Ellie’s feet felt like they were stuck in mud, walking became increasingly difficult.
“Skully?” She called out again, her eyes shifting from side to side.
She couldn’t see anything.
Alone in the void.
Her legs went deeper and deeper into the darkness, it was pulling her down.
She reached her hands out.
No one reached back.
Knock. Knock
Loud hammering resounded through her head.
Her eyes opened wide.
Was that just a dream? She glanced around the room, sighing deeply.
She heard a firm knock on the door, she noticed it was dark outside.
Did I sleep the whole day? She asked herself, getting off the bed. She quickly opened the door.
Luke stared at her. “Did you forget?” He asked her, squinting his eyes.
Ellie smiled awkwardly. “I didn’t. I just fell asleep. Sorry!”
Luke softened his gaze. “Never mind, are you hungry?” He wanted to know.
“Actually, I think I’m famished.” Ellie answered reluctantly, trying not to stare at Luke.
“Let’s go out and eat then.” He declared. “Artemis is out with some friends anyway.” Luke added, pushing his hair to the back.
Ellie was surprised he suggested going out. “Sure. Let’s go.” She smiled, feeling lighter, but still concerned for Skully.
Ellie glanced at Luke, he was wearing a black leather biker jacket, and as usual one black glove on his left hand. She thought he looked really cool, his hair kept falling over his eyes and he kept pushing it back now and then. Ellie had never gone out to eat with someone who wasn’t her father before, not counting Skully.
“So, tell me more about being a vampire hunter.” Ellie asked Luke, stirring three packets of sugar into her coffee.
“I guess it’s not an easy job. It doesn’t really pay either. It’s more like a calling, and it kinda runs in the family. People who get the calling are stronger than normal people.” Luke replied, looking at Ellie who was pouring yet another packet of sugar into her coffee.
“Wow, so people are like born to be vampire hunters?” Ellie stared at Luke with big eyes.
“Something like that, yeah.” Luke answered as he lifted up his tea cup.
Ellie wondered what else the world was hiding, there seemed to be so many things out there she didn’t know about.
“Sorry, I’m just really curious about stuff, I might ask too many questions.” Ellie remarked, her cheeks slightly pink, staring into her coffee.
“It’s ok, I guess I’m just used to this stuff, both my uncles were vampire hunters...” He stopped, glanced at Ellie and continued. “I… I wanna help you with the skull. At least just to make sure nothing happens to you. Dawn can be pretty dangerous.” Luke had a hint of concern in his voice.
“Ok! That would be amazing, and I guess I’m starting to see why everyone is saying Dawn is a dangerous place.” Ellie giggled.
“So far I’ve been attacked by a vampire and a demon.” She added with a smile on her face.
Luke sighed. She’s just gonna get herself into a lot of trouble. He thought to himself.
“About the skull, I guess I can look through some old hunters' journals for information on powerful vampires who have gotten their heads cut off.” Luke told Ellie, he took a bite of his sandwich.
“Hunters’ journals! Can I read too!?” Ellie exclaimed, her face beaming, staring at Luke.
He glanced from side to side.
“Ellie. They are only for other vampire hunters. So you can’t.” Luke replied, glaring at her.
Her eyes met Luke’s for a brief moment. Ellie quickly looked away, her cheeks an even darker shade of pink now.
Luke sighed, and took another bite of his sandwich.
He’s probably thinking I’m silly, or that I’m really lame. Ellie told herself, her eyes focused on her big bowl of pasta.
She still felt like she was half stuck in mud, her dream earlier had been so strange.
Ellie glanced down at her feet, she shook her head. This is silly! I should just focus on finding Skully, with Luke’s help maybe it’s possible.
She opened her mouth to speak, when abruptly she felt herself being pulled into the dark again. Her eyelids grew heavy and she closed her eyes.
“Ellie? Are you ok?” Luke asked, briefly touching her hand that was resting on the table.
Ellie’s eyes opened, an unexpected shade of green tinged her eyes.
“What the fudge?” Ellie exclaimed.
Luke immediately felt something was off, he glanced at her eyes. That’s not Ellie, what’s going on here? He wondered, her voice was off as well.
“Who are you?” Luke asked coldly.
“I’m… fudge…” Ellie grumbled as she looked down at her hands.
“I’m Ellie of course, what are you talking about? Maybe you should ask yourself who you are. Yeah?” Ellie replied, squinting her eyes at Luke.
Luke was very sure now, that was not Ellie.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not Ellie, so who are you?” Luke demanded to know, his eyes darkening.
Ellie drank her coffee, before aggressively spitting it out. “What the fudge was that? It’s like drinking syrup!” Ellie exclaimed with disgust all over her face.
Luke kept his eyes on her.
“Ugh, fine, have it your way mr. moody.” Ellie mumbled, calling the waitress over to the table.
“I’ll have a beer and a pepperoni pizza.” She shouted over to the waitress.
“Ah, yeah, I guess I’m not Ellie. I dunno why I’m in Ellie’s body though.” She grumbled, glancing at Luke.
He crossed his arms, raising one eyebrow as he continued to look at her.
“So who are you?” Luke sneered at her.
“I’m Skully the skull.” She muttered, shrugging her shoulders, glancing around for the food.
“You’re what?!” Luke exclaimed, furrowing his eyebrows.
“I don’t know how this works either, it’s just happened once before. I…” She started frantically looking around all of a sudden. “Wait, I’m not even here am I?” She asked.
“Ah, yeah, the skull is not here, it’s back at the apartment. Ellie said you were not talking anymore,” Luke replied Skully, his gaze still intense.
“I wasn’t?” Skully suddenly shouted.
“What do you mean I wasn’t talking? And she told you of all people?” Skully asked, his voice full of disbelief.
“Ellie was pretty sad, she told me and Artemis. Some demon attacked you guys and you haven't talked since then. That’s five days now.” Luke told Skully.
This could actually be a good chance to find out a bit more about this Vampire… Luke thought as he made sure to not let him out of his sight.
“What the fudge! Five days!? Is Ellie ok? Why are you out eating with Ellie? This better not be a date… You creep me out.” Skully grunted, he wasn’t sure what had happened.
“Ellie is fine, she’s just sad. This is not a date, I’m actually helping her find out more about you. And if anything you are the creep here vampire.” Luke stated coldly, inside he was fuming.
“Sure. So now you’re helping out too? Great!” Skully grumbled, his frown changed quickly as his food and drink came.
Skully drank half the can of beer and started gorging on the pizza.
“Well, since you’re here, how about I ask you some questions.” Luke’s tone changed, he wanted answers.
“Sure sure. As long as you’re paying for this.” Mumbled Skully with his mouth full of food.
“I was gonna pay anyway…” Luke remarked before he went on to his questions.
“You must be a really powerful vampire, and really old, the fact that you can possess Ellie like this must mean that your powers are somehow related to this?” Luke squinted as he asked Skully.
Skully squinted back at Luke. “I have no idea.” Skully replied. “Sounds like you know more than me.” He smirked, stuffing his face with more pizza. “This is so good!”
Luke sighed. How can he not know anything? Is he lying? Luke didn’t know what to think right now. Wait a minute… His brain started working.
I have read something somewhere, about a vampire who can control souls? Luke was deep in thought.
I have to look more into this, what was the vampire's name again? Ragnarr was it? Luke pondered.
“I have some things to take care of.” Luke told Skully, still pondering.
“First, maybe you should go back to the skull? Do you need to be near it to go back?” He asked Skully.
“I’m not sure, maybe. I have no fudging idea how this works.” Skully replied, drinking the rest of the beer. Skully got up very abruptly.
“Let’s just go back to the apartment and test, I don’t really think you should mess with Ellie’s body anymore than you already have.” Luke stated, glaring at Skully with dark eyes.
Skully shrugged. “I think you would like to mess with Ellie’s body.” Skully smirked as he tried to take a few steps, but found that Ellie’s legs were all wobbly. Luke caught him as he was about to crash into the door.
“I think Ellie is not used to alcohol.” Luke said coldly. “And just stop talking, you’re incredibly rude.” Luke was clearly annoyed at Skully.
Skully just chuckled, leaning onto Luke as they walked.
“I guess I shouldn’t have drunk that beer. Sorry Ellie.” Skully muttered, looking at the streets of Dawn. Green neon lighting up their faces. The sound of the river is just the same as it’s always been. Skully thought.
Luke walked Skully to Ellie’s bed.
“Can you not tell Ellie about this?” Skully asked Luke.
“Why? It’s gonna be a bit hard to explain this…” Luke answered dryly.
“I will tell her, just not quite yet, she will go wild when she finds out and demand I do it again for fun.” Skully grinned, glancing at the skull on the shelf.
“Fine, whatever. I don’t want her doing anything silly.” Luke mumbled, picking up the skull for the shelf.
“So, this is you… just know this vampire, one day I will destroy you. It’s inevitable.” Luke declared before tossing the skull over to Skully, the air in the room appeared darker.
“Well, fudge you too.” Skully shouted as Luke left the room.
Skully could hear the front door opening and closing. He took another deep breath.
“Ok now, time to go back to the skull.” He whispered, closing his eyes.
A small green flash across the room and into the skull he went.
Ellie rolled around on her bed, the light of the city right in her eyes.
“Ugh.” She complained.
“Why am I feeling so heavy? Wait, why am I back here? Did I pass out again?” She sat up and held her head.
“You’re awake! Took you long enough.” Skully mumbled from the side of the bed.
She couldn’t believe her ears.
“Skully!!!! You’re back!” She exclaimed, hugging the skull.
“I don’t know what happened. I don’t even know where I went.” Skully told Ellie.
“It doesn’t matter, I missed you so much!” Ellie announced, smiling, her eyes full of tears.
“You’re gonna get my skull all wet now.” Skully grumbled.
Ellie just smiled, she felt relieved.
“I don’t trust this Luke guy though, and I don’t think you should either.” Skully suddenly remarked.
Ellie looked at him. “Why? He’s been nothing but nice, he even wants to help us.” She knew a Skully was quite grumpy when it came to other people.
“I don’t know, he’s just creepy.” Skully grunted.
Ellie put her hand on the skull. Is there something he’s not telling me? She wondered.
“I’m just happy you’re back! We can continue our quest now.” She exclaimed, beaming.
“I don’t know, as much as I want my body back, I don’t wanna get you into any more trouble.” Skully muttered, she could feel the longing and sorrow in his voice.
“Nonsense.” Ellie stated. “You’re just being a scaredy cat, I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. I think the demon is connected to the vampires that were killed in their crypts, they might even be the killer.” Ellie’s voice was full of determination.
“Fudge, I forgot how determined you can be.” Skully chuckled.
“I guess we might see the fudging demon again, but let’s be prepared for next time!” Skully exclaimed, noticing Ellie slowly falling asleep.
She was holding onto the skull thightly. “Goodnight Skully. Please don’t leave me again.” She whispered as she drifted off to sleep.
“Good night Ellie. I’ll try my best.” Skully mumbled gently,
Luke peered through journal after journal, before he noticed the name; Ragnarr.
The great thing about the vampire hunters’ headquarters being in old Dawn is that these old journals, with knowledge of ancient vampires, didn’t get destroyed during the event. Luke thought to himself. He had learned to read the old tongue when he was a kid from his uncle Crook. Crook had owned a bookshop, and was a researcher, he knew everything there was to know about the old world. Now Luke was quite an expert himself.
He peered through the journal some more, it referenced some language Luke didn’t really understand, even more ancient.
Necromancer? Luke’s eyes shifted to the door.
A tall young man with short dark blonde hair, walked through the doorway. “Luke Nachtstrahl, always with your nose in a book.” He jested, coming nearer, glancing at the book.
“I am doing some research, what are you doing here? I thought you were allergic to books Theo? Luke remarked, closing the book.
“Reading about the necromancer? Is he even real? I’m just taking a stroll, saw the light was on, thought it might be you.” Theo laughed softly, wandering back to the door.
“I’m just following some leads.” Luke told Theo as he carried the book back to its place.
“What do you know about it anyway?” He asked Theo.
“Oh, nothing much, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories about terrible vampires. The necromancer could pull souls out of people's bodies and put them back at will.” Theo smiled and made a scary face pretending to be a vampire.
Luke stared coldly at Theo’s attempts at being funny.
“According to the journal he was not just a bedtime story,” Luke said with a stoic expression, flicking the light switch, leaving Theo in the dark.
“What are the odds this Ragnarr is connected to the skull? What do you think, Black Rose?” Luke asked, strolling back. "I think this is perfect."
Comments (30)
See all