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BITTERSWEET MEMORIES: A naked dark haired woman touches the cold stone
of a mansion, "My poor father and dear mother...yes, how she loved them so.
And how they loved her back, so true. So faithful. so innocent. How they did love
their little girl...surrounded her with kisses, smothered her with love. And how
the little darling changed when Bianca came to call. And a lovely 18th birthday we
all had. She thought me a bad dream as I sat back, deep within her mind." This
vampire made the girl's mind snap and emerged within the child of the parents'. She
remembers the faces of the parents'. The vampire girl says, "Oh daddy, you were
marvelous, right to the bitter end." She stands over a skeleton that has hair
on it. Now she lives again, "Bianca the vampire is back!" Western Sky:
Aidin tells Amish to go away. He is in for the shitter he tells Amish. He thinks
his memory is going and he's been havin bad dreams. Amish asks, "Wettin' the
bed now, is it?" Bosha, a blond crewcut haired girl comes in and leaves with
Amish. Amish asks if he is okay, more seriously now. Aidin tells him he is thinkin'
of visiting Hue. A strange boy with leather jacket and head rag watches them leave.
Aidin asks, "Wha ere yer lookin' at, ya little shit? Yer not even supposed to
be in here!" The bar tender tells the witch boy not to disturb the patrons again.
Aidin tells Ned no harm done. Aidin goes to Hue whom he thinks never sleeps, Hue
Cooper was expecting him. Since he was a little boy Aidin used to go to Arkum books,
Hue's store, and was not bothered that Hue never changed. He tells Hue about the
dreams as they have fresh brewed coffee. Bosha drives a motorcycle fast and then
gets off to fool around with her passengers, Amish. They encounter an old man, the
Walker, in the park. He calls Bosha a moon bitch and knows her kind after he bites
the head off a rabbit. He tells Amish to beware, the bitch is in heat. Ancient stones
erected at the dawn of time, a Druids' blood and sacrifice, the secret people, the
faerie folk. A boy in loin cloth only and with light almost white hair, plays an
old windpipe of wood. Herne the Hunter, an entity with horns comes to him and calls
him Bogin, asking why he weeps. He weeps for the passing, the ending of the hunt,
the land changing the old ways fading, there are few of them left. He wonders where
Herne will go. Herne tells him the hounds are always ready, the Green Man will return
one day. The wheel has no end. The boy tells him there is something else from the
time before their time: something evil. Herne says, "Yes, my Robin." The
boy tells him he will observe and says, "Til next time, father forest."
Herne tells him fare thee well, Puck. Hue recalled a boy living hand to mouth, barefoot,
tattered, living on the streets of London when the bridge still stood and the houses
and shops on it were new. He nearly died twice of the sickness. He'd seen wars fought,
thousands die, and fall in love. He met the vampire, a cruel beast of a thing with
fangs and a horrid face, wild eyes, that lived on poor people of the docks. It didn't
kill Hue but changed him. Isabell is another memory. He watched her grow old and
die. Like so many friends. He lived his own life span bypreying on thugs and robbers
who lived beneath the city. He became lonely and guilty and then stopped. Although
the withdrawal from human blood was taking its toll he persisted, preferring to treat
his condition as an affliction. He continued his treatment, living on animal blood
and gradually venturing out in the sun little by little. Years passed. Hue began
to return to humanity almost a century after being bitten. He moved every 20 or 30
years, wore a hat and shades outside and subsided on rare meat and vegetables. He
has some powers and his sanity, though he knew that many change as it did with others.
Aidin dreams: a priest finishes the service as John Cooper is buried. Aidin and his
mother are there. Aidin tells her he will always stay with her. The vampire comes,
calling Aidin her love. She tells him she has always been with him through his life,
telling him they were lovers. Hue appears, telling her she has toyed with him long
enough. He is older than she is and with more experience and he claims with more
power. The girl turns into a monster talking behind a tombstone, cracking it with
her claws. She becomes a demon with wings and sharp claws, four on each hand and
a long three clawed foot. Hue stands by his friend even though the thing tells him
she has more power and he knows nothing of power. Aidin wakes up screaming. He tells
Hue the girl in the dreams is changing his memoriesóóall the things that make him
up are differing. Hue gives him a few pills to take before bed to allow him to sleep
through the night so that she won't trouble him. Hue stands at his window lost in
private thoughts (a bit like Barnabus in DARK SHADOWS). Aidin Coleen walked home
through the mist. Somewhere a vampire laughed. |