North American Vampire Council & Past Calling (Hypernaturals 12 & 13)

New Sign

I leaned against the window and looked up as we drove under the new sign to the entrance to the main campus of Boot Camp. I then turned, opened the door, put a foot on the running board, shoved in the reverse direction of travel, and I killed the twenty MPH of speed from the Pilot traveling in the opposite direction.

I walked back a few steps, turned, and looked up in horror. I felt cold chills running up and down my spine.

The entrance to Boot Camp now has telephone pole diameter wood uprights new since I was last here just over a month ago. Another pole is bolted across the top of those two poles, and hanging from that is a wooden sign that reads in huge yellow letters, engraved deep into the dark brown wood, state park style, "Camp Adrian Sagan" and below that a second line that reads 'Welcome'

The Pilot crunched to a stop, and Jessica and Helen got out.

Helen said quietly, "I told them you would hate it."

She walked over to me and handed me a folded paper. "The vote on the name."

I unfolded and read in the dark that only Helen had a 'No' by her name. All the other NorthAm council members had 'Yes', including Rachel.

My name had 'N/A' by it. No one asked me.

"This is why everyone has made sure I have not been here in the last month?" I asked.

"Yes." Helen replied, simply.

I looked at her unhappy face and kissed her with no little passion. "You are a love. Thank you for understanding. I don't blame you for... for.. this abomination. This sin against nature. This... Oh my god. This is horrible..." I trailed off.

I wanted to get back into the Honda and flee and never return until they fix this shit. My heart beat with a fit of cold anger that I did not want spilling onto Helen.

"It's not just up there, my husband. That name? It's everywhere. There is a ground-level sign back there you did not notice, for example. At the turn." Helen pointed up the dirt and gravel road we had just come down.

I zoomed off in the dark.

At the turn to this 'road' is a state park looking sign. A round timber eight inches in diameter, set into concrete, with a camp-style sign, bolted with thick carriage bolts. The wood of the sign stained dark brown and three inches deep, engraved and painted in the same yellow. 'Camp Adrian Sagan' it read and had an arrow pointing up the road.

My horror became a deep, dark fury. Hooking my arms under the bottom of the fresh creosote smelling crossbar to the sign, bending my knees, I pulled it out of the ground, concrete and all. I started back up the road and when I got back to the Pilot, Jessica and Helen stood there waiting silently. Helen nodded when she saw what I am dragging. Neither commented on the fact that male Vampires are probably not supposed to be able to tear out signs that are well installed and deeply embedded in the ground like that.

Jessica's Pilot is clear of the entrance, so I dropped the road sign on the ground and clambered up the thick pole.

At the top, I grabbed the top edge of the massive sign, inverted myself, and put my feet against the even larger crosspiece.

Upside-down like a bat glued to the crossbeam, I pulled against the sign. The huge steel eyelets groaned and opened, and I swing down on that edge of the sign, and held on, arcing through the night safely into a shoulder roll.

Crossing back to the swinging sign, I went up and sat on the crosspiece, put my feet on the dangling sign, and bent the next steel ring apart. The sign crashed to the ground.

I clambered down the pole.

Helen looked at the sign on the ground with an expression that seemed partly amused. "I'll carry this one, husband. You take that one. We'll meet you up in camp, Jessica"