Events from “Just to be on the Safe Side”

Notes by Anthony

“Time resumed. I inhaled sharply, the sharp taste of my own blood in my throat. The two vampires stumbled blindly around me, clutching their heads. They seemed insensible to the world around them. I tried to find them in the Cobweb, but they were distant. I had no idea how long this madness Cedric talked about would last, so I had to move quickly. I hurried towards where Ant Man had taken Joan, hoping to find George and regroup. He would tell me what we should do next. I was sure of it. George always had a plan. 

“I wish I could make light of this next part, listeners. I always try to keep it fun for you. Keep a grin on my face even through the worst of it. If I can’t smile and take it easy, well, they would have committed me a long, long time ago. Joan lay face-down in the backseat of an idling car like a Lifetime reenactment of some serial kidnapper’s last victim. Still as a corpse. A huge stake had been driven into her back and through her chest. It actually stopped her from lying completely on the backseat. She looked so small and helpless. Just like one of those girls the demon had taken. But George didn’t care about any of that, no. He had his face buried in that Ant Man creature, rocking its body back and forth as he sucked at it. Fucking. Slurping at it. Seemed like the thing was drying out before my eyes. 

“I tip-toed past him. Terrified he’d lunge for me next. I tried to pull the stake out of Joan, praying that she wouldn’t turn to dust like on Buffy. But it wouldn’t budge. It was wedged in too deep, and I couldn’t get leverage. I turned to George, then. Asked him to help, pleaded with him, but he didn’t respond. I was out of time and out of options. I used Dominate on him. Told him that he could get back to his meal in a fucking second but right now I needed him to pull. He reached for the stake and, well, maybe I was seeing things, but these little flesh tendrils seemed to wriggle out of his hand and into the stake itself. I pushed Joan back while he pulled the stake out. For a heart-stopping second, nothing happened. Then, Joan gasped awake. When I turned back to George, he was back at his all you-can-eat ant-infested buffet. 

“I caught Joan up on what had happened. Told her we needed to get Ben from the crypt and get the fuck out of here. We left George and returned to the library. Ben had been hiding next to the door, ready to stab an invader with a goddamned letter opener. I told Joan that this place was toast and we needed to grab the remaining blood bags and get out. I felt as drained as I’d ever been, and I couldn’t risk getting hungry enough to be a threat to Ben. I shoved six of them in my backpack and we turned to leave. But when Joan opened the doorway, the two Tzimisce I’d stunned were waiting outside. They snarled that I wasn’t “Colette” and moved to slash at my chest. But Joan was prepared. She pulled us into that Obfuscation she’d used to get us to OTCAL and we delicately tip-toed past the searching Tzimisce and into the parking lot. 

“The three of us stood next to George in Obfuscation. The Ant Man was a desiccated husk at his feet. He was humming and muttering to himself. I turned to Joan and reached out with the Cobweb. I asked her what had happened. She told me that he had committed Amaranth. Diablerie. It was against our laws, but what did laws matter now? Listeners, I’ll admit I was tempted to leave George here. There was something strange in his eyes. A brilliant light as he saw something beyond sight. But madness didn’t have to mean damnation. Where would I be if Ben had turned away from me when I first started spouting something crazy over a decade ago? If George hadn’t believed me and taken us under his wing? Maybe the Tzimisce blood had driven him crazy like my Malkavian blood had given him nightmares, and he just needed a chance to come back to reality. 

“I asked Joan to keep herself and Ben in Obfuscation while I talked George down. His eyes locked on mine. He smiled. Called me ‘Zachariah’ and asked if I heard the voices or ‘strange music.’ He kept talking to someone named ‘Gavreau.’ I told him that I was supposed to be the crazy one hearing things. I begged for him to remember the mission. Remember why he was here. That seemed to focus him, but it didn’t bring him back to the George I had known. Or maybe that George was never real, and this was just the mask falling off. He looked like a predator. Like he was peeling off my skin with his eyes to get to the juicy bits inside. But it was too late to run away from him now. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the two Tzimisce leave the library and charge towards us. I told Joan and Ben it was okay to come out and we piled into the idling car. The Tzimisce called out frantically for ‘Dr. Gavreau’ as George through the car into reverse and fled. I guess even monsters mourn their own.

“We decided to drive south on I-95 to Alexandria. There was too much chaos in Georgetown between the IMF protests and Sabbat incursion in Elysium. On the 14th street bridge, George continued to act strange. Talking to himself and asking me who was in charge. Wondering if he owned the Prophet or if Joan did. I told him he’d have to take that question up with the 900 other voices in my head but now wasn’t the time to be fighting. We were interrupted by explosions in the city behind us. I turned on the radio, but there was little aside from a talk show host blaming this all on commie protesters and a Federal Emergency Broadcast. A few minutes later, a giant pink wall rose up from the river behind us and formed a dome over our heads. It made my teeth buzz. Ben couldn’t see it, but the rest of us knew we were trapped in Alexandria. I remembered Immanuel babbling about being on the right side of the Wall. I hoped we were. 

“At my suggestion, George pulled off at the Jameson Inn in Annadale. Despite being three grown men and a clearly unrelated ten year old girl, he convinced the manager to give us the key to the Presidential suite. George said he had to go make some phone calls and left us in the room. I was practically vibrating on the bed with anxiety when Joan said exactly what I was thinking. She suggested we leave George and make our own way. If destiny willed it, we would reunite. I hated abandoning him, listeners. But I was scared of him, now. He’d been my first friend in this crazy vampire world, and I wanted to believe that he was on my side. I guess I’d fooled myself into thinking he’d cared. Maybe all he cared about was the power inside me. Or maybe the Tzimisce he diablerie-d had addled his brain. But I couldn’t risk Ben or Joan on a prayer. 

“We snuck out of the suite and into the manager’s office. I’m not proud of it, but with the fate of the world at stake I dominated the manager into giving me the keys to his Range Rover. Promised I’d leave it somewhere safe and give him a call with its location. Keep me to that, will you, dear listeners? I know it would be financially devastating for Ben to have his car stolen. I don’t want to be responsible for someone losing their job or house. 

“We drove to OTCAL and parked a few blocks away. Joan ushered us inside under Obfuscation and I sat down heavily on a big armchair. She looked at me like I was supposed to know what would happen next. Like I knew what the next step in The Great Plan was. I’ll admit, listeners, I wasn’t my best self when I responded. I was exhausted. I was angry at George for changing on me and angry at myself for trusting him in the first place. And I was so, so scared of what would happen if I failed. If I had already made too many wrong decisions and it was too late and our destruction was immutably stamped into the Fullness of Time. 

“I told her that I didn’t know what to do next. Maybe one day I’d be the all-mighty and powerful Zachariah, but right now, I was just me. Just a scared, weak, tired radio host. I just wanted to sleep, even risking the terrible visions. Joan told me she could put me to sleep if I wasn’t going to be done with my pity party. I started cracking up then, telling Ben that’s she’s got jokes! It wasn’t a coherent come back. Makes sense that she’d have no patience for my self-pity. Nothing I’ve gone through compares to being ten years old for over a thousand years. I tried to compose myself. Think of what leads we hadn’t followed up on. 

“I told Joan that I wanted to reconnect with Damien. Last I heard, he was going to find Jordan and convince him to be Alexander again. I also wanted to see Desirée and Thaïs. They’d made their polite exits from all this apocalypse crap, but with the rise of the Wall and the fall of Prince George, they might reconsider. Then I remembered that George knew exactly where OTCAL was. None of us were safe here. Joan said that the information they had gathered was too important to lose, and they would have to move it. She’d call OTCAL together, including Nikoli and someone named Alexi who had made the wards that protected this place from the Tremere. Alexi would be under scrutiny now but having her protect OTCAL was too important. 

“In order to contact Damien and meet with Desirée and Thaïs, I would have to leave OTCAL. The wards blocked the Cobweb. I offered Ben the chance to stay behind and be safe, but he wanted to come with me. I didn’t fight him. Am I a bad person, listeners? Letting Ben tag along when any one of the things after me could tear him apart in second? But I’d be so lost without him. Joan said she would leave OTCAL once every hour in case I needed to Cobweb her. 

“We took the Range Rover and I drove to Euphonia. Got there around 11pm. The club was still open, though pretty empty given everything. Ben and hid behind the bar at closing but a security guard, Alexander, caught us. I tried to convince him I was the janitor, but I couldn’t pull the image from his mind. Fate smiled on us, though, and he let us stay locked in the coat closet until Desirée came back. It felt like being back at the station, actually. Locked in a small, dark booth with nothing to amuse ourselves but each other and our imaginations. Tried playing cards even though I was the only one who could see what we’d written on the little scraps of paper. The fullness of time trekked on, though, and to my surprise it was Thaïs who opened the closet door. 

“She grinned at me. Saying ‘I was worried about you, big guy.’ I was so relieved. Told her I was worried she’d be mad that we’d come back here to drag her into this. I caught her up on what had happened since sundown. The assault on Gallaudet, George’s strange behavior, the juice boxification of Ant Man. She hadn’t known what diablerie was, either, but it made sense given one of the traditions was about getting permission to hunt our own from the Prince. I asked Thaïs if she’d changed her mind about getting involved in this mess. Told her I was still going to try and save the world, and I’d love her help. She laughed. The kind of laugh where you know you’re going to agree to something crazy. But, what the hell, she was in.

“Desirée walked in and revealed she’d overheard the conversation. I asked her the same thing, and she agreed, too. She was freaked out, but too much had happened for them to ignore. I don’t know what they’d experienced in Georgetown or Alexandria these past few days, but it must have been something big to change their minds. I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. I was so grateful to have someone on my side after losing George. 

“And speak of the devil, listeners, but at that moment who knocked on the door but George himself. Desirée had Ben and I hide in the back and Thaïs wait by the door with a stake while she talked to him. I used Auspex to heighten my senses. He didn’t exactly lie, but he sure avoided a whole lot of the truth. He called me Zachariah, again. Told Desirée we had been separated in the chaos on our way to Alexandria, and he was worried about me and my “little friend.” Thought we might have stopped by one of the few places we had been to before for help. I’ll admit, listeners, I felt a little silly about being so predictable. Desirée appeared to convince him that we hadn’t been by here and suggested Thaïs’ ranch. I don’t think Thaïs was happy about that. 

“When George left, Desirée and Thaïs agreed there was something wrong with George. I was relieved that it wasn’t just my paranoia getting the better of me. Malkavians see and hear things that aren’t there, after all, and I’ve had a head start on that all my life. Thaïs said that she’d been doing some research and knew something about Abraham. She’d also had some kind of vision about a man trapped in salt. I hadn’t had a similar vision, so we held hands as she tried to share it with me telepathically. I’ll be honest, listeners, I don’t think it really worked. But she did talk about a man in field of battle, surrounded by ghouls taking him down. Another vampire was at his side. They were buried together in salt. And, earlier, he had used the power of Celerity in some great Temple and was called a heretic by the rest of his kind. 

“I told Desirée and Thaïs that I didn’t have a vision of where to go next, but I was going to contact Damien. He knew something about Jordan needing to become Alexander again. They recognized the name Jordan but thought he would have been in Georgetown with the other Ventrue. It was late, or early, rather, so Desirée suggested we go up to her penthouse to sleep the day away. I let Ben take one of the beds and curled up in the bathtub. I’ve lost enough blood while sleeping that I didn’t want to risk her nice sheets. Not like I have to worry about a bad back or stiff neck anymore.

“So that’s where I’m at now, dear listeners. Recording this into Ben’s old tape recorder while dawn threatens behind the blackout curtains. The universe does have a thing for bathrooms but this time I’ve brought it on myself. I’ll report back when I can. 

“This has been Zachary and, well just Zachary on WRXL 102.1 FM. Good night, listeners. And good luck out there. I hate to be alarmist, but, well, it’s kind of looking like the end of the world. Stock up on water and protein bars and call your mother. And, if you’re listening, George? I’m sorry. I’m sorry for abandoning you. I’m sorry for not stopping you from eating that thing. If there’s a way to help you, I’ll find it. I promise. Zachary out.”