“Thanks for that, Bob. We’ll have more on the potential alien toddler invasion in Strangerville later, but first on to our top story.
“The search continues for April Moss, 18, daughter of the late superstar Sandy Moss. It is believed that April is in the company of her two friends who are also missing; they have been identified as Faith Splodge, 19, a customer service assistant and Melinda Bucket, 18, a college student both from Willow Creek.”
“The three girls were last seen in the early hours of Sunday 30th April, leaving Joe’s Bar in Forgotten Hollow. They were in the company of three local men; one of these men, Dale BarGuy, 34, is currently in police custody. The location of the other two men, Paul Pants, 28, and William Wangshaft, 39, is currently unknown.”
“We now cross live to our correspondent, Reb Porter who is at Joe’s Bar in Forgotten Hollow.”
“Thanks Lorna. We arrived at the scene just as Dale BarGuy was being escorted away by police. We currently don’t know much about him other than he appeared to have suffered a recent, significant facial injury, thought to be the result of a bar brawl. He had been in the company of William Wangshaft this evening, however William fled the scene shortly before police arrived—“
“He’s a sack of shit, that one.”
“Sir, we’re live—“
“Mark my words! Wangshaft had something to do with it! Strutting around here like the big ‘I am’, groping anything in a skirt. Complete and utter sack of—“
“To be honest, I’m getting pretty sick of this Sandy Moss bollocks. What? I’m back on? Apologies, viewers. We appear to have lost that report. We’ll have more from Reb later. Well I don’t bleeding know! Just scroll the autocue a bit. Police appeal for anyone with information on the whereabouts of the two men or of the three girls to contact them immediately.”
—
In a run-down motel room in the arse-end of nowhere, the four of them lay in wait. They were trapped here while the sun shone with nothing to do but watch the depressing news. It was certainly a concern that the media was so close behind, that the police were right on their tail, that their faces were so public.
But Faith had much bigger things to worry about right this second.
She stared intently into those big, blue eyes. Her voice was low and unusually serious as she once again asked, “Who are you?”
“I am Amy Algae from Willow Creek and I would like an iced mint tea,” April replied in a weird accent.
Faith nodded. “Iced mint tea. I guess that’s an improvement from elderflower cucumber champagne spritz with a twist of lime. But maybe you’d prefer a lemonade? And lose that accent. You sound like a cross between a pirate and a parrot, somehow.”
“But you said I sounded too posh before.”
“You did, but now you sound insane. Try speaking normally, but just… less posh. Try to sound more like me.”
April closed her eyes, tilted her head side to side. She drew her hand down her centre as if she were undoing an invisible zipper and letting her inner commoner out. She’d often seen her mother do this when getting into character or when she was about to talk to the help.
April blinked open her eyes, a harsh expression now etched into her flawless, doll-like features.
“I’m Amy fuckin’ Algae outta Willow Creek. Gimme a shittin’ lemonade, mofo.”
The room was silent for a while before everyone except April collapsed, laughing.
“What the fuck was that?” Faith managed through snorts.
“What was wrong with it this time?” April asked, bewildered by this reaction. “I sounded just like you!”
“You bloody didn’t. I’m not some ‘hood thug.”
April threw her hands up, exasperated. “Ugh! I’ll work on it. It’s not like I’m going to be ordering many drinks, anyway. Shush, you,” she said, shoving Caleb who was laughing beside her. She turned her attention back to her friends. “Are you two going to be Maude and Fanny again? If you are, you’ll need surnames.”
Faith scoffed. “I don’t wanna be Fanny, it reminds me too much of that dickhead. I think I’ll call myself Violet. Violet um…” She looked around the shabby motel room. “Closet? No. Lamp? Hmm. Divan? Yes! Violet Divan.” She turned to Melinda and purred. “Ms. Violet Divan, at your service.”
Melinda shook her head. “Too suggestive. I’m OK with Maude. I’ll be Maude Smith.”
“Boring,” Faith said pretending to yawn. “At least have a fun surname like Divan.”
“No. We can’t all have fun names; it’ll look suspicious,” Melinda said, ever sensible.
“Fine. So we’re Amy Algae, Maude Smith and Violet Divan, if anyone asks,” Faith said. “Next order of business—“
“Wait, who am I?” Caleb asked.
“Why you’re Caleb Vatore! A vampire in a black shirt, of course.”
Caleb pouted. “Don’t I get a new name? I’ve always wanted to be called Thor.”
“Thor? Are you ten? Nobody’s looking for you and nobody knows who you are. Just be Caleb; this is enough new names to remember as it is.”
“Next order of business: cash,” Melinda said. “I withdrew everything my dad sent me. Four hundred and twenty-five simoleons.”
“OK. So if we add in every penny I have to my name, that brings us up to four hundred and twenty-seven simoleons. Caleb, anything to add to that?”
Caleb dug into his pocket and held out his hand. “Four simoleons. No, wait. Three simoleons and a button.”
“Is that it?” Faith asked. “Anything stashed away in a bank acc- no, wait. Let me guess. Lilith held the purse strings, right?”
“She earned all the money,” Caleb said. “I did have an allowance, but I doubt I’ll get that this week. Or any week now. I knew I shouldn’t have settled my bar tab yesterday; that was almost three hundred simoleons.”
“Three hundred? Caleb, you have a problem,” Melinda said.
“Joe’s drinks are expensive…”
Faith groaned. “Is it even worth asking? Apr- Amy; any money?”
“I have my credit card,” April said in her normal, posh voice. “But it only has a credit limit of about five thousand simoleons. I don’t carry cash.”
“They’ll be watching that card, April… um, Amy,” Melinda said.
“Yeah, we’re not using that unless we really have to. So, we have four hundred and thirty simoleons. How much is this motel room, Caleb?”
“Three simoleons per hour,” he replied. “I think that’s a fairly standard rate. Not that I’ve ever rented rooms by the hour. I haven’t. Alright, once or twice but only because—“
“Stop talking,” Melinda hissed.
“Per hour? Why would they charge per hour?” April asked.
“Why do you think, Blondie?” Faith replied, watching as the cogs turned in her friend’s pretty head and her expression changed from curiosity, through to fleeting anger directed at the man beside her, finally settling on general disgust.
“That’s revolting! What is wrong with the world? Please can we stay in some proper hotels at some point, not these seedy ones? Ones with nice toiletries, clean sheets, concierges…”
“No. April Moss would stay in ‘proper’ hotels. Amy Algae is a rough-and-ready motel girl,” Melinda reminded her.
“I feel cheap and dirty.”
“Good, then we’re getting somewhere. Time to embrace disgrace, Amy. OK, so if that is the going rate for a room, as reliably informed by a man who has definitely never spent his pocket money on them, and we’ll only need it during the day,” Faith started counting on her fingers, “that’s four hundred and thirty, divided by… um… three? How many hours sunlight in a day? Eight? So two years. No, that’s not right…”
“About ten days,” Melinda said, swiftly. “We’ll need to find another abandoned house or something to hide in.”
“I have somewhere in mind, if it’s still standing,” Caleb said. “It’s just outside of Windenburg; we should be able to get there within a few days.”
“Wonderful. OK, so then on to the final issue, the big one: food. How many plasma packs did we get?”
“Ninety-six,” Melinda replied, sadly. “I still think we should have left Lilith some. We should have checked she was OK. We should have—“
“You’re too soft,” Faith huffed. “Ninety-six packs; how many days is that?”
“How many do we need each day? I think I can get by on one or two,” Melinda said. April and Faith nodded in agreement. “So that’s at least twelve days before we have to start hunting,” she finished, uneasily.
Caleb cleared his throat. “You girls might still only need one or two. I need a few more than that.”
“How many more? Three? Four?” Melinda asked, Caleb shook his head, pointed upwards. “More than four? That’s just greedy.”
“Seven, perhaps eight or even nine if I’ve been in the sun or running a lot.” Caleb rubbed the back of his neck, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Any less and I run the risk of going rogue.”
“Fuck,” Faith stated inelegantly. “Your thirst must be fierce. I bet you’ll really enjoy chomping on a few tasty necks each night after all this time behaving, won’t you Wild Boy?”
“Holy hell,” he mumbled, lost in thought. “I shouldn’t. I can’t.”
“Why not?” Melinda asked. “We’re all going to have to, at some point.”
“I lack restraint,” he admitted, glancing at April. “Before Lilith came up with the plasma packs, I was never allowed to drink alone; she supervised me.”
“Of course she did,” Faith muttered. “Another way to clip your wings.”
“I can supervise you!” April gushed, clapping her hands. “I don’t mind hunting. We can go together. It’ll be almost like a dinner date, vampire-style.”
Caleb pulled her closer. “We could make it a real date? Sneak into the cinema and perhaps take a moonlit stroll along the waterfront before we attack a few strangers?”
“I’d like that.”
“We’ll have to get you a disguise if you’re going out, Amy,” Melinda said.
“Also, I might book a second room,” Faith said to Melinda. “All this bloodthirsty talk has woken up the demon in me. You can have all the plasma packs, Mel. You also get to choose whether you’d rather hang out in a room with the ‘newlyweds’, or if you’d prefer to watch my hunting tactic of wrestling horny men into submission.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. “What kind of choice is that? I’d rather let the sun burn my eyes off. You could try hunting using your new power, instead? Blasting them across the room and powering down their brains.”
“Boo! That’s not as fun. What was that thing I did anyway? Fringey, any ideas?” Faith asked.
“No idea. But I don’t even have my fringe now. Can’t I be called Thor?” he whined.
“Oh for fuck’s sake. Fine! You can be Thor. Now stop sulking and make yourself useful. I need you to go to the store to get bleach and glue. Come on girls; you can help me get these hair extensions out.” Faith waved her hand in front of Melinda’s face. “Hello? Earth to Mel!”
“Huh?”
“You OK?”
“Yes, I’m just thinking about my dad. When you all go out hunting later, I’ll go and find a payphone, give him a call. Let him know I’m OK.”
—
What did I miss, Mellybean?
< Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter >
Almost Eternal 
Your news headlines continue to crack me up. “Still sort of looking for these”. Lol. “Reb Porter” dear gods your names. xDDDD With all three of them having close-ups of their faces shown on the media, though… they better get some good disguises if they want to stay ahead of the police. Or more gold-digging blood hound-wannabes like Will. Not that he’ll be bothering them anymore.
Hahaha, the four of them working on their aliases and disguises is hilarious! April impersonating Faith already had me chuckling, but Caleb insisting on being called Thor just about did me in. I’m picturing him with blonde hair and that ridiculous marvel superhero cape now. Ah hell, he’d probably like the marvel superhero cape, wouldn’t he?
As usual, Melinda seems to be the one that has the best head on her shoulders, haha. And the biggest wallet to keep them afloat for a little while. Though Caleb’s button absolutely counts too ofc.
Hm. This comment is getting long. I’ll break it up and post the rest on the forums.
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What’s wrong with my names? It’s like you think I make them up on a whim or something. Reb Porter, Dale BarGuy… we also have the likes of Fred Wino, Joe Taverner and Lorna Broad-Caster; tells you exactly what their purpose is in the story, right? Nice and straightforward. Ah yes, Wangshaft will not be bothering the girls again. Definitely. Probably.
I thought ‘Thor’ sounded a bit more believable than ‘Superman’.
Fun fact: if buttons were currency I’d be super rich because I have thousands upon thousands of them. I’ll show you my favourite ones when you come visit me. Something to look forward to.
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Back to chaos and even more unresolved issues 🥴
I’m excited about how the four will do without Lilith’s guiding.
It’s like watching a bunch of teenagers solve all the problems in the world with the flick of a finger. Everything is so simple.
Even though it looks like Caleb has his doubts, he reacts just as childishly when it comes.
The ending breaks my heart💔 😭
I assume this is Chuck’s last thoughts we to see before his total annihilation.
Oh! Melinda …. what would you do if you knew the truth?
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More unresolved issues? Still not hearing that beep? The four have got everything so very well planned, Mona. How can anything possibly go wrong? 😇
I promise you don’t have to wait long to find out Chuck’s fate.
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Good question …. What can really go wrong now? 🤨🤪😅
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Ahh if only news reports were like this real life. Would be so much more fun to watch. xD I also think they purposely grabbed the saddest pictures of Mel and Faith they could find. :joy: Did you also purposely give Reb a gap in her teeth? That’s kinda cute!
Old guy has brown eyes. And angry at Wangshaft. I like him already.
Lol Sandy had to mentally prep herself to talk to help? Ha ha ha ha. The woman is nuts!
Three simoleons per hour for a room? WHAT? Wait? How does that translate to real life? I need to know. Motels that I know of are crazy expensive! I want this culture tidbit thanks.
Seth brought him to Lilith? O.o and the girl beside Faith with the big hairdo, is that mel when she lets go of her braids?
I love everyone’s dynamic. Haha. April didn’t realise Caleb out himself about the rooms.. lool… Glad there was no storm there.
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Reb was a CAS random roll who I dressed a bit. I thought the teeth were super cute on her.
Clearly, like April, you’ve been spoiled with your fancy hotels. 😂 There are some seriously dodgy hotels in certain areas of my home city who will offer you a 3 hour slot during the day for £10, so I was basing it off that. It’s probably not a set-up that allows for scrupulous cleaning between guests, mind. Whether the rooms and the rates will be the same when they get closer to the picturesque Windenburg remains to be seen.
Yes, big hair girl is Melinda. That girl has a lot of hair.
Caleb didn’t explicitly say why he rented the rooms. Might be completely innocent.
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Oh… the one in my ex-area was 90 an hour. But i did stumble upon a $24 per night while travelling. Holy smokes that was a freakin dump. Some guy there offered me happy pills too lol. But i didnt think to call it a motel. I assumed motels have higher standards than whatever that was.
If you’re wondering, no. My reason for knowing is not the same as Caleb reasons. 😝 better put it down just in case haha!
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Lmao the news segment had me in stiches. The names, he presenter when she thought they were not rolling, just brilliant! 😀
Amy Fuckin Algae is a hoot.
Ok, serious stuff now. They better change Caleb’s name, surely if anyone does any kind of investigation in Forgotten Hollow the Vatore siblings is the first thing they’ll hear about. So I hope they’re not going with Thor Vatore. They are, aren’t they.
Their whole “plan” really shows how short-sighted they are, the lot of them. I can’t expect any better from Caleb or April, but Faith and Melinda should know better. But of course they don’t.
Also, even if they weren’t splattered all over the news, a group of people lugging 100 bags of blood around cheap motels is definitely going to be sus in their own right. Lol.
Oof, that end segment, so much mystery. I wonder what the crying in the toilet bit was, did Faith get pregnant during one of her sexcapades? Or was it just the aftermath of her first time with Johnny Underwhelming or whatever his name was?
But the end though… did Chuck end up at the Vatore house for some reason? The house looks like it, so I’m assuming the legs are Lilith’s legs. Either she must have found him in the woods dying and is in a dire need of a new project, with everyone gone, or Seth would have brought him there after feeding for whatever reason. Let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the goodness of his kind heart. More like because he realised Chuck might yet be beneficial in locating Faith. Either seems plausible.
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I guess that depends on how they pronounce ‘Vatore’. As a Brit, it would rhyme with Thor, but then you’ve got those weirdos who would pronounce the ‘e’. Maybe he’ll just be ‘Thor.’ with no surname. Or Thor Algae as they are ‘married’ now and she’s giving him everything else, might as well have her name too.
It’s a great plan, I don’t know what you mean. I don’t foresee any issues whatsoever. They’ll all happily get to this place just outside Windenburg and unlive happily ever after until everything blows over. And it’s only 96 blood bags. More like 90 now as Caleb’s probably had a few since this chapter was published, greedy boy.
Johnny Underwhelming 😂. I think it was Adam, or Alan but who knows? I’m sure that memory has some significance or Seth wouldn’t bother looking at it. But maybe I’m bluffing and Faith purely had an epic case of the shits from eating all of Babs’s terrible food.
Definitely Lilith’s legs. I don’t have anyone else running around in those god awful trousers and boots. You are going to LOVE the next chapter, I think. 😆
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I haven’t considered they could pronounce it the Italian way – somehow that doesn’t sound like it would roll off the tongue when Fanny- er Violet says it😆
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She’s probably still going to call him Fringey. Fringey Whingey maybe.
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There are so many bad ideas and terrible plans piled on top of each other, these idiots are going to get themselves killed…or…er…more killed. I’m really enjoying the tension of them bumbling along with Caleb, blithely unaware that he’s not some poor gentle soul who is bossed around by his mean sister. I mean, they are teenagers so I get why that would be the version of events that makes sense to them.
Y’all better plan to grow up soon.
Got some shivers at the end of the chapter with my favorite psychopath doing something horrible and probably devastating.
I also just realized Will’s last name is Wangshaft and I am not mature enough to handle it.
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Welcome to book two; pull up a seat, get somewhat comfy.
Bad ideas? Terrible plans? These lot? Nah, it’ll all be fine, them touring the motels of the area with their sack of blood bags and their big, squishy, definitely not a sex fiend murderer vampire buddy.
Seth? Do something horrible? Why ever would he?
Me: “I need a surname for a powerful, supernatural-hunting family that can be carried down the generations and strike fear into anyone who hears it.”
Also me: “Wangshaft… tee hee hee.”
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*giggles* I´m definitely one of the weirdos pronouncing “Vatore” the Italian way. Sure rolls off my tongue easier that way. 😀
Also noticed Caleb´s eyes started glowing at the mere mention of a hunt. Mmm, something tells me April isn´t the best person to help make sure there´s no more tracks for the bloodhounds to follow.
…and that thirst. Is it that vampires generally need more as they age, or are we going along with game mechanics here? Because so far as I know… the thirstiest vampires can´t learn to tame theirs. Now /that/ would explain a lot.
*sigh* Faith. I see what you´re doing, trying to see how much fun your hunting method could really be. Trying to see if you can make it so you don´t miss a certain someone, ech? I think Mel should definitely stay with the “newlyweds.” They seem to be back at the first kiss stage, so that should be okay. XDD
And Seth got Chuck to Lilith, alive? … … but unlike Seth, Lilith /is/ thirsty. And she ain´t got none of her packs. …how… /sweet./ Awwwh, look. He´s trying to look out for her. :3 …not. He´s trying to break her abstinence, isn´t he. That rascal. 😀 (And I´m still worried for Chuck. But a little less than before. Lilith wouldn´t /kill/ him, would she?)
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Ah, yes. The thought of a hunt certainly lights a fire in Mr. VatorE.
How much they need to drink in a day is my own lore, based on a few factors, including their age and exertion.
Faith can either have a bag of cold, congealed blood or tap the source and enjoy a wriggly, warm human at the same time. Nah, she’s not missing anyone as I’m sure she’d tell you.
Yes, Seth is looking out for Lilith; definitely no ulterior motives or games going on here. Aww.
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Tee-hee, all these little details you put in. Love it. 😀 I´ll keep an eye out for anymore clues.
*grins* Well, the best lies are those that are half true. And Faith´s right, I said it before, i´ll say it again. That gloop must be incredibly nasty.
Speaking of… Lilith´s resolve to drink it may be looked at in two different ways. Her not drinking live blood may be seen as staying “sober” as she apparently does… or it could be seen as having the vampiric version of an eating disorder. Depending on which viewpoint is picked, one can also draw different conclusions about Seth for trying to get through to her. ;D
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