Charlie Huston - Half the Blood of Brooklyn

Crack of bone on bone.

The Count makes karate hands and chops the air.

– That’s the shit I’m really looking forward to. Getting my kung fu on. I know I’m not the kind of guy you expect extreme patience and discipline from, but if it means coming out the other side with moves like these guys, I will meditate until my ass bleeds. I mean, whoa that shit is badass.

The stairs are close by. I turn and look at them.

The Count comes over.

– Me, I’m a little surprised they can get it up to do that shit. Losing Daniel, way I gather it, that’s like a major setback, yeah?

– I guess.

– Guess nothing, man. You’ve been hanging out at this place for a few years now, right?

– I come by sometimes.

– Sure. So he was the man. I mean, I only spent a couple hours with the guy while he was helping me get straight last night, but even I could see he was righteous beyond the ken of normal men. If you follow.

– I follow.

– So now, the way he laid it out, one of them is always on point, leading the way toward what he tried to do. Toward the whole transmutation thing they’re into.

– Something like that.

– And he was way ahead of the pack. He was, like, the best hope they’d have for, like, forever. Now, man, it’s like they are at square one or something. Got to pick up with whoever’s been fasting the longest. What I hear, the dude in second place is way back from where Daniel was. But here they are, carrying on, doing their thing. And on top of that, they’re getting ready to eat their Dalai Lama’s marrow. Telling you, these are some well-adjusted citizens.

– Count.

– Yeah.

– You’re talking a lot.

– Well, I do do that, don’t I?

I face him.

– I have something I need to do. So get to the point.

He scratches his head.

– The girl. Right.

He points at the stairs.

– Come on, I’ll show you where.

He starts. I don’t move. He looks back.

– C’mon, man. Not like it’s a secret or anything. Place isn’t that huge. There’s a sick girl in the house. Everyone knows it. So come on up.

He leads me up.

– Daniel kind of filled me in. Not that he was gossiping or anything, but he was just talking. He always spacey like that?

– No. He wasn’t.

– Was last night. Don’t get me wrong, man was like a fucking magician with me. Like, I don’t know what, like Zoltan the Mind Master or something.

He stops on the stairs and looks into my eyes.

– Dude locked eyes with me, put a hand on me, was like he, man, went into me. Which I know is just the gayest thing you’ve ever heard, but that’s what it was like. The Vyrus, it was tearing me apart. Eating me. Was like he told it to chill. Got me to balance with it. And I did. A-fucking-mazing. Only lasted for a couple seconds maybe. But I was there. This perfect point where the Vyrus was kind of at its most pure and raging, and I was, I don’t know what, riding it or something. Talk about a high? That is something I will feel again.

He moves his eyes from mine.

– After that, he gave me a little blood. Knew I couldn’t contain that shit. Vyrus settled. I mean, I am starving here, but it settled. Best thing? It worked.

He inhales deep, lets it out.

– Like, all my thinking about anathema, and how you hooked me on the bad dose, and the way that…man. The way that felt. Wanting to get out from under that more than anything. And the reading I was doing for Terry. Learning about regular viruses and shit. I knew there had to be a way to burn that shit out of your system. I knew it.

He taps my chest.

– And, Joe, I knew you were the guy to turn to.

He starts back up the stairs.

– Not that I thought you’d nurse me through if I asked or anything. I just figured me and my money are too valuable to lose. Which isn’t to say I wasn’t ready to die, man. Was I ever.

We reach the top of the stairs and he puts a hand on the wall and closes his eyes.

– Hang on a sec, man. Still rocked. You see things, Joe. When you dose like that, you see things. I’m not saying they’re real, but you see them.

He opens his eyes.

– I saw shit. All that stuff on the walls and the floor. I mean, that was no act. I started flippin’. I thought something was coming for me. Started reading Crowley and shit online. Wicca.com. I mean, lame. But I was scared. Once I stopped feeding. Once I poured out the last load of anathema Terry sent by, I went somewhere else. I was ready, man. I was ready to die.

He takes his hand from the wall.

– Then you came. Well, you had to. You and Phil are the only ones who ever came over. Phil to drop off blood and anathema. You to tell me how much money Terry wanted transferred into the Society account. Knew Phil would call you if he found me first. Only real risk far as that went was if I would drink him.

He makes a face.

– Still can’t believe you put some of his blood in me. Nasty.

He bites his lip.

– Anyway, thing is, none of it, none of it was an act. Want you to know that. I definitely made a play to put you in a position where you had to help me, but none of it was an act. So. Thank you, I guess.

I don’t say anything.

He nods.

– Yeah, fuck me. I know.

He starts down the hall that runs between the cubicles where the Enclave sleep.

– Will say, I never figured I’d end up here. Heard about these guys. But never thought for a second you’d bring me here. Never had this in mind. Did you know?

– What?

– That they only allow Enclave inside?

I put my hand to the wall, taking some weight off my knee as we go down toward the end of the hall.

– Never thought about it.

– Just brought me over here. Didn’t even know what it meant when they let me inside. Just random.

– Or something.

– Yeah, think about that. Or something. Like, is anything random, right?

He stops again, turns and faces me, the last door beyond him.

Her scent in the air.

– Like, how about this? You dose me on anathema. I mean, hook me on the bad dose. And I see things. And I can’t take it. And I, just on instinct and whatever I’ve learned from what I’ve been reading, I try to burn it out by starving the Vyrus. And you bring me here. And I happen to be Enclave. Daniel looks at me and knows. Which is part of what being him was all about, I guess. And he lays the whammy on me. And I trance out. And he brings me back. And here I am. Up and about. And, like, I was up almost right away. And he was impressed. I mean, they were all impressed. The dose I was on, the way I went head-to-head with it, the way Daniel got me to do that dance with the Vyrus and then I just snapped to, turns out that’s some heavy shit. I mean, Joe, it’s not just that you brought me here. I got potential. Real potential. How’s that for or something ?

I push him to the side and walk.

– Fuck do I care.

I walk into the room and she’s there. On a mat on the floor, a thin blanket over her, face sweaty, shivering. An Enclave seated at her feet, one hand holding her toes, whispering.

The Count comes in behind me.

– Tell you, Joe, I can see it. Even all fucked up as she is, I can see what you got there.

I walk over to her and kneel on the floor and run a hand over her head and come away with sweat and hair.

I touch my pockets. I don’t have a blade. Only Rebbe Moishe’s Defender.

The Count crouches at my back.

– A girl like that, what’s a man to do? How can you have a girl like that and not try everything to save her?

Her eyes open. She looks at me. She smiles. A hand comes out from under the blanket and touches the candy necklace and her lips move and she’s asking me a question but can’t speak past the hole in her throat.