What the hell had they done, or more precisely, what could they have been caught doing? Chris was busy trying to think through everything he or Gus’ had done recently that might warrant both of them being called to Dave Dean’s office immediately after school. Gus hung his head in shame as a sudden realisation rushed in that he may have been seen taking one of his quiet moonlit flights around the campus. He’d always made sure to have his HCP practice costume on when he did it, but it was probably another school no, no!
As they walked through the school corridors, Little Chris Templar caught up with them as he headed to jujitsu class to ask if they wanted to watch some ‘classic’ films with him and his friends that Saturday.
The choice was easy; a day out in Wessex or watching old films with young Chris and his year 1 classmates at school? No contest really as far as Chris was concerned. Still trying to figure out what Dave wanted them for; Chris absent-mindedly thanked the youngster for the invite, but explained that they had things to do on Saturday.
Gus frowned, a shame really, he quite liked old cult films of high artistic merit, with their cultural perspectives and critiques of times past. Besides, it would be nice to spend a little more time with young Chris, given the chance. Gus was sure he’d appreciate the time in any case, at the very least it would be intriguing, but he had already promised Chris. “I’d like that but… Maybe next time, okay?”
They stood for a couple of seconds outside Dave’s office before they managed to get up the courage to knock. A few seconds later, the door automatically opened. Inside the office, Mr Dean sat in his hover chair talking to a dark haired woman, who seemed nervous as she played with what looked to be an unlit cigarette, and a handsome young man.
Gus’ took a deep breath in; he’d seen her face before on a couple of dust covers of books in the library, specifically novels about vampires, he thought. Her name was, is, something Van Helsing? Obviously a pen-name, but one that was highly appropriate for a horror author.
Dave gestured them to step inside and his door automatically closed behind them. Gus wore an uneasy, nervous expression. His mind had already leapt to several wild conclusions and prejudices. He took a moment to mentally scold himself for his perceived lack of discipline.
“Ah, Mr Jaeger, Mr Sett, I’d like you to meet Naomi Van Helsing and Jaden Welsh. They have agreed to act as personal advocates and advisors to you. I expect you to show them respect and be appreciative of the time they are willing to give up to support you”
Gus went from a bashful expression, to that of an uneasy smile. It wasn’t that he wasn’t appreciative, it just seemed yet another instance that the school and individuals offered them both special individual treatment, it was bittersweet. It offered a perspective on just how much extra support the school thought they needed. How messed up were they, really?
Chris grinned at Gus’s reaction. He’d actually been expecting something like this. Outrage had warned him a few weeks ago that the school sometimes did this for some of their special curriculum students, linked them up with someone from outside the school environment who had real life knowledge of what they might be experiencing. He must have forgotten to tell Gus. Oh, well.
Dave continued, “Mr Jaeger, Ms Van Helsing is very familiar with vampiric abilities, weaknesses and their biology as well as being an expert, actually that should be THE expert on human-vampire hybrid descendants.”
Gus nodded, and offered a polite handshake, inspecting and scanning Naomi carefully.
“Mr Sett, Jaden is also uniquely qualified to assist you. I’ll let Mr Welsh explain why himself. Jaden, if you want to use the classroom next door?” Jaden nodded and walked next door, and Chris followed.
Mr Dean smiled, a rare sight these days and, nodding to Naomi, followed them out of the room in his hover chair. Gus said, “Thank you, Mr. Dean, Mrs Van Helsing, I’ll try my best” as the door closed automatically behind him.
In Mr Dean’s Office
The woman looked momentarily frustrated at the fake porcelain cigarette in her fingers, “Sorry, smoking’s a bad habit of mine and one the school wasn’t willing to tolerate, unfortunately. So, I understand your mother was a vampire and your father was a mundane? My father was born of a vampire father and a mortal mother, so I, ah, understand some of the issues you are grappling with. Would you like to talk about it?”
Gus hesitated, gulped and took note of the rolling cigarette she manipulated deftly, “Would you like to smoke? I think the school lets adults smoke outside, so long as you’re away from the buildings, I read it on a sign or on some papers somewhere, I can’t remember exactly. I think it has to do either with the fire alarms, or with some pupils, or with the law, or something, I’m unsure, I don’t smoke myself. There’s a couple of nice spots on campus I could show you?” Gus was rambling and vying for time.
Naomi’s reply interrupted his thoughts. “No, best not. It’s a habit I’ve been meaning to stop anyway. Might as well start now.” She jiggled the faux cigarette between her fingers for a few more seconds.
Unprepared and surprised about the frankness, suddenness and open kindness to her question. He was caught off guard as timelines of thoughts, events and memories rushed to the forefront of his mind. He tended not to concentrate on the history of his life during his day-to-day school life, if he could at all help it.
Gus took note of Mr Dean’s intonation – that Naomi was *THE* leading expert of human-vampire hybrid descendants. By implication, she may be a dhampir too? “… But yes. I… would -like- to talk about it, and you are correct.” Gus involuntarily scrunched his face at the word “like”, “tolerate” would be more appropriate, he thought.
She smiled and said, “So, yes, a meta-human born with vampiric genes can develop copycat abilities if and when they undergo breakthrough. Most breakthroughs are a meta-response to external deadly stimuli. When I first read about your specific event, I would have expected that you might have developed the ability to turn into insubstantial mist to escape, but you didn’t. If I had to guess, I’d imagine that watching vampire films, reading books about them or actual contact with vampires pre-breakthrough was not part of your life? That limited what meta-abilities you manifested. Your limitations – garlic and UV sensitivity may be genetic, but I expect that your reaction to religious artefacts are simply psychological and manifested only after your breakthrough.”
She laid a small pendant on his hand. He instinctively assumed it would be a cross and went to drop it until he saw it was a small silver star. He lifted it and looked at it curiously. Naomi smiled, “I thought your experience of religions would be limited. This is a Star of David and a religious symbol of my ancestral faith, Judaism. You didn’t recognise it as a religious symbol, so you had no reaction to it. Given your father’s lack of religion, you only feel fear at Christian symbols because other people expected it of you after your powers manifested.” She smiled and took back her pendant. “Your powers are still developing, so what direction they assume in future is still undecided. Of course, if your ancestry is correct, and there are a lot of reasons why it may not be; most vampires are sterile and female vampires are generally incapable of carrying a child to term so that’s one mystery you may want to get to the bottom of, then you may also have genetic abilities that are inherited and unrelated to your meta status.”
Gus’ was stunned, slammed with numerous expert truth bombs he hadn’t anticipated. Rather than soothed by the fact that his hand did not burn to the silver pendant, he developed a sharp headache of a fury turned inward. How could his own thinking and subconscious be so problematic?
“Ww-would you mind terribly if we walked and talked, rather than doing this all here? We could just walk down the corridor?” He sighed, as he opened the classroom door and began a shuffle of steps down the empty hallway, hopefully with his mentor-to-be in tow. He felt as though he had the weight of the world resting upon his shoulders.
He heard nothing so turned and to his surprise, she was just behind him. She was extremely quiet when she walked, despite the heels. She smiled, “Best step outside, otherwise the risk of being overheard through the classroom door by a cleaner or teacher may inhibit your questions. Is there a sheltered location where we could talk that wouldn’t get others talking?”
They walked to the sheltered entrance way to the school where he often hung out during recess and tried to work out which of the thousands of questions he wanted to ask first. She stood in the sunlight and sucked on the porcelain cigarette unconsciously, waiting patiently for the questions to come.
“I’ve seen some of your books in the school library, by the way. Under different situations, it would have been amazing to meet you. I would have asked for your autograph, even. I’m sorry to trouble you with all of this. You do certainly speak like some kind of expert author.” he gave a tired but genuine smile, his complexion turning more pale as the conversation continued. “I was anticipating more Rorschach papers and Freudian psychology and fake-yet-well-meaning frowns of concern, but I’m glad it’s you I am speaking to.”
He shrugged, then chuckled darkly for a moment. “Oh, how lovely it would have been to turn to mist.” he patted his leg where the scars would have been from when he had been impaled with a building-grade steel rebar. He still felt that pain despite his body’s complete recovery from the physical injury. “But no, as you surmised, I only had a passing cultural knowledge of things vampire-related. I was aware of their cultural existence and I think I may have seen a film or two, but that was it.”
He paused for a moment, sighing deeply and drawing deep breaths. “Yes, my mother was a vampire or at least claimed to be, and my father was a mundane… or that was my primary belief. Now? I am more uncertain.” He began to tear up very slightly as a new nagging doubt crossed his mind, that he may have been used by his father as some unknowing meta-science guinea pig. “You know, I still don’t know if my mother was a vampire, truly. I only saw her once recently and very briefly, she did not manifest any ability or powers that I could observe, and the only other word I have about it is from my late father.”
Naomi shrugged, “If it was during the day, her vampiric abilities may have been severely compromised, even indoors. There is more than one type of vampire, unfortunately, and Carpathia is home to several. Dhampirs, yes I know you know the term, are rare but not unknown there though usually weakened by several centuries of breeding with mundanes, it means that it is uncommon for any to manifest powers. Most were ‘created’ when vampire blood accidentally enters an unborn baby’s bloodstream during pregnancy…”
It was too much for Gus, “You mentioned ‘Vampiric Genes’? So, vampires, in a traditional sense, have been confirmed as real? I’ve yet to see another vampire, or meta-human with vampiric powers, nor another ‘dhampir’ for that matter. I’m getting mixed messages. Am I delusional and betrayed by my Carpathian advisors, or am I amongst the chosen bloody few? I don’t know who or what to believe.” Would the school want to cover something like that up from him?
“I’m sorry. It’s… It’s just difficult. There’s so much that I don’t yet know, so much that I can probably never find out, and already so much that I have misunderstood yet haven’t been told otherwise, or I’ve been too bull-headed or stupid to register.” he gritted his teeth for a moment.
“I just wish I knew how to ‘be’. It’s all ‘oh, that’s how the G-man is’ not how things should be. They pity me, or they’re scared of me because of what I’ve been through and who I am now. I just want to be norm…- well, as normal as I can be.”
“Look at me. Do you see a hero? Do you see a meta-human with potential, perhaps? I don’t. I can’t even look at mirrors.” he wept sheepishly. “I’m sorry for wasting your time, Mrs. Van Helsing. I don’t know if I can help anyone or be helped.”
He felt like an over-spilling jug of emotions. It had only been a few minutes of conversation, yet he had somewhat unravelled. How embarrassing. She knew and witnessed a side only Chris and a very select few staff would have observed. He looked into her eyes and considered using his power to compel Naomi to forget…
No, best not. It’s a bad habit he’d been meaning to stop anyway… Might as well start now.
She smiled again, stopped for a second as if in thought, then pulled out a mirror and handed it to him. “Call me Naomi and it’s definitely not Mrs, okay? Can you see yourself in the mirror?” He fought the impulse to look at himself, expecting to see a monster looking back at him. Then she spoke, and her voice compelled HIM to look. She had the voice! Unable to stop himself, and for the first time since his accident, he looked directly into a mirror. A stranger looked back, white hair, red pupils, full lips. He was still human though, older looking but still the same young man who brushed his own hair every morning before breakfast.
Naomi spoke quietly, “You don’t have the ability to be invisible in mirrors or on camera, at least yet, and you can be seen and heard over a phone or comms. It’s possible your mother couldn’t, which may be why your father had no photographs of her to share with you. Most vampires are invisible in mirrors and cannot be recorded even vocally. Even newly-created spawn cannot be recorded properly. Some Elders appear to be able to turn that ability off and on, though it takes a great deal of will. You don’t have that ability, your fear of mirrors is again your Baba’s” (he instinctively knew she meant his Carpathian nanny) “own superstitions and fears made manifest in you.
The HCP facility records all of the matches you take part in and you’ve watched yourself fighting haven’t you? So, I would assume you are something different from either a vampire or even a mortal Dhampiri. You are definitely a meta-human who appears to be channelling some vampiric abilities.”
He remembered on his first day at Claremont, Bethany had taken their photo and had later offered to share it with them. It had to be okay, surely, or why offer?
Again the voice, “Now I want you to look at me in that mirror.” He again felt compelled to comply, he turned it and… nothing, she wasn’t there. He turned around quickly, only to see she hadn’t moved.
“Yes, I can make myself invisible to mirrors and cameras. It’s a power I can turn on and off, unlike most actual vampires who have no control over the ability. A very powerful vampire attacked and turned my grandmother whilst several months pregnant with my father. He became infected in the womb and passed on some of those abilities to me. So yes, Vampires are very real, though thankfully, they limit their numbers to ensure they remain hidden and don’t risk their food supply. Us!
Dhampirs are their mortal descendants and most usually have no powers of their own but may be susceptible to the control of vampires. You need to be aware of that potential weakness. I will be honest; I really don’t know how you came to be. It may be that you assumed vampiric traits at breakthrough because you expected to, or it may be that you are a first generation Dhampir as well as a meta-human.
Look, this is a lot to take in, so why don’t I arrange to revisit you? In the meantime, I’d like your permission to examine your DNA. The school has some blood samples I could use, but I will only do so, with your permission… Unlike the school, I am very familiar with identifying vampiric genes, so should be able to confirm one way or other whether your mother was a vampire when you were born… Are you happy for me to proceed? It may take a few weeks before I can confirm either way…”
Gustav nodded his head slightly, shaking off the fuzzy, cobweb-like feeling from being compelled previously.
“Yes, certainly. Feel free, you have my permission. I’ll sign for it in the office right away. Thank you for your help and your insights, they’ve been invaluable to me. I feel like I’ve learnt more about myself in the last half-an-hour than any time before. J-just, could you do me one favour? If you’re going to use any of this for your writing and authorship, could you just ask me first, just as a courtesy? That’s all I ask.”
Naomi looked him deep in the eyes. “I have never used my own background in my books other than in a general sort of way, and I promise you I have no intention of revealing anything about you either now or in the future. However, as I can’t tell the future, the least I can do is promise that nothing is revealed to anyone, even the staff here, without your explicit, prior consent – and I’m happy to put that in writing if you want?”
Gus looked relieved, “Thanks and yes, I would very much enjoy another visit when it is convenient for you, if that is what you’d like to do.” He offered another handshake, and for the first time in a long time, felt more at ease and less anxious than before. He hadn’t noticed, but his palm was warm and his cheeks were blushing.
In The Classroom Next Door
When the door to the classroom next door closed behind them, Jaden smiled, “What Mr Dean didn’t want to say in front of your friend and his advisor was that I am a meta-human, an active HCP member – my codename is not important. My most significant ‘qualification’ to be your advisor however is that I was born in a female body but chose to become a man. Mr Dean thought my experiences might be useful in helping you cope with your own transsexuality.
So, I understand from Mr Dean that you may be possibly thinking about dating? Have you considered all the repercussions both for yourself and the – sorry, is it a boy or a girl you’re… ah? I don’t want to make any assumptions.
I assume your sexuality is still a secret from the other pupils at the school? Have you thought about how you’d cope if others found out?”
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 