Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:

An Old Nemesis

Notes by Anthony

“Asa was cradling me, concern plain on his face. I grabbed the compact mirror and threw myself in the Cobweb. I reached for Cedric. Get to the car. Joan. Danger. Ruth. I broke the connection and scrambled out of Asa’s arms. I couldn’t risk wasting time with debate. Asa ran after, yelling for me to stop. Cedric was at the car. Rose and Gwen emerged from the farmhouse, alerted by the noise. Rose’s shirt was backwards and her hair was wet. They surrounded the car.

“I explained as quickly as I could. Thankfully, they agreed to help without question. Between the five of us, we found the right train crossing on the map. It was a twenty minute drive, but with Rose at the wheel we made it in ten. We parked at the edge of the nearest cul-de-sac beside the woods. Rose took off in a blur. Cedric waited in the car as we chased after.

“I don’t need to breathe anymore, listeners. I don’t have a heart to beat. But I could feel the blood inside pounding and roiling as I ran. I was terrified I’d be too late. Rose was on the bridge, practically pressing her nose to the Bubble. I could see Joan running to her on the bridge, holding the shrunken Demon Hand. She reached the Bubble and pressed the Hand against it, pulling down. A small hole opened up, stretching far, far too slowly. 

“Joan smiled at me. She looked surprised. “Zachariah. We can do it.” Then her head twitched towards the woods behind her. Something had caught her attention. Rose’s, too. Her smile fell and she pushed the hand against the Bubble. It popped through and onto the ground. The hole closed behind it in an instant. “You will regret that,” a voice called from behind her. I recognized it from my first nightmare as a vampire. The Lady in the Lake. “Ruth.”

“One moment, Joan was there. Small and alone. Hope draining from her face, replaced with fear and resignation. Then – God, listeners. Sorry. I don’t want to remember this. But I have to. It happened. Even though it didn’t. Joan was there. Then blood splattered the Bubble, arcing up almost twice my height. It burned away as the Bubble destroyed it, revealing a bloody fist where Joan’s torso used to be. Her limbs and head tumbled into the river. They disintegrated into ash, turning the water briefly grey before disappearing. A tattered piece of her schoolgirl dress caught on the train tracks, fluttering in the breeze.

“I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. I stared at the bloody mist where Joan had been. The Lady in the Lake spoke again: “What must, is.” Giuseppe replied: “Yes, my love.” He was now standing next to Ruth. As Gwen suspected, she had Embraced and Blood-bonded him. Ruth turned to me. “Greetings, Zachariah. For you, this is the first time we meet. You have stolen the hand of my love but not stopped destiny.” She grinned. “How deep goes this Wall?” 

“Ruth jumped into the air, nearly hitting the top of the Bubble. Everyone else realized the danger before I did. Rose grabbed Gwen and disappeared into the forest. Asa yelled “incoming!” Then Ruth crashed back down. The earth caved in below her and surged back up. We turned to run. The sky was black with debris. The ground hit my back like Wil-E-Coyote charging a painted tunnel. My own body disintegrated into bloody mist before my eyes as I died.

“Train tracks. Clear night sky. Joan smiling. The Demon hand tearing a hole in Wall. But this time, a man stood behind her. Inhumanly grey markings streaked his skin. He was as beautiful as the night I dreamed of Enoch’s fall. Marcus stood between Joan and Ruth. He spoke quietly in Enochian: “I do not know what is right, anymore.” Ruth screamed at him: “Marcus, you cannot interfere here!” It distracted her long enough for Joan to slip through the tear in the Wall. Rose carried her across the bridge to us. I watched another grey mark worm its way up Marcus’s neck. He disappeared, and Ruth screamed in anger. Then a wave of déjà vu hit as Ruth began to speak. I knew what she would say before she said it. That she would kill us all when she was done.

“We ran away in the middle of her villain monologue. Terribly rude, I know. But the confusion cost her the precious few seconds we needed to flee. Rose carried Joan and Gwen to the car, then helped Asa and I in. Cedric started driving before the doors were shut. We all screamed “Go! Drive! Faster!” like bad teen actors fleeing from a B-movie monster. 

“The world went black. I opened my eyes. Sirens and car alarms blared. I was upside down. The car was, too. Thankfully, I’d put my seatbelt on before the wall of earth rolled the car over. Also, we’re vampires. A car crash can’t take us out, right? We abandoned it and broke into a camper van next to an unlit house. Maybe the owners had skipped town with the riots. Good for them.

“I tried to talk, but Asa grabbed my shoulder hard. “Not another word from you, Zachary.” I think he was still upset I ran to save Joan without him. Gwen paced, muttering “we can’t go back” over and over. Rose asked Joan and Cedric to Obfuscate us. Gwen snapped, demanding to know if it would be enough against the Tremere. Joan smiled. We would be safe to talk. 

“Gwen let her anger loose. We had nowhere to go. The Tremere would investigate and track us as we left. We could not return to the Temple. I looked to Asa. He released my shoulder. I told her that the Temple was the safest place to be. It had remained Obfuscated for months. And the Tremere would be too busy tracking down the violent Methuselah within their Bubble to worry about us. The site might even be too destroyed for them to scry us. And even if they did, Joan and Cedric could Obfuscate the car, covering our tracks to the Temple.

“Gwen didn’t take a deep breath. She does not breathe unless required for speaking. She must have lost that human habit a long time ago. But she seemed puff her chest out a bit at this. Gwen pulled the Demon hand from her bag. She must have picked it up after the car crash. “This is a moment of Triumph. And if they follow us, it will be their grave.” I cheered and tried to high five Asa, but he pulled my hand down. Listeners, this might be the most unbelievable thing out of everything I’m telling you tonight, but after that cold rejection, Gwen raised the Demon hand for a high five! Of course, I high fived it. It was a little gross but awesome.

“We made it back to the Temple without incident. Nana Kahenta and Vousette were maintaining the fire. Gwen rounded on Joan, “do not be coy with me now. What do you know of the Temple?” Joan replied: “it is dangerous.” She sounded calm, but I detected uncertainty in her voice. When had I learned to read the emotions of this ten-year-old girl, who had walked the earth for over a thousand years? Gwen pressed on, demanding more. Joan looked up at me with a question in her eyes. She said was supposed to die at “Ruth’s” hand. She knew that. If that was not true, perhaps the restrictions that forbade her from speaking on the Temple could be bent as well.

“I was putting things together. Please forgive me, listeners, if you figured this out already and have been shouting at your radio for the past hour. I asked Joan if she had been at the Temple before. She nodded. I asked if she learned how to use it from me. Again, she nodded. I could feel something well up inside me. Not the Beast, but something like it. Excitement. Understanding. The world was insane. I was insane. But I’d figured out the insanity.

“I addressed the group like a teacher who’d drunk too much coffee. Sometime in her past, I taught Joan how to use the Temple. If she showed us now, and I used that knowledge to teach her later, then we had a paradox. A bootstrap paradox, to be specific. The information would never be created but recycled over and over in a loop without beginning or end. 

“A second revelation. I had been told over and over that Ruth made herself. How could a vampire make herself? By traveling back in time and Embracing herself! A true paradox. No wonder she was so powerful. Or so dangerous to the fabric of the universe itself. We could not risk “making” ourselves the same way. We would have to figure it out ourselves.

“Gwen acquiesced and left. Joan still looked troubled. I think, listeners, that Joan had spent a thousand years knowing she would die at that moment. And now that she had lived, she had no idea what to do next. I wanted to comfort her, but I was afraid of disappointing her. She has such high expectations of me, listeners. She knows a version of me that I’m not ready to be, yet. I’m afraid I’ll never live up to her faith in me.

“Rose left to talk to the Sisters. Asa and I went to the Farmhouse to visit Ben. He hadn’t moved since I tucked him in this morning. Comet was sitting at his bedside, playing a Gameboy. I squeezed Ben’s hand. Maybe I’m crazy, listeners, but I could’ve sworn he squeezed it back. Comet left, saying the vibes were off. 

Asa sat beside me. He said “I was in the army. A soldier can’t do things alone. You could have gotten us all killed today.” I nodded. “You’re right. But we didn’t have time to argue or debate. Every second was needed to save Joan.” Asa squeezed my arm. More gently than he had my shoulder. “You can’t rush into something like this, again. I’m not saying you did a good or bad thing, but…” He trailed off. I don’t think he wanted to say if saving Joan was worth dying for. We did die, after all. Marcus had to rewrite time itself to save us. 

“I took a deep breath. I’m still holding onto my human habits. I told Asa that I had known Joan for three weeks. But she’s known me for over a thousand years. And she’s ready to die for me. She had known she would die for me. I’d felt Immanuel die. Immanuel had known he would die for me, too. I wanted people to stop dying for me. I wanted to protect them. I needed to.

“I squeezed Ben’s hand. I couldn’t say what I was most afraid of. That Ben had died for me, too. Asa hugged me. He told me we’re all connected. That I needed to rely on the rest of them for help. I nodded. I promised I’d be more trusting next time.

“A car drove up to the farmhouse. Instinctively, we ducked. Asa crept to the window and peered out. He whispered that it was a Giovanni car. They were parking. And Gwen’s Aunt Lucretia had just stepped out.”