THE PROMISE

By Wesley Overhults

Velcoro and Mishkin Modeling Agency, San Francisco, California

June Moone looked at the chaos around her that the fight with Kevin Craft had created. She was still getting used to being in control of her body once more. Letting The Enchantress be in the driver’s seat for extended periods of time caused her to be somewhat disoriented when she finally regained control. That feeling was only compounded by the magic that Craft had used on her. She felt violated in a sense because she could still feel lingering bits of that attraction in her psyche. June shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind so that she could focus on the other things going on. Rachel had disappeared and June didn’t think that the younger girl would be returning to the apartment that they shared, at least not yet. June understood that Rachel had done what needed to be done and didn’t fault her for her actions. It seemed, however, that Rachel needed more time to work through the guilt of those actions. June would field that crisis at a later date. Right now there was the bigger problem in the form of her other best friend.
“I feel kinda sick,” admitted Emily Briggs as she looked at her friend. “You . . . you don’t need to be around me.”
“What happened to you, Em?” asked June, moving towards her but flinching as Emily shrank away.
“I don’t know and I’m too thirsty for you to be around,” answered Emily.
‘She’s been turned, June. She’s a vampire now.’
“I already have one friend who doesn’t want me to help her,” reminded June. “Maybe I can’t help Rachel but right now I can at least help you. We’re going to find you a drink and then figure out what to do next.”
“June, pretty much everybody in this building is a vampire,” stated Emily.
“Well we’re obviously not staying here then.”
Emily shook her head and tried to protest but she was too weak to do much of anything. She had used up whatever power she possessed and now she would need blood to replenish that strength. She didn’t know how she knew these things but she did. Maybe the information was now coded into her DNA or something. Maybe there was a force working inside her that was greater than mere genetics. Whatever the case, she just knew that she needed blood soon or she would likely die for real this time.
“I feel like there are a ton of things we need to talk about,” said Emily. “Thanks, June. You . . . you really don’t have to help me like this.”
“I came here to save my best friend’s life and nothing’s going to stop me,” said June. “Now c’mon, we’re going to call the police and get them over here. After that, we’ll get you a drink.”
“What’re we going to tell the cops?”
“Obviously nothing about the vampires but these people have been running a human trafficking operation and I’m betting we can find some evidence here. That was what I came in here to do before everything went crazy.”
“What was up with Craft anyway?” asked Emily. “And what about your friend? Her name was Rachel, right?”
“I promise we’ll talk about that later, Em,” vowed June. “One thing at a time though.”
Emily nodded and trailed after June. She kept trying to resist the urge to tackle June and sink her teeth into the girl’s neck. It was maddening to fight against what your body was telling you that it needed. She just hoped they could find a solution before the urge was too great to resist.

“You’re going to have to wait here while I see about getting you what you need.”
Emily nodded, looking past June to the hospital that was across the street. She could smell the blood inside that building and it was only increasing her thirst. She knew she was going to have to get some blood in her very soon but she couldn’t stand the thought of June having to steal it for her. Nothing about this situation was right. All of it was a sick, sordid affair that Emily wished she had never been dragged into in the first place. She was just a normal college student who wanted to be famous some day. Now she couldn’t even do that because you couldn’t pose for pictures when the camera couldn’t even capture your image. Her dream was completely over now and she had no idea what to feel. Maybe she should just let June go back to her life while she starved herself to death. Wasn’t that what models were supposed to do anyway?
“June, this . . . I can’t let you do this for me,” said Emily.
“Hey, it’ll be okay,” assured June. “I promise I won’t take very much.”
‘How are you even going to take any at all?’

‘Can you teleport like Rachel?’

‘Yes. I can get you where you need to be. The question I’m asking myself is: why should I care?’

‘Because I care. We’re stuck in this body together. You do me a favor and maybe I’ll overlook all the crap you’ve done tonight.’

‘I was under a spell, same as you. Fine then, June, I’ll do what you want if you let me out. I must admit that I’m constantly surprised by your forcefulness. I can tell you want some of you to rub off on me but eventually you’ll have to admit that the reverse can also be true.’

‘I’ll think about that after I save my friend’s life.’

June closed her eyes and let The Enchantress take over again. When the sorceress opened her eyes, she looked at Emily and saw how weak the young vampire was. The Enchantress didn’t associate with vampires very often. She found them to be extremely crass creatures, even barbaric at times. They were savages who pretended they were still civilized. Still, it seemed that there was more to everyone lately than The Enchantress had first suspected. Perhaps Emily would surprise her as well.
“One of us will explain everything to you later,” she promised Emily. “As June said, stay here while I acquire what you need.”
The Enchantress mumbled something under her breath and disappeared in a flash of light. She reappeared inside a room at the hospital and felt the change in temperature. Both she and June had spent too much time in California. All the sun and warmth had left them very ill-adapted to the cold. The Enchantress shivered and spied what she was looking for. She knew that this was the place where the hospital stored its supply of blood. She scanned the rows of bags, looking for the blood type that had the largest supply. She reasoned that the hospital staff wouldn’t question the disappearance of one bag as long as she took it from the type that had the most bags in the first place. To that end, she picked up one of the bags and then mumbled the same incantation. With a flash of energy she was once again standing next to Emily in the alley.
“They were out of straws,” she told Emily as she tossed her the bag. “There, indulge yourself.”
Emily felt the maddening hunger intensify the second the caught the scent of the blood inside the bag. Her fangs came out and she used them to puncture the bag, sucking on it as the blood oozed out from the holes. The Enchantress watched Emily feed and sniffed in disgust. Vampires had the worst table manners of any creature she had ever encountered and Emily wasn’t doing anything to disprove that perception.
“You deal with this then,” she muttered as she felt June taking over their body once more. “Assuming you have the stomach for it of course.”
June didn’t say anything as she regained control of her body and saw Emily sucking on the blood bag. Emily, meanwhile, was almost in Heaven. The blood tasted better than anything she had ever put in her mouth before. It wasn’t just the taste, it was the feeling as it went down her throat. It was almost orgasmic and it only took a few minutes for her to suck down every drop from the bag. A low purr escaped her throat when she finished, her hunger satisfied for the moment.
“God that felt good,” she breathed.
“Are you okay?” June had just watched in stunned silence while Emily drank her fill.
“Amazing,” replied Emily. “It’s like I just had the best sex of my life while eating the best meal of my life while . . . I don’t even know. I’d ask if you had any more but . . .”
“She only brought the one bag, Em.”

Emily nodded, her eyes downcast as she realized just what exactly she had done. She felt ashamed for liking it as much as she did. This was no way to live, no way to even exist. She wondered why Victor hadn’t just killed her instead of turning her into a vampire. She knew the reason though and it made her hate herself even more. Like everything else in her life, it all came back to the fact that she was pretty. People were always envious of her looks but they didn’t know the truth. Being pretty just made you a target for psychopaths like Victor. Being pretty just made you another piece of meat for people to buy and sell like what Vincent Velcoro did. Being pretty wasn’t a blessing, it was a curse.
“What happened to you?” asked Emily as she lifted her eyes upward and looked at June. “How come you can turn into . . . her?”
“It happened when I was in high school,” explained June. “There was this old house out in the woods that everyone said was haunted. Kids would dare each other to go inside or spend the night in it or whatever. I took the dare, went inside, poked around for a little bit. I found something in there that nobody else ever did. There was a secret room and inside it was The Enchantress. That’s what she calls herself. Somehow, her spirit had been bound to the house and now it’s bound to me.”
“So you’re cursed just like me then.”
June Moone nodded and looked at one of her best friends. They weren’t so different now. Both of them had been saddled with a burden that neither of them had asked for. June used to think that Emily had it all and maybe in a way she did. Now the redhead was finding out just what price she had to pay for being born with such a pretty face. June wondered if there was something she had done in the past that made The Enchantress such a fitting punishment for her. Then she wondered just what Rachel had done to deserve the weight of being born into a family of monsters.
“I get by,” she told Emily and she instantly realized that she sounded just like Rachel. “Sometimes it gets to be too much and I . . . feel like ending it. That’s how I met Rachel actually. I dunno, ever since then things feel a little better.”
“You could’ve told me about it,” reminded Emily.
“Would you believe in any of this stuff if you weren’t a part of it?”
Emily silently admitted to herself that June was right. She was normal, always had been. For her, vampires and evil spirits existed only in the pages of fiction. They lived in worlds that she could safely visit through words but now they were so real, perhaps even too real. She wondered how June could deal with this and not go crazy.
“So where’s Rachel now?”
“I’m really not sure, Em, but right now we just need to worry about you. Rachel can take care of herself. She’s always good at that.”

She figured it was as good a time as any to leave. Who was she trying to fool, thinking that she could have a normal life? Rachel Roth should have known better than to think that she could actually put down roots somewhere. Everything in her life had been a lie, a lie that the Church of Blood had destroyed. There was a greater lie though. Rachel had lied to herself ever since she came to San Francisco. She had told herself that she was going to reach out to people, to help them, to save them. What a sick thing she was to have thought that she could be anything more than a monster. What a terrible lie she had told herself when she hoped to be just like everyone else because she clearly wasn’t. That hope was a disease so contagious that she had infected everyone else around her with it. She had forced her feelings into others just as her brother did. She was no less a monster than he was.
“It’s just me,” she said to the empty air as she slung a bag over her shoulder that contained all her belongings. “You can come out now.”
There was a hiss as something, or rather someone, slithered out from the darkness of the world below the streets of San Francisco. It clutched onto a manhole cover and removed it, snaking up from the hole and keeping itself low to the ground. Rachel knew who it was, of course. There was no way one couldn’t recognize Jimmy Tilton. She knew that he made it his business to sometimes be around, always skulking in the dark where no one could see him. Rachel could always sense his presence thanks to her powers. Even now, she could see the kindness in him though that compassion was tinged with anger. Rachel wanted nothing more than to stop seeing everything in the rainbow colors of emotion. She wanted to just be numb to it all. She wanted to just be normal again. Wasn’t that what being normal meant, being numb? It certainly didn’t mean having to feel everything that she felt.
“You alwayss know when I’m around,” said Jimmy.
“I wanted to say goodbye,” explained Rachel. “I can’t stay in this place anymore. It’s . . . it’s just not me. Do me a favor though, please. Look out for June. She lives right over there in that apartment building, number 187. Can you please make sure she stays safe?”
“Why are you leaving?” asked Jimmy in response.
“I can’t do this anymore,” explained Rachel. “I was never meant for this kind of thing. My powers . . . I can’t use them anymore. I don’t want to. I hurt people when I do and I just want to be alone. Please just let me be alone, Jimmy. If anyone should understand that then it’s you.”
“Yess I do,” he admitted. “I have sseen into your mind, Rachel. I know what you’re running from but I have sseen more than just that. You don’t hurt anyone with your powerss. You help them.”
“I force them to feel things,” countered Rachel. “I met someone tonight, my brother actually. He can do the same thing and he’s been using it to make everyone kiss his ass and worship him. He manipulates people and he . . . made me do the same thing. I’ve been doing it all along and I never knew it. That’s why I have to leave.”
“People make otherss feel ssomething every day,” reminded Jimmy. “Every interaction createss it. You could have left me the way I wass, Rachel, but you didn’t. You made me feel ssomething I had forgotten how to feel. Look at me and tell me what you ssee now.”
Rachel knew what Jimmy meant. It was hope that she saw in him. In the end, it always came back to hope. Rachel had seen it in everyone she ever met. It outlasted every other emotion, survived everything if it was strong enough. Rachel looked down at her hands and she saw nothing but blackness. It made her remember the day of Megan’s funeral when her powers first manifested. It had scared her because the blackness represented not feeling anything. The black aura was emotional numbness because if you couldn’t feel something then it meant you were dead inside. There was something else inside that blackness though. It was faint, only a shimmer before the dark greedily snuffed out that light. It was there all the same though and it never truly went away. It was a tiny blue candle in the darkness. It was the hope that maybe, just maybe, she could turn out differently than those of her family. Wasn’t that what she had decided to do with her life? Wasn’t she going to live to be a huge disappointment to her father? So what was she doing right now, playing into his hands?
“Hope,” she answered.
She could feel it come alive in her and that blue flicker flared brightly. Maybe hope wasn’t a lie. Maybe the lie was telling yourself that you didn’t feel anything at all when clearly you did. Emotions were contagious but they weren’t a disease that she wanted to cure herself of. Emotions were the cure for the real disease all along.
“You ssave livess, Rachel,” said Jimmy. “Maybe you sshould remember to ssave your own ssometimess.”
Rachel closed the distance between them and hugged her friend. She didn’t care that she was getting the stench of the sewers on her clothes or about the cold, damp feeling of his skin on hers. All she cared about was what he had reminded her of, that she was still human after all. Pretending to not feel anything was what her father wanted but pleasing her father wasn’t on her to-do list and it never would be. So she vowed once more that she was going to feel things even if they hurt worse than anything else could. Even if it killed her, she was going to feel because she wasn’t going to be like her father. She wasn’t going to be like her brother either. She wasn’t going to manipulate those around her as if they were her puppets. She was just going to love them even if they didn’t return that love. That was what humans did every day whether they knew it or not. Love was a promise and she had made that promise the day that she first opened up her heart to June and the people of San Francisco. Rachel knew she couldn’t go back on that promise just because things were getting difficult. She couldn’t abandon her friends, especially not when the city was still controlled by Brother Night and whoever else decided to show up.
“I owe you,” she told him. “Seriously, next time I see you I’m getting you some fresh fish or something.”
“That would be better than ratss,” he admitted. “I promisse that I’ll look out for both you and your friend, Rachel. I’ll alwayss be around.”
“Same here, Jimmy,” said Rachel.
Jimmy nodded, actually smiling before he disappeared back down the sewer tunnel. Rachel blinked away a couple of tears and picked up her bag again. She could feel that hope inside her again and it was killing the darkness. She turned and walked back towards June’s apartment, deciding that maybe her life in San Francisco wasn’t so bad after all. She wasn’t going to be like the rest of her family. She was going to become something more, something that they had forsaken a long time ago. She was going to continue being human when they had given up on even the concept.

“Is it sad that I can’t look at you the same way anymore?” asked Emily as she followed June into her apartment after the blonde unlocked the door. “I mean you’re still my best friend. It’s just that . . .”
“I know,” said June as she locked the door behind them once they were inside. She turned and saw Rachel sitting on the couch with a mug of tea in her hands. “Didn’t expect you to be here, Rachel.”
“I wanted to leave,” confessed Rachel. “I had my bag packed and everything but then I realized something. You can’t get rid of me that easily, June.”
“Wouldn’t even want to try,” said June as she hugged Rachel. “Rachel, this is Emily.”
“Oh we already met,” assured Rachel. “You’re looking less pale than before, Emily. I take it you got something to drink then.”
“Yeah,” replied Emily. “So what the hell do we do now?”
The three girls looked at one another and contemplated their options. It was clear that Emily couldn’t return to her old life. It was hard to go to classes when you slept until sundown. There was also the matter of her new eating habits. How was she supposed to keep her condition a secret from everyone around her? There was no way she could have a normal life and still be a vampire.
“Looks like I’ll definitely have to get a bigger apartment then,” said June. “I mean you’re staying with us, right?”
Emily thought about it for a few moments. It was true that Rachel and June would probably be the only people in her life that would accept her for what she was now. She couldn’t take being around them like that though, especially June. It was going to drive her crazy smelling the scent of her blood all the time and the last thing she wanted was to hurt June. So in the end, while it was nice to think she could be roommates with the best friend she ever had, Emily knew it just wasn’t meant to be. That left her with very few other options though.
“I can’t stay here,” she told June. “I love you like a sister, June, but I can’t just stay in this apartment with you and Rachel for the rest of my life.”
“Not a lot of choices here, Emily,” reminded Rachel.
“I think I have an idea,” said Emily. “You said those vampires were involved in human trafficking, right?”
“I busted them a few nights ago when they were down at the port waiting on a shipment,” said Rachel before June could answer. “There was a whole shipping container full of women. They’ve been doing this a long time, I think.”
“Then there are tons of girls out there who could end up just like me,” explained Emily. “I’ll never have a normal life again but maybe I can make sure that they do. Maybe I can find them, get them somewhere safe, help them start over if that’s what they want.”
“And if you get too thirsty again?” asked June. “Em, you’re not thinking this through. You can’t just, I dunno, be a vigilante or something.”
“I am,” reminded Rachel. “June, I think Emily’s old enough to make her own decisions about things.”
“Yeah but my decision-making skills have always sucked,” said Emily with a grin. “June, I want to do this. You and Rachel saved my life but you know those vampires will just come up with another scheme. Let me fight back so that more people don’t get hurt by them.”
June nodded and admitted to herself that someone had to be looking out for the girls that were caught up in Velcoro’s operation. Rachel did a good job trying to clean up the streets of San Francisco but she was only one girl. Maybe if there were more people willing to help others then the city wouldn’t be secretly controlled by the likes of Brother Night and Velcoro. Maybe she had to let her best friend go do that if that was what she really wanted.
“It’s not like she’s leaving town or anything,” added Rachel. “You’ll still get to hang out with her, June.”
“I know,” admitted June before hugging Emily. “You ever need anything, you know where to find me. You know I’ll help you in whatever way I can, Em. Once a Phi Sigma Sigma, always a Phi Sigma Sigma.”
“Same goes for you, sister,” said Emily. “Rachel, look out for her okay?”
“I think she’s the one who looks out for me but I’ll try my best,” replied Rachel.
With that, Emily unlocked the apartment door and left. June wanted to watch her leave but she stayed where she was for a few more seconds, finally moving to lock the door again. Rachel could see the sadness coming off her roommate but there was that ever-present hope as well. It made Rachel smile to know that no matter what, June would always have that light inside of her. It was that light inside of June that kept both of them from falling totally into the darkness. June’s hope and kindness brought out those same emotions in Rachel and she enjoyed thinking that she did the same for June. Maybe they were meant to be friends, meant to fit together in a way that very few people ever could.
“Why are you smiling?” asked June. “I feel miserable right now.”
“Yeah but there’s always a hope inside you,” explained Rachel. “That hope is the reason I’m staying, June.”
“I forgive you for what happened,” said June. “Really, you did what you had to do and I totally understand that.”
“Thanks,” said Rachel. “Let’s just hope that it’s a long time before I ever see my brother again.”
“Amen to that,” agreed June as she went to make herself a mug of tea.

Club Bewitched
“I want you to tell me something right now. I want you to tell me how you expected to continue with your operation in my city. It’s not that I’m particularly against such a venture. It’s more that you thought you could get away with it without giving me a cut.”
Vincent Velcoro was not a man who was easily frightened but there were still some things that could scare him. Brother Night could scare anyone and anything. In hindsight, Velcoro knew that he was playing with fire when he decided to set up shop in San Francisco. He knew, of course, that Brother Night was the one controlling most of the city’s illegal activities but he thought that if they could stay off everyone else’s radar then they could avoid him as well. However, it seemed that being associated with Kevin Craft had attracted the attention of all the wrong people. He discovered that the cops were still combing through his place of business but it was getting dangerously close to sunrise. He and his brood would have to find a place to settle in for the night, assuming that any of them lived long enough to do so.
“We didn’t mean to offend you, Brother Night,” promised Dunya Mishkin.
“Is that how you operate, Velcoro?” asked Brother Night. “You let your business partner do all the talking while you continue to endanger yourself, her, and everyone else in your employ? That seems like very bad form to not take care of your people.”
“Ours is a partnership,” explained Mishkin. “We share the profit but we also share responsibility. I would like to atone for our bad decision. How may we compensate you?”
Brother Night looked at the two vampires and thought about his answer to the question. His trio of lackeys had cornered the rest of the vampires while he had his talk with their leaders. No doubt all three of them were anxious to kill the pack of undead but Brother Night didn’t get where he was in life by disposing of assets that could prove useful for later on.
“I don’t want whatever money you may still possess,” said Brother Night. “My eyes and ears in this city tell me that your offices are being raided by the police as we speak. So there’s no monetary value in keeping you alive. However, I think I can find a suitable way to clear your debt.”
Without warning, Brother Night lashed out at Velcoro with his magic. Velcoro instantly tried to run away but the tendrils of magical energy coiled around him and yanked him towards Brother Night. The tendrils held the vampire aloft and proceeded to constrict around him like pythons. The one coil around his neck was especially forceful and in the end it actually severed his head from the rest of his mangled body. When Brother Night was finished with his gruesome work, Vincent Velcoro’s body was nothing but pulp and meat.
“You and your people now work for me,” stated Night. “What just happened should be a reminder to you of the consequences of displeasing me. Are we clear on this matter?”
“Crystal clear, sir,” answered Mishkin, keeping her composure even after witnessing her friend slaughtered in front of her. “May I go inform them of this development?”
“Of course,” replied Night. “I will inform you of the time and place for our next meeting, Ms. Mishkin. We have new codes of conduct to discuss.”
“Yes, sir,” said Mishkin before taking her leave.
Night looked disdainfully at the mess on the floor in his office. He supposed he would have to get someone to come clean it up. All that blood would most likely stain the carpet if he left it unattended. The supernatural crime lord sat back in his chair and planned his next move. He was intrigued about the identity of the person who had brought down Velcoro’s operation. Perhaps it was Trigon’s daughter who had decided to meddle in the affairs of someone else besides him for a change. It still vexed him that he didn’t know the girl’s true identity but he knew that Faust would produce those results soon enough. The dealmaker was always good at things like that and Night enjoyed pawning off the dirty work to his underlings. There was a much bigger reason why he had Faust working for him though. He pretended it had to do with Faust paying off a debt to him and that much was true. Faust did owe Night but Night had bigger plans for him. He wasn’t content to just let Faust help him in his smuggling operations or whatever other menial tasks he could come up with. No, there was a much bigger game going on and he was keeping Faust around because he knew the dealmaker would be of important use in this bigger game. That was why Night stayed on top of his empire. He could always see the bigger picture and the part everyone had in that grand design.

Next Issue: Sweet dreams.