Bloody Mary
(Part 12 of the Afterlife Chronicles)

	I entered the city with as much awe for the sights as a blind man.  Towering husks that used to be skyscrapers, their eyes gouged out and their skin tattooed and broken.  Trash littered the streets and the old hulls of cars were in various states of disarray, some looking burned out and rusted while others looked torn asunder.  Compared to the thriving wild of the forest just a mile back, this city was dead, barely a shadow of its former glory.  Trash and rags cluttered alleys, while scavenging rats and roaches scuttled through the street.  The world had changed, or at least this city had, in the mere thirteen years I was gone.

	Clutching the blanket around my naked body, I traveled further through the streets, ancient shards of glass and broken cement annoying my feet.  Where had all the people gone?  I stopped in the center of what had been a four way intersection and looked down each path.  I couldn’t see any forms of life, other than the occasional wild animal.  “Nightmare City…  How can that be, when there are none to dream?” I whispered softly.  A strange sound alerted my attention and I turned, albeit slowly since I knew I was alone.

	Or at least I so thought.  Out of the remains of a corner building stepped a woman right out of a beauty magazine.  Long, long legs clad in tight light blue jeans, white tennis shoes covering dainty feet and a sunny yellow blouse that clung to her full breasts.  I was just raising my eyes to look at her face when something behind her caught my eye.  I, dear sweet God, actually shifted to the left just to look around her at whatever it was.  Here was a woman a gay man would lust for and I was looking around her.  Sometimes I don’t even understand myself.

      A small boy, no taller than four feet, was walking close behind her.  Short hair the color of snow and skin the color of cream, he wore a frilly white shirt and simple tan trews.  I wasn’t alarmed at the sight of his bare feet, nor the odd aura he gave off.  What really set my muscles to tense, were the glowing blue tattoos that covered the majority of his visible skin and his white eyes that lacked pupils.  That boy wasn’t human even though he wore the skin of one.  My eyes immediately fixed on the woman when she spoke and I took in her long golden hair which was braided and across her right shoulder, traveling between her breasts.  “I thought they were all hiding in this evil place, but it seems a rat has scurried out of its hiding place,” her voice was sweet like honey and made one wish to listen to it for hours, despite her words.
      
      Wait. What the fuck? Did she just call me a rat? I blinked and frowned a little at her, “I don’t know why you look down on me despite our just meeting, but I do not appreciate name calling,” I told her, watching her suddenly blink and look surprised, as if she hadn’t realized I could even talk, “My name is Derek and I’ve been asleep a long time.  Mind telling me what happened to this place?”  She just stared a little at me, those sky blue eyes the same color as the boy’s tattoos.  Speaking of the boy, he tugged at her blouse sleeve and appeared to say something, though I could not hear what.  I suppose he was snapping her out of her shock, for she nodded and frowned at me, the expression harsh but still strangely beautiful on her face.
      
      “Raphael tells me you aren’t the same as the others, and as I can see now, you truly aren’t.  You can speak and you at least appear to be modest… Though I believe you have been showing me your ‘junk’ for a solid three minutes now,” she told me, giving me a pointed look.  If I could have blushed, I would have and I immediately remedied the problem, the blanket falling from my shoulders to wrap around my hips with my hands’ skilled guidance.
      
      “Sorry.  Like I said… I only just woke up a while ago.  I’ve not gotten a grip on my bearings as of yet,” I explained, raising a hand to rub my cheek, wishing my hair would stay behind my ears for once.  She laughed a little, raising a hand to cover her mouth as she shook her head.  She was about to say something else when the little boy grabbed her blouse again and tugged a little.  It would have been an adorable action if the kid wasn’t so damn frightening.
      
      “Looks like I have to go, Derek.  It’s likely we will meet again.  Before then, do try to not pair up with evil or I’ll be forced to kill you,” she said in an apologetic tone, holding a certainty that she could and would kill me if made to.  That did nothing to settle my nerves.  I frowned a little but before I could say anything, she vanished along with the boy.  It was as if one instant they were there and the next they were gone.  I spun and looked around quickly but they were nowhere in sight.  Yes, she was definitely someone who would be a problem.
      
      I shook my head and tried to calm myself as I turned and started walking away, holding the blanket in place around my waist with one hand as I did.  Further into the heart of the city I walked and the sky began to finally turn dark, the healthy glow of the sun giving way to the bruise of the night.  I had walked for hours, yet not another person after them.  Finally it became so dark that I had to stop, for no longer could I even see my own nose.  “Damn weird people.  Barely a day and I’ve already made strange acquaintances,” I mutter, only to suddenly still.  Far up ahead, a light came around a corner and started down the street, weaving around the rusting skeletons of old vehicles.  As it did, the quiet purr I’d been hearing grew louder into the roar of a motorcycle.  It came so close I could just make out the shape of the rider when the light covered me and the screech of tires sounded.
      
      The bike stopped a good fifteen feet away and the rider just sat there a moment.  The dark leather of her riding outfit clung to her womanly curves, but I could still tell the rider was female despite the dark and the bright motorcycle light.  She kicked the stand into place then got off the bike, her leather boots thudding as she walked over and pulled her helmet off, holding it against her hip while her other fist planted against her other hip.  In the light of the motorcycle, I could see her face quite clearly, framed by black bangs.  Granite gray eyes gazed at me evenly, as if taking me in, then her full pale lips perked into a smile and she dropped her helmet as she bounded over.
      
      She hugged me so tight and squealed with the delight of a school girl, her face alight with glee.  Taken aback both by the suddenness of it all, and the fact that she was cracking my ribs, I just kind a stood there and stared at her with one eyebrow twitching and the most incredulous look on my face.  Then she looked up at me and smiled a smile I couldn’t help but recognize.  It was the same, adorably innocent smile I’d seen so many years ago from a little vampire girl at a quickie mart.  “Esme!?”
      
      From the shadows, the glowing crimson eyes of both Nostros and Goliath could be seen.  They’d been trailing me all day, ever since I’d left their master in that cave.  How they’d gone undetected from that strange woman’s attention I’ll never know, but now seeing me like this, the hulking Goliath left to report to Logan.  Nostros however, only drew back further into the pitch black of the alleyway, the flaming crimson orbs that were his eyes flaring brightly for a moment before going out.