Bite of Story Thursday

Night Children: Dark Threats

Chapter Four: 1899

       “Wait.”  Roland rolled his eyes.  “Invisible spies?  Vampires can’t turn invisible.  The most we can do is turn to mist and most can’t even do that.”

“No, his spies will be human,” Aisling replied.

Annabelle’s jaw dropped, as did Roland’s.  “Invisible humans?” she asked.  “Working for Dominic?  How?”

Aisling explained, “Let me start at the beginning.  Two years ago a man from England named Charles Griffin found a way to turn animals invisible.  He experimented on himself and went insane.  Griffin became paranoid, and hurt some people.  A mob of scared and angry townspeople tried to kill him.  Dominic’s bride, Penelope, watched the commotion and used her magic to sneak Griffin to safety.”

“So Dominic already has him?”

“No Roland.  Griffin’s experiment deranged his mind.  He fled Penelope, traveled here to America and went into hiding.  He’s in Florida, counting on the warmer climate to help keep him hidden.”

“Huh?” Roland always looked silly when he was confused.

Annabelle nudged him.  “If he’s invisible, he could go anywhere naked.  It’d be pretty tough walking around in the buff in the middle of a snowstorm.”

“Ah.”  A light came on in Roland’s eyes.

Aisling continued, “He wrote the formula down in two journals.  A man by the name of Thomas Marvel kept them in secret but he wasn’t very bright.  He opened an Inn by the name of The Invisible Man.”

“What an idiot.”  Roland slapped his forehead.

“What happened to him?”  Annabelle already guessed the answer.

“Penelope killed Marvel, took the journals and burned the Inn down.  Dominic’s servants tried to reproduce the formula.  It was written in a mixture of Russian and Greek.  That wasn’t hard to interpret but some pages were washed out.  They failed.”

“So why worry about it now?  It’s a dead end.”  Roland still appeared frustrated.  He shuffled his feet in the snow.  He still didn’t want to help.

“King Corbin received another vision yesterday.  He saw the chaos the invisible army would commit, and then he saw the two of you trying to protect Griffin from Penelope in Florida.”

“Did we succeed?”  Annabelle asked.

“Uncertain.  His visions cloud up after you arrive at his beach house and begin fighting with Penelope.  We need you.  You’ve got to rescue him.” 

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