Number of fucks given in this post: 5
Jack patrolled the streets of Glasgow, twice a week, on her bike. One night she spotted someone feeding by the pedestrian bridge of Clyde street. The guy feeding was about 5’9″ and dressed in classic goth gear with pale face-makeup and faux Victoriana style clothing.
Her eyes rolled at the outfit as she nudged her motorbike up onto the pavement to watch at a distance, and to prepare herself for the possibility of violence. The street was quiet.
The goth took his time,feeding for a couple of minutes as the girl visibly shuddered. Once he had finished, the two started walking as if heading to go over the bridge.
Jack got off her bike and followed them across the bridge and right along the river. She tried to move quietly and as if she was out for a pleasant stroll but heavy boots and belt chains don’t make for either pleasant or unnoticeable. Lucky for her, the goth was too engaged with his victim.
She gradually caught up to the couple as she wanted to be able to catch him if he ran, or otherwise did something more permanent to the girl. Jack saw that he was actually helping his victim walk, as if she was drunk.
From the right, the two crossed Bridge Street and then onto Clyde Place. Jack caught up with them while they were walking through the underpass beneath the railway line before they turned left along Commerce Street.
Jack called out, “Hey you!”
The goth ignored her and kept walking, even though he must have heard.
She called again, “I was talking to you, goth.”
He glanced over his shoulder, still not saying anything.
“Yeah,” Jack said and walked closer.
The goth stops and waits.
Jack said, “Put the girl down. I want a word.”
“Fuck you.” he replied.
Jack laughs a little, “I’m not asking.”
Suddenly Jack sensed a wave of danger coming from the goth, and she reflexively ducked as if something was incoming at her head.
He said, “You picked the wrong goth tonight.”
Jack glanced about but all she could see was the occasional car. There were no other pedestrians nearby.
“No,” she said, “I picked the right one.”
The other girl looked from the goth to Jack and then to him again.
Jack tried to conceal her movement to adjust one of her stakes in a wrist sheath to loosen it. She looked at the girl pointedly, “You should leave. Goth-boy and I have some business to take care of.”
The girl just moved closer into the goth for protection.
The goth looked Jack in the eyes and commanded, “Run.”
Jack had felt a brief urge to obey but brushed it off and laughed. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” She demanded, although this time not making eye contact in case his next attempt was more successful.
He looked taken aback by this and paused before untangling himself from the girl and leaning her against the wall of the rail underpass. The goth flexed his shoulders, the movement incongruous with his clothing.
Jack moved closer to him, “I’m offering the chance for you to come with me without a fight. If you do, you won’t get hurt.”
“I am offering you the chance to fuck off without dying, bitch. You have no idea the amount of trouble you are in.”
“I’m as dead as you are, “ she replied, “and still here. motherfucker.”
He asked, “Then why would you be doing this?”
“Because you’ve not paid tribute to the right people in this city.”
“…and who are the right people?”
Jack said, “Would you like to meet them? I suppose you could call me an envoy for the poor lost souls of the night.”
The girl piped up, “What’s going on here, Toby?”
Toby raised his hand and Jack narrowed his eyes. Then he roughly backhanded the girl – hard – and the back of her head hit the wall with a nasty snapping sound.
Jack looked at the girl, now sliding down the wall. She estimated that the girl would have a concussion but it probably wasn’t hard enough to crack her skull.
The Brujah returned to look at the goth again, “Now, that wasn’t a good idea.” She flexed the fingers of her right hand and curled them into a fist. “So.. easy way or the hard way? Either way you’ll learn something.”
Toby took a deep breath… and turned and ran, fast… unnaturally fast.
Jack chased straight after him, pulling the stake out as she went, but she slowed down when she saw the people on the street as she was unwilling to risk breaking the Masquerade herself. She looked ahead and saw Club Dolour about 50 yards down the road.
“Shit. Fuck. Motherfucker,” she swore as she saw him speeding up the street faster than she could. To her surprise, he continued past the bouncers and past the few people stood smoking outside the club. The bouncer looked like they had just seen a flying pig as Tony sprinted past them at at least 40 miles an hour. A couple of the smoking types cheered.
Jack kicked a nearby pole, cursing that her motorbike was still back on the other side of the river. She returned to the escaped vampire’s victim who was lying on the pavement. There was a lot of blood. Jack judged that the blood would be sufficient explanation for the amount of blood the girl had lost… but only just… for her to anonymously call an ambulance. Then she called up Angus, the Sheriff, to give a curse-word-filled report about what just happened.
The Brujah lingered nearby until the ambulance arrived. As soon as they stopped, Jack turned and headed for her bike with the intention of running enough red lights so that she could watch them arrive at the Royal Infirmary.
The paramedics wheeled the girl out on a stretcher and took her unhurriedly into A&E, through a door which says “no unauthorised entry”. Jack assumed that they were going to keep her overnight and let her out the next day if she showed no signs of trauma.
2 am and Jack lurked in A&E, trying to work out how to find the girl to ask her more questions. Everywhere in the hospital was quiet, except for A&E. A frumpy-looking woman was on reception and from her face she hadn’t had a good day. Jack cursed both her lack of ability to go invisible, and the lack of forethought that meant she hadn’t looked at the girl’s ID to even get her name. Every now and then a nurse came out through a set of double doors and shouted out a name.
Jack waited a further two hours to see if anything was going to happen, like police arriving to ask questions to the girl. When nothing did, she went outside to walk around the outside of the building to find where orderlies or nurses would go for a smoke. She waited until a single orderly was on his break before approaching.
“Hey, excuse me!” she called out in a friendly fashion, turning on the supernatural charm that Brujah are known for…
The girl was asleep when Jack entered the room, and hooked up to machines checking her pulse. There were a few other people also asleep so Jack was gentle as she nudged her awake, and was prepared to hold her mouth if she went to scream.
Quietly, Jack asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded, looking groggy.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier,” Jack said.
Still confused, she asked, “What happened earlier?”
“I just needed a private discussion with Toby.”
With a faint voice, the girl said, “I met a guy who showed me the lights on the river. Toby. That was his name.”
Jack asked, “Where did you meet him?”
“Outside the club.”
“Which club?” Jack asked, trying to sound patient.
“The one in the railway arches.”
“Have you ever seen him before?”
“I met him tonight.”
Jack asked, “What did he say to you?”
“What do you mean? I’m confused.”
“Did he mention any friends? Where was he from?”
“We didn’t talk much,” she said. “He smiled, he looked cute, he kissed me and I just wanted to be near him.”
“Where was he taking you?”
“To show me the lights on the river. The bridges and all.”
Getting more frustrated now, “And after that?”
“We made out, I remember that. But I must have had a lot to drink. I remember he was getting me to a taxi.”
“To your place or his?” Jack asked.
“He said that I had a little too much and I should go home.”
Jack realised she wasn’t going to get anything further of use from the girl. “Thanks for your help.” Then she stood up and quietly left the room.
