Everyone was Frog Fu Fighting ... Part 89

We did not know where to start. How do you even begin to search for a person who has been in hiding half of her life? 

"You are talking to yourself again."

"Not again."

I never noticed how often I talked to myself until I acquired a companion. Maybe I should talk in Russian so it doesn't seem like I am speaking nonsense.

"I have a perfect knowledge of Russian."

"Dammit."

"It's alright, I am not here to judge what you say to yourself. We should start looking for this apprentice and soon, you don't have much time."

Raven was right, we had to start our search, immediately. I decided that going to the home of Dracula. If anyone would know how to find the closest person to Dracula, that person would most likely be amongst the vampires.

Raven agreed and we ported to the vampire safe house. I was not expecting a welcoming party but I definitely did not expect to see what I did. Dead bodies covered the floor and occasional racket  came from upstairs. As we made our way up the stairs the noises grew louder.

I have not been here in a long time but I knew where that door lead to. I opened the door to Dracula's office and was stunned to see Dracula's top two officers battling in the middle of the room. Almost everything has been overturned and it seemed a small fire has made it's way from the floor to some of the books lining the walls. The officers were so preoccupied with their battle they did not notice I had entered the room.

"Raven could you do something about this?"

"Not exactly. My powers are very limited."

I pulled a sword and calmly walked up close to the battleground. Calmly pulling the sword and holding it out between the two officers made them stop mid-swing.

The first officer was the first to speak after both of them had sat down and the fire was taken care of. 

"Mr. Alex, I must apologize that you had to witness this. Things have been different here recently."

"What is the meaning of all of this? Dimitri, Vincent ... I would like for you to explain what has been going on here. Don't leave out any details, I may be in a hurry but I need your help and it seems that you may need mine."

Vincent spoke up first.

"Ever since your acquaintance took over half of the vampire army, there has been a very violent civil war. The vampires currently under the control of your friend are fighting the vampires that you chose not to control. The war has been thinning our numbers but my brethren are powerless against the will of their master."

"That does seem like something twisted he would decide to do but why would he make his vampires attack the vampires that are supposed to be under my control."

"He just has us attacking supernatural beings that are not under the control of him or his friends. It is not your fault and it is not his intention, it is just the way that things have turned out. Why have you come here to seek our help?"

"I am looking for Dracula's first apprentice."

"Why are you looking for ..... her?"

I had no choice but to show him the scrolls. The look of recognition on the faces of the officers was enough for me.

"This is why. She may be the only one who can bring back your leader."

"We wish we could help you but we just don't have that knowledge. Dracula was careful but on this topic, he was too careful."

Why Doesn't Everything Come With an Instruction Manual ... Part 88

"Don't you have connections all over the place?"


"Yes, but for some reason the underground is rather quiet."


"I was there recently and that place was deserted."


"That is definitely not good."


"What are you trying to say?"


"I'm saying that an empty underworld is the first sign on the calling of the horsemen. If we don't bring back Dracula there is no stopping this."


"Wait a second, Dracula can stop the calling of the horsemen?"


"Yes. The previous horsemen made a pact with him. He was in charge of keeping the earth is some sense of order so the horsemen didn't have to do their job."


"Why would they want to do that? Isn't destroying worlds kind of their thing?"


"I take it no one told you that being a horseman is a one time gig."


"What the hell are you talking about?"


"Wiping out a civilization is not an easy job. Each horseman puts all of his life energy into the destruction and in turn dies with the civilization. The previous horsemen didn't look forward to the void, so they found Dracula and assigned him with essentially permanent babysitting duty of the human race."


"So they essentially didn't want to do what they were created to do."


"They weren't created, but chosen. Much like you and your friends and with Dracula gone you are closer and closer to being called to complete your assigned duty."


"We were never assigned a duty."


"Not directly, but by consuming the energy of the previous horsemen, you essentially took their assignment."


"Well, shit."


"What I'm trying to say in a nutshell is that if you want to survive, you have to bring back Dracula and you have to bring him back fast. The emptiness of the underworld means that the forces of hell have been summoned to prepare earth for your coming. We do not have much time."


"Shit. Why doesn't this job come with an instruction manual or something."


"The employees don't normally get 'laid-off' so suddenly. There's an initiation period before taking a responsibility such as this."


"Dammit. Well, what are we still doing here? We have an apprentice to find."


"I need to turn the lights off first."


*Sign*

It's been quite some time, but I'm back

I haven't posted in a while, and I will have a story update tomorrow, most definitely. 
Anyway, here's a new story for you, hope you enjoy. 

This is cruel, A voice inside my head rang out. It was my voice. My voice sounded strange. This isn't right. Where are you going? What are you doing?

“You're talking to yourself again,” Alex said.

“Shit,” I paused, “I didn't even realize it.”

“I could tell, you alright?”

“Same as usual.”

“Usually you can control yourself in public, it's been getting worse.”

“I'm fine,” I lied. I knew he had some problems too, I didn't want to talk about what was on my mind. I clenched my jaw, making sure I wouldn't start talking to myself on the train again. What are you doing? We're headed home. Why? Fuck you, me, fuck, I don't know. The train stopped, the doors opened and people flooded out. The last stop before ours. Alex turned to me, getting his jacket bundled up and stood up, putting on his gloves.

“You're going to get frostbite,” he looked at my hands.

“Eh, it isn't cold enough for gloves quite yet.”

“Your fingers, we're gamers, gotta keep them fresh and working.” He turned to the doors. I sat there. You're going to go home, play some videogames and then pass out with some vicodin or klonpin. You're probably going to drink along with it so you sleep well for the few hours that you sleep before you have to wake up and go to class. Whats the point in that?

“It's life,” I said, standing up and following Alex out the doors as they opened. It was a short walk to our apartment, and Alex and I were prepared, we had cut the time on beer retrieval down by making a bottle dispenser to pop two beers out every time we opened the door. The dispenser then pops the tops off and has them conveniently placed next to the door.

We walked in, grabbed our beer, I reached in our couch and pulled out the vicodin, took two, and offered the bottle to Alex.

“I'm okay right now, maybe later,” he declined.

“Suit yourself.”

Our couch was a rather interesting piece of furniture as well. We had stacked milk crates, stuck a minifridge in the center covered everything with cushions that were essentially hinged. The minifridge opened upwards, and next to it there were pill bottles stacked up.

We sat on the couch, at opposite ends. The numerous TV's buzzed on, and the playstations turned on. I took the mouse and keyboard out of the milkcrate underneath me. I waved the mouse on the side cushion which I'd sewn a mousepad onto, and typed in the password to wake up the computer another screen was attached to. I started the music and grabbed the controller that Alex extended towards me.

“What are you gonna play?” I asked, putting on my microphone.

“Don't know yet,” he said, hooking up his mic.

“I feel like some Catherine.”

“Again?”

“It's good to reminisce.”

“You're torturing yourself.”

“I lost them both, Alex.”

“No, one is still a possibility.”

“I lost them.”

“Whatever.”

“We're just like him. We're characters being played by someone else. Our gamers have no care what happens, they have the luxury of reset. We have nothing. We feel the lows and the highs that they push us through, they don't care. They can laugh when we fuck someone, but they don't care when we get fucked over. We're entertainment to whoever's watching.”

“Depressing.”

“Very much so.”

“You need to lay off the vicodin.”

The Hunger Will Consume Us All ... Part 87

"What is all this?"

"Directions."

I was absolutely dumbstruck. I had no idea what I was looking at. I am sure Raven saw the look of pure confusion on my face and began to explain what the scrolls were all about.

"I hope you remember how old Dracula is."

"I just know hes old."

"He is old enough to .... You know what. He is extremely old. Let's just leave it at that. Anyways, Dracula was alive before the creation of a written language."

"Wait a second. He was a fucking caveman?"

"Not a caveman, just before the creation of a systematic way of writing. His village was undergoing a rough winter and the hunters have not been able to find anything for about a week. Their supplies have run out days prior and several women had died from the cold and lack of food. Dracula was one of the hunters and upon returning yet again without a catch he could no longer stand the hunger. He has been known as the first cannibal."

"Ok, so he ate some human flesh to survive. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything actually. God had only created humans not so long prior and wanted the humans to grow into perfect beings and this selfish act of self preservation angered him. In his moment of weakness and aggravation he cursed Dracula with hunger for human flesh and made him immortal so he would suffer for him mistake for eternity. The hunger would torment Dracula until he ate. Dracula tried to go as long as he could without but it only tortured him. After some time Dracula found that he did not need to eat human flesh and could just drink the blood and be sated. This discovery led Dracula to be more comfortable with his condition since he didn't need to kill people to eat, merely drink their blood. Dracula would sneak into villages at night and cut sleeping victims and drink. One night, Dracula was out feeding but when he was cutting the young girl he accidentally cut himself and slung his blood all over the girls face. Dracula didn't think much of this and left the girl after he was done. God didn't however account for this adaptation and soon found that the curse he brought upon Dracula's body had spread to the young girl in that village."

"I though he had fangs, why use a knife."

"The fangs were not given to him until this incident. God gave him fangs to save the victims of his feedings. His method of cutting the victims caused many of the wounds to get infected and many of the victims died. God wanted to prevent as many deaths as he could and gave him the fangs he is known for today."

"Why not just lift the curse?"

"No one knows. The girl with the hunger was soon excommunicated and Dracula found her. Dracula soon figured out that he spread his curse to the girl and took her under his care."

"I really just want to know what the hell these scrolls mean."

"Well, I will wrap it up. He continued to live with his unplanned apprentice. The time of the Egyptians came about and there was a sufficient language to record instructions. Dracula had tried to find ways to kill himself but had been unsuccessful. The Egyptian's art of mummification intrigued Dracula and he found that he could actually kill himself through the procedure, the only catch was bringing himself back into a different body. He studied to find a way to achieve the impossible. Dracula studied to find away a way to bring himself back to life but he did not make a breakthrough until his collaboration with Ptolemy. His breakthrough allowed Dracula to change bodies to keep up with the evolution of the human body. He chose to record the findings and directions in Egyptian hieroglyphics because he wanted to honor the Egyptians and accredit them for part of his discovery."

"Damn, I had no idea he was that old."

"He is quite possibly the oldest living persons."

"Why persons?"

"He changes his body regularly."

"Oh, right sorry, well now that we have that out of the way. Can we get on with this?"

"I would gladly move on but I do not know what the scrolls say. We never learned the language due to our isolation. The only one who knows what those scrolls say is his apprentice. We have to find her if we stand any chance of bringing him back to life."

"Any idea where we could find her."

"Well the last time we spoke with the underworld she was residing somewhere in the North Pole, although she may have moved due to all the commotion your friends have caused recently."

"Why does this always have to be so difficult, always. Anyways come on let's not waste time, we need to find this apprentice."