Her mother said cautiously.
“It was like always. I told him that I was still seeing Iris, and he threatened to send me back to James Davenport.”
The phone was silent for a long moment, then, “Did he suggest that you quit work again?” her mom’s voice sounded strained.
“Yes, but I’m not going to do that. I like my job. I like the people I work for.”
“But, dear, maybe it would be better if you would slow down a little. You keep yourself busy with church, and you have work. Then you have those missions that Iris sends you on. You end up using so much of your time on those…”
She stopped pacing. Maire raised her hand to her face and her fingers began to massage her forehead just above her eyes. Giving into the stress she was feeling, she let her mom have it, “Mom, just stop! I’m not quitting my job. And I’m not giving up any other part of my life. I like my life just fine. If this is all you want to talk about, then I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you. I just care what happens in your life. I don’t want to see you hurt,” her mother pleaded.
“Ok, but I really do need to go. I have chapel at ten. I should go and get ready to leave.” Maire couldn’t take anymore of the conversation, and the impatience to get off the phone was in every word.
“Alright, dear, I’ll let you go. I love you. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t. I love you too. Goodnight.”
In a low, dejected voice, her mother said, “Goodnight.”
She felt defeated and lonely as she sat the phone back on its base. “Why can’t they just leave me alone?” she mumbled, returning to the couch. She reached for the remote, but the desire to watch Buffy had passed. Tension had settled into her shoulders and back. The best she could hope was that one of the relaxation exercises she had learned could calm her before she had to head out to the bus stop in forty minutes. So straightening her back against the couch, she focused on her breathing, and tried to let the tension go with each exhale.
****
‘James Davenport Mental Health? Must have been a psychiatrist she was talking about seeing. So she is crazy. Or, at least, someone thinks she is.’ He thought as he watched her return to her seat. ‘It sure didn’t take much to put her on edge. Is she meditating or what?’
As much as he was cautious, he couldn’t help but feel a little pity for her. With her back against the couch she struggled to sit with her eyes closed; but she could only hold it together for a few seconds before slumping forward, and placing her face in her hands. She did this a few times before deciding to get up and walk over to a shelf with CDs on it. Picking one, she took Buffy out of the DVD player and replaced it with the CD. He wasn’t familiar with the band that she had picked.
‘To have that kind of power and be so unstable…This is not good. I don’t like this one bit.’
The CD had lasted her until it was time to leave. After putting on her shoes and coat, she headed out the door. Touya was out the window and in the alley within seconds, and waiting at the corner of the building for her to exit. Still feeling the impact of the phone conversation, and the anticipation of a conversation she might have with Iris, Maire was too distracted to pay attention to Touya. After all, it wasn’t like she could hear his footsteps behind her, because he made no sound as he followed.
He followed her on foot until she got into the bus, then he took to the air. Just as planned she got off the bus and walked towards Poplar Street. He waited on the roof of the building across the street as she entered the small chapel. When she was safely inside, he took to the air again.
***
He was happy to find her bedroom window as easy to enter as the building across the alley. Slipping in, he examined the contents of the dark room. Everything was neat and tidy, even the books, though, they were overflowing the bookcase. He walked over to the bed and let his hand trace the smooth material of the fluffy white comforter that had been spread across it. Its design of pastel flowers and ribbons seemed childish to him. Of course, the Eeyore pajamas on the pillow didn’t help to discourage that thought. He could smell a cat, but the animal was no where to be seen; or at least not in the bedroom.
Finding nothing of interest in the bedroom, he moved on to the living room. There were a few writing journals stacked under the coffee table. He picked one up to thumb through it while he waited for the laptop to boot. The page he had opened spoke of Maire’s dealings with a young rape victim. Apparently, she had used her own experience of being raped at ten years old to help the woman deal with her own grief.
‘I feel bad reading this,’ he though. ‘But how else am I going to find out what’s going on?’ Noticing that the laptop was waiting for him to sign in, he signed on the Tinkerbell account with a laugh. ‘How old is she, thirteen?’ With the laptop up and running, he was able to look at her programs and files. Again, there was nothing exciting to be found. So he turned on her internet browser and checked the internet history. ‘Well, someone’s been doing a little homework. I guess you’re as curious about me as I am about you. At least that tells me you don’t know much about what I am.’ He recognized most of the vampire sites in the history, because they were all topics of jokes in the community. All the sites accept one. The last site browsed was taken very seriously in the community and it was the homepage for Avalon.
Feeling satisfied that he had gotten all that he could from the laptop, he shut it down and returned his attention to the journal he had been reading. It seemed that she had helped more than one woman to deal with the pain and suffering brought on by rape or physical abuse. Her supposed angel kept leading her to these women. ‘So why was she lead to me?’ He pondered.
That was when Justin decided to make his appearance. “Murr,” the cat had said as it loved the end of the coffee table.
Touya had shifted to his side to sit on his hip, while leaning on the couch with his arm as he read. He hadn’t bothered to turn his head when he heard the sound, but instead shifted his eyes in the direction of the cat. Of course, he hadn’t expected the cat to be friendly once it got a good whiff of what Touya was. Most cats were spooked by vampires. However, there was something different about this cat, because he pranced right up to Touya and rubbed up against his knees. That got his full attention. “Hello?” He said, reaching out to pet the friendly animal. The cat purred and lifted his head to meet Touya’s hand. “Well, aren’t you something to see? Friendly little thing, aren’t you?” The cat meowed in confirmation and purred on.
“I guess I should get up and finish what I need to do, before I forget, huh?” He said, leaving the journal open on the couch. Walking to the bedroom he placed a small microphone on the bottom of the table next to the bed. This task would be harder to accomplish in the living room, because of the glass in the coffee table. Deciding to place it on the side farthest from the couch, he found he had to stick it as close to the corner of the table as possible to keep it form showing. He wondered if he should put a third mic in the kitchenette, but in searching the small area, he couldn’t think of a good place to put it. You would put your hands on the underneath of the bar too much when you sat at it for the bug to go unnoticed. While in the kitchen, he did note her work schedule, and took a piece of paper from a notepad she had on the bar to write it down. There would be other nights he could explore if he needed to.
****
Maire had gotten to the chapel about twenty minutes early. It was either that or be forty minutes late because of the difference in the bus schedule. So she had plenty of time to say her rosary and think about what she would say to Iris when she got there. After all, she had already been having the argument with God in her head during her rosary. Iris would just clarify things for her.
Mrs. Patterson knelt praying in the pew next to her. Maire was fond of this older woman, who always has a kind word for her. Mrs. Patterson was African-American with light colored skin. Her short curly hair was going gray, and she always had a smile on her face.
By five after ten, Mrs. Patterson had wished Maire a good week and left the chapel. She was finally alone, so she sat back in the pew and tried to relax. She let her mind wonder through the day and all the stress she had faced. This meeting with Iris wouldn’t be any less stressful, if it followed her usual line of luck.
‘If Allison is right, then Iris might not even be an angel. But how can that be? She can appear in the chapel in front of the Holy Eucharist. Things that are evil can’t enter here, so she has to be real.’ She looked at the rosary she still held in her hands. ‘I can’t doubt. I have to trust her; she has never lied to me before. Doubting her is like doubting my faith; she is just too much a part of me. She was there when no one else could help me; when no one else cared. I can’t forget that.’ She returned the rosary to her purse and called out to Iris.
The smell of irises filled her senses with ease. There before her, clothed with the light of the sun, stood Iris. Looking at the angel filled her with hope and peace. This was familiar. It was safe.
Iris looked down at her with a concerned look, “Look at you girlie girl, someone’s had a really hard day, huh?”
“I guess you could say that, and you already know whether it will get better or worse, don’t you?”
“Yep. Sorry, kiddo, the news from the flipside isn’t going to make your jump for joy.” Iris’s hands were on her hips.
“I figured.” She looked down and closed her eyes. “Hit me with it. It’ll be better if you just get it over with.”
Iris decided to take her seat in the pew across the isle. Her voice was light and bouncy. “It seems that Prince Charming is a bit of a skeptic. He needs hardcore proof of who you are.”
“Needs proof? What’s that supposed to mean?” She turned her head to look at the angel.
“He’s taking the stalker’s approach at getting to know you. He’ll be following you around; going through your garbage; bugging your apartment; you know, stuff a stalker would do.” She tried to laugh it off.
Maire shot up like a rocket. “What the hell do you mean, bugging my apartment? Tell me that was a joke!” Iris held out her hands and shrugged her shoulders. It didn’t help to calm her down. “You’re telling me that I’m going to have an obsessed vampire following me around; listening to my every word?”
“I guess you could put it that way. It’s really not as bad as it sounds.”
She headed towards the altar and started to pace before it. “I can’t do this. You may not think it is a big deal, but I’m scared to death. I don’t know how to deal with a vampire. He could kill me. He could kill anyone I put in his path. I don’t have the strength for this. I don’t think that all the faith in the world could prepare a person for this.”
Iris finally got serious, letting her voice take on a more authoritative tone. “Will you trust us please? Has the Big Guy ever failed you before? He would never let anything harm you beyond a point were you couldn’t be fixed. Remember, nothing more than you can actually bear?”
“Well it sure doesn’t feel like I can bear this. I’ve been nervous all day. My back is killing me.” Maire had stopped pacing, and started rubbing her forehead with her thumb and forefinger.
“Is all that really because of the vampire, or is it because of other things? You have been threatened, and had doubts put into your mind. I think that has put more fear in you than the vampire.”
Maire calmed ever so slightly as she thought about her guardian’s words. “I am still afraid of doing this. He scares me, Iris. You know I’m not good with men. This is the first man I’ve had to deal with. Really, isn’t there someone else who can do this?”
“Sorry, sugar, you’re it. The Boss was pretty clear; He wants you to do this.” She tilted her head to the side and asked innocently, “Are you sure you’re looking at this the right way? I mean, did you see what he looked like? He was pretty cute.”
“Iris! I don’t care about that. Am I helping him find Christ, or is this a hook up?”
“I’m just pointing out the perks. He might also be a really nice guy, you never know. Being a vampire doesn’t make you a bad person. Think of it like a handicap. You can’t eat eggs because you’re allergic. Well, he can’t eat eggs either. See you have something in common!” The angel had the nerve to be smiling from ear to ear as she said it.
“You are soooo not helping me.” Maire grumbled.
“Ok, here are the new orders from upstairs. You are going to win him by example. We don’t want anything to get in your way, got it? No closed window shades, because he’s watching you from the building across the alley. No locking your bedroom window. No sleeping with extra crosses or silver. Don’t try to stop Touya at all. Give him every access to you.”
“His name’s Touya?” She said as if the name had some magical significance to it. “Touya,” she whispered again, letting the sound of it float on the silence of the room. She thought back to the night in the alley and gave him his name. Somehow he seemed more vulnerable to her.
“Does knowing his name make you feel better?” Iris asked a bit surprised.
“Yes, for some reason it does. It makes him seem more human if he has a name.”
“Oh, goodie!” The angel clapped her hands and bounced in her seat. “See, everything is good now. It really is so much better when you don’t worry so much.”
“Well, if you would have given me his name to begin with this might not have gotten so bad.”
“You are such a kill joy, you know that? Will you just trust us for once?”
“For once? I trust you all the time!”
“Says you.” Iris crossed her arms, the teasing smile still on her lips.
“Ahem,” came a booming voice from the doorway. Maire looked toward the back of the room to see a middle aged man standing near the back pew with a questioning gleam in his eyes. Keeping with her pattern of bad luck, it was Mr. Sanders, the very man who had already gone to Michael about her last visit with Iris.
‘Michael’s going to love me this week,’ she thought as Iris giggled and vanished.
***
Touya was curled up on the couch with Justin in his lap, reading a journal, when he heard the elevator’s bell chime its arrival to the floor. Quickly moving the tabby off his lap, he put the journal back in place and sped to the bedroom window. He was in the safety of the darkened room across the alley before she had entered the front door and turned on the lights.
She locked the door like she did every night since moving into the apartment, and looked around as she made her way into the bedroom. She paused to turn on the lights before going in. To her relief, everything looked just as she has left it. Taking a hanger from the closet, she hung up her coat and looked out the window. All she could see was blackness in the windows across from hers. ‘What did I expect to see? It’s not like he’s trying to get caught. The point would be to blend into the shadows.’
She shut the blind so she could change clothes. ‘Sorry, no peeking. You’ll just have to go blind for a few minutes.’ She pulled off her clothes and put them in the hamper. Then picked up the Eeyore pajamas, which had been sitting on her pillow, she put them on. After sticking her feet in to her Eeyore slippers, she padded over and opened the shade.
As she puttered around her apartment, Touya adjusted the settings on the equipment in front of him. The large padded earphones on his head were picking up nothing in the quite of her apartment. “Say something. Make noise,” he grumbled.
The light was on in the living room, and she was on the couch with the cat. It looked like she was about to turn on the TV, but she stopped and went into the kitchen. He heard it when she opened and closed the refrigerator. He also heard the opening of the pop can. This was picking up things his normal range of hearing would miss, so he knew he was sure to catch everything with the surveillance equipment. He was pleased with himself for getting the high tech toy. Now all he needed to do was make sure that he remembered to bring enough gas for the small generator that powered it all.
Maire took her pop to the couch, and started up the third episode of Buffythat she hadn’t had time to finish before leaving. She figured it would help her to relax before going to bed. As she watched Touya watched and listened.
‘She’s calmer now. I wonder what changed? She was fairly messed up when she left.’ He took a swig of the vodka. Boredom began to set in as he listened to Buffy and Giles argue about cheerleader tryouts. He never understood the appeal of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Vampires with bumpy faces were a riot, but all the high school stuff never made a bit of sense to him. ‘Maybe it’s not a lack of experience that made me not like this show. Maybe I’m just jealous because she seems so normal. After all, what was the big deal? Didn’t she have a life to live and someone to love?’ He kept his mind busy with that line of though as the minutes ticked by.
Towards the end of the episode Maire’s mind began to wonder. “I wonder if Allison can do this kind of stuff?” She asked the tabby sitting on her lap. “I know they didn’t get the vampire stuff right, but I wonder about the witchcraft stuff. How true do you think they were to the witches, huh, Justin?” She scratched the cat’s head as he smiled up at her and purred. “Probably not very true at all, right? I’ll have to ask Allison what it’s like to be a witch.”
‘So she has spoken to Marcus’ daughter.’ He sighed and looked at that bottle of vodka. ‘What mood were you in when she talked to you, Allison? Are you for us or against us this week?’
As soon as the credits began to roll, she took the remote and turned off the player and TV. “Bedtime, little boy. Are you ready to curl up and get some shuteye?” She sang on her way to the kitchenette to get rid of her pop can. The cat waited for her to return to the living room before he meowed in acknowledgement. Flipping off the overhead light, she strolled over and picked up her bedmate for the evening and went into the bedroom.
“Here ya go, get comfy while I finish getting ready,” she cooed, sitting Justin on the bed and heading towards the bathroom.
Next door, Touya strained to catch what was happening to no avail. He could hear water running, and things being banged around. However, that was not satisfying his need to know what was going on. ‘Hopefully she is brushing her teeth and not performing some strange magical incantation. Damn, how long does she intend to be in there?’ He was starting to fidget.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, she returned to the bedroom and turned out the light to crawl into bed. Sitting in the middle of the mattress, she said her prayers and examined her conscience for the day. Touya listened to her prattle on about people he didn’t know and had no interest in. “…And as Touya watches, please let him find no fault in me. Let him come to trust me, so he might find the joy in You that I have found…” The words certainly raised his eyebrows.
“So you know my name,” he whispered. “And you know I’m watching you, or was that just a figure of speech?” He shook his head and looked around the room. He was a good five feet from the window. The light stopped at least two feet from him, so he was in the dark. The interior of the room was pitch black, so her human eyes couldn’t see him. “No, she can’t see me.”
He took off the headphones and moved into the next room, across from her bedroom. She fell back and pulled the comforter over her, resting her arms on top of it. He let himself think about her words for the next hour as he watched her try to sleep. Justin had given up his place on the bed and took to roaming the living room as she tossed in the covers. He could hear her whimpering and sighing with frustration. He recalled that she was fighting the bed the night before as well. ‘God, do you do this every night? No wonder you’re such a mess,’ he thought as he watched her.
Finally two hours in, she had fallen asleep, and Justin had returned to the bed as if this was his nightly routine. “Well, after all that, she’s not getting back up. I’m done,” he said picking up the chair and moving it back to the other room. It was time to do a quick wash of the windows and to head out.
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