Columbine

“What?” Scarlett damn near screamed.

“It’s not that big a deal.” I said, wincing.

“Not that big a deal?” Scarlett yelled. “Do you hear yourself right now?”

I looked over to where Sarah and Charlie were fuming at each other. I shot them both a look that clearly pleaded for help. They made no move to aid me in convincing Scarlett that turning her beloved lab into a dance club would work.

“You are talking about exposing ourselves to the public.” Scarlett glared with more force than ever. “Putting all of our heads on the Demataxt’s chopping block and hoping that the executioner really needs to use the bathroom!”

“It can work.” I said through gritted teeth.

“For how long can it possibly work without somebody messing up?” Scarlett asked. “Even if we’re careful, even if we take every precaution that we can, wouldn’t word eventually get out?”

This was a good point, but I had an even better counterpoint.

“So are we just going to sit on this for the rest of our lives?” I asked. “There has to be a reason that I’ve been bleeding music for the past four years. Maybe this is it!”

Scarlett continued to glare, but I could tell that I’d managed to get to her through the invisible armor that she was cocooned in.

“You know she’s right.” Charlie finally offered.

“It would be morally wrong not to let people listen to music if we’re the only ones that have it.” Sarah added.

I saw Charlie look at her with hope, but Sarah did not return the gesture. Were they going to be like this all the time now? If so, it was definitely going to become irritating, not to mention get in the way of whatever teamwork activities were sure to be entailed in the future.

“And your lives aren’t important?” Scarlett asked. There was less venom in her voice now, but she clearly still wasn’t convinced.

“Certainly less important than something like music, on the grand scale.” Charlie said. “It’s a cause I, personally, wouldn’t mind dying for.”

His point was not nearly as convincing as it might have been, given that we all knew that he couldn’t die. It was almost physically impossible for him.

“That may very well be.” Scarlett said. “But the rest of us have got life quotas to fill.”

“I never thought I’d have to make this argument, but…” Charlie took a deep breath, “Take it from someone who’s live much longer than the average person -- life’s no good just for the sake of life. It’s got to have a purpose.”

Scarlett let out a bark of laughter.

“Well, aren’t you just the philosopher today!” She said. “Got anything else meaningful to explain to me?”

“I’m serious.” He said. “How long have you lived down here doing nothing but surviving?”

“This is where I live, in case you haven’t noticed.” Scarlett sneered.

“Don’t make me laugh!” Charlie sneered right back. “Look around you! This isn’t a home. It’s a hiding place!”

“For you, it’s a hiding place, obviously.” Scarlett snapped. “Since none of you could have made it up above for long without getting caught!”

I gaped. I had not thought that Scarlett could get this angry. Trust Charlie to bring out the worst in people. When I saw Sarah’s expression, it became obvious that she was thinking the same thing.

“What the hell are you doing, Charlie?” I hissed. He ignored me. I buried my face in my hands. Screwed. That’s what we were. Scarlett was never going to let us do the dance club now. Maybe she’d even kick us out. It made me want to take Charlie’s head and twist it the hell off.

“When was the last time you even saw the sun?” Charlie snarled at Scarlett.

“That’s my business!” Scarlett yelled.

“When the rest of your scientist pals got out of here and went home, why didn’t you go with them?” He asked.

“Shut up!” Scarlett screamed. “You don’t know a thing about me!”

“Of course I do. You’re transparent.” He sneered.

Scarlett didn’t do the proper thing, which was to slap Charlie on the face with both hands consecutively, many, many times. Instead all she did was stalk out of the room, fuming.

The rest of us stayed quiet for a while, Sarah and I each inventing more new, colorful ways of bringing Charlie’s infuriating existence to the end that it so deserved.

“That didn’t go well.” Charlie dared to speak.

“You bet your ass it didn’t!” I yelled. “What kind of a way is that to convince someone!”

“You’d be surprised.” He said.

Sarah didn’t join me in the verbal assault. Sissy.

“Now we’re all really never going to have her approval, dumbass.” I explained.

“We don’t need her approval anyway.” Charlie shrugged.

“We need everyone’s goddamn approval for this!” I yelled.

“I don’t.” He shrugged again.

This was not good. Not good at all. If we didn’t get everyone to cooperate with each other, then the tub of coagulated blood-water hidden in the floor might as well have been put there for laughs and giggles.

I’d been stupid to think that it would be easy convincing Scarlett that outing herself with several lawbreakers in tow was the thing to do. If I were Scarlett, I’d definitely have done the same thing -- refused with all my heart. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who’s instincts got the better of her.

“I’ll go talk to her.” Sarah announced, leaving me and Charlie alone before I could say anything. I realized that maybe Sarah was the right ear to send after Scarlett. They were definitely closer as far as age, and they had femininity in common -- definitely a good thing.

“So,” Charlie said once Sarah was gone, “Does she still hate me?”

“Which one?” I sneered. “You’ve pissed off every ‘she’ in this place.”

“I meant the blond one with the magical powers.” He said.

I collapsed into a seat. Somehow I just couldn’t deal with him anymore. All I wanted was to close my eyes and go to sleep. And it was still only three o’clock. It never failed to surprise me how quickly things could get screwed over in the course of the entire day. Charlie pulling up a seat and sitting down across from me didn’t help much, either.

“She’ll come around.” He said, then caught himself, and added, “They all will.”

I had trouble believing that, but he certainly seemed convinced that it was true. Hopefully it would be, but that was definitely the least probable route of events.

“When’s Valentin coming back, anyway?” Charlie suddenly asked. My eyes opened wide at the mention of that name. Charlie noticed, and grinned.

“Still got a crush on him, do you?” He smiled.

“Have not.” I grumbled. “And he was here earlier, to see if we were all okay.”

“I didn’t see him.” Charlie said. “Must have been a quick visit.”

My gut tightened. Had he really just stopped by to see only me? That was ludicrous, not to mention selfish! Maybe he’d only had time to see one of us and had only found me. He had asked me how everybody else was…right?

“We still have to get him to agree to the dance club, remember?” I reminded Charlie.

“Yeah. He doesn’t seem like the easygoing type, either.” Charlie observed.

He was right, of course. The way he’d yelled at me on the night I’d followed him around was proof that he wouldn’t let the dance club happen without a fight. On the other hand, he hadn’t protested the fireworks display… Maybe he’d be easier to convince than we’d thought at first. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. Maybe he’d just been high on Halloween.

“But I don’t think he’ll storm out of the room if your allegations are too much to handle.” I remembered. “What would you say his biggest flaws were?” I asked.

Charlie seemed to think for a moment. It made sense that after so many years, he’d have become an expert at reading people, then slowly chipping away at their self esteem.

“Well…” He said, “It’s hard to say, exactly.”

“Why’s it so hard to say?” I asked.

“You’re not letting me think.” He snapped. “Wait for a minute.”

I waited. While I waited, I tried to think of some flaws. I already had a billion to begin with -- he was stubborn, pigheaded, inconsiderate, arrogant, and occasionally unpredictable. There you go.

“Well,” Charlie finally said, “The biggest one that I would have to say is that he’s too emotional at times.”

I stared. This was not what I had expected.

“No way.” I muttered. “You must be thinking of somebody else.”

“You don’t believe me?” Charlie challenged.

“Not in the least.” I huffed.

Charlie got this vaguely insulted look and didn’t say anything else. I decided that maybe I’d insulted him more than I’d thought at first. Maybe his ability to read people was even greater than his ability to run at the speed of sound or take down a pack of carnivorous dogs in less than five seconds.

It was then that the door opened and Sarah and Scarlett came inside together. I stiffened, which should have been Charlie’s reaction. Instead all he did was continued slumping in his chair.

“Well?” He asked.

Sarah didn’t say anything. Instead she patted Scarlett on the back and gave her a supportive look. Scarlett swallowed, and finally opened her mouth.

“I’ve reached my final decision.” She announced. “As long as you, Charles, are in charge of security and you and Sarah find a way to work together on keeping our location undisclosed, then the dance club can have a chance.”

I was afraid to breathe for a moment as the words replayed in my head. The dance club can have a chance. It can have a chance. The dance club is okay.

I jumped up from my chair and gave Scarlett the tightest hug I could. I hadn’t known that I was capable of such bear-like strength until then, nor that I had the capacity to even give hugs.

“Thanks so much!” I told her while she tried to choke something. “You have no idea how much this means to me! Hell, to the rest of the world!”

She continued choking in my embrace.

“Wow, Columbine.” Charlie said behind me. “I think poor Scarlett’s eyes are coming out of her head!”

I didn’t care, which was wrong, of course, but I was too happy to be bothered by trivial things like that.

Only one thing was running through my head: the dance club was happening. It was going to be real. Something useful was finally going to come out of my blood, and possibly Charlie’s, if he ever chose to fess up to me on his own.

I finally released Scarlett, who staggered away, gulping down as much air as she could manage. They all looked at me as though I’d gone just slightly crazy, but it didn’t matter. As soon as Valentin got back, which would be soon enough, we’d all ambush him and that would be that.

“But there’s one small thing to consider.” Sarah said. “How are we going to get people to come here? It’s pretty far off from the town.”

“Not a problem.” Charlie said. Sarah immediately stiffened when she realized that the wrong person was answering her question. “I’ve got a few friends that can help.”

“You’ve got friends?” Sarah asked him disbelievingly.

“Of course I do.” Charlie frowned. “I’m not a sociopath, after all.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” Sarah snapped, and moved closer to Scarlett before Charlie could make any truly sociopath retorts.

“And what are these friends of yours like?” Scarlett asked through clenched teeth. “More vampires?”

“Are you kidding?” Charlie laughed. “I’ve met only one other vampire in my life. She was fucking insane!”

“I’ll bet.” Sarah smirked.

“So what kind of friends are you talking about?” I interrupted. “Trustworthy, or just crazy enough to trust you?”

“They’re human and they sell me alcohol. Great guys, really.” Charlie glared, not missing a single implication in my words.

“Bartenders?” Sarah elaborated.

“Those are the ones.” Charlie nodded.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Sarah gaped.

“Wait a minute.” I said. “Bartenders would be perfect, though, wouldn’t they?”

Both women looked at me funny. I swallowed and ignored it, though I felt monumentally stupid every step of the way.

“Bartenders probably get plenty of people talking to them every day. So in just one day, they can tell plenty of people about what we’re doing.” I explained. Charlie beamed at me.

“Finally.” He smiled. “Somebody who understands the value of my thoughts.”

“Shut up.” I mumbled through my own pride.

“Let’s say you’re right.” Sarah said.

“Exactly.” Charlie said. Sarah looked annoyed, but forced herself to continue.

“But how do we keep the Demataxt from discovering us?” She asked.

And there it was. Our single largest problem in delivering the entire idea. We all knew that if we did have to fight off agents, our best hopes were Sarah and Charlie. Even if their methods were different, they could definitely get it done if they worked together. Charlie would make up for Sarah’s lack of force, and should a mage start hurling him into the floor, Sarah could free him from that kind of magic.

“We’re under a pyramid.” Scarlett reminded us. “Even if we were to get discovered, they can’t get close to it.”

“But still.” Sarah urged. “If we did get discovered and they sent in a demon instead of a mage, we’d need some way to repel it.”

“True.” Scarlett nodded.

As it turned out, the only really good solution was to put up a barrier around the entrances only. It was going to be a very specific kind, and was going to take some amount of work. Sarah said that she’d need the entire day at least.

“We’re going to use the topmost floor as the dance hall.” Scarlett stated. “After we fix the ceiling, we can start working on everything else.”

Fixing the ceiling was not going to be easy. The hole was about the size of a small koi pond. We didn’t have much in the way of glue, but apparently there were leftover supplies in the basement. That meant we’d have to hike up six or seven floor carrying cement and equipment. Oh, joy.

“We might as well start now.” Charlie sighed. “No use putting it off.”

“You know you’re going to end up doing most of the work, right?” I informed him. He shrugged.

“Little bit of work never hurt anybody.” He said.

I could name plenty of cubicle workers and miners that would beg to differ, but decided that it wasn’t worth it. Vampires practically never got tired from work that humans got tired from. They got tired from small things like plowing through solid stone with their bare hands and throwing cars out of parking lots. Clearly fixing a hole in the ceiling wouldn’t be a problem for Charlie.

“Whatever you say.” I sighed, and followed Sarah down the stairs.

This was the first process of our work to turn the lab into a place of music and dance. I’m pretty sure that the original tenants of the lab would never have thought that someday it would be used for such non-scientific purposes, but the unexpected had obviously developed a tendency to happen.