Darkness Dominates - Chapter 21

Rosie and Pippa had spent their first night devoid of sleep. Sat up in bed, they replaced this basic necessity by staring at the ceiling and thinking. On both their minds was Katy. Pippa’s was focussed on whether or not to tell her daughter her friend had been turned. Rosie’s was on how she was going to tell her what she and Alicia had been changed into. Unfortunately, every sentence entering her head kept sounding mad. It was nearing 6am when she decided to rely on giving her visual proof. Words weren’t going to help on this occasion. Getting off her bed, she was downstairs in a second. When she entered the back room, her mum was at the dining table. She’d been seated there for the past few minutes. When Rosie sat herself down, she spied Leola’s letter. It was where a placemat usually would be found. Pippa slid it across the table towards her. She picked it up and her eyes darted left to right, and back again, as she read it. They came to a standstill when she reached the bit about Katy’s transmutation. This detail altered Rosie’s mindset in an instant.

It also changed the nature of what Rosie had to do after dark. She was now aware that it was up to her to prepare Katy and Alicia to learn of their new existence. Rosie realised she was on a similar learning curve. This realisation monopolised her thoughts as she was dropped off at school. To get her mind off it, she looked around for a familiar situation. She found one when catching sight of Mr Linfield talking to Myra. His voice was raised and he had an exasperated look on his face.

“Homework deadlines aren’t set so that pupils could ignore them, Myra!”

“No, Mr Linfield”

Her attitude was that of someone who was seldom sorry. Roger made no comment on the tone she’d used.

“I’ve a good mind to tell your mother about poor grades!”

This immediately robbed Myra of her snarky swagger. Her expression altered into one of anxiousness, which was what Mr Linfield was aiming for.

“I’ll have it done by tomorrow, Mr Linfield”

Roger knew Myra could only stomach ending up in her mum’s office so many times. He’d bet she couldn’t cope with another, and won. Myra’s mood was suddenly somewhat more obedient.

“It’ll last all of a minute” Roger said to himself. A moment passed before he saw Rosie standing around nearby.

“You weren’t ear-wigging, were you?”

“I so wasn’t, Mr Linfield. Have you seen Ali or Katy here today?”

“Alicia’s already inside”

“What about Katy?”

“Her parents are keeping her off school for a few days”

“The head’s not going to like that, Mr Linfield”

“The opposite’s true. Mrs Lonsdale and her are very good friends. She’ll be tolerant of Katy’s absence.”

“What did Katy have to say about being under ‘house arrest’?”

“She is, as you kids say, cool about it.”

Alicia patted the chair on her right, when Rosie entered the school hall. She got her hint quickly, and took that seat.

“Where’s Katy?”

Rosie told her what Mr Linfield said.

“Protective much”

“Way understandable, though, Ali – her going missing must’ve freaked her mum and dad, big time!”

Alicia’s tone suggested nothing out of the ordinary had infiltrated her mood. Rosie deduced that her friend’s mum revealing the truth wasn’t a memory that had surfaced yet. Late evening was when it was likely to pop out of its box.

Nothing about Rosie’s school day was remotely odd. There were no incidents or events that made it stand out.

The same was true about Pippa’s day, except for the afternoon’s final few hours. A press conference to officially confirm her as the new Mayor of Alvenshire was scheduled for 4.30pm. She had to spend at least two hours getting ready for that. Half that duration was spent at her desk in her current office, writing a speech. She’d made four unfinished attempts before completing it on the fifth try. The other half was devoted to learning what she’d written by heart. The press conference’s venue was in the county council HQ’s room where past ones had taken place. Pippa kept her eyes on the Scrabble stand with her name on it. She needed to know where along the rectangular table she was to be seated. When the clock in the centre of the wall above the table read half past four, the waiting journalists took their seats. Pippa saw various TV cameras around the fringes of the seated audience members.

Following what was on her one-page schedule, she gave her speech, before the questions from newspaper and TV reporters, local and national, could begin. It didn’t last for more than 15 minutes. She didn’t want to sound like she was waffling on. The speech itself mostly dealt with her vision of the county as a whole, for the next three or four years.

On the drive home, she heard an excerpt of it during a news bulletin from BBC Alvenshire’s local radio station. It was the top story, so it dominated a little over half of it. She listened to it alone. Her daughter wasn’t in the car. She’d agreed to head for the city centre, instead of waiting for a lift home.

Rosie had stuck to that decision. She’d gone to Tanaho’s with Alicia. They’d started drinking their coffees, when Alicia asked, between sips, “Have I got amnesia?” Rosie knew why she’d asked that, but pretended to be clueless.

“So don’t know what you mean, Ali!”

“I think I left something at your house, but I can’t remember anything since I was there, yesterday evening”

“Did you get one of those bangs on your head?”

Alicia took another swig, prior to answering.

“That’s the way weird part – I didn’t!”

Rosie deliberately kept silent, so her friend could carry on talking.

“I haven’t hit my head that hard since I was 13”

“Mega-ouch”

“Tell me about it, Rosie!”

The loss of memory topic soon fizzled out. Alicia suddenly had a sly look. This expression she was back to having salacious thoughts about footballers – rookie or Premiere League. Alicia listed six Ralham FC players, including Dario Sonnance, as ones she’d spend the night with. The first of them was Paul Gunn. He was the only ex-pupil who’d ended up playing for Alvenshire’s main Premier League team. Rosie latched onto why her friend repeatedly mentioned Sonnance, more than the other players.

“The Italian’s nine years older than you, Ali”

“He’s got way sexy abs, though, Rosie! I’ve cut out all the shower gel magazine ads he’s been in!”

Throughout this conversation, Rosie had been working out where to take Alicia and Katy. She’d finally thought of a suitable place, a moment later. It was the double back alley where she and her mum had fed, and killed, for the first time. Her friends’ curiosity as to why they were there was bound to be sparked. That meant she could launch into telling them about their altered existences. She came up with the perfect enticement to get them to meet her there.

“Fancy going to Jambalaya, Ali”

“Are you tripping, Rosie? We so won’t get in!”

“I can totally make sure we do”

“You can’t bring about miracles, Rosie!”

“We so won’t need any to get inside! How about it – one night of clubbing for you, me and Katy”

Hearing Rosie mention her name reminded Alicia what she’d been told before assembly began.

“Katy’s mum and dad won’t let us take her there”

“I’ll tell her to sneak out when they’re not looking! What do you say?”

Alicia only took seconds to arrive at her choice.

“Okay, Rosie, you’re on!”

She then told her where they were meeting up.

“Why there, Rosie – it’s like totally dingy!”

She’d had an explanation ready for the past few minutes, in case Alicia asked that.

“Mrs Davidson lives near there. She might drive by. If she sees us in the sreet, it’ll be a fortnight worth of detention for us! We’ll need somewhere to stay out of sight!”

Though rich with plausibility, Rosie was clueless as to whether or not this had any truth to it. Alicia wasn’t known for analysing facts such as these, and she believed her friend.

“Okay, what time are we talking, Rosie?”

“Around eight tonight, Ali”

“What about fetching Katy?”

“I’ll call round for her first. Then, we’ll meet up.”

Alicia waited until Rosie was looking in another direction. She then made a hurl face.

The subject was rapidly turned back to footballers Alicia found hot. She and Rosie spent the remainder of their time at Tanaho’s talking about their sculpted physiques.

“I’d totally go all the way with Sonnance”

Her accompanying salacious grin was quick to morph into a slight frown.

“He’s with Lady Brie, though, Rosie – major bummer!”

For the past two hours, Rosie was stuck with the mental image of Alicia having sex with Dario. It hadn’t gone when she walked up to Katy’s front door. When Rosie knocked on it, she expected either Mr or Mrs Lonsdale to open it from the inside. For the first time in their friendship, Katy did the honours.

“This is way too late for you to round, Rosie. What do you want?”

Katy sounded if her friend had somehow inconvenienced her.

“We’re going to Jambalaya”

“I’ve totally got to stop you there – ain’t going to happen tonight”

“But it’s Jambalaya – we always talked about going there when we’re old enough!”

“We’re not old enough. Besides, you and Ali talked about it – I listened! Major difference”

This front door conversation had been overheard by Mrs Lonsdale. It drew her into the corridor. She walked up behind her daughter.

“What’s going on here, Katy?” she asked.

“Just telling Rosie I can’t go out tonight”

“Katie’s right, Rosie – she’s just been through the trauma of being kidnapped! A night out isn’t a good idea, and certainly not one at that club! I’m not even happy about her going to ‘The Glass House’ – not until her abductors are behind bars.”

An anxiety bomb suddenly went off inside Rosie. Her pop culture knowledge of her kind told her it wasn’t safe for Katy’s parents to be in the house with her. There was no choice but to tell her what she was and then hypnotise her parents into forgetting what had been said. Risky as it was, she didn’t hesitate to take that course of action.

“Your kidnappers were vampires – they turned you into one”

She was about to say more, but Katy didn’t give Rosie the chance to.

“I can so do without you having a mental blow-out!” she said, giving Rosie a look of disbelief and disappointment.

Rosie blocked her attempt to close the door.

“I’m not having a mental blow-out, Katy – you have to....”

Katy pushed her friend from the doorway and shut the door quickly. Looking at the windows of the houses on either side of Katy’s home, Rosie saw they all had the lights on. Consequently, she knew her banging on Mr & Mrs Lonsdale’s front door would attract the neighbours’ attention. While she was backing away, Rosie felt the vampire inside her forcing its way out. Eager to get somewhere secluded, she hurtled to Henshaw Road’s set of alleyways at Edward Cullen speed. She entered one of the double-length ones at random, and waited for someone to come down it. To gain some control of her hunger, she took several in-and-out breaths. For five minutes, she listened to a pair of footsteps approaching and then entering the far end of the alley. She didn’t hear any other voice, or voices, so it was safe for Rosie to assume whoever was coming this way, was alone. The smell of one of Coco Chanel’s perfumes told her a female was heading this way. When she turned into the other end of the alley, Rosie made her move. Still reigning in the bulk of her hunger, she deprived the woman in question of two pints of blood. She felt a surge of pride she’d managed to take a non-fatal amount. Using her mind control ability, Rosie convinced the young woman a stray dog had done this. She even name dropped her least favourite breed of canine – Bull Terrier. The woman she’d fed from found some tissues to staunch the bleeding. Rosie stayed with her until it had stopped. The Good Samaritan act was in direct juxtaposition to the one before.

It immediately occurred to her that she’d accidentally left Alicia in the lurch. She got DCI Stoneham on the phone. It was essential that Jennifer know that Alicia was waiting for her friend to show up.

The end of Katy’s transition came minutes after Rosie had vacated the alley she was in. She was in the midst of discussing her friend’s bizarre outburst with her parents. Central to that debate was Rosie’s claim concerning her abductors.

“All the girls love a vampire” her dad said, taking into account their popularity with teenage girls.

“Don’t be glib” said his wife. “If Rosie’s having a meltdown because of her dad’s death, I don’t want Katy dragged into it!”

“So don’t know what’s going with her up there!” said Katy, pointing to the top of her head.

Suddenly, Katy heard someone say “Eastenders was pants tonight!”

Thinking there was someone in the front room, she went in there. When she opened the door, the whole room was in darkness. She closed it again and heard a second voice, responding to the previous comment. Neither that one nor the one she’d heard seconds before were recognisable to her. Still having human strength, she opened the front door, without ripping it from its hinges. Stepping outside it, she heard both voices engaged in conversation. She took just four steps and found herself six doors down in a second. The voices were clearer now – close to multiplex volume. She didn’t have time to be bewildered by this. As soon as she took a step in the opposite direction, she was back at her parents’ front door, which she’d left open. Her mum and dad were in the corridor. They were just as stunned as their daughter at how fast she’d departed and returned. It was then that her inhuman appetite was triggered, but it was twice as potent as the hunger that overcame Rosie.

The next two minutes were like an out of body experience for Katy. Her vision became feverish. She saw the terror on her parents’ faces as she bit into their necks, one-by-one. The blood that spurted out each time looked as if it was boiling. This was mainly due to the way she was visualising it. When her vision normalised, she saw her mum and dad lying on the hallway carpet. Mr Lonsdale had bled out quicker than his wife. He was dead, but Katy’s mum was still breathing. That bodily function took just seconds to cease working. The pools of blood beneath both their lifeless bodies had already mingled. It didn’t stop spreading, though. Half the carpet was now soaked with what had been in their veins. Katy then got the memory of her being turned.

The sensation felt like a rabbit-punch, delivered mentally. It was completely different to Rosie’s and Pippa’s. In it, she saw herself being turned by both the Eddington sisters, rather than just one of them. She didn’t understand the vision at all. The memory scared her so much she let out an almighty scream.

It was so piercing it attracted the attention of one of her next door neighbours. Three equally loud thumps came straight after. The voice that then yelled was muffled by the wall. To Katy, it wasn’t a barrier anymore to what was being shouted. She heard the neighbour in question bellow “If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m calling the police!” Katy had no idea whether the threat was empty or not. She didn’t really care either way. All there was to focus on was one plain, terrible truth. Her parents were dead at her hands. There was no worse sensation for her to feel than this. She closed her mum and dad’s eyes very quickly. Katy withdrew her hand just as speedily, as if she’d burned it. Not yet being able to control the pace of her movement led to her zipping into the kitchen in two seconds flat.

Like two unstable elements colliding, remorse and anger triggered Katy to trash the whole room. No kitchen cupboard or item of crockery was left undamaged. Her rage was similar to the kind that had taken hold of Pippa in ‘Red Moon’. It was ferociously unstoppable. The racket that it made prompted that irate neighbour to turn his threat into a promise. He was now shouting, louder than ever, “I’m fucking well dialling 999!”

After wrecking the entire kitchen, Katy heard the police car dispatched to this address from three blocks away. She had no rational or believable explanation to give to the constables who would be knocking on the front door. Glancing through the back room window, she saw the gate in the middle of the garden’s right-hand fence. Katy knew it opened into a series of passageways. They in turn led to a double back alley. This one had an intersection smack in the middle of it, which accommodated a side alley running through it. When she heard that marked police vehicle pull up to the kerb, Katy raced out through the back door. She was already in the alley with the intersection when the two constables knocked on the front door.

“Anyone in?” asked one of them.

The ongoing silence that question made both constables feel something was wrong here. One of them radioed in to get permission to enter the premises. At that exact same moment, Katy was looking both ways done the alley that had cut this one in half. She was busy deciding which direction to take. Whatever route she used, she couldn’t escape from the situation that remained in the house. Katy no longer had a family life. It had gone, just like that. Worse still, the sisters who’d turned her had been killed by Leola. Emily and Lynette were the only two who could’ve guided her, but they were gone. She was left without direction in her new existence; a hazardous start for any new vampire.