The Nosferatu Adventures
page 316, chapter 316
Pangs of Glory
"What's going on here?" Edric asked as he stood suddenly behind them. Seward swore under his breath before jumping between Edric and our heroine, who was still holding the handful of underwear from the clearance bin.
"Surprise?" Seward said nodding towards them both, his hands now clinched at his chest as he rocked up on his toes. "Nosferatu decided to stop by for coffee before the fireworks...cause it's July 1st and...oh BBQ..." the dark haired male said stammering as he looked at his empty wrist. "I'll just go do a quick set of rounds and then see if there is anything in the food court we can use for a picnic or...I'll be back." he scurried away in the direction that Edric had just arrived from. Our heroine and Edric stood there both unsure what to say or do next.
"He means well." our heroine said as she cleared her throat suddenly remembering she had a half a bin of cotton underwear in her hand, placing them back and smoothing them out. "Total method to his madness. I think?"
"Yeah, he's a good...I'm sorry, what are you doing here?" Edric tilted his head blushing hotly, scratching at his neck. "I mean, hi I'm Edric."
"Nosferatu." she held out her hand not sure if she should offer it or not, but it was too late by the time she'd thought the gesture through. Edric had already grabbed her hand in his, the action so familiar it took them both a few long seconds to realize they hadn't actually shook hands. They were both just sort of standing there in a daze holding hands.
"Edric! Edric! Edric!!!" the sound of heavy running seemed to break their trance as Zeddy came around the corner at top speed. He stopped beside our heroine placing one hand on her shoulder, the other at his chest trying to catch his breath. "I'm not hallucinating. I'm not too high, there is someone after me!"
"Dude, there's no one after you." Edric replied his blue eyes closed all blushing and awkwardness stripped from the moment. "Okay fine, say there is. What makes you think it and what did they look like?"
"Big, horns on their head, furry." he gestured over his shoulder towards the hallway nearest the food court. "I was getting flour from the storage area, and it's shadow took up half the wall. Hi Nosferatu, you're still here?"
"I'm sure it was nothing. But, I was in the middle of doing rounds so I'll check it out." Edric said back to work mode.
"Good. Nosferatu can come with us. I'll hide behind her." Zeddy mumbled as he took the tail end of their little group, literally walking behind each of them peering over their shoulders. "It's good to see you two finally together. I mean, man, if I had to listen to him any longer about how he wasn't sure he should message you...ouch what you hit me for?" Zeddy rubbed his left shoulder from where Edric had punched him. They continued on in silence for a few more minutes, Edric opening the door to the storage area not seeing anything out of the ordinary. He was about to yell at his friend when our heroine pointed to a spot on the floor.
"Does that look like a hoof print to you?" she bent down to examine the dropped bag of flour and the light dusting it left across the floor. There was clear indication that something had been there.
"Uh. Oddly it does." Edric replied in puzzlement. "Okay you're not completely crazy this time." he said off handedly to Zeddy. Hunching down on his heels, Edric tried to get a closer look. "There seems to be a trail sort of. If you call three scuffs a trail." he turned towards the back of the storage room, where the trail seemed to stop. Getting back to a standing position, the sandy-blonde male made his way to the back door. It was unlocked which it shouldn't have been. Grabbing his flashlight, he peeked into the hallway. Nothing but spiderwebs and dust. He waited for a long pause, listening for something when he noticed the webs were moving. There seemed to be a breeze coming from somewhere, only there were no fans or air ducts. "God, this is like a maze. Did you know this was here?" he turned to ask Zeddy. The larger male shrugged shaking his head.
"No idea there was a second door in this room. That's usually in that spot." he pointed to a large wooden bookcase. The bookcase had been moved a few feet, but looked otherwise untouched. The boxes and cans all still in their place. "You go check it out and I'll wait here." he grabbed our heroine by the shoulders hiding behind her.
"Alone? You who's like a foot taller than I am, and out weigh me by 40 pounds, want me to go in there alone? With no map or anything?" Zeddy didn't answer just nodding ducking behind our heroine some more.
"Oh give me that." our heroine said with a sigh as she grabbed the flashlight out of his hand.
"Scream if you need us. Like if a psycho killer is in there or you trip into a well or something." Zeddy said. "We'll get Seward to rescue you."
"Uh. Speaking of. He should have been back by now." Edric started to dial Seward's number.
Meanwhile...
Out of Time...
Seward snorted as he woke, the sound of the cell phone buzzing somewhere near him. He pushed the stack of open books away from him as he searched for the intrusion to his dream. Hitting the button, he found he'd missed a call from Quentin asking him if he'd gotten any farther with his research? The dark haired male was about to reply that he hadn't when he spotted a photo in one of the books. Grabbing the large volume he dragged it into his lap still sitting on the floor of his grandfather's book shop. The page before him was written in a language he couldn't read, but the woodcarving was very familiar. Shaking his head, Seward got up off the floor and headed for the back of the store. Searching the one corner of the building where they had comic books, the male found what he'd been looking for. A rare collector's edition of a 1970's horror comic. Seward had convinced his grandfather to add a bit of a "modern" edge to the store a few years before, but his grandfather had been less then willing to do much more than appease him with the far back corner converting one book case for it. But here, now in inked pinks, yellows and slime greens, all faded from their former glory, he found the matching images.
Returning to his spot on the floor, the dark haired male compared the comic's panels to the woodcutting in his ancient text. Even with the "modern" setting of the 1970's, when you ignored the intense afros and street slang, the story seemed to match up. Though he had to admit as he titled his head to the side making a small noise in his throat, he did like the rainbow that glided out of the disco sorcerer's hand, and the magick 8-ball that sent lightening up to activate the skull shaped mirror ball over the dance floor.
The story centered around a guy who had to travel to the underworld to battle a god. Along the way, getting stuck in a maze having to fight a minotaur, a group of feral women and searching for the key with a bunch of magickal fae.
"Just like my dream." he whispered to the comic. Seward scrambled for a pen and paper to write down what he saw in his dream before he forgot it, but couldn't find a pen. Quickly, he hit the record button on his cell phone, dictating the dream. "July 1st, book store, secret passage way, hoof prints, flour, the make-up...which was fairy dust! the stuffed animals, uh...uh a bat, a wolf, a fox, there were trees and a pool, I think it meant to be a wooded area? Not sure, what else was there?" he closed his eyes letting out a deep sigh forcing himself to remember. "a prism on the text book, text books in general, oh it was a metaphysics book! So the occult, Zeddy was there, he was going on about movies and..." he looked at the comic in his hand. "he was standing in front of the comic book store in the dream, talking about the whole thing..." hitting the off button Seward dialed Quentin. "Hey, I think you need to return. Leave the book wherever you stashed it, and get back asap. Oh, and tell your new buddy he needs to come with you."
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. Disco inferno anyone?)
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