“Asa shouted as Gwen fell to the floor. Her eyes melted away and streamed down her face, Raiders of the Lost Ark style. It would have been a pretty cool special effect if I wasn’t so terrified of it happening to me next. Asa scooped her up and charged up the stairs to the Gallery. He placed his hands over her eyes, and that same blue light shown as when he healed my arms. A few moments later, Gwen blinked awake, eyes fully healed. She ordered her ghouls to stay in the bunk rooms for now. Now having a bit of privacy, the five of us, including Comet, discussed our options.
“We agreed to tell no one else and only discuss it in the Temple. But that left the ghouls. I knew I could wipe their memories of the room. I do it when I feed. Perhaps I should have been more hesitant to offer my services, listeners. It’s wrong to take away someone’s memories. Memories are what make us who we are. But it isn’t so bad, right? All I’ve done is remove the trauma and fear. I have to feed, but I can make them forget it ever happened. This way we can keep the Temple safe without killing the ghouls. This is good. This is a kindness.
“Gwen agreed. As she left with Rose, she commanded her ghouls to listen to me. She said I would interview them one by one, confirming their memories aligned and that no malignant influence had infected them. They seemed to buy it. Meanwhile, Gwen and Rose would go hunting in Manassas. Our blood stores were running low. She kindly allowed Asa and I a blood bag each.
“While the ghouls waited in the Bunk Room, Asa and I drank and talked. He shared more about his dream with “Uncle Sal,” and I shared mine of the conversation between Uncle Sal and Voice inside my head. Asa called my Voice “Uncle Mal.” It’s strange, listeners. Both “uncles” seemed to want us together. Mine had given me visions of Asa in time to save his life from the Tremere. Diane had told Asa to “find the Malkavian.” Uncle Sal wanted Asa to build an Ark. Uncle Mal had wanted me to find the Temple. Did they have similar goals? Or even compatible ones?
“We’ll find out in the fullness of time, I’m sure. We brought the ghouls one by one into a bedroom and shut the door. After the interviews, I removed their memories of the Pillar. They had seen empty boxes, nothing more. Then we investigated the “Kitchen.” Cubbies lined the wall. They were cold inside, like a refrigerator. I ran my finger along the sides of one. It came away bloody.
“For a second, I thought I cut myself. But I realized it was something far stranger. Blood traveled in a small, circular pattern at the top of each cubby. It was the source of the coolness. Perhaps used to keep food fresh? I held my finger before me, fascinated by the tiny drop of red. This blood was thousands of years old. Or rather, it was ancient to me but had only been flowing for a few years. You get it. Time travel stuff. But what memories did it hold? Each time I had fed, I experienced the life and memories of its owner. What would I learn if I tasted this blood?
“Asa grabbed my hand an inch from my mouth. I hadn’t realized I had opened it. He yelled at me, which was fair. I was being stupid. Blood bonds are a thing. And every time another vampire has drunk my blood, they’ve been changed. That Bishop from Il Gran Ballo. George. Desirée. Thaïs. Ben. And this was the blood of someone or something very old. Who knows how it could have affected me.
“Asa gave me a tissue to wipe my hand with and put it in his pocket. We left the ghouls in the bunk rooms and exited the Temple. It was nice to be outside in the cool night air, listeners. But I had one more stop to make before my obligations were done. Ben was still asleep upstairs, or rather, deep in the safe mind-space that Cedric had helped forge yesterday. Cedric and Comet were awake, watching over him. I asked Cedric if I could reach out to Ben in the Cobweb. I promised I wouldn’t do anything or try to pull him out. I didn’t even have to talk to him. I just wanted to see him. I have felt so lost without him, listeners. Cedric nodded, saying it should be safe enough. Asa pulled up a chair beside me and said he would use his Light to guide my way.
“I’m so grateful to them, listeners. I never could have done this all on my own. Without my – the Malkavians. Without Asa or Gwen or Rose. Without Desirée or Thaïs or even George. No matter their true intentions, they helped Ben and me stay alive. Helped keep me sane.
“I held Ben’s hand as I reached for him in the Cobweb. The storm was still there. That chaotic, thundering, howling maelstrom of light and sound and color and memory. The wind screamed at me with a thousand voices as it tried to rip my mind apart. But I could feel something quiet in the center. Calm. Peaceful. I floated towards it, holding myself together against the energies buffeting me. I could get lost in here so easily. A crescent moon hung too brightly in what might have been the sky, guiding my path.
“You know how in dreams, sometimes places are two places at once? Like, your grandmother’s house is also your middle school and you’re sitting down for a biology test and also eating matzo ball soup and trying not to react to your grandfather’s ghost? Or maybe that’s just one of mine. Anyway, this was both a Blockbuster and Chuck E. Cheese. I stepped inside and it was quiet. Well, quiet compared to outside. The consoles made bright, happy beeps and chirps and played musical fanfare as if someone had won or lost, though I could not see anyone playing. Some were deteriorating. I could see rusted metal and frayed electronics and jagged screens out of the corner of my eye. But the path I was on gave the impression of being someplace good. Safe. Happy.
“I turned the corner and there he was. Ben. Playing Galaga. He was younger than I had ever known him. Maybe ten or eleven or twelve. I’d seen pictures at his house the one time I had been there. I wanted to kneel down and hold the kid in my arms. Tell him everything would be okay. But I didn’t want to spook him. This Ben might not know or remember me.
“I leaned against the console beside him and introduced myself. It’s been a while since I talked to a kid, but it was just like going to a family dinner and seeing a younger cousin once or twice removed. There was a familiarity there. Trust. Ben told me that his friends would be coming back soon. He just needed to get the high score. I asked what level he was on, and something changed on his face. He looked straight at me and repeated a series of numbers. 53792. That didn’t seem right, since Galaga had had only, what, 250 levels? Been a while since I played, listeners, my apologies. But Ben’s eyes were locked onto the screen, one hand one the joystick while the other fired. Then there was the sound of a little chiptune explosion, and then another. Game Over. Ben cursed and kicked the frame of the console. It hardly budged under his small frame.
“The pixels on the screen formed the word “Continue.” It was counting down, but the numbers didn’t make sense. Every time I looked away, the number was higher or lower than it should be. Ben pouted, saying he was out of quarters. For some reason, giving Ben a chance to play again felt like the most important thing in the world. First, I tried jostling the machine to see if we could trick it into thinking we deposited a quarter. No dice. Then, I remembered I was not actually in a Chuck E. Cheese, but a psychic Cobweb where I could manifest whole rooms. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a quarter that had not been there a few seconds earlier. I stepped up and asked if I could play with him. Ben smiled and nodded.
“Our two ships appeared on the screen. His was blue-and-green and just in front of my red-and-white one. No friendly fire in this game. I couldn’t hurt him here. Then it started. Colorful enemies swirled above our little ships, forming complex patterns I couldn’t quite remember once they had been destroyed. We cleared stage after stage after stage. I had no idea how long I had been there. The levels didn’t make sense. Had we really played a thousand? Ten thousand? Fifty thousand? We were getting close. 53792. That was the number Ben had told me. Write it down, listeners. Might be a pop quiz later.
“A man appeared on screen just as we finished a stage. He was in 8-Bit, so the details were hard to distinguish. I could tell he was short, with black hair and dark skin. Middle eastern, maybe. I didn’t recognize him, but I did recognize his laugh, even in chiptune. “Uncle Mal,” as Asa called him. The Voice in my head. “I don’t think you’re ready for that,” he said, smiling. The console was ripped from my grasp, or maybe I had been yanked away from it. I was hurled out of the Blockbuster-Chuck E. Cheese and into the storm. For a moment, I was lost in the chaos. Then I felt a light. Warm and bright and familiar and safe. Asa. I followed it out of the maelstrom and back into the bedroom of the Farmhouse. I collapsed into Asa’s arms.
“Cedric asked what had happened. I told him. Cedric asked if we were to follow his Will. I didn’t have an answer. I wanted to come up with something comforting. Some way to convince everyone else and myself that I knew what I was doing and was more than just a washed-up scared former DJ with a sleep disorder. But I was interrupted. A scream rang out through the air. Gunfire. We were being attacked.”
Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:
Premonitions and Preparations
Notes by Anthony
“Gwen commanded her ghouls to return to the Gallery on the first sub-level. She had caught on quickly. This was too big. Too dangerous. We couldn’t let this get out. The ghouls followed Gwen’s orders, yes, but they were not bound to her. They might be under orders to inform Gwen’s “aunts” or “uncles.” And even if the ghouls could be sworn to silence, I knew firsthand how easy it was to warp a mortal’s mind and pull out their innermost secrets.
“But we had a few minutes to think. We stared up at the Pillar. Tubes led into the ceiling, linked to those in the Central Shaft and Control Room. Blood could be fed into this Pillar from above. Were the other Temples all powered by ancient vampires? Second generation like Irad? Younger? Was this Temple special, even amongst the others?