Musings From A Demented Mind (16 page)

“Hey Reg, it’s been awhile,” Allan said excitedly.

“Actually, I go by the name Elton John now.  My manager advised me it was in my best interest to come up with a stage name to further my music career.  I came up with it as a tribute to two great musicians: Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.”

“It is catchy.”

“I think with my piano sound, your song is going to be a major hit.”

“He Ain’t Heavy has lyrics which moves me in here.”  Allan pointed toward his heart.

“I felt it too when I rehearsed it.”

1970 was one of the best years so far since Graham had left.  With three consecutive hits, the band was back in the spotlight.  In the States, their latest album was climbing the charts.  Allan was at the pub watching Tony and Terry write some new songs.  He couldn’t remember a time they weren’t composing when they weren’t vampire slaying. 

The vampires were also kept busy in 1970.  They were assembling signifying Carrie-Anne was preparing to strike in one massive attack.    

Allan wanted to end the fight with Carrie-Anne once and for all.  The days of touring and slaying vampires were taking its toll on him.  He didn’t possess the energy he had years prior.  Secretly, he was unhappy and wanted to try a solo career.  Terry was doing more of the lead vocals on the albums and Allan believed his time with the band was almost over.  He promised to do one more studio album with them and then he would let them know he wanted out. 

The door to the pub opened and Bobbie and Bernie rushed in.

“Allan, Carrie-Anne was spotted in the mountains.  Our spies have reported thousands of vampires merging on her location,” Bobbie informed him.

“Grab every weapon we have.  Have Ronnie order the spike tanks to rendezvous with us there.  We will finally get a chance to use them in battle,” Allan ordered.

“I know the odds are against us and we are facing certain death, but I’m really excited,” Terry said.

“We end this tonight. I promise by night’s end, Carrie-Anne will be dead.”  Allan led them out of the pub toward their black van.

All five of their spiked tanks rolled toward the mountains followed by hundreds of archers trained for battling vampires. The tanks were designed to shoot hundreds of wooden stakes at a time.   Parlophone had spent a large chunk of its profits modifying the tanks for vampire slaying.  Ronnie sat in the main tank communicating with the other four, strategizing the attack.

“I see them up ahead.  When we are in range fire,” Ronnie ordered.

When the tanks were close enough, they fired hundreds of wooden stakes killing hundreds of the vampires who were caught off guard.  As the tanks were reloading, the archers fired the spiked wooden arrows.

Kelief, Carrie-Anne’s lead advisor, rushed into her chamber. “We are under attack!  They caught us off guard.  They have tanks.”

“Destroy their tanks.  I don’t care how many lives we lose.  Their army must not reach my lair.  Tonight I kill Allan and his bandmates.  Then, nobody will be in our way.  The vampires will be able to take over the world unopposed.”

“Yes, your highness.”

“Allan, my sweet Allan.  Soon I will get to taste the blood I’ve been hungering for since we first met.”  She sat down on her golden throne and watched the battle outside through the magic orb standing next to her. 

Tony navigated their black van through the middle of the vampire army.  The wiper blades couldn’t keep up with all the black ash covering the windshield from the dying vampires, as the van’s wooden spikes penetrated the vampires they were driving through.

“I can see an opening in the mountain ahead.  When we stop, jump out of the van immediately and kill every vampire in our path.  I must get to her,” Allan instructed.

“Good luck, everybody,” Terry added.

“We’re definitely going to need it,” Bobbie said as Tony slammed the breaks.  They jumped out of the van and began the assault on the vampires.

Carrie-Anne slammed the orb to the ground smashing it into hundreds of tiny pieces.  “How can my army be so useless against mortals?  Come after me if you can, Allan!  You haven’t witnessed my true form yet!”

Allan broke through the vampire army as his bandmates slaughtered every one of them in their path.  Tony signaled to him to go ahead and they’d hold them off.  Allan entered the opening of the mountain and cautiously walked down the long corridor inward.  Ahead of him, Kelief stood cracking his knuckles, loosening himself for combat.

“I want Carrie-Anne!”

“For several years, I heard about you and your band of misfits and your heroic deeds.  You aren’t the human race’s saviors; you’re the vampire’s butchers.  You see, we vampires didn’t start the war.  You humans did.  Believe me, we are the ones who will finish it,” Kelief said as he swung a large ax in front of him displaying his strength.

“A vampire wielding an ax.  Now that’s a new one.”

“This was our weapon of choice back in the old days before our thirst for blood. It was brought on by a curse put on our kind a long time ago by a witch when vampires and man joined together to rid the world of their kind.  I claimed this ax as a prize from a dear old friend I was forced to kill in battle.  It’s fitting now because man will be completely erased from time by us vampires.”

“I thought Graham talked too much.  Can I kill you now or do I have to listen to your history lesson?”

“Very well.” 

Kelief swung the ax toward Allan who ducked barely missing being decapitated.  He swung again as Allan rolled to the right.

“Give up now.  I can swing the ax for eternity if I have to.”

“And miss for eternity.” 

Kelief rushed him and Allan grabbed his arm.  The two men fought over the ax, each grabbing hold of the handle.  Kelief forcefully pushed Allan backward and lifted the ax high above his head.  As Kelief swung again, Allan jumped over the ax and plunged two large stakes into his chest.  Kelief dropped the ax in horror.  His body burst into flames and then crumbled into ash.

Allan picked up the ax.  It felt familiar to him as if he had held it before.  He remembered when they had first met Ronnie and he told them they were reincarnations of vampire slayers from the past.  This was his ax from back in the time when man and vampires were allies before the witch put the curse of blood thirst on the vampires.  Kelief and he had been friends and it was Kelief who killed him and claimed his ax as a prize.  He remembered when the ax was blessed by the water from the sacred well in his village.  It possessed the power to kill vampires.  He smiled as he realized he possessed the weapon that could defeat Carrie-Anne for good.

He walked forward remembering the layout of the mountain from when he had been there in the past.  Her lair was in the middle of the mountain and Kelief had taken his life there.

Carrie-Anne stood before him dressed in the shiny black dress she wore when she first walked into the pub years back.  She grabbed her blonde hair and ripped it and her face completely off, exposing a face that looked centuries old.  She raised her arms and transformed into a large bat-like creature, which was the size of a large dragon with a large tail.  Her skin was dark brown and looked to be as impenetrable as a dragon’s.

“This is my true form!  My real name is Belykial and it is I, by that name, who will kill!”

Belykial swung her tail around in a fast spinning motion knocking him to the ground.  The ax slid out of his hand and landed on the other side of the lair.

“Now you must fight me with your bare hands!”

The ground shook violently with each of her steps sending large rocks tumbling downward.  She laughed loudly as she watched him try to avoid them.

“Death by compression!  Now that would be a tragic ending for you!”

He jumped up and ran for the other side of the lair.  She stomped down violently causing the ground to crack.  Her throne fell inward as the ground gave way.  His ax slid forward stopping inches from falling over the edge of the newly formed hole.  As she stomped again, he slid across the ground grabbing the ax.  He grabbed onto the back of her tail avoiding falling into the hole.  She lifted her tail up several feet and violently slammed it downward.  He held on tightly.  As the tail landed again, he quickly climbed it and swung the ax upward slicing one of her claws off.  She screamed.  He swung the ax repeatedly slicing into her chest.  She tried flicking him off with her other claw, but he continued to dodge it.

“Stop it, human!” 

She brought her massive head down preparing to rip him in half in one bite.  As her head got nearer, he swung the ax upward and it embedded into her skull.  She knocked him to the side and screamed out in agony as her body shrunk back into her human form.

“Please don’t kill me,” she pleaded.

“I must.” 

He grabbed one of his wooden spikes and implanted it into her heart.  She screamed out one last time as her body burst into flames and she crumbled into dust.

As she died, all the remaining vampires in the world instantly burst into flames and crumbled into dust, as well.

Several weeks later, Allan was in the pub with some of the friends he met since the battle with Carrie-Anne, writing a song for the last studio album before leaving the band.

“Come on, it’s your turn.  I’m going to beat you this time.”

“I only have a couple lines left to write.” 

He wrote down the lyrics:

'Cause that long cool woman had it all

Had it all

Had it all

With the song finished, he smiled.  Only a select few would really understand the words behind the song.  Each line symbolized the events leading to his first meeting with Carrie-Anne and to her demise.  He put down his pen and grabbed his darts.  There was no way he was going to let his friend beat him at darts.

The end?

       
        
Claws Vs Mecha Cat

                       Chapter One

Melvin and Denise stood on the platform at the Dunes Park train station surrounded by several people waiting for the South Shore Line to arrive.  They were anxiously waiting for the train to take them to the McCormick Place for the 2015 Chicago Auto Show.

There was a chime from the speakers above followed by an automated message stating the westbound train would be arriving in ten minutes.

Melvin smiled at his wife as he anticipated the train ride.  He loved taking the train to their yearly visit to the Chicago Auto Show.  The ride was not much of a scenic route mostly one rundown ghetto after another.  At least, they would pass the Railcats stadium.  Unfortunately, it was February and there wouldn’t be any games being played.

A couple of older gentlemen were talking about how Smart cars were a joke and real men drove gas-guzzling trucks.  He wasn’t a fan of them either.  He wanted a brand new Colorado truck, but Denise wanted to own a car practical for raising a family.  They both possessed decent paying jobs, and he didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t afford both, but she kept reminding him she wanted to buy a fancy house in Chesterton with five bedrooms, one for each of the four kids she wanted to have. 

He jumped in excitement when he saw the train’s headlights in the distance.

“Take it down a notch, Melvin.  We are grownups,” Denise said, smiling.

“For now.  No promises when we get to the Auto Show.”

“As long as you’re there to look at the cars, not the models.”

“Denise, do I hear a tiny bit of jealously?”

“Your days of shopping around are over.  You made your final purchase.”  She pointed at her wedding ring.

The train stopped in front of them and they entered the front car.  They sat down on the first available seat.  He was disappointed as he realized they were sitting opposite of the way the train was heading.  They would be seeing things as they passed them.

Noticing his disappointment, Denise said sarcastically, “At least if there’s a train wreck, we won’t see it coming.”

He gave her a disapproving look.

“Ok, that was in bad taste.”

“Do ya’ think?”

The doors to the train car closed and the train moved forward.  “Next stop Ogden Dunes,” the conductor said through the intercom system.

“Get the tickets out,” Melvin reminded her.

Denise thumbed through her purse until she found the train tickets.  Melvin looked at all of the train cars sitting in front of the steel mill as they passed by.  The fog was thick today making it difficult to see the individual buildings of the mill.  Through the fog, he thought he saw something moving, something big.

“What the hell?” 

“Melvin, what’s wrong?”

“That.”  He pointed toward the fog. 

As it came closer to train, they could tell it was a gigantic black cat.  It ran toward their train car and collided with it.  The lights flickered as the train was instantly derailed by the impact.  All the passengers were violently thrown out of their seats.  The cat pushed the train causing it to completely roll onto the highway adjacent to the tracks.

As the train stopped rolling, Melvin looked over at Denise who was unconscious and bleeding.  He shook her trying to wake her up.  Tears ran down his cheeks as he realized she was dead.  He heard metal being ripped apart from above him.  He looked up as a large black paw came down and grabbed him.  As he was being lifted up, he could see the cat’s sharp teeth getting closer.  Within seconds, the cat swallowed him and then began grabbing as many passengers as it could to fill its belly.