Yvonne stayed where she was, not inching forward at all, worried that her son would faint for another time. But of course, Tom didn’t. He gathered himself within seconds, enough for him to look at Suzanne and whisper, “Is that my mother?”
He had memorized her face from the identification card that he retrieved earlier from the hospital. Surely this was some kind of trickery?
“It’s me, I’m Yvonne Long. I’m your mother Tom,” Yvonne said softly, speaking directly to her son for the first time in 3 decades. Relief washed over Yvonne’s face. She could finally meet her son face to face. She started weeping, wiping her translucent tears with her shimmery hospital gown.
Tom looked at Suzanne, unsure of what to do. Here was a woman, no, a ghost who looked like his mother, crying in front of him. He never could stand seeing a woman cry, let alone the ghost of his mother. Tom instinctively reached out to comfort the spirit, only to find his hand phasing through her. He immediately retracted his hands and looked at them incredulously.
“You can’t touch me, Tom. I’m dead. But I wanted to tell you something before I leave for good.”
Tom shook his head, not following, “But you’re dead….”
Suzanne sat down beside a weeping Yvonne, “Tom, this is the real deal. Forget physics. Your mother only wants to talk to you.”
“You can’t be real….,” he was in denial.
Suzanne sighed. Her clients were usually divided into 3 groups; the first was what she called the runners. These people screamed, fainted, and peed in their pants before gaining consciousness and running out of the office, never coming back for good. The second were those who eagerly embraced the spiritual life. These people wasted no time in chitchatting away with their dearly departed, some would even try to fish for tips on how to make quick bucks. The third was the sceptics. This group required a lot of patience to deal with. Tom definitely belonged to the third group.
“Tom, you wore a dark blue robe after you showered this morning, didn’t you? And you kept the vial in the first drawer beside your bed,” Suzanne had to lay down the facts to convince him.
Yvonne had stopped crying by this time. She sniffled, “I saw a GQ magazine on his desk too.”
Woohoo, Suzanne thought.
Tom’s eyes went wide. “You were there?” he gasped.
“I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You see Tom, I don’t have much time left on Earth. Before I leave, there’s something have to tell you.”
Tom pulled up his knees and buried his face in them, “There’s more?”
“Your father is alive,” Yvonne said simply. “Would you like to meet him?”
Tom immediately looked up. Nothing seemed to surprise him anymore.
“His name is William Banks.”
Except for the revelation that his father was the most powerful man in New York.
Tom didn’t know how to react anymore. Either Suzanne was a professional prankster or his ghost of a mum had a knack for jokes.
Yvonne sat herself down and started telling Tom of why things were….
I worked as a cleaner at his office back then. William was already in a 7-year relationship when I first met him. I guess that’s why they call it the 7-year itch. You could see it in his face whenever he came to work after an argument with Patty. I’d pour him tea and we’d start chatting, and the more I got to know him, the more I fell in love with him. Then one day, it just happened.
He never knew about you, Tom. I left before he found out. You see, Patty knew and she came to see me. It was clear though that her family ties would bring him to higher places while I would only drag him down. So I left.
Having you was the greatest gift. But I am an uneducated woman Tom. I knew I wouldn’t be able to give you a good life. I was young and scared. So I put you up for adoption, and I am eternally grateful to your foster parents. They brought you up well. They did what I could not do.
All was silent when Yvonne ended her side of the story. Tom stood up.
“Where are you going?” Suzanne asked, standing up herself.
Yvonne just sat there looking sad. “You’re leaving aren’t you?” she asked her son.
Tom looked down at her, “Yes.”
Yvonne’s ghostly face fell.
“We are leaving together to find my father.”
Suzanne had never seen a ghost smile so widely. This was an unexpected twist. She had expected Tom to either bail out or laugh it off but he looked very serious.
And extremely sexy too. Suzanne eyed Tom’s facial features all the way down to his perky butt. And boy would she have loved to give it a squeeze.
“Alrighty then, let’s go,” Suzanne said.
Yvonne practically leapt up, filling in all the details about how she managed to see him attend his graduation and how proud she was when he was offered a position at Knewton University. If Tom was uneasy about having been stalked by his mother, he didn’t show it.
Suzanne clasped her hands together and recited a chant. The golden thread dissolved into embers of dust before disappearing into thin air. Tom looked at her with amazement but didn’t have a chance to talk to her as Yvonne chatted away.
Suzanne then led them to the doorway and opened the door, ready to escort them to find William Banks. And just as she pulled open the doorknob, there stood a little girl with red shoes.
She was drenched and water was dripping down her shoulder-length hair. Tom almost stumbled when he saw the girl. His spell had yet to wear off, and therefore he could see what no other normal beings could not. He could see that this was no ordinary girl. This was the spirit of a dead little girl.
“Hello,” she said and held out her dripping wet hand towards Tom.
In a flash of blinding light, the bloodied circle from which Suzanne had pulled the dark figure into, exploded, sending a gigantic shock wave throughout the hill on which the mansion stood. It lifted everyone up in the air and for a moment, Tom felt as if he could fly. But he did not land gracefully. He landed on something hard and felt an agonizing pain shoot up his body. For all he knew, he could have broken his hip. Then everything faded to black.He had no idea how long he stayed unconscious but when he opened his eyes next, a smoky wind was blowing in his direction. The mansion was on fire. It had gone up in flames.With great difficulty, he sat up, only to fall back on his back. He looked down and to his horror, he saw that his stomach was bleeding. He had in fact been lying in his own pool of blood.“Stay still,” a female voice said. He looked up, it was the blonde woman. Her skin had miraculously healed. She pricked her finger and allowed her blood to dr
The dark figure was cunning. Yes, even in its weakened state, it knew that Suzanne and her friends were no match for it. It had been plunged with the ancient dagger; but alas, the dagger was not as powerful as the one Vlad had yielded.It rose from the ground once more, looming over them as the remaining strands of mist swirled voraciously around it, much to Suzanne’s horror.Through its veil of darkness, it could see Suzanne’s eyes widen in disbelief, as confusion glided across her face.From behind the being, the golden-haired woman crept up, ready to strike. Her reflexes were tremendous and her moves instantaneous but without the dagger, she was no match for it.It raised its hands and with an invisible force, it dragged the woman across the marbled floor towards it before she could even counter herself. She was savagely pulled into the enemy’s grasp and it crushed her by the shoulder before flinging her across the foyer and crashing
The voices were calling out to Suzanne. She couldn’t be sure if they originated from the abyss or from the hooded figure hovering at the door. But there was nothing soothing about the voices. Every sound that they made sickened her, making her feel as if maggots were crawling over the top of her skull and into her ears. She shook her head furiously but the sensation refused to go away.Focus damnit….“Suzanne….” the voice called out again. It was the same voice that had called out to her from the garden. And the airport. And in her nightmares.The voices were awful. She couldn’t comprehend what they were saying save for the calling of her name but she was pretty sure they were some kind of distorted incantation. All of a sudden, she had an avalanche of dark and alien thoughts. She did not like them, not one bit.She looked over to Tom who stood slightly hunched over, ready to pounce on the figure if need be.
Misty snakes slithered from the remaining figure’s cloak even as it screamed bloody murder. And the swarm of snakes began to crawl toward Vlad.He could have fled then, he could have abandoned Suzanne and her friends for the sake of his own life. But he was brave, even as the recognition of impending doom stared at him in the face.One of the misty snakes slithered up to Vlad and drove its fangs deep into his ankle. Immediately his skin seethed with pain as the venom began to travel to his heart. He tried to fight it off, but the dagger had gone up in flames and he had no tricks left to pull on this particular demon of the dark.Then another snake came forward, and still another, until soon Vlad could no longer stand. He crumpled to the ground, his body failing as a numb wave of a million daggers pierced his body and his head. With every breath he took, he heaved and coughed up blood.He never stood a chance. The vampire from the ancient of times began to die
As Thomas took his first step out from the safe haven of the golden threads, his short young life suddenly flashed before his eyes.He saw himself as a child, chasing after the autumn leaves on the streets. The other children had not wanted to play with him. Then he saw himself at his graduation with freckles and braces complete with cracked glasses, standing alone and smiling awkwardly at the camera while the rest of his classmates stood in the arms of their parents. He had been lonely then. The image was soon replaced by his first-day job as a library assistant at the Birmingham Library. He had felt at home there and was accepted by all the book-loving children who would share with him their candies and sandwiches.A smile appeared on his lips just then, and his vigour renewed as he stepped further out to face the rage of the black mist. With each step he took, a surge of determination began to flow through him, growing stronger and stronger, until it became an unsto
D-DAY-2 = DOOMSDAYVlad opened his eyes, his black iris now replaced by blood red ones. He was in killer mode and his senses were especially heightened now.“It’s here.”All around him, the clairvoyants spread out, forming a circle, each with a wand in their hands. The only people missing were Suzanne and Tom.“Where are Suzanne and Tom?” Thomas asked nervously. He was trying hard not to tremble but was failing miserably. And even though it was cold, he was perspiring heavily. He gripped his wand so tightly his knuckles turned white, wishing he had an ounce of the twins’ bravery.“They are coming down now,” the vampire said simply, both his eyes and ears alert. In all his years of existence, he had never met his match, and he intended for it to stay that way.***Moments before…Tom could finally look at Suzanne. In place of her black eyes were now her old