Patron And Patrons: Chapter 1- Part 1
Apr 13, 2014 17:04:14 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2014 17:04:14 GMT -5
“How did I get myself into this mess?”, was the phrase that came to the mind of Richard Schwab as a twelve foot tall ape-like creature made its way towards him at approximately 15 miles an hour. Richard was running in the same direction at about the same speed, an amazing task considering he was carrying an eight year old girl on his back, which correlated to about 50 extra pounds to have to get up to speed. It had been a truly extraordinary set of events that to his current predicament.
Richard had never been a particularly lucky individual. At least, he had never considered himself very lucky. He had been born at 7 pounds 10 ounces in an unremarkable hospital in San Diego. There were no complications during the delivery, and he had no major health problems early in life. In fact, aside from a few ear infections, he made it through the first five years of his life relatively unscathed.
Then school started. His older brother and sister had tried to warn him of what was to come. That still didn’t stop his five year old mind from wandering in with a look of awe on his face and a heart full of expectations of a great time. And thus began the twelve years of torment that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
The Schwab family was particularly well known in their part of San Diego you see. Mrs. Schwab was a respectable single mother who raised her three kids on her own after her husband passed. She worked hard every day and came home at night to cook, clean, and read bedtime stories. And boy did she work. You see, the passing of her husband left Mrs. Schwab in charge of one of the most expansive local strip club chains in San Diego.
It was a necessary business for the Schwabs, one that kept food on the table and paid for their expensive private schooling. But that didn’t stop the local kids from teasing the Schwab children. Most of them didn’t even know why they did it at first, only that their parents looked at the Schwabs with a lot of disgust. But that was enough for them.
Each of the three children adapted to it in a different way. Howard, the oldest, became violent. He would mercilessly beat anyone who dared to insult him in even the slightest way. And sometimes that meant extreme slights. Like looking at him wrong. Or bumping into him. Or breathing on him.
Susan, the middle child, became very charming. She made everyone like her, and forget that she was a Schwab. This became increasingly easy the older she got, and more attractive she got. By the time she graduated high school, she became rather good at manipulating men.
And as for Richard. Lets just say he got really good at running.
One by one as the children graduated, and could no longer be called children, at least according to the law, they each went their separate paths. Howard went on to a successful college football career, but an injury stopped him from making the pros. He used the scholarship he had to pursue a degree in law, and after college went to work for the District Attorneys office as an ambitious young prosecutor.
Susan went a different route, pursuing a modeling career from a young age, and made her own way for herself. Being a young, smart, pretty woman willing to and capable of managing herself made her a formidable force in the modeling world. She used the connections she gathered to start her own perfume line, which is going rather well.
And then we have Richard. The youngest, the average looking, the athletically befuddled. He made it to college with the help of a partial scholarship and a lot of one dollar bills from his mother. And there he did.....nothing. Well thats not exactly it. He did manage to acquire enough credits to get a liberal arts degree. But other than that. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
But that might be all he needed to get into the family business. That is to say, the real family business.
You see, there was more to the Schwabs than meet the eye. They had a secret. A big one.
There is another world, hidden beneath the one we see. Its a strange world, full of dark magic and brutal gods. But it remains hidden. Thanks in part to the Scions. The Scions being the mortal champions of some very powerful beings. Some would call them gods. They have been worshiped at many times, in many places.
And Richard Schwab came from a long line of Scions.
“Mom, we’re out of Coke!,” Richard yelled from the kitchen inside the mini-mansion the Schwabs called a house. The building was one floor, but that didn’t stop it from being impressive and intimidating. The entire house sprawled over a full acre of prime real estate in one of the upper class San Diego neighborhoods. It was about two miles from the beach, and many residents of the neighborhood enjoyed a brief jog down to the ocean in the morning. The house possessed six spacious bedrooms, and four bathrooms, each attached to one of the larger bedrooms. A designer kitchen placed next to the formal dining room was one of the highlights of the house, in addition to the high ceilings and crystal chandeliers. All in all, you could feel the wealth of the owners in the home.
“Well maybe if my wonderful son would get off his ass and get a job, he could go buy some!,” came the high pitched, raspy shriek in reply. Richard winced and covered his ears. He knew the conversation would soon devolve completely into a lecture, if it wasn’t already there. He needed to change the subject fast.
“I’m going for a run!,” Richard screamed down the hall as he grabbed his favorite sneakers and quickly laced them up. He rushed to close and lock the door behind himself. He walked down the gravel driveway of his home and soon reached the street. Richard cleared his thoughts and began a slow jog towards the beach.
One would not expect Richard to be much of a runner. His short stocky frame made him look more like a wrestler. But Richard had spent much of his childhood running from his problems, and had gotten quite good at it. His body, while broad, had very little actual fat on it, and he had quite a bit of tight, athletic muscle. He couldn’t pass for a bodybuilder by any stretch of the imagination, but he had endurance, and could pack a bit of a punch if needed.
Richard was calm as he ran. Many people got excited or wound up when they ran. Not Richard. He ran in a state of serenity, his mind clear of all worries. He gained an amazing ability to sort things out in his head methodically when he ran. As he ran today, his mind drifted toward a job interview he had set up.
The job had come to his attention in a rather strange way. His friend Sergio had approached him with it, which made him a little suspicious at first. You see, for all Sergio's charm and charisma, he had one quality that made Richard a little suspicious of anything Sergio got him involved in. Sergio was a vampire.
Vampires were just one of the strange creatures Richard had been raised around. He’d been taught from an early age not to discuss the strange things going on at his house. Not that he would have. He had had enough problems with bullying without people thinking he was crazy.
But that didn’t stop the strange things from visiting his house. He had met Sergio at the age of 13. The vampire had taken the body of a 13 year old Mexican boy, and due to them seemingly being the same age, they quickly became good friends. Richards mother had warned against making friends with any supernatural creatures, but a war between some local ghouls and the vampire Colony had been brought to quick end due to the help of Sergio, and she owed him. So she allowed the friendship to continue, constantly keeping a close watch however.
But Sergio wasn’t a vampire in the traditional bloodsucking undead way. He was a real vampire. And real vampires don’t feed on blood. They feed on attention.
Many of the most powerful vampires became American celebrities and politicians after World War II. The growing populace filled with people with nothing but spare time, and the invention of affordable television made America a wonderful place to be a vampire. When their current bodies died, many of them chose to reincarnate in the bodies of Americans.
Thats another point to be made. Vampires aren’t immortal in the traditional sense. That is, their bodies they have can and will die. But all vampires possess the ability to reincarnate in a body of their choice, as long as that is the body of a baby in its mothers womb.
The job in question was a position as an assistant to some major force in the business world. Sergio had said that the person in question really was the deciding factor in whether a small business survived or didn’t. How Sergio had managed to arrange this interview was puzzling. True, Sergio did have some powerful connections in the vampire community, but Richard wasn’t exactly sure working for a vampire was what he wanted.
Richard got to the beach faster than he thought he would, and was forced to turn back. Richard turned, angry that he would have to face his mother again so soon, and stared right into the dazzlingly bright smile of Sergio Alvarez.
“What are you doing here!,” Richard said, startled, as he took a step back.
“What, a good friend can’t just drop by for a visit?,” Sergio said with a chuckle as he eyed Richard up and down. “You’re still running. Thats good. She told me to make sure you were in good shape.”
“Who are you talking about? The guy offering me a job? Its a she?,” Richard said quizzically. He looked at the vampire with some apprehension. Just what was he getting into.
“Yes, you masochist pig. Women can hold positions of power as well,” Sergio said with another chuckle. The scolding was a joke, obviously, but one does not take words from people -or things- as ancient and powerful as Sergio lightly. “Get in the car. Your interview is in ten minutes.” And with that Sergio took his keys out of his pocket, and unlocked his shiny new Mercedes.
The car ride was rather uneventful. Sergio seemed unwilling to discuss the job interview, or the interviewer, at all. The only information Richard seemed to be able to get out of Sergio was that he would be an assistant of some sort, and that he would need cite no other references aside Sergio himself. Richards suspicion only grew at this piece of information being presented.