The curious society of the children of the night

On Cakes and laundry

Now he is in a completely new country. Far away from anything remotely familiar. Which obviously means he is in Copenhagen to live in a renaissance era castle overlooked by two twin vampires who were supposed to be ancient enough that Rome did not even exist when they ruled the continent. Perhaps they ruled during the Roman empire too? Something along those lines. Ben wasn't paying much attention during his briefing before the trip.

And now here he is. Walking beneath a blood moon in the woods near the castle which is supposed to be his new home. Contemplating if its a good idea to hunt for a late night snack. Or maybe go find out about wifi connections. One more day without internet and perhaps he will go on binge drinking sapien blood and treat all humans like a soda vending machine.

**************************************************

Mavin and Myron Gilespei were the oldest and most revered members of the society, by vampire standards. They barely bothered to leave their castle but they had contributed so much, to many fields of inquiries like necromancy, proper procedure for banishing armies of the dead, hypnotics and other powers of noctural beings. Not to mention their other adventures like that brief stint they had as witch hunters, a couple of decades spent as English spies in Nazi Germany and that time they were shoes makers for a Japanese emperor.(It was very unfortunate they had to kill him in the end).
So they did seem like the kind of influence that new changlings - like Ben - needed.
Ben after much coddling and shoulder nudging with nervous smiling, had agreed to come to Copenhagen.
He arrived on a rainy day in a pair of skinny black jeans looking like a pneumonia victim,one of those meth addicts who thinks too intensely about pigeon poo being a metaphor for life.

Mavin took one look at him and concluded the lad is depressed, the pale skin and the cold glares not withstanding. He had that air of casual dismissal for all things useful. Like being alive was a math problem he was forced to work out. Which, it of course is. But that should hardly be a reason to sulk. Perhaps he was still recovering from the attack that turned him into a changling? The society really needed to better supervise their more social members. Mavin decided he is going to ask Myron to write them a letter about their tardiness. Then again, perhaps the kid was just going through his hormones? He was a teenager and aren't they the gloomy existential lot anyway? Maybe going on few hunts with them, where they teach him survival on animal blood will cheer him up.

Mavin was still thinking about ways to help Ben, strolling through one of the floors of his castle when a jammed door broke his reverie. It was the door to Ben's room. Why, that was strange. Ben was still out in the woods. How was his door locked from the inside? Rooms in this castle should always be open when unoccupied. He tried twisting the doorknob this way and that to no avail. That left him with the most unsavory option of warging into a dung beetle and get in through the gap for the keyhole. Why dung beetle? They had a better sense of direction than ants. He was just about to shift when the door opened and Myron came out wearing a hazmat suit and holding a laundry bag that smelled like Giraffe vomit. Marvin lamented his fate for once again crossing roads with that smell. The odour was so horrendous Mavin's nostrils burned and he was about to faint when Myron reminded him of the kerchief in his pocket.

"The kid really needs to clean Mav. I know you asked me to respect boundaries and let him have privacy and keep patience and yada yada yada but I cant hold it any longer okay! He has a closet full of crackers with mold on them. Annnnd he keeps his limited edition spiderman series in there, in all that mold. MOLD Mavin! In all the 200 years we have been here haven't we always made sure not to have a a spot of microbial colony in this castle! And now i live next to a kid who debases my sanity and the joy of comics at the same time! Why on earth does he even have crackers? "

"Calm down Myron, we need to talk to him. He's not going to take kindly to you cleaning up after him you know. "

"Dude, I did us all a favor by handling that swirling vortex of entropy that we called a room"

"Has it occured to you that the moment he returns it might go back to being the vortex of entropy that you so tediously sort to order through, in that striking attire nonetheless"

"Striking attire?" Myron rolled his eyes " For crying out loud Mav, can you notch down on the Victorian for while. I am so stressed I may go for a pedicure"

"And abandon me here to witness alone what 6 ft of teenage drama looks like" Mavin arched his brows and tiled his head, looking into his brother's green eyes that reflected his own, as if to say, like i am ever letting you escape this sinking ship.

Myron sighed and rolled his eyes accepting his defeat. He walked to his room followed by Mavin which was 7 doors down the corridor from Ben's and with a snap of his fingers he changed from the suit into an indigo t-shirt and black trousers. This made Mavin raise his eyebrows once again to which Myron replied "Its not that cold and other than the servants and you the only other person to see me is a kid I want to throttle. I think I deserve some relaxing cloths that don't scream Rich Vampire Overlord "

"Like your cloths ever screamed anything other than pretentious bat" Mavin strolled in after Myron into his bedroom and as graceful as a cat sat down on the maroon velvet sofa near the window. Myron went to his wooden desk and plopped into his chair leafing through parchment papers with demonic script that he had to translate into latin while Mavin fished from his pocket a treebark bound diary, reading it intently. They remained in that unspoken harmony of working in each other's presence which can only be cultivated through years of familiarity, possibly only among twins. This harmony was disrupted, a few hours later by Ben's very loud, very obvious cough as he stood at the edge of the door looking quite nonplussed with his shaking fingers, visible through the fabric of his black sweatshirt.

''I want crackers and i cant find my iphone charger" he said tersely

"Have you tried opening the drawer in your cupboard labelled electronics" said Myron without glancing up from his work. If he had, he would have seen Mavin's bemused glinting eyes which tried saying, You had time to label?

"Why would you do such a thing?" Ben asked, continuing to stand in the same rigid dubious way

"What thing? Help you clean your room and thereby purge your soul you mean? Why, if you're about to thank me, I gladly accept the gratitude. I did enjoy using my label maker even if it took so long to alphabatize your bookshelf"

Ben heaved a breath of frustration while Mavin slowly shaked his head, thinking why must his brother always stoke a wildfire. Figuratively and literally.

''Whatever dude. Keep out of my room and I'll keep out of yours."

"When did you come to my room?"

"Does it matter if I did or didn't?"

Ben turned his head to go when Mavin called out "Benedict, come sit we want to talk to you" to which Ben and Myron groaned at the same time. Ben dragged his feet along the floorboards as he slouched into the sofa next to Mavin and sat with humped shoulders like a 6 year old sitting at the principle's office .

''We are concen-" Mavin began but 

"Let me stop you right there dude. I know what you're going to say and to all of that my response is I.Dont.Care. In case it hasn't been obvious to you. Like isn't it enough that I had to haul my ass all the way here from London to live with you loonies,not that London seemed any better but now i must have you two breathing down my neck about discipline or whatever" He puffed out all of this in a quick string before slumping back into the sofa as if his words definitely resolved the matter.

"Odd. I remember someone else who thought like you did. And like her, you're quite wrong if you think you dont care"

" Oh Mav are you talking about who i think you're talking about?" asked Myron with a secret smirk that didn't help Ben's sour mood. At all. He wanted to throw a cushion at that face.

"Oh do tell him THAT story. One of our more fun times, wasn't it"

"Myr hanging upside down from a hot air balloon being launched into the sky was not fun. For anyone"

"Oh please, you just got a little green in the face thats all. It was a world of good to see some colour in your face for a change"

This banter did catch Ben's fancy. Now he was intrigued. Was there more to these two than being really REALLY old? Clearly he was about to find out.

*****************************************************