Esther’s Church Report

For Nikki Collins the sound of a voice has deeply disturbed her. It is the voice of a monster that haunts her dreams. The voice of a woman. A woman who murdered her and turned her into the creature of the night that she has become. A woman Nikki now knows to be somewhere in Collinsport. But this night, Nikki will be troubled by what she does not know. The close circle of friends she has grown to trust will for a moment be tested – and for a brief moment they see a hint, a slight glimpse of what Nikki might have become –

Even though it is a pleasant fall night, Nicole Collins, arising as the sunsets, had decided to drive into Collinsport tonight rather than walk. She pulls the black Ferrari into the awaiting space in front of Town Square, storefront offices of Collins Investigations. She gets out of the car and slowly saunters to the front doors as she savors the evening. It is a good night. The moon will be very visible as there are no clouds in the sky. As she enters she sees her friend and business partner, Ester Friedman at her desk.

“Good Evening Esther.”

Esther, upon seeing Nikki enter, jamming a cigarette into an ashtray with one hand and propping her head up with the other, looks up. “Hey Nik.”

“It is an absolutely wonderful evening out “ Nikki says with het soft British accented voice, “And how are things with you tonight?”

Esther, looks at Nikki, here is concern visible and Nikki doesn’t need to be a private investigator to detect that, “Tonight. Things are fine. Last night . . . well I guess Sam’ll have already tolja.

“Sam? No—something happen?” Nikki asks, a strange expression of concern flashes across her face.

“Well—“ Esther starts to say but Nikki suddenly, and uncharacteristically interrupts:

“I need to talk to you Esther, let’s go in my office.”

Nikki leads the way into her small office with the massive, heavy desk that had once belonged to her father. As Nikki steps around the desk to pulls her chair back. Esther closes the door and sits across from her in usual chair. Formally she finds comfort here in the small office with Nikki, but tonight is feels uncomfortable because she knows what she is about to tell Nikki is going to upset her friend and she has been anxious about telling her all day. Esther watches as Nikki takes a plastic blood bag from her purse. Opening a lower drawer of the desk, she removes a cut crystal flute and a small decanter. Esther finds out things in the room to look at than watch Nikki transfer the contents into the decanter, a grisly think to watch Esther always thinks.

Nikki pours a drink into the flute and sits down, “There is some I need to tell you.”

She looks at Niiki, “Ya?”

“Well—there is no way to say this but just to say it. You remember the story I told you – the other night, about the night in Paris and the woman who attacked me—who made me what I am.

Esther nods, “Yeah! Th’ b*** is here.”

Nikki looks at her amazed, “Yes—but how do you know?”

“’s what I was ’bout to tell ya.”

Nikki sits back in her chair, looks at Esther, “What—tell me what?

“Last night, I had jus got back from the big city from the Yom Kippur Kol Nidre service . . . “ Esther begins, trying to find the right place to start. “Or was it the breaking of the fast on Saturday . . . anyway, I see Sam walkin out of the whale. So I figure I’m gonna go an say hi right?

Ncollins: “Certainly.”

“Well, she walks up to th’ big church in town an I figure…alright, that’s odd. It’s to late fer any normal service I recken.’ Esther watching Nikki’s face, trying to see her reaction,, “So I go up to the main door and see was goin on. And so I get closer and I hear of course that good for nothin’ preacher. And—Mr De’annar, Sam an’ some others in there talking.”

Nikki looks confused, “In the Church?”

“an’they was talkin’ ’bout you Nik.” Esther says going all in, “Especially that one, knowing how Trask feels about —

Comving her fingers back through her hair, Nikk looks confused, “ They’re talking about me?”

“They was talkin’ bout this B**** that attacked you, an’ how she’s here. They talked about how Sam knew ’bout you th’ whole time, they talked about those D***ed cultists like they was jus’ anouther part ofth’ church.” Esther sat forward in her chair, very concerned for her friend, “’s like there’s this secrete th’ whole godd*** town knows, an’ we’re left outta it.”

Nikki sits up in her chair, her eyes have gone from light blue to very dark, dark blue in a rapid shift. “Sam –knew the bitch is here? And she didn’t tell me about it?”

“Seems so. Wasn’ she th’ one that tol’ you? She was there?”

Nikki does not answer the question: “Who, who knows about this!”

Nikki’s fingers flex tightly and grasp into a left-handed fist.

Esther, trying to think about, tells her: “There was a voice….I thin’ it was Mr. Collins, David he said. There was Rhyaad . . . Sam . . . th’ reverend . . . someone else I think . . . I don’t know who he is. But like who told ya th B***H was here?”

The fingers of Nikki’s right hand continue to absently comb through her hair, “No one told me!” The clenched fist growing tighter, “I was in Rhyaad’s place, the night of his Grand Opening, and the door suddenly flew open and I heard her voice. And in that moment I knew she was here—in Collinsport—but—but no one has told me anything damned thing about any of this.

Nikki sits silent. Esther has not seen Nikki this mad, and she is getting madder.

“RHYAAD!” She snaps, “He knew?”

Esther looks at her, “I dun think he knew before th’ meeting . . . not sure on that part but he was talkin like he did know somthing and anyway, I hadta book. This man in a suit wit’ sunglasses on came walkin up to th’ church my way.” Esther looks at her friend – “Wish I hadda tape recorder . . “

Nikki’s hand flattens on the desk, and her nails dig into the wooden surface and she scratches a set of long marks into the desk. “They have all known—and they have lied to me!” Nikki cannot believe this betrayal, nor how mad she is becoming, “Sam! Rhyaad!”

Nikki’s eyes have gone so dark blue they are nearly black. She has never felt the wave of rage this strong before as consumes her.

“Now now . . . hold on.”

“Who, who else Esther—who else has being lying to me! Who else is working for that murdering Bitch!”

“They may have known, but they did seem to be on your side.”

Nikki’s hand swats the glass on her desk and it shatters on the wall.

Esther stands up quickly, “Now hold on a moment Nik.” She tries to calm her down, but she has never seen her this way — and she knows, knows she is seeing for the first time the Vampire within her, “There is no reason to start gettin’ all upset ’bout this. As I said, I dun think Rhyaad knew, really.”

Nikki shoves her chair back and it hits the wall behind her, “Your cell Esther, do you have your cell phone?”

Ester ducks slightly as her friend starts throwing furniture around. “Uh . . . yeah,” And she digs out a cell phone so basic, it does not even have the capability to text. She holds it out to Nik.

Nikki takes the cell and quickly taps the numbers into it, she looks over to Esther, “I’m calling Rhyaad.”

The phone is ringing. Nikki stands behind her desk, fingers brushing her hair back,
Rhyaad answers –

“Listen to me—I trusted you—you bastard!”

Esther leans back against the wall, twiddles her thumbs. Mumbles under her breath, “Shuldn’ a said a word…F***.”

Esther can only hear one side of the conversation, and would hate to be on the other end.

Nikki: What, You are going to say that —
Nikki: You Knew. You Knew and you did not goddamn tell me!
Nikki: Esther. Esther tells me you knew she was here all this time and you didn’t tell me how could you do that to me you bastard!
Nikki; What were you doing bloody acting that night when I heard her?

Esther places her face in a the palm of her hand, “Oy…”

Nikki: I can’t do this—I am so bloody mad at you! What? No, Yes, come here. I want to see you face to face.
Nikki: I am at the office. I am sure you know, what don’t you have the whole bloody town watching me!

She jabs the end call button and drops the phone on the desk as if it has turned into some vile things she no longer wishes to touch.

Nikki looks at the ceiling, she is so mad, if she could cry — she would and it would be in anger.

Esther shakes her head, palm still planted firmly to her face.

Pasing behind her desk, “I can not believe this—I am so bloody fucking alone—“

Esther against the wall looks exceedingly depressed.

Nikki’s eyes have gone a shade Esther has never seen.

One hand reaching out to find her chair she rolls it back to the desk, and very slowly sits back down.

Esther removes her hand from her face. She looks frustrated, embarrassed, and a exhausted.

‘Thank you Esther. At least I have one friend—I don’t deserve any, but thank you for being here”

Ester opens her mouth to say somthing, closes it again, and opens it, “Look Nik . . .”
She sits back down also, not sure what to say.

“What did I expect? I’m a monster. “ Nikki asks Esther, “They don’t trust me to be anything but a monster.”

“No Nik, thats not . . . “ She sighs, “Look. I am sure whatever they are doing is for your good. I mean…”

“Esther until I meet Rhyaad, I was at a point I wasn’t sure I could trust myself. He gave he hope. I opened this whole bloody fucking thing thinking there was hope for me—but this just proves—”

Esther looks now so conflicted “ SO, Nik, look . . . what did he have to say?”

“They never trusted me. Without trust there is no hope.”

No. Look Nik, they trust you emmensly . . . maybe he just didn’t get around to telling you? Maybe they swore him to secrecy on pain of d . . .um tor . . . er . . . pain of something . . .”

“Thank you Esther, you of all people who should have never trusted me—and yet you did. The others?” Nikki turns and stares at the wall.

“There is no hope for me—they know it, they just want to keep an eye on me, because they don’t believe in me. Waiting for me to become a monster at any moment.”

Ester sighs, “See this is why I’m no good with people. Nik. I trust you because I see that you can be trusted. Perhaps Rhyaad was going to tell you later tonight, and I opend my godd***ed big mouth too early. Look… It’s–I–oy vey…”

“Esther – they were all there, Sam, Rhyaad, my cousin—and they all apparently knew she was here – coming for me. So, what, they were just going to let me sit her and wait for her to come again – and do what? Finish something she started . . ..”

“Well I don’t think that’s what they want—“

“What, they couldn’t bring themselves to put a stake in my heart—well they have—this is the most painful stake ever. Betrayed!”

Esther now looks very hurt, feeling her friends pain, “Now look. I’m sure it was all done for your own go . . . I’m not making a very good case am I?”

“The worst and I thought Sam would be the worst, but hell she’s mortal—but Rhyaad? I so trusted him.”

Esther puts her face in her palm and supports her head with her arm on the table.

“Godamn me all to hell!” And she reaches down and whips out a drawer from the desk and hurls it out the office door into the main room where it whacks and skips across the floor.

The rumble of a large engine sounded outside, and a black convertible pulled up. Rhyaad got out and walked to the door, opened it without knocking, and came in. “Nikki?” He called from the lobby.

Ester seeing the drawer whipped out and hurled with such force, in an almost blinding blur ducks for cover behind the desk – “Ok. Look. Nik, be cool.”

“YOU—“She senses Rhyaads presence even before she sees him, from the moment he was outside the door, unconscious of her Vampiric talents becoming manifest, “All of the people in the world to betray me—I did not think you. Judas. Did they even give you your bloody 30 pieces of silver?”

“Uh oh”. He knew that didn’t bode well. “Nikki. Remember what I told you on the phone . . . I have NOT betrayed you! Now just tell me what you think has happened.”

Ester stands up and gets out of the way as Rhyaad enters the room.

“What I think Happened?” Nikki asks, “Okay you tell me, yes or no.”

“Yes”. He creeps carefully up near the door to her office.

“Sam and you were at the Church with Trask and David, yes, no?”

“Nikki, I felt bad about that. Terrible. David specifically asked me not to tell you about that meeting. It was hard for me to agree, but I did. Surely that does not constitute betrayal?”

“You were there to talk about me, yes, no.”

“And I had NO IDEA about Sam. That she has known all along. It was a shock to me.”

Nikki’s fist slams on the desk, “I don’t give a fuck about Sam, You. . . you were there to talk about me, yes, no!”

“No. Not just you, Nikki. They invited me into their ‘ghost society’. And I told them that your maker was here.”

“When did you know she was here? When—all this time?’ Nikki asks, “What does she want?”
Silence for a moment.

“Goddamnit, Who is she?”

“Mainly it was a Harker/Collins meeting. David wanted Medri and I to attend. And then Gwen showed up . . . She? Your maker?”

Nikki is tired of talking to him near the door, she can’t see him. “Get in here—I am not going to—well not right now I’m not.”

“Promise you won’t throw anything at . . . Esther?”

“I don’t think I have anything else to throw.”

Esther just stands there, head in her hand again.

“All right” He slowly crept in. “I swear on my family grave, Nikki Collins, I have done nothing to betray you.”

He sees her eyes and knows she has succumbed to her vampire rage.

“Did you or did you not know that SHE was here in Collinsport?”

“SHE… your maker? I knew the night you told me, in the Nightingale.”

“Then you didn’t know before then?”

“No, of course not. Is that what you think? Is that what this is about?”

“Yes!” Nikki said, her fangs now slightly visible as she speaks. “Esther says she overheard you talking—that you knew she was here all along, is that true?”

“Well… I don’t know where you got that idea! I knew nothing at all until you told me, after you sensed her that night. As for David and his ‘ghost people’, they have theories, which I didn’t know anything about until that meeting. I didn’t know they knew… I didn’t know about any of this.”

“Esther?” He turned a piercing glare upon her. “What did you say?”

Nikki sits back in silence. She closes her eyes. Fists clenched. She trembles and then slowly, begins to relax. For a moment she looks dead.

Her eyes open suddenly and once more they are light blue.

“Esther?” His voice is an octave lower, and his eyes a shade brighter.
Esther looks at him her so very conflicted, “Look, all I said was that I heard you guys talkin’ bout th’ b***, an some other stuff about how the Sam knew all along, and things like that. Details. no details…”

“Rhyaad, sit down—and please, please tell me what this is all about!” She looks at him and he has never seen her so serious, “Lie to me about anything, but do not lie to me about this—“

Esther continues, “Some stuff about this David fellow’s connection with th’ cultists…somthin’ ’bout the brides of Dracula…I don’t know.”

“OH!” His eyes became like daggers. “So you sneaked into the meeting, overheard things from a distance, and then made wild assumptions about what it all meant and came running to spurt out your malformed suspicions upon Nikki.” “Utinu en lokirim!” He snarled at her.

“Everybody, please sit down — ” Nikki tells them as she opens the lower drawer and takes out a crystal flute and a small decanter and pours herself a thick red drink.

Esther throws up her hands, “Well I thought she already knew! And when pressed, I don’t lie!”

The remains of the glass she has shattered against the wall still on the floor, a bloodstain dripping.

He glared an icy glare at her. “What do you think I just called you?” But he slowly sat down.

Esther sits down. “Not a F***in clue.”

“A fucking liar?” He shot at her.

“Okay—okay—I am so on a hair trigger right now—just knowing that the murdering bitch is out there – waiting, watching me—“

“Hey! I may be many things. I may be a drunkard and a smoker, a crude woman. But a lyer! That’s takin’ it a step TOO far Mr.”

“Apparently”, he said, regaining his composure. “Miss Friedman has leaped to some lofty conclusions based on what little she overheard while spying on us.”

Nikki now tries to explain how and why she has lost so much control, “The two of you—you are my most trusted friends.”

“Oh. I leap to conclusions. I lie!” Esther says not listening to Nik at the moment.

‘The thought of either of you—of losing your trust is so painful to me right now.”

“That’s f***in great! And to think I was trying to convince Nik here that you where still on her side.

Esther gets up.

“I need to know what is going on.” Nikki says to Rhyaad.

“Thats fan f***in’ tastic.”

“Esther please sit down.” Nikki asks, her soft British accent back to soothing, “We will talk this out, now.”

“Antolle ulua sulrim”, he shot at Esther, before Nikki’s words. “Allright. Allright. Let’s talk about what DID happen.”

Esther turns and leaves the room, “Callin’ ME a Lier . . .”

“Fine! Leave, Liar!”, he called after her.

“Esther, do not leave this office!”

Esther storms off to the fridge and pulls out anouther beer and storms up to the storage room.

“You,” Nikki points to Rhyaad, “Stop!”

“Sorry. I have had to slit my wrist open today to feed a crazed hai’ling and now this.”

“Esther felt I should know what was happening — if I over reacted, that is my fault, blame me.”

Esther in the storage room opens the beer, “I’m the lier now eh? Always the lier…”
She paces for a moment and then sits on one of the wooden crates up in the storage room.

“As I said…. I wanted to tell you about this meeting. But David insisted I did not.”

Nikki picks up her glass and her hand, thought her voice is steady, trembles with the control she is maintaining over her nature not to be calm at all.

“I felt torn. Then when I got there, well, I had no idea. They have known about us all along, Nikki. David and Trask and even Sam. They have a secret organization. And they don’t fully trust the SAIM either. David says he is using them.”

“Okay — David is my cousin, and he is family, but I am going to say this about David.” Nikki says leaning forward, her eyes shifting hues again, “Fuck David. I don’t care what he asked you to do – If David has a problem, then he has a problem with me—and by God he does not want a problem with me.”

Esther, please come back.” Nikki calls out from her office. “I want us to all discuss this.

Esther mutters to herself, “So I’m the lier for telling my friend what I heard huh?”

There is a long silence as Rhyaad and Nikki sit in the office, broken finally by Nikki, “David has a secret society does he?”

“This ‘ghosst society’ thinks that your maker may be one of the three infamous ‘Brides of Dracula’. That she is seeking revenge on both the Collins and the Harkers. Your families . . .they are intertwined, and both of them linked to Dracula in some way. I didn’t understand it. I was mostly baffled by the whole thing.” Rhyaad tells her and sits back, as she watches him not replying, “”Yes, all this time David has been running a secret society. With Trask. Imagine that.”

“The Brides of Dracula?” Nikki says more than asks.

He nodded. “Vlad himself.”

Ester yells fron the second floor landing, as she starts to descend the stairs, “Not till f***face mcfake-language sends his apologies!” continuing to empty her beer bottle}

‘Nikki is slowly continuing to regain composure, “Okay, well, starting right now, and Esther I need you in here please.”

“She is the one who should apologize.” Rhyaad says sitting back in his chair.

“Rhyaad, please—we can’t sort this out with some of us in the room and some not.”

“All right. I’ll act my age” He glowered.

“And I am sorry for calling you a bastard.” Nikki tell him sincerely.

“Apology accepted. There is no sting more bitter than betrayal. Even when it is a false impression.”

“So, please tell Esther you are sorry also and let’s talk this over.”

“I’m not sorry. I may have been inaccurate. I’ll tell her that.”

“I am not at my best right now—I had thought we were immune to emotion, but apparently not.” She rubs her fingertips along the stem of her crystal flute, looking to see the shattered remains of the she shattered on the wall.

“I had no idea your Maker was here until you yourself told me. No idea about the suspicions of the Ghost Society or that they even existed at all until that meeting.” He tells her aware of how much the sound of her voice from the other night has effected her.

He actually managed to laugh at that. “Immune? Oh, Nikki! We are notorious for our rage!”

“As I have just discovered—Collinsport would have not been the better for it If I had left this room.” Neither aware of the hint of the blood that does run through Nikki.

He pondered that, gulped, and decided to comment on that later.

]
Esther arriving closer to the Nikki’s office shouts out. “You done falsly accusing me yet?!

“Even they don’t know who your Maker is, Nikki. They have theories. But they don’t know.”

Esther, we can’t – I won’t proceed with out you. Please, for me, come back.”

“If you wish to speak in a civilized manner, stop yelling and come in”, Rhyaad says back to Esther in a deep booming voice.

Esther passing her desk places the empty bottle on her desk as she returns, and continues walking to Nikki’s office. She stands in the threshold and looks at Nikki, then enters and takes a seat in her chair.

Nikki locks at them both, “Okay, from now on, we three here—we are our own secret society. To hell with David Collins and anything he asks, okay?” She looks from one to the other, “Of either of you, because who knows who he will ask something of next.’
“OK. From now on I shall not keep David’s little meetings a secret from you, Nikki Collins.” Rhyaad nods.

“If th’ f***er comes within 5 miles of my house I’ll make him wish he never set foot in th’ woods.”

Nikki thinks back and turns to Rhyaad, “It was that phone call right, at the Nightingale—I knew there was something about it, I felt it.”

Rhyaad eyed Esther. “You should be respectful to David, despite what you think of him.” He nodded at Nikki. “That was David, yes.”

“So, you are telling me he has this society, his Ghost Society—so, what is this all about?”

“Apparently they investigate all sorts of supernatural activity. Vampires, ghosts, and who knows what else. Sam is a member. And Agent Peters was there also, so they have ties to the EUMO.”

“The EUMO?”

“The European U Mythological Organization.” He tells her. “As for the meeting, the whole thing degenerated into an argument between Gwendolyn Harker and David Collins that left both me and Medri dumbfounded. The Old Agreement. I have no idea what they were arguing about, except that Gwen apparently refused to do whatever David wanted of her. Refused to cooperate with the Collins and this secret society.”

Nikki rubbed the tip of her finger over her lips in thought, “So somehow the Harkers and the Collins’ are related?”

“Yes. Quincy Harker married a Collins. In fact, the Harker Estate was once Collins property.” Rhyaad explains, “And I can tell you… there are some strange things on the Harker estate…”

Nikki lifts her glass and takes a drink. Sets the glass down. “I am sure it was a public transaction when it happened, but why since has it been secreted, not talked about, that the fact the Harker estates were once own by the Collins’. Nikki mused aloud, “There is not even a hint of that in any of my father’s journals.”

“It’s not really a secret, just . . . kept. It’s in the Harker Family history. Of course, few people even know those records exist.” Rhyaad tells her, “The Harkers have quite a private chronicle.”

“I will find out about this from David. Now, what I want to know is what they know about me. Do they know what I am?”
He frowned. “Yes. It’s disturbing. It seems practically everybody around here has some secret organization or cult-behind-a-cult and they all know about us.”

Nikki frowned, “Not only about me, but about you also?”

“The Shining Ankh, David’s Ghost Club, the EUMO, Dr. Artemis and the Miskatonic… “ He nods. “Yes. They know about me too. Or they think they do. They know I am a vampire. But some of them have some rather warped, limited, or provincial ideas about what vampires are.”

He thinks for a moment and then adds, “At least only the Ankh people appoint themselves our judges under penalty of being eaten.”

“God, this is so—I wonder why Trask hasn’t tried to cut my head off in the middle of the day?”

Cue Music End of Episode