Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

15

The meeting ended and was arguably inconclusive. They reached no definitive decision and continued on with the day as if it were any other. Ronnie Anne was beginning to crumble under the stress, and she sought relief via another scheduled breakfast with Lincoln. They sat together, across from each other in a booth, which was purposefully chosen without a window next to it. (As last time, they learned that the door is not the only entrance a vampire will take.) Across the street from the establishment they were eating at, unbeknownst to them, Helsing stood on the sidewalk watching the place from afar. He mumbled something to himself and then walked inside the place. Ronnie spotted him first and the stress she was starting to lose rekindled. "Hello, the both of you. I have extraordinary news" he said. "Can it not wait?" asked Ronnie. "We're in the middle of eating. Let's just talk about it after we're done here in like—an hour?" He shook his head. "Nope, it simply cannot wait. You know how these vampiric bastards have been flying around unnoticed for all these years and this town had never noticed? Lincoln had said that he'd been fighting them for years, and I have as well, and yet not one vampire had been noticed in this town until now. It's quite strange, but I believe I've found the answer. I went back to that room to investigate; the one where the secretary was found. Thanks to your order, everyone left that room the way they found it. When I was scrutinizing it, I found something on the other side of the door painted in blood. It was a map. A surely makeshift one, but a map nonetheless."

"That vampire must've painted it with a thin brush or something because the detail was fairly impressive. It appeared that they'd painted a movement plan, where they placed a circle—which I believe is where said vampire started out—and then an arrow from that circle going across the map westward. Now this is the most important part: That circle starts in New York, and the arrow travels through Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and so on. That arrow not only passes through Michigan, but inside of Michigan, it passes through multiple towns. Those include Green Side—which is where I lived most of my life—Dark Falls, Spring Hills, Bold Body, and Royal Woods." Lincoln's heart began to race. "Royal Woods—that's where I grew up! That's where I was when those bastards got my family!" Helsing snapped his fingers as if to appreciate a new revelation. "Now, what if I told you that along with that marked arrow striking through my town and your town, it also zips right through here? This town. It seems that we've all encountered vampires because we've been on their migration path. That would explain why your people, Mayor, haven't seen a vampire until now. They'd just arrived."

Ronnie chimes in to inquire, "Where are they going? You said west, but why? What are they trying to find?" Helsing suggests a few possibilities. "A leader, a haven, a hole straight to Hell—it could be anything. I'm wondering if all the vampires plan on going there or if some are staying behind along the path. I crave the details." Lincoln is still stunned to hear his town's name uttered after all these years. It made what was a traumatic memory into a galvanizing reality. "What do we do? How do we stop them?" Helsing lit a cigarette and Lincoln rubbed his own temple to soothe a headache that had just arisen. Mayor Ronnie, already stressed, starts to lose her focus and can only fall deep into her own racing thoughts, struggling to come out of them. "We... I could hold another meeting. The town should probably know about this." Helsing shook his head. "I don't know. If they all heard that were in the middle of a vampire highway, they'd probably get prodigiously more agitated. Your people were already thinking about sacrificing their own folk." She screamed, "No they weren't! That was just Arland. He's known for being one of the more... 'devout' priests. Don't mistake my people for extremists!" Helsing dragged from his cigarette and blew the smoke to the side. The waiter came over to check on Lincoln and Ronnie's table and was alarmed to see the smoke, as they were standing right beneath one of dozens of sprinklers on the ceiling. "Keep an eye on that fundamentalist zealot of yours. I don't want him actually convincing people to convert to his psychotic cult. I've seen it happen before. People grasp onto hope in times of despair, despite how ghastly the form may be. In short: Don't let that priest brainwash people, okay?" After he finished his sentence, it started to rain down water on every table in the restaurant, all while the fire alarm screeched its urgent tune. The waiter stared at Helsing with disdain, and all Helsing could say back, was "Oopsie."