WtAF Eloise Journal

The Journal of Eloise Danford

• May 4th, 2014: The Vampire Hobo Affair: In which we discover the existence of supernatural, and rescue James's sister from a vampire!
• May 7th, 2014 - May 13th, 2014: Downtime
• May 13th, 2014 - May 15th, 2014: The Sad Story of Madelena: In which we try to find a tragically-turned young vampire and instead run afoul of three older, vicious vampires.

The Mystery of Black Betty

A photo of Luther Danford, tucked into the journal

May 13th, 2014 (Episode Two)

Session 3 (7/31/2014)
Dear Luther,
Things have escalated rather quickly. I asked everyone who is involved so far - Robert, Oz, Josephine, James and Daniel - over to a dinner last night. April was kind enough to oversee the meal preparation, and thank God. As you well know, calling me a mediocre cook is an insult to mediocre cooks everywhere. As soon as they showed up, the topics veered immediately into the strangenesses we'd experienced and discovered. I was finding it harder and harder to enjoy the meal, so Robert and I asked that we at least wait until dinner was done.

James arrived late, and he had some distressing news: Madelena, the young girl from the crack house (or whatever that place was) who'd died? Her body had been taken by someone! This of course began us discussing all of those topics all over again, but sanity reigned and we had a nice (if someone awkwardly strained) dinner. All of them seem to be handling the issue in their own way. James I think is trying his best to pretend it never happened - he seems unchanged, bless his ironclad soul. Josephine, on the other hand, seems very...angry. There is a streak of aggression occurring in her that I've never seen before, as though she's just looking for an excuse to put herself in harm's way again. Poor Daniel is still practically black and blue, and though he doesn't acknowledge it, I know he's got to be in some pain. Oz, on the other hand...well, the poor dear just seems very, very afraid. I didn't entirely understand what he's been saying, but I think he may be partially living out of his shop? I'm not sure. He was festooned in religious iconography (which would be very humorous considering his general opinion of his grandmother's churchgoing tendencies, if it weren't positively heart-breaking to see him so afraid). He even asked to stay the night, which is something he hasn't done in years - I think he's actually a bit fearful to venture out after dark.

Of course, all of that makes me wonder how I'm handling it all.

After dinner, we marched downstairs and got into the workshop. I had the key on that old keyring of mine. Many of your work tools were gone - Robert said he'd sold a number of them off, to help with maintenance. It hurt my heart a little to hear, of course, but necessity is what it is, and I did ask him to tend to those sorts of things. He claimed that he hadn't been in the back part of the workshop, and though I didn't catch it, Josephine and the others seem to think he was lying (which he admitted to later).

There are of course lots of things we discovered within, Luther - although I'm sure you know all about that. The photo of you and your friends was perhaps the hardest on us. Luther, how could you never tell me all of this was going on? I know you were only trying to protect me, but it cost you your life. It cost James and Josephine their fathers, Luther. What right did you have to do all of this, this hunting that left them without their fathers?

And damn you, and damn Robert as well, because your hunting both cost me my daughter.

(I've sat and stared at that sentence for altogether too much time. Oz asked me if everything was all right, the poor bleary-eyed dear. He and I are doing some additional reading, but I was just...staring at my journal. More about all that later, though.)

Your death and your...I don't know what to call it. Hobby? Vigilantism? Whatever it is, it took you from me, and then it took our daughter from me as well, and I don't know how I'm going to forgive either of you. I know that Rebecca was headstrong, and given Robert's general hesitation to help us in this, I'm sure she's the one who dragged him into it. But we found the truth: he'd come in here with Rebecca, when she wanted to know how you died. And she got too close to all of that.

We found a virtual bunker filled with books, armaments, strange curios and all manner of things, but all of it paled next to the understanding that this cost me you, and it cost me Rebecca, and I'm so angry, Luther. I'm so angry that you could exclude me, and that she could exclude me.

I'm so, so angry that Robert could know how both of you died - my husband and my daughter - and never tell me the truth. I feel like I might choke on the bile that rises in my throat at that knowledge, and like I might start crying and simply never be able to stop.

While the others departed, Oz and I stayed downstairs. He reading, and I pretending to read. I couldn't see the pages through the tears, although I hid all that from Oz. I'm afraid that fine French red held far, far more of my attention last night than the books did, and I kept glancing over at Oz ensconced in his corner, from time to time.

This morning I woke to find him partaking in caffeine (I seem to remember that he's not supposed to have any of that...or is it alcohol?), and already reading, so I've taken a moment with my journal before I dive back into these books. I want to know everything I can about these horrors that we might face. Oz seems intent on discovering what all is out there - I'm not sure what a domovoi (I had to have him spell it for me), but he seems content that they don't actually exist...so far.

We have more ahead of us, Luther. So much more. I have to wrestle with my own grief in this, knowing what I know now. And though I am horrified beyond belief at what we've found, and what all of this has cost me, I am, as they say, "all in."

It took you from me, and I'm going to find out who you were. Luther the hunter, since I know all of the other Luthers.

It took Rebecca from me, and I'm going to find out who killed her, Luther. And I'm going to make them pay, somehow.

There's no one to miss me, no one to weep for me should they kill me, so I gladly into this. If this was worth the sacrifice of your life, if it was worth the efforts of Rebecca and her life? I have nothing else to live for right now, and I think I've been trying to not admit that to myself. I've been an old woman, surrounded by too many empty wine bottles, in a big old house that is falling apart, in a city that is falling apart.

If this is what I'm going to use my last days on earth to do, then by God, I shall do it.

I love you, and I miss you, and I'm so angry with you, Luther, but I shall get over it, I'm certain. Just...not right now.

May 13th, 2014 (Episode Two)

Session 4 (8/13/2014)
Dear Luther,
I'm taking a break from all of this research to write this. It's the same day as my last entry, I know, but I feel as though this journal is a lifeline of sanity in all of this absurdity.

We have learned that the body of the one of the girls we helped to save - a girl named Magdalena - has disappeared. While Josephine and James investigated the hospital (Daniel was at work, I believe - such a conscientious young man), Oz and I continued to feverishly read through the books we found in your workshop.

Oh, Luther. My head is spinning with what we've found! How can any one person keep track of it all? I suppose one can't, hence the necessity of having such books. Still, I am aghast at this entire world you kept hidden from me.

After lunch, I made some calls and got David Edelstein on the phone. He sits on the Board of Directors at the Kindred hospital, and by way of our chatting I introduced the idea of some curiosity in him about what happened. He took a little time to do some digging - how the junior bureaucrats of the hospital must dread that! - and then got back to me. It seems that the hospital has a history of losing bodies. He assured me it wasn't because they were going missing, but undoubtedly because their paper trails were merely mismanaged, but given what I know now? I have my doubts.

He also told me that occasionally there were instances of bodies that were already in the morgue being decapitated! It is a mark of just how strange things are that I took that gruesome fact as some sort of relief - surely that was you and your cohorts at work, protecting people. Imagine my horror to discover just a few hours later that the UnDead sometimes take measures to prevent the creation of more of their kind in that way as well!

Oz and I discovered reference to a great many things - councils of vampire monarchs, bloodthirsty laws between apex predators, vampire cults! They even referred to a "blood sorcery," and the raising of demons to serve them! Good God! After all of this madness, I can't help but feel that I must return to Church. My faith has only ever been one of social obligation at best, but I'm starting to seriously reconsider that, I think. (Although, I wonder if simple mortal fear is a...good enough reason for faith. No atheists in a foxhole and all that.)

Josephine and James have had some luck in starting to track down Magdalena, but they could use some extra help asking questions. I proved somewhat useful at that previously, so I am about to load up the car with some "dangerous things" (James' request) and meet them just south of the hospital.

We shall see what we see.

May 15th, 2014 (Episode Two)

Session 5 (8/27/2014)
Dear Luther,
How did you do this for so long? I feel as though I might break in half with the terror of it all. I've locked myself away in my room for two days before sitting down to write this. I know I need to get out and see these poor children who're in the hospital, but I haven't been able to open the door. How did you manage to do this and run a business at the same time? I can't even comprehend it.

We went in search for Magdalena. While we were out, I realized that sweet Daniel has a crush on our Josephine. I know it seems silly to focus on something like that, but it also seems very important. As though I needed something to show that life goes on, even in the midst of all this death and horror.

As it turns out we found Magdalena in a church called XXX, full of grief and remorse for what she'd done. For what she'd become. That's when three vampires showed up, although only two of them could enter the church. It's hard to remember what happened. The moment their faces changed, Luther, something inside me quailed. Something fragile inside me broke when that happened, and I could only flee.

I remember shouts and gunshots behind me, the sound of something monstrous shrieking (I believe this was the vampire Malik, after being shot by Daniel's crossbow) and the smell of burning flesh. I can remember needing to just get out, to flee all of that. I also remember a slight irritation with Oz - who was fleeing just ahead of me - for running and leaving me there, though it was just one of those strange silly emotions you experience in times of stress or crisis.

I got to the door and shoved it open so hard that my wrists still hurt a day later. I got out into the parking lot outside. I think I stopped for a moment, to see if Oz was following me (he'd gone for another door, as it turns out), and suddenly the vampire Malik was there. I shrieked, and tried to scramble backwards, and suddenly Oz came through the door as well, sabre in hand (I can scarcely believe I just wrote that). I fled back inside, and urged Oz to follow, slamming the door once he came back through.

It was sheerest chaos, Luther. I saw them struggling with the woman vampire - vampiress? - Shawna. I had a silvered knife in my clutchbag, but I don't really know anything about using such a thing. How would I injure someone with it? In desperation, though, I took heart. If one of them was quailed by the holy ground of the church, perhaps some of the legends I saw in your books about their aversion to holy water was true?

So I snatched up one of the burnt-out votary candle jars from the transept chapel and ran to the holy water font. I quickly filled it up, uttering the only prayer I could think of, the Saint Michael Prayer.

Saint Michael Prayer

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Divine Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

I somehow reached the vampiress - who was holding Josephine and using her as a bodily shield - and threw the holy water. I don't know what I was hoping for. I didn't actually think it would work, but neither did I doubt its efficacy either. I suppose I simply cast it and let God decide. Now that I think of it, that sounds like the very essence of Faith.

(I don't truly know what this means to me, Luther. You know me - church has always been something I did for family and propriety. I'm not cynical, nor certainly not atheist, but neither am I what I'd call a true believer. This has given me something think on. And maybe even pray on.)

The vampiress burned, Luther. The holy water was like...like kerosine, and she the flame. She shrieked and released Josephine, and fell down in what seemed like death. The vampire at the door seemed to go mad with rage, and he attacked us.

Or more accurately, me. He roared and entered the church, and something strange happened. Little fingers of fire licked at him, and he slowed down significantly. This didn't stop him, though, and he came straight for me. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't somewhat expected this. I tumbled over the pew back, seeking cover, and scrambled along the floor between the pews (oddly, I can recall a degree of irritation at people leaving the kneeling bars down!).

Meanwhile, Oz took a chance and removed the vampiress' head. Though he was in the midst of tearing through the pews, Malik shrieked in rage and charged Oz. I...didn't exactly see what happened, but I did hear Oz's shout of fear and then pain, and the sounds they made were...wet. Horrible. By the time I came 'round again, James had badly injured the beast with his gun, and then Josephine used Oz's fallen weapon to take his head off as well.

The scene then was terrible, Luther. Blood everywhere, and far too much of it belonged to our people. In fact, I think all of it did - I don't recall seeing those horrible beasts actually bleeding from their wounds. Perhaps their bodies hold on too greedily to their stolen blood.

I quickly found one of the church's First Aid kits, and stopped Oz from bleeding out. He was so pale, and all I could think of was "What would I tell Allison? How would I break the death of her son to her?" Fortunately, I didn't have to do that. I then helped James finish patching up Daniel as well (the poor boy - he's been through so much already), and tended to Josephine a little as we sped for the hospital.

On the way over, I gave David Edelstein a call, and made sure we had the best surgeons available. All three of them were in surgery for a while, and even James had to have his injuries cleaned, and a few stitches. They all lived, thank God, and are healing up nicely.

Last night, James and I went to see Magdalena. She was in a cemetery. We listen to her speak about her horror at what she's done, and the fact that she can't stop herself. James asked about the viability of consuming animal blood, but all of your books say that it's not just the blood, it's the violence that they feed on. The "essence". So we sat with her, I holding her hand, until the sun began to rise. James could not endure the sight of her pain as she burnt, and may God bless his mercy, James ended the poor girl before it went on for too long. She died by her own choice, knowing what she'd become. Is it strange that her decision to do so - the knowledge that a vampire may be aware enough to make that decision - makes doing what we'll have to do in the future harder?

I've made some decisions. Now that we know these things exist, we would be fools to assume that we can go back to living normal lives again. We've killed four of them now, and helped a fifth die as well. Even if these monsters don't maintain human connections, even if none of them feel grief at the loss of their own and the desire for vengeance, they will want to know who has done this.

We have to be ready for them.

May 18th, 2014 (Downtime)

Downtime
Dear Luther,
I've spent the majority of the last week at the hospital during my waking hours. While Josephine was admitted overnight, and stitched up, poor Daniel and Oz were in for a longer stay. The surgeons did good work on them, but they've got a longer road of healing ahead of them.

Oz is positively frantic to get out of the hospital. He's afraid - he wants to be behind a proper threshold, where vampires can't come in and get him. There is a certain vehemence to his insistence that is making me feel very sad and helpless, because it reminds me of his reactions when his mother left: desperate for some kind of control over what was happening in his life, doing anything he could think of to avoid thinking about the awful things going on. I do worry about him sometimes.

I spoke with some of the hospital administration about Daniel's medical bills. I would never bring this up to him directly, of course - the Frosts have always had their pride, even when they had little else - but I've spoken with some of them about the state of coverage programs. One of the financial officials - someone who'd been invited to one of the last Christmas parties we threw at the house just before you passed, apparently - said she'd look into the matter personally and see that the young man didn't fall on hard financial times because he isn't able to afford insurance.

Speaking of Daniel, I had a bit of a meaningful conversation with Josephine the day she was getting out of the hospital. She'd come to some realizations about Daniel's affections for her, and was scared. She confided in me some very personal things which I won't even repeat here (it's not the sort of thing I'd have shared with you when you were alive, either, so it seems wrong to include it here), but she's had some experiences that make it difficult for her to trust. We discussed that strange dynamic, and what it was like to be angry at those we love - you, Luther, and her father - for excluding us from this world of monsters, and the hypocrisy we felt having to do the same thing. She was very caring, and said some things that brought me quite a bit of peace with that anger with you. I hope she was right, Luther. I hope that by my remaining ignorant, my remaining safe, you were able to find some peace from the monstrousness and horror.

As an aside, I've been speaking with a doctor at the hospital, a lovely woman named Dr. Meredith Davies. She asked a lot of pointed questions about the injuries Daniel and Oz received, and some of our recent involvement with Magdalena, Karol and the other girls. I don't think she knows what goes on "behind the scenes" as it were, but I think she suspects something. And she's rather got the haunted demeanor of someone that perhaps has seen some things they can't explain.

The day is coming when we won't be able to simply take the boys in to the hospital anymore, and Dr. Davies mentioned having difficulty getting enough hours. I may very well see if she'd be amenable to picking up extra income here and there by coming over to the House to help stitch us Josephine and the boys when the need rears its ugly head. I'm having some of the downstairs space cleared out and turned into an infirmary for just such a time. The back storage space will serve perfectly, and we can store medical supplies and the like in the old silver and glass storage (which is all but empty these days). I'm going to talk to Robert about putting up a wall to separate it from the rest of the storage, and perhaps make the only method of getting into it is through the wine cellar entrance to that area. He's confident of his ability to mount one of the wine shelves on a track in front of the door, so we'd have a hidden medical area tucked away from the workshop (vital if we're going to have someone that isn't one of us tending to our wounded).

May 22nd, 2014 (Episode Three)

Session 6 (9/10/2014)
Dear Luther,
Things have taken a turn for the dramatic. I received an oddly ominous phone message from Oz, indicating that he was afraid the hospital was haunted, and claiming the he and Daniel had seen a ghost! She was the ghost of a nurse, a young black woman seemingly from before the sixties or so.

While he chattered and complained in my ear through the damned headset thing he got me (I admit to taking it off - it hugs my head too tightly, and the bands make me sweat beneath them and you know how I feel about such things), I did some reading. Shortly after, Josephine and James arrived to help me with the reading.

James is a marvel! His time in university clearly did him a great deal of good. Not only is he good at research, but he is very organized and orderly. Oz and I usually end up in a sprawl of books, flipping through this and that as we find them. Not James - we divided books among us, taking care to note possibly important pages while he took extensive notes not just of what he found, but also of what Josephine and I discovered and read to him (and thence to Oz).

We discovered a great deal of information regarding ghosts in general, and about what drives them away, what destroys them and what prevents their passage (salt, as it turns out). I sent Oz and Daniel a care package of salt (hidden under a bag of cookies) through Jaye (thank God for that antisocial night owl!) while we continued to research. I will admit that we wound down fairly rapidly after several straight hours of hard, efficient research. I fear I was already nodding off when Daniel and Oz struck up a conversation with a nurse about the ghost they call "Black Betty" (an appalling nickname, of course).

I said goodnight to everyone (including Oz and his communications device, which I am not wearing all the time no matter what he thinks) and came upstairs. I thought I should take a moment to write in the journal, to tell you what is going on, before bed.

Goodnight, my love. I still miss you terribly.

May 24th, 2014 (Episode Three)

Session 7 (9/24/2014)
Dear Luther,
I'm afraid that the others are going to be very cross with me. If I'm being perfectly truthful, they've a right to be.

I spent the day yesterday helping to get Oz out of the hospital. He'd had just about enough, and I was afraid he was going to simply try and walk out of there if we didn't get him out. So, I went down to help him get out of there, and even made arrangements with one of the doctors on staff to act in a private capacity in terms of his home care. They agreed that he could come back to my home, where I've opened up some of the domestics wing and turned the rooms out there. Honestly, seeing the way this kind of thing works, I suspect all of us will be spending some amount of time in recuperation from these hunts.

Oz's sister Jessica was there when I got there. I don't know if you'd remember her - she came over to our home once or twice during the family parties we'd throw and invite the Carmichaels to. She was the cute little blonde girl who was altogether too bossy for her own good. That tendency has unfortunately carried itself into a career in law, where she's now convinced she has the right and authority to tell everyone what to do. She and I had something of a terse but polite conversation on the topic of not telling other adults how to live their lives.

We got Oz settled in at the house after a stop off at his shop and his home. He's of course champing at the bit to do some more research (he's very enthusiastic about reading through all those books in a purposeful way), with me playing nursemaid. I ended up having to lock the door of the workshop downstairs lest he haul himself down there to do more reading and risk injuring himself. So very headstrong. So very like his mother, though I'd never tell him that.

As Josephine and James did more research at the city library, they discovered that most of the deaths we're attributing to the ghost were of folk who were white. Upon hearing this, Daniel was positively in an Oz-like froth to get out of the hospital himself! He was so adamant that he was prepared to simply walk out, waiting be damned. So, rather than see him do so and do him injury, or work himself into a tizzy and possibly give the medical staff a reason to question his mental fitness, I stepped in and spoke with one of the doctors, a Dr. Meredith Davies.

Dr. Davies is a very pleasant young doctor, although I couldn't help but overhear her complaining about the cut-backs in terms of hours and pay that have come as a result of Detroit's slow decline. She agreed to sign Daniel's release papers when I assured her that I'd be overseeing his care alongside Oz's, especially since I'd helped arranged Daniel's care be tended by the hospital's Good Samaritan Fund. He faster he was out of there, the more there would be for others who also needed the help. Along those lines, I asked her if she'd be willing to drop by and see to their home care, in exchange for some amount of compensation, wholly under the table.

What a sad place our city has become, Luther, when a talented young woman such as Dr. Davies needs to take on such work to make ends meet, even if it is to our benefit that she does so.

James and Josephine discovered that the young woman whose ghost became called Black Betty was probably killed in the late fifties, and possibly by some construction workers. As part of the research, I managed to get my good friend David Edelstein to email me the hospital construction plans from the time when she disappeared, and we discovered a likely location where her remains might have possibly been hidden. It's a horrifying thought - that poor young woman.

We got Daniel ensconced at home as well, and had the whole group over for dinner (thank God for April). Over dinner in the new sitting room that is adjacent to the rooms I'm setting up for the others, it was decided that we ought to do something about the ghost of "Black Betty" that very night. With Oz and Daniel out of commission, Robert agreed to come along as an extra hand, which I was thankful for.

My job, of course, was to remain with the car (which I encircled with salt) and monitor what was going on through the headset thingys of Oz's (he and Daniel were of course listening from their beds). They found the old section of hospital, and I listened to Robert bluff his way past an attendant quite handily (the Irish rascal that he is).