FicWad

"This will end in complete and utter..."

"Disaster!" Rayflo shouted from the bedroom out back. "Cherry! It's all gone wrong..." He ran out completely naked causing the blond vampire to turn away, with a sigh.

"Now what?" Charles grumbled, bad enough that they were stuck in this nightmare idea to come to New Orleans at any rate but coming for Mardi Gras seemed suicidal, especially with Rayflo involved.

"The suit doesn't match these cuff-links like I wanted." The childish pout caused a grumble from the blond. "Cherry it's super important... everything on these occasions should be -"

He was cut short by Charles standing up about ready to punch the whining son-of-a-bitch. Rayflo looked at him, fat chocolate brown eyes watched as the shorter tempered and younger vampire held up his wrist and took a look at the cuff-links. He didn't have the childish streak of his master, Rayflo always seemed to come up smelling of roses and it pissed him off, they were damned, they should behave that way.

"They look fine." He muttered at him. "Do you even have a clue what this festival is for?"

"Easy blood?" Rayflo looked at him, his wrist still held by his thrall.

There was a brief period where Charles paused, looked at Rayflo and then went to look away as his master moved closer. He knew he was going to try and kiss him, it pissed him off that Rayflo tried even now, after all this time. He pushed him away and went to get on his own clothes. Johnny Rayflo just smirked, his thrall always came back one way or another, since he only fed off him as a rule.

"For your information," Charles came back in a mock up of a Victorian Funeral Director's outfit, "usually starts around Epiphany and ends around Ash Wednesday, it's French for Fat Tuesday and I can't believe you wanted to come to this."

"It's a party of course I wanted to come." He snorted softly and arranged his hair again, eventually tying it back loosely, most of the front fell back out again.

They hit the streets, jazz and large lights struck up all over the place, human's binge drinking and eating junk food mixed with the smell of the party and Rayflo soaked it all in. Charles on the other hand just wanted to dive into the Neo-Union church and avoid the whole darned thing, nothing ever seemed easy with his scatter-brained master however and within the hour they were already split up.

Everlook Alley was a mythical place, no one had it on a map, it couldn't be found if you went searching for it. The place existed when the time was right for the people it wanted, anyone that went in there never mentioned it if they came out, and IF was another point, sometimes a lost soul wandered in and then never wandered out again.

Charles wandered in to the alley, not noticing the shift from the busy streets to empty until he was suddenly stood in an area that didn't even look like part of the US. The buildings were made of large grey stones; it was raining and dreary in a rich moonlight, leaving no need for them to use street lamps. The lamps were there, but they had a pale and sickly glow that barely served any purpose.
What looked to be an old store with trinkets and hand made pottery seemed like the only place open at first glance, near to it was an imposing old church with a wooden entranceway, the door was barricaded up. Charles headed towards the store, perhaps he might be given answers there about how to get back to the hotel, eventually Rayflo would get back there, his coffin was there after all.

The woman behind the counter looked over; she had dark brown hair in a loosely tied bun and little silver framed spectacles. She watched as Charles wandered around, he looked over various home-made things to ward of supernatural’s, smirking when he reached garlic and then picking up a bottle of "holy water". As he had come to learn a lot of things were merely rumours.

The woman seemed to have her eyes on him, Charles put the bottle down, he ran his fingers over an ornately carved crucifix and remembered the last time Rayflo had pulled him behind an altar, got naked for a feed. He swiftly pulled his hand away, aware of the deeply set irony of his desire to serve the church and his current condition. Charles turned around in time to see her move a stake to the top of the desk.

"Excuse me ma'am but where the hell am I?"

"Where the 'hell' indeed." She looked at him. "You've worked out you're not in New Orleans I take it?”

“Well that was fairly easy to do. Where am I?”

“Neither here nor there,” she told him, “this is a pocket of a world that crosses between several others. Here anything supernatural can use the place as a meeting ground. You little vampire are quite safe here to do as you please.”

“I’d just like the exit; this would suit my master better.” He grumbled. “Why is everything closed then?”

“Have you actually checked that? Many places can look different from the outside.” She stood up and left Charles in the centre of the strange shop alone.

The thrall sighed, his eyes rolling as he wandered outside and looked around again. The churches door seemed ajar, and the cemetery at the back had several old monuments and Charles stepped into the church. As he walked in all the candles lit up, there was a moment of surprise as he looked around.

Rayflo had ended up stumbling in but he’d come from the other side, he had wandered past an old-world type of tavern, men shouted and danced. It was lively and happy, he had no idea about the other side of the alley where everything was dismal and grey. The rain to him added more reasons to stay in the warmth of the full-bloodied pub too.

When they both finally left they ended up bumping into one another by the cemetery. Charles had relaxed quite peacefully and was almost caught off-guard when Rayflo bound up, arms around him and giggling.

“Master?” Charles peeled the attached vampire away from him.

“I think I love it here.” He grinned, fangs showing in the moonlight, his hair stuck to his face as the rain battered down around them.

Charles was about to point out he would have loved it more if he was not soaked to the skin, but in the distance a scream was heard. The two vampires ran towards the noise, the last of a set of party goers had stumbled into the area and in front of them was a large creature. Half man and half-beast, it stood on two legs, claws out at the front arms and ready to strike.

“How did they get in here?” Charles looked at Rayflo.

Rayflo moved forwards and put himself between the crowd and the werewolf… yeah it had to be one, he rolled his eyes. It was starting to make sense to Charles about how not everyone left the place, the human’s dragged into it were likely food for the weird creatures that stalked the night. This was a pocket of reality where the rules of survival didn’t need to exist. Charles didn’t like it.

The stragglers ran but the only problem was Rayflo, he hadn’t talked to the curious lady to find out that the place took them in, didn’t mention how they got out though. Rayflo ended up in a battle with the werewolf, so enraged by hunger it was beyond reasoning and swiped out, Rayflo took a swipe across the chest, large welts from the claw marks stained what was left of the shirt and jacket.

Charles ushered people towards the church behind them, the hulking mass of fur and muscle ripped into Rayflo. The cemetery could not have been a more fitting place to watch the older vampire being taken down, blood sprayed across the headstones as the werewolf bit into his neck. Rayflo wouldn’t have had time to yell if he had wanted too, he was quickly left a bloodied smear on the ground.

Charles had wanted to run out to save him, or to at least help but the people behind him needed him more. He stood at the churches door and made ready to attack, but the creature never arrived, eventually out of sheer exhaustion everyone ended up asleep. Charles curled up on a bench and when he awoke he was back in New Orleans, minus his thrall.

“Master?” Charles jumped up looking around there was no sign of him. He had hoped it might have been a bizarre nightmare but the blood on his white coat and the lack of Rayflo in his coffin pretty much gave it away. “Great… I told him this would be a disaster. I wanted to be the one to kill him not some random fucking werewolf.”

Charles grumbled and set to picking up the goods, sorting out the cases and paid up the bill for their stay. The flight home proved altogether too boring, the questions about where the vampire was that actually should have been in the thing annoyed him, he had in fact even snapped at the hostess about not caring, if she saw him she could stake him herself. The hostess went quiet and for the rest of the trip he was left in relative peace.

He got back home and sighed, picking up the dog and cat he headed into the main living area and put them down. He made a few calls to try and find out if anyone else had talked about the rumours of Everlook Alley and found that there had been several reports over the last two hundred years, strangely though no one had been able to bring back concrete evidence.

He heard a noise in the bathroom, grabbing a sword from the displays on the side he came through cautiously. Rayflo was in the bathroom, washing up blood and grumbling to himself about the mess as he healed up.

“Master?” Charles sighed in relief. Okay so he missed him…

“Oh Cherry…” He looked over. “Thanks for remembering to bring my coffin back. If you hadn’t I think I’d have been stuck!”

“I…” Charles looked at him, he sighed in defeat, he would never work the eccentric out.

“That place is very odd.” Rayflo slide out of the bath, walking towards him with nothing on. His hand went to Charles’ cheek and he smiled softly. “I am sure you are hungry, why not join me in the bath.”

Charles nodded, sliding out of his clothes and sliding over him as they got in the bath. He bit into his neck, savoring rich blood and ignoring the fact that his master was deliberately running his groin up against him as best as he could. By the time the thrall was fed his master was a myriad of fang marks from head to foot, both of them lay in the open tub, the water drained away and finally Charles stood up and walked out.

Rayflo gave a chuckle, spent and tired in the bath he wondered, had that been Charles’ way of saying he had missed him in just that short time?