The Underground

  She woke up. 

  Before her eyelids parted, dank earth consumed her sense. 

  A still damp tickled her skin. Her brown eyes fuzzed into focus. 

  The room wasn’t really a room - near cylindrical in shape, it had clearly been carved by someone other than a builder. 

  One spotlight came from a hole in the ceiling above. 

  At night, the room would be lit by a candle on a makeshift wooden dressing table. 

  Kate pushed away the sheets and stretched. 

  She hadn’t slept well, but she guessed that technically didn’t exist. 

  She dipped to reach her shoes - black leather combats. Camille had insisted. 

  Once on, she was at the vintage mirror at the bottom of the small earth cavern. 

  She decided to put some make-up on today - she was in the mood for it. 

  Her hair was a bird’s nest of dark ringlets, pretty enough naturally in her opinion not to require treatment. 

  She was careful not to be in view of the door as she slipped on a navy cashmere jumper and denim micro shorts. 

  It was only a hole, just big enough for Kate to move through without crouching. 

  “Hang on, who the Hell ordered all these Twiglets? Oh so, if we all get discovered tonight, it won’t be because we did a jig in front of the undead, but because someone dropped a jumbo pack of TWIGLETS?”

  Kate’s bleary head peeped round the corner. 

  The earth stretched into a corridor, rooms opposite and alongside her own. Candles sat as sconces on iron containers on the walls. 

  At the far end of the corridor was the entrance - a ladder towered far up to ground level. 

  At this entrance, shopping bags were being carted down into the common room. 

  Varjak, as always, was monitoring. 

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate these Twiglets,” said Varjak, tossing them into an ever -growing pile of confiscated junk food. 

  “Not again,” Kate groaned, making her presence known as she yawned her way down the corridor. “You can’t keep stealing people’s food, Varjak. Get your own.”

  “I don’t have the luxury of leaving the facility,” he snorted. “I don’t get to go on lovely little shopping trips to Tesco. This lot do. I deserve a bit of - I mean, it’s wrong for them to bring so much food here! Hazard, really.”

  Kate sighed. 

  “Uh huh.” 

  More undead - their undead, that was - were descending the ladder with shopping bags.  

  “You’re not fooling anyone, Varjak.”

  “That the last of it?” he called to someone up above. 

  “That’s it!”

  “Right. Well seal the entrance, quickly. It would be nice not to monitor you lot for once and have to tell you.”

  “When will you ever stop patronising them?” Kate groaned. “They might be new undead, but they’re still adults.”

  “Varjak?” asked a woman, approaching him quickly. “When’s the next shopping trip? I completely forgot it was on this morning. I’ve not been out in two weeks!”

  “You know when it is, Laura,” replied Varjak, fixing her with a smile. “Not for another two weeks. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to wait.”

  “Oh please, Varjak,” said Laura, clutching his arm. “I’ve not breathed properly for ages! I’ll be invisible and everything! I promise!” 

  “I’m sorry,” repeated Varjak, passing his arm through her flesh. “I won’t risk it. Not just us, but even putting you in danger is too risky.”

  Laura stepped away, face clouded. 

  “Oh. Yes, I guess. You’re right.” She turned back through the scarlet damask curtains, the entrance to the common room. 

  “You know,” said Kate, appearing at the junk food pile and pouring bubblegum Millions into her mouth. 

  The rest of the undead had vacated the entrance, now in the common room. 

  “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about leaving hours. Wanna go discuss in your office slash hole in the wall?”

  Varjak shrugged. 

  “What’s there to discuss?”

  “Well it’s obvious, isn’t it? People are getting restless. You’re leader, right, but you’re controlling them too much. I’m not saying let them leave whenever, but give them a bit more leigh way or they won’t listen to you.”

  Varjak stared at her for a moment. 

  “Pass me a Milky Way, please.” She did. “I really don’t get what’s your issue here. I let them go on shopping trips so they can have their home comforts with them. I give them as much as possible whilst keeping in a safe boundary.”

  “I get that,” said Kate, munching the last of the Millions appreciatively. “But as I said, they’re still adults. Even if they were once homeless, they’re no less than us.”

  “Oh don’t say that,” said Varjak, swallowing. “It’s no prejudice, really. I just want to keep us both safe and happy. And I’m not going to change the rules when I’ve managed to strike a perfect balance.”

  “But you haven’t, Varjak,” said Kate, sliding to the floor. “You don’t understand it. They need just a bit more.” 

  Varjak was next to her, sitting on the floor. 

  “Another Milky Way, please. I get what you’re saying Kate, I do, but I just can’t. You know how many contacts the undead have. And with James knowing a good deal about both of us, nothing’s safe any more. I need to be so careful with you all - especially you.”

  Heat ran a delicate finger across her cheeks. 

  “As smart as people like James and Ian may be, no one’s going to point at Glastonbury on a map and just know we’re here. We’re not even near the town. In fact, we’re near a tourist location - somewhere they wouldn’t expect us to be.” 

  “And now we’ve established this hide - out, I don’t want to take our chances and have to give it up last minute. We’ve worked hard over the last year to get this place the way it is, with it’s system. I’m sorry, but I’m not compromising it so a few people can have a bit more space.” 

  He got up, then leaned on the wall. 

  “I don’t want to make James’s job any easier for him. Not after what he said to us that night.”

  Kate looked up. 

  “I guess, yeah, you’re right. It’s hard to believe he’s still plotting, or that there’s any danger at all. Nothing’s happened in a whole year.”

***

  Then, to their impossible shock, he winked at Kate. 

  “Oh Kate baby, it's been far too long.”

  “Wh - How?” 

 She stared at him, uncomprehending.

  “Haven't you figured it out?” James sneered. “I'm the leader of the undead. And I've been waiting for you for a long time.”

  “I just knew you couldn’t be trusted,” Varjak growled, softly pushing Kate behind him. “See, Kate? It’s always the hot ones. Mind you, I’m not a megalomaniac. I’m just plain old maniac, me.”

  James laughed, huskily. 

  “You piss me off so much, do you know that? With your stupid façade. I’ve seen through it all from the beginning.”

  “Oh, now you’re smart,” said Varjak. “Kate, you fancied this guy? Really? I mean just look at his hair. Oli Sykes called, he wants it back.”

  “Oh, shut up,” snarled James. “I’m sick of your nonsense. I didn’t see you being so intelligent when you couldn’t even see what was right under your own nose. I mean, the leader of the undead! How did legend Varjak fail to see that!” 

  James crossed the room in a heavy stride, emerald eyes glowing in the din. 

  “I’ll tell you how. You don’t deserve to be a legend. You’re nothing special, not in the larger scale of things. You may go down as the first undead to have a sick love affair with humans, but you have no power.” The green light flickered in Kate’s direction. “At least, not anymore. Poor Ben, what a sweet fellow. But his life was a misery. I was doing everyone a favour.”

  She spat in his face. 

  Varjak seized her as James roared, holding her tight to his chest. 

  “It was this face you were snogging not too long ago!” he cackled. 

  “Yeah, and Varjak was better!” she shrieked. 

  For a moment, the ivy rocks of his eyes rounded in a familiar delicateness. 

 “Oh, of course. I forget there has to be a love story in this somewhere. You, and Varjak! VARJAK! Ha!” 

  He was at Kate’s face - Varjak began to pull her back, but James’s grip was crippling on her shoulders. 

  The room silenced. 

  The dark was thick between them, providing a shield.

  James released a long, slow breath. 

  “You will always have the opportunity to be with us. Forget him. It’s you four against a world of undead.“ 

  He released her, she gasped out. 

  “Just out of curiosity,” began Varjak, pulling Kate firmly against him. “What’s stopping you whapping on the undead now and taking us back to your camp?”

  James sucked a little air in through his teeth. 

  “The simple fact they are not here, and I don’t want them to be. Kate had to know that she could always come to us, and that is what I’m mainly here to establish. 

  I’m not out to kill you both tonight. You might have some false sense of self -importance above other undead Varjak, but you’re just as formidable as your other two undead allies. 

I was with you for a year. That was more than long enough to make it clear to me that you have nothing special about you in particular that could bring down the undead. So, I’m not worried about you two right now.”

  “Well I feel loved,” Varjak remarked down to Kate.

  “Having said that,” James continued, not listening to Varjak. “I’m sure you’re aware that in some ways, you are special.”

  Kate felt Varjak start behind her. 

  “What do you mean?”

  “He means your ability to defy gravity and such,” Kate explained, then looked to the green eyes. “Right?”

  The eyes moved up and down once in the dark. 

  “I am the leader of every existing undead in the world, bar you four, and none have the same ability. Regardless, being able to hang in front of people’s faces doesn’t strike me as being a weapon. So again, I’m not worried.”

  “Just another question or two, since you‘ve no undead to show off to just now,” Varjak said. “How did you survive the sword attack? Even an undead, no, especially an undead would find that difficult to sustain and survive.”

  James sighed. 

  “It was pre -planned. The entire thing, from the moment Kate arrived in Los Angeles to now, was planned. I intended to tag along with you guys for a year, and then be ‘killed off’ by the undead. It was the only way I could get out of the group without raising suspicion.

  To answer your question, George had practised striking in the most solid part of the undead body - the sternum, just off the heart. The blood was simple theatrical blood I’d had with me the entire time. During the brawl I managed to slip away and set it up. I could have died even with George striking in the correct place, in fact I almost did.”

  “Hang on,” said Kate. “So the weird woman with the ticket? That was your doing?”

  James nodded. 

  “We’ve been monitoring you from a safe distance ever since you were born. We knew you were moving to L.A., my location at the time, so I set things up so you would meet me.

  Of course, the huge irony is that Varjak happened to be in the same hotel and had been the entire time. Had I known that, we would have met somewhere else and Varjak would not have been part of your life. Once you’d met him, it was a matter of working our plans around you and Varjak’s movements. I spied on you both on more than one occasion.”

  “Good to know privacy isn’t dead,” said Varjak. “Okay, this whole thing makes more sense. Was it also you that set up Ian’s attack on Kate?”

  The eyes dimmed. 

  “Not the attack, no. We planned to restrain Kate and use her as bait for you. The attack was purely Ian’s own decision. It was just fortunate you had come back for me, that gave my people ample opportunity to restrain her. 

  However, once we had arrived at the airport, I felt it unwise to keep restraining Kate when I was the one ordering the attack. As soon as you went to look for Kate, Varjak, I called off the attack and Ian and the others left you well alone. 

  I gave them instructions to follow us to France and resurrect the camp there while we searched for and found Ben.”

  “I knew from the start there was something about you,” said Varjak. “It’s funny because, I can normally sense the undead, whether they’re in full make up or not. I sensed something was wrong with you, but not that you were an undead. Care to explain?”

  The eyes sharpened with glory. 

  “It seems, Varjak, that you aren’t the only one who possesses abilities above and beyond the normal undead quota. I’ve answered enough of your questions, now you understand how we’ve all got where we are. It’s no skin off my nose either way if you know or not. 

  In fact, I will probably cherish this conversation. The first one where we are all on the same page and I am my true self, and probably the last we’ll ever have without trying to kill each other. 

  As I say, I literally don’t have the resources or the willpower to kill you at the moment. It is four of you against thousands. I’m satisfied your numbers can’t increase that quickly. So, I wish you luck in the future when we next meet. There is no doubt you will need it.” 

 The eyes flashed at Kate again before being replaced by the din. 

 James had gone. 

Reviews

[w2de35657u687y4324rf]

I'm still a little hesitant to believe Jame's plot. Trust me, it's a wonderful, well characterized twist, but I just don't see why he wouldn't kill Varjak from the start.
My advice to you would be to implement a consequence for Kate's noncooperation and or death. One idea might be that she is the only undead that can find the stone of unlife. Same for Varjak. The problem with this is that it goes a little too far into the 'these guys have super-powers' sorta thing, which begins to be boring.
You did a very nice recap of the previous book in this chapter. Even though I had not read it in a while you made good mention of the sub-characters and plot while still giving a marvelous introduction.
The dialogue seemed a bit off kilter, but perhaps that is due to our regional dialects.
One thing I might strive to improve on is the current setting. From my understanding they live in a poorly constructed, (probably previous sewer system) 'factory'(?). It's a bit sketchy, as you can tell.
Good work, though.