Nightmare City

“Chris, why are we at an arcade?” I asked, looking up at the brightly lit awning.

“I told you I knew a guy.”

“I thought you meant a guy that could get me some silver weaponry, not silver dollars.”

“I did mean weapons. Come on.” He pushed the door open and my ears were immediately assailed with ringing bells, sirens, whistles, and the clinking of coins.

My ears were still a bit sensitive to noise, and I could feel a headache coming on. “Let’s get this over with.” I clutched the white shopping bag containing Mom’s present to my chest, freeing both hands so I could massage my temples.

Every inch of wall space inside the arcade was taking up by posters large, small, and everything in between. There were movie posters, comic book posters, and video game posters. Some were new, others yellow and peeling from age. It seemed like every time the owner got a new poster, he or she just covered up an older poster with it.

The place was packed wall to wall with games. Video poker, pachinko, pinball, DDR, the latest shooters, racing, and even claws games lined the walls and created aisles on the floor. There were so many games there was almost no room for the players, of which there were a good number.

The heat inside of the arcade was easily ten degrees higher than outside. I fanned myself a little, but it didn’t really help. “You’re seriously not hot at all?” I asked Gabriel, who was in his usual daytime wear: long coat, fedora, scarf, and sunglasses.

“No, I’m perfectly fine.”

“God damned, cold-blooded vampires.” I muttered.

“You two wait here, I’ll be right back.” Chris said as he disappeared into the depths of the store.

I spotted a display near the door and elbowed Gabriel in the ribs. “Look at that.” I pointed. “Friends of yours?”

The poster on the wall was from the latest vampire movie in theaters, which had been bland at best but had made enough money to ensure two more disgusting sequels. Next to a poster was a claw game themed after the movie. It was filled with plushes of the main characters as well as key chains, temporary tattoos and various other merchandise.

Gabriel walked over and scrutinized the poster. The three male vamps in the poster all looked at the camera with the same brooding expression. “Why do they all look constipated?” he asked.

“Women find the hooded look sexy?” I walked up and stood next to him.

“One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve woken, teenage girls are fascinated with vampirism. In my time it was more the men looking for tales of heroism, mothers telling tales to their children to keep them in their beds.” His brows came together in a frown. “And the Church. The Church absolutely loved us. Teenage girls, I just don’t understand.” He looked at me. “You’re probably a girl, can you explain it to me?”

I bristled at his insult. “I’ll have you know I’m all girl.” I said, heat in my voice.

He let out a short, impatient, sigh. “Then why are you always wearing pants?”

“In THIS decade, women can wear whatever the hell they want. They don’t have to be confined to breezy skirts and murderous heels.”

“Are you going to answer my question or not?”

I turned back to the poster, reluctantly, and tilted my head to the side. “I think that... teenage girls nowadays want something... safe.”

“Safe? A vampire is safe?”

“The ones in the media are. Books, TV shows, movies, all the same. A man who is eternally young, strong, wealthy. A hundred year old virgin,” Gabriel snorted at that. “who’s never shown interest in any girl till he meets ‘that one’. That one special girl who sees herself as so plain and average, but in his eyes she’s absolutely perfect. A first love that is forever.”

I kept my eyes on the poster, but Gabriel was watching me intently as I spoke. “And a vampire is different, special, strong. Deadly, oh, but he would never hurt her, the only one in the world he would never hurt. So absolutely safe, simple... perfect.” Finally, I tore my eyes from the poster and looked at the floor. “Real guys are flawed, first love is never perfect in real life.” I had learned that lesson all too well.

I could feel Gabriel’s eyes on my face, as if they were boring a hole into my brain, revealing my thoughts, my secrets. “That’s delusional.” he said at last. “Life is pain, you learn from it. If it was perfect the first try you wouldn’t appreciate the little bit of good you had.”

“There are some truths you can’t expect a fourteen year old girl to face.” I replied wryly.

“Is this why you have that stack of books under your bed?”

I turned to him quickly, my eyes widening. “I only got those for research.” I protested. “And they were useless. They said nothing about how much irritating bastards vampires were.” I looked him up and down huffily. “What were you doing in my room, anyway?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never been in your room, I was just making a guess.”

“God I hate you so much!” I lifted up Mom’s present, ready to strike him with it. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that I’d have to run out and buy another toaster oven if I broke this one. “You’re lucky you’re indestructible, or I would so kick your ass right now!”

“Yeah, you’re a force to be reckoned with.” He walked over to the claw machine, looking over the contents

My ire peaked at that little jab, but then sputtered out as I wondered if his inability to lie was also true when he was obviously joking. Did he actually mean what he said, even though his tone was mocking?

“Do you have any quarters?” he asked, derailing the subject entirely.

“What?”

“Quarters. This machine takes fifty cents.”

I dug into the my pockets. “Only three.” I held them in my palm.

He took them from me without so much as a thank you and plugged two of them into the machine.

“You know those things are rigged, right?” I asked as he carefully guided the metal claw over his prize of choice, which appeared to be a keychain. It was a metal four-pointed star, the logo from the latest movie.

“Shh.” he quieted me as he lowered the claw. The claw opened up, encompassing the keychain perfectly. It rose up, closing over the prize, then slipped off and returned to it’s starting point.

“See? Looks like vampires can’t do everything.”

He frowned deeply, then held out his hand. “Give me another quarter.”

“I’m dry.” I told him. “You took my emergency payphone money.”

Gabriel was examining the machine. “Never mind, there’s a credit card reader on the side.” He pulled out his wallet and selected his gold Visa.

“Well, there goes the savings account.” I jerked a thumb behind me. “I’m going to go check on what’s keeping Chris. I can’t take my eyes off of either of you in a place like this.”

Chris was on the absolute other side of the store, talking to a boy behind the prize counter. “Where’s your dad?” he asked.

“He’s in the back.” the boy replied. He appeared to be around thirteen years old, with pale orange hair and more freckles on his cheek than skin. “Hands off the glass.”

Chris was leaning both hands on the glass display case, and removed them quickly. He turned and saw me standing next to him. “Cool, there you are, let’s go.”

He led me past the counter, to a door marked ‘Employee’s restroom’. Inside was not a toilet, however, but a set of stairs leading down.

The staircase was narrow even for me, Chris had to turn his body sideways so he didn’t get stuck. At the end of the steps was another door, which Chris opened and stepped through.

The basement was completely open, bare support beams showing instead of dividing walls. Metal shelves ran along all the walls, dirty plastic bins were stacked up on the floor, an ancient workbench sat int he center of the space.

“Rick, you down here?” Chris called.

“Chris, is that you?” a muffled voice came from the corner of the basement.

“Yeah, where are you?”

“Over here, help a brother out.”

We went in the direction of the voice and discovered that one of the shelves had collapsed, the boxes and bins it was holding piled up on the floor. Underneath the pile, lying on his stomach, was a red haired man.

He was trapped, unable to move the heavy boxes by himself. I grabbed both of the man’s hands while Chris pushed the boxes off of his legs. Together we helped him to his feet.

The man, whom I’m assuming was Rick, dusted off his faded black jeans. “Nothing’s broken, thank goodness. I’m lucky you guys found me, I thought I was a goner.”

“Trying to make your boy an orphan?”

Rick frowned at that. “Not intentionally. It’s a dangerous business I’m in.” He gave the shelf a rueful look. “In more ways than one.” He turned back to Chris. “What’cha need this time? You still owe me money from last time.”

My brother placed his hands on my shoulders. “My sister is your customer today.”

Rick gave me a once over. “I didn’t know your sister was military.”

Chris sucked his teeth a little. “She’s not.”

“NYPD?”

“Uh, no.”

Rick turned and walked away. “Sorry, can’t help you.”

Chris let go of my shoulders and followed after him. “Come on, please, just this once?”

“I’m not losing my license for you, C.B. Civvies don’t get guns in this city.”

“There are extremely extenuating circumstances.” My brother pleaded with the man. “My sister is in terrible danger.”

Rick turned and looked me over again. “I’m not buying it. She doesn’t look like she’s fighting off the mob or something.”

Chris held up his hands in defeat. “Okay, no firearms then. Do you have anything more... creative?”

Rick rolled his eyes. “Fine.” He looked at me. “What are you at war with?” I blinked at him. “What do you need?” he asked in frustration.

“What do you have in... silver?” I asked hesitantly.

Rick’s eyes widened, I could see clearly that they were a pale blue. His body went completely and unnaturally still. “Follow me.”

He grabbed a bin from a shelf and set it down on his workbench. He opened it, taking the contents out one by one, each one wrapped in a greasy cloth. “Vampires are the fastest, meanest things alive, the only way to survive against one hand to hand is to be just as fast,” he paused and looked me in the eye. “and nothing human is that fast.”

He unwrapped the bundles, revealing a wide array of firearms. “Vampires? Why would you think vampires just from her asking about silver?” Chris laughed nervously. “Why not... uh... werewolves?”

Rick paused again and looked at my brother seriously. “Dude, werewolves don’t exist.”

“Are you sure this is okay?” I asked, looking over the gun array, which ranged from a tiny derringer, through the 9mm range, magnums, and ending with a massive 12 gauge shotgun. “I don’t want to cause you to lose your license.”

“Vampires are serious stuff, and hunters don’t advertise their arsenal.”

“I’m not a hunter.” I told him. “I’m just interested in self-defense.”

“I can tell by looking at you. If you were a hunter, I wouldn’t be selling to you. Hunters tend towards the absolutely insane end of the spectrum. After a while, they forget who’s human and who’s not.”

I spotted a revolver in the group that looked really familiar. “This looks just like Great Aunt Katrina’s.” Great Aunt Katrina owned an amazing array of silver weapons, including a katana. Besides the silver 9mm that had been destroyed in the car fire, there was an antique revolver with a silver rose carved into the barrel. I wasn’t comfortable using it in a fight, because it looked extremely old and fragile. “This one looks much newer though.” I traced the rose on the barrel with one finger.

“Came all the way from Paris.” Rick answered. “I know a guy there. He’s ancient, but he still makes the best firearms against vampires.”

“Does he have anything against alcohol?” I asked, remembering a strange old man I had met in a bar while I was in Paris. He had been incredibly interested in Katrina’s 9mm, which sported the same design as the revolver.

“I dunno, maybe? I’ve never met him in person.” He picked up the revolver. “It definitely makes a statement.”

“I’m not looking to make a statement.” I told him firmly. “Do you happen to have any gloves? I recently lost a beautiful silver glove that had been very good to me.”

“Let me check in the ‘Unconventional Weapons’ bin.”

“You seriously call it that?” Chris asked dryly as Rick went to a large bin at the bottom shelf. He slid it out and popped it open.

“I have this.” He pulled out a large silver gauntlet.

Chris’ eyes widened. “That thing looks wicked awesome.” He took it and tried it on his right hand. The thing was massive, and looked as if it belonged with a suit of armor.

“You don’t have anything more... delicate?” I asked apprehensively. There was no way I was going to be inconspicuous carrying that thing around, even if it was small enough to fit me.

“Not in the glove department.” Rick continued to rummage around. “Oh, check this out.” He pulled out a black umbrella and handed it to me.

“An umbrella?” I asked quizzically. At least it was a nice umbrella, with a sturdy shaft, unlike the collapsible ones that always broke on me.

“Yeah, twist the handle to the right, go on.” he encouraged me.

The wooden handle was large enough for both my hands to grasp. I twisted it to the right and the bottom part of it came off, revealing a silver stiletto hidden inside. “That’s... wow.” I said. “How much?”

“I’ll give you a good deal.” he grinned at me.

“Do you have another one of these?” Chris asked excitedly, punching the air with his silver fist.

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ll take ‘em.” Chris let out a short laugh. “Gabrielle won’t be such a wise-ass once I’m armed.” He pulled off the glove and flexed his fingers. “So to speak.”

Rick grabbed the glove from his hand. “Nuh uh, no way, you still owe me money.”

“Aw, come on Dude, not cool.” My brother turned to me, his eyes wide. “Evie...” he began pleadingly.

I sighed. “How much does my brother owe you?”

“More than the gauntlets cost.”

“Fine, then I’ll buy the gauntlets.”

“Yay!” Chris rushed over and hugged me. “Best. Sister. Ever.”

“Do you take check?” I wheezed as the air was squeezed from my lungs. Chris released me and I inhaled gratefully. “The umbrella and one of your nine millimeters as well.”

“You can take the gloves and the umbrella now, but you’ll have to wait on the gun.” Rick got up and headed back to the workbench. He knelt down and hunted around till he found a clipboard and pen. “I need to do a background check, it’ll take three to five business days.”

“Okay then.” I took the clipboard and began filling out my personal information. After I was done, Rick handed me a hand written receipt. I wrote a check for the full amount and handed that back to him.

He wrapped up the gauntlets and placed them in a canvas shopping bag, the umbrella he just handed to me. “All right, I have a mess to clean up, so get out of here, you two.”

We obeyed, heading back up the stairs to the cacophony of game machines. As we passed the prize cases Chris said to the boy behind the counter. “You keep an eye on your dad, R.J, he’s going to bury himself one day.”

The boy nodded. “Most likely.”

I looked around for Gabriel, but he was already walking over, white plastic bag in one hand. In the other, he was twirling the key chain on one finger. “Can vampires do pretty much everything?” I asked him. “Is there a written rule?”

“Probably.” he answered smugly.

“So what’s in the bag?” I pointed at it.

“The rest of the prizes that got in the way. The kid behind the counter was kind enough to give me a bag.” He rummaged through the bag for a second and pulled out a plush doll. “Here, I got two of these.”

“My, so generous.” I exclaimed mockingly. The doll was of the movie’s main character, complete with black pants and a torn open white shirt. “He looks a little like you.” I said, tilting my head to the side.

Gabriel looked over at the poster by the machine and snorted indignantly. “He looks nothing like me.”

Chris shrugged. “All you pretty boy vamps look the same to me.”

“The actor doesn’t look like you, but in doll form a lot of the distinguishing characteristics get simplified.” I held the doll up to Gabriel. “Honestly, when are you not wearing a white button down shirt?”

He twisted his mouth, trying to hold back a barb. “The eyes are the wrong color.”

I pulled the doll back. Gabriel had reddish brown eyes and the doll’s were gold. “You’re absolutely right, lemme fix that.” I reached into Chris’ jacket pocket and found red and black sharpies. I used the red on the eyes, then the black to make the eyebrows sharper, giving the plush a scowl. I held the doll back up next to Gabriel, who was frowning at me. “Wow, that’s eerie.”

“Give me that.” He reached for the doll.

I pulled it away. “No, you already gave it to me.” I tucked it into my shopping bag so that the head and hands stuck out of the top. “I like it.”

“Maybe you can use it as a voodoo doll.” Chris suggested.

“Ooo, good idea.”

“I hate you both.” Gabriel said. “Are we done here?”

“All done, now it’s time for the real challenge.”

“Which is?” he asked dryly as we headed to the door.

“Introducing you to my mother.”