Hadrian's Wall (66 page)

“Apparently, we have to ask them directly,”
Delilah quipped: “Hey, Mr. Cahill, come here a minute. We have a
question to ask you: Are you an angel, a devil, a somber, or a
vampire? I bet the answer will be: VAMPIRE.”

“Wait a minute, funny
girl! Did you read the
meaning
of vampire available on the Internet? Do you
really think they are corpses animated by demons? That they turn
into disgusting bats, probably smelly and filled with contagious
diseases? Why can you agree with such an absurd idea, but cannot
accept that they are gods?”

She looked at me in a foolish manner.

“Oh, whatever!”

I sighed, thinking that I
needed to set my expectations slightly lower than Delilah’s
conjectures. She deserves a time. After all, she knows nothing of
the conversation between Adrian and Dr. Barringer, just as she is
unaware of the codex’s existence.

“Well, before we find some
concrete evidence of what you’re saying, my theory is the best.
They’re vampires. Game over.”

I frowned, trying to
imagine Adrian with his hair slicked back with gel, wearing a frock
coat of the nineteenth century and a flowing black cloak with its
upturned collar, displaying his pointy teeth and his bloodshot eyes
comically wide
open…
Ridiculous!

“But if they are
vampires,” I insisted, dissatisfied, “there should be accounts of
murder in
the town.
They should attack people, shouldn’t they?”

Adrian is not bad person. I cannot believe
he would...would he?

Suppose that a predator is
forced to kill another predator to save a helpless creature of his
claws...Could you forgive him?
(...)
Even if this predator had the
option to not kill, but just lost his mind... Could you forgive
him?

“I
studied
them closely. They don’t kill
people or animals, but that does not mean they aren’t vampires,”
Delilah insisted. She was picking up bits of information here and
pieces of the puzzle in order to find pieces of the puzzle. I
stared at her, confused.

“Yes, I managed to invade
their intranet.”She answered my unspoken question. “Don’t ask me
how because it’s a long, long history and we’ll be here until
tomorrow. Anyway, they discovered that someone was
browsing their
network
and shut all the doors. But the little I got, Hadrian’s Wall is
actually a type of fortified city. It’s from here that their
leaders command the actions of the rest of the species throughout
the world. And it’s here that the ‘summit’ is protected from their
enemies.”

Clan Cahill is the summit, of course.

“Also, I’m sure that
Hadrian’s Wall is used as a training center for young
vampires—those who still need to hone their powers
and...instincts.”

“What instincts?”

“Don’t ask me...you
wouldn’t want to know!” But just then she spit it out: “I had an
idea. I think that among their instincts are the act of...of
killing humans to drink their blood. What works for my hypothesis
that this place is a training center and obviously they are
vampires.”

She giggled. “There could
be no safer place in the world in terms of low
crime than
Hadrian’s Wall! Here, all
humans and vampires are watched very closely by the superior
vampires.”

I winced when she repeated
the word “vampire” for the
fourth
time.

After going through
training and by forced cohabitation with our species, they go to
the real world; otherwise... Well, I suspect that vampires that
don’t adapt to a peaceful coexistence with humans, who see us
merely as food, are destroyed.”

We were staring at each other under the
impact of her assumptions. Destruction was something so...so
definitive. If all of it was true, how could these creatures be
destroyed? Morbid curiosity!

“There’s a hierarchy
here,” she continued.
“They’re
very strict about it. I just can’t figure out yet
what the levels of their hierarchy are. They act with more
discretion than the Masons, damn it! I believe that they form a
very well-articulated organization which controls up to what may or
may not be published about them. Since the general thinking of
human society about them is ‘belonging to the tales’ or they are
‘make-believe’ creatures, I think that they don’t really care about
whatever books and movies suggest about them. I think they have
great fun with this whole situation.”

I laughed incredulously. “Mafia of
vampires?”

“I would say ‘yes’—they’re
a powerful brotherhood, with tentacles much longer than the Mafia,
the yakuza, or the bratva.”

“If they control everything as you say, if
they have branches that deep... why did they let you go so far in
your investigations?”

“I think Stephen protected
me somehow.” She smiled confidently. I’ll bet he poured oil on
troubled waters or something. Even if he doesn’t like to admit it,
deep down he likes me.”

But I was reading the
situation differently. Since she seems to be a crazy worshiper of
Satan, no one will care much. The truth for me is that Delilah
doesn’t pose danger to them—not yet anyway. And if she becomes a
danger, what would Stephen do if they choose to eliminate her?
Would he take sides against the clan to defend her?

And Adrian? Would he take sides in my favor,
if the roles were reversed?

While I was debating between doubts and
dilemmas, Delilah took a flashlight and walked to the door.

“Come, let me show you something else.”

I had a jolt. What other surprises had she
reserved to me? We went out into the hallway and Delilah was
following a path entirely unknown to me alongside the bathrooms and
into another wing of the building with many doors. Delilah
commented that these were the apartments of Keyra McPherson, a few
teachers, and McPherson House staff.

We continued down a hallway
which was gradually getting darker with every step we took, as if
in that area, people dispensed with using light. The corridor ended
at a simple door on which there was a sign: “Employees Only.” The
warning did not deter Delilah. She turned the knob...and if I hoped
to find something surprising, I was disappointed me. There were
only brooms, buckets, and gallons of cleaning products.

What does she intend to do
here?
I asked myself,
exasperated.

I followed her into the
cubicle, eager to question her. We moved in the darkness until I
started to fear hitting something.
Even in
the darkness, I saw the outline of shelves filled with cleaning
supplies. The space was so narrow that I was afraid to turn around
for feat I’d hit something and something would fall on me. No
sooner had that thought occurred to me when something fell on my
foot.
I had to stifle a scream.

“Shhhh!” Delilah admonished.

“Don’t shush me!” I
whispered angrily.

“So, stop making noise.”

“Why don’t
you turn on a light?”

“I have no idea where is the switch.
Moreover...”

I rolled my eyes. “Then why did you bring
the flashlight? Is it the newest fashion accessory?”

“Moreover,” she repeated
as if I had said nothing. “It’s not a good idea to turn it on
now.
It’ll draw
attention to us. The light will show under the door and
anyone passing through the corridor will see that there are people
in here. Calm down! I know what I’m doing.”

She stopped suddenly,
lifted her hand and pressed her ear against the bottom of the wall.
I could barely see her silhouette.
I
could!
The girl was dressed all in black!
I blinked a few times, trying to see what she was doing.

Delilah listened awhile
and then began to grope the side until I heard a
dry snapping sound of a door disengaging from its
closed position. It was a false wall.
I
was speechless.

Delilah pushed the barrier
and I realized that we were facing a row of stones filled with
cobwebs where a cool breeze was blowing and flowed into what seemed
like a cave. Mournful sounds came from inside, as if the cool
breeze blowing through its interior disturbed the ghosts, provoking
a chorus of wailing voices that sounded almost human.
Almost
.

It’s just the sound of the
wind, your idiot!
Even knowing this, my
arms were bristled
.

The somber used that path
in past centuries,” said Delilah.
I was
wondering if she was taking me to know the address of
vampires…
I visualized the whole scene in
my head—some elegantly carved coffins with air-conditioning.
Yes, because to endure the heat of this
summer
...where they would go to sleep
during the day. I almost had a stroke.

She pulled me by the hand
and I made a grimace of disgust to hear the new sounds that
emerged. I assumed that they came from rodents and other crawly
things—
all relatives of Tyler
Cassidy
.

Delilah turned on the
flashlight—finally! The beam of light illuminated the passageway
for quite a distance. There was a crude stairway leading to a
tunnel with a high ceiling. The place was bigger than I had
imagined at first—and twice as scary.

I always thought
that
Dracula’s
castle in Coppola’s film was the greatest vampire’s lair that
I had ever seen...the darkest, you know? Even the bar in
From Dusk Till Dawn
was
nothing compared to this!
My hysterical
mind kept flashing a list
of horror movies
that I knew it was an attempt to distract me. (By the way, I always
did lists about everything with regard to movies when I feel
nervous: stars with the same surname, stars with the same name,
similar theme films, films that used the same scenario, etc... This
time it was
monsters!)

Friday the 13th, Jeepers
Creepers, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Dance of the Vampires, The
Grudge, The Night of the Living Dead, Thirty Days of Night, The
Hills Have Eyes, Jennifer’s Body
...

Hmmm...
The Dance of the Vampires
was not exactly a horror movie. Perhaps I should start over
again, this time in chronological order...
Nosferatu, Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The
Exorcist, The Shining
... Well,
The Island of Doctor Moreau
is a science fiction movie, I guess,
but it have a lot of monsters!
I
suppose that I’ll begin again.

Only
one thing
could stop the mental
checklist that I was elaborating in droves - a furry little thing
that decided to walk on top of my shoe. I almost cried. I didn’t
because I was afraid that the “creature” was the baby of another
worse, bigger creature... so “the mother” could decide to come in
order to defend her offspring. Who knows? One fat, huge female
rat!

Argh!

We were walking slowly,
careful not to slip on the
slippery floor
covered with old, uneven paving stones.

Finally, we reached a wider area covered by
a vaulted ceiling. There were arches arranged in a symmetrical
pattern, converging from different directions. I suspected that
this gallery centralized a maze of corridors.

Where are the coffins?

Delilah pointed the beam of the flashlight
to the dark path, directing it to her right side.

I went that way one day
and I ended up near the hospital. I suspect that this tunnel
network crosses the entire town. It’s how they get around without
being seen and no need to
control
their speed.”

Super!
An exclusive freeway for vampires. If so... were we going to
be run over by creatures of darkness any time? I let out a giggle
and Delilah scowled at me.

Before either of us made any comment, a
different noise attracted our attention. Delilah directed the beam
of light toward the tunnels again and I thought I noticed a
movement from one of them.

“It’s not Stephen,” she
said.

“How do you know?”

“Because I can feel him.
My stomach
constricts
and then come the bubbles. Don’t ask me to explain
now.”

Mmmm...
“
Okay!
Let’s get
out of here,” I whispered, putting my hand on her shoulder. Delilah
didn’t argue, she was quivering.

We hurried back—running,
stumbling,
until we were safe inside
the McPherson House. I realized I was holding my
breath when Delilah closed the mechanism of the false wall, leaving
the dark tunnels behind. Then I exhaled all the air from my lungs
like a deflating ball.

We both rested our backs against the false
wall for a while. I was still catching my breath when she turned to
me and whispered, “We need to go.”

I nodded, feeling chills
running up and down my spine. That false wall cannot stop a
powerful creature like the somber people.
Vampires, according to Delilah
.