Strange Nights Series - Episode 6

“Strange Nights”

Season One
Episode Six
         “All Hallows Eve in New York City”
By: B.A. Holland


Production Notes:
Started: 10/01/2011
“Air Date” 10/19/2011


Published by: Abyssalbooks
www.abyssalbooks.com
Copyright ©2011
All Rights Reserved
Additional rights given to Writing.com for display by the author



Disclaimer

This series is a work of fiction. Characters, names and incidences are either productions of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

         Chapter One
         Forever Young

         
         What stood in front of the mirror was the most perfect example of hiding in plain sight that Anna McKenzie had ever seen. What was once her blonde headed daughter was now a black haired, pale faced, skinny young girl sporting a tight fitting black outfit that hugged the skin, much like a dark super-hero’s outfit. Anna hoped that the thing that made her eyes seem so dark were contacts that she bought and not an actual symptom of being a real vampire; Jordan’s fangs, however, were very real. She turned around and smiled at her mother with a mixture of happy exuberance and a hint of an evil grin.
         “Rawr!” She growled cutely through her bright white teeth, including her inch long fangs. She reached over and attached a cape to her back and held her arms open. “What do you think?”

         Anna took a deep breath and shook her head, “I don’t think that Nero would be too comfortable about it.”
         “But, I’m always a Vampire for Halloween.” Jordan said.
         “Yes, but maybe you should still use fake fangs? Considering you are a real Vampire?” Anna asked. “Besides you’re almost too old for trick-or-treating. This is probably your last year you should do it.”
         Jordan put her hands on her cape-clad hips and struck a pose with a goofy smile.
         “I’ll always be this old every year,” Jordan said. “I think I can do Halloween forever.”

         Anna put her hands to her chest and her eyes darted to the side as she swallowed and clenched her jaw. She breathed in sharply and exhaled at the moment her daughter reminded her of a sad truth about being a vampire. She looked back at Jordan with a sad gaze and then gave her a sad smile.

         “What?!” Jordan said. “What is it mom?”
         “Come here,” Anna said. She reached out to let her daughter run into her arms. Anna didn’t want to cry in front of her but she didn’t want to be away from her while Jordan was still happy. Anna only hoped that Jordan’s outlook on life will still be as vibrant and happy as it is at that moment. “Do you know how much I love you?”
         “Yeah, why?” Jordan replied with her chin over her mother’s shoulders.
         “Just making sure you knew.” Anna closed her eyes and squeezed her tightly. “I have to get going as soon as the sun goes down. Tonight and tomorrow are going to...”
         “It’s going to get real,” Jordan interrupted.
         Anna took a moment to laugh and nodded.
         “Yeah. Halloween in New York City. It requires everyone to be on duty – especially when the sun goes down. I know that not much can happen but stay safe anyway okay? Keep your phone with you.” Anna gave her one last squeeze. “Are you going out with any friends?”
         “I haven’t met anyone yet, but I promise I’ll be safe mom.”
         “You know if you were human, I wouldn’t even think about letting you do this right?”
         “Yep.”
         “Be home an hour before sunrise, that means be home before 6AM okay?”
         “Yep.” Anna noticed Jordan’s replies stayed short. It was mother-daughter shorthand for quit telling me what I don’t already know and say goodbye already.
         Jordan skipped out of the door dressed as a pale vampire girl and Anna’s cellphone rang. She picked it up.
         “You coming to pick me up or what?”
         “Yeah Zak, I’m flying out the door right now.”
         Anna held the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she closed the door and pulled the knob before locking it to make sure that the latch was firmly bolted.
         “I think I heard someone’s mailbox explode. It’s starting already.”
         Anna smiled as she remembered a small tidbit of her childhood in Iowa. She turned to see her neighbor, a mid thirties housewife clad with Christian crosses and necklaces draped over breasts that couldn’t have possibly been real. As a police officer, Anna was prone to instantly picking up on a persons demeanor and the waves of judgement were thick enough to surf on. Anna could tell that her neighbor wanted to talk with her so she held up a finger to let her know she would be off the phone soon.
         “Alright, I’ll be over there in about twenty minutes give or take.”
         “See your fine ass then...”
         Anna smiled at the comment and pocketed her I-Phone.
         “Sorry about that, my partner needs me to pick him up before our shift tonight. Hello! I’m Anna McKenzie.” She held her hand out. Her neighbor nodded and allowed her hand to be shook a moment before drawing her arm back in like she had just touched something foul.
         “Nickole Draysdale,” she said. “I’m the wife of Samuel Draysdale.” She paused a moment as if she expected Anna to know who her husband was. A moment passed and Nickole’s jaw tensed. She swiped the red hair behind her ears as her freckles seemed to beam brighter as she let loose with a dismissive grunt. It was as if she didn’t wanted to be bothered with explaining who her husband was to someone who should have known already. Anna understood the body language instantly.
         “Goldberg, Ironcrotch, and Draysdale...” Nickole huffed at the end of it, with the Draysdale name drawn out as if it were the most important name in the entire bunch. Anna knew in a moment that with that much metallic mass in the title of three last names, she must be the wife of a lawyer. FUCK She thought...
         “It’s very nice to meet you. Sorry, with my job and all, I hardly ever get a chance to watch television. Lawfirm?” Anna asked.
         Nickole loosened her arms from their folded chest position and placed them on her hips.          
         “Yes...”
         “Ah, I’m involved in law, as well!” Anna smiled in an attempt to somehow get into this woman’s good graces. She knew that judgmental stance the moment she saw Nickole but she felt that it would only be fair to allow the benefit of the doubt that this woman wasn’t some sort of gold-digger douchebag.
         “Oh, lovely!” Nickole’s eyes seemed to widen as if she were sizing her up. Her lips could almost make a smile but it seemed as if the plastic surgery kept her from frowning anyway. She held her nose into the air. “I must ask, Prosecution, or Defense?”
         “On neither, actually.” Anna said. “I’m NYPD. A detective.”
         Anna watched as Nickole took a step back and huffed again. Her eyes narrowed down at her and her arms crossed just underneath her fake 32 Double-D breasts that her red dress could barely contain.
         “I wasn’t aware that law enforcement types could afford such an illustrious abode. How disconcerting. Oh, no offense.”
         Anna’s mouth gaped open and her blue eyes gazed at her in disbelief. The young detective took a moment to rewind reality itself just to ensure that she had heard this stuck up bitch correctly. The woman seemed to have just taken pleasure in witnessing Anna’s reaction. She waved Anna off as if her expression of utter disbelief meant nothing to her and continued.
         “... It’s just that, this condominium used to uphold certain standards. I suppose the economy is to blame. It’s certainly not your fault, dear.” She laughed it off like she was talking to scum and then she brought her nose down from it’s near-forty-five degree angle and leveled down at her. Anna hated the way she looked down at her. She hated being five feet tall because that was just another way she could be looked down upon. This bitch was not going to get away with it and Anna made a personal promise to herself that Nickole would not laugh at her by the time the night was done.
         “Mmm By the way,” Nickole continued. “I noticed that you let your young daughter scamper off by herself. You’re – not from around here, are you? Mmm haha...”

         Anna sighed and brought her jaw back up. She nodded a few times at Nickole while she wound her superior intellect inside her mind so that she could strike at her bitch neighbor strategically.
         “Well, ever since the standards of this place went down, I’ve been thinking about protecting her from people like your husband since he’s probably the lowest paid in the group. He could be someone that I would worry about considering he’s the only one without metal in his name which means that he’s probably not Jewish. I suppose that if they raised the standards any higher, you and I would both be on the street because at higher standards, buildings as illustrious as this one would be reserved for Ironcrotch.” Anna tried not to laugh as her neighbor grabbed her left breast as if her heart was about to fail. She took a step back but Anna kept advancing on her and continued. “... so, I have to ask...” She repeated the way Nickole had talked to her. “... defense, or persecution?”

         Anna slammed her hand against Nickole’s door frame and leaned toward her breasts since they were nearly at chin level to her, but the effect was to be encroaching and half as rude as her neighbor.

         “Uhh?! Well!” Nickole shot her head up toward the ceiling, spun on her high heels and walked into her condo. The door slammed so hard that Anna’s straight blond hair seemed to blast toward the ceiling and dangle back down. She smiled to herself and took a bath in that self satisfaction. She would probably have to talk to her husband and pretend to apologize for causing his wife emotional stress. It would also give her time to work out clever alibis for her young daughter’s nightly disappearances before Nickole jumps the gun and calls child services. She would have to cross that bridge later tonight when she had some good ideas. Knowing that she would be spending nearly twelve straight hours with Zak on Halloween night, she may or may not have the chance to bring it up. It all depended on how much shit she would have to drive through along the way to dawn.



         

                   * Club Proton/Club Pandora *

         Jaime Jax was wearing her usual nearly nothing while dancing to a gothic beat in a club filled full of costumes, ecstacy junkies, costumed Vampires, Vampires, and Vampires dressed as Vampires. Some vampires still thought that it was catchy and cute to lurk all hallows eve dressed as a Vampire just to hide in plain sight. Originally, it was probably something to piss off the Sanctum but as Jaime danced, she wondered what would change since the Sanctum had been obliterated. Some things have already changed and she could see that already because she looked over the crowd of dancers to see Nero and Pedro laughing together in the VIP booth. Before the sanctum, they were sworn enemies; she never thought she would see the day. Once the dance was over, she mowed through the crowd and jumped in Nero’s lap.
         “Heyy!” She laughed.
         “Damn!” Pedro smiled as he saw his favorite DJ fall into Nero’s arms. “... Where’s my lap dance!”
         “Wrong kind of club!” Jaime yelled over the crowd.
         “Yeah! About that? What’s this Club Pandora?! It’s Club Proton! Remember?”
         “All the Goth’s call it Pandora. All your fans call it Proton!”
         “That’s fucked up!”  Pedro yelled.

         “Hey! Let’s have a good time.” Nero moved slowly to the tune of one of the gothic songs that were playing in the background. For once the club was playing an overabundant mix of dark techno and creepy industrial. Pedro had agreed that Halloween needed to be a slightly darker celebration. What he didn’t count on was hearing the word Pandora overtake what the sign out front said the name of his club was; however, the money was flowing and Pedro overlooked it. Nero had paid him back for a Netbook of his that he smashed so he was in a very good mood.
         “There’s a different VIP room if you want to have a good time, Nero.” Jaime winked.
         “Ahhhh shit!” Pedro waved his arm to the air in the general direction of Jaime while smiling happily at Nero who shook his head and craned his neck to the ceiling. He didn’t want to admit that he was slightly embarrassed but at the same time, he was having fun.
         “It’s the best Halloween I’ve spent. It beats handing out candy.”
         “Handing out candy is for –,”
         “Yeah! We know!” Jaime said to Pedro
         “I thought that wooden bats were for –,”
         “Don’t say it!” Jaime said.


         
         

* Elsewhere in New York City *

         Jordan’s bag was starting to get heavy; not that it was a problem for her super-human strength, but it was putting a strain on the bag. She hadn’t even gone a block in her neighborhood before filling her bag full of candy. Jordan looked out of place as the only girl to be going door to door without parents. Despite being a kid though, Anna was right; Jordan was on the verge of being too old for trick-or-treating, but she had always imagined what it would be like to try it in a neighborhood. She never thought she would get the chance to try it in a large city. In the small town she used to live in, there were not enough neighbors to get any excitement out of trick-or-treating so she had to do it at least once.
         “Trick or treat!”
         A man in his forties opened the door. To his surprise, it was a lone young girl with her hair temp-sprayed black, pale white, skinny, petite, with striking blue eyes, and a tight-fitting black jumpsuit. As she smiled, the man looked intently at her teeth as the fangs looked almost too real.
         “Wow... You’re the best looking Vampire I’ve ever seen! You all alone?” The man peaked his head out of the doorway to look both ways down the street. There were only a few other trick-or-treaters off in the distance. If Jordan had been human and not a vampire, she would have been more scared over the demeanor of the man. She could tell instantly that it was people like him that her mother would have been too afraid to let her run door to door alone if it were not for her special circumstances as an actual un-dead.
         “My dad works for Dateline.” Jordan said.
         A chocolate bar suddenly fell into her bucket and the door slammed shut too fast for her to say thank you. Jordan looked in the bucket to see the large bar and wished that she could eat it. It occurred to her that she wasn’t going to be able to eat the large bag of candy she collected. She tried not to think about it and happily skipped to the next door.

         “I hope mom still likes candy,” Jordan chirped before making it to the next door.

         The next door opened and it was then clear to her that she must be dwelling into the wrong part of town. A young man stuck his head out of the door and looked her over. Jordan took a step back and looked him over as well. He had on a backwards hat with the label on the back (his front) that said East Side. He had a large assortment of cheap aluminum plated necklaces with various medallions. One said BLING, the others had New York, NYC, and Hood labeled on them.
         “Shit, you be trippin...” The Caucasian man sounded as if he were African American. It was then clear to her that his slang had rubbed off on him from his friends because he couldn’t wait to call for them all. Several people of Hispanic, African American, and Columbian descent poked out of the door and they all sounded the same. Despite her super-human hearing, she was still a girl from Iowa and completely in need of a Universal Translator from Star Trek.

         She walked away from that door with a bottle of something called Mad-Dog 20/20. She pulled it out of the bag and shrugged her shoulders after she made it to street level from the apartments on 4 West 89th street.
         “Must be some special Halloween drink.” She said to herself. It must have been good because they were all laughing as they put it in her bag. She got into the street on her way back to familiar territory when she smelled the alcohol and understood what they were laughing about. She never liked being laughed at; it was the one thing she hated in school, too. As a tomboy that wasn’t interested in boys, dates, or the latest fashion, she was shunned by the girls at school. The problem with New York City was that there were ten times the amount of girls in school compared to her small hometown in Iowa. Now that she didn’t have to go to school anymore (other than her mother’s mandatory home schooling requirements), she thought she would have been done with the bullying. Ever since the incident with Nero and the flying coat hangar, she had become accustom to launching objects through the air at high speed with amazing accuracy.


         The group of laughing druggies were suddenly stunned as a bottle of Mad-Dog blasted through their window with a thunderous boom that caused the other two windows beside them to shatter. The entire window blew out and the neighbors above them even heard the thunderous volley as what was left of the bottle embedded itself into the underside of the floor that they walked on. Car alarms all along 89th began to blair as the bottle seemed to create it’s own boom before it hit the window taking it off of it’s frame. Four men, a few with cuts on their faces from the glass of the window and the bottle, leaned out to see that Vampire girl a street over happily waving at them.

         “Holy shit!”
         “My mom said I can’t drink alcohol!” Jordan yelled from the street. She was sure that they couldn’t hear her over the sound of multiple car alarms so she just skipped off. Jordan didn’t realize it but the velocity at which she had thrown the bottle sent a shockwave to the windows above and below the complex, destroying more than just their own windows. Even their neighbors potted plant shattered. Notice papers from a busted billboard on their building that was titled West 89th Street Block Association flew away from the shattered glass enclosure as the wind snatched the leaflets.

         Her phone rang. Expecting her mother, she picked up and instantly greeted her, only to hear a man’s voice on the other line.
         “Yeah, is this Jordan?”
         “Yeah.” Jordan quickly took the phone away from her ear and looked at the screen to see that it said Gina on the screen. She put the phone back to her ear.
         “This is the father of your friend, Gina. I wanted to thank you for looking after her. She told me that you protected her from those people that were taking her all over the city. I was wondering if you had any plans? I would like to ask your mother if you would like to join us. There is a special Halloween event in Central Park.”
         Jordan instantly smiled and giggled a little.
         “My mother is working tonight but I’ll send her a text to let her know where I will be. Yeah! I can do it!”
         “I would like to speak with your mother first. I have to make sure.” Said the man on the other end.
         “Okay. Her number is 555-0102. Thank you! Oh, I also have this huge bag of candy. Gina can have it. I haven’t been feeling very hungry tonight and I know my mom doesn’t like me eating chocolate anyway.”


         

* Elsewhere in the Bronx *

         Zak ducked as a flaming pumpkin cracked in Anna’s windshield, setting it on fire.
         “Holy shit!” Zak yelled.
         Anna sat upright in her seat and started using the windshield wiper fluid to douse most of the flames as the kids that threw it got away. Anna turned her head to Zak with her mouth open in much the way that it was when she met her bitch neighbor earlier in the night.
         “Did you see that?!”
         Zak’s eyes widened as he pointed toward the cracked windshield. “How could I not?! The bitch threw a flaming pumpkin and fucked up your car!” 
         “We’re going to have to call it in,” Anna said.
         “That’s just bullshit!”
         “What?!” Anna leaned around while keying in the radio’s frequency. She called  in her location and explained that their car was unsafe to drive when Zak stepped out of the car. She had to call themselves as out of the vehicle and reachable by cell phone before stepping out. Zak was already ready to run down the street but he was honorable enough to digress until the senior detective gave the go-ahead. Anna took her coat off and threw it in the car. She tugged at her blue jeans and made sure that her pistol was firmly clipped to her belt.
         “This is going to screw up my hair,” Anna said.
         “Shave it bald like me then.” Zak smiled at Anna as she flicked him the bird. They both took off down the street on foot.
         By the time Anna caught up with her partner after a solid half block run from their damaged cruiser, she caught up with Zak, who was shaking information out of the nearest kid on the block that seemed as if he knew everyone. Sure enough, he knew who threw the pumpkin, who put gasoline in it, who lit it, and who planted the seed for the pumpkin – Zak was fairly sure that the kid just wanted to make sure that everyone was accounted for because the seven foot African American was about to shake the shit out of him.

         “All that basketball with Jordan – must have – really – paid off..” Anna placed her hands on her knees and leaned forward. Running in cold weather made her feel as if her lungs were about to freeze with every gasp for breath. . After a brief questioning, Zak jogged at a moderate pace down the streets until he came across a group of kids laughing. The laughter stopped when the noticed a seven foot tall giant followed by what looked like tinker bell with a badge compared to the behemoth she was trying to keep up with. A few quick questions to the locals and they were fast on their way to the flaming pumpkin bandit. Zak knew he was getting hot when he spotted a man walking out of an alleyway with a pumpkin in one hand and a bottle full of lighter fluid in the other. The African American teenager's eyes widened in fear as he stood frozen with the smoking -- jack o’ lantern.

         "Under any normal circumstances, I'd zap you with a tazor, fool!" Zak swiftly stomped over to the kid and yanked him so hard that he dropped the pumpkin and the lighter fluid to the ground. As he pulled the kid to the street, a few other black and white cruisers pulled onto the block. Four uniformed officers took him off of their hands.
         "This the guy that smoked your car?" An officer asked. Anna had just caught up with Zak. Her lungs were hurting from the run through cold air. She was too busy trying to thaw her lungs and Zak was too busy with paperwork for suspect handoff to see that the lighter fluid was pooling past the flaming pumpkin on the ground. The liquid slowly crept under a dumpster filled with cardboard and spoiled food as the officers communicated the nights events.

         "So what happened? What's your name, son?" A uniformed officer asked.
         "Lemar Burden," the young boy said. ".. Pig."
         Zak smiled and even Anna had to grin a slight bit as Zak turned to the kid.
         "Your last name is Burden? Seriously?!" Zak said. "How convenient, because -- YOU ARE."
         "You best back the fuck off, man..." The small kid said. Luckily for Zak, there was no way that the kid could actually get into his face. It would be like a Japanese man attempting to have a face to face with Godzilla and Zak could smell his foul breath perfectly fine from his vantage point three feet above him.
         "You can't be serious... I do know one thing though! You have the right to remain silent!" As he said it, the dumpster behind him lit up in flames. "... You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one --." Zak felt a comfortable warmth on his back followed by a wave of pungent stench. All of the police officers ran for the dumpster in an attempt to put out the flames but all that did was take the dumpster of of it's wheel locks.

         Anna watched as a flaming dumpster rolled down an alleyway and onto Williams Street. Williams street was a unique street in the Bronx because it had a slight incline; it was perfect for a flaming dumpster on wheels to gain momentum. Anna watched over rooftops as a glowing smoke trail followed by a mixture of laughs and screams.
         "I'm borrowing your cruiser officer!" She jumped in and grabbed the microphone. "Zak!" She yelled through the speakers of the police vehicle.
         "This is bullshit!" Zak yelled as he jumped in and slammed the door. The police cruisers wheels spun and two officers pulled the flaming pumpkin bandit out of the way as the cop car rocketed down the alley following the pungent smoke trail of burnt cardboard and bad leftovers. The cruiser did a side-slide on Williams street from the alley and the engine growled as the sirens whaled. Trick-or-treaters and onlookers watched in shock as they witnessed a police car chasing after the flaming receptacle in an effort to catch up with it.

         "Halloween..." Anna shook her head in disbelief. "It seems to get worse every year!"

         Zak held onto the dash of the car as they made a move for the speeding dumpster. Flaming banana peals and leftover spaghetti lambasted the glass in front of them to the point where Anna had to use the windshield washing function on the cruiser. The thoughtful action did little to get what caked onto the windshield off, but it was enough for Zak to see the used contraception item that was now the new hood ornament.
         "This is fucked up... This is fucked up..." Zaks eyes widened as he watched trash build on their hood. "I'll never complain about a flaming pumpkin again, just as long as I don't have to deal with this shit."
         "Shut up and help me!" Anna said. "Get in the back and reach for the wheel locks on that dumpster!" She yelled.
         "Anna! It's a police-vehicle! I can't get into the back seat!" Zak yelled over the siren and pounded his fist against the Plexiglas barrier behind her head for emphasis.
         "Get in the drivers seat!" Anna yelled.
         "How the hell you expect I do that?!"
         Anna pulled up toward the steering wheel and undid her seatbelt. "Slide under me!"
         "Okay. I take it back. This is a good day."
         "I'm going to beat the shit out of you!" Anna yelled while concentrating on rolling parallel to the flaming road hazard.

         Anna looked ahead of her while Zak put his hands on her butt to lift her up more. Anna sat down in his lap while Zak grabbed the steering wheel. He had an ear to ear grin while Anna's eyes widened at something she felt. She elbowed him in his ribs and the police car slammed into the dumpster.
         "Oh shit!" Zak yelled.
         "That's your fault!" Anna yelled over the siren as she grabbed the shotgun from the middle divider.
         "What the hell are you doing?!" Zak yelled.
         "Just keep the car straight!" Anna leaned out of the window. The forty mile an hour winds blasted her blond hair into the black smoke trail as she leaned out, aiming the butt of the rifle on the wheel-locks. She slammed the butt of the rifle into the bar near the bottom of the dumpster and it suddenly toppled over onto their car. Zak pulled her in before the ceiling of the vehicle started to cave in.



         

Chapter Two
         Rolling Arson

         Chrissy Richards was responding to what the dispatcher described as a rolling arson. Chrissy hid her cell phone under the middle console of her department issued Dodge Charger as she waited at the light. What was a rolling arson? She looked around as she heard the sounds of a siren getting louder and louder. She looked around to make sure that there wasn’t another officer responding to this mysterious rolling arson that she wasn’t seeing. It was then that a brilliant light illuminated her freckled features. She pulled the brown hair out of her eyes just to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing.

         – that was, a flaming garbage bin on-top of a Crown Victoria police cruiser that scorched past the intersection with a pair of feminine jean-clad legs kicking out of the drivers side window. The young detective swallowed hard and blinked a few times as a horrid stench poured into the vehicle from her car’s heater. Chrissy put her fingers to her nose and clenched her nostrils shut as she shook her head and made a wheezing sound. The police cruiser managed to stop just short of the end of the intersection just before their light turned red. Chrissy’s police training kicked in and she seemed to have knocked herself out of a daze. She flipped her blue and red light-bar in the on position and pulled her vehicle next to the police vehicle which was now burning with the rest of the trash.

         The thirty-five year old detective held her left hand in front of her face to protect her eyes from the heat of the fire while she grabbed the first hand that came out of the crushed cruiser with the other. Her expression narrowed as she realized who she was pulling out of the vehicle. It was a near-seven-foot black man with a badge. There was only one of those people in NYC and she knew that this was not good. Zak leaned into the wreck and pulled Anna out. Chrissy noticed the shotgun in her hands and decided that it would be best for her to leave.

         “You!” Anna coughed as the fire roared behind them. Chrissy walked backwards and held her hands in front of her while Zak pulled Anna out of the car. At the moment, they were more interested in getting away from the police vehicle before it became totally engulfed in flames to care who tried to come to their rescue. They ran to Chrissy’s car for cover just in time before the flames made it to the gas tank.

         A mushroom cloud of trash exploded into the air and rained down all around them as the police car exploded. Anna, Chrissy, and Zak peaked over the Dodge Charger. Everything from leftover pizza to rubber dogshit floated all over the place.
         “Well, at least noone was hurt.” Anna said.
         “What the fuck just happened?” Chrissy asked.
         “The shit hit the fan.” Zak answered.


         

Chapter Three

         
         Jordan shocked Alec Winters when she stepped off of the bus. Alec was a fifty year old school teacher from lower Manhattan. He had dyed brown hair and was slightly on the heavy-set side. He shuffled all that weight to his spine as he saw a young pale girl wearing a skin tight black suit latex suit with temp-sprayed black hair, brilliant blue eyes, and fangs that looked so realistic that they probably cost a fortune. She also looked a bit too revealing to be comfortable. Jordan had a large bag full of candy and a black backpack. She handed the candy to Alec and waved with her free hand - the other held the backpack tightly over her shoulder.
         “Hi, I’m Jordan.” The girl said.
         “I’m Alec. It’s very nice to finally meet you. I spoke with your mother on the phone. She said that she was busy with something job related but trusted your judgement. I’m glad she would let you meet us. Gina is still grounded but we’re letting her have Halloween off. Thank you for doing what you did.”

         Gina was dressed as a witch, complete with broom and pointy hat that bent at the ceiling of the car. She looked like a girl out of the Harry Potter series. She smiled as Jordan opened the back door and jumped in. She put her backpack in the floorboard and hugged Gina as her father started on their trip to the nearest public parking to Central Park. An older woman turned around, she, too, seemed to be in her late forties to early fifties with greying hair, and a welcoming smile.
         “It’s nice to meet you. You look like a real vampire!”
         “Thanks,” Jordan said. “I thought it was fitting.”
         “I’m Patricia by the way. Gina really wanted you to come. I’m so happy you could come along for the ride.”
         “It’s hard enough to find good people for our daughter to hang out with. That was very nice of you to stick around long enough for her to get help. How much did that cell phone cost? I would like to pay your parents back if they were the ones that gave her that.” Alec said.
         Jordan wasn’t sure what to say because Gina had probably said a few things about what happened that weren’t necessarily true and she might have been grateful for that. She looked to Gina and gave her a smile.
         “She can have it. It’s okay.”
         “I’d rather not have her with a cell phone other than for calling us, but I’ll think about it.” Alec said as he concentrated on the road. They pulled into the parking system near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As they got out, there were immense structures put up where people could buy Halloween memorabilia, costumes, and New York trinkets. Jordan’s small mouth opened as wide as it could. Her fangs suddenly retracted now that she didn’t have her mind on them. What she didn’t notice was that Gina had been watching the whole time. She flinched and her eyes went wide when she witnessed her teeth go back to normal on their own. Jordan knew at that moment that she had been witnessed by a mortal. She did not have the immortal handbook on what to do with mortals that see you doing immortal things. She would have to ask Nero for that, she thought.
         “What was that?” Gina asked.
         “Oh, they’re the new thing I picked up from the Rat-Bastard shop in lower manhattan... They extend and retract. It’s really good for when you want to be able to talk because it doesn’t lisp your speech or anything!” Although it really helps me lie through my teeth, she thought as she said it.
         “Oh...” The redheaded witch said. She placed her pointed hat on-top of her head while Jordan picked her backpack up and strapped it over her shoulders. It pushed down on the cape so it really looked strange for her to have it on when she was supposed to portray something along the lines of one of Dracula’s wives, but she needed to keep the backpack close to her just in case she needed a pack of blood to get to throughout the night. It was her first time being driven to another place and she wanted to make sure that she was prepared for anything. The nights usually hadn’t gone the way she ever planned them to go ever since she moved to the city to stay with her mother.
         “Can we go to the trick-or-treat together?” Gina hopped up and down in front of her mother. Jordan could see that her mother was probably more accepting to certain things than her father since she ran toward her instead. The mother looked to the father and with a reluctant nod, they were set free.
         “Don’t go beyond the condoned off areas okay?” Alec pointed off toward where the woods started and Jordan could see the tapered off area where all of the kids could run around and have fun. Jordan nodded to them and chased after Gina.




                   

* 5th Precinct *

         Anna had a black eye, Zak had a splash of something foul on his shirt and tie, and they were both equally capable of signing up for the ‘I just got blown up’ costume contest. On the other side of a desk that looked like it was in serious need of being thrown into the flaming dumpster that the two police officers stopped in the streets, Tom sat scratching his grey-head. He looked them over. He wasn’t angry, but he was contemplating what to do with the rest of the night. There were more than exploding cars to deal with and he knew it; it was the reason Anna had a black eye and it had nothing to do with destroying three police vehicles in one night.

         “Are you two okay?” Tom asked. It wasn’t the first time he asked.
         “Yeah.. So far.” Zak said.
         Anna’s foot was still shaking she was obviously pissed off. Pissed off was actually an understatement. She had just gotten into a fist fight with Detective Chrissy Richards that didn’t end until the fire department and four other police officers could pull them apart.
         “Anna, you haven’t said anything since you came in here. I’m not too mad about the cars. You two just boosted funding for the department by a hundred thousand dollars out of necessity. I just need to make sure you aren’t going to get into any more fights with that woman from your old precinct anymore.”
         Anna blinked and looked to Tom. She was beginning to get the idea that this man was a nice guy.
         “Sorry, sir.”
         “I know the history behind her and since she wasn’t charged with anything, there is nothing we can do. You’re lucky she didn’t press charges.” Tom leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with the palms of his hands. His eyes then trailed from Anna to Zak, and then back again.
         “Which one of you was driving the car when it got destroyed?”
         “Which one?” Zak asked.
         “That’s what I’m asking,” Tom said.
         “Yes, but which one?” Anna asked.
         “Are you fucking with me? I’ve been very nice.” Tom leaned forward.
         “No, which one of the cars are you talking about, we destroyed three of them.” Zak simplified.
         “I drove the first one,” Zak said.
         “Second.” Anna added.
         “... and of course, Detective Richards destroyed her own?” Tom made sure to verify.
         “Sort of. Anna told me not to tell Chrissy that a flaming piece of cardboard landed in her passenger seat.” Anna shot a look to Zak as he said it. Tom tried to hold back a smile. “What?! I was going to tell her. Well -- No, I wasn’t.” Zak leaned back in his chair and relaxed his shoulders as he said it. He let out a comfortable exhale; he obviously felt very pleased with himself and it helped Anna relax too, because she wasn’t going to have to beat the crap out of him for acting self righteous.

         A pair of keys flew through the air in Zak’s general direction. It surprised him enough that only his chest caught the keys.
         “What’s this?”
         “What kind of a detective did they hire? Those are keys to your new car. Please try and keep it intact for a few months before destroying it.” Tom said. Anna leaned back in her chair and looked at Zak a moment. Her jaw slowly got closer to the floor as she returned her gaze to Tom. She double checked as if checking to see if that was really what she saw just happen.
         “You’re giving him the keys?! I’m the senior detective.” Anna said.
         “The senior detective that just punched another detective in the face. Your car wasn’t totaled. It just needs the windshield replaced and a paint job. Zak was in need of a car the moment he got promoted.”
         Zak jingled the keys at Anna and gave her a slight smile.
         “We’ll talk about this later. For now, we need you out on the streets as soon as possible. Take a shower and I’ll get you the first homicide that comes our way tonight. It’ll keep that car of yours in working order.”
         “There are no homicides in this district for us to investigate?” Anna raised an eyebrow at Tom. The man shook his head and leaned forward over his desk.
         “You two detectives are in some way responsible for taking down two organized crimes in this city already. Your last unsolved case was the ‘Rooftop Murders’ and you’ve been on a winning streak ever since. Granted, they are not homicides, but you two are building a reputation. If you keep it up, they’re going to have to promote you two by the end of the year.” Tom explained.

         “Hell yeah, captain! Detective second-grade Zak Jones!” Zak slammed his fist on Toms desk and nodded with renewed invigoration. Tom smiled and looked to Anna.
         “I know you’re thinking it. One day you’ll be a first-rate detective in some Manhattan high-rise and I’ll be stuck here trying to figure out what to do with all the cars you’ve wrecked.” Tom raised his arms away. “Get out of here.”
         “Where is the car parked?” Zak asked.
         “On the other side of the street, in front of the video games shop.” Tom said.
         “Thank you, captain.” Anna nodded and walked behind Zak. As Zak left the room, Tom stopped Anna with some last words.
         “Seriously, Anna. I know you want to get back at Chrissy for what she did. She’s going to make some mistakes on her own if you leave her be. People like that don’t stay clean for long.” Tom said.
         “Yeah.” Anna agreed.  “Now that she knows I’m still in the city working the 5th Precinct, I imagine things are going to get really interesting.” Anna continued out of the room.


         Zak screamed out loud in a victory yell as he approached the car and unlocked it. Fresh car smell engulfed him as the door unsealed and popped open. He could hear the brand new rubber lining around the door peel away as the vehicle opened up to reveal light grey cushioned seats, surrounded by other brand new trinkets all exclusive to law enforcement.
         “Ooooh shit!” Zak said to himself as he smiled into the open door. He leaned in and looked closer. Anna opened the passenger side door.
         “How did you get so lucky?” Anna asked.
         “I don’t know, but when you get your car back, can we take mine?” Zak asked. Anna looked at him through the interior of the car and grinned. She nodded and Zak almost did one of the victory dances that Jordan had taught him on the court but he stopped himself. The other police officers on the street paused to take a look at the new vehicle a moment whenever they got a chance too. Being from a very poor precinct, they had not seen anything other than hand-me-down’s for a decade.

         Zak tapped a button and the engine turned on instantly. He emitted a few pleaurable curses to himself ad he put the vehicle in gear and rolled out onto Elizabeth street. Anna found it almost sickening how much he loved the car. The sight of Zak's enjoyment calmed her down from her general feelings of the night so far as they stuck close to home and patrolled Chinatown.

         "We'll stick to our section and look over the Chinese until someone kills someone. What you think? Plan?" Zak asked.
         Anna closed her eyes a moment and nodded. She too, was enjoying the feeling of factory fresh seats.
         "Yeah. That's the best plan I've heard all night." Anna said.
         "What's Jordan up to?"
         "Trick or treating as a Vampire." Anna smiled but kept her eyes closed. Even that gave Zak a bit of a chuckle as he watched the happenings of Halloween around them.
         "Are you taking it okay?"
         "It's actually kind of nice knowing that I can leave home and not have to worry about her. The thought that she will live forever, too; knowing she will always be safe. I've given it plenty of thought and think that there could be something to it." Anna opened her eyes and looked out the window as the streets passed by. "... But Chrissy... I've got to do something about her."
         "We could shoot her," Zak recommended.
         "You're joking, right?" Anna asked.
         "... In the leg?"

         Anna sighed and pulled her department issued 9mm Glock out of her holster to make sure that a round was chambered. She then started to laugh. She was thankful that Zak was around to make her feel better about things.
         "Jordan said that if she drained someone dry, they turn to dust." She added.
         Zak raised an eyebrow and scratched his bald head.
         "You thinkin bout having your daughter bust a cap in her?" Zak's eyes widened.
         "No... Just, wishful thinking." She said as she holstered her gun and snapped it in.


         "Why won't you eat anything?" Gina asked as she sipped on a soda. Jordan sighed and hissed through her fangs. It was an expression of exasperation to the many questions that her family had asked her after going through a Halloween night-picnic without eating a crumb. She didn't intend for her expression to scare the shit out of her friend, but it did by accident. Jordan tried not to pout when Gina vanished to go cry to her parents.
         "I didn't mean to... I just..." She yelled but Gina wasn't listening. Jordan found that it was going to be hard being dead sometimes. She felt a tap at her shoulders and turned to be face-to-face with another Vampire, or, at least, someone that looked like a  Vampire from the 18th Century.
         "Wow! Where did you get those fangs!" The kid asked. He was a little older than her but Jordan felt her heart beat faster when she laid eyes on him. He had short, dark hair, dark brown eyes, and the rest of him was a mystery to her because he had a lot of face paint on that obscured his looks but she had already decided he was cute.
         “Oh, they were.. Custom made,” Jordan said.
         “I’m Josh.”
         “Jordan,” She greeted in return. “I’m with a friend right now but – number swap?”
         Jordan smiled.
         There was a moment of silence as they looked one-another over. He handed her a piece of paper with a phone number, and a Facebook account URL in it. She smiled and held it to her chest. Alec was quick to rush over and confront the cute boy dressed as a Vampire.
         "Why did you scare Gina like that?" Alec asked.
         "I didn't mean to. I was getting into the part and when I hissed it scared her. I tried to call her back but she ran off. I'm so sorry!" Jordan knew that she would probably be able to reason with Alec and let him understand. Jordan knew that having younger friends, at her age, could cause the misunderstandings that just happened and she was very honest and forthcoming with her apology.
         "Ah, I see..." Alec clearly understood. "Well, she's calmed down a bit. You can apologize to her, come on."
         "I am so sorry."
         "I know," Alec said. He turned his head defensively to the other kid. "Who are you?"
         "Just leaving." He winked to Jordan and made her blush. Alec caught that and pulled Jordan away like a proper parent. He then turned to Jordan as he walked her away from the other boy.
         "I know that it's probably okay by your parents but I have to be cautious. I don't want you to see me as a bad guy but it would be bad of me to let you fraternize with other boys without knowing how your parents feel about it."
         Jordan smiled and nodded. She wouldn't really let him know that she already got all the information off of him to chat with him for as long as she wanted.
         "Okay," she said while inputting his contact information into her smart-phone. By the time she meet back with Jordan, they were well into their first conversation. Gina was waiting for her by the Arcade that was set up next to the picnic grounds. Jordan gave her a kind smile and apologized. Now that she had calmed down, it only took a few minutes to explain that she didn't do what she did to scare here. Gina was surprisingly receptive to her apology and her explanation; she didn't bother to ask Jordan how she could get so scary. Jordan suddenly had an idea as she watched the 2011 Halloween Sales Booth. The vampire girl happily hopped over to the booth the moment Gina was looking away and she bought herself a cup labeled Central Park Halloscream 2011. Quickly she reached into her backpack and pulled a blood-bag out of it. She threw the bag into the trash can after squeezing the contents into the cup and closed the lid. It would at least keep Gina's family off of her about not drinking anything.


         "Strange kid, isn't she?" Alec asked Gina as she hugged him. Gina nodded.
         "I like her but - strange, yeah!" The red headed girl shrugged her shoulders as she felt a tingle crawl up her spine.
         "At least she's drinking something," Alec commented silently before Jordan was in what they assumed was hearing distance. Jordan of course, heard the comment, including the comment about being strange. She played it off as she approached.
         "I wanted to get a drink! This has been such a fun night!" She smiled and bounced happily. "Jungle gym? Haunted house?! What next?!" Jordan jumped up and down faster.

         "It's getting on ten o'clock..." Alec said. Jordan was about to protest but she remembered that ten was pretty late for a mortal. She nodded as if she was just sad about it.
         "Thank you for taking us to the Screamfest." Jordan said politely.


         Jordan was dropped off at eleven. She waved goodbye to Gina while wondering what to do with the rest of her night. She still had six safe hours to roam around the city. With the Sanctum gone, she thought that maybe Pedro would let her into his club. She decided to go upstairs and check in just in case Anna was home on break. That was mostly wishful thinking, but dead or not, she was still the same hopeful kid that she always was. She had thoughts about asking if Zak could get off work early so that they could play a few rounds of basketball together. She texted Josh on her phone to see what he was doing while the elevator made it to the 18th floor. The doors opened and Jordan instantly backed against the wall of the elevator in horror as the doors opened. It was Chrissy, with a man that had familiar eyes. He was tall, dark haired, in his forties, with dragon-eye contacts. She breathed in sharply.
         "Chrissy?!" She pulled her phone out but Chrissy's partner snatched it out of her hand.
         "We were wondering what happened to you." She said. "We wanted to make sure you weren't going to do anything stupid."
         "We were concerned that you still might have bad memories about what happened. We don't want you to have to tell anyone about it." The man said.
         "I just want to be left alone! Please!" Jordan started to cry. "Leave me alone!" She screamed. Chrissy nodded to her friend and he pulled out a pistol with a silencer on it. Jordan felt four familiar stings as bullets ripped through her body. She played dead and they caught what they thought was her corpse.
         Chrissy began to sob as Jordan lay limp in her arms.
         "Don't let her bleed on you. Get to to the apartment before anyone notices." The dragon-eyed man demanded.
         "Oh my god..." Chrissy cried. "What have I done..."
         Jordan heard a loud slapping sound as the dragon-eyed man told her to keep calm and in control. Jordan held her breath so that she wouldn't scream because the man was holding her arm so tight that it would have bruised her if she were human. She felt a pair of hands searching through her bag, and luckily they found her keys before the realized she still had a pack of blood in there. She heard the doorknob open and they threw her in and locked the door from the inside. Dropping the keys on her, they closed the door. Jordan got too her knees the moment the door slammed shut. She was shaken and she whimpered when he realized she was all alone. She picked up the phone that was dropped on the floor next to her and dialed her mothers number.

         It rang, and rang -- no answer. She curled her legs up to her chest and began to cry. Due to the blood she drank earlier, she healed quickly but it left her hungry now that her body had to react to the bullets. On the carpet below her were the rounds that were fired into her from the mans gun. She picked the pieces of metal that her body had rejected before healing and looked them over. Even though she was more-or-less immortal, she couldn't help but feel unwanted. She loved Chrissy and what she didn't understand was why she tried to kill her again; why someone that used to care about her wanted to throw her out like trash. She thought about what the man had said, about how they didn't want her to bring up bad memories. It didn't' make sense to her at first but she was a smart girl. Her eyes seemed to flicker as she pieced together the hard-hitting puzzle. It must have been how Chrissy didn't want to go to jail for the things that she had done.


         Jordan wondered if her mother was next on the list and the thought terrified her. She tried calling her mother again and there was no answer. She closed her facebook application and opened up a new application that her mother demanded that she have on her phone; it was the family locator application. Jordan was suddenly surprised that her mother was not too far away from the house. Springing into action, she tore off her cape and ran out the door. Jordan now looked like a bullet riddled spandex-clad super hero. She fit the part even better as she launched herself off of the roof. The dark miniature figure blasted from one rooftop to the next, landing on various different things, taking out several air conditioning units on the way. She made sure to keep her cell phone from harm by protecting it with her body as she destroyed hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of rooftop equipment in a single bound. Five minutes, and several destroyed air conditioning units later, Jordan found herself on top of the blip on her phone. The girl walked to the edge of the rooftop and observed the streets below. She knew what her mother’s car looked like and it didn’t seem to be down there but she knew a police issued Dodge Charger when she saw one. Jordan ran to the rooftop access and tried the door but it was locked. Jordan kicked the door the way she had seen doors kicked in on television shows. It was then that she realized that if there were ever a sport for door kicking, she would be a major league door kicker champion.

         Jordan peaked over the railing of the staircase with eyes wide as she heard the loud clashing of a door on it’s way to the ground floor of a sixteen story building. With a loud metallic slap, it hit ground floor after careening off many stairwell handrails.
         “Oooh... Oops.” She whispered. She took a moment to realize what she had done and then shuffled down the stairs. She had no idea what floor of this large building her mother was in, but she certainly knew where she was parked.
         
         Frank and Julio had both been lobby guards for “Building 33" for over two years. This was the first time that they had seen a girl in a ripped up spandex outfit spending time in their lobby. Frank, the fifty-five year old man with a low tolerance for stress and confrontation,  sighed and hoped that she wouldn’t stay long. Julio on the other hand, the young twenty year old with dreams of acceptance into the NYPD on the other hand nudged his partner and nodded to the young girl.
         “I’ve never seen her before,” Julio whispered.
         “Just leave her be, she’s – probably just waiting for someone. It’s almost ten thirty. A night full of trick-or-treating with family probably brought her here to a safe place with upstanding guards like you to protect her from the city is probably why she was here. Relax... Her folks will probably be by to pick her up in a minute.” Frank said.
         Julio looked over at her. She looked like she had bullet holes in the front of her outfit, and her back was stained with what looked like roofing tar and slashes. Her bare shoulder was exposed along with part of her lower back that he could have seen as an inappropriate display of a person’s body. When the girl finally sat down, the outfit ripped more and exposed most of her back, but thankfully, not any far lower. Jordan sat flat against the lobby sofa when she realized what had happened. She kept an eye on the police vehicle out front to make sure that it was still there every so often.

         Jordan could hear every word that Julio and Frank were saying as they whispered to one-another. They were curious about where she came from, too. It made her wonder if she should have hidden the door that she kicked in after she walked to the bottom of the sixteen floors. It then occurred to her that she pretty much had nothing to worry about since nobody in their right mind would believe that a thirteen year old kicked a metal roof-access door in with their foot.

         “Excuse me, girl?” Julio’s voice echoed through the lobby. Jordan turned her head and looked at the man. “What are you doing here?”
         “I’m waiting for my mom to pick me up.” Jordan said.
         Just then, a tall black man yelled through the lobby.
         “Jordan?!” Zak asked. “What are you doing here?! And What the hell?”
         Jordan jumped from the sofa and hugged Zak. He looked down past her shoulders to see that she was either attacked by a Gorn from Star Trek, or she had been rooftop hopping.
         “Chrissy came after me!” Jordan began to cry. “I – came home and she was... She was waiting for me with one of the guys that told me they would shoot her when they first took me.” She sobbed.
         “Bitch...” Zak whispered under his breath. He held Jordan tight and looked protectively out the lobby window.
         “What?” She asked as she sniffled.
         “Not you.. Chrissy. Come on. Let’s get you in the car. Your mom’s resolving a domestic dispute a few floors up. She’ll be down.
         “Excuse me sir! You can’t leave with her,” Julio said. This time Frank nodded and put his hand on his weapon – a flashlight.
         “Nigga please...” Zak pulled his jacket back to reveal his detectives badge. Frank dropped the flashlight and Julio instantly started blasting off about how he wanted to be a cop. Zak was too enraged about Chrissy to give a care about the raving of a flashlight-cop as he placed Jordan in the back of the police cruiser. Zak tapped a button on his radio.
         “Anna, get down here. It’s urgent.” Zak said.
         Jordan cried harder and reached for Zak. He reached out and held her while he waited for her mother to come down. It took a moment but a call came back over the radio. The sounds of pots, pans, and various other kitchen utensils being thrown at a multitude of surfaces, including surfaces in Anna’s general direction could be heard in the background.
         “I need you to get up here actually! It’s fucking urgent!”
         Jordan heard the fear in her mother’s voice during the reply. Her eyes went wide and she pushed her fears aside as she moved to get out of the car.
         “On my way!” Zak said. He let go of the microphone and pushed Jordan in the car. “I got this. You stay here.”
         “No! I’m going with you!” Jordan protested.
         Zak closed the door on her. Jordan tried to open the door but they were locked shut. Zak’s eyes widened as he emphasized.
         “No.. You are not!”
         Jordan’s eyebrows dipped as she watched Zak run back into the building. To her, she had only a few choices as Zak ran away. Jordan weighed the choices as carefully as any normal thirteen year old girl would – that being, the option of actually doing what you’re told not one of them and swiftly weighing the options of going to mist and losing her clothing, versus kicking the door out of a brand new Dodge Charger in a valiant effort to help her mother. Too many bad things have happened to her being naked since becoming a Vampire and that included dying naked.

         Easy choice...

         Julio and Frank watched as the near seven foot tall black man rocketed into the elevator. As the elevator doors closed, there was a sudden banging sound, followed by that girl again. The girl in shredded clothing stopped at the elevator just long enough to see which floor Zak got onto and she ran back into the stairwell where they had first seen her emerge from.


         Zak got off on the fifth floor and was to Anna’s aid the moment he re-entered the apartment. Zak found Anna crouched down behind a sofa. Stuck in the sofa were five knives, nine of which were on the ground next to a multitude of plastic-ware, pans, and can openers. Behind Anna on the other side of the sofa was a scrawny man with glasses, and a cut arm. Anna had a bruised cheekbone and was wielding a can of mace with her other hand. Zak was on the other side of the kitchen counter, the offending suspect, a young redheaded housewife with an unusually long neck and extremely slender body, kept launching things from the kitchen. Anna peaked over the sofa again to see Zak just underneath the kitchen counter with his Taser at the ready. A flying toaster passed over Anna’s head and shattered the glass table in the living room. Anna ducked again as the woman’s husband she was trying to protect gasped in horror.
         “Sarah! Don’t make this worse! It’s a restraining order! Not the end of the world! I won’t even press charges against you for striking a police officer if you just stop right now!” Anna yelled.

         “Restraining order?! I’ll show you a fucking restraining order!” Anna felt the distinctive thump of a toaster oven as it hit the plasma TV behind her, bounced off, and it her in the leg. “Can’t you see this is all his fault! He said I was crazy! Do I look crazy to you?! NO! I’m innocent! He dumped me... ME!” She screamed. Anna poked her head up at the wrong time as a stove burner was flung her way. She closed her eyes in reflex just before it hit her face. She waited for the pain but it never came. She opened her eyes to see her daughter with the burner plate in her hand; she had caught it two inches before it hit her face.
         “You’re a bitch,” Jordan said accusingly as she held the burner in her hand. Sarah the disgruntled wife stood there with almost the same look on her face as Anna because what she had seen almost proved to her that she was in fact, crazy.
         “Where did you...”
         Zak suddenly popped out from behind the counter and zapped her with the taser before she could throw anything else. Anna watched as Sarah the disgruntled housewife dropped two pots to the floor just before she fell over backwards. For good measure Jordan tossed the burner over the counter after the redhead dropped.
         Anna helped Scott, the victimized husband to his feet. It wasn’t often that it was the wife that was the offending asshole, but this was one of those rare cases.
         “What are you doing here?!” Anna asked.
         “In a word... Chrissy.” Jordan pointed to the bullet holes. Anna let go of Scott before he could stabilize himself and he fell to the floor as she walked around the knife-impaled sofa, kicking several pans and the microwave out of the way. “What?!” Anna’s face turned red with anger.
         “Perhaps this is a conversation for another time!” Zak yelled from behind the kitchen as he cuffed Sara and helped her to her feet.



         

Chapter Four
         Grounded

         “But mom...” Jordan pouted. “It’s Halloween night!”
         “Doesn’t matter, you’re grounded.” Anna said.
         “Damn right! DAMN right!” Zak added. He still held Sarah in an arm lock while they waited for another cruiser to take Sarah to holding for the night.
         “I only kicked out the window! I was going to do the whole door!” Jordan said it like it was the perfect end-all explanation for why she shouldn’t be grounded.
         “Oh?! It’s MY fault now?! Ohhh shit... Oh, shit...” Zak said sarcastically.
         “Go home... NOW! I’ll deal with Chrissy.”
         Jordan reached into the car to grab her phone but Anna slapped her hand.
         “No phone privileges. Just go home. If I call the house number for the rest of the night, you better pick up.”
         “It was just a window...”
         “HOME...” Zak yelled. “Now!”
         Jordan sighed and suddenly there was an explosion of mist. Sarah watched as Jordan vanished leaving only a mountain of temporary black hair spray particles, her clothes, and a pair of sneakers behind. Sarah tried to make sense of it all but her eyes crawled up to the top of her eyelids and she fell backward against Zak. Anna turned to Zak to make sure that he had her as she turned to the mist.
         “That’s an extra night! You’re not getting off that easily!” Anna yelled into the fog that slowly crept around the block to Anna’s apartment.





         

Chapter Five
         Loose Ends

         Chrissy walked into the police station in downtown Manhattan after the drive from West End Avenue. She had a perfect system set up and that was why she knew that nothing bad would happen to her. She had the evidence officer paid off too, which meant that with weapons supposedly never logged out of the evidence room, they would not be tested for the weapons that killed someone after they were cataloged before the crime. Chrissy laid the gun on the table in front of the evidence cage with a stack of 20 hundred dollar bills next to it. She was saddened by what she had to do. She had known Anna for five years and she took no pleasure in killing her daughter. In her mind, it was the only way to be safe and if that meant making an enemy out of a woman she considered a friend for half a decade, then money would buy better friends anyway. As she walked through the offices on her way back out the door to patrol the Halloween crowd, she caught the sideways long glances and the quietness. No matter how much she got away with officially, she knew it was time to move to a place where people would assume her to be the innocent young detective that this police department once did before some mob boss screwed up everything for her. She hoped that by shooting Jordan, she would have proved her worth to the new mob family in town.
         Ever since the Disoto family’s decline, the Grimaldi crime family picked up the slack along with all of the workers left behind in the DiSoto’s demise. Chrissy walked through the offices and back out onto the street. When she got into the car, there was a person waiting for her in the back seat. Chrissy started the car and a young twenty-six year old Italian girl popped up.
         “My father requests you check on the mother.”
         Chrissy jumped when the girl with an Italian accent suddenly whispered in her ear.
         “I already took care of the daughter. She’s the only eye-witness to the kidnaping.” She said.
         “You could easily make it look like self defense when she comes looking for you.”
         Angelica was a girl that Chrissy wished she never met. She was a beautiful young woman but she looked as if she could really cause trouble on a universal scale if she crossed her. Chrissy nodded.
         “What if she doesn’t come after me?”
         “She will.”
         Chrissy heard the back door open and shut.


         Jordan learned something new about turning to mist that she never thought about before – and that was to stay away from the smoke detectors in her condo complex. The fire alarms activated and people scurried through the thick mist on their floor. Jordan wasn’t in a state of mind to care as the mist pushed underneath the door and collected onto the other side. She also learned that she never really needed to take a bath anymore because turning to mist and recollecting got rid of any dirt, colored hair spray, or scratch that was on her. She stepped over the blood that pooled at the front door and grabbed her laptop. Once in her room she opened her closet door and found a set of clothes. Once in Jeans and a tank top, she flopped on the bed and thought about how nice it would have been if turning to mist didn’t have the side effect of being naked every time you returned to solid form. It was still Halloween night and she didn’t intend on staying grounded. Jordan felt that it just wasn’t right to be a grounded Vampire on Halloween night. She opened her laptop and signed into facebook. She clicked on Josh’s name and started chatting with him.

         Jordan McKenzie: Do you want to hang out tonight?
         Josh Avery: I tried calling you and some other girl picked up the phone.
         Jordan McKenzie: Yeah.. That was my mom. She took my phone.
         Josh Avery: I can’t go out tonight. It’s almost midnight. I live on the 5th Floor of 1 West 107th Street. But you can’t come up here without going through my parents.
         Jordan McKenzie: Let me worry about that. If I were looking up at you from the street, which window would I have to come into?
         Josh Avery: What?!
         A trip to a local night-mart, one go-phone, and a call to the phone company was all it took for Jordan to be able to have calls forwarded from her house to a phone that her mother knew nothing about. Technology was great, even better when she knew that her parents weren’t up to date on the latest tricks that a moderately wealthy Vampire daughter could pull. As a mortal, Jordan knew that she never would have done such a devious thing. Somehow, the Vampire DNA made her sneaky and with the lack of self consciousness to care how much more trouble she would be in if her mother found out about her tricks. She also picked up a new pair of sneakers since she left her last and only pair with her mother and best friend, Zak. She found that she could run through dark alleyways faster than it took the bus to get to her potential boyfriends house. She felt like Ferris Bueller on crack as she jumped over fences, dead-end alleyways, and trash bins. Even one of the homeless didn’t get a chance to ask her for change because by the time the man lifted his coffee can, she was already gone. He attributed it all to the empty liquor bottle. She found herself in a quandary now that she was at the building. There were too many people about for her to actually make it to the window. She walked around to the back of the building where nobody would see her and climbed it to the roof easily. Once there, she realized that even from the roof, someone would notice if she climbed down without using the fire-escape.

         “Crap...” She whispered to herself as she sat on the ledge of the roof and dangled her feet. She watched the people below. She even heard a man yell Don’t do it! There’s so much to live for!”
         “I’m just enjoying the view! I’m not killing myself!” She yelled from the roof. “Jeez! I’m going inside! Relax!” Jordan pulled herself off of the ledge of the roof and walked back toward the center of it. She gazed at the city skyline and her mind raced. She then had an idea. She dialed Josh’s number.
         “Hello?”
         “Hey! It’s me! Can you open your window and look up? I need you to do something for me and it’s really important.”
         “Um.. Okay.”
         Jordan peaked over the ledge of the building and saw Josh’s head poke out. He seemed confused when he saw Jordan waving at him from the roof of the building.
         “I need you to catch the phone. It’s really, really important that you do.
         “I’ll try, Jordan.”
         Jordan dropped the phone and it landed in Josh’s hands. She let out a sigh of relief. Then came the interesting part. She let out a sigh of relief. Then came the interesting part. He waited for a momnt to see what Jordan was going to do next. Suddenly, there was a tap at his shoulder. He was sure that he locked his door. He imagined his father asking him what the hell he was doing. He turned to see Jordan. Josh almost screamed and fell through the window but Jordan was quick to pull him in. She was wrapped in his bed sheets.
         "Got my phone?" Jordan asked.
         "Uh..." Josh was trying to speak. "Why are you in bed sheets? I mean, my... My beds heets?"
         "It's something I can't talk about. Want to watch a movie?" Jordan asked.
         "I um.. Well... Jordan. You have to get out of here! My dad will kill me!"
         "I'll hide if he comes in! Shh!" Jordan said.
         "No!" Demanded Josh. "Please. Can we talk online? We can meet tomorrow, with your clothes on!"
         Jordan tried not to cry.
         "You -- you don't like me?"
         "I do.. I just didn't know you'd be so naked with my parents home and all... Please? Tomorrow night? Earlier?"
         Jordan smiled and nodded. "Okay, make a parachute for my phone and drop it down to me in five minutes kay?"
         Jordan turned to mist again when he wasn't looking and rematerialized on the roof. Dressed again, she jumped off into the back alley. Once there, she ran around to the front where a cell phone flew out the window attached to a grocery store bag. Jordan looked up to say thank you but before she could open her mouth, Josh closed and locked the windows.
         Halloween was supposed to be a fun night, especially for vampires, she thought. She had never felt so rejected like this before. She sulked as she shuffled down the street with her Go-Phone. She once really liked Chrissy. In fact, she thought of her as part of the family until she betrayed them. She thought that maybe she was forced to kidnap her, but this time she was clearly in charge and was perfectly fine with killin her. Then, to top it off, she ruined it with a guy before she could even get started. She took the bus home instead of running through streets and alley's. Jordan needed time to cry and the back of a bus was the perfect way to do so in peace. 



         "We got our homicide..." Zak flipped the light bar on and swung the car around with the siren blazing. Within five minutes, they arrived at their destination. CSI Vans soon followed behind. Anna ran inside to the scene of an apartment penthouse covered in blood.
         "Oh my god..." She put her shirt over her mouth to breathe through it. The rancid stench of the slaughter tasted like metal in her mouth. Zak followed her in and instantly started cursing at the corpse in the room for making his life so putrid.

         "Jesus sodomized christ!" Zak turned around and walked back into the hallway. He tried his best not to puke but it was hard not to. What worried Anna about this was that there were two bite marks on the neck of the woman on the floor. Anna pulled her cell phone out and dialed her home number.

         "Hello?" Jordan picked up. She was glad to know that she was actually home like she told her.
         "Jordan. I have an important question to ask you."

         On the bus Jordan did her best to cup her hand over most of the receiver so that only her mouth was near her cupped hand. She didn't want the sounds of the bus to bleed through on her go-phone.
         "Yeah? What is it?"
         "Jaime said something about the group that they were a part of being taken out? The group that had laws for -- you know... Your kind?"
         Jordan nodded as she rested her head against the window. She sniffled slightly because she had been crying and didn't expect her mother to call so soon.
         "Yeah," Jordan confirmed. "It was called the Sanctum, I think. Jaime is probably going to help Margot get it back up and running or something. I haven't really talked too much to them ."
         "Do me a favor and go to the refrigerator. Nero's number is on it."
         Jordan's blue eyes widened and her nose freckles darkened as she frantically thought about what to tell her.
         "Um... Okay. Where on the fridge is it?"
         "It's right on the top freezer door. Under the magnet."
         "I -- don't see anything. Are you sure you didn't take it with you?"
         "What was that sound?" 
         Jordan's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider.
         "What sound? I didn't hear any sound."
         "I thought I heard a car horn."
         "Nope. Well, maybe. I'm really close to the window." Which wasn't far from the truth. It was a bus window, not a house window -- which was the only thing she wasn't planning on telling her about that fact.
         "We'll talk about this later. Go home, now..."
         The phone clicked and Jordan sighed. She was already hurt and she hoped that her mother would understand her need to get out of the house at night. She seemed to understand it before, but for some reason, all that changed after she kicked Zak's window out to get free of his car. She thought about it and couldn't for the life of her figure out how that could have made anyone angry.



         Pedro's club was booming and going strong even after DJ Jaime Jax took her break from the synthesizers and the microphone. Four hours had passed since the party started and Pedro was already in the middle of making out with two women at the same time. Nero was suddenly jumped by Jaime and squeezed into a hug.
         "What did you think of the performance?" She yelled over the gothic music that Pedro couldn't care too much for.
         "Anything that pisses him off makes me happy!" Nero yelled loud enough for Pedro to hear it. Pedro had his mouth full of tongue so he couldn't reply but Pedro's hand let go of a highly attractive model's bikini top to flick Pedro off. In the days past, Nero and Pedro had become good friends but no matter what, they loved to pick on one another; sadly however, the days of throwing each other in dumpsters seemed to have been over and Jaime found that to be delightful.

         A scream emanated from the crowd as the dance floor cleared out. Pedro pushed the women aside as Nero and Jaime walked over to him. As the crowd thinned out, there were two corpses on the floor with their throats cut open.
         "Oh shit..." Pedro said.
         "Call the police," Nero said.
         "Nero, look..." Jaime leaned down to one of the two corpses and turned his head so the left side of his neck was in view.
         "Oh hell..." Nero said. "Call Margot."
         "Who the fuck should we call? Margot or the police?" Pedro asked.
         "Anna, call Anna." Nero said.
         The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance. Pedro sighed and cursed to himself as the music stopped. Nero's phone rang and he picked it up.                                                  
         "Nero... Someone was bitten!" Anna yelled into the phone.
         "Same here.. Anna, we have a big problem."  Nero stood there with the telephone to his ear as the police came pouring into Pedro's club.
         "Happy Halloween..." Pedro said under his breath followed by a few curses.

         By the time the police arrived, the bodies were gone and all three Vampires had disgusted looks on their faces. They each seemed to have a literal distaste for eating after someone else; several uniformed officers surrounded the club owner, the gothic DJ, and Nero as they sent other people to look around.
         “We had a report that there was a disturbance.” The officer said.
         “You got that right!” Nero said. “A few people tried to fake dead in the club. We threw them out.”
         The police officers spent almost an hour scouring the club from top to bottom and taking interview questions before they finally left. By that time, Nero’s phone had vibrated in his pocket five times.
         “Hello?..” Nero offered a fake smile.
         “Oh really..”
         “Yes..” Nero cupped the phone and looked over to Pedro and Jaime. “... Guys... time to call Margot.”