Vivienne

Excited by the prospect of once more returning to the place her and her fellow infiltrators called ‘darkrealm’, Wendy pushed her news van nearly to its limit.  Rarely did the newswoman have the pieces fall into place for an operation with such grace, Wendy marveled as she pulled into a dark corner of a small parking lot that was housing a speed-dating event in a black-box theater.  Fate had intervened, Wendy had convinced herself.  Light traffic where normally she’d have to weave aggressively through dense lines of cars, green lights paving her way over the stop-and-go annoyance at intersections and finally zero police presence to be wary of thanks to the myriad of events that had plagued the city.

Placing the van in park, Wendy heard nearby church bells start to toll deeply for the residents. “Hells Bells, people.  Hells Bells.”  She whispered to herself, quickly reminded of the AC/DC song.  Tying her curly red hair into a knot, Wendy unbuckled her seat belt and hopped into the rear of the van.  Noting that it took her longer to work with her red mane, Wendy looked down and noticed her hands trembling slightly. -You got this.-  She reassured herself and took a deep breath, closing her swirling brown eyes.  Focusing on her memory of darkrealm, Wendy knelt down and found comfort in her memory.

 Visually, Wendy loved that darkrealm was a mirror of the world around her with the exception that it was doused in twilight and everything had an inky haze on its edges that seemed to float into nothingness.  Recalling the peaceful silence of the realm, Wendy felt her nerves settle and her hands stop shaking.  Letting the memory run its course, the lady infiltrator chuckled to herself thinking about how they all had to learn sign language so they could communicate effectively.

 Whispering to herself, “It’s now or never.” She opened her eyes and looked at the basic layout of the grounds that was imprinted on her hand a final time and committed her plan to memory.  Wendy replayed it in her head a couple times. -Rear entrance. No common areas. Private locations. Bedrooms, closets, drawers. Solo Mission.-

Focused on her task, Wendy traced the rune on her palm and called forth her magic.  Unlike the flashy display of power that she’d quickly used on Gemelli’s notebook, Wendy knew that this spell was more subtle and took more of herself to weave into being.  Although her pulse skyrocketed and her breathing became intensely labored, Wendy through practice had honed the spell so precisely that it completed in a matter of seconds.  Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Wendy dropped her hands to her thighs and waited patiently for her incantation to finish weaving into reality.  Still trying to catch her breath, she looked up when she felt the shadows of the moonlight start wavering. “Yesss…”  Wendy whispered to the flickering shadows and looked up briefly, “Thank you, Gaia.  Answering your daughter’s call will bring the path forward.”

Shadows coalesced silently into a feminine figure that seemingly pulled itself from the floorboard of the van.  Wendy smiled in admiration as the mirror of herself, a simulacrum stood before her.  Always amazed by the dark copy of herself, Wendy kept smiling as the figure cloaked in flickering black clouds took a couple steps forward and knelt down on its knees, matching its summoner.  “Welcome back, old friend.  I have missed you.”  Wendy chanted and winked.  Watching the doppelganger slowly mouth her words back to her, Wendy wondered what and why the two sides always seemed to move in slow motion in relation to one another.  Shaking off the errant thought, Wendy raised her runed hand when she realized she’d forgotten something important. -Your anchor.- She quickly reminded herself and caught the glimpse of her creature mouthing the words back to her. -Did you say that or think it?- 

Dipping into her caloric reserves, Wendy outstretched her palm and cast her second spell.  Discovering in her early days within the darkrealm, Wendy figured out that due to lack of light and sound that her sense of direction could easily be confused.  While her body provided a natural point where she could return to, it was only after a few times of feeling like a diver that had lost their way in the depths of the ocean that Wendy learned a spell to create an anchor.  Knowing that attachment made the bond stronger, Wend always used a ring she was given on her fifteenth birthday.  White gold and inlaid with orange-red fire opals that matched her hair, Wendy thrust a twin pair of lime green tendrils from her rune that encircled the little piece of jewelry until it glowed as brightly as her rune itself.  A rush of energy streamed into her mind and imprinted the coordinates of the ring in relation to her body. “There we go.”  She reassured herself.

“Good. Now we can continue.” Wendy proclaimed to her simulacrum.  Confident that nothing else had been missed, Wendy lifted her glowing and runed palm to her companion.  Eerily slow, the automation’s hand raised to match Wendy’s and she pushed her hand firmly into her counterparts.  An icy breeze rushed through the cabin of the van and Wendy felt herself transfer from her own body to that of the doppelganger. -Power.  This is absolute power.- She thought to herself as she felt her heart start beating within the chest of the dark puppet she now occupied.  Opening her new smoky lime green eyes, Wendy watched as the hand from her original body slowly dropped to its lap, and her brown orbs faded into pools of docile black, leaving her body in an empty comatosed shell.

 Giving herself a bit of time to adjust to the transference, Wendy stood up and went through the changes to be sure everything was as she remembered.  She felt the familiar feeling of her skin change from the thin hair and elastic like cells to being covered in black and smoky vinyl. By stretching her limbs and hands she could almost hear her new ‘skin’ making the sound of someone rubbing a balloon.  Taking a deep breath, Wendy was immediately reminded of the one thing she didn’t miss and that was how she had to breathe.  Groaning as she took in the thick atmosphere, Wendy had the sensation of her chest being a big sponge and being filled with a thick liquid rather than the natural light feeling of air that she was used to.  Convinced that her transferal into her dark body was complete, she blew a kiss to her other body and stepped out of the van.

-I love this place.- Wendy walked to the edge of the ocean and watched the silent black waves splatter on the even darker onyx reflective sand without a crash.  Silently running in the direction she recalled Vivienne’s home to be in, Wendy relished the wind and smiled as she watched it rustle leaves of the obsidian bay oak trees, soundlessly.

Before she realized what had happened, Wendy had crossed the beach and was standing in front of the shaded version of the lair in which she sought.  Taking note of an unusual darkened fire that had been started off to the side of the home, Wendy lost herself in the blackened licking flames that looked more like a shadow than white hot.  Approaching the flames, quickly assessed that the bonfire consisted of what appeared to be a wooden table, some sheetrock and stone that she couldn’t quite identify. -Odd.-  Wendy rubbed her chin and turned the moment her peripheral vision caught something fluttering off to her right.  Turning slightly, Wendy watched as a raven seamlessly shape-changed into the most perfect woman she’d ever seen.  With a swift leap over the cedar wood railing, Wendy landed on Vivienne’s right side and managed to get a glimpse of visage. -Ah, you are the one that jumped from the Ocean Lily.-  Wendy followed the unsuspecting vampire through the back door and scooted around the television and close to the back of the sofa where she recognized Casey from her Facebook photos, being held by another vampire.

 -I sense the Korean blood-sucker on the couch, why can’t I sense you, beautiful?-  Wendy wondered as she watched the conversation unfold after Vivienne returned and poured the dark glasses of champagne. -Damnit!-  Wendy chastised herself for not using a spell that would allow her to better read lips.  Quickly dismissing the urge to cast the spell due to lack of food and the possibility that she’d be discovered, Wendy used what she knew about the way people spoke and finally pieced together what the threesome were discussing.  -Park, Park..where do I know that?- Disgusted with the ease in which Casey gave up her blood to the twin vampires, Wendy shook her head with an errant thought. -Blood Whores.-