Date:    Fri, 31 Oct 1997 20:40:29 -0700
From:    Dorothy Elggren <delggren@ES.COM>
Subject: A Trick of Fate - Part 01/02

This little story ain't beta-read, it ain't grammar-proofed.  It just
ain't...er, is.  Proceed at your own risk.  Only goes to prove what
you can do with a spare hour, huh? 


A Trick of Fate - Part 01/02

by Dorothy Elggren
copyright October 1997

        The cold wind angrily slammed the door hard on Nick's heels as
he entered the precinct.  Dried and withered leaves seeking refuge
from the harsh night whisked along the floor raspily beside him.
        Nick ran his fingers through his hair impatiently as he headed
down the hall towards the squad room.  He combed out a hitch-hiking
twig and tossed it on the floor as he crossed the room to his desk.
He threw his coat on the coat-rack and sat down to drum his
fingers on the desk in a frustrated syncopation.
        Schanke arrived in a gust of cold air.  "What is with you
tonight, Nick?" he asked as he hung his coat up.  Nick had jumped out
of the Cordoba before Schanke had even put it in park.
        Nick looked up, his eyes cold and icy in the fluorescent glare
of lights.  He picked up the photo of Carol Epstein off his desk and
threw it at Schanke.  "Carol Epstein was beaten to death in an alley,
Schank, and nobody saw a thing.  Nobody heard a thing.  Somebody
brutally took her life, and we have absolutely...nothing."
        "Nick," Schanke said as he sat down.  "I know that.  I just
spent the last hour out in that wind making like I was an icicle,
while we talked to everything that moved.  That is not the problem.
Why are you so edgy, tonight?  You act like someone's been ripping
your toenails off, one by one.  What is with you?"
        Nick looked away and then back at Schanke.  After a moment he
muttered, "I hate Halloween..."
        Schanke stared at him incredulously, and then burst out
laughing.  "And this is why we've been seeing your evil twin all
night?  You hate Halloween?  Get a grip, Nick.  What's to hate?
Man, I love Halloween.  I get to take Jenny around the neighborhood and
collect a huge bucket of goodies.  She dresses up in some cute little
outfit and gets to pretend she's anything she wants to be."  Schanke
leaned forward, "and we, *we* get to dress up and pretend to be what
we want to be, too.  How often does that happen, huh?"
        Nick took a deep breath.  "I don't have kids, Schank."
        "I know that, but you ought to.  Well, never mind that, just
think of all the parties that have been going on, the fun, and the
food, oh the food...man, oh, man.  That is *the* best part."
        "I just don't like it, Schanke.  Weird things *always*
happen."
        "What?  You are so far out there, Nick, you are not even in
the same galaxy...."
        Schanke broke off as a woman at the booking area began
screaming in protest.
        Nick and Schanke turned and stared, along with the rest of the
precinct.  Her blue hair was wildly askew under her pointed hat.  She
tussled with the booking officer for her broom frantically.  "It's
mine!  Mine!  MINE!" she shrieked as they forcibly separated her from
her
broom.
        "See," Nick said, "people get weird.  This woman thinks she's
a witch.  People walk around being ghouls and ghosts and..."
        "Monsters and vampires?" Schanke finished.  "So?  It isn't
real, it's just fantasy, Nick."
        Nick didn't answer.  It wasn't fantasy; it was real.  It was
too real.  There were monsters.  He was one of them, and Halloween
reminded him all too vividly of that fact.  People pretended to be
vampires--what he was--and he could not escape facing his personal
reality on this day.  It was also the one night of the year, that
people tended to put two and two together and come up with the idea
Nick was a vampire.  He'd had to leave a life behind three times over
the centuries because of that.  Halloween spooked him, too many
strange things happened on this night.  Things that even he couldn't
explain.  Weird things.  Almost like more than one reality touched and
sometimes merged on this one night of the year.
        "Never mind, Schank," Nick sighed.  He looked at the clock.
Technically Halloween was over.  It had been for some four hours, but
the oddness of the night seemed to cling to him.  "It doesn't matter
anyway, it's over for another year.  Time to go home, Schank."
        "Yeah, go home and raid Jenny's bag of goodies."
        Nick looked at him incredulously.  "You raid her bag?"
        Schanke looked a little embarrassed.  "Well, you know, I just
like to see what she got..."
        Nick looked at him.
        "Okay, so I take a Tootsie-Roll or something.  It's not like
she's gonna miss it.  She's got enough loot for an army.  I should
know, I went out with her before coming in to work tonight.  That
little girl hauled in more goodies than she can eat in a month."
        "I think you are incorrigible," Nick said with a smile, "I'll
buy you a bag of candy.  How's that?  Then Jenny can keep hers.  See
you tomorrow." And with that Nick got up and headed out, glad the
night was over.
        Schanke stared after him and said wistfully, "Yeah, but
where's the fun in getting it handed to you.  It's more fun to steal
it..."
        As Nick passed the booking area, the witch leaped up and
grabbed his arm.  "Trick or Treat!" she yelled.
        Nick shook her off, as the booking officer grabbed her, and
pushed her back into the chair.  "Sorry about that," he said over his
shoulder.  "Things have been a bit crazy tonight."
        "Yeah," Nick agreed, feeling an odd tingling in his arm.
Something seemed to shimmy up his spine.  He glanced at the witch,
curiously, as he walked passed, and wished he hadn't.  Her eyes seemed
to be endless corridors into a fathomless void.  Maybe she *was* a
witch...
        "Hey!  Where's my treat?" she yelled after him, leaping up
from the chair.  The officer caught her again.  "Where's my treat?  My
TREAT!"  She struggled against the officer, who finally handcuffed her
to the chair.
        "Pig!" she spat at him, and then turned to watch Nick's
departure.  "Stuck-up vampire, don't like hanging with us plain old
witches, huh?  A trick then," she whispered.  Your worst nightmare..."

        Nick rose from a restless and troubled night, yawning and
feeling like he'd been thrown in a dryer and tossed around endlessly.
His bones tingled and his ears were twitchy.  Even his hair refused to
behave.  It looked as if he'd stirred it with a stick.
        "Fine," Nick said through gritted teeth and grabbing the keys
to the Caddy headed for work.
        A mile down the road, he felt the car lurch as the left front
tire went abruptly flat.  Nick pulled over against the curb and opened
the trunk.  Only then did he remember that the spare needed to be
repaired.  He'd been meaning to fix it for weeks...
        Cursing, Nick slammed the trunk shut.  He was already late, so
with a cursory glance of his surroundings he took to the air, and
arrived at work looking like he'd been in a high wind.
        Schanke greeted him from inside a cloud of garlic.  "Hi Nick,
what's up?  You look like you got lost inside a dryer."
        Nick snarled and sat down.
        "Well, so much for being in a good mood, huh?"
        "I got a flat," Nick said flatly.
        Schanke's lips twitched, and he choked suddenly on his
souvlaki.  "Didn't get the spare fixed, did you?"
        "No."  Nick said as he started sifting through the notes piled
on his desk from the day shift.
        Schanke grinned, "Told you so..."
        "Hi, guys," Natalie said cheerfully as she dropped a folder on
Nick's desk.  "Well, there's all we've got on Carol Epstein....Nick?
You look like you've been in the spin cycle.  What happened?"
        "He got a flat tire," Schanke informed her.  "He's not in a
good mood."
        Nick glared at Schanke.  "I'm *FINE*" he hissed.
        "Oh," Natalie said, "I see what you mean."
        Nick let out his breath audibly.  "Sorry.  I didn't sleep
either.  I feel like somebody spent the night sifting through my brain
looking at my memories or something...."
        "Really?" Natalie said, laughing.  "They find anything
interesting?"
        Nick looked at her.  "Nat..."
        He never finished the sentence as a chair went over with a
loud thud.  Even as they turned to look, a uniform began yelling,
"Gun!  He's got a gun!"
        Several more chairs went over as people ducked for cover, and
pulled their weapons.
        Nick grabbed Natalie by the arm and shoved her down behind the
desk.  As he pulled his weapon, Nick peeked over the top of his desk
and took stock of the situation.
        A man was facing the desk sergeant who stood with his hands
high in the air.  The gun-holder held a woman hostage in his arms, the
gun pushed tightly against her head.
        Nick holstered his weapon, stood and started across the room,
despite Natalie's grab at his leg.  "Nick," she hissed, "get down!"
        "What the hell are you doing?" the stringy-haired,
grimy-looking man asked, watching Nick move across the room.  The desk
sergeant backed gently away, glad to let someone else take the hot
seat.
        "I'm just coming over to ask you what you want," Nick said
calmly.  "We can't solve this situation, unless we know what you
want."
        "I want my sister, that's what I want.  They've got her down
in lock-up and won't let her out without some psych evaluation.  She
don't need no evaluation."
        Nick looked askance at the desk sergeant.  "What's she in for?"
he asked.
        "Uh, who is...it?" the sergeant asked nervously.
        "Angela Darnier," stringy-hair replied frustrated.  He pulled
his hostage closer, and she stared at Nick, her eyes begging him to
help her.
        "So, then," Nick guessed, "your name is Darnier?"
        "Mike Darnier," Darnier agreed. "Now get her out of there!"
        "Sergeant Pierce," Nick said, stepping a tiny bit closer to
Darnier, hoping to get a fix on his eyes, "what's his sister being
held for?"
        The sergeant moved over to his computer and sent a query.  He
looked at Nick.  "Disorderly conduct, and uh, attacking an officer
with her broom.  Says she's a witch."
        Nick jerked his head around and looked at the sergeant,
astonished.  Then he turned to Mike.  "Is she wearing a blue wig, and
dressed like a witch?"
        "She is a witch," Mike yelled, "and she don't need nobody
telling her she's nuts because she says she's a witch!"
        Nick knew exactly whom they were talking about now.  The woman
who had made him feel so odd when she had touched him.  Nevertheless,
Halloween was over, and weird things were still happening.  Nick
didn't like it.
        Nick looked him in the eyes, and caught his attention. "Mike,"
he said, as he listened to his beating heart "let the woman go...you
don't need her.  We can solve this peacefully.  We can work this out.
Let her go..."
        Mike stared at him, caught in his power, and started to lower
his gun.  The woman, with a shriek shoved out of his arms and ran for
Nick.  And Nick lost contact as she came between them.
        "What the hell?" Mike said and raised his gun.  "No you
don't.  You aren't going to do this!" And he began shooting.
        Nick pushed the ex-hostage to the ground at his feet and threw
himself at Mike.  Mike's gun discharged straight through Nick.  Twice.
The bullets puffed through the back of his jacket and into the room,
as an officer behind the counter got a good angle and shot Mike.
Behind him, Nick heard Natalie give a choked gasp."

End Part 1

------------------------------

A Trick of Fate - Part 02/02

by Dorothy Elggren
copyright October 1997

        Mike went down in a slow spiral to the floor, sprawling across
his former hostage, who screamed with fear as his bloody body covered
hers.
        Nick stared down at his stomach, appalled, as the vampire took
control.  His eyes bloomed to a vivid gold in reaction.  Nick touched
his stomach in disbelief.  He'd been shot in the precinct.  In front
of a dozen witnesses.  The bullets had gone straight through.  "Oh
no..." he whispered as he looked up and met the desk sergeant's
horrified gaze.
        "What...what the hell are you?" Sergeant Pierce gasped out
staring at Nick's eyes, and then at his stomach, where two holes
distinctly showed the passage of the bullets.
        Nick didn't answer, but turned abruptly to stare at the squad
room.  Gasps filled the air as they saw his eyes.
        Nick ignored them as he looked for Natalie.  She was lying on
the floor, with Schanke, kneeling over her.
        Nick raced across the room, oblivious to the silent pall
hanging around him.
        "Natalie!" he gasped as he fell to his knees at her side.
        "Nick," Schanke, said softly, pain pushing through his words.
"She's dead.  She took a bullet right through the heart."
        Nick looked up at Schanke, anguish seizing him.
        And Schanke, for the first time seeing Nick's eyes, stared at
him, and pieces began to click into place.  He looked down at Nick's
body, at the bullet holes.
        "How...how can you still be standing, Nick?  You should be
dead," Schanke said, baffled.
        "He's a monster!" Pierce gasped.  "He's some kind of mutant or
something...."
        Nick looked up and realized that his life was over.
        Natalie's life was over.
        It was his fault.
        Oh, God, it was all his fault.
        He abruptly stood, stopping the slow moving tide of fearful
former fellow-officers toward him.
        Schanke looked up at him, and blurted out what he suddenly
understood.  "You're a vampire, aren't you?"
        A collective gasp filled the room.
        Nick suddenly found himself looking into Cohen's eyes across
the room.  A undefinable look filled her eyes.
        Nick looked down at Schanke, unable to even comprehend how his
life had crashed down around him so completely.  He wanted to say so
much to his partner, his friend.  He couldn't
        "Get him!" somebody shouted, and the crowd moved closer in a
frenzied rush.
        So it was, without a word, but only a pain-filled glance, Nick
disappeared in a blur of air, and out of Detective Nick Knight's life...
        He flew to the loft, knowing he had only minutes before they
would come looking for him.
        He took the picture of Natalie from his bedside table as tears
choked his eyes. Pain filled him to the bursting point.  He tucked her
picture away in his coat pocket, but Nick didn't know why he bothered.
The Enforcers would be after him.  LaCroix would be after him.  The
police were definitely after him.
        And the whole damn world knew about vampires.
        He was to blame....
        If the Enforcers didn't kill him, the mortals would.
        Natalie was dead.  His precious Natalie, his only hope was
dead; the only good thing in his life.
        Nick suddenly knew that there was nothing left to live for and
abruptly made a decision.
        He left without a single backward glance, and flew into the
night.  Nick flew east and north, until he found an island, devoid of
trees, devoid of much life and there he landed and at last let himself
grieve for all the losses of the night.
        He wept for his losses.  He wept for Natalie's lost life.  He
wept for Schanke, for Cohen, for all those that had been betrayed by
him.  By what he was.
        He wept.
        For everything.
        For everyone.
        And finally found a peace in his final decision.
        It was time.
        He would not curse this world anymore with his damned life.
        At last, the sun sent it's first rays low across the horizon.
He felt a faint prickling along his skin.  He looked up and watched
the pinks and reds of the morning turn into a golden glow.  The faint
prickling of pain erupted into an unrelenting hell as the sun fell
across him.
        Nick fell to his knees and raised his eyes to the sun, and let
it take him.
        Fire billowed up, and consumed him.  Nick turned into a
bright torch, a burning beacon that quickly died away, as his body
was destroyed by the sun's burning rays, and melted into ashes.
        Ash wisped across the island's tundra.
        All that was left of the incendiary inferno.
        And then there was silence....

        Nick's eyes snapped open and he literally bolted to his feet.
He found himself pressed in the corner of the room, where the ceiling
met the walls.  And then as he listened, he realized he was all alone
in the loft.
        He was alive.  It was a dream wasn't it?  He didn't know.  He
slid down the wall to the floor and with a shaking hand, picked up his
phone.  After a moment he punched in Natalie's number.
        It rang, and rang, and rang.
        Click.
        "Lambert..." a sleepy voice said.
        "Natalie," Nick breathed.  "You're alive!"
        "Huh?" Natalie said, coming awake.  "What is it, Nick?"
        "I'm sorry.  I had a dream, I guess. I thought you had died.
I had to know.  Sorry I woke you..."
        Natalie blinked her eyes a few times and looked at the clock.
"S'okay.  The alarm will go off in five minutes anyhow."
        Nick breathed in relief.  It had been a dream.  A terrible
dream....
        "Are you okay, Nick?" Natalie asked.
        "Yeah.  I'm fine."
        "Want to talk about it?"
        "No, not right now.  I'll tell you after work, okay?" Nick
said softly.  "I'll order in some dinner, and we can talk then."
        "Okay.  You take it easy, Nick.  See you later."
        "See you...," Nick said, and hung up.
        He wiped the bloody sweat from his forehead and headed for the
shower.  And stopped.
        Standing there in the doorway, with her blue hair and pointed
hat askew, was the witch.
        "Trick or treat!" she said with a nasty smile.
        Nick stared at her.
        "You did this?"
        She faded from his sight without answering.
        Laughter filled the room.  Her voice echoed around him oddly
as it faded away.
        "Just kidding..."


End

Happy Halloween <g>
------------------------------
Send comments to delggren@es.com