Excerpt: Big city

They sat together in Elke’s room, watching one of Elke’s favorite films from a pretty big screen. She had recently bought a new set of speakers along with some headsets. Well, Lothar did not much enjoy being inside the movie, but Elke certainly squealed like a Japanese schoolgirl. Or that’s what she said about it. Lothar did not have many experiences with either schoolgirls or the Japanese.

Empty cell of the disc lie on the table. Lothar kept reading the title.
“Brotherhood of the Wolf”. It was a good movie, he believed that, and he’d seen it many times before, but tonight his mind wondered elsewhere. He still wondered how she did it – how she just transferred her mind off from all the troubles and dived into a film, a book, a piece of handicraft, anything. He wished it was something she could have taught him but sadly, it wasn’t.

Once the film ended, she threw aside the headset, grabbed a brush and tidied her hair.
“Want me to go over yours, too,” she teased.
Lothar smirked. “Thank you. But I’m rather keen on my four strands, if you don’t mind.”
“Lothar…”
She looked like she was about to say something profound. Then again – she might have fooled him and pull a joke right about… now.
“Ja?”
“I was thinking… Actually, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I mean like LOT.”
“Ja?”
Something was weird. She wasn’t the drawling kind of girl. Oh wow, it must have been something really big, then.
“They won’t leave us alone. The government, I mean. We’ve both been getting these calls and notes lately. You know what they say. They’re making a move against us. Well, not just us. Everyone who’s “not normal”, or “not normal enough”. We can’t go on like this, Lothar.”

So this time he wasn’t her buddy or “old man”. And this time she was dead serious; not even her eyes smiled.
He sighed. Then he nodded.
“Ja, I know.”
“So?”
“So?”
“What are we gonna do about it?”
He smirked. “I thought you had a clever plan.” He didn’t expect her to nod like that.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Do you wanna hear it?”
“Yep. I need to.”
She stood up and played with one of her many lanterns until Lothar told her to stop fiddling and sit down. She didn’t. Instead she moved to the window and looked out. It must have been some illusion created by light and shadow, but for a second or two she looked really small and vulnerable. Ethereal.

He couldn’t bear to see her like that, so he got up as well and went to stand by her side. It was pitch black outside. Here or there a tower was lit, but light was scarce and frail.
Sometimes he would get lost in the dark. Sometimes melancholy would overcome him. On nights as dark as this one could almost forget about the sun.

“It’s so dark,” he murmured. “I keep looking and wonder if it will ever end. Or maybe it’s all that we have. This, out there.”

She didn’t even look at him, but her sleeve brushed over his hand, and he found some comfort in it.
“Die Nacht ist immer dunkelsten vor dem Morgengrauen.”
He couldn’t help but smile. She was wonderful. He really should have made a sign for her saying that.
It was true, wasn’t it? The night was darkest and coldest before the daybreak.

“There must be a dawn,” he whispered. “We have survived so long, we have sacrificed so many. There must be a dawn.”

“There must,” she agreed. “And there will be. Listen to me, old man – we’ve got to move on. We have to do something, or it will all be lost and everything will have been for nothing. We have to stand up against our oppressors.”

“And they will destroy us, Elke. We do not have the number or the strength. Even if we gathered all the Colleges of all the cities, we would still be easily overpowered. And what would we do? Fight? How? We are no soldiers, Elke. We are…” His voice trailed off. He wasn’t even sure what they were, besides…survivors, maybe. But not warriors.

“I know,” Elke replied, and now she looked at him. She looked… amazing. “I told you I had a plan, didn’t I?”
He nodded. “You did. Then tell me. It’s got to be a good plan.”
“Why?”
“Cause it’s yours.”
She pretended to blush and covered her face for a moment.
“You’re right, you know. We don’t have what it takes to face the government or do anything about the system. But you’ve forgotten something. Or actually, we all have. We are not alone in this. When it comes to fighting oppression, we are not alone. There are others, and their numbers are much greater.”

“Allies,” he whispered. “You mean we should seek for allies.”
“Yes. If we can unite, we’d be a formidable force. We could stand up against the system.”
“And whom would we join? The werewolves? The Aristocrats?”
Elke rolled her eyes.
“Don’t you get sarcastic with me, Lothar. Yes. Werewolves and Aristocrats and whomever, but why don’t you just start with Marie and Roger? Have you thought of that?”
“Yes!” He’d raised his voice. He couldn’t help it. “I have, as a matter of fact. Don’t you think I haven’t but it’s not that easy, Elke. Before we overturn this system, we have to have an idea of a better one. And frankly, I don’t really see how the community of pureblood humans would all of a sudden accept a very big bunch of abnormals.”
He saw her fiddling with another lantern again.
“Let me be frank with you, old man. It’s not getting any better as it is. And it’s taking too much time. We don’t have that time. We’re not immortal. Vampires, yes, but we’re not immortal. They come and kill us, and we die. They wipe out our supporters and close the blood banks, and we’re done – or we will have to go out and start killing. Sure, some may try and die nobly, but all in all, it’s not gonna work out. We’ve been too long at it, Lothar, too long. It’s time to have some results.
No, there’s no perfect system we could just take out of a closet and put in place, and it would run swell. But we could have a more flexible system, and a government who would try to make some changes instead of wiping out all those that do not match their criteria of a perfect obedient citizen. We could have a government, a parliament with representatives from all parties. I think that would be a better start, don’t you think? There were times they didn’t let women vote, or black people – well, now they won’t let anyone vote, but my point is, that if there are different groups in society, then these groups should all have a fair and equal saying about how things are run. Right now no one has any saying except of those who are up there in M, and they’re all corrupt and they’re all purebloods.

Lothar, buddy, the world is on a brink of revolution – or should be, because it’s the last time we can try. One of these days they’ll chip us and tame us, and then we won’t even know what we were, or what we dreamed of.”

“You sound like you have spoken to Marie,” Lothar muttered.
“Yes. I have. And it was a nice and long chat we had, she and I. They’re ready. They’ll be out soon. But they’re gonna come alone in case nobody joins them, and they’re gonna go down and lose it, and we’re all going to lose for good, unless we do something about it. Now. Lothar, we have to. We just have to!”