Shadow Land

Complications

“Are you sure you want to do this, man?” DJ asked from the couch.

                DJ was not short for anything, it was a name that he had adopted in the 1980’s. DJ was Alexander’s best friend. They had met shortly after DJ was turned in 1829. DJ was eighteen when we was turned, but could easily pass for 21, so he did. Not only did he enjoy the alcohol and clubbing, but also the fact that wherever they moved, he was also Alexander’s legal guardian, and therefore could legally boss him around (of course, it remained a joke since Alex could easily kill him without moving a finger. They could never pass for father and son since DJ was a 6’5’’ boy with skin and eyes the color of chocolate and a buzz cut of black hair while Alex was 6’ exactly and as pale as it was possible to get without literally being bleached. Even his eyes were a pale grey, when he was not angry or sad. As his name suggests, DJ was obsessed with music and with keeping up with the current world. His obsessions were financed by Alexander’s money. Without needing to buy food and often have well paying jobs in secret services, or blackmailing high-ranking officials, Alexander had accumulated a large quantity of money over his years. DJ was currently going through a rap craze.

                “We have already been through this. I do not care what anyone has to say, I want to try this. I have not been in the sun-lit world for a century; you go out all the time. I am just curious as to what I am protecting this century. Is that really a crime?” Alex pointed out, walking out his room and looking at the mirror. It was custom made to actually show him his reflection. All rich vampires have a mirror like it. The problem with mirrors is not what most folk legends about us say, we do have souls, but it is the silver behind the glass. Werewolves can be killed by silver bullets, but they are not the only ones, silver is toxic to all supernaturals, including vampires. Not only is silver toxic to us, however, but we are also toxic to silver. It cannot capture our image, and if around us too long, it will start to tarnish and then fall to pieces. Alexander’s mirror had platinum behind the glass so not only was it a mirror that showed his reflections and did not break, but it was also like a gold bar, insurance for if the economy went down.

                Alexander sighed, he had just been looking in his closet for anything he could wear for his first day of school. He had nothing. Most of his clothes were several centuries old, and those that weren’t were the one he used for monster hunting, which meant they were not suitable, even from the blood stains or holes, or the scorch marks. The only thing he had was his leather jacket, he always owned a leather jacket, no matter what century he was in, he found they never went out of style and they were tough enough to go monster hunting in. Sadly, the one he owned at that moment was damaged by scorch marks and he wanted to save it for the nights.

                Alexander turned around angrily when he heard DJ laughing at him, “What?”

                “I’ve never seen you like this, man, looking in the mirror, trying on clothes. It reminds me the girls in the clubs,” DJ’s brown eyes turned dreamy as he remembered.

                “Clubbing? I thought that was a nighttime activity,” Alexander raised an eyebrow.

                “Remember the sixties?” DJ pointed out.

                Alexander did remember the sixties, but he was still trying to forget his past. In the sixties, DJ had spent all his time ‘clubbing’ and interacting with the human world, a fact that forced them to move from place to place a lot as people started to say to each other that ‘radical dude, DJ, like doesn’t age!’ There had been a hilarious moment when a girl came to the house the three of them, DJ, Alexander, and Miranda, had been sharing and begged DJ for his skin cream that stopped aging. The part that Alexander found most amusing was the fact the girl was 18 and did not need to worry about aging for another twenty years. Then, of course, she had big issues. It had been okay for DJ to be out all night back then, there were less Shadows and demons about, and Alexander  could still go hunting with Miranda back then. Before she was killed.