Horace

Chapter 1

2002. London. It was damp, and the damp was freezing. It was dark, too, obviously: I'm a vampire. I was in the past, and in the past looking for something - someone. This was the last place, the last time, I saw him.

This part of the city  will become unbearable, overrun with tourists and new developments. But then, in 2002, it was still grimy, the streets stuck with wet litter. I turned away from the Tube station and towards the pub on the corner.

The pub was one loved by rockers and metal-heads. As I walked in I could hear a band playing downstairs, the lead singer screaming into the microphone. The pub was - it isn't there any more -  a labyrinth of small rooms. I smelt the beer and cigarette smoke.

I was looking for myself. 2002 me. In one of those small rooms that me was talking with the someone, Nix. I drew closer to the room they - we - were in. From the other side of the door, I could hear myself speaking. I was complaining about a girl. Typical - certainly - but this was a particular girl.

I could see Nix. He was listening to me with a serious expression on his face, nodding every now and then. I miss him. Vampires can time travel, but there are rules. You can't stay, you have to be home by daybreak. So this Nix, the last Nix I knew, I couldn't stay with him. And he wouldn't remember I'd come back - we'll get to that later.

There's something he said to me in this pub. Something I needed to hear again. It was coming. I leaned in closer. I'd finished with the girl, at least for the moment, and now Nix was starting to speak.

"Yesterday there was someone in my apartment."

"Someone hot?" I said. Always a joker.

"No, while I was sleeping. There was someone moving around."

"You didn't see them?"

"Coffins." Nix sounded exasperated. "They're notoriously hard to see through."

"You still sleep in a coffin?"

"Don't get distracted. There was someone in my apartment. By the time I lifted the lid, they were gone."

"Was it a vampire?"

"I don't know, I was still groggy - could have been. I'm worried."

"Worried?"

"There have been... never mind."

"Sorry Nix, I'm listening," I said, even though I know I barely was. I was thinking of the girl. Behind the doorway, I cursed at myself. 

"Horace, have you heard - have you heard of vampires being killed? They say it's a human, but they say he's travelling."

"A human? But they can't - and anyway, when you travel, you can't..." I trailed off. "No one, no thing can."

"I know, but I thought - last night... never mind."

Nix changed the subject. Then he looked up. "Oh great, another one".

I had emerged from the doorway. I nodded to myself. I noticed my haircut. It wasn't - well, there wasn't time for that.

"What do you want?" Nix asked. It seemed his annoyance at my past self extended to me, too.

"Nix. What else, what else do you know about the thing in your room?"

Nix's annoyance turned to alarm. "The thing in my room?"

"Human, vampire, whatever it was. What else do you know?"

"Nothing," said Nix. "But it matters, right? Why?"

"Something's happened to you."

"Happened to me?"  Nix's echo was subdued.

I tried to be gently. "You're gone."