Path of the Vampire forum

RIKKI It had been three days since she had arrived here. Three whole days since she had spoken to another person. The intense loneliness was beginning to creep in, locking away all motivation to find her niche in this new city she had chosen. But, rather than look for a job or an apartment, she had merely wandered. Each day, she learned a little bit more of the city. It was large, and daunting, but Rikki was determined to learn it all. She would find some semblance of happiness, even if it meant finding it on her own. And tonight was no different than the one before. Where the train would take her, she hadn’t a clue. She was sure about to find out, though.

Coming to Rikki’s decided stop, she swung her bag over her shoulder and stepped on the sidewalk. Her deep chocolate gaze moved up and down the street, searching for a landmark of some kind that would help her remember. With nothing in the immediate vicinity, she let her instincts take over and simply followed where her feet happened to take her. The summer sun had set and the night was finally cooling, making for the perfect night to roam.

Before long, the large victorian church rose up over the street. It stood like a guardian, watching over all those who passed below. Never being very religious, Rikki could count on one hand the number of times she had stepped foot into a church, and none of them had been particularly wonderful experiences.

If you would give it a chance, you might be surprised by the peace you find within .

The thought made her frown, but the nagging voice of reason sounded an awful lot like her grandmother. Up until the day she died, that woman had sworn that being a member of her congregation saved her life. Rikki never did find out what exactly that meant, but now, she had to wonder if, perhaps, it wasn’t all just stories.

So, there she stood, shifting from foot to foot in obvious hesitation. Teeth digging into her lip, she hummed in uncertainty, ”Mm…”



HARRISON The world was topsy turvy. The dead could come back to life; there were zombies and fairy creatures and who knew what else? And Harrison should have seen it coming. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He was a man who could speak to the spirits who were, for one reason or another, left behind when their bodies gave up on them. Why shouldn’t there be more that humanity did not know, or understand?

Still, it was a lot to take in. For a man as devout as Harrison, he didn’t know what it meant, that he should be both alive and dead at the same time. His body had stopped. His heart no longer beat. Hot blood no longer rushed through his veins. Had he died? Had his spirit briefly left this world only to be roughly yanked back? Was his life saved, or was this something entirely different? Was he brought back for a reason?

It mattered not, in the end. He was hindered by the coming and going of the sun, and he looked like a terminally ill patient who should be on bed rest, but he could still do what he had come here to do -- to help the restless spirits of the dead, of which there were many, meandering the streets aimlessly. And he did not need to create more restless spirits -- vampire though he was, his peculiar brand allowed him to feed without ever having to sink teeth into another’s neck. It was a blessing, a boon -- a silver lining that he could not rightly ignore. It was a gift.

Still, Harrison liked to pray. He’d discovered that the old stories weren’t all true, and that he could step inside a church and not be struck down by some higher power. Crosses had no effect on him, and he continued to wear his around his neck. He had found a church that he liked, one that was open all hours of the night. And he often found sanctuary within its pews, to talk to God. To think. Although he had only recently awoken, he’d awoken feeling dread. There was a heaviness to his otherwise buoyant heart. So he dressed, and headed for his sanctuary.

He arrived only fifteen minutes later. There was a priest who he’d spoken to a couple of times but otherwise he rarely saw anyone, the church frequented mostly during the day. Tonight, however, he found a woman lingering on the footsteps.

“Hello,” he said, Scottish brogue thick on his tongue. He smiled, his eyes bright despite the dark rings beneath them. Harrison was personable; he liked to talk to random strangers on the street (even if sometimes he wasn’t entirely sure whether they were real or ghosts). “Can I help you?” he asked. A genuine question.


RIKKI Rikki knew she was being irrational. Nothing about the church was out of the ordinary, but she stood frozen at the steps, unsure whether or not she was justified to go inside. For a good portion of her teenage and adult years, she questioned her family’s religious devotions. A logic driven child, Rikki had always preferred science and mathematics, where questions had answers. And the more she prayed to God, the less answers she seemed to get. Either He was communicating with the rest of her family and being purposely silent with her, or He may not actually be there to listen. In recent years, she had been inclined to think the latter.

It seemed wrong, in a way, to walk into a place of worship when you weren’t even sure that you believed in who you were supposed to be “talking” to. It felt...a little crazy. If He really wasn’t there, then wasn’t she just talking to herself?

With the knowledge that she couldn’t stand there all day, Rikki quickly made the decision to go inside. Perhaps she could simply stand at the back, an observer. Before she could change her mind, she reached out a shaky hand for the church doors when a sudden male voice interrupted.

“Oh!” Rikki yelped in surprise, hand pulling back from the doors as she took an involuntary step away from the direction in which the voice had come from. Embarrassed by her reaction, the woman turned to face the owner of the voice with a hand pressed against her chest.Despite the thundering of her heart, she quickly cleared her throat and straightened out her dress. ”I’m sorry, I was…” suddenly trailing off, she turned her head back toward the doors of the building. All motivation to go inside now gone, she sighed, ”...just thinking about leaving.”

Instead of dwelling on the moment, her lips twitched into a small, but grateful grin, [/b]“But thank you, for asking.”[/b]



HARRISON It was strange, to be this… thing. The woman brought attention to her heart as her hand pressed over it, as if by doing so she could keep it from jumping out of her chest. But it did nothing to dull the sound of it, which the vampire could hear over everything else; the steady drumbeat that was the siren call for any thirsty vampire.

Fortunately, Harrison was not hungry -- nor did he lack control because of it. There were plenty of other curses he had to deal with, but hunger and bloodlust were not one of them. Perhaps it was part and parcel with his devout belief in kindness, and goodness. Even as a carnivorous creature, innocent blood did not, and would never appeal to him.

The sound of the heart was a dead giveaway, too -- the girl was real. She wasn’t a spirit, lingering by the doors of a church as if it might help her to move on. She was merely a living person. Suffering a crisis of faith, maybe? Harrison took the couple of steps up, toward the door of the church. The stranger glowed -- she was radiant. Harrison tried not to stare, though his smile was steady upon his lips.

“Thinking about leaving?” he asked, curious. She was not certain, then. It wasn’t as if she’d been to church and now was heading home. “It’s a beautiful church. Have you been inside…?” he asked, angled toward the entrance.



RIKKI The stranger smiled at her in what she could only assume was genuine kindness. He moved closer as he edged toward the door, quick to question why it was she was leaving. And though the smile never faltered, it was his eyes that held her attention. They were such a brilliant shade of blue that she couldn’t help but keep her own gaze locked on his.

Without looking away, she shook her head in response to his question. Rikki wasn’t sure that she trusted herself enough to speak again, her heart rate still slowing after the initial fright. As she began to feel vulnerable while under the man’s watch. she finally broke their intense stare and looked up at the church with curiosity. “I...haven’t been inside, no...” she replied with a small shrug of her slender shoulders.

“In my defense, I am new to the city…” she further explained, running her fingers through her blonde locks and tucking them loosely behind her ear. “I only stumbled upon it by accident.” And she was more than happy to stumble right back the way she came, at this point. It couldn’t be helped that she was still turning over her decision not to go inside, though. For better or worse, this stranger was giving her time to have second thoughts about her second thoughts.

With a twinge of anxiety,, she immediately attempted to shift the focus. “Are you….familiar with the church? A...member? Or, just a good samaritan sensing my distress?” Her tone was teasing, but quiet. While she brought herself to joke about it, an uneasy tension had settled in her shoulders. .

HARRISON There was something so alluring about this girl. She was timid, almost -- there was something in her eyes that Harrison couldn’t quite figure out. And he wanted to figure it out. He glanced up at the church, at the closed door; his visit wasn’t urgent, and he wasn’t going to push her to go where she didn’t need to go.

“I like to think I’m a good samaritan,” he said with a laugh. “I’m a member. Kind of,” he said. There weren’t many sermons at night. If one didn’t attend sermons did that make one a member? He should, eventually, find a church where he could work -- become a nighttime minister. But how does one go for that kind of job interview? Would most most the ministers in this city think that vampires were walking evil?

“I’m new to the city myself. It’s been a few months,” he said, absently shifting his gaze back to his new acquaintance. He held out a hand -- one that would be cold to the touch, but at least the coldness of his skin was something he could laugh off as a ‘thing’, something he’d always had. Cold extremities. In fact, his hands used always to be too warm. It was an odd little thing to miss.

“I’m Harrison,” he said. The conversation had lasted more than two minutes -- it seemed pertinent to introduce himself. “We don’t have to go into the church. If you don’t want to…” he said. We. It was an invitation. Whether she decided to go into the church or not, he could show her around (to the best of his ability) regardless.



RIKKI If she hadn’t already felt breathless from the initial scare, then his laugh probably would have taken her breath away. It was unexpected, yes, but a sound she found she liked. Wanting to hear it again, a red tint spread over her cheeks and she quickly looked away. If she was going to think like that, the least she could do was be a little less obvious about it. But if he had noticed, he didn’t mention it as he pressed on.

Before she could process the fact he was a fairly new face for the city, as well, he reached out a hand. Her eyes fell onto it with a split second of hesitation before she grasped it in her own. Where she expected to feel the heat of his palm, she was met with a shock of cold. Where one might have pulled away in surprise, she could only look back at him without words. The question was there, in her gaze, but never voiced.

“Harrison…” she said, as if testing it out on her lips. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Rikki.” Only then did she realize she hadn’t let go of his hand and immediately released her hold, hand falling back to her side as the rest of what he had said settled over her. He had said ‘we,’ hadn’t he? As in, he go out of his way to accompany her, even if it wasn’t inside?

There was a pause in the conversation while she quickly considered. Harrison had obviously come for a reason, and she wasn’t entirely comfortable just pulling him from it. With a burning desire to accept his invitation, she offered a small nod and backed away to grab for the door, inching it open, “I suppose, at the very least, we can go inside to confirm your story as to its beauty. And...maybe, I manage to linger around long enough for you to do any business you had?” She would be fine. Her heart wasn’t about to burst out of her chest all over, again. She’d be….she’d be okay.



HARRISON The question was seen in Rikki’s eyes, but Harrison didn’t answer it. He pretended like he hadn’t seen it at all. Eventually his hand was released and he returned it to his pocket. He pushed it deep, as if it might find and hold some warmth there, as one might do in Winter. But there was no warmth -- just a ghost of it. As soon as Rikki had said they would go inside the church, Harrison stepped toward the large wooden door and pushed it open, stepping inside. He held the door open and gestured for Rikki to come inside.

The church was as grand as it was humble. The pews were just wooden chairs but the brick was old. It was as old as the city itself, the church perhaps one of the first to be built. Over the years it would have been refurbished to keep it all from crumbling down. Whoever owned it, whoever took care of it -- they had pride in this church. There was a lot of love and devotion in these bricks. Harrison could feel it. It was why he loved the place so much.

The columns reached up to an arched roof. The lights were electric in their chandeliers, but they were warm; they were all still lit up, bathing the entire space in a glow reminiscent of sunrise. The magnificent stained glass window would look better during the day, but it was still beautiful.

“I don’t have any business. Not really. I just like to come here to think,” he said, voice hushed in the quiet church. Noise had a habit of echoing in here. “It’s a good place to come and think, if you’re ever in need. People won’t bother you here,” he said, watching Rikki curiously.

[Church]



RIKKI Once Harrison held the door open wide, Rikki took a steadying breath before she ducked around him to enter the sacred place. She waited patiently for him to close the door behind them before finally turning around to take in the church. A hand shot to her mouth to stifle an involuntary gasp, eyes wide as she attempted to take in the entire room. The stain-glass windows held her attention the longest, as she found the religious symbols and beautiful images hidden within.

“Wow…” she whispered, moving further into the church and away from Harrison’s side. For the moment, her conflicting beliefs going quiet in the face of such a place. It was quiet, well-maintained, and obviously had a history to it that few probably knew. In the silence, her steps seemed to echo as she made her way over to one of the wooden chairs, lowering herself down while being careful to straighten out her dress.

Now that she had a clear view of the altar, her hands came together in her lap and she began to twist the diamond ring on her left hand, nervously. Despite the fact that Harrison didn’t ask, she offered him the start of an explanation. “The last time I was in a church...I ran away from the altar…” Her voice was similarly hushed and strained, like tears threatened to fall. The memory was still fresh, and no less painful. Except, not for the reasons one might think. Despite leaving her fiance, she had run from her family and friends, as well. That was the part that hurt.

With a soft laugh, she rubbed furiously at her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Harrison. “I can see why you must like it here…it really is beautiful.” she commented with a gesture to their surroundings. It really was peaceful. Apparently, her grandmother wasn’t quite as crazy as she seemed. Still, that nagging and rational voice in her head refused to simmer down.

“This...may be totally inappropriate, and I apologize if it is…” she began, shifting in her chair so that she was facing him, rather than the altar. “What makes you sure that...God...exists? How do you accept blind faith?” He had said he was a member, of sorts. That had to mean that he believed. Right?



HARRISON Harrison couldn’t help the smile as he witnessed Rikki’s reaction to the church. It was inspiring in and of itself. It didn’t need a God to worship. But then, it wouldn’t exist if there was no God to worship. The woman mentioned the last time she was in a church, and Harrison was intrigued, of course. She ran away from the altar? Why? There were plenty of reasons why someone might be at an altar; every week in communion, people end up in front of the altar. It would depend on how often she’d gone to church, and whether it was only for special occasions.

Questions for a later time.

The question wasn’t inappropriate at all. It was just a variation, really -- back in Scotland, when he’d ministered his own church, it was a question he’d often been asked in some way, shape or form. Plenty of people had crises of faith, and they came to him to see if he could help them stumble back onto the right path. He turned to gaze momentarily at one of the stations of the cross. It all depended on the person, how honest his answer would be.

“I wasn’t always a man of God,” he said, eventually turning back to Rikki. “Which makes me sound so stuffy, I know. I had a hard childhood and there are things…” he hesitated. Even now he could see spirits that Rikki could not; those who were devout in their life, probably wondering, now, why their spirits still lingered on the mortal plane. They’d come to their church to seek guidance. Perhaps it was possible they could prey themselves to absolution. Or maybe there was no God at all -- or if there was, he wasn’t paying attention to this little church in Harper Rock.

“I read the literature first and I guess I wasn’t swayed by the miracles or the proposed existence of an almighty being. I was instead swayed by the myriad, grand and minute acts of kindness. I believe in God as a construct. Whether he exists or not is beside the point,” he said, wondering if he was making any sense. “A belief in God should be a belief in kindness and generosity. A belief in… acceptance and equality. It doesn’t matter a person’s creed or past, no one should be exempt from common courtesy and human kindness,” he said. That’s what he believed he was here for, now -- he was here to help.

He offered a smile.

“Does that answer your question…?” he asked, because he wasn’t so sure.