THE BOOK OF MARS

The Demon Inside

In a dark hospital room, the injured girl starts to stir. Her face is swollen and turning black and blue from where the man hit her. She opens her eyes and looks around to see an empty room. She could feel that there was a medical patch on her neck and hear the beeping from some units with screens confirming she was still alive. She scans the room looking for her stuff but sees nothing. As she moves her arm up to move her hair from her face, she hears a clank on metal hitting metal. Shocked, she looks at her wrist to find that she has been handcuffed to the bed. She immediately begins to panic and starts thrashing around trying to get the handcuffs off her. The door to her room opens and a man walks in. The man looks at her and says "Ah good to see your awake. My name is investigator Joseph, but you can call me Joe". He slides a chair across the floor so it is closer to her bed. "Do you know your name or why you are here ?" The girl looks around confused at first and replies "My name is Elizabeth Helsing, I--I am not sure why I am here." as she looks down at the hand cuffs.

"Very interesting" Joe says as he brings his arm up and pushes a button on a computer mounted to his wrist. "We will record this meeting for both of our safety," he says as he pulls a small orb out of the computer. The orb begins to hover in the air as it turns on to record a video of the room and the encounter. " Let's start off with the incident. According to the report, you were found in an alley with two bodies covered in blood. Can you tell me anything about that?" Elizabeth looks shocked as she replies "I-I- I don't remember any of that, the last thing I remember is, I was at a bar with my boyfriend. We were meeting up to celebrate his promotion at M-tech." Joe looks down at his wrist computer. "Very interesting, the analyzer shows that the blood you were covered in when we picked you up was mostly from the two bodies you were found with", Joe says. He was deliberately leaving out Victor, the vampire, just to see if she said anything about him. She sits up in bed looking puzzled as she struggled to try to recall what happened. Suddenly, she hears an unfamiliar voice, "Ahh look at that, a vampire investigator, he's a sly one, he is trying to find out how you killed those two in the alley. He has not even brought up anything about the other vampire I carved up " Terror starts to set in, as she scans the room only to find she appears to be alone with Joe. Then she hears the voice again, "Calm down human, it's me the man from the alley that saved your life. We entered into a contract and you are now mentally connected with me. Consider this bond, a type of gift that comes with the contract. I can speak with you alone via thoughts in your mind." She looked surprised, at Joe sitting in the chair he had brought from the other side of the room. Joe says "Elizabeth, are you all right ? You look confused. I was asking you about the two different types of blood found on you and why we found you unconscious at the end of the alley."

As he talks, the vision of what happened in that alley floods back into her mind:

She again feels the vampire's teeth biting into her neck, the terror of the cold spreading through her body as her life seemed to fade, She remembers the ordinary-looking man smiling down at her with that smug look on his face. She thinks to herself, should I tell Joe what's going on? Would he even believe me or think I lost my mind with such a story? What should I do? Am I truly losing my mind?

The unfamiliar voice replies "What a shame, you don't remember me, it's me the man from the alley that saved your life. I believe your kind calls me Mars. You should not tell him any more, he is a vampire. If you tell him you remember what happened, he will turn you first and then take you back to their house to feed from you and torture you in ways you can't imagine just to get the information they want. What they don't know is it won't quite work out that way because your blood can no longer be used as a source of food for them because of our contract. It will burn them in ways they have never felt before." Elizabeth's eyes opened wide. Wait, you hear my thoughts? What the hell is going on? Why did you hit me and leave me in that alley to die?

The voice responds " Ah you were not supposed to remember that. Let me explain, I am not exactly the most liked being walking the galaxy. I have bad blood with pretty much all of the 10 clans. There are only a few houses that I have allies with. Also, I am wanted by all 10 clans. You could say that I am on their most wanted list and that does include you humans as well. I am not sure why humans want me too, because I never really went after any of you. It seems like a lot of stuff kind of blows up and turns into rubble when I'm around . Please, like I said, tell this vampire nothing and you will get through this. I will guide you to a safe place when I can get you out of here.

Joe stood up from his chair. " Miss Elizabeth, please take this more seriously, I am trying to find out what happened to two people we found dead near your location!" Elizabeth looks up at Joe with tears in her eyes, "What, do you not think I would tell you if I remembered? I told you, last thing I remember was that I was laughing in a bar with my boyfriend and now I am hand cuffed to a bed with a investigator above me asking me questions that I cannot answer. What do you want me to say !" Elizabeth yells as she puts her head into her hands and begins to cry.

Joe steps toward her and uncuffs her from her bed and turns to leave the room. He looks back at her and says " You are not allowed to leave Ethos until our investigation has come to a close. We will be in contact with you." Then he closed the door.

Mars' voice pops back up in her head. "Good job. I am proud of you. He was trying to see if you mentioned anything about vampires but you did well, now we just got to get you into a safe location.". Elizbeth is still crying with her head in her hands. what is going on please tell me?" the voice in her head lets out, sigh "short version, you were supposed to die in the alley tonight. No regular human has ever been able to live when they make a contract, to me. Usually, when i try to link our souls, the action kills them outright. No pain, no suffering, just a ending to their situation. But here we are. You live, so now I need to re-evaluate. You seemed to just be a regular human. You had no signs of vampires or other houses' influence on your soul."

Elizbeth was shocked to hear what Mars was saying. "Wait, so what you are saying is you were trying to kill me in that alley. What was that s**t about?" to which Mars replied," Well, yeah I was going to help end your suffering. i could have left you there and let the vampire finish his feeding, then you would have come back as a lesser vampire and tried to hunt all the people that were close to you."

Elizabeth with her head still in her hands. "Well, when you put it like that, but still how can I trust you if you tried to kill me ."

Mars again, les out sigh "Look I was trying to help if i had known we would be having this conversation i would not have said anything. jeuse would a hey thanks for saving my life even tho you thought you were going to kill me----okay i can kinda see where your coming from. look i wont try to kill you anymore i promise even if it means to help you.

Now look in the morning you need to get out of there.what ever you do do not go to any place but where i tell you. you being a helsing is not helping this situation at all. just east of here there is a hotel called the black cat go straight there do not call or visit any one. i need to go and make some arrangements for your arrivel." elizbeth takes her head out of her hand "wait mars i need to call my mom and let jack know whats going." she pauses and waits for his reply but it never came.the exustion of the events and the trauma floods over her in the dark room. she lies back down into her hospital bed she can feel her eye lids getting heavy as she drifts off to sleep. while she sleeps she has a dream unlike any other she has ever had before. she was walking through the stages place.

It had trees and grass and the road was just a dirt path through the woods. The further she walked she could see what looked like houses, but they were so strange and did not look like anything she had ever seen before. They looked like they were made from rocks and wood. She had only every seen trees and grass from books her mother had in the office when she was a little girl. There were about earth before the great war. there was nothing there now just a dead world fill with nothing but ash and fields of lava. as she drew closer she felt like she knew this place like she had been there befor.

She made her way through this small village as if someone was controlling her. She reached a larger building, with wooden walls and windows with no glass in them. She approached the door. She could see a sign hanging from the building. It had words she had never seen on it but she somehow knew what they were and what they meant. It read the inn

She pushed the door open and inside was a fire in the middle of the building with tables and benches on either side men sat at them eating their lunch. There was a woman playing an instrument she had never seen singing a wonderful song. Her voice was soft and beautiful. The melody was pleasant. There was one thing that stood out the most. The smell in the air, it was not foul, but she felt like she hated it. The man behind the bar called to her. Hello sir how was your hunt today ? the man asked Elizabeth, unsure what he was talking about. She could hear herself replay in a man's voice " it was good got a few bucks this morning and one fat rich man hahahah" she tossed her bow on the counter as she pulled a satchel out full of coins and tossed it on the bar." is my room ready? "

The man behind the bar grins and picks up the sack of coins "why yes it is, it is good you came here robin you have done a great deal for the people around here. the king and his riduculas rules not allowing us to hunt deer on his lands while these fat nobals steal out grain and grown fat from its plunder. thank you for returning this coin i will spread it around the village." elizbeth thinks to her self this sort sounds so familer as she looks down and see him wearing a dark shade of green pants and vest with a cotton white shirt under it . eleizbeth unsure of what is going on begins to walking up the stairs to a hidden room on the end of the hall she pushes what looks like a wall and it opens to reveal a small room with a bed and one small window. there was a girl laying a think linen over the hey bed. she turns and see the her entering the woman looks up and says "o excuse me my sir i will be out of your way in one moment." the women says as she smooths the the bed out to make it neat and tidy she then begins to walk out the room as she passes Elizbeth the scent she smell overwhelm her it was sweet like a summer day or a field of flowers . it was the most pleasant thing she had even smelled she reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder to spin her around when she finally got a good look at her face she could not belive it it looked exactly like her as if she was looking into a mirror. Elizbeth, back in the hospital bed, started to wake.

What in the hell was with that dream? It's as if every one seen me as a man. I could not say what i wanted to say. It was like I was reliving a moment but that never happened to me, it felt so real.

Elizabeth, shocked and unsettled, pulled her knees up to her chest as she sat up in the hospital bed. She looked out and could see the roof of the bio doom starting to turn to sunrise. f**k this i am outta here. she jumper outta of her bed and started to search her room there was nothing there for her to put on her clothes were all gone. all she had on was a hospital gown it had a zipped in the back and was made from a synthetic fiber it was shiny on the outside but warm and soft on the inside . she looked around out the window and realized she was at a hospital not to far from where she lived . she pulled the medical patch off her neck and made her way out of the room. she encounter a nurse at the desk the nurse looked up with a look fo concern on her face "miss please go back to your room we cant let you leave we need to get into contact with some one to pick you up do you have any relatives of some one that can come get you. Elizbeth stopped and looked at the nurse she thought to herself well mars did say not to call any one but why should i listen to him i don't even really know him maybe this is some kind of kid napping scheam this talk of vampires and wherewolfs and the fact he tryed to kill me dosent exactly inspire confidence. she looked at the nurse "yes i can call some one to come get me where are my clothes and my phone. the nurse pulls her phone out of a drawer and gives it to her she then says "i am sorry but your clothes were taken by the investigators. elizbeth puts her phone around her wrist and via a implant in her head she can see all her information on her phone. she calls jack her boy friend. the rings of her pupils light up a yellow color to let every one know she was making a call. jack picked up his phone "liz where are you i have been trying to reach you for a few days is every thing alright." liz shocked to hear this she looks down to see the date and noticed two days had passed since the incident. "jack I am fine I need you to come get me I am at Mercy hospital and i need to go home also can you bring me some clothes"she could hear jack tussling and moving "alright I will be there soon" he said as he hangs up the phone.

Meanwhile, Mars had made his way to the black cat. Standing outside, he could see the place had not changed since he last left a metal and concrete building with a small wooden sign hung by chains above the door. Craved on it was a black cat. He stops and thinks to himself. It's been a long time. I wonder how that witch will treat me? I wonder if her pet dog is still around? Mars steps down of the curb and make his way across the street as he approaches the door opens and he walks inside. it was not a very big hotel the greeting room was small and had a desk in one corner there was a door off to the side of the desk and a large man in a suit standing by the hall that lead to some strains to the rooms. as Mars walked in he heard a familer voice call out to him "well look who it is you d**k head where have you been" a woman says as she stand up from behind the desk the soft glow of the computer display fads away in front of here. mars looks over at her and replies " Is that any way to great the love of you life" he chuckles and moves toward her she comes around the desk running and jumps onto him clinging to him tightly as if she were trying to make sure he never left again. the man in the suit by the stairs scoffs as he remains in his postion guarding the hall. mars says "i see your guard dog has not changed his option of me. he sure is getting old" mars smirks at him the woman replies "leave brad alone he is a my friend and you cant be saying such things to him as she pulls her self closer to mars face." mars looks down at her " so how is the black witch of terror doing after all these years" she laughs "stop saying that that named die century ago call me by my new name it is Courtney now." she says as she lets him go but still holding onto is shirt.

On the back of Courtney's hand you could see the same mark that Liz had on her hand. Mars looks over at brad. "So what say, you would you like to make a contract with me not much time for you left" mars smiles brad scoffs again and replies "i would sooner eat my own s**t and choke on it before i give you my soul" brad unbuttons his coat and aggrisivly walks over to mars "do you know how long miss has been waiting for your return or the hell you put her through with leaving without saying so much as a goodbye" brad says as he inches closer to Mars. Mars turns and a handle begins to bulge from his back. Courtney presses herself against the hand so Mars can not reach it. "Brad,Mars, enough of this none sense!" Mars turns back around and Brad stops dead in his tracks and returns to his post by the stairway door. Mars peels Courtney off of him and says " I have some business we need to attend to. I have a new contract and she is-- well she is new to all this, let's say." Courtney pulls back from Mars and says "did you just say she? You have not made a contract in over 700 years and now you come back and tell me you have been with a woman. Who is she ?" Courtney says as electricity begins to spark and crackle around her. Mars looks at Courtney with a crazed look in his eye. "It is not up to you to determine what and who I should make contracts with. You have enjoyed your long life and the many benefits that have come from being my right hand. Now I will ask you to do your job like you have always done looking after the newbies and get her trained up so she can survive this hell." Mars says as he then turns to leave the building, Courtney, realizing she has overstepped their relationship bounds, stops with the lighting and takes a few paces after him then stops and sighs. "this is concerning, i don't think i have ever seen him be so guarded over a new recruit what a shame." she turns to walk back behind the desk. Brad looks over at her. " I don't get what you see in that thing. He treats you as a servant, not a lover.". Hearing this, Courtney glares at Brad. "Of course he does. How could he love a witch who keeps a werewolf as her guard? You are too young to have seen what he has fought and been through. I don't think anything in all of the galaxy could ever convince him to love." Courtney , obviously upset about her statement, slumps back down into her chair. "I wonder what kind of trouble he will bring with him this time. Mars makes his way back onto the street and peeks into Liz's mind only to find out she had completely disregarded what he told her. For the love of the creator why did he make her so dam stubborn? I should have just knocked he out and dragged her back here. Mars thinks to himself as he pulls a thin cigar from his coat and lights it and smokes it as he walks down the road toward Liz. As Mars makes his way down the dirty streets, Liz and Jake pull in front of her apartment building. She notices a row of black suvs sitting in front. Something about the sight felt off to her.

She made her way to the elevator and up to her floor. Jack stays downstairs in his car waiting for her. As Liz reaches her door she doesn't hear the door unlatch. It was already open. She opens the door and walks in and finds her mother in her apartment going through her things. Liz says to her mother, "what are you doing here?" her mother, Marry, turns around. "Elizbeth where have you been?" runs over to embrace her daughter. Liz looks at her mom. "You would not believe me if I told you." her mother can see two small bandaids on her neck. She steps back and looks down as she holds her daughter's hands and sees the mark that Mars contract left on her. Her mom pulled away and said "where did you get that mark from?" Liz looked down. She had not realized there was a red mark on her hand in the shape of a moon. It had a sickle in it as well. She responded to her mother, "I-i--I don't remember."

as she reaches her other hand up to rub her head, trying to recall when the mark first appeared. Marry steps back further and puts one arm behind her back." Elizabeth, did they turn you?" she asked her daughter as the mood in the room changed from one of relief to one of tension. "Mom ? what are you doing. What are you talking about." just as she finishes speaking, Mars walks into the room.

Mars stops and looks around, casually, as if he were inspecting the room. Marry says " who are you?" her tone is stern and commanding." Mars looks at her and replies "ahh you must be mommy Helsing. Dont worry, I am not your enemy. I came here to guide one of my contractors to where I told her to go." Liz was shocked to see Mars standing there. She retreated behind her mom. "No go away, I don't need your help. I don't even know who you really are. Elizbeth mark beings to burn and turn darker red. Mars, standing there looking like the most ordinary man in all the galaxy, looks confused. "So you forgot who saved your life from that vampire while mommy was no doubly out hunting the things that go bump in the night."Mars says as he moved into the center of the room

it was a small flat it had a futon with clothes on it and delivery food still sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Marry pulls a small dagger from her waist band"I will not ask you this again who are you?" Mars smirks and replies " a angle blessed blade looks like you have the crusader crest on the hilt. so is that who is pulling the helsing chain. too bad i much prefer your kind when you were apart of the white order. as to who I am well I have many names none I think you would recognize its been along time since me and the member of the church had it out." Marry in a panic wondering how did he know about her family and the different orginasations that make up the church." I have seen that mark before what are you ? i will not ask you again" Mars looks at her his gaze begins to change his ordinary face slowly being to turn the ring around his eyes pupil slowly begin to have a blue ring glow around it "lets see at the founding of your order i was called the most unclean, a few hundred years later they refer to me as Lucifer few more centrys later they called me Mars. i like that name the best. a red planet or the god of war depending on what time frame you want to look at it. look i am not your enemy your daughter got attacked by a high ranking vampire I saved her well kind of. the mark on her hand is proof of that, we made a contract she is mine and I will give her the skills she needs to protect herself. so pretty please mommy dearest step asaind and let me take her with me?" Marry lunges toward Mars the dagger drawn "like hell I will" as she lunges forward Mars pulls a dagger from his arm the sound of bone and meat splitting and cracking echo through out the room. he parrys her attack and launches on of his own. Marry ducks down as Mars misses. He thought to himself", holy s**t these humans are moving much faster then I remember.