Strange Nights Series - Episode 4

“Strange Nights”

Season One
Episode Four

By: B.A. Holland


Production Notes:
Started: 4/06/2011 (4:00PM EST)
“Air Date” 4/12/2011 (11:55AM EST)


Published by: Abyssalbooks
www.abyssalbooks.com
Copyright ©2011
All Rights Reserved
Additional rights given to writing.com for display by the author


Disclaimer

This series is a work of fiction. Characters, names and incidences are either productions of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Chapter One
Hard to Get

         Jordan never really cared to wonder what a dog felt like when it was locked up in a kennel. Sadly enough, she now knew. Handcuffed and stuffed in a wire-mesh box, she found herself in someone's living room. It looked old-style gothic. The shelves that lined every wall of the carpeted study she was in were hand carved and filled with old books that looked as if no one had bothered to take them out to read them for a century or more. There were a row of sofa's circling the cage, and a fireplace cast warmth on her back. The red and black style was a very comfortable looking getup for wherever she was. Jordan still couldn't relax though. She felt that the cage probably had something to do with that and she was happy she chose to wear jeans instead of her blue jean shorts. Because, this would have sucked  if my bare legs were digging into the metal of the cage.

         She decided she would take a look at the lock. It was a combination lock with four digits. She decided to yank on the lock to see if it would come loose. To her surprise, the cage was so weak that when she pulled on the lock, it took some of the wire-frame with it.
         "What'd they stick me in? The weakest cage in the world?" She whispered to herself. She pulled at the lock until the lock bearing and the bolt that the lock threaded into bent off the cage and snapped. She could see the cage turning white as she did that, as if she could see the heat aura coming from the friction of bent steel. The door came open and she stepped out to look around. If she hadn't been in such peril, she would have wanted to take a look at all the books around her because reading was one of her favorite things to do. Jordan didn't even think about doing this. All she wanted was out.

         Jordan concentrated on getting out of this locked study she found herself in that she felt something odd come over her. It was a feeling of floating that she couldn't get out of her mind. She gave into the feeling and followed it. It wasn't long before she literally felt herself floating over the room. It was as if she were in a dream-like state, only, with the cognitive ability to choose where she went in the dream. She felt herself moving through the locked door jam, along the sides of the walls next to the baseboard and the corners of their carpet. No one saw the mist that slithered it's way out of a window and into the grass.

         Anthony watched as the fog built up in the yard. It had been a cold day that somehow switched to a warmer night so the fog was understandable in his mind. What struck him odd about it was that it moved too quickly for fog. He put that out of his mind as he walked into the mansion. It wasn't too minutes later that there was an angry scream emanating from the house. Obviously, word got out fast that Jordan had once again escaped the DiSoto families wrath.

         Jordan didn't know what to do but she just felt safe at that moment; safe, and able to return back to a solid form once she understood how to do that. It came natural to her once in mist, it was getting in that state that she didn't understand until it was already done. She collected back into a solid form and looked around the alleyway where she materialized. The streets were wet and grainy under her bare feet. Jordan didn't waste any time finding the nearest person on the street beyond the alleyway.

         "Excuse me! Sir!" Jordan ran to him. "Someone tried to kidnap me and my mom's looking for me. I don't know where I am!"

         She noticed the man looking below her neck and his jaw dropped. Jordan didn't understand until she put her hands to her chest and hips and realized that she didn't feel the familiar feeling of being clothed. She looked down and quickly covered her hands over the parts that counted and turned red.

         "Oh my god..." She said. She ran off as quickly as she could.
         "Wait!" The pedestrian yelled, but it was too late, she vanished.

         Jordan scampered up the walls and climbed a building before she realized how unnatural it was do do so. Last time, she was able to pull off walking into a clothing store with the excuse of "Zombie convention". This time, it would be hard to say she was being a stripper for Halloween. She knew something was different about her. She went over it in her head as she sat naked on the roof of a building, looking at the New York skyline.

         So far, I've been drowned, shot, thrown off a building, drank from a man until he turned to dust, sprouted fangs, turned to mist, climbed up a thirty story building, and now I'm sitting on a roof -- naked. Oh yeah! I can hear everything, smell not only what's cooking, but know the ingredients of what's in the dish during dinner time, not being able to eat dinner sucks... This sucks... Jordan thought as she tried not to cry. She thought about Chrissy and why someone would do such a thing to her. She had been a friend of the family for years. Always kind, honest, and a great friend! Why would she do this to me?  She was upset but not too badly. Ever since she drowned, there had been more of a collective calm about her and she noticed it. She was noticing more things as of late. She looked down at her lower body, her legs, feet, and then at her hands and arms. It was easy to see the change since she had nothing to hide at that moment.

         Dang! I'm pale... She thought to herself. The skinny young blonde girl did a once over on all the skin she could observe. She almost looked dead she was so pale. She looked over the edge of the building to observe the streets below. All the people showed up like highlighted ants. Even the man hiding under the cardboard boxes in the alley; Jordan knew that she could once again be the champion of hide and seek. She could go to mist so she could never be found, she could see in the dark, and she always knew where everyone was. She was safe from those mobsters but she knew that somewhere out there, in this vast city, her mother was moving into harms way to protect her daughter -- a daughter that was forever safe now. Naked or not, she had to find Anna before she got herself hurt.



         The unmarked crown Victoria pulled up to the mansion designated by Pedro as the head-man him self’s house. Nero found himself locked in the back seat of the patrol car. He gave Zak a sly smile and pointed at the lock. Before the dark skinned detective even thought about pulling the handle for Nero, he checked to get the "OK" from Anna. Once Nero was out of the car, he took a whiff of the air and caught the slightest memory of Jordan's scent from the hospital. He nodded.
         "He was here," Nero said.

         Zak's eyes widened and he shook his head.
         "Here," Zak said. "Take my badge because you obviously have some fucked up psychic powers that dwarf my ability to do this job."
         "No thanks, I don't enjoy working with a bunch of people that fire me on a rumor." Nero said. "You'll see what I mean if you ever piss off the right criminals."

         "You're an interesting man," Zak decided to say other than what he wanted to say, which would have been somewhere around the tune of "Yeah, well you piss me off, too." 

         "Let's go," Anna said. They walked to the front doorstep knocked on the large thick wooden front door. The door opened and Nero pushed directly through the two officers. The man at the door was a short midget that  looked as if he belonged on The Island of Doctor Maru and he was just as shocked as the two officers when Nero squeezed his ass between all of them and gave the midget a quick pat-down.

         "Hey Buddy, we're here looking for Jordan. Seen her around?" He asked as he slipped something into the midget's pocket he didn't notice.

         "What you doin' here! Get out! Get out!" The midget exclaimed.

         "What the hell?!" Zak yelled. He looked to Anna as the midget ran after Nero. The two officers followed them.
         "Is this okay?" Zak asked.
         "I don't give a shit." Anna responded. All she cared about was her daughter. She pulled her weapon and went after Nero. Nero burst into the study to find a pile of clothes, a busted cage, a nice fireplace, and plenty of books. What really got his attention was the pile of clothes.

         "Where is she?" Nero asked.
         "Where's who?!" Asked a young Italian with a gun in his hand. Obviously, he was thinking the same question because some of the shelves were turned over, along with the cabinets and any liquor door in the room. Nero looked at the pile of clothes, the bent cage and took into account that they weren't searching any other place in the house and he felt that sinking feeling in his stomach.

         "You better have a warrant," Said the nearly generic looking mob don. Anna lost it when she saw Jordan's clothes. She pulled out her gun and aimed it right at the man's head. The other two people in the room pulled theirs as well.

         "Alright.. I can see things have taken a wrong turn here. Mister DiSoto... We broke in here without a warrant, which means that whatever we see here today is not admissible in court, nor is what we hear, what we found... She's not here, is she?" Nero said.

         There was a few seconds of silence and Nero nodded and looked to Anna.
         "She's not here."
         "How the fuck you know that?! Those are her goddamn clothes!" He pointed his gun to the clothes on the floor.
         "Trust me, she's not... They were looking for her too. It's time to go." Nero insisted. He hoped that the bullets would not star flying yet. "If you guys open fire, you'll all be arrested for attempted murder, or murder of an officer of the law. No getting around that. If you let us leave, we'll drop this. If we report the break-in, you still go to jail for possessions of weapons in New York, and they get suspended. None of us wants that..." Nero said. "Let Anna get the clothes, and we'll get out of your hair."

         "Get the damned clothes and get out!" The old man said. Nero decided it would be best if he grabbed the clothes and did so. He was the only one without a weapon so it made the most sense. He picked it up and they backed out.

         "Man.. You know she ain't here?" Zak whispered.
         "Positive, trust me." Nero said. They all backed out of the house door together. Even the midget toted a gun; a fifty caliber desert eagle.
         "Find a gun your own size shorty..." Nero added as they stepped out of the door and back onto the lawn.

         "What the fuck is going on?!" Zak yelled.
         "Yeah..." Anna didn't bother tromping on Zak's poor wording this time. "You know something that you're not telling us and it could be putting Jordan's life in danger, and our own lives!" Anna said. She put her hands on her hips and looked up at him. "Tell me now or I'm arresting you for child endangerment and obstruction of justice."

         "Please," Nero put his hands out in front of him as he walked toward their car to get them away from the mansion. "... I can't go into pure detail in front of Zak, but for now you just have to trust me. Jordan is out there, and she's naked too so you might want to concentrate on that for a while before turning your frustrations on me."
         As if someone turned on a switch, Anna went from strong and confident to weak in the knees and crying. Nero was quick to catch her.
         "I'm sorry," Nero said. "I should have been... Sorry. I'm sorry. We're going to find her. Would it scare you to know that I'm not lying when I say I know for a fact that she's going to be perfectly fine?" Nero did know this. If Jordan knew how to turn to mist, she knew to stay out of the sunlight. Nero also knew that she already had her first meal and that meant that she had the knowledge to live forever. She would live far beyond tonight. Nero just couldn't find the best way to tell Anna that her daughter was dead, but alive. That was going to be a tough trick.



         Jordan felt a tingling in the base of her spine that ran all the way up her neck. It was like the feeling of being watched but more than a feeling. She turned to see a short, skinny Latin man with spiked hair, brown skin, and he also bore an inquisitive look upon his face. Jordan covered her lower-self with her hands since there wasn't much else to hide. Her friends in Iowa always bugged her about that.
         "What are you doing up here?!" She asked.
         "Bout' to ask you the same thing. I think I have more of a reason to ask... Damn!" Said the well dressed man. "I was on my way to the club and I had a feeling there was someone up here. This isn't exactly going to please the Sanctum if they hear about this."
         "What is that?" Jordan looked at him as she trailed along the edge of the roof, using her legs to know where the ledge is. She kept backing away as he advanced.
         "You have no idea what that is? Who made you?" The Latino tilted his head to the side and she could see his fangs but he seemed more interested in her than someone that intended harm.
         "My mom and dad?" She almost squeaked. Jordan thought that this is what It must feel like to be on Jeopardy while not knowing the answers. She must have been wrong because the man started laughing.
         "If you come with me, I'll get you something to wear." He said.
         "You aren't the first person to say those words to me this week." She said while holding herself.
         "I'm Pedro... Let's talk about getting you home, wherever that might be." He reached his hand out and promised not to look below her neck. For some reason, Jordan knew that she could trust him.
         "I'm Jordan."
         "No shit..." Pedro smiled. "Nero was looking for you I think. Let's find his ass." Pedro pulled his cell phone out.


         Nero sat in the passenger side of the  crown-vic cruising the back alley-ways with Zak at the wheel and Anna in the back when his phone rang. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and looked at the title on the screen. Dickhead was on the screen.
         "Hello?"
         "Hey, you didn't tell me she was a vampire you asshole! What the fuck did you do?" Came the voice on the other end.
         "You could be a little nicer," Nero said. "Did you find her?"
         "Jesus... Where the fuck you at... I'll come to you."
         "We're -- in an alleyway between..." Nero cupped the phone and looked to Zak.
         "We're going to pull out on 53rd." Zak said. Nero could tell that Anna caught wind of the call. She was stuck to the plexiglass divider like a fish in a tank with no water.
         "We're coming to 53rd and --" Nero cupped the phone again.
         "10th..." Zak said.
         "I asked where you were!" Pedro said. "Damn, you lose everything."
         "53rd and 10th," Nero said.
         The phone hung up.

         "Pull out on the street. Someone's bringing her to us." Nero said.


         After a few minutes, a bright red Dodge Viper peeled around the corner and skidded to a stop just short of the curb on the street. Anna ran to the car as soon as she saw her daughter. The drivers side door opened after Anna hugged and twirled Jordan around in her arms.
         "Dude... You owe me a hundred and twenty dollars." Pedro said as he approached Nero and Zak.
         "Excuse me?" Nero asked.
         Pedro started ticking off his fingers. "New shirt, designer jeans, unmentionables..."
         "She's a girl, Pedro... You didn't have to take her to the GAP!" Nero defended.
         "Okay..." Pedro thumbed at his nose a little and put his hands on his hips. "... You totally don't understand women, you don't understand the people you think were criminals --"
         "Are." Nero added.
         "Whatever dude... You and I have some talking to do -- later!" Pedro walked away and got into his car.
         "Hey!" Zak stepped forward. "What the fuck is going on?!" He bit. The flashy car veered to a puddle of water and splashed Zak and Nero full-on as he left.
         "I'll explain later." Nero said as he wiped the water out of his eyes. "Another new suit..." He cursed to himself.


         The amount of Sanctum violations he was about to commit was monstrous. He would have to trust them all. He sat in Anna's living room with Zak, Anna, and Jordan while trying to find the most easiest way of admitting to what she is, to what he was. It was still similar to going to someone's house to tell them that their loved one had died. Technically, she did, and sadly, he had to do that in the past as a cop, too.
         "Zak... Anna... As Jordan already knows..." He looked to Jordan as she sat in the seat with her mother holding her hand. Jordan couldn't get any paler but he was sure that if she had normal skin tone, she'd be as pale as she was at that moment. He continued, "... She's a Vampire."
         Zak started laughing so hard that the neighbors could hear it. "Oh! May I call bullshit, yet again!" He leaned against the refrigerator and held his ribs as he laughed. Jordan felt Anna's hand squeeze hers harder but it didn't hurt her. Nero decided it was best to do a demonstration.
         "I can see this is going to take more than just my word." He said with a chuckle. "I don't want to hurt Jordan so I'll just do this myself." Without warning, Nero jumped after Zak. Before Anna's best friend could react, he grabbed his gun. Nero fired a round point blank into his chest. Nero gasped and coughed a moment. All three in the room expected Nero to fall over dead but what shocked them more was that he stayed standing.
         "Damn that hurts..." He wheezed as he unbuttoned the shirt to show them a rapidly closing wound that wasn't even bleeding.
         Nero also made a point to sprout fangs. He smiled despite the pain and the combination was enough to make Zak take a step back. Jordan had fangs the next time her mother looked back down at her but she didn't let go of her.
         "Vampires are fiction..." Anna said reluctantly. She gave Nero a sideward glance and then looked back to her daughter -- with fangs.
         "Yeah. That's what I thought too, a year ago. And by the way, I was never on the take. Pedro's goons set me up. He's a long story but after tonight I've come to realize he's not that bad a guy." Nero sat back down and put Zak's Glock 17 on the table. His expression changed slightly as he looked back at the table. "Come to think of it... I have a lot of things to talk with him about."

         What Nero didn't understand was that everyone else in the room was still stuck on the vampire part to really care too much about Nero and the man that set him up, and saved Anna's daughter. He had been so used to the vampiric life to understand that a human would still have to get used to the idea that vampires existed in the world.

         "I'm -- trying to call bullshit but, it's so hard." Zak said. Jordan noticed that Zak was looking more perturbed than usual about things that go over his head so she got up and gave him a hug. Zak at least didn't push her away. He wrapped his arms around her as well and embraced her in a comforting hug since he couldn't embrace the idea that she was no longer alive in the same way.

         "It's true," Jordan said. "How did it happen?" She asked Nero.

         "I couldn't tell Anna about the mob without her knowing I was in the city. I assumed since they already knew that they took out a mob member, that they'd take extra precautions. Just in case, I put a drop of vampire blood in the IV."  Nero was about to continue but Anna punched him rather hard.

         "You turned her into a vampire because you weren't sure that the police had taken the proper precautions! Because you would rather hide your identity from us?!" She screamed at him as Nero wiped his mouth.

         "It doesn't work like that. She'd only turn into a vampire if she was killed while the blood was in her system. I didn't know the chances were that great but no... Someone else killed her, that's why she's a vampire." Nero said. "If I didn't give her my blood, she'd just be dead."

         Anna stopped and looked at Zak while she held Jordan in his arms. She looked down at Jordan.
         "What happened?"

         "I thought it was a dream..." The little girl began to sniffle. "They drowned me when I was taking a bath." She said. "Then, when I was playing basketball, they shot me... And after that, I killed one of them when he tried to stab me. I -- drank his blood and he turned to ashes." She whimpered. Zak held her tightly.

         "Shh... It's okay..." He said. He knew that he could believe her, but his mind was sending up bullshit flags that he had to take down because there was no way she would lie to him.

         Anna sat on the kitchen counter and wiped the tears from her eyes.
         "I'm sorry I hit you." She whispered. "So, she's -- dead?"  She tried her best to say the words without losing control of her voice.

         "Technically, to any medical equipment yes, but look at her. She's very much alive in all the ways you would want her." He looked to Jordan. "You do know that you can't be out in the daylight now, right?" Nero double checked to make sure she understood that. Jordan wiped her eyes and nodded.

         Suddenly, the glass on the apartment windows broke as gunshots echoed throughout the front of the apartment. Anna pulled her weapon and fired her entire magazine through the front door. She reloaded by the time she hit the ground. Jordan screamed as a bullet ripped through her back. Zak was pulled to the ground after she saved his life. She cried out in pain as Zak checked her.

         "She's shot!" Zak yelled.
         "She'll be alright. Jordan, you're alright." Nero yelled. "Just everyone, stay on the floor!" Nero said. He got up and grabbed Zak's sidearm off the table and walked to the front door. It turned out that Anna's magazine she sent through the front door took out the last of the DiSoto brothers. Nero shook his head a moment at the sight of it. But then another barrage of bullets flew through him. Nero yelled in pain as he raised his arm and fired a shot clean through the gunman's skull -- the lifeless corpse fell backwards over the railing.  Nero watched as a car peeled out of the parking lot several stories below.  Nero turned around and ran back into the shot-up apartment.
         "Everyone okay?" He asked. He turned to see Zak and Anna shielding Jordan. Everyone nodded.
         "Come on. We need to get out of here." Nero said. 

Chapter Two
Relocation

         It had been two days since the shootout at the apartment. Zak and Anna both had band aids on their faces from the shattered windows. Their department head looked over the reports of the damage and the attempts to Jordan's life.
         "It's pretty clear. You all need to relocate. You and your daughter took out the two family successors in the DiSoto crime syndicate. You're marked. I'm relieving you both with pay until we can find out where to either relocate you or get you into a different precinct until we can take down the group responsible." The middle aged man behind the desk coughed and looked back at Anna and Zak.

         "Obviously, that means taking out the entire crime family. When was the last time that was done? Al Capone -- the thirties. They'll find a cure for fucking aids before they can fix this shit, man..." Zak complained.

         "Where are we going to go?" Asked Anna.

         "That will be decided later. For now, I want you to transfer your cases back to the main desk. This obviously isn't anything you could have helped and isn't a fault on your part. Your leave is purely for safety reasons and you get to keep your shields. You will need to contact anyone involved in last night's shooting and tell them to prep with you. Who was it? Nero? He used to work here, did he not?"

         "Yeah.." Zak said for Anna.
         "He's developed an allergy to the sun. We can't transport during the day." Anna added.

         "He's going to have to. He's involved as a witness." The officer said. "Contact him tonight. You two get with the officers that will escort you home."


         Nero rubbed his eyes as his door started shaking; it was shaking because someone was pounding on it. Not one of those normal knocks, but pounding.
         "What?!" Nero yelled as he opened the door in his boxers. Two US Marshals were on the other side of the door.
         "By Order of the US Marshals office, you are hereby being placed under witness protection."

         "I choose not to sign the forms.”

         After a few hours on the telephone and a lot of assurances, he let Anna know not to sign those forums either. He was sure that this would burn him at the Syndicate if they ever found out but they were family now and he wasn’t going to let them out of their reach – where he couldn’t protect them.

End of Episode Four