Tarasat on the park bench in Central Park in the darkness of night, the cold autumn air chilling her through her thin worn coat. She knew what the doctor at the clinic would say... that she had no business being out this time of night, not with her medical condition.
Three years ago, that no good husband of hers had abandoned her. Not for another woman, but for a man. That betrayal did not anger her so much as the mess he left behind, a half dozen maxed out credit cards, the car repossessed, followed soon by her eviction for their six thousand dollar a month apartment.
After six months of living in a homeless shelter, Tara was finally assigned a small apartment in the Bronx, a gift from social services. Now with a job at one of the large retail book stores, she let herself feel a brief moment of hope. That was of course before she stepped on the final landmine left by her husband.
At first Tara thought she just had a bad case of the flu. Into the second week however she was too weak to leave her own bed. It was her four year old son, James, the little trooper who had remained ever cheerful during the recent rough patch, who saved her life, going to their next door neighbor for help.
It was three weeks before Tara had the strength to leave the hospital. By that time she knew the depth of her husband's betrayal. He had not only left her with a mountain of debt, but also some of the most feared letters in human history... AIDS. From what the doctors told her, she had been infected several years ago, the diseases only now revealing its ugly head. The only good news was that James had been born before she had become infected.
Knowing her husband's betrayal now predated back to when they had just been dating, caused something in Tara to snap. She was never the same person since. On disability, she lived most of her life bouncing from one addiction or another, her life mimicking the same downward spiral of her health. James remained the same however, watching and protecting his mother from harming herself too severely.
It was at a bar where she would trade in her meager food stamps for a bottle of scotch that she met the stranger while in one of her drunken stupors. Making eye contact with the man, his deep piercing brown eyes did not look so much at her hollowed out face as it did her frail soul. He took Tara with a firm hand away from the bar, into a dark alley where he whispered to her all her dark secrets and desires while promising he would make them all come true. He only demanded she pay a price... a small price really given her condition. It was one she would readily pay for what he was offering.
That was why she was in the park tonight, even though she was already running a burning fever. It was time to make her down payment for the promises the stranger had made.
She felt the stranger before she saw him, his cold body sliding up next to hers on the park bench. "So you have made your choice."
"Was there any doubt? Even if you are nothing more than some crazed mad man... if you keep even one of your promises it will be worth the price you ask."
The stranger wrapped an arm around Tara's thin waist. "But are you sure this is really what you want."
"Yes, I can't live like this anymore... not for my own sake but for my son's."
"If you are with me... you will always be hunted, always live in fear." The stranger warned.
"But I will no longer have this... this disease in me, sucking away at my soul. You promise you will protect me and my son, that we will never have to want for nothing."
"And I will keep that promise for as long as I can. I have also promised you revenge."
"Yes... that too." Tara nodded. "I have made up my mind. I am willing to pay your price."
"Good..." The stranger smiled. Leaning over her he pressed his lips against Tara's mouth, slipping his tongue inside.
Feeling a warm sweet liquid filling her mouth, Tara responded by opening her mouth wider. Her body, long fatigued felt alive for the first time in years, a new fire burning in her veins. She opened her blue eyes wide while wrapping her arms around the stranger's neck. When the kiss ended, Tara was consumed by a new found strength... and hunger.
"Now for your revenge," The stranger said as he took Tara's hand in his and led her away from the park to where a dark green car was waiting.
James was tired, so very tired but as his mother had not come home yet he refused to let his eyes clothes. In resent days he had seen a change in his mother. She seemed to have regained a fraction of the long lost hope she once had in her eyes.
James, now seven did his best to keep the apartment clean. Tonight however his mother had scrounged for every drop of liquor she could get her hands on, leaving a trail of trash and broken glass. It had taken him several hours to clean up most of the mess. He even cut his hands and arms in several places in the process, scooping up the shards of glass with his bare hands.
Wrapping his hands with thin toilet paper to stop the bleeding, James sat on the sofa that severed as his bed, his eye frozen on the door, waiting for his mother to return.
When the door did open, it was knocked off its hinges. A tall man, wearing a black suit, gazed inside with blue eyes, a look of panic on his face. Behind him was a strange man, his eyes blood red, a possessive arm around James' mother. Pushed violently forward, the frightened man fell down on the floor face first.
Jumping with a start, James moved off the sofa, hiding himself in the cupboard. Ever since his mother began her long decline James had needed a sanctuary. He had found one in the cupboard. Whenever the burden he carried became too much for him, he would retreat into the darkness of the cupboard. There was something strangely peaceful about the small confined space. The way it muffled the lights and sounds of the city allowed James to escape inside himself where he was safe and loved. The only problem was that now being seven, James had almost outgrown the tiny space.
With the shouting starting James did not care how hard it was for him to cram himself inside. He did not want to see what was happening, knowing it would be hard enough to deal with the emotions. Only recently had James realized he was not like most people, that his ability to sense the emotions of others was not a talent all people had. Behind the fake smiles of the social workers James sensed the disgust they had toward his mother. During his mother's drunken stupors he could feel the immense pit of despair her soul had fallen into. Right now, even hidden in the cupboard, James could feel the mixture of fear, hate, and joy coming for the three adults in the room.
"I'm sorry Tara. I couldn't live a lie anymore. I just couldn't." James heard, a voice he recognized but could not place.
"That I could have lived with... I could live with you cheating on me, but leaving us penniless, on the street! And AIDS, you gave me AIDS!"
"I have no excuses Tara. I admit that... but to kill me for it? You are a bloody vegetarian for goodness sakes!"
"Time and sickness can change a person," Tara replied.
"What do you want from me Tara... do you want my life?"
"I want a little more than your life dear," James heard his mother say before the screaming began.
Having been to the hospital many times with his mother, James had seen death. Worse, he knew what a person felt when they passed away. That was how James knew the man screaming in the room outside the cupboard was dying. Closing his eyes tight James tried to hide inside himself, failing to block out the pain the man was feeling. Hot tears mixed with dust inside the cupboard, leaving smudges on his face.
"See my dear... I've kept my second promise to you." A deep voice chuckled after the screams had died down.
"Yes you have my love." James heard his mother reply.
"Now for you to keep yours," the deep voice man replied.
"Of course. Come out James, everything is ok now," Tara called out.
James didn't want to leave his sanctuary. Somehow he knew that whatever was out there would frighten him more than he already was. Hiding his head between his legs, he hoped that he would wake up, this all being nothing more than a nightmare.
"Where is your son?" The man asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.
"Don't worry Alex... I'm sure he is just in his usual hiding place," Tara laughed with a nervous warble. "Come out James... don't be rude to our guest."
James remained were he was, letting one of those repetitive songs from Sesame Street run through his head, trying his hardest to block out the outside world. He was able to maintain that illusion until the door to the cupboard was opened, his mother's blood covered face smiling down at him.
"Everything is alright James. You don't need to hide yourself in here."
James, feeling an ice cold hand take hold of him, tried to free himself. Against his mother's iron grip however he was dragged out of the cupboard, across the tile kitchen floor, into the living room until he was laying next to the ghostly pale body of the blue eyed man, a chunk of his neck missing.
It was at that James finally realized who the person was, instantly clinging his arms around the corpse. "Daddy!"
Grabbing her son by the collar of his shirt, Tara tried to pull him away, all she ended up with was the torn rags of his shirt. "James get away from him... he's dirty!"
"Let me handle this my love." The deep voice stranger said.
"Of course Alex." Tara backed away.
Going down onto his knees, Alex lowered himself until he was eye level with James, looking into the young boy's blue eyes. James could feel the man's eyes on him as if they were burrowing into his mind. Slowly, his grip on his father's body relax, his mind filled with a deep fog.
"That's it James... everything is going to be alright," Alex cooed as he lifted the young man into his arms.
James, not able to shake loose of the man's stare, continued to gaze into the man's eyes even as their brown color were replaced with a fire red.
Alex nuzzled his nose against James's cheek. "What beautiful eyes you have."
Tara, a look of worry growing on her face, walked in front of Alex and tried to take James into her arms. "You promised you would wait Alex."
Alex opened his mouth wide, showing off his sharp teeth to James. "I know what I promised. I also know that there is nothing you can do to stop me from doing what I want."
A tug of war started Tara trying to take her son away from Alex while the tall red eyed man laughed. "Give me back my son!" Tara demanded.
"But he was the price you were willing to pay. Did I not give you back your health? Did I not let you have your revenge?"
"He's only seven years old. I will not let you turn my son into a monster."
Alex kicked Tara down to the floor. "If I am a monster, so are you my love."
"But not my son... not James," Tara insisted.
Alex ripped of the flimsy sheets of toilet paper wrapped around James' hands. "Do not worry Tara... I do not plan on kissing your sweet boy. I am only going to taste."
Taking James' hand, Alex squeezed it, opening the wounds afresh, blood oozing out. Using his long tongue Alex licked the small boy's hand, his tongue coated red.
"He's perfect..." Alex sighed, letting his mouth savor the taste.
At that moment a man wearing a heavy blue coat and police uniform appeared in the hallway, gun drawn. "Let the boy go!"
"Now now officer... lets not do anything rash." Alex chuckled, lowering James down to the floor.
"Now step away from the boy with your hands up." The officer demanded.
"As you wish Mr. Policeman," Alex replied, walking several steps back, revealing the dead body in the room.
Seeing the blood drained corpse, the Policeman's face paled. "Oh shit!"
As the officer walked backwards, he lowered his gun. It was at that moment that Tara, leaped from the floor, tackling the policeman down, her fangs burying into the man's neck. The man's screams soon turned to gurgles, as his life was drained out of him, his throat filled with his own blood.
James, free from the gaze of the stranger, ran into his mother's bedroom. The moment he shut and locked the door, he felt a strong arm warp around his waist while a hand covered his mouth.
"Shhhhhhh little one. You are safe now," A comforting baritone voice whispered into the boy's ear.
James could feel the coldness of the man's body. While it terrified him he also sensed that the man had indeed come to protect him. Relaxing, James let himself be lifted off his feet and taken to the bedroom window where he was left on the fire escape. After the broad man joined him, James followed the man up to the roof of the building, two floors up.
"What is your name little one?" The man asked as he ripped the metal frame of the stairway off, sending the top twenty feet of it crashing to the street below.
"James," the boy said at a near whisper.
Looking back at the boy, the man had a smile on his face. "James aye? I am Logan... Logan Worth. I take it that you've had a rough night?"
James nodded his head silently. Now that he was not running, his mind was starting to filter through all the chaos that had just happened. His father was now dead. His mother was now a monster. Whatever dreams he had imagined in the safety of the cupboard of things returning back to normal had been destroyed. Not surprisingly, tears were now rolling down his face.
Feeling Logan wrap his cold arms around him, James cried against the man's shoulders. Soon he was lost in his own grief, not noticing as he floating in Logan's arms down into a narrow alley.
Hello again folks, Here's a new tale to dig your teeth, or in this case fangs into. Like the first series I wrote for Nifty this one is about vampires and is an updated version of The Mark, hopefully much improved over the first version I did which just reeked with errors and typos. Like most of my other tales, this one can be found on my Yahoo group under the different title of The Mark of James. In other news Book III of the Centurion Cycle: Angels Ascending will be released in the next two weeks. Will keep you informed when it finally hits Amazon. Books I and II, The Centurion and The Academy, are already out and are on sale at 30% off on Amazon. Borders on line also has the books but at full price. If you are a big fan of Sci Fi and Fantasy romances then I think you will really enjoy the Centurion series. Feel free to email me and tell me what you think so far. Take care.
JMH
trandar2002@yahoo.comhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/adultwritingworkshop/