(A Lost Episode reconstructed from fragmented memories)
A warm breeze gently blows through the night, softly rattling the leaves in the monolithic trees surrounding the abandoned cathedral like a final breath. A breeze that while warm for Collinsport could still impart New England’s abiding chill to those who were not prepared for it. Fortunately for the Two souls forcing their way through the undergrowth, one was always prepared for the vagaries of the weather, and the other being a vampire, had no need to be concerned with the atmosphere.
Having finally freed Esther and her bloodline from vampiric servitude, Nicole had turned her endeavors to finding Samantha Brook and securing her safety before all her adversaries’ plotting came to a riotous head.
“SAAAAAM!”
“SAMANTHA!”
Esther and Nicole’s voices filled the Cut as they called for Samantha Brook, any echo from the chapel’s stone walls quickly killed by the tree’s murderous rattle. Nicole is a distance ahead of Esther, her vampiric sight doing away with any need for a flashlight, as she turns, trying to see, hear, smell her lover. Esther sweeps the beam of the flashlight with the practiced arc of a huntress, her tracking skills leading her to the chapel walls.
The chapel, which was all but a cathedral except for size and name, wore its shadows like a widow wears her veils, its shadows of moonlight seemed deeper and blacker than they should. As if they were being bolstered by a shroud of sinister intent more insidious than those that usually plagued the nights of Collinsport.
“SAMANTHA BROOK!”
“SAM, ARE YOU HERE?”
Samantha Brook stirs, almost calling out before stopping herself. Were the voices real? They couldn’t be, could they? They were so strident and discordant, jarring across the almost symphonic melody in her mind. Not like the other voice, the voice masculine, honeyed, and commanding but always in tune with the music. The voice she had spent so long either ignoring or acting in direct opposition to. Why? Why did she do that? The things the voice told her. Showed her. They were paradise, beautiful, peaceful, idyllic. Everything she had ever told herself she was fighting for, so what if they were locked behind the thin wall of reality? She had already punched a hole in reality once. Yes that’s right, back when He……He was almost summoned to rule…HE! HASTUR! FUCK! Fuck fuck fuck! HE was the voice! HE was the enemy! Where?! Where did those other voices go?! I need
“HELP!” her own voice calls out weakly as she tries to reach the gate of the chapel, the gate with golden sunlight streaming through in blinding shafts…
Esther and Nicole both snap their attention to the gate, hearing a plaintive cry followed by a heavy thump of limp flesh collapsing on metal. Esther shines her flashlight through the grating, illuminating Samantha’s body clinging to the gate, moving in a way reminiscent of the Scarecrow on Flexeril.
“Nik, be careful, I’m not sure Sam is there,” Esther cautions as Nicole rushes to the gate, stopping on the other side of it, placing her hand on the cool iron and trying to see Samantha’s face.
“Your friend there is a clever one,” the sentence is a low hiss, eerily audible in the darkness.
“Sam..what’s happened to you? Are you ok?,” Nicole reaches her hand through the gate, wanting to caress her, hold her and tell her everything will be alright.
“Sam isn’t here right now!” The figure’s head snaps up, at the whim of a vindictive puppeteer, her face is plastered with a slack jawed, demented grin; her one good eye is just a solid orb of brilliantly pallid yellow. The voice coming from her unmoving mouth is cruel, rough, and dripping with an otherworldly venom, a voice using vocal chords never intended to speak for a vile god such as he.
“What have you done with Sam?!” Nicole demands, her eyes slipping from their entrancing blue to black that almost rivaled the dark shadows around them. Esther, startled, takes a step back reaching for her side arm.
“Why, I have done nothing.” The hateful voice intones. “Everything you see here, this stupid girl did to herself!”
“She tore my soul apart! She pulled me inside herself! Everytime I almost escaped, she would maim herself to stay in control!” It pulled open her jacket and shirt showing a mural of bruising and scars dancing across her torso. “She made me learn pronouns!”
Nicole stares aghast as her ears are assaulted by the unearthly voice, her eyes taking in the results of Samantha’s self-flagellations. “Sam…what have you done?”
“And now, now I am almost free!” The voice crows triumphantly! “She thought her broken mind would leave me buried and lost, but now all I have to do is wait for her pathetic heart to stop beating!”
“We won’t let that happen!” Nicole cries out, her hand darting inhumanly fast through the gate to grip the Samantha puppet’s head, only her cry of defiance turns to one of shock as her hand is knocked back by the force of what she saw inside Samantha’s mind.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahaHAHAHAH!” the mouth cackles in derision. “Yet another Collins unable to save the one they love! HAHAHAHAhahahahaHAHAHAHA!”
The vampiress grimaces, trying not to panic as she can hear Samantha’s heart beat becoming slower…slower.
“Nik! I have an idea! Try again on my mark” Esther calls out as she takes a careful aim, kneeling to steady her shot.
The head lolls over to stare at Esther blindly. “Oh my, the hunter who regrets taking lives has a plan. You barely had it in you to kill my priest. We both know you won’t pull the trigger while I wear your friend’s fac-”
“Now!” Esther yells as she pulls the trigger, the bullet zipping just below Samantha’s knee.
The jaundiced eye snaps back to it’s normal blue tones as a decidedly more human scream pierces the night
“Esther! WHAT THE FU-” Samantha begins to screech
Nicole’s hand snaps through the gate, firmly holding Samantha’s head as she begins to recite one of the many forbidden spells she has learned. A spell of banishment. The wind picks up, the trees beginning to bend with the force as the earth shudders and cracks as Hastur’s soul clings desperately to Samantha’s body before a tremendous crack echoes through the cut with a blinding light.
As the light clears and her vision returns, Esther runs up the steps to Nicole who is holding a wall for support, holding her head as a flood of memories invades her mind.
“Nik are you ok?” Esther begins to check her over worriedly
“I’m ok, I think…Good idea on bringing Samantha back to her senses long enough for the spell to work”
“Is she…” Esther turns to look at the slumped form on the floor of the chapel
“She’s alive…barely…but she will live.” Nicole responds with a flatness even Esther noticed
“Let’s get her home and her knee bandaged.” The elegant blond says, her eyes growing darker as she stares at Samantha, a strange mark appearing upon her forehead.