Events from “That Would Be Telling”
Notes by Anthony
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“Awareness came to me slowly. I was floating in a dark, swirling cloud. I thought for a moment that my sire had called me to that strange place between the mirrors before I looked down. It was night, and a great city sprawled below me, as big or bigger than New York City. It glowed with a phosphorescent green light, illuminating massive buildings more like temples or monuments that dwarfed anything I had ever seen before. People, or something like people, moved below in long robes like ants. The city spread out in great, concentric rings as far as I could see. I searched for familiar things, like homes or factories or cars, but I couldn’t find anything. It reminded me of Los Angeles in Blade Runner. A futuristic city not improvised and improved and run down over centuries of development or population growth, but something planned from the beginning for some terrible and alien purpose.
“Then a giant thunderbolt flashed from the sky and hit the city. Remember those duck and cover videos in school that showed the atomic explosion from the Trinity Test? It was much, much bigger than that. I could feel millions die as the city was turned into a smoking crater. Water rushed in, like the city had been holding it back and now the ocean was returning. I sound cold, I know, but I felt detached from it all. Like I was watching a science fiction movie or a recreation of Pompeii. You know a tragedy happened once upon a time, but I was just there to observe.
“The sun rose up on the new gulf. It didn’t burn me like it does now. It began moving quickly up and over the horizon and back down again. Centuries must have passed. I saw little settlements grow into cities and fall into ruin. Mountains shrank and others burst forth. When time stopped again the landscape seemed almost familiar. Of all things, a jet flew by me with a US flag on the side. I could see the pilot with his helmet and oxygen tube as he fiddled with the controls.
“Bombs dropped onto the desert. I was beginning to be aware that I was dreaming, but I could only watch as I fell back down to earth. The sun reversed its cycle, and I was back in the city. There were some words on a building. Even though I didn’t know the language I could read it. It said: “Birthing Chamber.” I floated inside and it was like a scene from Aliens or something. I could see women. Pregnant women. They were attached to these machines. But they weren’t machines like ours, they were biological. Crafted out of flesh like you mentioned with the Tzimisce. One of them gave birth to a daughter, and a creature arrived to take it away. There was a crescent moon on the baby’s arm. That was when the explosion came again, and an earthquake tore the place apart. I felt salt in my mouth.
“Then I was inside of a club. A normal, human club. I was floating on the dance floor looking up at the second floor VIP section. Two women looked down. Everyone was dancing and smiling and having a good time. Then everyone was staring at me, and I woke up.”
Zachary’s first instinct upon waking had been to write everything down himself, fearful he would forget. He’d pushed away the mattress from on top of the bathtub and clambered out. When Zachary looked in the mirror, he saw himself exhausted and covered in his own blood. He ran a finger along his bloodied arm and began to write down the new alphabet on the mirror. He left bright red squiggles on the glassy surface.
That was when Immanuel contacted Zachary through the mirror. Immanuel told Zachary to find his other child, Damien, in the Cobweb. Damien would help and explain. Damien was also an outlaw, not accepted by not hunted. He was blind, and Zachary would need to follow the music to find him and open his mind to the cobweb. Joan might also be able to help. Zachary remembered the young girl who had called twice into the station – once to apologize for what had to happen, and once to tell him to get out. Immanuel also warned Zachary about George – depending on his clan, he might be an enemy. The Tremere, especially, would try to stop Zachary and could use magic to find him. Zachary admitted to Immanuel that he had given Ben blood, and in turn, Ben had experienced the same visions. Immanuel told Zachary that it was unusual for a ghoul to experience such strong visions after being given blood, but Zachary’s connection to the cobweb and the universe was powerful and could not be easily predicted.
Immanuel was cagey about his location, only saying he was deep in Loudoun County in Garou and Lupine territory. Immanuel promised that he would see the sun in the morning, though Zachary tried to talk him out of it. Immanuel was convinced that this was his Great Purpose, and it was worth his life to protect Zachary. When Zachary relayed his latest vision, Immanuel thought the city might be Enoch or Shahadom or Gomorrah, and the lightning bolt was God’s curse. Joan would have books that could give more information. Immanuel also mentioned that there were others of their kind who lived elsewhere, their material forms unmoving after reaching apotheosis. He also recognized the same two women Zachary had seen at some place called The Sound and told Zachary to find them.
In hindsight, Zachary should have known his next and final question would be a bad idea. But if Immanuel was going to meet the sun in the morning, there would be no other opportunity to do so. Zachary asked who was the source of his visions - who was he the Voice of? Immanuel spoke, and the word reverberated through Zachary’s teeth and tongue and skull and brain. Whatever organ was left inside of his body seized and Zachary felt his mouth open in a wild, manic grin as he fell into darkness.
Zachary found out later from Ben and George that he had been seizing on the bathroom floor, laughing hysterically, and shouting MALKAV. Once Zachary spat out the bloody foam filling his mouth and caught his breath, or whatever passed for breath in his non-lungs, he recounted the dream and subsequent communication with Immanuel to George and Ben. Ben furiously wrote everything down while George stared, unreadable as ever. Zachary mentioned to George and Ben that there were two Malkavians who could help but did not give their names. He also didn’t tell them about Immanuel’s warning about the Tremere. Immanuel had warned Zachary earlier that their enemies could read the First Gateway’s mind, and Zachary feared that Ben and George might one day be similarly compromised, if not already. Zachary and George discussed the strange, circular city and the US fighter jet they had seen bombing its location centuries later. Zachary thought he recognized the shape of the gulf from recent broadcasts of the middle east conflict in Iraq on daytime television. Based on the clan territories, George thought that the club might either be Club Euphonia or Club Phase.
Ben brought out clothing he had bought from Walmart with Zachary’s credit card, and Zachary picked out a pleather jacket, jeans, and Depeche Mode t-shirt. He kicked the other two out of the bathroom and attempted to shower off the blood. Zachary had just started to relax and calm himself down George had burst in. Zachary was shocked at the level of emotion on his normally implacable face. He seemed rattled and haunted. Zachary recognized the look all too well from his own face in the mirror, waking up from his nightmare visions. When Zachary confirmed that they weren’t in immediate danger, he finished his shower and got dressed. He brought out a wet towel for George to wash his hands, as they were still covered in Zachary’s blood from when George had attempted to keep Zachary safe during his seizures. George confirmed that he had also see visions of the red sun and aliens or angels coming down to destroy the planet. Zachary worried that his blood, and therefore madness was infectious or poisonous. Zachary joked that if he ever got into a fight, he would just have to bleed on them. Ben and George seemed less amused.
George asked for information on the Malkavians that Zachary’s sire had told them to find, but Zachary hesitated. George had helped them. He’d gotten them a hotel far from Ben’s apartment and been stabbed by a talking dead crow. He’d told them about the Camarilla and kindred and ghouls and traditions. But despite all of this, George remained an enigma. His employers and clan and motives for keeping Zachary and Ben alive were unknown. And unknown was dangerous. Zachary looked George in the eye and asked him what clan he was with. George searched Zachary’s face for a moment before answering with “Ventrue.”
If asked later, Zachary wouldn’t be able to say why he knew it was a lie. Maybe it was the hesitation before answering. Maybe it was the ease in which George had divulged such sensitive information after revealing so little about himself the previous night. Maybe it was the clan. Zachary did not know much about Ventrue or any of the other clans, George had said that the Ventrue were Leaders and connected to government, big companies, and defense. While Zachary certainly could see George as a James Bond or Jack Ryan, secret agents like that weren’t leaders. They made decisions in the field and even disobeyed their superior officers on dramatic occasion, but ultimately, they were people who took orders without question or desire to be the big man on top. Maybe it was the part of the universe or Malkav squeezed too tightly inside Zachary’s skull that recognized the falsehood using powers far beyond human comprehension. Zachary glanced at Ben and saw the same doubt in his eyes. Zachary felt his face twist into a disbelieving frown and watched as George acknowledged the rejection of his lie. Zachary didn’t have time to be afraid of what George might do in response before he spoke again.
This time, George responded with the same combination of cautious honesty and careful omission that Zachary was familiar with. The Camarilla was an institution like any other, filled with competing interests and hidden agendas. George was undercover with the Tremere, but was actually a vampire without a clan, which would make him as hunted as Zachary if that secret were to get out. He had to keep his employers secret for the same reasons that Zachary couldn’t reveal Damien or Immanuel. There were too many enemies out there, and information was power.