A New Dawn

The truth shall set you free

Michael watched as chloe acted as if she was in a trance. She didn't move nor speak after her had told he is a vampire. He snapped his fingers trying to get her out of her state but nothing worked, even when he tried calling her name multiple times.

He walked to the bar, sat and put on his sockings. He poured himself a drink and sipped as he continued to watch her stand there like a statue. After a while he glanced at his watch, stood up and walked to where she was. “If you are gonna be like this for a while, I think I should go take care of some business. I have someone to find" he whispered in her ear.

To his surprise, she started laughing. This took him aback. He stared at her wondering if she had gone crazy. She continued laughing, making her way to the couch. “Ermm detective, are you okay?" He asked

“Do I look okay to you?" She asked amidst laughter “I am going crazy, Vampires, witches, werewolves. All these is just in my head, isn't it?!" She said before staring at her hands

“Okay, you're gonna tell me how you know about witches later but let's cure your mental breakdown for now" Said Michael walking to where she was. He bent down in front of her and placed his hands on hers. They felt the same chill like last time. “You are not crazy Chloe" he said with a calm tone. “Look at me...look at me" he Instructed. She shifted her gaze from her hands to his face and gasped as she saw his vampire eyes. Eyes glowing yellow. “You see, it's all real. It's not in your head"

“Oh my God! This is real, this is all real. Vampires, werewolves and witches are all real" She stated as she started breathing hard.

“Calm down detective. I know it's a lot to take at once but you have to stay calm and process it bit by bit" He said to her.

“Okay, okay... I'll try.....are you gonna kill me? You'll probably drink my blood and dump my body somewhere that'll be hard to find?" She asked with fear in her eyes.

“What? Why would I do that? I'm a vampire not a murderer. We don't just kill for sport, well, except the insane murderous ones. But I'm not gonna kill you, who would keep me company if I did" He smiled

“Okay, okay, I'll take your word for it" she replied

“You have my word." he added. “Well, while you process everything, I have someone to go find" he said standing up

“Wait, you can't just leave...I have some more questions and what if your friends comes to kill me?" She asked

“Why would they do that?! You are safe, no one is coming to kill you" He replied

“Oh I doubt that, you'll be surprised regarding what I know about witches but I'm not gonna tell you unless I come with you and you answer my questions" she proposed

He thought about it and then gave in “Alright then, I guess I could use your expertise as a detective. Let's go" he replied walking towards the elevator.

***

Michael entered his car with Chloe who sat at the front seat. They put on their seatbelts. After putting on his seatbelt he raised up his head to drive and found her staring at him Intently as though his head was gonna explode. “What?" He asked

“You look human. Normal" she replied

“What should I look like? Dark circles around my eyes, fangs instead of teeth, long ears, pale skin and a long black cape? Nahh, this isn't a dracula movie love. We are pretty normal" he explained “Aside the dracula thought, I must say you are taking this pretty good. Some would have ran off by now" he added as he steered the car into motion, driving into the road.

“I have a lot of questions in my mind right now, I don't even know which one to start with" she stated

“How about the easiest one?"

“How old are you? Are you like 200 years old?" She asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.

“Nope. 800 and some years"

“Oh my God! That's insane. You must have had different kinds of fun over the years. Experiencing every new century and all the good things it had to offer" she said

“And the bad too. Actually it has been 800 years of torture with just a tiny bit of fun." He explained

“Do you guys sleep? Eat? Get sick? Have emotions?" She questioned

“Yeah we sleep, we never get sick, whatever kinda sickness it is, We do eat but it is optional, if we don't eat we'll still survive but we do eat, to blend in and of course, to savoir the taste of an explicit delicacy. Yeah we have emotions like humans do with the exception of a beating heart" Michael explained

“What do you mean?"

He took her hand and placed it on his chest where his heart was. “Our hearts don't beat frequently because we are already dead. It beats like twice every three minutes"

“Wow, that's so not normal" she said in amazement

“Do you guys, you know, Fly? What are your abilities?" She asked

“You are watching way too much movies. We don't fly. We have our senses in hearing and smelling heightened and also faster reflexes in speed alongside extraordinary strength. Lastly, we heal really fast and we have the power of compulsion which you can call hypnosis. We can persuade any human to do what we ask and they won't argue or complain. They'll do it before realizing they have done it." He explained.

“Oh wow! Do it to me" she said with a smile escaping her lips. He glanced at her with these disagreeing eyes. ”Please, I just wanna see how it feels. It doesn't have to be a big deal. It can just be to turn on the radio" She pleaded.

“Okay then" he slowed down the car at the middle of the road, cars behind him honking angrily. He turned to Chloe and stared at her deep in the eyes as she stared at him excitedly too. “Detective, take off your top" he said with his pupils dilating. He stared at her with surprise as she was blinking at him.

“Is that it? I don't feel hypnotized" she stated

“That's not possible"

“Do you think you lost the ability?" She asked looking at him as he increased the speed of the car

“It's not a car key detective, you don't just lose it" he retorted

“Well I'm glad it didn't work. Why the hell would you want my top off? Maybe it doesn't work with non decent stuff"

“For 800 years, I have done all kinds of compulsion. Believe me, if I want you to dance on a pole naked, you would. There must be some other kind of explanation" He explained

“Don't worry you'll figure it out. For my next question, are there any other creatures that exist? Apart from vampires, werewolves and witches" She questioned

“Yeah, there are ghosts, ninja turtles and Spiderman. For the 100th time, This isn't a movie detective"

“I didn't think it was a fantasy movie of vampires, werewolves and witches too" she replied

“Speaking of witches. Time for you to hold up your end of the deal." He said

“Alright that's fair. It started about six months ago. I started having these nightmares where I'd be walking through the woods, dead of night and I'll start hearing the voice of an old lady calling my name and then give me a message, or a prophecy, as I learnt recently. She'll say ‘When the old meets the night, evil shall walk again and death shall rule'. I kept having the same dream for months without knowing it's meaning or why I'm having them. Recently, a girl showed up. A black girl with an afro. She told me it was a prophecy and her grandmother told her the same thing as well. Her dying wish was for her to come look for me. She explained a lot to me about witches, vampires and werewolves and how they are real but I dismissed it as a crazy thought. Then some witches came to my house at night, wearing a hood and they talked about same prophecy and also said I am a witch..."

“Wait, what! You are a witch?" Michael's eyes widened with shock

“Don't know for sure. They said a lot of things. They also said in the prophecy, I am the old that meets the night and I should avert the prophecy. They talked about bloodwitches, the evil black magic witches who Imani said killed those werewolves and that once they sense I'm alive, they'll come for me. They killed all my ancestors and they'll want to wipe the bloodline completely by killing me. So you see, if that is all true I have some evil black magic angry witches coming after me" she explained

“That is a lot. None of us knew witches existed until now and most of us still don't know"

“Really? How's that? I thought you guys knew all the supernatural creatures" she asked

“Witches were just stories we were told. Like stories from a book. But we all believed it was a myth, a folklore told for fun. For centuries no one had seen any proof that they were real, no magic, no rituals, nothing. If they are coming out now, then something must have happened or changed. I don't know. Seeing as until now we didn't know they existed, the only thing we have on them are stories. If they should attack, we wouldn't know how to defend ourselves" Michael explained.

***

They arrived at the location where Mathew had told Michael the car broke down. Michael parked the car by the side of the road. “Have you killed anyone?" Chloe asked. Michaels countenance fell. Chloe noticed this and knew her question had triggered something

“I don't want to talk about that" he replied before stepping out of the car. Chloe followed suit. She decided not to press on, seeing how the question made him feel.

“Who are we tracking down anyway?" She asked

“My mother" he replied gazing at both sides of the road that was covered with trees

“Wait, what? Your mother?" She was stunned

“Yeah, my mother A.K.A your mystery killer" he replied

“She's the mystery lady? Now it all makes sense now. That is why you were so involved in the case"

“Yeah and apparently, she's been kidnapped by wolves working with a vampire who we don't know yet" he said

“What..."

“Shhhh" he shushed her as he listened Intently to see if he could pick up anything. He heard music and some faint sounds. “I think there's a bar up ahead" he said

“You can hear that?" She asked surprised

“Like I said, heightened senses. Let's go. We'll walk there, it's a few meters ahead" he Instructed, leading the way as they started walking towards the direction of the bar.

“Alright. But what I still don't understand is why your mum was walking around in an ancient attire, killing people"

“She has been locked in a coffin for two centuries and recently someone broke her out. The Ares organization." He explained

“Back up. Locked in a coffin for two centuries?" She said almost shouting “How does that feel like?" She asked

“Well, the first few weeks is the hardest. Being deprived of blood, but after a while you start to desiccate and soon you'll shut down. It'll be like a dreamless sleep. You won't feel anything, until they decide to wake you up by feeding you blood. So that's what happened to my mother. She was asleep till someone fed her and helped her escape and before you ask, she did something treasonous and was sentenced to die. Putting her to sleep was an act of mercy." He explained

“Wow! The vampire world is messed up" she pointed out

“Yeah it is"

***

Michael pushed the door to the bar open. Walking in alongside Chloe. Everyone turned to their direction. They stared at them as though they had known and hated them for long. They scanned the room before heading to the lady behind the counter. “These are not happy men" Chloe pointed out

They stood by the counter and signalled the lady. She approached them “How can I help you lot?" She asked

“We wanted to know if you've seen some men come in here recently. Maybe a bit rough on the manners or maybe persuasive" Michael asked

“No, don't know such men. You can leave now" she said abruptly

“No, you seem to misunderstand me. I need that information as it's very important to me and you are lying about it." He pressed on

“Don't you have ears? The lady said she doesn't know" A hippie with an Irish accent said, standing up with two other guys behind him as they approached where Michael and Chloe were. “So take your fancy suit and run along" he added

“Stand back buddy! NYPD" Chloe said, bringing out her badge

“We don't care lady, you are harrasing her. We know the law. You are not supposed to do that" the man replied

“Allow me" Michael said, dragging Chloe behind him. “So make me stop" he said to the leader before winking at him. This fueled the man's anger. He immediately grabbed Michael's shoulder. Michael held the hand and forced it from his shoulder, bending the fingers, the man yelled in pain. He took the gin bottle from the counter and shattered it on the man's head, sending him to the ground. “Shame, I was hoping for more from you" he talked down on the man lying passed out on the floor. The other two dashed towards him, swinging a punch. He dodged the punch and grabbed the first guy by the hand, twisted it and dislocated it before picking him up with his belt and threw him out the bar through the window, shattering the glass. He blocked the last man's punch and grabbed him by the neck. He raised him up, off the ground with one hand. This amazed everyone watching as they gasped with surprise. He smashed the guy on the table, breaking the table in two. He looked around and the three of them were passed out.

He adjusted his suit and turned back to the bartender. Chloe just stared at the men on the floor and then back at Michael with her mouth slightly agape. She didn't know what to say. He turned to Chloe “Now let's try this one more time and see if it'll work" he said to her, waking her up from her trance. He turned to the bartender and looked at her deep in the eyes “I noticed the CCTV cameras mounted around the bar. We want to watch the video of the day those men showed up" he said calmly. The bartender stared at him as though she wasn't In control of her actions anymore

“I"ll show you the videos of the day those men came" she repeated quietly and walked to the backroom where the controls where.

“You see, I've still got it. Maybe something is wrong with you" he joked as they followed her to the backroom.

“So she doesn't know that she's doing this?" Chloe asked

“Oh she does but she can't stop herself" he explained.

They got to the backroom and the bartender operated the computer, rewinding the footage to the day the wolves came into the bar. “Here it is" she alerted them

“Good." Michael walked to where she was and looked her deep in the eyes. “You'll go back to bartending and when we leave, you'll forget everything about us" he compelled. The lady nodded slowly and walked away, leaving them there.

Chloe who has been watching the whole thing, furrowed her brows as she watched Michael smile.“That is just wrong. The power to take someone's free will shouldn't be given to anybody" she stated

“Let's just watch the footage" he said. They played the footage and watched it Intently. They watched as the wolf arrived and caused trouble in the bar, fighting and breaking things.

“Wolves are impulsive" Chloe stated

“That they are" Michael replied. “You have got to be kidding me" He added

“What?" She asked

“You see that guy who just walked in? That's the vampire they are working with. He's the high lord's son. You know the high lord is like the king of vampires, the ruler and that's his only son. “Hello Viktor!" he said.