DR LENARD TRELAINE//

I need your favor.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

Goodie.

DR LENARD TRELAINE//

My protégé needs your assistance tracking down a victim.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

I'm loath to help that girl.

You made the wrong choice. Deal.

DR LENARD TRELAINE//

I'm not willing to admit defeat as of yet.

She's offered a truce and for once, I believe her.

She wants her mother, and claimed she'd stop creating the husks.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

If we're able to trust her, it would be useful.

I was not going to harvest the mother for years, yet.

Why don't you just remove her from the equation?

DR LENARD TRELAINE//

It would look bad in front of my followers.

Incite chaos.

I don't give up on my soldiers. That is the tactic of the enemy.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

How noble of you.

Isn't it your fault she doesn't know how to control herself?

Why don't you fix the problem you started?

DR LENARD TRELAINE//

I intend to start her on a proper education but I thought you would be able to help her in the way she desires.

We can use the event as a bargaining chip.

Show her the value of remaining allied with us.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

Your attrition rate leaves a little to be desired.

DR LENARD TRELAINE//

I'll work on it.

TRENTE GAGARIN//

Tell her I'll meet her at the train station.


// THE CONVERTED TRAIN STATION //


TRENTE GAGARIN collapses from her bat-form in front of an aged building in Brooklyn. A number of stained-glass windows decorate the upper floors. To the common passer-by, the bricked façade is shuttered and abandoned, the colored glass broken and only hinting toward its former glory. A metal fence is adorned with barbed wire, dissuading all but the most determined.


[ NO ENTRY UNDER THREAT OF POLICE ]


But to the allies of the NSR, the building appears as a large retrofitted sanctuary for the children of the night. The first floor shutters are closed tight.

TRENTE knocks on the door, producing three tones.

AVAELLE EASTON answers the door.

TRENTE

GOOD EVENING, AVAELLE.

AVAELLE

GOOD EVENING, YOUR MAJESTY.

PLEASE COME IN.


TRENTE did not like the woman she referred to disparagingly as TRELAINE’s “doll”, but she could not dispute her loyalty.

The inside was warm, albeit dry. The entryway was two stories tall; AVAELLE had a taste for painting and had covered much of the left wall in large canvases.

TRENTE had no time to pay attention to her world of imagination.

TRENTE

IS VANESSA STILL ASLEEP?

AVAELLE

I BELIEVE SO.

I HAVEN’T SEEN HER THIS EVENING.

TRENTE

FETCH HER FOR ME.

AVAELLE

OF COURSE.


The red-haired woman disappears into the basement.

TRENTE steps off to the right into a small sitting room with a front-facing window. A blue-ish cat is curled up on a couch. TRENTE was aware of the woman’s penchant for keeping company with the creatures.

The cat releases himself from his curled posture and stretches, opening his eyes to stare at TRENTE.

They stare at each other in silence for several uncomfortable minutes.


When VANESSA TANG appears, she is wearing a long dress that seems to imply transparency around the shoulders. It fades to black as it descends her thin form. She dresses with gravitas, even if TRENTE maintains something of oversensitivity, even jealousy, at her athletic build.

At least she doesn’t dare walk in heels.

VANESSA

PRINCESS!

YOUR MAJESTY.


She bows respectfully, but TRENTE sneers; the woman has been taken up the overzealous displays of deference that so irritated her from the Other.

It is hard to know how honest they are, or, how honest they can be, when they don’t understand the true position of royalty.

TRENTE

VANESSA.

GOOD EVENING.

VANESSA

GOOD EVENING TO YOU TOO, YOUR MAJESTY.


TRENTE tries to remember that the girl is young, very young. Just last year she was in her final year of schooling. A year she never finished.

TRENTE

ENOUGH.

THE BLOOD MAGE TELLS ME YOU’VE MADE A REQUEST FOR AID.

YOU WANT TO DESTROY YOUR MOTHER.

A SIMPLE ENOUGH REQUEST, THOUGH I WILL MAKE AN ADDENDUM.

YOU SHALL NOT DESTROY HER, BUT WILL INSTEAD REAP THE WHEAT.

VANESSA

I DON’T WANT HER ALIVE. I DON’T WANT HER STANDING BESIDE ME WHEN THE VISITORS COME.


TRENTE is unsure whether she likes the terminology TRELAINE has chosen, but English was so imprecise.

TRENTE

WE CAN’T CONTROL WHAT HAPPENS TO HER IN THE AFTERLIFE.

WHERE HER SOUL GOES.

WE CAN KEEP YOU FROM GOING THERE, HOWEVER.

YOU’RE WELL ON YOUR WAY, BUT THERE IS ONE CAVEAT.


She intakes air, intend on raising the volume of her usually moderate voice.

TRENTE

YOU WILL STOP KILLING.

YOU WILL STOP KILLING.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?

YOU WILL STOP KILLING.

THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.


VANESSA seems to shrink.

VANESSA

YES –

TRENTE

[interj.] DO NOT TAKE THIS SO LIGHTLY.

DO NOT TAKE ME LIGHTLY.

IF THE HUMANS PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER, ALL-OUT WAR WILL ENSUE.

THEY ARE NOT READY FOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE VAMPIRE. THEY WILL PANIC. THEY WILL STRIKE OUT. THEY WILL KILL.

IT WILL FORCE OUR ALLIES FROM HIDING BEFORE THE WORLD IS READY FOR THEM. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

AND THE FAILURE WILL BE YOUR FAULT.

VANESSA

I UNDER–

TRENTE

CLEARLY YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

I WILL EXACT REVENGE ON YOU.

I WILL MAKE YOU WISH YOU’D NEVER BEEN TURNED.

I WILL BURN YOU IN HELLFIRE FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY.

IT WILL BE YOUR FAULT THIS WORLD SMOLDERS AND EVERYONE WILL KNOW IT.

WISEN UP, GIRL, BECAUSE IN THAT AFTERLIFE, YOU’LL HAVE NO OLD MAN TO CAST PITY UPON YOUR PATHETIC SOUL.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

VANESSA

I…

I DO.

TRENTE

YOU THINK YOU HAVE POWER. YOU THINK YOU HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO SOMETHING GREATER.

YOU ARE BUT A MAGGOT IN MY KINGDOM. KNOW THAT.

ONLY I CAN ELEVATE YOU.

YOU HAD BETTER START INGRATIATING YOURSELF TO ME.

MY NAME IS JUNIOR. GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL.

VANESSA

YES…

JUNIOR.


The house is silent for a dense minute. The nearby radiator clangs loudly, metal on metal.

TRENTE

NOW, PLEASE.

THE BLOOD MAGE TELLS ME YOU WANT TO SEE YOUR MOTHER DEAD.

THAT THAT IS YOUR STATED PRICE FOR REMEMBERING, FOREVER, YOUR PLACE IN THE PECKING ORDER.

VANESSA

… YES.

TRENTE

YOU’LL COME TO REGRET THE DECISION, BUT THAT IS NOT FOR ME TO DICTATE TO YOU PREMATURELY.

I LISTENED TO YOUR CHILDISH WHIMS AND GAVE YOU WHAT YOU WANTED.

BECAUSE I WANTED YOU TO LEARN SOMETHING.