The Nosferatu Adventures
page 126, chapter 126
The air was thick with the smell of popcorn, tempting her with the idea. But our heroine took one look at the clock and decided she just didn't have the time. Smiling, she handed her money to the ticket girl, and waited for her little slip of paper with the movie's name stamped on it. She'd been having a bad week so far and thought an afternoon of monster movies was just the thing. The cinema was playing an old black and white creature feature, and it seemed like a good fit.
Adjusting the strap of her purse on her shoulder, she headed in the direction of the screening rooms, stopping to notice a large poster of the movie.
"They don't make them like that anymore eh?" a male voice said over her shoulder. Turning, our heroine saw a man standing beside her, dressed in a dark pants, a chocolate coloured shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a jacket in hand. Those hands were covered in tattoos, as were his arms, neck; pretty much every centimeter of exposed flesh was. The female nodded in agreement, as she stood there, transfixed by the guy.
"I'm sorry, have we met?" her voice was unsure as she pushed her glasses up, her own hazel eyes searching him for some clue.
"No, sorry." he held out his hand for her. "Ash."
"Nosferatu." she replied, feeling a strange deja vu. Turning, she started to head into the screening room, Ash a few feet behind her.
"Are you here with anyone?" the male asked once again leaning over her shoulder.
"No. Are you?" she turned slightly as they entered the room, catching a look at how empty it was. They were, it seemed, the only ones there.
"Actually, a buddy of mine, Leo, is meeting me." he gestured over his shoulder towards the hallway of the building. "You just standing there, looking a little...lost..." he shrugged.
"To be honest, days like this I really feel it." she nodded again, pushing on her glasses as she found a seat in the first row. She watched then as Ash leaned his right arm on the railing of the steps that began the climb towards the back of the screening room, just as the door opened, revealing another male. Turning, Ash nodded, moving back a few feet to catch up with him.
He was dressed in leather pants, cowboy boots, a black button up shirt that was half untucked, and sunglasses. The two males were whispering as they made their way up the steps a few rows, every few seconds, Leo turned towards where our heroine was, grinning.
The previews started, grabbing the female's attention.
Meanwhile...
The door to the projection room opened, spilling light from the hallway along with whiffs of burnt nachos, salt from popcorn and more then a few bad perfumes all tumbling together. "Okay, what's all this? Why are we here?" Loki asked leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest.
"I'm proving a point." Bacchus replied looking over his shoulder, a genuine smile on his face.
"And what would that be?" Loki asked as he wandered into the small room, his pale strong fingers gliding over the canisters of film stock, stopping as he picked one beat up looking tin container, a smirk spreading across his lips. "The House that Cursed Frankenstein's Mummy's Tomb." he put it back down with a clank, picking up the next one that was under it. "And The Return of the Wolfman's Cousin's Uncle" he waved it at the other god. "Only the two of them? Couldn't get your hands on the final film in the trilogy? " Bacchus moved a half step picking up a film canister from the table in front of him, handing it to Loki. "Attack of the Vampire Bats from Mars. An oldie but a crappy." The dark haired god let out a deep sigh as he tossed the film canister back down. "So your point is what? That the golden age of movies had really shacked up titles?"
"I was thinking about what you said the other day, about putting her with the right werewolf. So, I'm testing it out. See what happens when you introduce them to her under other circumstances. See who in an alternative world she would go for?"
"And you had to do it here? With a movie marathon?"
"I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I'm betting everything is sorted out before the end of the first movie." The god turned then, shrugging.
Meanwhile...
"aahh-pphhhffftt!" the sneeze seemed to originate from the door of the screening room, just as it opened. A guy entered looking worse for wear. He had a handkerchief clutched in his left hand, his blue eyes bloodshot, his nose red from constantly sneezing, his long hair tied back in a loose ponytail, wearing dark blue jeans, a brown turtle neck sweater, and a dark corduroy jacket. The 6 '3 male smiled a closed mouth smile as he walked past our heroine, sneezing again. "Allergies." he said as he blew his nose nosily into the handkerchief. He blushed, looking around before deciding to take a seat on the opposite side of the room, three rows up on our heroine's left.
The door opened again, this time exposing a guy about 6 '1. Leaning against the wall, he seemed to be waiting for someone. Our heroine moved in her seat as she watched the male, his long dark hair loose around his shoulders, falling into the folds of his shirt. She watched as he put a large rimmed fedora on, tying a tie-dyed skull patterned scarf around his neck, which he quickly untied once he realized she was watching him. Reuben sniffed, as he turned to see the door open again, the usher sliding up to him, handing him first a container of popcorn, then what looked to be a ticket. The teenaged boy flicked at his hair as he followed Reuben a few more feet into the screening room, a small disposable camera in hand. Our heroine heard the usher clumsily ask if he could take a photo with him.
"You know who that is right?" a voice squeaked behind her. Our heroine turned in her seat to see yet another male suddenly sitting just behind her right shoulder one row up. "That's Reuben Blacksmith. Here hold this." he handed her a very large tub of popcorn and jumped over the seat, sitting beside her. "Reuben Blacksmith, the actor. He did that independent series of horror films, all moody and gothic like. He played a whacked out stoner version of spider man in that really cool Canadian film by that uber mysterious Canadian director. You had to have seen that? It was playing here for like a month straight during the horror film fest. Total cult phenomenon. What do you think he uses to keep his hair looking so smooth?" he ran his hand through his quickly. "How's my hair? I'm Edward by the way." Our heroine introduced herself handing him back the tub of popcorn just as the last preview seemed to replay. "Didn't we just watch that one?" the male asked as he pointed to the screen, popcorn dropping everywhere, including on our heroine's shirt. "Let me get that." Edward said reaching towards her. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to seduce you or anything."
"aaahhh--pphhhfffttt." another sneeze rang through the room, causing everyone to turn and look at Rolf. "Sorry." he sniffed loudly.
The door opened once more, as a guy stumbled in. Literally. He tripped over the edge of the rug where it crossed the threshold. Getting back up, he brushed the dirt off his butt, then picked up the bag he had been holding, the stack of files, turned around in a full circle as he looked for his ticket, which had fallen outside of the screening room in the hallway, causing him to take another few steps back to collect it.
He seemed to slide then across the wall, as if he were afraid of falling again, till he made it to the edge of the rows of seats. That's when both our heroine and Edward realized the guy was taking his time, searching for something in his bag. The files, threatening to fall out of his hands again, the ticket firmly between his teeth as he tried to balance everything.
He looked up just as the previews seemed to re-loop once again, a strange look of confusion on his face, as the files finally seemed to give in to gravity and went scattering everywhere. Our heroine couldn't help herself, she got up and began to help him pick them up.
"Thanks." the male said, chewing on his bottom lip, stuffing the now completely out of order pages and file folders into the leather messenger's bag he was carrying. "It's been one of those days."
Nosferatu told him she knew how he felt as she went back to her seat. The male surveyed the room, climbing the steps to the second row, dumped his bag, struggled with the thigh length trenchcoat as he took it off, tossing it on the seat, then turned back towards where our heroine was sitting. "Hi, thanks again. I'm Dagan." he held out his hand, then seemed to nervously change his mind, hugging his elbows. Our heroine introduced herself, tilting her head to the side. Another wave of deja vu seemed to come over her, forcing her to close her eyes.
The screen went dark then, indicating the end of the previews. Dagan swore as he tried to find his way back to his seat and not fall down the steps in the process. The large screen lit up again with the silvery opening credits, filling the whole screen, in a popping and cracking.
Meanwhile...
"Looks like our cast of characters are here. Huh, the Seer has taken a seat next to the female. Without her really saying he could." Bacchus commented as he threaded the movie into the projector. "See how she reacted though to Dagan?" he rubbed his hands together feeling smug.
"Play the movie and let's get this experiment really started." Loki commented yawning.
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me (straight up story...Curse of the Bats from the Bottom of the Hunchback's Dirty Bucket...)
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