Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:
A Clan Besieged
Notes by Anthony
“Ben and I were in shock, I think. In humans, shock results from a sudden drop in blood pressure. Had our blood turned sluggish at the impossible horror before us? Then, in a blur of movement, Rose sliced the heart in two. The halves didn’t fall, tethered as they were by thousands of muscle strands and blood vessels. Blood pooled on the floor. She stepped back before it touched her shoes. I let go of Ben’s arm. There were red marks where I had clenched too tightly. I could not tell Rose I was sorry, so I hugged her. She said: “Bottleneck and Henry are gone. The body parts will turn to dust and burn.” Already, I could see motes of dust drifting from the wall of flesh.
“We left the Church. Our Lady of Sorrows was etched across the doorframe. Ben and I stood by the car while Rose took a lighter and lit everything flammable inside. The velvet table cloth. The grey veil. Even the artfully draped frocks and piles of rotten wood that had seemed so innocuous when we first walked in. Sascha had planned this to be a conflagration. The fire was so bright and hot it almost felt like the sun. Outside of dreams, I have not seen the sun in over a month. When Rose returned, I felt something sharp at the back of my neck. Almost as if I had been jabbed by long fingernails. I didn’t recognize the feeling, but it was similar to the Cobweb. I let it in.
“My mouth opened and spoke in English: “Well, this is interesting. Very interesting.” My voice was pitched high and the words felt cruel on my tongue. Prentiss. She had possessed my body. I locked eyes with Rose and smiled: “Gwen would like to let you all know she wishes for you to meet at the Embassy as soon as possible.” Prentiss let go of my body and I started to fall. Ben and Rose caught me. I could feel Prentiss rooting around in my head. Words and colors burst in the back of my eyeballs. Prentiss laughed and spoke in Enochian: “I find my own fun.” I don’t know how I knew this, listeners, but Prentiss had copied the languages I learned from Jordan.
“To her credit, she’d also unscrambled them. I could speak English! I hugged Ben as soon as I regained my footing: “I’m back! I can speak!” Ben hugged me back, but then he put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me to arm’s length. He studied my face as he said: “You hug a lot more, now. You didn’t use to be a hugger. Not that it’s a bad thing. You just seem more…free.” Listeners, the red on my face wasn’t just a reflection of the fire. I mumbled: “I don’t know. Maybe something about being free in death? It’s just. You’re real. You remind me what’s real.” I got into the car before Ben could respond. He took the front seat as Rose drove.
“I asked her to drive us to Prentiss’s apartment. We had unfinished business. Meanwhile, I asked Rose about Prentiss. Rose spoke with a vitriol I hadn’t heard from her before. Rose hated her. Prentiss was evil. She sucked. She’d tortured Jinx and Comet. Prentiss treated Rose like a dog. But Jinx had been coming around to Prentiss. Jinx wanted to be friends, at the end. I imagined Prentiss sitting in the backseat next to me, listening but unable to speak. I hoped it might reach her, like Scrooge realizing his stinginess cost poor Tiny Tim his life. I doubted it, though.
“Sascha had warned us against entering the city. As we closed in on D.C., I focused on the parts of myself that felt every shadow, ready to leap into them and hide at a moment’s notice. But instead of hiding, I pulled Rose and Ben in with me. I Obfuscated us, just as Joan had on our way to OTCAL, and Cedric had on our way to Il Gran Ballo and Sudley Cemetery.
“Rose sniffed the air after parking outside Prentiss’s townhouse. She told us the coast was clear and I dropped Obfuscation. We knocked on the front door. Rose said she heard something dragging itself down the hallway. Minutes later, the door opened. Nathaniel lay on the floor, gasping for breath. He’d had just enough strength to turn the handle.
“Nathaniel was old. Emaciated. He whispered: “have you come to kill me?” He didn’t remember us. I had wiped his memory of our last visit because I hadn’t wanted to leave a trail. Just because it was convenient. How could I have been so cruel, inflicting the same torture on him that Prentiss had for decades? Who is a person without their memories?
“I knelt and brushed the thin white strands from his forehead. A few came off in my fingers. “I will kill you if you want, Nathaniel. Or I will take you on. Last time I saw you, I walked away. I thought that if I didn’t interfere, then whatever happened wasn’t my fault. But no decision is still a decision.” Rose spoke up: “It’s not really a choice for him, is it? All that is left is the hunger.” The words hit me like a slap, but her voice wasn’t unkind.
“Ben placed a hand on my arm as he said: “I don’t know. Maybe there can be something more for him.” I smiled down at Nathaniel and said: “Let’s give him that chance.” I asked Ben for the knife, but he shook his head and said: “No. You’ve given enough. Let me do this.” Ben pulled the knife from his backpack and slit his wrist. He winced. Ben held his wrist before Nathaniel’s chapped lips. Nathaniel drank, slowly at first. Then he gripped Ben’s wrist in his bony hands and pressed it to mouth. His cheeks filled out as their color returned. The thin hair on his scalp thickened and darkened. We hadn’t been too late. The blood brought Nathaniel back to life.
“Ben pulled his wrist away and licked it. I had the absurd desire to kneel and press my tongue against the wounded flesh. Nathaniel stood and bowed, calling Benjamin “sir.” Ben told Nathaniel he was “just Benjamin.” They settled on “Sir Benjamin.” Ben ordered Nathaniel to take a shower. He reeked of stale sweat and urine. Dying isn’t pretty, listeners. Meanwhile, Ben and I gathered Nathaniel’s clothes. We also found six more blood bags in a minifridge. Jackpot!
“I Obfuscated us on our drive to the Giovanni Embassy. At the gate, one of the Giovanni ghouls said: “you are expected. Can you all cross through the Gate?” At our confused looks, he explained that the Embassy only for those who had “breathed their last.” Only the dead, he meant. We left Nathaniel in the car and walked in. I pulled out the Walkman and a few CDs, but I don’t think he knew what they were. We’ll have to pick up some books on our next foray into civilization.
“Gwen met us at the doorway and ushered us though a portal to the Giovanni courtyard. Beyond, the sky was that sickeningly familiar greenish brown of the Shadowlands. Thunder crackled in the distance. Miasma curdled a few feet above the ground, making it difficult to see more than a dozen yards ahead. The trees were tall and twisted. So were the buildings. In the distance, a castle loomed. I was sure it did not have a matched set in the real world.
“Gwen caught us up. One of her family members, Carlotta, had gone missing while investigating Rock Creek Park last night. Uncle Rocco and Uncle Giorgio had gone after her. They hadn’t returned. We gave her an abbreviated summary of our agreement with Sascha. Gwen nodded. I could tell the gears were moving in her head.
“Gwen wanted our help in convincing her family to let her handle their disappearances. Gwen suspected the Sabbat necromancers were to blame. However, the best way for us to accomplish that as to “sit and look pretty.” Rose smiled as she promised: “I won’t piss inside.” I promised I wouldn’t do my “crazy Malkavian routine.” Despite our humor, I knew Rose and I were only teasing. This was Gwen’s family. We’d do whatever we could to help them.”