Authors: Jonah Hewitt
Miles decided to ignore the insult. “We didn’t hang out then, so I was just wonderin’....”
Schuyler interrupted him, “We don’t hang out
now
, Miles.”
Schuyler had a way of always making Miles feel inferior, but it was true. Miles and Schuyler hadn’t spent this much time together in the entire time they had known each other. Neither of them were top-flight performers in the Rivenden Clan, but they traveled in completely different circles. Miles trolled the streets and avoided Rivenden as much as he could, but Schuyler was always hanging around the court trying to ingratiate himself with Wallach, with limited success, it was true, but he at least tried. Aside from the times that Wallach had sent Schuyler to check up on him, they had hardly ever seen each other. Schuyler only spoke to him to tell him what a lousy vampire he was. Now here they were, stuck together, on a mission for the Father of All Vampires with a Renfield who was convinced it was the end of the world. It seemed like as good a time as any to get to know each other, but if Schuyler wasn’t interested then why bother.
“Just forget it.” Miles had meant to say it with a bored voice, but it just sounded petulant and hurt. He wasn’t as good at faking his emotions as Schuyler was.
Schuyler was silent for a while then he sighed and slapped the vinyl seat with both hands. “Fine! Whaddya want to know?” He didn’t turn around.
Miles leaned forward and cautiously asked a question, “So…when were you…y’know…”
“When was I
turned
? Is
that
what you want to know?” Schuyler seemed to read Miles’ mind. As always, Schuyler seemed far more intuitive than himself. Miles didn’t say anything but just waited for Schuyler to continue. Schuyler sighed and took a few moments to compose his thoughts.
“Sixty-seven,” Schuyler eventually said.
“Sixty-seven?” Miles started inquisitively, but Schuyler didn’t let him get any further.
“Yeah, I was seventeen. Ran away from home and my
dad.
” Schuyler said the word “dad” with particular contempt. “I headed out to San Francisco to catch the scene, y’know, ‘Summer of Love’ and all? But I was a bit late and missed all that.”
“So you were a
hippie
?” Tim said incredulously, deciding to join the conversation.
“No…” Schuyler sounded annoyed, “Not…
religiously
anyway. Dude, it was a good time – lots of chicks, drugs, no rules and mostly it was away from my family.”
Miles was hoping to hear more about Schuyler’s family, but he skipped over that and went on.
“Well, things were pretty dead in San Francisco by that time so I hooked up with some kids who decided to catch the hippie scene on the East Coast. We hitched our way to Philly and I wound up on South Street. A few months later, I was a vampire…been there ever since, end of story.”
“And that’s it?” Miles prompted.
“That’s it.” Schuyler’s tone told Miles he was trying to end the conversation, but Miles wanted to dig a little deeper.
“So, who turned ya?” Miles asked.
Miles’ question was met with nothing but stony silence. Schuyler folded his arms across his chest and turned back to the window. Miles leaned back against the bench seat expecting the conversation was now over. A few minutes later Schuyler piped back up.
“Oh…All right. I’ll tell you.” He took a breath. “It was Ulami.”
“No way!” Tim exclaimed, “That scary blond chick Hokharty killed?!”
“She wasn’t so scary back then.” Schuyler’s response surprised Miles. It didn’t sound angry or offended, more sentimental than anything. “She didn’t get super scary until she became one of Wallach’s lieutenants, back in the 80’s…I think.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, she was a real babe back then…long, blond braids…pony beads, leather-fringed mini skirt…go-go boots,” Schuyler always warmed up the more he talked about fashion. “Back then, she wasn’t so…” Schuyler hunted for the right word, “anorexic,” he finally chose. Miles smiled. Ulami wasn’t anorexic she was an emaciated corpse with a fright wig. Schuyler went on, “Ulami wasn’t her real name either. I don’t know what her
real
name was…but she was calling herself ‘Starlight’ back then.” Miles nearly laughed. The thought of the terrifying Ulami using the name ‘Starlight’ was just too barmy. Tim obviously felt the same way, because he blurted it out.
“’
Starlight
!?’ No way!” Tim laughed. And then the oddest thing happened. Schuyler laughed. Not one of his snide smug laughs, but a genuine, unpretentious laugh like someone gives when remembering a past embarrassment that was scalding at the time, but is now just a nostalgic memory.
“Yeah, she had this great gig going.” Schuyler was absentmindedly picking lint off his near-pristine, black jeans as he spoke now, “She would hang around the clubs and parties and find some dumb mark, a stray or runaway. She had a thing for young, blond boy toys.”
Schuyler sounded distant, wistful even. It suddenly struck Miles that Schuyler wasn’t talking about just any blond boy toy – he was talking about himself! This was the first real insight Miles had ever had into Schuyler’s personality. Did Schuyler have feelings for Ulami…er…Starlight? Had she made him believe that she loved him? What promises and lies had she made to him? Is this why Schuyler was playing lost little rich girls at Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr, because somewhere, decades ago, Ulami had played him the same way? Was this the secret to Schuyler’s personality? Was he really just a jilted, broken-hearted boy getting revenge for being used that way? Miles had never much liked Schuyler. He was pompous, vain and arrogant, but now he felt just a small twinge of pity for him. Miles wondered: if Ulami had changed so much, if she had transformed from a hippie in go-go boots to a monster in just a few decades, what was his and Schuyler’s future?
“Well anyway…” Schuyler began again, “It turns out it was probably good the way it happened.” Schuyler turned to Tim and tapped his shoulder in a genuinely friendly manner. “They say that if you are turned by a powerful vampire, the more powerful vampire you will become.” Schuyler was relaxed now, talking about his favorite subject, which was, after all, himself. He ran his fingers through his perfect, blond hair and examined his teeth in the side mirror. All of Miles’ pity evaporated.
“Hmmph,” Miles muttered under his breath, “Well
that’s
not bloody true.”
“What would
you
know?” Schuyler had commandeered the rear view mirror now too, and was checking his hair. Schuyler pulled a lurid-blue lollipop out of his pocket, another one of his plastic props, and started practicing poses with the thing halfway out of his mouth.
“Never mind,” Miles muttered. He didn’t like the direction this conversation was going.
“Never mind?!” Schuyler stopped primping and turned around to stare down Miles. “Oh, no…no, no, no, no, NO! You started this pajama party sleepover confessional and you’re gonna finish it, missy.” Schuyler jabbed the lollipop at Miles and then stuck it defiantly back in his mouth.
Miles said nothing. Schuyler stared at him a good long time, then he removed the lollipop from his mouth and said in an almost earnest tone, “C’mon. ‘Fess up. Who
turned
you Miles?”
Miles bit his lip. He didn’t really want to continue. He just knew that Schuyler would use this over him somehow, but after all that Schuyler had just offered, he didn’t feel like he could refuse.
“Wallach,” Miles spat out quickly, barely speaking above a whisper.
“No. Freaking. Way!” Tim turned around to look at Miles and nearly swerved off the road. He quickly turned back around and got control of the car.
“You lie,” Schuyler eyed him suspiciously.
Miles sighed and decided to get it over with.
“Five days off the boat. He caught me in Brewer’s Alley near the waterfront. I was drunk.”
“No way!” Schuyler laughed.
“Yeah, mate,” Miles laughed nervously. It wasn’t entirely true. Miles wasn’t drunk. He had never been drunk in his life, but it sounded better than the truth – that he was lost. Miles forged ahead. “He was havin’ a bit a’ trouble, some tussle with another vampire. He was weak, away from his usual haunts and in a tight spot, and he needed a quick pick-me-up, that’s all. I stumbled into the alley where the two were fightin.’ He got sight of me and that’s all I remember. Drained me dry in a single bite.” But Miles had lied again, that was not all he remembered. He remembered the whole thing vividly.
“In an alley?! You gotta be kidding me?!” Schuyler laughed some more and pounded his fist on the seatback.
“Yeah mate, pretty pathetic.” Miles tried to laugh, to make it a joke, but all these years later it still didn’t feel like a joke. It was not a pleasant memory, and he had relived it every day since. Miles trudged on in the tale. “I figure he just needed to get over a dry spell. Once he got a bit a blood in him, he was fresh as morning dew and ready to fight again. He had his row with the other vampire right then and there too. Murdered the blighter, tore him limb from limb, right in fron’ a me, and then, he just left me and walked away like I was an empty bottle.”
“Wait…wait…wait…” Schuyler was beside himself with delirious laughter. “He didn’t
try
to turn you?”
“Nah, mate, the bloke was surprised as all bloody heck when I showed up livin’ the next day.”
“Then how did you
turn
?” Schuyler was incredulous. “How did you do it?”
“Whaddya mean,
turn
?” Tim piped up again.
Schuyler sniffed. “Geez, I keep forgetting you’re a noob and not a regular Renfield. Look, not just anyone can be a vampire, dude, you have to have the
gift
.”
“The
curse
, ya bloody well mean,” Miles interjected. Schuyler just shot him a dirty look and went on.
“Look, you can take a quick bite out of anyone, and it won’t kill him, but if you drain him dry, that’s the moment of truth. At that moment, when your lifeblood is gone, you’re utterly helpless. Most just pass on, just like if you cut their veins open and let the blood all out, but some…
some
…get to make the
choice
.”
“The
choice
?” Tim was obviously confused, but he was trying to understand.
“Yeah, it’s kinda hard to explain, but at the very last moment, you can feel your soul leaving, and at that very moment…you make the choice – to stay, or to go.”
“Go where?” Tim said.
“Beats me,” Schuyler absentmindedly said as he picked more lint off his jeans, “
Beyond
,
Elsewhere, Limbo
…I dunno…who cares, really?”
“Did…did you see a light, or a tunnel?” Tim asked cautiously.
“Nah, nothing like that,” Sky replied, bored.
Miles winced a little at Schuyler’s answer. Miles
had
seen a light. He had never thought that it might have been different for Schuyler.
“So…no pledge to some dark lord, no drinking the master’s blood?” Tim nervously ventured.
“You read too many novels, guy, that gothic stuff’s just window-dressing,” Sky replied nonchalantly. “Some old-school vampires are still kind of hung up on ceremony, though. I’ve seen Wallach do it that way a time or two, but I managed with just Starlight, I mean Ulami, a lava lamp and some incense.”
Miles had to suppress a smile at the thought of Sky turning into a vampire under the glow of a lava lamp. He could imagine them sitting cross-legged on the floor holding hands humming “ohmmm.”
Sky turned around to look at him as if he could read his thoughts before going on. “Anyway, the
real
key is the will to survive at all costs. When you reach the end of your mortal life, and you feel it slipping away, and you know you would do anything to stay alive…”
“Anything?” Tim asked frightened, sidling a little farther away from Schuyler as he spoke.
“ANYTHING,” Schuyler said enthusiastically, baring a little tooth in the process, “Then
that’s
when you become a vampire.” Sky leaned back and smiled a broad, satisfied smile and put his hands behind his head as if basking in the sunlight of some great, personal reverie. Of all the things that Schuyler had ever done in Miles’ presence, this was the most unnerving.
Tim gulped and the car went silent for a while.
“Not everyone can or will do it though,” Schuyler went on, “Even those that think they will often don’t and just slip away. Starlight…um, I mean…
Ulami
had me all psyched up and ready for it, so I was there right away, but this dumb mick,” Schuyler pointed to Miles, “
This
dumb mick somehow got through on his own.” And then turning to Miles said, “How did you do it?!”
Miles shrugged, “I dunno really.” Miles looked down at the floor of the car. “I was sixteen…and I just wasn’t ready to go yet. That’s all.” But that wasn’t all. Miles remembered everything. He wasn’t sixteen. He was ten days short of sixteen. He was looking for work but there was nothing for a mick straight off the boat. He stumbled into the wrong alley at the wrong time. Wallach pounced on him before he even had a thought to turn around and run. After Wallach had dispatched the other vampire, he came back to gloat over Miles. He remembered vividly the smug look on Wallach’s face as he looked down on him. He just laughed and stepped over Miles’ body. Miles lay against the wall, and he could feel his life going. He called out to God and St. Jude and whomever he could think of, but there was no answer. Then he saw the light. He knew instinctively what the light meant. He clawed on the alley floor, desperate to hold on, desperate to
live
. He only
just
had something to live for, but it was enough to make him hold on. He felt the light tugging at him and he turned his face to the ground. Then there was a wrenching, like the light took a part of him away.