The Dead Will Rise

Friday, October 1st, 2001

The date on the calendar glanced ominously in Baron's direction - the clock seemed to laugh with each elongated tick. If there was any sort of expression that he found helpful in the present moment, he would have been grateful for it. Any chance to live with any sort of feeling, would have been taken with a preemptive smile. Except here in the ghostly town of Grimly Heights, no one had any. The lack of smiles, constant trickery and scares, the horrifying sights and sounds of the wind slamming window shutters against the foundation...it got very boring to the 17 year old boy.

Reasons being...he'd lived so many centuries, it felt pure agony to relive the same place, same town, and same people. No one ever left, and no one came in. He hated most of the creatures here, beside one in particular. She stood fairly plain in ripped jeans and a tacky baggy shirt that read SOMETIMES, DEAD IS BETTER in a very bloody font. Her nails were lacquer, freshly painted an oozing neon green that would drip with acid like sizzles when it hit the ground. Constant dripping. She was absolutely dead, like a prom queen meant for the grave, and it shocked his dead heart alive each time he came in distance of her. Not that she'd ever talk to him, the vampire that he was. She was a preppy zombie, and he was just a shadow lurker who fed from blood.

"Like Cheryll would ever go out with you...idiot!" The vampire muttered under his breath, running off toward the lone house that sat on the hill. Rumors swirled wildly when Baron arrived, that he wouldn't last long there. Many creatures lived amongst each other, from zombies to werewolves, faeries and nymphs alike. They all got along for the most part - it was Baron's arrival that put a ripple in their civil liberties. Such was it that he felt most comfortable up on the hill here, where he swung his doors wide open and flicked his hair back with just one glance of his hand through his coarse black hair. "How do I get one to notice a man such as me?"

His unamused houseguest sat at the table, stretched across the dining hall as fit as a king's. For decoration, the boy had paintings done that dated back to the early 1800's, Victorian style romanticism. It had been his favorite art style, and time period. Looking across the long table at Ichor, Baron flitted to the chair near him and proceeded to sit. "Master, may I suggest that while you do need some fresh air in the stale musk of your home..."

Baron's face contorted, although he would not yell at him. He knew he was right; the vampire lived but a stale life and it was high time he did anything for himself. He lived as his own kind, but never really pursued or considered anything outside of it. Wondering now, he paused with his elbows against the table's surface. "Yes, yes Ichor. The smell of small microbial mites may be of some harm to my intellectual conversation, perhaps a bit ostracized, but you're absolutely right. I do need to get out more."

"Baron..." Ichor sighed. It was quite the opposite - he'd been trying to tell his Master that while he could go out and find himself someone to spend time with, he had duties to attend to at the house. The mansion that he'd spent millions on at the drop of a dime. Baron and his parents were very rich - it wouldn't be changing any time soon. His parents loved him - they hardly came to see him nowadays but he knew that he'd someday get to see them. When, he didn't know. "...while you wrestle thoughts in that deep conscious of yours, I've half a mind to warn you. You have duties to this house in that you cannot ignore."

With those words, the dark haired vampire had shoved his chair back and stood with his back to the other, staring sullenly through the darkened window at the small town he'd brought himself to begrudgingly call home. He did in fact have duties to this house - his parents set a limit to what he could and couldn't do with their luxury, and he'd been slowly rebuilding the mansion with that in mind. Right now, the bathroom was half finished, and the stairs were crumbling like crushed brick. "How shall this be of any consequence to me?! For once, would I be arrogant enough to find a way to challenge my destiny..."

Ichor said nothing, but let the boy wander off into the nightlife of Grimly. There were no stars in the sky, as pitch black as it could ever be which caused an all knowing smile from Baron. Tonight would be the night that the witch's moon appears, low in the sky and almost invisible to the human eye. For him, it meant the witch's powers were much more potent, and in that scenario, he could ask for the one thing that would cause his world to come down on him like the end of times.

With that in mind, the vampire ran off in search of the witch Helena, determined to stick to his worth.