Chapter 3 – Devil & the Sea.
[19th February, 2021.]
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Act 1
Scene i: Burien Restaurant.
In the upstairs office of the restaurant the following evening, the three Cainites debated which answer they should give to the Tacoma court, verbally juggling with the pros and cons of siding with Leo and his boon, and the reaction their decision would make among the northern clans of the Seattle court once they were discovered.
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Assuming that there would be immediate reprisals from the South if they were to ignore Leo’s claims, their decision rested on the narrow chance they could avoid the wrath of the North by describing their actions as mere subterfuge, ingratiating themselves into the Tacoma court as possible spies.
Mikhail and Elwin gave their assent , waiting in silence as Ed dialled the number. After the pre-recorded laundry message, he spoke a single word after the answering machine tone: ‘Accepted’...
Scene ii: Mt Baker, South Seattle.
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Months later, Elwin was seated in the wood-panelled lounge room of his friend’s house. A previous incident with Blackie and Tibble at The Palace had led Elwin to search for other avenues of street gossip concerning their (Blackie & Tibble’s) membership with the Anarchs, as well as their local connection to the heroin trade.
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Shaun Hays, the Tremere’s mortal friend, paused to inhale through a cigarette before answering. He knew both of the Anarchs, had even partied with them after their gigs around southern Seattle (although he was ignorant of Blackie’s true vampiric nature). According to the recent rumours Shaun had been privy to, Blackie’s tribe of biker nomads had ripped off their stock from a major supplier in one of the Southern States.
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Changing the topic of conversation, Elwin asked about the job Shaun had given him months earlier. The trial data seemed to be a miracle cure against cancer, and he was curious about the mystery pharmaceutical company known only as ‘Medi-Laz US’ that had formulated it. Shaun recalled little about the company itself, having quickly sold the original copies of the records to an odious ‘man’ whom had remained inside a discreet black vehicle.
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The meeting place had been a multistorey car park in the city, and the sinister client had left no further clues except for the alphanumeric details of their numberplate, which Shaun had memorized. Keeping these facts to himself, Shaun promised to share the information later, after Elwin had completed some more jobs for him...
Scene iii: Redline Diner, Burien.
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Elsewhere at the city limits, Ed was watching Gary finish the last forkfuls of a hot dinner as they sat at the window booth of the diner. The pair had been discussing the rise and fall of “Mexican Brown”, a cheaper cut of heroin that was drying up around the southern neighbourhoods.
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Listening to Gary’s itchy syntax and hyperbole, it was becoming apparent to Ed that the Anarchs had been running Mexican Brown through SeaTac, possibly dabbling with a taste of it themselves by feeding off of the addicts they had been selling to.
Act 2
Scene i: St Anne Hospital, Burien.
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Some nights after his visit to Shaun, Elwin was dressed as an orderly pushing a trolley of equipment through the corridors of a hospital, avoided eye contact with any passing staff or patients until he was able to turn the trolley around the corner into an empty linoleum hallway.
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Discreetly entering the hospice ward at the end of the corridor, Elwin was opening a window to leave through when the fabric swish of a bed screen curtain opened behind him. Turning away from his egress to catch the source of the disturbance, he laid eyes upon a sickly old man who was looking back at him with sly curiosity.
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Asking if he were an “angel” that had come to give him the final mercy he had been praying for, Elwin inquired what he meant by this statement. The patient motioned toward the switch of the monitors keeping him alive, pleading with weak breath that he wanted to die, as his remaining days were mired by pain.
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Sympathising with the grave request, Elwin agreed before he cautiously shifted the monitor to the bedside table of a nearby sleeper, connecting the heart sensor onto their unsuspecting body to ensure that no staff would be alerted to the old man’s death.
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Closing the valves on the oxygen lines, he felt the warmth of human hands touch his own as a silent thankyou, cataract eyes smiling until they froze in eternal rest. Closing the curtain view of the sleeping form, Elwin took up the storage chest he had smuggled out of the hospital’s blood bank and resumed his escape through the window.
Scene ii: Fisher King Art Gallery, Columbia City.
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Later that week, a crowd of art patrons had gathered to appraise the black & white photography of a Seattle local whose works were often seen in the ‘alternative’ newspapers, accompanying the stories of street journalists whom spoke for the poorer neighbourhoods.
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Ed remained inconspicuous among the crowd, unrecognized as the photographer whose framed images they were all admiring whilst a gallery spokeswoman commented on each piece.
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The cultural forum was upset when a haughty femme fatal entered the gallery, loudly vocalizing her opinions that the exhibit was a droll cliché at best, derivative and exploiting the suffering of paupers. Behind the wide frame sunglasses and hat, Ed had recognized the opinionated young woman as his Toreador rival; Christine Rosa.
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Satisfied with her intrusion’s affect, Christine slipped an ivory-white card into Ed’s pocket, an invitation to attend Elysium at The Hoge Building.
Scene iii: Holly Park, South Seattle.
After the exhibition, Ed and his sombre beagle ignored the rain, wandered from the lights of the main avenues toward the rundown housing estate of Holly Park in the south, a suburb that he had once called home in his mortal years.
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Letting himself into the private backyard of his ex-wife home, Ed’s animal magnetism quelled a pair of dogs before they could challenge him for entering their territory, stroking them behind the ears as he approached the rear door of the house to look for any signs of movement within.
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Keeping close to the outside walls as he trod silently to the frame of the kitchen window lights, Ed could overhear a familiar voice, talking on the phone in distress as the caller delivered to her the bad news of a family friend’s illness.
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Listening closer to the exchange, it became apparent to Ed that his ex-wife was talking about Zeb Taylor, the union leader from his previous employment at Boeing over a decade ago. Zeb had worked tirelessly for people like Ed and his family, and the news of his illness stirred old memories for the Gangrel.
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After his ex-wife had retired for the night and left the house in darkness, Ed passed through the familiar rooms, pausing at the sight of his granddaughter asleep in her bed as the abrasion of rain continued on the roof.
Scene iv: St Anne Hospital.
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Later that evening, Elwin had been hiding behind a screen of foliage, watching the car park and emergency entrance of St Anne Hospital when he recognized a lone figure approaching through the thin rain.
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Leaving his position to be exposed in the soft light of the streetlamps, Elwin caught up to the other kindred, asking Ed why he was visiting the hospital at such a late hour. As they walked together toward the building’s entrance, he nodded with sympathy, listening to the Gangrel’s concerns about the health of an old mortal friend whom had been recently admitted.
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At the hospital’s admin desk, Elwin greeted Anna the receptionist, an acquaintance from the past whom warmed his heart whenever she smiled. After catching up on their mutual (un)lives, Elwin inquired about which ward they might find a patient named Zeb Taylor. The ward’s number was the same as the hospice room he had used to covertly enter St Anne, and where he had recently given death’s mercy to a suffering patient.
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A minute later, Anna looked back at the wall clock with an odd feeling that she had become distracted and lost track of the time, unaware that Ed had clouded her mind by the tone of his voice, ushering Anna from the memory of ever having looked up the patient records for her pale friend, Elwin.
* * *
Entering the hospice ward like noiseless phantoms, the two vampires soon found the sleeping form of Zeb under the ambient bedside lighting, his once solid frame withered by a grave illness, wires reaching from his limbs to the life-sign monitors. Waking slowly to the whispers of two men whom were discussing his condition, Zeb greeted them, oblivious of who they were in the blur of surfacing consciousness.
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Leaving Ed to talk privately with his friend, Elwin closed the curtain partition after he had retrieved the chart folder from the foot of the bed, reading the bad news of Zeb’s declining life. On the other side of the curtain, Ed hinted to the drowsy patient that he was an old acquaintance from the Boeing days, come to encourage him to keep fighting for his life with the same passion he had shown during the factory layoffs of the seventies.
* * *
Walking homeward to Burien as the bad weather continued, Elwin advised Ed that his friend had an advanced stage of bowel cancer, with only a month or more left before it could end his life. However, during his nocturnal travels he had chanced upon the trial data for a cancer vaccine, which might be able to buy Zeb some more time if he could track down any vials of the experimental formula.
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The topic of the next Elysium was also addressed, Elwin having received an invitation through his own Sire. Paranoid that the Northern Court could interrogate themselves and Mikhail on their progress around Burien, they agreed to mutually downplay themselves as much as possible so as to avoid the attentions of the Prince.
Act 3
Scene i: Burien Restaurant.
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Shortly after sunset the next evening both kindred (Ed & Elwin) had joined Mikhail at the restaurant, where they had remained in the upstairs office. Mikhail had retired soon after their arrival to inspect the kitchens and dining front, leaving the pair to watch news repeats on the new television set he had installed.
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One news item caught Ed’s attention, the familiar false smile of Sebastian Green meeting the press to deny recent allegations about his redevelopment plans for the southern neighbourhoods around Holly Park. Angered by the smug arrogance of the cocky little businessman man, Ed’s internal debate on how he’d deal with Sebastian was interrupted by the wail of tyres coming from the main street. As he turned from the screen to listen, a series of gunshots barked before the unmistakable crunch of a vehicle collision.
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Running down the stairs to view the accident out on the street, Ed came upon the scene of a motorcycle folded around the base of a pedestrian light, the rider twisted beyond recovery beside the limp body of their passenger. As a concerned crowd gathered closer, Ed warned them to back away and give the injured some room, however his real concern was the growing revelation that the rider was kindred, possibly one of the Anarchs.
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Having observed the accident from the restaurant’s upper storey, Elwin descended and soon joined Ed in trying to clear away any onlookers, claiming that he was a doctor whilst he bent closer to the prostrate bleeding forms. Realizing the potential danger of a masquerade breach should anyone else discover that the rider was a vampire, he asked Ed to immediately remove the body to the restaurant where it would be in “a safer place” than the road gutter.
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Remaining beside the passenger as Ed and a stranger carried away the now shrivelling corpse of the biker, Elwin detected a faint pulse that gave him hope to try and stabilize her condition, working until the flashing signal of an ambulance arrived to take over the effort to save her.
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Returning to the restaurant, Elwin caught up with Mikhail, Ed, and the bodyguard Sascha, all of whom were looking down at the broken desiccated shell of a vampire drained of their vitae. During the corpse’s recovery, Elwin had been able to absorb some of their blood on his clothing, and via its taste he was able to ‘read’ their soul, identifying the (un)dead biker as Eddie from the Anarchs, a character they had become aware of during their investigation of the heroin trade.
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Stating aloud that the attack on Eddie could have been retaliation against the Anarch’s recent drug rip-off, rather than a personal threat directed at themselves, the Tremere paused after these words, searching for a solution on what to do with Eddie’s remains.
Upset that the body had been brought back to the restaurant in the first place, Mikhail asked them to immediately remove it from the property whilst he diverted the attention of the police whom were waiting in the restaurant’s foyer, agreeing with Ed that it should be driven to Tacoma and left with Leo’s crew to deal with, since he considered the Anarchs as an extension of his southern kindred family, albeit estranged.
Scene ii: Old Town Hall, Tacoma.
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Loading the remains into the boot of Mikhail’s vehicle, Ed climbed behind the wheel, only waiting long enough for Elwin and his beagle companion to enter before driving out of the back alley to converge with the stream of traffic going south on the 509. Wary of the changing speed limits to avoid any attention from the police, he debated with Elwin on how they would find any kindred from the Southern Court, since they could no longer use the phone number (Chapter 2).
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Two hours later, they were rolling slowly through avenues dark and narrow, exploring the historic brick buildings of Old Tacoma for any clues. The distant clock tower face of Old Town Hall rose from the skyline, reminding Ed of an urban legend that the tower was haunted by a ghost that would toll the bells like Hugo’s ‘Quasimodo’. Struck by the idea, he continued to approach, outlining his idea with Elwin before parking the car.
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Finding egress within a lower entrance, the two Cainites worked their way through the internal passages of the tower, carrying the mummified remains of Eddie up to the mechanical gears of the clock’s interior working space.
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Yanking down on a chain pulley to stir the weight of a bell, the long brass note called across the nightscape of the old city. It was some time before their call was answered, Elwin and Ed lingering around the array of giant cogs until a shadow crept into their presence, revealing pupil-less eyes under a tattered tracksuit hood. Recognizing the Nosferatu as “Weeper” from the meeting with Leo (and his voice from past phone conversations), Ed excused their rude summoning as necessary since they had brought with them the bloodless remains of an Anarch that had been attacked.
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Ever since their first contact, Weeper had been suspicious of the Burien coterie, not so quick to forgive their past association with the Northern Court as Leo had been. Nonetheless, he slowly accepted their account as close enough to the truth after he had questioned them, allowing the pair to leave the remains of Eddie in his keeping so they could return home, relieved now of any responsibility for his fate.