Alan and Piker opened their eyes and found themselves on the floor of Alan’s workroom.
It took them a while to come around because of a splitting headache they both had. When they finally got to their feet, their knees were weak and they needed to hold on to the large drawing table in order to right themselves. A dizziness struck the two and they ended up puking in the same wastebasket. It wasn’t until the storm of their physical ailment passed that they saw Boy Napualawa standing on the other side of the work table with two large bowls of poi in front of him.
“Eat this,” he commanded as he held out two spoons for them. “Eat the whole thing, it’ll help with your headache and your queasy stomach.”
“What the hell happened?” Piker said while rubbing his head and feeding himself from the poi bowl in front of him. “I feel like I got hit with a sledgehammer and a ton of bricks at the same time.”
“I’ve never had a headache this bad before, it feels worse than any hangover,” Alan moaned as he mixed the poi around the bowl before he ate it.
“Vampires are more than just what the lore has made them out to be, people forget that these creatures possess immense mental capabilities,” Boy shared. “This vampire knows that you’re on to it, so it planted a mental decoy in your brain and made you believe that I killed it so that you would give up the search.”
“So, like uh…….like a mental hallucination?” Alan stammered.
“Yes,” Boy confirmed. “Exactly that.”
“But it felt so real…I mean the detail and everything,” Piker said as he placed another spoonful of poi in his mouth.
“That’s how powerful it is,” Boy confirmed.
“You were there too,” Piker said. “You were already there when we got to the school….and you knew it’s mother?”
“You got that too?” Boy was surprised at Piker’s statement.
“Yeah,” Alan thoughts began to clear up. “It’s like we knew everything….like me and Piker know everything about each other because we’ve been friends since we were kids…but we knew things about you…like you were indebted to that vampires mother.”
“It’s like an unintentional e-mail blast that was only meant for one person,” Boy nodded.
“So, that’s her then?” Alan’s color returned to his face. He didn’t look so ashen and grey as he did the minute before.
“Letta Mondavi,” Boy confirmed. “That’s her name; I had intended to see her and give her a pass out of town as a debt paid to her mother.”
“But you never ACTUALLY went to see her? Not like how she made us see?” Piker asked as he spooned out the last few remnants of poi from the bowl.
“No, but I’m lead to believe that her mother communicated to her and begged her to listen to me. Therefore, Letta planted this vision in our heads in order to give herself time to run.” Boy removed the empty bowls from the hands of Alan and Piker and as he turned around a massively sized Hawaiian man in a coat and tie appeared. He received the poi bowls from Boy and walked out.
“Who is the hell is that?” Alan asked more out fear than curiosity.
“That is Kealoha,” Boy said.
“And he is what to you?” Piker asked, attempting to pull more information out of Boy.
“He is my friend,” Boy’s emphasis on his reply made an unspoken point to Alan and Piker. It meant that no matter how they pressed him, he was not going to give them a straight answer.
“What do we do at this point? Our trail has gone cold,” Alan shrugged his shoulders.
“We go to a friend’s house in Manoa,” Boy began. “It used to be the old Manning house, now it belongs to the Grant Society.”
….………
MANOA
Boy sat with Alan and Piker on one end of the island in the middle of the large kitchen. Lopaka, the head of the Grant Society sat opposite of the three. Laying flat on the tiled floor was Teddy. Boy thought it would be a good safety precaution to have Teddy present just in case. It had been forty minutes since their arrival and not a word was spoken between the four of them. They sat drinking glasses of the cold sun made tea and waited, Alan and Piker ran their fingers over the hilts of their samurai swords while Boy calmly placed the swordfish bill weapon on his lap. Lopaka’s only weapon was hope and confidence. Hope that the situation would not have to escalate to bloodshed in his kitchen, and confident that the unwilling would see reason and that all could go home in one piece.
Footsteps were heard coming down the stairs which opened up into the kitchen next to the large refrigerator. It was Letta, dressed in exactly the same way that Piker and Alan had seen her in the hallucination she’d sent them. Teddy sat up and let out a low deep growl. Boy stood up as did Piker and Alan. Lopaka was the only one who greeted Letta and showed no signs of fear.
“Are we all prepared?” Lopaka asked.
“I suppose,” Letta replied slightly annoyed, “leave town or be buried in it, is that right?” She looked at Boy waiting for an answer.
“Be grateful to your mother that you are able to leave with all that you have and all that you are,” Boy replied. “Others before you never got that chance.”
“Others were careless,” Letta replied arrogantly.
“Others did not have their mother to petition for their life,” Boy took a step forward with fire in his eyes. Teddy followed behind him along with Alan and Piker.
“Please guys,” Lopaka put his hands up between them. “Let’s just get her to where she needs to go and call it a day.”
“Agreed,” the four replied at the same time.
Letta walked outside to see a large armored truck parked in the driveway. “That’s for me? A bit of overkill but men will be men.” The huge double doors in the back were opened and Letta paused a second and scoffed, “you couldn't have at least tidied up ?”
“Kealoha,” Boy ordered.
The massive Hawaiian man grabbed Letta by her angora sweater and jeans and tossed her into the vehicle and slammed the double doors shut behind her. The interior walls of the vehicle were sanctified by Boy himself, therefore Letta could only sit in the middle of the floor. If she came in contact with any of the walls, she’d be burned and unable to heal. The five men and Teddy could already hear her muffled screams. Lopaka approached Boy and shook his hand, “Thanks for showing me how to identify them. The second I saw her, I knew.”
“Thanks for calling me,” Boy replied.
Lopaka exchanged handshakes with Alan and Piker as well, “I always wondered who headed the Grant Society? Now, I know.” Alan smiled.
“How do we get to join this cool ass club bruh?” Piker asked.
“You have to have proven psychic abilities,” Lopaka replied.
“I can vouch for that,” Boy said. “They can receive visions, I think that proves some kind of latent psychic talent?”
“It sure does,” Lopaka agreed. “Come by on Monday, we’ll run some tests and see.”
With the conversation taking its course, no one saw Teddy jump into the passenger's seat of the armored vehicle before it drove off. Kealoha didn’t mind, there was something about the dog that made him feel as if he’d met an old friend.
….………
DESTINATION
The armored vehicle pulled through the gate at the pier fronting the Young Brothers establishment. It ambled along until it came to a warehouse whose interior was larger than three football fields. The evening had fallen by the time the vehicle finally came to a stop. Letta could just make out the sound of another car with its motor running. Hearing one car doors close told her that someone was being picked up at this location and had driven off. She jumped suddenly when she heard the double doors unlatch. A loud creaking sound filled the interior of where Letta sat and it prepared her to pounce. Whoever it was, was going to suffer a horrible painful death, she would make sure of it. The one door opened only part way and Letta’s burnt form creeped out of the vehicle, healing itself of its wounds once the cool air hit it. At first, she eyed the contents of a huge empty warehouse. Scanning it carefully from left to right, she was startled to see her aged mother standing not more than a few feet away from her. It dawned on Letta right there and then that her mother had orchestrated the entire scenario. “It’s been years mother, I should have killed you on the night I was turned.”
“ Fiica mea a murit în acea noapte,” Elizabeth replied. (My daughter died that night)
Letta’s lips pulled back to reveal a mouth filled with razor-sharp fangs. She took a step back to give herself the momentum she needed to spring on her mother and tear her to bits. The moment never came, Teddy appeared from out of nowhere and tore Letta’s head from her body in one motion. Her form crumpled to the ground and reduced itself to burnt ashes as would her head once Teddy let it fall out of his mouth. Elizabeth’s knees went weak, as she was about to fall to the ground she was swept up in the arms of a powerful Hawaiian man who was massively sized at 8 feet tall. It was Teddy in his kupua form.
….……….
AIRPORT
Elizabeth Mondavi sat in the waiting area at the Honolulu International airport waiting for her flight to leave. Boy sat with her as did Alan and Piker. “I’m a feeble old woman now,” she told Boy.
“You were not so feeble when you saved my life that night,” Boy reassured her.
“Long ago’s are like dreams for people my age,” Elizabeth smiled. “I’m too old to travel and this will be the last time we see one another Hanson.”
“I understand,” Boy nodded.
She placed Boy’s hands in hers and positioned herself to look straight at him, “After I’m gone…..the one who turned Letta…”
”Say no more,” Boy leaned into the aged woman, “it will be done.” Turning his head to acknowledge Alan and Piker- “my friends will help me.”
Elizabeth smiled, “and the dog too yes?”
Alan smiled, “yes, Teddy too!”
“Ya like all that muscle don’t ya?” Piker grinned and Elizabeth blushed and covered her mouth.
“Now,” Elizabeth whispered, “kneel in front of me the three of you. Hurry before anyone realizes what’s going on.”
Quickly the three men knelt close to Elizabeth who removed a jeweled short sword from her arm purse and tapped the shoulders and heads of each one with the flat side of the blade. In a low tone of voice, she began, “I dub thee all once, twice, thrice, as knights of the kingdom to do as the crown will command in all duties to rid the land of evil in all its forms where ever its head may turn. Arise sir knights Hanson, Alan, and Piker.” The men stood up and formed a closed circle around the old woman who further told them, “As the senior knight Hanson, you have the blessing and the right to make knights of those you deem worthy. Perhaps Teddy and your friend who found Letta?”
At that precise moment, the announcement was made that Elizabeth’s flight was to take off immediately. A group of men dressed in suits emerged from the plane to receive the woman into it. She turned and gave a short wave and a smile and she was gone. The gangway retracted and the plane backed up to the tarmac. Piker’s face dropped and he turned to Boy and Alan, “Hooooleeee…..was that the….was that….Elizabeth!!! Was she the qu…….”
“That was a grief-stricken old woman who was suffering from dementia. Having witnessed the death of her own daughter only served to worsen her condition,” Boy said. “That’s the story we’re sticking to. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” Alan said dumbfounded.
“Uh, sure.” Piker agreed. "Wait, how do we know that this isn’t some other vision we’re being sent and that we aren't still lying on the floor at Alan’s place?”
Boy walked up to Piker and said, “The only way to find out is for you to jump from a high place. If you’re dreaming, you’ll wake up before you hit the ground. If not, you’ll be broken up or worse.”
The doors to the gangway hadn’t closed yet, Piker made a dead run for it and leaped spread eagle through the open canopy. He would end up spending the next thirteen weeks in the hospital nursing a cracked skull, a broken shoulder, and hip bone. He was still very much alive, but in a lot of pain.
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