Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:

Make a Withdrawal

Notes by Anthony

“I woke, screaming. I should be used to it by now. But the terror and pain and confusion gripped me as strongly as it did every night. This time, though, I wasn’t the only one bleeding. The tick marks in the walls were now filled with blood. I could sense Rose’s presence humming within it. Blood trickled from Ben’s nose and Joan’s eyes. I reached to Joan and wiped them away. Her cheek was soft and small in my hand. Cedric dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief. Comet rubbed the sleeve of his jacket across his nose and below his ears. 

“Once I had composed myself, I told them of how I had met Damien in a shared dream, though I kept the details of his true appearance to myself. I asked if Joan knew why Abraham had made two of us. Why did we both have to suffer, if I was the one fated to carry our progenitor? 

“It’s funny, listeners. I can say “Malkav” into the microphone. Yet it feels wrong to acknowledge my passenger by name to another Kindred. As if saying it aloud makes it real. Would Cedric or Comet treat me differently, if they realized every conversation we had was overheard by the ancient almost-god whose madness had infected us all?

“Joan said the two of us had been part of a Prophecy. Abraham had tried his level best to bring something forth, though what he did to us had never been part of “our design.” Still, Joan couldn’t, or wouldn’t, interfere. She looked sad and guilty. I told her it wasn’t her fault. We couldn’t change things that had to happen. Ben shook his head. We had to be able to change some things, right? Otherwise, we were stuck in a time loop we’d never win. I nodded. I tried not to think about how, in a previous iteration, Joan died at Ruth’s claws and Ben never woke up. There were some things we could change. Some people we could save. I had a feeling Damien wasn’t one of them.

“I felt something shift in the walls around me. Rose’s presence had retreated. My brain caught up to my senses and realized that was probably a bad thing. Ben helped me from the table, and we ran to the control room. Rose lay crumpled on the floor. Asa hovered above her, his medical skills useless to a woman already dead. Joan appeared with a blood bag, and we poured it into Rose’s mouth. Her sunken cheeks filled in slightly, though her eyes were bright with hunger. She told us she had used the Temple to enhance her Auspex and read the history of the werewolf pelt. Then she’d looked into the Temple itself. She had seen every room, heard every conversation. But Irad’s hunger had been too much, and it had almost drained her dry.

“I had no idea how much time had passed since my collapse, but Gwen told us that night had just fallen. We made our plans to return. Gwen sliced her hand above the middle symbol on the Planar Console – the one we had determined led back to the real world. We felt the Temple shift. With a glance outside, Rose confirmed we were back in the cornfield. I sliced my hand on the Disciplines Console and imagined the Temple disappearing. It looked like the TARDIS fading out of view, if I have to be honest. For once, it only cost a small amount of blood to Obfuscate the Temple. Perhaps Irad had been satisfied after nearly exsanguinating Rose.

“Rose bounced on the balls of her feet. She had to feed. “I need to fuck off and eat something that isn’t you guys” were her exact words. Ben quickly approached her with a red pen and a set of road maps. While she hunted, Rose would look for other “ley line nodes” we could “drive” the Temple too. She jogged into the cornfield and flew off as a large hawk.

“We took stock of our dwindling blood supply. Asa offered to steal more blood bags from Manassas General Hospital. Cedric agreed to accompany him and keep them under Obfuscation. Meanwhile, Ben and I investigated the Coordinates Console. We had a vague idea of how to calculate new spatial coordinates if we knew where another node was in relation to ours. However, I hoped I could use Spirit Touch to identify coordinates the Temple had already been to. 

“I slid my hand along the console. As I watched, a ghostly hand took shape before mine. I followed its movements. Marcus was standing before the console. He held a pitcher in his other hand and slowly tipped it, pouring a mouthful of blood onto the tiny razor. I tried pay attention to the buttons he pressed, but all I could focus on was the blood draining into the console. The heady scent filled my nostrils. I could practically feel the wet and sticky blood on my fingers. The Navigation room tipped and I struggled to keep my footing. Ben whispered something in my ear. I tried to tell him to speak up, but my tongue felt too heavy to move. I crashed onto the floor. My hand finally slipped free from the console, and everything went black.

“Turns out, listeners, my finger nicked the razor while I was Spirit Touching the console. While I watched Marcus carefully feed the Temple, it had gorged on me. Ben had shouted and tried to pull me away, but I was too lost in communion with Irad. I woke as Joan poured a blood bag into my mouth. The Temple hummed with energy, fat and happy after its second feast of the night.

“I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. I couldn’t stand. The Beast was ravenous. My stomach twisted itself into knots as it searched for more blood. Gwen offered me a bone from her satchel, her eyes bright with curiosity. “Take a bite of this. I want to try something.” The human part of me was horrified, but the rest was too hungry to resist the proffered bone. 

“Some part of me instinctively knew how to crack it open and suck at the marrow. Bits of gristle and fat coated my tongue. It was disgusting, yet something inside tasted like ambrosia. This was far more powerful than ordinary human blood. Memories flooded in. A circular arena. Blackened walls. I fought with pleasure and pride. The crowd roared. I cared only for the Gods that watched. I won. I was chosen. I was blessed by a God. I served with pleasure and pride. God gave me to the House of Ashûr. The God inside skinned me alive. My skin was tanned and dried before me. Maps were etched upon it. I watched with pleasure and pride. I had not eyelids to close. They took my arm and removed the fat and muscle. They etched markings upon the bone. Then, my other arm. Then, my leg. I tried to stay awake. I tried to serve with pleasure and –

“The memories faded as a pale hand reached for my ribs. I looked at the bone. Some of the markings were still legible, though I had crushed most of them with my teeth as I gnawed to get at the marrow. I told Gwen what I saw. She surmised that I had eaten the tibia of a ghoul of a 3rd or 4th generation Kindred, hence why the remnants of vitae had still been potent enough for me to drink years later. I was still very hungry, but I didn’t want to eat any more bones.

“Asa walked in with Cedric. I looked up. My hands and face were still covered with tiny bone fragments. Asa looked disgusted as he said: “I’ve been gone an hour, and you already spent all your blood? Ugh, here. Catch.” Asa tossed a blood bag my direction. The Beast lunged forward and sunk its teeth into it the bag. Blood dripped down my hands as I greedily sucked and slurped at the cold liquid inside. I tore the bag, desperate to lick the droplets trapped in the corners. Something moved towards me. The Beast snarled, and the threat retreated.

“I came back to myself with two of my own fingers in my mouth as I licked them clean. I removed them and looked around. Asa, Ben, Cedric, Joan, and Gwen all stared at me with varying levels of disgust, horror, and pity. Asa tried to apologize but I was already running to the door. I was mortified. Tears rose to my eyes, and I smeared their bloody trails across my cheeks. I was nothing more than a monster. I was nothing more than a Beast.”