Collinsport. Thunderstorms continue to rumble over Collinsport in what will soon become a very long night. Esther Friedman, having been confronted by her past in a bizarre journey through time to the horror of her twelfth birthday and the murder of her parents, has also been forced to confront the revelation of an ancient contract that binds her to the ex-King of Poland, Stephen Báthory. While working on translating her grandfather’s journal in the hopes of finding some clue has to how to break or thwart Báthory’s claim upon her, an old acquaintance, Noah Mankowski, has revealed to her a startling discovery in Nicole Collin’s past. Aware that she must confront Nikki with this information, she fears learning the truth of what maybe one of her closest friend’s darkest secrets.
Background: [www.rainymood.com]
Lighting streaks across the sky in a lovely and yet eerie shape of a skeletal hand reaching down from high above Collinsport – as if to lift something up from out of the bay. Nicole Collins stands inside the open doorway listening to the rain as it falls upon the tarmac of the street, rushes down along the gutter of the sidewalk to a drain that is unable to contain all of it’s the flow – flooding. And every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth she thinks as she stands arms crossed, hands upon her shoulders.
And that within her had been called down to do away with man – and yet, man still lived to grieve a god’s heart. And the viral symbiont, which had rebelled against its Outer God master’s, still hungered for his blood.
There was no grace for her from a God or an Outer God.
Thunder rolls.
The rain falls harder.
She closes the door and steps back inside the lobby of Collins Investigations.
In the office that had once belong to Matthew Matigan, Attorney In Law, Esther sits behind the desk looking over the scanned pages of the journal and the scattered translation books she has lying about her atop the desk. Nikki saunters over toward the office door – the one Rhyaad had once used before – before he . . .
“Headache any better?” She asks.
Esther looks up, “Not going to be anytime soon – not with all this.” She says motioning to the books.
Nikki looks down at the leather bound journal open on the desk and the sheet of paper upon which Esther has been working.
“It looks like those same damned bats where following Grandpa too way back when.” She tells Nikki and then looks out the door, past her in order to yell, “Hey Sam! Get in here! We’re translating again!”
“They were following him?” Nikki asks.
Samantha Brook, who had been sitting at Esther desk, furtively looking at something on the internet, pushes her feet against the floor and rolls her chair across the room, and in through the door backward, as Nikki enters to grant her entry.
“Casimir and Stanslaw?” Nikki continues.
“Sam, there’s a perfectly good chair, right here.” Esther points out.
Nikki looks at them, “Is there any mention of the Contract?”
“Don’t know yet for sure if it’s them.” Esther tells her looking up from the page, “And No. There’s no mention of a contract yet, but we’re only on entry three after all.
Samantha Brook sighs and picks up one of the books and then drops it heavily, “Why did your old man have to use such OLD Yiddish,” she whines.
“Because he was born in 1924.”
“Couldn’t he have been born later?”
Thunder rattles the window outside the office in the main lobby.
Nikki sighs, ” I spoke to mother, Erzsébet . . . about it, the contract and what Casimir said. She was absolutely livid when she heard about how little respect he had for her.”
Esther sits back and looks up and Nikki, “I wonder if the two of them met . . .”
“—Which two?” Samantha asks, striking through a word on the translation page and correcting it.
“The two Báthorys.” Esther tells her
“Erzsébet and Stephen Báthory – her uncle.”
“Yeah. Them.” Esther says irritated by the name.
Samantha looks up from the page, “Two vampires, two heads of Báthory, two Jewish people . . .” she says and frizzes at her own hair.
Nikki sits slowly down in the seat at the edge of the desk, “Well – actually.” She sighs, “Three vampires. I am Báthory too.”
“This entry mentions two men appearing in his hotel room in Danzig, and the entry before mentions two bats in the window.” Esther says trying to distract Nikki from thinking too much about the fact she is a Báthory – part of this horrid family.
“Can’t we just kill Stephen and then you and your mom can then have complete control over the contract?”
“We would, but – she has no idea where he is?”
“Poland?” Esther suggests.
“She spoke to her old her contacts in the Hungry,” Nikki says indicate, “But they don’t seem to know where he is either.”
Samantha Brook sits back into Esther’s chair that she has rolled into the room, “Perhaps what we need, is we need to find good king Wenceslas first . . . he seems to like crashing Stephen’s dinner parties . . . “
“So—like she and did didn’t keep in contact?” Esther asks, giving Sam a glare, “He is her uncle.”
Nikki Collins runs her fingers back through her hair and sighs, “How do I even try to explain this. You see – the fact is, she has this gap in time.”
“Gap in time?” Esther frowns, “Like her memories gone?”
Samantha looks over, “UFO Missing time?”
Nikki shakes her head, “No—it’s more complicated than that, you see, she jumps in time from 1912 to 1969.”
Samantha Brook smirks slightly at mention 1969: “Oh, Heavy drugs, that explains it.”
“Jumps in time?” Esther looks at Nikki and then gives her a look as if to say, right, I don’t even want to know – “Okay, but I’m assuming she read up on what happened, yes?’
Samantha Brook reaches over for one of the translated pages, “Probably—but hey, stuff like this – it’s something that most likely wouldn’t be in the newspaper. Tabloid in a supermarket—maybe, but not a newspaper.”
“Yes—“ Nikki tells Esther, “She did – in order to try and make the time jump—so as to understand the political and cultural makeup of the word which had changed so drastically for her – two world wars, and then a Cold One – so she could make sense of what had happened to her homeland, so that she could create this underground network she ran for a while in Hungry and Romania.”
Esther looks at Nikki with a raised eyebrow,” Underground network – like what the Black Market during the time the Russians ran things?”
“Less criminal than occult, but, yes something like that.’ Nikki nods, “So – she has been trying to use her old underground occult contacts to get some idea of where he may be – and the best she has been able to do, is to track him to New York. Among the influx of those running from the Second World War. Only, that seems to have become a cold trail.”
“Did you explain to her the contract? And that for some reason they consider her dead?”
“Oh, she was—as I said livid, when I told her that.”
“Well . . . technically . . . she did die.” Samantha picks up a pencil and writes down something on the page, “Else she wouldn’t be a vampire . . . “
Nikki looks at her, “You have to understand how one becomes a vampire, Samantha.”
“A vampire feeds you some of their vampire blood and then kills you.”
“The transmission is in the blood yes.” Nikki nods, “But, the symbiont actually begins a transformation of the human host just at the point of death – so although it appears as if we are dead, it’s more like a hibernation – a catatonic state, but in reality the human host is being held suspended just at a point of death when the symbiont takes control and begins regeneration and the transformation process.”
Samantha looks up at her – so it’s not just dead bodies rising up out of graves because of suicide or some evil deeds, or because a black cat jumped over the grave, or someone said something bad about God, or even, because of how the body happened to have been carried out of he house or because of unhallowed ground – or any of those myths.
“Thus, why we are called the un-dead. We should be dead, but we did not truly die.”
No rotting flesh then, which also explains how the brain of a vampire seems so intelligent, as there has been no deterioration due to lack of oxygen, no hokey some-kind-of charnel house reanimation of dead tissue—which are Zombies! Sam thinks, as she looks up at Nikki, “So—was it –painful? I mean, being turned – or are you like unaware until you just woke up?”
“Excruciatingly so – but you are immobilized and unable to do anything but just feel the pain. As well as the horror of lying there being aware that you are being forcibly recreated into something truly horrendous.”
“But they think she is dead?” Esther replies, remembering that despicable Casimir in the woods. “Elizabeth, they said she was dead to them.”
“Right—it’s the true death of an un-dead that seems to be the subject of some controversy at the moment.” Nikki frowns, confused, “Apparently, if a vampire suffers true death – then other vampires consider them ‘dead’ to them, or so I have now been told . . . I admit this is all new to me also.”
“True death?” Samantha Brook asked somewhat distractedly as she puzzles over the translation of a word.
“Yes –I am un-dead. I did not die nor can I, except in rather unusual ways.”
Esther looks at her, “So, stake to the heart, decapitated, that sort of thing?”
“The ways in which most people think of in terms of destroying us, yes. “ Nikki nods, “You see, the vampire physiology is very resilient in such that most of our wounds heal almost immediately. Tissue and bone regenerate,” Nikki’s voice now becoming a bit more tinged with her British accent as she sounds more pedantic. “I mean, there is truly very little known about the precise changes that do take place in the human metabolism as part of the “turning.” But, rapid regeneration is one of the by-products – like a lizard can grow a new tail. So—what we are, we un-dead, we are no longer human, as the symbiotic creature within has turned us into something other. And so, to destroy us, one must inflict quick and severe enough damage to our vital organs so that it is unable to regenerate the damage before the human host expires. Actually, part of our rest during the light of day, other than hiding away from the effects of the rays of the sun itself, is so that we are constantly regenerated – thus we remain as we were when we . . . were turned from humanity.”
“Silver? What about silver?” Samantha asks now, as Nikki has never talked this much about her vampirism.
Nikki nods, “Silver. Yes – the weapon of choice should be silvered. For some reason silver has a counterproductive effect on the regeneration process. It hurts – and can burn to touch. And so, as I said, to bring us to true death, one must quickly inflict as much damage as possible— to make certain, we un-dead meet true death it really is best to cut out our hearts or decapitate us. Separate the heart and the head from our body.”
“Why a stake to the heart works so well.” Esther says thoughtfully
Nikki nods, “Precisely. Overwhelming destruction of the heart, while the shaft does not allow a rapid regeneration of new one – as it remains impaled where the heart should be.
“Wouldn’t mind a steak to the mouth about now,” Samantha says with a smile looking up at Esther, and grinning.
Esther crosses her arms and glares at Samantha Brook. “So—from what you are saying, then what? Someone killed your . . . someone . . . killed Elizabeth? But if so, if she was what you say, true dead, then how is she still with us.”
“Apparently you guys can come back from this True Death.” Samantha surmises.
“We can be brought back of course through use of some very ancient magic known only by adept Necromancers, or, if a true death occurs – and yet, we are somehow able to regenerate back to life quick enough . . . for example, when a human heart stops beating, it can be shocked back to life. So if we are injured enough to obtain a true death, the injury may not be severe enough that the regeneration cannot still be occurring and can be quick enough to bring us back . . . from a brief moment with true death. But it is usually but for a brief instant, and very few have done so.“
Esther is not certain she understands that last part.
“So, for an example, I will explain my mother. It seems in 1912, she had – she had this horrendous battle with Dracula, her cousin in London, they did dreadful damage to one another and in this confrontation, he ripped out her heart.”
Samantha looks up now. “W-what?”
“True death.” Esther nods now.
Nikki shakes her head, “She should have met true death – yes, had her heart been ripped out and remained separated from her body – and a new one could not be regenerated quickly enough, which is why removing the heart is one certain way of killing us.“
“What, wait now, what, like if you pull it out . . . and then what? You put it right back? It can start beating again?” Samantha asks, “Wow, that’s like having a heart transplant with your own heart?”
“That is a good analogy.” Nikki agrees.
“But—you said he ripped it out.” Esther notes.
“Yes, but in Mother’s case, she did not experience true death, because at that precise moment the necromancer we know as Nicholas Blair, who in reality is really Simon Orne, summoned her via a formula from the Necronomicon and brought her here to Collinsport – in 1969.”
“The gap in time.” Esther suddenly understands.
“Yes,” Nikki nods, “And he held her in some spell of his, and he was able to hold her suspended between two realities and so, he gave her the time to regenerate a new heart. I am not certain how this happened as she did not seem to want to go into any great details about it, only that he was able to hold her suspended . . . then infused her with enough blood.’
“Infused her, like how.” Samantha asks.
“Whatever happened, for some reason she does not want to talk about it. The important thing is that he was able to magically suspend her long enough for her to be able to regenerate a new heart and so . . . she really did not meet true death. We can only assume they—Stephen Báthory and those working for him—are unaware of this event.”
Samantha Brook sighs, “It sounds like a technical foul to me . . . and, she’s obviously not dead.”
Esther shakes her head, “Sorry Nik I don’t understand this whole true death thing and why it means anything to them.”
Nikki nods, “There are only a few who have apparently ever come back from true death and so – it seems for some reason . . . some vampires shun them. As I said – this is all very new to me.”
Samantha Brook shakes her head, “Oh yes, shun . . . shun the non-believer . . . “ she whispers in a high-pitched voice.
Esther gives Sam yet another glare across the desk. Just then the sound of the fax machine in the other room starts as the printer injects a sheet of paper and begins printing, and Esther looks out the door into the main office with a slightly anxious look.
“Well—as Mother tried to explain it, she says it comes from the origins of the creatures that transformed us . . . they were once servants to the Elder Things, before they rebelled as did the Shoggoths, and so, if one comes back from true death, there is some suspicion that they may have gone back to serving their former masters.”
Samantha looks at Nikki sadly, “Miss Nikki, you know too much about this stuff..”
“I know.”
From the main lobby there is suddenly the sound of the printer feeding a sheet of paper, and starting to print upon it.
“Oh, excuse me. I’ll get that. “ Esther says hurriedly and steps around the desk and out the door. “It’s a fax for me.”
Samantha looks up, “When did we get a fax machine?”
“Built into the printer/copier.” Esther yells back as she walks over to the device beside her desk printing out pages.
Samantha quickly looks to over to Miss Nikki as Esther stands watching pages print out from the incoming fax. “Miss Nikki . . . can . . . can I give you something?”
“Certainly, Samantha”
She slips her hand unto her coat pocket and blushes, “Remember Woonsocket?”
Nikki smiles, “Yes, I most definitely remember Woonsocket.” And then for a moment there is trace of concern upon her face as recalls hearing from Sam Collins about a new band at the Blue Whale, and their lead singer, Alison Drew – and the information Dr. Sabine had told her about Alison. That she had died – and yet here she was in Collinsport – but before she can continue with her train of thought, she watches as Samantha Brook removes a small velvet box.
“Well . . . things were so crazy . . . I never got a chance to give you something . . . “ and she nervously holds the small box out toward her.
Nikki reaches out and accepts the velvet box.
She smiles at Samantha as she opens it, and sees within an unusual star cut diamond. It is black as midnight and what little light escapes from it looks like an iridescent oil slick.
Nikki’s eyes widen, “Oh, Samantha this is so beautiful. Did you – did you cut this?”
She removes the ring from the velvet interior of the box and slips it on her finger and holds her hand out to look upon it. Not only is it beautiful but also she cannot help thinking that the diamond is black and so like her father, they wear a black stone ring.
Samantha Brook blushes even harder, “It’s a cut I invented before . . . .” and she gestures at her eye.
Nikki rises and walks over and gives her a hug, “It is beautiful Samantha! I love it!”
Samantha Brook hugs her tightly, beaming – as she had been so nervous about giving it to her.
Esther walks back into the office carrying a rather large collection of papers, “I didn’t realize it would be this much.” She says and cuts a glance at Nikki and Samantha, who is returning to her chair with a rather happy smile – and she then catches sight of the ring. Esther cannot help but think . . . and it’s nothing against Samantha Brook – but it is just she’s the wrong Sam for Nik. She’s known Sam Evans for so long – knows how much Sam carries for Nikki.
Nikki, still looking at the ring, glances down at a page they have translated and picks it up to look at a correction Samantha had only just made a few moments ago, “Esther, this Mr. Jagiellon, in the journal, do you think that is possibly Stephen Báthory?”
Esther sets the stack of papers on the desk. “Possibly.”
Nikki cannot help but notice that the top page of the stack is a photocopy of a French Tabloid. A page with which she is infinitely familiar – and she looks up to see Esther looking at her curiously.
“I mean it does sound like it.” Nikki continues, as if she is unaware of what the stack of pages in front of Esther means, “The part where he says he is leaving his protection. And then of course, the bloodletting.”
Samantha Brook sees the French tabloid photocopy, “Ooooh more nude princesses? I didn’t know you were into that,” She grins at Esther.
But the page is not a current edition, but rather one that dated 2009.
Nikki steps back over to her seat, and slowly sits down – well aware of what Esther knows – as she can see it in her eyes, can detect the doubt and painful suspicion in her thoughts. She looks up at Esther.
“I spoke with Noah today.” She tells Nikki – aware of how her heart is beating faster and she feels a slight tremble in her voice – afraid to really know the truth.
“About—this?” Nikki motions to the accusation of the tabloid between them.
“At first he was telling me about this company. Mimecom. And it’s connection to a certain Madam de Champeaux.” Esther begins, “And . . . “
“Yes,” Nikki asks – shocked to hear the name Champeaux but does not interrupt, as she wants Esther to ask what Esther needs to ask.
Samantha looks now at them – well aware that something is wrong, that there is a growing tension in Esther’s voice.
“Nik . . . understand, he is concerned for my safety . . . because of what he read in a tabloid about her and you.”
“Marceline de Champeaux?” Nikki knows she cannot evade this.
“Yes. I told him . . . I told him that is was just a tabloid.”
Nikki closes her eyes and sits back and takes a deep breath, “I did not know she was involved in Mimecom.”
Samantha Brook frowns, “You’re in a tabloid?”
Nikki opens her eyes and looks at Esther, horrified at what she is going to think of her and then, sighing, she looks over to Samantha, “I was a suspect in a murder, Samantha.”
“Like what – when you were first a vampire and couldn’t control yourself?”
“No. This was before I was turned.”
Esther looks at Nikki, her eyes pleading, “But it’s not true . . .right?”
Nikki runs her fingers back through her hair – and Esther knows that is not a good sign.
Oh god no – please no!
Nikki steels herself, “Did I murder the young woman, you mean?”
“Nik!”
“To answer your question, technically—no . . . I did not kill her. But . . . but I was there . . . and I . . . should not have been. And I should have saved her.”
Esther sighs, “Okay, Nik, so what does that mean, technically no? What, you didn’t try to stop it? You helped? You sat and watched while someone else murdered her? You are an accomplice to murder? What? Why?”
Nikki looks at her, the horror of that night still a vivid memory, “Yes, no. I mean – yes I saw it and no I couldn’t stop it.”
Esther pulls out a cigarette and snaps open her lighter as she slowly sits down, the stack of pages before her a horror story she is not sure she wants to really know – but is certain that she does have to know.
“I— This is a very painful moment in my life Esther. One I see over and over again, and that I live with the remorse of every night. The truth is that I was naïve and very foolish and someone died because of it.” Nikki says sadly, “I was used by Marceline de Champeaux.”
Samantha Brook blinks now in silence looking at Nikki.
“I have never concealed from either of you the effect—for all of my life—that the disappearance of my father . . . of my parents had upon me.” Nikki begins, “And so, as a little girl, in a great big house filled with things a little girl should never know anything about, and forever in the hopes of some day finding some clue, some way to bring them back, I read and I read and I read every horrible book that was in my father’s library, hoping, praying to find some way to find him. And the more I read – the more I became aware of the dark powers that could be used – of things that could be unleashed that would help me find them . . . all for a price. And yet – I could not – the things one had to do to use the power in those books – none of it easy and all of it coming at such a terrible cost—I could never bring myself to do them.” She says and feels now all those years of guilt, “I could not do them – not even to bring him back.”
Esther, her words escaping in a wisp of smoke, “But Nik—that is a good thing. That you could not do them.”
Nikki shakes her head, “But you do not understand . . . I sought out others. With my father’s wealth, I sought those more experienced than I in these matters . . .”
Esther sighs now.
“ . . . in the hopes that they knew how to do things without having to pay that heavy price. And that is how I found Marceline de Champeaux.”
Esther feels much better – for a moment she thought . . .
“She told me, there were ways to use the powers, to tap them, that she had done it herself, and so there were ways I could summoned the one I sought without having to . . .”
“Commit a sacrifice.” Samantha says.
“Yes.”
“And so, with her guidance, one night I tried to summon him and I did. I opened a gate to a monster.” Nikki says, “And while I had the gate open, she and her companion Joseph Salpêtrière . . . they—” Nikki’s eyes fill with red tears. “They killed a woman—a young woman as a sacrifice to him – so as to gain his favor.”
“Good God.” Esther says.
Nikki looks at her the pain of those memories bringing bloody tears, “I could not stop them Esther – oh dear God—I could not stop them . . . I was so foolish, they wanted me to bring him across, through the gate . . . and once I realized what they were doing, I had no time to stop them, as I had to fight, to use every bit of the knowledge I had in order to keep the Old One I had summoned from coming through the gate into our world. I could—I could not save her – or Yog-Sothoth would have entered into our reality and I would have been the one to have brought him.”
“Nikki!”
“I did not know what they were going to do I swear! I was told he could give me information about the past as he knows all time, as he is the master of time and space. That he is the gate into time itself. I was unaware that they only wanted me to open the gate for them so they could bring him through for their own nefarious purposes . . . I . . . oh god Esther I have lived with this horror—this guilt. Do you not understand – this is why I am what I am today! I am damned by God . . . for what I allowed to happen that night.
Esther looks at Nik, and then she looks at Sam; and places her cigarette on the edge of the ashtray.
“I was devastated— I wandered the streets of Paris, alone, all night . . . knowing that it was because I was such a fool . . . that someone . . . someone died!”
Samantha Brook shrugs slightly, “You had to make a choice, it was either one woman or humanity . . . I say you made the right call Miss Nikki.
“No Samantha—” Nikki wipes away a crimson stain of the blood running from the corner of her eyes, “IT was because of me! I should have . . . I should not have been so blind, so trusting, so bloody naive.”
Esther stands up and Nikki looks up at her, aware she has every right to just leave her. But she steps over and kneels down and gives her a comforting pat, “Nik—some sick b*****ds took advantage of a desperate young woman who loved her parents. Of all the s**t we’re into most of the time Nik – that . . . that I at least can understand. Wanting so much to save your parents you’d do . . . ”
“No—please, no. Don’t comfort me Esther – I have that poor girl’s blood on my hands – it was my fault.” Nikki says the sorrow deep within in her making the symbiont angry, “I only ask that you . . . you don’t hate me—I want you to know that I arise now every night to try and make up for that night.’
“Miss Nikki—don’t be so hard on yourself. You learned something valuable didn’t you?”
The memories once again surfaced to haunt her, to fill her with remorse and regret, she runs her fingers back through her hair, “Corruption and evil are in my blood, Samantha. I was cursed along before I was infected with the vampire. It is a path of fate I have been ordained to walk since my birth, by the curse of my family. The Collins’. “ Her accent now growing more pronounced as she sits back in resignation, “The scourge of Maine. Lording insanely over this small village from high atop Widows Hill in their grand mansion. The lies and sins: everlasting. Scandalous blighters and bounders everyone—if not some horrid occultists or furtive murderers.”
“Nikki!” Esther and Samantha say almost simultaneously, aware of what it is to be without family.
“There is no end to the secrets they have locked away. My father is not even the worst of them. And my mother?” She looks away briefly with the pain of secret shame, “Mother? One of which was a tormented young woman, who became a most violent, vindictive, and vengeful witch of immense arcane powers, while the other – a student of the occult, who let her prejudice and hatred and vanity draw her to the darkest of entities imaginable.”
There is a moment of silence as she remembers that same entity entering into her library – how he opened the horrid tomes and taught her how to read them, “How could I be any less wicked.”
Esther, still kneeling beside her, looks at her, “No. You are not—you have made a conscious decision Nik to fight against this darkness, as you call it – against your own nature.”
Nikki looks at her, “Yes, but only with your help Esther—it is a struggle every day.”
Samantha looks at them – there is a bond between them – they are like sisters. How she wishes she had one . . .
“Of course, Nik.” Esther tells her and takes her hand, and squeezes it, “That is why we started this place—together.”
“Then you also need to know—something.”
“Oh?” Esther gives her a look.
Samantha Brook, now wanting to have a look at that stack of papers from Esther’s printer glances at her, “hm?”
Nikki wipes away the red tears, “It is about how it came about that I learned to read the horrid books within my father’s library. As I said, I used to hide away with his books, whenever my guardian, Julia, was not about. But so many of them were in lauguages that at tweleve I barely could recognize. And yet, I knew within those volumes was the answer I was searching for – how to find my parents. And then one day, a man entered the library. I thought he was a colleague of Professor Stokes – a good friend of Julia’s. He was—mesmerizing. He asked me what I wanted most in all the world and I told him to be able to read my father’s books so that I might find him. And he said, what an endeavor that would be for someone far older than I – but, that I was a clever little girl. And he—moved his hands oddly and from that day I could pick up any of the books and I could read them. I never saw that man again – not until that night in Paris. Wandering the streets, dazed at the horror I had all but unleashed – the death of that young woman . . . and there he was on the street beside me. He took me to a café and bought me a glass of wine and he sat and talked to me and—he took the time to try and comfort me.”
Esther rises now and steps back over to the desk to take her cigarette up from the ashtray. She needs a long drag from it—because it is obvious that this man was not merely some kind gentleman in Paris and she isn’t at all sure what this will mean.
“I have since learned that man was Nyarlathotep.” Nikki’s teeth clench, “That is when I learned that everything from the momen I was twelve had been orchestrated by HIM.”
Samantha Brook whistles, “HIM?”
Esther squints against the smoke of her cigarette – what a monster using a child . . .
“That night—while I was . . . broken . . . uncertain what to do . . . where to turn . . . and, there he was and he was talking to me, his voice was so soothing – I – I don’t remember saying it, but apparently I told him I had done some very foolish things because I had been far too desperate to find my parents. And he, with this oh so tender smile, told me, ‘but of course my dear, it has been your fondest desire’.” Nikki looks at the blood stain of her tears upon her fingertips, “I can remember his words, his voice, so gentle as he said, ‘a little girl should have her parents, that is not foolish at all’.
“Nyarlathotep, said that?” Samantha asks.
“A dark God without a heart?” Esther says.
Nikki nods, “I have since learned that it was he who set events into motion so that Erzsébet would be commanded to attack and murder me, knowing that instead, she would turn me.” She looks up now with a snarl of anger on her lips, “His sick way of a little girl meeting her mother.”
Esther closes her eyes and shakes her head.
“And your dad?” Samantha asks.
“He told me, ‘one day you shall have at hand the power to restore him’. God only knows what sick and monstrous thing he has planned to make that happen!”
Esther taps ashes into the ashtray. God how could two peoples lives be so f**ked up as Nik and hers.
“So now you know,” Nikki motions at the stack of papers, “What horror I am responsible for. All, I can ask, is please – don’t hate me, as I hate myself more than you can ever know.”
Esther puts out her cigarette slowly, “Nik, you know we could never hate you.”
“Why would we?” Samantha asks – looking at her and then at Esther. The only family she has.
“Nik, we all do foolish things. Granted, some are more foolish than others, but still think of how far you’ve come since then.”
Samantha Brook chuckles, “Miss Nikki, to this day, cops in Detroit avoid certain alleyways like the plague—“
Esther cuts a look at Samantha. She then looks back at Nikki, “You struggle and fight and you win every night Nikki. I have seen vampires – and they lack any trace of the human in them – and yet, you . . . you cling so tightly to your humanity. And no matter how you feel – I know, if you could have, you would have saved that girl.”
Nikki feels she is about to cry again, and so, must change the subject, “So—you said that Noah is – what? Researching this corporation?”
Esther nods, “Mimecom, yeah.”
“And he says Marceline de Champeaux is involved with them.” She wipes at the crimson dampness at her eye.
Esther nods.
“Does he know how she is involved?”
“She is a shareholder in the company he said.”
Samantha, really wanting to look at the papers tries to restrain herself from grabbing them up, “Is the company public?”
Esther puts her hand on the stack of paper that has Samantha’s attention and starts flipping through the pages, ““I don’t know the first thing about corporations Sam. But, this is what he sent me.”
Nikki looks now at her new ring, into the black stone, as she seems lost in thought before saying, “Then—we know one thing for certain. It must surely be a front for something very sinister, or she would not be involved.
“I do know he was going on about mind altering drugs and a two day senator from California.” Esther looks over at Nikki, “To be honest I don’t remember all of what he said, but hopefully this,” she points to the stack of printed pages, “will have some information that is useful.”
Nikki looks at Esther, “Okay – this I can look into, while you and Sam work on the journal.”
Esther nods, “Sure thing.”
“We have to find a clue in this journal to stop Stephen Báthory – that is of prime importance.” Nikki tells her, “Above all else. That said, do you think Noah will talk to me?”
Samantha Brook smile, “Want me to break down his door again?”
“I mean – I know he helped me once, but now? I am not sure how he feels.”
“I don’t know.” Esther tells her honestly, “I don’t think so. Despite my best efforts I don’t think he trusts you, and I don’t think breaking his door would help in that. Sam.”
Nikki smiles, “No, I would much rather he want to work with us that force him to.” Nikki is very concerned now that Marceline de Champeaux is not only involved in this corporation, but that the corporation has just suddenly decided to build a facility here in Collinsport. “Okay—I know . . . I know he . . . he trusts you Esther so, I will let you communicate with him, if I have questions.”
“Ok.”
Nikki reaches over to have a look at the research sent by Noah Mankowski, “It is so strange, but I have this feeling that the past is suddenly trying to catch up with each of us and none of us can escape it.”
Cue Music End of Episode