Introductions

We go back to the hospital wing I’d been confined in and the Doc leaves me in a chair while he goes to collect the Falcon. Ferris stays behind and sits in a chair across from me. She lights another cigarette but seems to have decided she doesn’t need to share anymore. “How did you handle it? When you found out about the book and being human again?” I ask when the silence becomes obnoxious. She pauses to take a drag before answering and I find myself again being impressed with her looks. She catches me staring and gives me a half-smile. “It was hard. It will be hard for you as well. Maybe the book is a punishment sent by the God Fenrir, maybe being human again is meant to remind me of what things should be fought for. I’ve been here for three years. I only stayed because they said they had a way to kill vampires. As long as I do that, perhaps Fenrir will forgive my people and we will be free again,” she says this like she’s got it memorized. She sure as hell hasn’t been saving it for me. I decide it’s my turn to not talk and stay quiet. It’s enough trouble to acknowledge the idea of some divine power existing at all, much less that people can read it out of a book and use it against biological invulnerability. The Doc finally comes back into the room and we both standup. Behind him, a kid that couldn’t have been much older than eighteen walks in with his hands in his pockets. His hair is dyed black and there is an earring in one of his ears. His lower lip is pierced. But none of that really phases me. It’s the crucifix around his neck that I lock onto. “Hi, my name is Jacob,” he says. He sticks out his hand and I shake it numbly. Glancing down, the enormity of the problem finally sinks in all the way. He’s wearing a ‘W.W.J.D’ bracelet.