Esra Sunshine: A Rational Fear Of White Monsters

Erin grinned. "Hello Mr Payne."
Liam looked away and was quickly jostled out of sight by other vampires McMooney had enlisted. Motionless continued to grin, as that was the closest he had ever come to someone famous. The time was ticking closer to night and the mass of vampires had taken out the guards and now stood in the entrance. Motionless could feel the time approach when he would be forced to shuck his human skin. It had been a long time since he had last done this outside of Mr Twist's dungeon confinement. He wasn't sure, but he was beginning to think this would be fun.

-----

Sometimes the Resistance was a bit like a family. Cadence had texted to say she would not be able to join them for dinner, but the rest of them were seated around the table in Fred Mould's basement, most of them tucking into the dinner Harrison had made them. There would be cupcakes later and Dearth and Hibernia would try and take some up to Cadence. There was a lot of laughing and joking and balancing spoons on noses and then there was a noise from upstairs and the noise of the normal patrons in the bar died down. There was a strangled yelp-like noise. Frowning, Fred left his hardly touched plate of food and ascended the stairs. There was an awkward silence. "He used to have a crush on me." Harrison stated matter-of-factly. "He normally hates the idea of any kind of relationship, but he's ruthless enough to kill things he becomes attached to if he needs to, and he's taught me to be the same, or so he thinks, so one day he tried the 'kiss the girl' sort of thing and just grabbed me and stuck his tongue down my throat." The laugher and 'aww's started back up again. "He was in such a mood when I told him I didn't like guys in that way." He squeezed Kat's hand and Fred came running back into the room.
"Fighting positions. Slowly back towards the emergency exit tunnel. Be ready to fight to the death if necessary. Scaramouch, go transfer all cybernetic information to Wylie." [a/n Wylie is another base/computer, not a person]
Scaramouch nodded and ran off. The others stood, tensing up, slight panic in their eyes. Voice shaking, Hibernia spoke. "Fred, what's going on?"
"Vile's found us."
There was a terrified hush passing over the team and then they began to reverse as a crash came from upstairs. "He's trying to get through."
"I can't fight." Hibernia blurted. The others stared at her and she felt tears pour from the corners of her eyes. "I can't. I really can't!" she was sobbing now as Scaramouch came back.
"The files are gone now."
Fred nodded. "Emergency exit, everyone. Now!" They all made a dash, but someone was standing there.
"Not completely secret." Abla Hazardous commented, grinning maliciously.

-----

Cadence locked herself in her wardrobe as she heard the vampired crashing around outside. She was crying and trying to do so as inaudibly as possible. She took out her phone, muted it and began texting. She texted everyone there. She told them to come help her because of the vampires, because she still only had one shoe and weakened magic and under the surface was just a scared little girl who had never gone up against one vampire before, never mind a massive pack of them. Currently she was certain she was going to die.

-----

"My phone still works!" Austin exclaimed as a text came through on a cracked thing that looked like someone had been jumping on it. It had been damaged during the fight Daemon had fainted at. He read the text and all the colour drained from his face. It looked amusing when he pulled a horrified face. She tried hard not to laugh out loud. "Please tell me Belinda's phone number...I need to get together a vampire-hunting group immediately..."
Daemon's smile died. "Hell no."
"Call everyone you know, tell them we're fighting."
"What do you mean?"
"Hundreds of the damn things are at Mevolent's castle."
"And? You want to go there for a veritable suicide mission?!"
He looked like he was trying not to punch her, but it turned out he was trying not to cry, as she found out when he failed. "My sister's there. I love my sisters. If Belinda hates me and Cadence is dead and my friends will never understand...they never do...I don't want to be alone...I mean, sure, with Sam and Katharine and Aleron and Lilia I won't really be alone...actually, no, Sam is the only one I trust outside the boundaries of romance...or trust with my problems...I'll be alone..."
"You're being melodramatic."
"I want my sisters to be safe!"
"And I'm sure they want you to be safe! Running headfirst into a pack of vampires is not going to help anyone!"
Giving up, Baritone sat on a conveniently placed tree stump and buried his head in his hands. Daemon sighed. "Go get yourself something to eat and I'll see what I can do to help, okay?"
He peered at her from between his fingers. "I'm not being left out of this."
"You're too emotionally involved. Go eat."
"No money."
She gave him £20 and pointed towards a little nearby village. "Go away, Austin. I'll see what I can do. And let me use your phone. Contacts from both sides."
Reluctantly and with little grace, he handed over his phone and walked off to the village.

-----

The Grand Mage shook his head firmly, keeping a vice-like grip on Elder Orage's wrist. "You are not to go gallivanting off like that again. Send Fiable and Hoquet!"
The two detectives stood nearby, perking up a little upon hearing their own names. "And cleavers." Jasmin insisted. Grand Mage Surgele shook his head.
"Not sure how many we can spare...where to, anyway?"
Jasmin froze. "Uh...never mind...I just realised it would be an aid to...enemy forces..."
Surgele held Orage's gaze for a moment before walking off, followed closely by Hoquet. Charles glared after them both.
"I really hate Hoquet."
"I think Yvonne quite likes you, though."
"I know. She's crazy about me. I just have that charm, Jasmin. It ensnares all the ladies, as well as a few gentlemen."
"Frivolidad is not a gentleman."
"Ah...you noticed..."
"...Can you get Pourri to teleport you back to Mevolent's castle?"
"With vampires romping around there?"
"To recall agent Nightwish!"
"You want me to put my neck on the line for your potentially dead girlfriend?"
"I did the same for your last potentially dead boyfriend."
"And failed."
"Repine stabbed through me and into him. He was already injured. I wasn't. It wasn't my fault." Fiable didn't respond. "I'm sorry, okay?"
"You have nothing to apologise for, but I don't think it's worth it."
Jasmin paused for a moment, thinking about the entire text he had received. "I think you're right..."

-----

Hazardous advanced slowly as Vile attempted to gain entrance from behind. The Resistance formed a tightly knit group and the first gust of air hit Hazardous, causing her to stumble back. Not giving her a chance to regain her footing, Ekaterina threw her hand up and fired a blast of energy. It hit her square in the chest and she toppled over. Harrison moved forward, not sure of her discipline but not planning to give her a chance to recover as he swung a kick to her side. She grunted and Harrison saw shadows coiling around her sword and reacted by stomping on her wrist and twisting until the sword was released. Hazardous curled up to protect herself as Kat and Hibernia joined the physical assault.

Fred, Scaramouch and Dearth turned as another slam rocked the foundations of the bar. "Guys, take the sword and get to the emergency exit."
Hibernia grabbed the sword and high-tailed it into the next room. Fred looked to Dearth, who nodded and closed his eyes, rolling his head back.

The exit was a clever little thing in Fred's wall, activated by a dream state. It was the one thing Dearth could never forget, other than his own name or his extreme hatred for Irish ducks, as it was infused with his very being. He entered the dream state with one person in the room containing the exit and it would shimmer into view until one of the two came out of the dream state. It looked hot-pink with purple glitter. "Open." He moaned through the dream. The guard door upstairs broke open at that point. Fred turned to Harrison and Kat. "Both of you, out!"
"We can help fight." Harrison insisted.
"Someone needs to get to Wylie. Harrison, you're the only one I trust, so you have to go! Take Hibernia through. Once she's through, the portal will close and she will exit the dream state, you know this, now go!"
Begrudgingly, Harrison nodded and fled to the escape room as Vile came into view. Kat left the now unconscious Abla and lined up next to the others. Slowly, Dearth rolled his head back round, eyes flitting open. He wouldn't be able to use his dream magic to affect Lord Vile. There would be no dream state to affect.

-----

Esra saw the vampires and it seemed none of them had seen him. Slowly, he closed the door and backed into the corner, sinking down and reaching up to undo the latch on the window. He could hear them beyond the door and he had no idea how things were going, but he knew he would be of no use against them. His offensives were too close-combat. He would be dead in seconds. The latch clicked open and the window swung wide and he began to doubt he would fit through. Even if he were really horrendously skinny, he would doubt it. There was a crash as one of the vampires threw itself at his door, the door breaking in half. It sounded like Mevolent's lot were actually winning. The door was still up, but it would take no effort at all to come through for anything. He raised himself back up and took his genetically modified spider Lily off the hook he kept the cage on and eased his way out the window as the Vampire burst in. Instead of easing himself down, he hauled himself above the window, trying not to look down, daring to reach one hand down to his belt where he kept a sort of pipe-spear thing with barbed wire coiled around it. The vampire appeared at the window, snapping and snarling, and he jabbed the spear at its eyes. It let out a disgusting scream and lashed out blindly. Lucky strike. Esra hollered as its claws sliced through his leg, squeezing his eyes shut and jabbing down blindly. It struck something. He swung the spear so that the barbed wire would strike instead and hauled himself up again as the vampire screamed again. He hauled himself to the next window up, thankful the walls of the castle were crumbling enough to provide plenty of footholds, and found a window with ordinary mages beyond. He gestured for them to open the window, but they just looked at him. Perhaps they were dead. Shrugging, and a little worried now, he continued to pull himself up, hoping the footholds would keep coming. He nicked his hand on his weapon and dropped it and the blood loss from his leg was beginning to make him dizzy, but he was almost at the roof now. He got there, hauled himself over and collapsed against the floor. Something growled at him. Opening one eye, he caught sight of another vampire.

A whimper escaped his throat and he wished he hadn't dropped his spear. It came closer and he grabbed the closest object, a chunk of broken masonry, and swung it hard towards the vampire's head.

-----

Fred undid the button on his shirt cuff and rolled up his sleeve, tapping a sigil on his upper arm twice with two fingers. A shield came up between the resistance and Vile. "We can fire through it. He can't. Dearth, reopen the portal in case we need it."
Dearth nodded and went to the bedroom, soon forgetting why he had the portal open but being pretty certain it was important.

Fred rolled up his other sleeve and tapped another sigil. There were two on the soles of his shoes as well. One of them sent an amber blast of light from one corner of the room while the other locked the person standing on the much larger matching symbol just below Vile's feet in a cage of crackling red energy. Vile was hit with three similar amber blasts at once: The sigil blast and the two adept's own blasts. It didn't seem to faze him as the air around him shimmered thanks to the sigil on Fred's other upper arm. Vile tilted his head to the side and slammed shadows through the cage, shattering it, and against the shield. He repeated this motion as the adepts continued to release their blasts. Cracks appeared along the shield and Fred actually looked worried. Kat had never seen him look worried before. The sigilist turned to Kat and Scaramouch. "Through the portal. Now!" They hesitated and Fred gave both of them a shove. "You'll be of no use to anyone if Vile kills ya! Go!" They ran and Fred tapped a sigil concealed on a lampshade.

Dearth smiled as Scaramouch and Kat fled through the portal. There was a crash and a gurgle and then the door opened-no, it was blown off its hinges-and Lord Vile strolled in. Dearth frowned, feeling the unfamiliar vibes and pulled himself out of the dream state, closing the portal. "Just you an me, eh mate?"
Several hundred points were pierced by shadows at once. Damon-Dacey didn't stand a chance. He died almost instantly.

Harrison knelt beside Hibernia, trying to calm her down a little. "Okay...okay, we were all a little freaked there...just tell me one thing...why couldn't you fight?"
Her hand went to her stomach and she shook her head. She looked like she was about to throw up. "Where's Scaramouch?"
"He stayed behind to fight Vile."
Her head shot up. "What?! Is he crazy?!"
Harrison shrugged. "Probably...no...don't cry anymore, please! I don't know how to deal with crying girlies!"
"Shut up."
"Why couldn't you fight, though? Was it just a general freak out or...?"
"I'm pregnant, okay? Now drop it!" He did as he was told and went down to the main road to see if he could hitch a lift. A few minutes later, Hibernia went to follow when someone called her name. She turned to see Scaramouch and Kat stumbling towards her...

((...Just as I was beginning to like Fred, I reach the point in the story where he dies...I'll be sad to see Dearth go too...just a heads up, both speed and quality of updates are going to be affected this week due to several types of coursework and what is either measles or an allergic reaction to shower gel.))