Suvius in the House of Vampires

1st Person POV:

My name is Mohlyen, and I…

… was spinning in a void, my legs carrying me through an endless night. I felt my teeth ache, and the harder I tried to open my eyes, the harder they stayed shut. Then, there was this hunger. A hunger… for the color… of red. The hunger pulsated throughout my being. Slowly, the void grew brighter and brighter. So did the hunger.

When I woke up, I found myself in a small feather bed. On the other side of a mahogany room, I saw a mirror. To my horror, I saw that I was no taller than five-foot-five. I noticed my hair was dark and long, with long bangs, too.

What the--?

“Oh, good morning, Master Brighton!” Came a voice. A stranger had exclaimed someone’s name. It was an old woman’s voice. An old woman in a blue bonnet and a white apron approached me in my room full of dressers. She walked into the dusty room with a tray of drinks. Hot tea steamed inside a group of metal cups.

Wait, what?

Master… Brighton?

Come to think of it, I could barely remember my own name.

“Um,” Oh. Uh, that’s not my voice! What in the name of crispy peanut butter was coming out of my mouth just now? It was ruggish, crispy, and almost burnt. Some sort of strange British voice was coming out of me. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I must’ve had a rough sleep last night. What was… my name, again?”

The woman set her tray down over a dresser. “Oh, gosh. Again? You’re Suvius Brighton of House Brighton. The ladies of the market call you Suave Brighton. The prodigy. A Chiropticana that can learn complicated subjects alongside humans. Most of us only enjoy hunting, and, well, you know, living in giant castles. Although, not this one. It’s a rural castle. A stead! Not like any of those gothic-city types.”

What?

“Well, you know how it is, Master Brighton, they’re the only type of housing that can fit a bunch of people in’em. And us folk believe in intergenerational housing! That is, those of us who call ourselves ‘Brightons’. Well, there’s, of course, this new type of industrial public housing called an ‘apartment’, but… it’s still in the works. That’s for sectioning off people into their particular cube. Anyway! Oh, gosh, I’m on a roll again, aren’t I?”

This woman really just kept on talking.

I can’t dwell on that though. If I do, it’s apparently called ‘lampshading’!

“I’m… sorry, it’s just that talking a lot really wakes me up. And you look like you need to be woken up a bit more, too, Master Brighton!”

The woman sighed as she put her hand to my forehead. The wrinkles of her mouth curled upward into a smile. She felt warm. She had dressed in a striped gown of sorts. Across her gray, curling hair, she dawned the can-opener-styled crown of a home-nurse. At least, that’s what I might call such a bonnet.

“Are you… checking to see if I’m running a fever?” I asked sheepishly.

Wait, it’s all coming back to me now! I was in another universe. I was with my brother, Calduze, when something went horribly wrong. The universe just blipped out of existence. Then, I was looking down at a fountain with my sister, Davinri.

Also, wait! That means it worked. The last thing I remember, I was opting into playing another ‘game’. A game called Mahadoggha. It’s where god-like entities from a dimension called Zodicropolis come down to Earth as mortals.

We forget our memories… our past… and learn perspective.

But the last time I did it, something went wrong.

And yet, we’re here again!

“Master Brighton, where’re you running off to? I’ve your English Breakfast right here.”

As I turned to the woman, I noted her tray, aside from the tea. Instantly, my stomach gurgled. I might’ve had a weird waking-dream of blood, but the sweet potato puree, salted cabbage, pesto carrot stew, and buttered toast in a cup… all looked really good. Except… hang on a minute.

Buttered toast in a cup?

Wow, yeah, okay, I don’t remember that one from last time!

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but… what year is it, again?”

I must’ve replaced this… Suvius Brighton kid. No, wait, hang on. That name feels all too familiar. It feels so damn familiar! It’s like it’s at the back-corner of my mind, smacking its figurative eraser against my figurative chalkboard. Wasn’t that the kid that I was, already, last time, when I played this game before?

Ugh, I can already see it now. I’ll soon be thinking in this stupid British accent in no time. No time at all, really. Haha. Hm. ‘No time’. That phrase also rings a bell. Or, as I seem to be so fond of saying right now… smacks an eraser against my figurative chalkboard. Y’know, where it makes this intolerable cloud of chalk dust? Yeah, that’s the one.

The woman just looked at me and sighed.

“Otherwise, miss, I’d like to have a slice of that buttered toast!”

I ran off further into the house.

Everything felt so familiar. Too familiar!

I needed to make sure of something.

I can vaguely remember already being… ‘Suvius Brighton’... once. On another Earth. It feels so recent, and yet, so distant. As if the events that happened were just dreams in a bad acid-trip. I remember-- I remember looking at a spinning fountain of colors and timespace.

The Maelstrom of Terramessos, I think. And Davinri was right next to me, saying she wanted to give me something. She wanted to give me a ‘second chance’. Why did I need a second chance, though?

“Brother! Brother Suvius, where are you? Madame Perriphry, I can’t find brother anywhere!” Came the shouting of a younger boy. Unlike mine, his was clearer and softer. If it did have any rasp to it, it was cute and boyish rasp.

“And that’d be your brother, Morris.” The old woman walked out of my room. She pointed to the tray of food. She had set it over by a burgundy bookcase. The bookcase also stood by a window. It overlooked a backyard of garden beds and bird houses. The backyard had a couple of farm sheds full of rakes, shovels, and axes.

Down the hallway, I saw a younger boy. He was just a few years younger than me. He had light brown hair that was almost a bowl-cut. His boyish face was smooth and rounded. It was buccal and full of collagen.

He had a pair of soppy and brown eyes. As he stood in a beige vest-cardigan, he arched his posture. He scratched at the back of his hair. It looked about as soft as a shag fur rug. He glanced past me and into my bedroom. I had just one bed, one bookcase, a couple of dressers, and a worktable.

“Suvius! There you are. Come on then, it’s time for the morning brain-teasers.” The young boy said. He excitedly took my hand as we almost flew down a flight of wooden steps. Our feet smacked against the hard surface.

One thing was for certain, I was definitely gonna be here for a while.

It feels different than when I was last here, but maybe that’s a good thing?

As I closed my eyes briefly, I could see it. The last time that I was… Suvius Brighton. It was on a parallel-earth in some sort of time and place far, far away. I could see him. The young boy standing before me. Morris.

My brother, Morris Brighton. He had stood in a kitchen, blood all over his hands. His pure, innocent eyes rolled back into his head. He had looked at me, apologizing profusely. He was begging for forgiveness.

I wanted to hold him.

I wanted to hold my brother.

I wanted to tell him it was okay.

And then…

… Morris rippled away, congealing and convulsing from the trauma, and turned back into my real brother.

Calduze, the Primordial Entity of Paralysis and De-Inspiration.

A few minutes later, we were all down in the kitchen looking at England’s Newspapers.

“Seshra got us a few copies of the Daily Sword from off the porch this morn’.”

“The Daily… Sword?” I shook my head. “Pfft, yes, Suave! Yanno what they say, ‘pen is mightier’, and all that. Well, the local paper decided to play off of that. They also have brain teasers at the back. Madame Periphery thinks we should do Newspaper Games every morning to strengthen our minds. Ya wanna take a crack first?”

I nodded slowly, scratching at my ear. The tip was fuzzy, if only slightly. I also still craved a bit of blood. Why? And then, that old woman, Madame Periphery, called me something. It wasn’t a human. She called me a ‘Chiropticana’.

Also, wait, didn’t Madame Periphery say that only the girls call me Suave? Hmph!

“Right, so, this morrow, we have a list of riddles about spinets.”

“Sp-- Spinets?”

“You know, keyboards! Aye-Aye, did you hit your head in your sleep, brother?”

I blushed, looking away and down at my riddles.

We were gonna be here for a while, weren’t we?

________

Morris handed me a shovel, but I merely watched, and he had no protests. I furrowed my brow in boredom and looked on, deadpan, as he continued to make a deeper and deeper hole in the Rear Courtyard. He was so excited to do whatever he was doing. Yeah, he usually was easy to excite… and to startle.

“Suave, you’ve got to see this!” Morris, sweat beading atop his head, shouted.

I set my shovel down and ran over.

I don’t remember him doing this in my last incarnation here, unless--

“I hid this necklace, ya see. It’s got--”

“Whoa, hey there, Morris, you might not wanna flaunt that about.” I said. I quickly wrapped my arms around his. My brother’s soft face was inches away from my sharp cheekbones. His settling smell of cotton and wool relaxed my nasal passages. I had tried to shield the view of his necklace with the weight of my body. Yanno, I was trying to get a grip on the necklace without seeming aggressive. I… don’t think that’s how it looked, though.

“U-- Um, Suave?”

Yeah, this looked kinda gay, didn’t it?

“Y-- Yes?” I cleared my throat, backing up.

“U-- Uh, well, check this out! The necklace has--”

Shit, I remember what that necklace has. It’s got the blood of the old Chiropticanas that lived in this stead prior to us. We had an uncle in the last incarnation. Uncle Hanaklerus. He made sure to store the blood of the deceased inside of it. For what exact reasons, I’m still not sure. Whoever held the necklace was granted strong healing powers.

As I recall, in the last iteration of this ‘game’, Morris stole it from the fireplace of an abandoned room. The Last Resort Guest Room. Yeah, not a clever name, but then, not too many Chiropticana were clever, aside from their Transfixed. That is… what many might call a ‘drudge’, or a ‘Familiar’. Many Chiropticanas had their House Slaves be clever in their place.

In fact, that’s exactly why-- Ugh, nevermind. I can still barely remember anything. I’m not just gonna exposit myself to death, anyhow. I barely remember much. It comes back to me, conveniently, in small chunks here and there, and I should be grateful enough for that. Morris… just needs to be careful with that necklace.

“I stole it from the ol’ dusty guest room. The maid, Seshra, never cleans it! Anyway, it smells really good. Minty, really!”

“That is intriguing.” I couldn’t help but say in my British accent.

It is indeed intriguing, Morris, ’cuz… I certainly wasn’t smelling anything at the moment. Mint, he said? Nope, wasn’t ringin’ a bell. In fact, it kinda made me miss the smell of mint. Mint was just one of those scents. You either couldn’t stand it, or ya couldn’t get enough of it.

But if this necklace was full of old blood, why would it smell minty?

“Look, brother!” Morris popped open the pendant at the bottom. “It’s mint leaves!”

“Wow, it is!” I forced on the British accent of the Brighton Household. “I could use a breath-freshener right about now. How old is that mint?”

So, wait, is this not the necklace of the blood of our ancestors? That necklace isn’t that old then. That means, despite this universe being a second chance from Davinri, there are certain things that really are different from the last time. I should be happy, then. I should take some of that mint and enjoy a leaf or two with my brother!

Alas, how am I supposed to be prepared, then? Prepared to prevent what caused me to fall into this second universe in the first place. I know it was something awful! I know it, but I can barely remember. And with each passing day, it feels more and more like a dream.

“Oh, I know! I should see if Seshra wants some!”

S-- Seshra?

Oh yeah, our maid! Or was she our bodyguard?

________