VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE FANFICTION PART 2- NEW YORK

UNDER THE SURFACE

It was several days since Beckett had promised to teach her the nature of vampirism. The month of December had arrived, and there was a buzz of activity, both economic and otherwise, in the city as New York geared up for the holidays. Already Christmas trees and decoration were in every shopping mall and business building in the city, and in the suburbs, local church choirs sung Christmas hymns by the roadside. Liz and Sylvester were in one such suburb, standing near a brightly decorated and moderately busy grocery store, and Christmas festivities were the last things on their minds.

"We shouldn't be here Liz." Said Sylvie, a growing snowball of nerves. "The suburbs aren't safe. The Sabbat could be lurking around, waiting to pounce at any-"

"Dude, calm down." Liz interjected. "Nothing's gonna happen here."

"And how do you know that, huh?" said Sylvie, even more nervous. "Do you really believe we're a hundred percent safe here? Do you really think they won't notice us in here?"

"They will if you don't stop acting like you're holding!" said Liz, more forcefully this time, unknowingly cowing him with her Presence. "Seriously, calm the hell down. The Sabbat may be crazy but they don't go around randomly shooting up convenience stores. We're fine." After that, she began to look around, wrapping her arms tighter around her as she did so. "God, its cold out here." Her large snow coat only shielded her from the cold so much.

After a moment of looking around, Liz finally spotted what she was looking for. "Sylvie, look." She said, tugging at his parka to get his attention. "They're here."

Sylvie initially struggled to find who she was referring to, but he eventually settled on two shapes approaching them from the adjacent sidewalk. The one on the left was a tall, skinny male wearing a thick grey sweater and black trousers. The other was a small girl with very pale skin, wearing a black winter jacket and a pleated green skirt with purple and white striped stockings.

"Hey, I remember those guys." Sylvie announced. "They're those two from LA."

"You're a walking calamity magnet, y'know that princess?" John spat. "It's nice to see you too John." Liz replied.

"You're the guys Mr. Beckett wants to see?" said Irene. "Uh, yeah..."

"Good. Follow us." Irene said, cutting Liz off mid-sentence. Before either of them could react, the two of them began to walk away, obviously expecting the two to follow them. It took a while for them to recover.

"H-Hey, wait up!" Liz and Sylvie said almost simultaneously.

After almost an hour of walking, the four of them finally arrived at the "place." From what she knew of Beckett, Liz expected something more grandiose or morbid, or at least something more than an empty garage in a row of more empty garages. His choice of location actually made Liz suspicious.

"So... this is the place?" she questioned, turning to John. "This is where he told us." He responded.

Sylvester stared blankly at the building for a while, then whispered to Liz's ear. "Maybe we should split before he gets here."

"That won't be necessary." Sylvie almost jumped out of his boots. Immediately, all heads turned towards the source of that comment; Beckett, wearing a green scarf over his neck and nothing new. "Sorry to keep you all waiting." He said as he moved towards the garage door. "So why'd you bring us here?" asked Liz. "It's quite simple, really." He answered as he undid the lock and rolled open the door. "Everything you need to know is in here."

Apparently even John and Irene had never been here, for they were both equally wowed, not by the room's appearance, but by its content. The room was filled with the sort of things one would see in a museum; ancient tools and machines, old dusty scrolls, countless sculptures and carvings of several different shapes and sizes and numerous unidentifiable bric-a-bracs whose reasons for existing beggared the mind.