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#Post#: 988--------------------------------------------------
Grim Embrace: Left in Ashes (1834)
By: MAT Date: February 22, 2025, 1:16 pm
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Character: Rudolph Longstaff
Location: London, England
Year: 1834
Enormous columns of black smoke rose into the skies above
London. The smoggy skies were lit with orange, even well after
the sun had gone down. What had started with a simple disposal
of wooden sticks in the accounting department had grown into a
chimney fire, then spread under the floors of the House of
Lords. By half past six, a fireball roared through the House of
Commons; the resulting explosion could be seen up to twenty
miles away. Parliament was burning to the ground, and
threatening to take Westminster Hall and St. Stephen’s chapel
and possibly the rest of the city with it.
And naturally, the spectacle was something everyone came to see.
Word spread much faster than the flames, as gossips and
commoners raced to tell each other the news. It wasn’t long
before the crowds were so thick that passage across Westminster
bridge was all but impossible. If anybody was particularly sad
to see the seat of government going up in a blaze, they were in
the definite minority. Whistling, hooting, and the occasional
cries of ‘huzzah’ rose from the assemblage, but the mobs were -
by English fashion, perhaps - relatively ordered and
well-behaved. With some exceptions.
Rudolph had been north a ways, and saw the strange glow before
overhearing an account. Like everyone else, he wanted to
witness the raree-show; such things didn’t happen every day, and
it would be far more interesting than carousing a tavern. When
he arrived, he stared, entranced by the flames for some while
before realizing just how densely-packed the people had gotten.
They were prime for the picking, he decided, and he certainly
wasn’t the only one to think that. While on an unchecked,
almost gleeful harvest of pickpocketing, he saw more than one
familiar face - wretches or criminals of a familiar variety -
working in teams or even groups to fleece the unwitting public.
Maybe he was a bit too zealous; maybe he let his greed get the
best of him. Maybe he wasn’t keen enough to his surroundings,
or maybe he had no idea he was even being watched. In any
event, he reached out to snatch something from the waistcoat of
an utterly-captivated citizen, and felt a hand clamp around his
wrist and yank backwards.
Eyes widening in surprise and then fear, Rudolph found himself
face-to-face with the mysterious Tamas. It seemed incredibly
unlikely - approaching impossibility - that he would just happen
across the man in a sea of thousands of Londoners, weeks after
escaping him. He didn’t take the time to wrap his mind around
the outlandish circumstances, though, and opened his mouth to
scream.
“Don’t,” Tamas hissed. “You call out, and I alert that nearby
guard that you tried to pick my pocket. When he searches you,
I’m sure he’ll find all sorts of pilfered goods, and then it's
off to the stockades with you.”
Rudolph swallowed down, sending the shout - and whatever of the
fear he could manage - down to his stomach. “What do you want?”
he said, the sound of his uncertain voice nearly drowned out by
the din.
“I’m on my way out of town, but before I go, you and I have an
account to settle.”
---
Rudolph shook his head. “Don’t sell me a dog. I don’t know
anything about you. We don’t have any accounts. I don’t know
what you are, and I don’t want to know. Just let me go, and
I’ll leave you be, and you do the same.”
Just then, a woman nearby shouted, “*The Lord sends his holy
fire to strike you down for the Poor-Law Bill!*”
Tamas chuckled at her, then tipped his rose-tinted glasses down,
gazing at Rudy. “This isn’t the appropriate venue for such a
conversation. You’re going to walk with me, now.”
The young thief scoffed. “So you can take me into some alley
and bite me again? My neck still hurts from last time. Get
flagged.” He tried to shake off the hand holding him, but only
succeeded in straining his shoulder. “Get off me! Just get
off!” With his other hand, he ducked into the pocket of his
vest and pulled out a small, makeshift blade; a flat piece of
discarded steel that had a narrow length and a pointed tip with
a bit of cloth wrapped around the other end for a handle.
Halfway through a swift motion to jab it into the other man,
Tamas grasped that wrist and twisted. Rudolph cried out in
pain, dropping the shank to the ground. “My, you are an
impertinent little bastard, aren’t you.”
Rudy snarled his reply through gritted teeth. “Yeah, and I
intend to stay that way.”
“Stop struggling. This isn’t a fight you can win. You’ll only
succeed at creating a scene neither of us can afford.”
The young man snorted. “Good. If I go down, I’ll take you with
me. Maybe they’ll toss us on the bonfire both!”
Tamas shook his head slightly. “No. Not tonight. **You’re
going to follow me now.**”
There wasn’t anything apparently special about the words; it
wasn’t a complex statement meant to befuddle or distract. It
was basically just a repetition of the command he’d issued
seconds earlier. But somehow, Rudolph felt his will utterly
dissolve. He watched, almost from behind himself, as he stopped
struggling and proceeded to calmly follow Tamas as the vampire
parted through the crowds. They walked for a while, and by the
time the mystic bending of his will wore off, Rudy found himself
seated in the back of a carriage coach rattling along the road.
“What did I do to you?” he quietly asked the figure sitting next
to him, trying to find a reason for this targeted behavior.
Tamas smirked. “You intrigued me.”
“Well, I’ll stop being interesting. Honest,” Rudy offered,
half-jokingly and half-desperately.
---
“We’re well beyond that point, child. Your magical talent; who
taught you? Do you belong to some kind of society?” Tamas
asked.
Rudolph rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the Royal Society of the Arts
just extended an invitation to become fellow. They’ve become so
passé, though; too political! I turned them down.”
“Rebel, rebel, rebel. We are alike in that respect, Rudolph.
During any game, though, there is a point where one must decide
what the stakes are worth and what move to make next. In short:
you can tell me what I want to know, or I can rip it out from
you. You seem clever enough to know which one will be far less
excruciating than the other.” He raised his voice to call up to
the driver and signal a turn, then sat back against his seat.
“You’re dabbling with mystical forces that draw all sorts of
unpleasant attention.”
“Attention like you,” Rudy muttered. “You know, people are
going to notice I’m missing. You can’t just slit my throat,
toss me in the river and be done with it.”
Tamas laughed. “What people? No, nobody would notice you were
gone, and yes, I could do exactly that and walk away whistling a
tune. Your friends are just current co-conspirators, you have
no wife, no children - that you know of; just a string of ****
and jilted conquests. Your mother is dead and your father has
so little interest in you he never even learned your name. You
have nobody.”
Rudolph’s face sent slack. “You know who my father is?” He
suddenly found it a little difficult to breathe.
“Oh, I’ve done a fair bit of digging in the months since our
last encounter. But you don’t really care about that, do you?”
The young man forced himself to exhale, releasing the breath
that was pent-up. “No. Not really. I’m my own man.
Everything I have is mine.” Once upon a time, he used to wish
and wonder what his life would have been like with a family;
with parents. But that dream died about the same time puberty
hit.
“And the magic?” Tamas asked.
Rudolph hesitated, then just shrugged, turning his head to look
through the dingy glass of the coach door. “It just came to me
one day. I was in a fight and I hit the guy, and he hit me, and
then he just...stopped. Looked like a spooked horse. I hit him
again, and again, and again, and he just stood there and took
it.” He sighed. “Nobody taught me, I taught myself. I don’t
even know entirely what it is. Sometimes it just...happens,
whether I want it or not; it just goes off like a cannon.”
“What can you do?”
“Little things. Magic tricks. Illusions. I can make people
want me. Ignore me. Like me.” He turned his head and fixated
a stare at the other man, then reached out and placed his hand
on Tamas’ thigh.
“You’re trying to do it right now, aren’t you,” the vampire
asked.
“Is it working?” Rudolph asked, letting out a small, nervous
chuckle.
“No.”
---
The coach came to a stop at Cavendish Square. Rudolph lunged
for the door, intending to bolt, but Tamas slipped three fingers
into the waistband of his pants and hauled him backwards like an
errant child, grasping him with the other hand at the throat.
He towed the young man out onto the street, holding him at the
biceps, and when Rudolph continued to struggle, literally
dragged him up the darkened, **** steps of the building. The
coach rolled away, its driver either blissfully unaware or
uncaring of what was transpiring.
Down the dim, dingy hallway the two went, the mortal man’s shoes
scraping ineffectively against the boards. Quickly they arrived
at apartment kept at the back end of the building. Opening the
door with one hand, Tamas forcefully hurled Rudolph inside with
the other, sending the man rolling across the floor in a rough
tumble. He closed the door behind them, and reached to turn up
one of the lanterns.
The interior of the living space was strikingly different than
the rest of the building. The floor looked to be made of
polished slate tiles, the walls were covered in a finely-pressed
plaster, and the furnishings were fashionable and opulent;
everything upholstered with velvet or silk. In short, it looked
more like the bedroom of a sultan than a hovel.
Rudolph pushed himself up, scrabbling backwards until he was
against a plush, overstuffed chair. “You’re really going to
kill me.”
Tamas shed his overcoat, hanging it on a hook near the door.
“Yes.”
“Why?” Rudy asked, unable to keep the slightest whine from
reaching his tone.
“Why not?” came the indifferent reply. “Why do you pick
people’s pockets? Why do you con them out of fortunes? Why
pretend to be a doctor, a shaman, a - this one was my personal
favorite - circus elephant trainer? Why cavort with
prostitutes, why drink, and waste away hours in some Chinese
opium den?” Tamas shrugged. “Because *you can*. That’s what
freedom is. Doing what you want, to or with whomever you want,
whenever you want. Resisting the yolks of control others try to
lay upon you.”
“But you’re trying to control me right now. You’re trying to
end my freedoms.”
“In a fashion, perhaps. Death isn’t always the end, though.
Sometimes it’s just the start. How do you feel right now?
Probably terrified, though you’re doing a decent job of
controlling it. Angry, frustrated; because you think you are
about to lose everything - all the opportunities. I can
preserve that youthfulness - that vitality - forever. I can
give you decades. I can cure you from the myriad diseases
you’ve probably picked up in your frolicking. I’m giving you a
gift.”
Rudolph shot a breath of air through his teeth. “Hah. You’re
lying. Not the words themselves, really. No, you’re lying
about your sentiment. You sound like I do when I’m running a
con. So eager to help, but really just trying to take. All the
upsides, all the favors! How marvelous! Until the bill comes.
Until the curtain pulls back to an empty stage.”
---
Tamas smiled. “There’s a price, certainly. Did you see the sun
set tonight?” At the other man’s nod, Tamas’ smile turned
rueful. “I’d wager the smoke gave it a beautiful cast. I hope
you enjoyed it. But I’m sure you didn’t. Simply took it for
granted; perhaps were even irritated by its shine in your eyes.
“And I have an ulterior motive, no doubt. Only the most naive -
only the greatest fools - do anything from the goodness of their
heart. I want to leave a message, and you will be my ink.
Immortality is monstrous, and that monster is always hungry. If
you don’t get yourself destroyed immediately, you’ll have to
find ways to distract it. I already know you have no problem
preying on your fellow man, but you have no idea what that truly
means.”
Rising to his feet, Rudolph continued backing away; past the
chair to the wall of the room. “I’m just trying to survive.”
“You weren’t trying to survive when you infiltrated that
birthday soiree. The only pressing need you felt then was lust,
and you pursued it with single-minded diligence. You left her
in quite a quandary while you leapt out a window.” He laughed,
then, seemingly at some kind of inside joke. “Don’t start
moralizing with me, we both know better.”
“Fine.” He pushed away from the wall. He had resigned himself
to whatever fate awaited, and was going to say something to that
effect. He never got the chance, though. In the blink of an
eye, Tamas moved across the room and grabbed his shoulder with
one hand, leaning his head down to savagely bite him with the
other.
As before, the bliss of the bite overtook him, causing his limbs
to go limp. The vampire held him up as the seconds passed and
his heartbeat slowed. The last thought he had was a half-formed
mishmash of feelings; anxiety over what - if anything would come
next - and a sort of relief that he could die feeling so damned
good. His vision went dim, then entirely dark, and then he was
gone.
After draining the young man entirely, Tamas bit his own lip
open, tearing a deep gash into the soft tissue. Then, just as
his own sire had done to him, he leaned down and kissed Rudolph,
making sure that his own vitae - transformed by the curse -
flowed down the man’s throat. Licking his lips, he sealed the
wound and hefted the dead body up like a sack of flour. The
vampire twisted the knob to a second room; one with no windows
and no other exit.
He lit a lantern and dumped Rudolph’s corpse onto the rickety
floorboards. The man’s open, lifeless eyes stared into the
corner of the small room. Huddled there were two familiar
figures, each gagged and bound by rope at hands and feet.
“Lieutenant Cardell, Miss de Charette - excuse me, Mrs.
Cardell,” Tamas greeted them. They squinted into the dim light,
having been held captive for over a day and never seen their
captor until now. “I understand congratulations are in order!
What a blessed event. I’m sorry I won’t be around to see how
things turn out. I’m sure Rudolph here will give you my
regards.”
He closed the door behind him, and the knob let out a solid
‘click’ as it locked from the outside. In the flickering, dim
light of the cloistered room, the two of them were left to wait,
staring at the dead body and wondering what would happen next.
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