I arrived on a fuckin’ hot day in the summer of 1976. My old man had slipped town after beating my mother so bad that she almost miscarried me. Maybe that’s why I’m so screwed up. The day I was born was the kind of day when it’s so hot, you feel like you’re breathin’ rocket fuel, and everywhere in the projects stinks like shit. Hey, I don’t mean to be so brash, but it’s the truth.
My mother was chained to a crack habit at the time, so all the doctors in the in the shelter clinic were real surprised that I was so strong and healthy when I came out. The bitch was so high that she didn’t even realize she was havin’ a kid, and was pissed off afterward when they woke her to feed me.
She took off a few months later, so I became property of the shelter, ward of the state. You know how come I know all this? A few years back, I got tipped off and came in to the hospital, where I found the old drunk dying of a rotted liver and every dirty STD in the book. She spilled some sob story about how her life was messed up and she never meant to leave me. Sure, right. She died an hour later.
I guess you could say I went to school, well, for a bit anyway; learned what I needed to learn. After a while, the school and the shelter kicked me out. And you know what? Foster families don’t really care much about the kids, they just want the tax write-off. So, when you’re twelve and livin’ on the streets, life can’t get much damn lower. Most kids there just give up; turn to drugs, the mob, or the rackets. Not me, no fuckin’ way would I come that far only to fall like everyone else. Yeah, I made connections, but that’s what ya gotta do out there.
Well, things were goin’ along fine, and of course, that’s when life chooses to screw things up. I was eighteen then, tryin’ to hustle suckers in some crappy pool-hall in Philly, and I was doin’ pretty good too. Then, around midnight, the ‘special’ crowd came in. Maybe they were all in some gang or somethin’, I didn’t know, but I did know enough to leave ‘em alone.
I was steppin’ up my business to take advantage of all the macho men who’d had a few too many, when a commotion broke out at one of the other tables. This woman dress in the usual all-black anarch uniform, and strangely enough, wearing shades, was shoutin’ it out with one of the two-bit con-men who worked the joint.
"Hey, Rocko, back off, man," I told him. Sure, the guy was about 6’4" and 250 pounds, but they’ all learned to respect me by then.
"Raven, this bitch’s a narc or an under-cover on the take, she’s tryin’ to muscle in on things," he replied.
I looked at the woman, who though she seemed only a few years older than me, had the ‘old’ look, you know? Kind of wise and slick to the way things run.
"So, you play pool?" I asked.
"A little, my boyfriend’s been teachin’ me." I knew she was tryin’ to hustle me, but what the hell, it’d been a boring night.
Rocko racked up the balls and I let the woman break. She hit solids, and angled so well that my stick never even got a chance to touch the cue ball. I was impressed. Reachin’ into my pocket, I pulled out the night’s take an tossed it down.
"New game, I break, a hundred bucks says you can’t do that again." I racked, broke, and played stripes. The balls were rollin’ pretty good until I decided to show off, and my trick accidentally sunk the 8-ball.
"Tough play, kid," she said, grinning, but in a way that seemed friendly, and I saw her wink behind the shades. Yeah, I ended up losin’ that hundred bucks, although, and this was a bit weird, I didn’t really mind. By then it was almost two, and I retired my table for the night, gettin’ ready to head back to the steam tunnel were I lived.
"The name’s Eve, c’mon, let’s get a drink."
The bar was open until two-thirty, and Vinnie always ignored my lack of ID, so I went with her. Eve got some kind of thick, deep red wine, and I noticed how she and Vinnie exchanged a strange look, but it was so late that I shrugged it off. I got the usual, Red Dog. I drink when I gotta, but never really enjoy it that much. See, I don’t have any want to end up a stinkin’ lush like that woman who called herself my mother. Fuck that.
We got to talkin’ and Eve started tellin’ me about all these ancient cultures that she was interested in. It sounded pretty slick, an I wanted to hear more, but a brawl erupted at the other end of the bar. Adrenaline kicked in and I reached for my hidden blade, ready to join the fray. No guns were out, and it looked like just a dog-pile; then this guy screamed bloody hell and grew into some thing that looked like the creature from ‘Alien’.
"Holy fuckin’ shit!" I yelled, and backed against the bar.
"Buddy, you’d better watch your pack," Eve said coldly to Vinnie, who shrugged and pulled an automatic out from under the bar.
"Which side youse on anyway?" he asked, pointing the gun into the fight.
"My family ain’t involved in this," she retorted. The brawl was all over the place by then, and Eve kept tryin’ to put herself between me and the fighting, though I could have held my own against those guys.
Everywhere there was yellin’, and I kept seein’ all this stuff that shouldn’t have been fight; guys just disappearin’, shootin’ fire from their hands, shadows that came from nowhere and grabbed people, and this one chick that I swear grew claws. Suddenly the whole place was in flames, and I guess I was a bit afraid, but I’m no coward, so don’t get the wrong idea.
"Let’s get outta here, kid," shouted Eve, and we tried to push through the war zone. Blood was all over the floor; black and slippery. Somethin’ thick and heavy hit me in the back of my head, and I saw the floor rush up and smack me in the face. Then…darkness.
The smell got me. It filled my nose and choked my throat. My eyes opened, and when things stopped spinnin’, I saw that I was sittin’ against the wall in a garbage-filled ally. Eve was next to me, wavin’ her hand in front of my face.
"Kid? You still with me? You OK?"
"I’m j-just fine," I snapped, and hurriedly pushed myself to my feet. Whoa, everything turned funny, and it felt like there were little mice runnin’ around in the back of my mind. My legs gave out; I dropped to my knees and puked against the wall. Damn it, that guy musta hit me pretty hard.
Everything seemed wrong, like a twisted dream. Tears were makin’ my shirt wet, but I never cry. My stomach seized, and I curled into a ball on the slimy ally floor. Through the fuzzy haze, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, it’s all right, kid. Shhh, it’s all gonna be fine."
The fit passed, and in a few minutes I sat up again. Things were gettin’ clearer, but I was still real confused ‘bout what I’d seen at Vinnie’s. Eve told me that the fire had been spreadin’ as we got out, and now a whole city block was burnin’. I could smell the smoke in the stale air, and it made my throat raw.
"Eve?"
"Yeah?"
"Yo, I wanna go home."
"Kid, most of this part of the city is now full of Sabbat on patrol," she said.
"Sabbat?"
"They’re like a gang."
"Oh. But I live in the tunnels, an we can get there from the subway grate at the corner of 5th and Willow."
"How far is that from here?"
"Just two blocks down, one block over."
"Let’s go."
Boltin’ from the ally, we ran for it. Man, but it’s a bad idea to run the hundred yard dash after bein’ slammed in the head. I could barely keep on my feet by the time we got to the subway stairs and jumped through the pried-open grate.
"This way," I said, and staggered though the tunnels. Ever since the North Rail Company went under in the 30’s and the company that eventually became SEPTA took over, the steam tunnels have been forgotten. Only a few lucky or influential street-guys live down there, and I was one of ‘em. About half of the tunnels were wired for ‘lectricity, so I usually had light, and the steam kept me warm durin’ the winter.
We reached my tunnel, and I just fell onto the pile of rags I slept on. Colors danced around, and the room was spinnin’. When I tried to tell Eve that she was welcome in my tunnel, the words came out weird and messed up. She told me that she’d need to stay all through the day, since dawn was close, but her words sounded all far away, and that’s the last thing I remember ‘bout that night.
When I woke up, it was around four o’clock in the afternoon. Besides the splittin’ headache that always comes after a good blow to the skull, I was feelin’ all right. Eve was sleeping in a corner of the dead-end tunnel; she must have been real tired, ‘cause it looked like she wasn’t even alive. Still a bit fazed by what’d happened the night before, I ate a bag of stale chips that I’d stashed with my stuff.
At ‘round seven, Eve woke up. I kinda figured enough not to ask about the bar fight or the gangs, but she started talkin’ ‘bout it, and what she was sayin’ was more tripped out than anythin’ I’d heard on the streets.
Eve told me that she was a vampire, a Kindred, and had been for more than a hundred years. Her family, she called it a Clan, was Giovanni, kinda like undead Mafia guys. There were other kinds of vampires too; the Camerilla were a gang who believed in hiding from mortals, and the Sabbat were violent anarchs who didn’t care about humanity. That’s what the bar fight had been about; some Camerilla guys had been on Sabbat turf, at least, that’s what it sounded like to me. It was hard to believe, I mean, vampires runnin’ around all over the place?
Though she had to leave Philly that night, Eve said that I reminded her of a friend she’d once had while mortal, and said she’d be seein’ me again. Before she left, Eve made me promise not to ever say anything or let on that I knew that there were Kindred. I swore I wouldn’t.
I went back to Vinnie’s that night, and was surprised to see that the place was still standin’. The walls were all black and the floor was scorched, but everythin’ else was fine. It seemed kinda strange, but I didn’t say anythin’. Vinnie asked me if I was OK, and said that I’d been actin’ real weird the night before.
"Yeah, I was real messed up, Vinnie," I told him, "I think I got food poisonin’, ‘cause I got these real wack hallucinations then ended up chunkin’ and passin’ out." He believed me, totally convinced that I didn’t know what I’d really seen, and even let me keep hustlin’ at his place.
Durin’ the next two years, Eve would stop by whenever she was in Philly. It was cool; she’d tell me ‘bout an old book she’d read or a rare, ancient artifact she’d found. I’d never really had a friend before, so I was always glad when she came.
One night, I guess it was almost two years later, I was walkin’ home after a real good night. More than three hundred bucks had found their way to me from the pockets of the drunk and stupid, and I was feelin’ pretty cocky. The guys came from behind me, five of them. From how the punks looked, they musta been trailin’ me since I left Vinnie’s.
It was quick, I’ll say that much. One guy had brass knuckles, one had a blackjack, a big guy was packin’ what looked like a customized beat-stick, and I’m pretty sure the other two had broken bottles. I didn’t even have time to pull my knife. They took the night’s take, then just kept beating me. Yeah, I fought back, but hell, I’m only one, they were five, and they were armed. Just before I passed out, I saw this guy run over. He was movin’ so fast that he was just a blur, and he took out one of the thugs just by runnin’ into him.
Things were wacked out when I woke up. I could feel the drying blood from a half-dozen deep cuts on my face, my right arm felt broken, at least two ribs were cracked, and both my legs were useless. The fuckers took my watch, but from the color of the sky, it was about an hour before dawn. Both the gang members and the guy who’d fought them of were gone, but I was lucky; no one had called the cops.
Slowly, I dragged my beaten body back to the tunnels. There was a haze of pain ‘round me, and this was messed up, I was really, really hungry. When I finally got to my tunnel, I didn’t even have the strength to try and stop the bleeding, just fell into the deepest sleep I’d ever had. Someone was shakin’ my shoulder and talkin’ as I slowly woke. My eyes wouldn’t focus, and when they did, I was lookin’ at Eve.
"Kid, what happened? You all right?" she asked in panicked concern.
"Some punks…" I groaned, "they jumped me, this guy came…"
"Who?"
"I don’t know…he ran fast. He got them…I don’t remember. I hurt all over."
It was weird; the pain wasn’t the stabbing shock it’d been the night before, it was a red, full-body ache. As I moved my mouth to speak, I noticed that though the gashes hurt, it felt like they’d already healed closed. I could move my legs, and if I hadn’t heard my arm snap durin’ the beatin’, I woulda sworn it wasn’t broken anymore.
Eve checked my pulse, then got this funny look on her face. "Raven, I want you think hard. How much do you remember ‘bout the guy who beat off those guys?"
I tried to concentrate on the mem’ries, but everythin’ was hazy. "He was big and strong…ran so fast I could hardly see ‘em."
"Yeah, that would be me."
At the entrance to my tunnel, a man was leanin’ ‘gainst the wall. Man, he was built like a linebacker on super-steroids. The guy was wearin’ tattered black jeans, a tight black tee-shirt, a black leather jacket, and shades. I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he was pretty hot.
"Anthro," he said, walking over to where I was layin’, still too exhausted to sit up, or even move.
"Huh?"
"My name, Anthro."
"Hey pal, what’s the idea? You can’t just go around Embracing mortals!" Eve said angrily, standin’ up quick.
"She was dyin’, what was I supposed to do?" Anthro shouted.
The room kept blurrin’ in and out, and my head was killin’ me. Then there was that strange hunger; I felt like I was gonna go insane. Everythin’ was messed up, and I was all confused. Man, I never remember feelin’ that bad before.
"Eve, what’s wrong with me? What happened?"
"Kid, you’re Kindred now," she said, kneeling again, "This guy here Embraced ya and made you into a vampire."
"Yeah, and I figured you’d be wantin’ some of this," Anthro cut in, and tossed somethin’ at me. Eve caught it, and I saw it was a transfusion bag of blood. That weird feelin’ got stronger, more than anythin’ I wanted that blood, and that scared the hell outta me. Eve handed it to me, and some kinda primitive instinct took over; I ripped the tube out and drank.
The stuff was thick, and felt like cold liquid metal runnin’ down my throat. I was so disgusted that I wanted to puke, but it felt so good that I hardly noticed that the bag was empty. Things started gettin’ clear again, and all of me began to relax from that frenzied feelin’ I’d been buildin’ up to. A bit ashamed, I wiped the blood from my mouth, and was surprised to feel my fingers brush against fangs.
"Feelin’ better?" Anthro asked, walkin’ over as I sat up.
"Yeah, what’s it to ya?"
"Hey kid, don’t take that attitude with me, I created you, I’m your sire!" he shouted. I winced.
"Back off, pal," Eve said sharply.
Anthro was gonna say somethin’, but then all these echoes and noises started comin’ from the far tunnels, and he got this funny look on his face..
"Hate to cut out, but I’ve gotta bolt. I’ll be back tomorrow night, ‘cause you’ve got stuff to learn." He ran out into the dark.
Bracin’ myself ‘gainst the wall, I stood up, but was so dizzy that I had to sit down again real quick. All the things I’d ever learned seemed twisted and wrong, and when I tried to take a deep breath, I found I wasn’t breathin’. It was all too much.
"OK, kid," Eve started, "I guess we should start at the beginning."
Eve told me about Cain, the first vampire, and how he created a whole bunch of others. Each one was the creator of a Clan, but there were some that died off. All Kindred needed to follow a set of rules, the Traditions, and the most important one was somethin’ called the Masquerade, which meant that you were supposed to try and keep mortals from findin’ out what you really were.
I also found out that I had been Embraced illegally, that is, the Prince or leader of the city didn’t say it was OK for my sire to create me. For that, both he and I could be killed. Eve said that I had powers, but that it was up to Anthro to teach me how to use ‘em. Hey, that was fine with me. As far as I could understand, I was now an immortal that could do cool stuff.
"So, wait. What Clan am I in?" I asked
"Did you notice the tattoo on Anthro’s wrist?" I shook my head. "It was the upside-down anarch sign; you’re a Brujah."
"Brujah, I like the sound of that."
At around midnight, Eve had to go; she needed to reach Trenton by dawn. Before she left, she told me that I had to stay out of the sun or I’d die, but I’d kinda figured that out by then. My friend also said that she’d keep stopping by whenever she was in Philly, and I told her that was cool. So, I was alone in my semi-dark tunnel, frightened, excited, and Kindred. The night passed quickly, or at least I assume it did, for all I know is that at one point I fell asleep, and when I awoke, my watch showed 8:00pm the next night.
As I slowly stood up, Anthro stumbled into my tunnel. He was clutchin’ his upper arm, and looked like he’s been shot a few times. For a moment he said nothin’, just leaned against the wall, groanin’ in pain.
"Hey man, what happened?" I asked.
"You gotta get outta here, kid. There’s a…I’m in trouble…the Arch Bishop called a Wild Hunt…you gotta run…they’ll kill you too if they find you," he stammered.
"I-I don’t understand."
"Let’s just say I caught it for Embracin’ ya, and the head Sabbat of the city called for my head. I left evidence at my pad so they’d think that I killed you, but you should still split the city. I gotta go, I managed to lose some of ‘em in the sewers, but they’ll be back on my trail soon, get out while you can kid!" And he ran back out; I never saw Anthro again.
Man, I didn’t want to get in the way of those guys I’d seen that night at Vinnie’s, so in a hurry, I kicked apart my bed of rags and spread them all around the tunnel. I grabbed a lose piece of newspaper, and after scroungin’ for a minute, found the stub of a pencil. Between two lines, I wrote a message, Eve, I’ve gotta leave the city, Wild Hunt on my sire and myself, if you want to find me, you can look, June 6, 1996…then placed the paper under a book she’d lent me.
It was hell gettin’ outta the city, I’ll say that much. I managed to make it to Wilmington before dawn, and crashed the day in an old bomb shelter. I spent the next month there, but soon the local Sabbat packs started to take interest in my past, so I had to book. I ended up in Trenton.
One night, I guess it musta been about five months later, I was back doin’ what I did best; hustlin’ in a really run-down joint by the river. The night’s take wasn’t good, and I usually had to turn over the cash from each game to the bouncer in order to keep my head on straight. I was pretty miserable, unlife or not.
I was staring at the cue ball, tryin’ to figure out how to bank it off the 2 without sinkin’ the 7. As I’d been doin’ since I left Philly, I had my hat pulled way over my eyes so’s no one could easily recognize me. Ready to shoot, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and whirled ‘round, my knife already out. It was Eve. As she told me later, she’d been checkin’ out every city around the river area, lookin’ for me.
For the next year and a half, I tagged ‘long from city to city, helpin’ Eve with her research; carryin’ books, sortin’ manuscripts, you know. Everywhere we went, I hadda be careful that no one saw me too much, and if anyone asked, say that I was Caitiff, clanless. One night, after Eve had been outta Pittsburgh for a week, she came back to tell me that she’d found a city where we could stay for a while and not worry ‘bout me bein’ found out.
That’s when I came to Swarthmore, and so far, I guess it’s been cool. I learned that Pierce and Larcen, the great Brujah heroes, are in the city and started a chapter of DX. This one kid, Kyle, said that maybe I could join if I prove myself. The Prince, a stuffy Ventrue, said that I could stay, but it was probably ‘cause Eve told him that I was Blood Bound to her. I think he bought it.
I also met this girl, Nancy, who grew up on the streets and in homes like me. She’s in charge of the orphanage in Swarthmore, and I gave her some dough to get stuff for the kids. She even said that I could come by and read to them if I wanted to. There’s also this guy, Darby, and he said that he was gonna teach me how to see special stuff, and I guess that’s cool. Yeah, Swarthmore’s pretty slick, I hope I’ll get to stay here for a while.