Ellen and Tay's Bonus Journey

**Niccals Family Community Center, Halcyon City. December 17, 2019, 7:12 PM**

Ellen waits in the parking lot of the Niccals Family community center, leaning against her bike, shoulders hunched up in a weak attempt to keep warm. She runs her gloved fingers over the textured pages of her brand new passport, still mildly in awe that Mel could just… “get” these.

*Joan Connor*, the new alias next to her picture. She has to stop herself from smiling at it — this is maybe the dorkiest thing she’s ever done — when she hears footsteps approaching, looking up, hoping to see Tay.

A small figure walks out the door of the community center, bag over her shoulder. She’s dressed entirely in black - a leather jacket over black pants, leather gloves and a motorcycle helmet - but she waves excitedly at Ellen as she approaches.

“Hey! I hope you didn’t wait too long. Ooohh, is that your new passport?”

Ellen waves back at the figure when she realizes it’s Tay, the wave slowing as her outfit becomes more visible under the streetlights. Ellen’s face is suddenly very warm and she nearly drops her passport.

“Hey… y-. Wh-...,” she trails off, ideas of what to say all fighting to get out, “uh huh. Passport.” She finally manages to say with a vacant smile and glazed over eyes, still slowly waving. “You look awesome.”

Tay can’t resist shaking her head when she takes off the helmet. Though her hair isn’t really long enough to flip dramatically, her ears twitch a little as she smiles. “Thanks! I thought I’d dress for the trip. I bought them with my first paycheck.”

She puts her bag on the bike, then walks around to peek over Ellen’s shoulder at the passport. “Nice name. Do you have mine too?”

“Oh, yeah,” she blinks a few times to focus, fumbling at getting the second passport out of her pocket. Stupid cold making stupid gloves necessary. She hands the booklet over, asking “Who’s Karnstein?”    Tay takes the passport and opens it up, admiring the handiwork. She hadn’t had a passport in years, and the last one she’d had was rather different.
“Karnstein was, uh… Okay, so… I might have named myself after a fictional lesbian vampire?” Tay blushes. “Carmilla is a countess of Karnstein who… I mean, I needed a name. I considered changing the first name to make it less obvious but all I could think of was Caramel.”

Ellen tries to stifle her laughter but that doesn’t last very long. She can feel her blush getting deeper, but at least she wasn’t the only one with a stupid fake name. She turns around and gives Tay a hug, still chuckling a bit.

“Hey, at least yours is from a book! Better than what I came up with.” Swinging her leg over the motorcycle, Ellen adjusts her bag and holds on to the handles, readying herself to go. She looks back over her shoulder at Tay.

“Well, I’m good to go,” she pats her surprisingly small bag, “shall we, Caramel?” She cracks a wide grin as she draws out the end of the name and raises her eyebrows at her girlfriend.

Tay puts on the helmet again, hiding her own excited grin underneath the visor. She gets on the motorcycle, wrapping her arms around Ellen.

"I'd love to, Joan."

**Twenty miles north of the Canadian border. December 17, 2019, 10:30 PM**

Katayoun had known Halcyon was close to Canada, but even then she had still been surprised by how quickly they’d crossed it - no more than two hours, and one of that spent in line at the border.

They hadn’t even looked at the passports, really - just ran them under a scanner, which obviously didn’t raise any alarms since they were waved right through.

She sniffed the cool winter air. Canada didn’t smell very different yet - grease, petrol, metal, exhaust fumes. Throughout it all, the smell of people - metallic and enticing. She could sense layers of emotion in their scents: exhaustion, impatience, frustration, but anticipation, too. The usual for a small gas station, she supposed. A pit stop along the road.

Still, it was nice to be out of the city, and nice to be outside without seven layers of protection between her and the world, all to prevent her from disintegrating like sugar in water.

The night was pleasant.

She looked back down from where she was leaning on Ellen’s bike. Her girlfriend had gone inside to pay, but she’d stayed - ostensibly to watch over the bike, but really to look at the view.

Across the water to the south - across Alexandria Bay and Hill Island - Halcyon City’s skyline was still visible. The commercial disctrict’s towers and arches stood in stark contrast to the towering organic figure of the Zodiac tree rising from the bay.

“Can’t believe it looks so small, huh?” Ellen calls out as she approaches from behind. Both hands wrapped around a paper cup of something hot, she snuggles up to Tay, her breath blending in to the steam from her drink.

“Even Zodiac looks almost normal-tree size, don’t you think?”

Tay smiles. “Sure - with some very active birds in it.” She leans into her girlfriend almost instinctively. “You’re warm...”

“I’d’a got you one but…,” Ellen trails off, feeling a bit guilty for only buying for herself, “I mean, it’s kinda shit anyway. You’re not missing much.”

Ellen lets the moment stand, going back and forth between sips of her terrible hot coffee and leaning against Tay’s cold face. Almost absent-mindedly, she muses aloud,

“Do you think it’ll have calmed down when we get back?”

“That’s okay. I brought food - I hope it’ll be enough. I don’t want to think about trying to get more while on the trip.” Tay sighs. “I don’t know if I can imagine a calm Halcyon.”

She looks at the city, imagining all the people crawling about it like ants. All the weird things that happen there. Any flash of light could be headlights reflected off a skyscraper window or a villainous technomancer summoning ball lightning in the middle of a shopping mall.

“Or - I’m not sure a calm Halcyon would actually be Halcyon.

You grew up here, right? Was it ever calm?”

“No, not really,” Ellen snickers, “everything just feels like so much more than I thought it would. Like, the last time I saw the city from this far away, like half of those buildings weren’t there. And all the people? Ughhhh.”

She buries her face in Tay’s shoulder and mutters, “Who says we gotta go back?”

“It is… very big.” Tay agrees. “Not like… large - I mean, Berlin was big - but...Halcyon is big like a… like someone wearing the entire contents of a party store’s wardrobe department. All sequins and bells and garish colours. Everything is so much. And I mostly see it at night!”

She runs a hand through Ellen’s hair. “You wanna become a pair of travelling delinquents? You do have like 30 copies running around now.”

“Don’t remind me,” she snickers at Tay’s party store comparison, “not like anyone’s gonna miss one more Ellen, right?”

She stares back out at the city, so close but so far, feeling lost. “Would… would you stay with me?,” Ellen almost instinctively wraps her arms around Tay’s waist, “not like forever or anything, y’know. Just for a while. I mean, you can go back whenever, obviously.”

She retracts her arms and turns to hide her embarrassment, downing the last of her coffee. It’s already cold.

“Ignore that. Just me being dumb. Jesus.”

Tay’s brows furl at the sudden absence of touch. “You’re… not just an Ellen. You’re like… *the* Ellen? Ellen Prime. Ellen Supreme. One Ellen to rule them all.” She turns around, quiet for a moment.

“...Yeah, I would. I mean, I… get what you’re saying about forever and shit, I… I can’t even imagine a forever. And like… I’m immortal. Ish. But yeah.”

“Hey, Tay?,” she faces Tay again, cheeks and eyes red, “You rule.”

Ellen hugs Tay again, letting herself sink into it, both of them half-sitting on the bike. “I'll try not to forget that again. Thanks. I’m just gonna stay here for a minute, gotta warm up.”

Katayoun laughs and reaches into her bag. “You’re not gonna get warm from hugging me, moosh-am, I’m cold as the grave! Here,” she says, unfolding a large tartan blanket and wrapping it around both of them.

She sits there for a while, staring out over the water.

“Hey, uh… What are you gonna do for like, sleeping?”

Katayoun gets no response. Ellen is already out cold, snoring softly on her shoulder.

**Downtown Quebec City. December 22, 2019. 1:05 p.m.**

“*Fuck*, it’s fucking cold!”

Ellen shouts as she slams the door behind her, kicking off her boots, and setting down the food and drinks on the side table next to the bed before flopping down on the mattress, which is somehow both too rigid *and* too springy as she hits it. This hostel room had been home base for her and Tay for a few days.

She rolls off her bottom bunk bed and uses it as a step-stool, popping her head up to Tay on the top bunk. “So, what’re we doing today? Another concert? That last one was pretty good even if the singer totally ate shit on that crowd dive.”   Tay laughs. “Oh man, she took it so well though. Kept playing the entire set even with blood streaming down her face. It was hard core.” It also really got her bloodlust going, which combined with the press of bodies everywhere and the heat made for a very interesting experience… on second thought, maybe another concert was a bad idea.
Tay looks up from the travel guide she’d been reading, only to find Ellen’s face mere centimeters from hers, looking over the edge of the bed. Her eyes are *so* brown, but like - so deep? Like they contain whole galaxies of brown.

Fuck, she’d been staring. She flushes a darker grey.

“Uh - I - there’s a lot to do, but I thought maybe we could… have a like. Calmer day? Maybe just… go out for dinner..? There’s a restaurant nearby...”

Ellen can’t help but make a face at the suggestion, somewhere between confusion and guilt. She reaches a hand up to tuck away a loose lock of hair out of Tay’s face and ends up just twirling her fingers through it.

“You want to? Like, I know you *can* eat but doesn’t it taste gross? I don’t want you to waste time on like… eating dirt.”

Tay turns, if possible, even darker. “It’s not about the food - I mean, um, it is - it’s an Iranian restaurant and I thought I could, like, introduce you to my culture or something but it’s - I mean - I wanted to take you out. Like. On a date?”

She takes a deep breath to calm herself. A placebo, given she doesn’t need to breathe, but it still helped.

“I could order something and eat a little bit and then take it to go so we have food for tomorrow, or tell them I’m allergic. I just thought it’d be nice? I’ve never been on a date. If you don’t want to…”

“Awww, you wanna take me on a date? What, d’you like me or something?” Ellen hoists herself up and gives Tay a peck on the cheek; half because she's being so cute, half to hide the fact that she is also starting to blush. “I think I could manage that. I will totally go on a date with you, my girlfriend.”

“Oh! Speaking of food, that reminds me. I wanted to try something…” Ellen hops down from the bed, scanning around the room, even quickly ducking outside to make sure no one could overhear. She grabs one of the two coffee cups off the side table and offers it up to Tay.

“Call me dumb if you’ve already tried this, but if you can only really taste blood anymore, maybe if you mix some in to a drink it’ll, I dunno, make it have flavour again? It probably won’t work, like why would it? But still, consider this, like, me also sharing my culture with you. My culture is a peppermint latte.”

Tay laughs and hops off the bed as well. “That is so sweet. The gesture, I mean, not the drink. Though I’m sure the drink is too.” She accepts the cup, then pulls out one of her “Capri Suns”s and pours some in, stirring like crazy with the little plastic stirring stick to try and get the two liquids to incorporate.

She stops. The blood keeps swirling for a few seconds, looking like a deep red galaxy in a beige universe. It… doesn’t look very appetizing. Still - it’s worth a shot, and it’d be really rude not to try it after the culture comment.

“Well, here goes!” She takes a big swig of the cocktail.

Surprisingly, it’s not terrible.

“Surprisingly, it’s not terrible!” Tay says, wiping a milk mustache off her upper lip. “It’s kind of like… uh… a protein shake, I guess? I can still taste the ash but it’s masked and I don’t know if I’m just imagining it but I almost believe I can taste the peppermint.”

She puts the cup down and leans forward, planting a kiss on Ellen’s cheek, which leaves behind some milk, like a femme fatale in a noir film - except, you know, with a peppermint latte instead of lipstick. And blood.

“Nice! I wonder if more blood means less ash-taste…” Ellen starts to wonder aloud as she wipes the kiss mark off her face. She was starting to try to figure out if blood pancakes were a thing she could try to make. Maybe add cocoa to hide the colour? Whatever, thoughts for a later time.

“So, what’re you gonna do until tonight? I’m gonna sleep after I eat my lunch… uh… dinner, technically, I guess. Whatever,” she yawns, “stupid sleep cycles. You need me conscious for anything?”

Tay stretches, then flops down on the armchair in the corner, knees drawn up, tail curling around them. “No, go ahead and sleep. You’ll need your energy for the mountains of food you’ll be eating!”

Ellen chuckles at Tay’s insistence, “Wow, sleeping so I’ll be able to eat later. This is, like, a literal dream come true. Can we just do this forever?”

The two chat about their plans while Ellen eats her lunch, before heading to sleep for the afternoon in preparation of the best meal of her life.

**Some motel along the St. Lawrence Highway. December 29, 2019. 5:10 p.m.**

“Fuck, that’s *fucking* cold!”

Ellen turns off the tap and shakes the excess water out of her hair, getting little beads of dark water on the shower walls and curtain. The apparent lack of hot water cemented this motel as the worst place she and Tay had stayed in so far.

“Tay, please tell me we got all of it. I really don’t wanna have to go under the tap again.”

“Hmm…” Tay peers closely at the still-wet hair, examining it for impurities. “Yeah, pretty sure. But hey,” she sits back up and looks at her girlfriend in the mirror, giving a big toothy smile. “If you did you’d just have like, a salt-and-pepper-shaker look.” She wiggles her rubber glove-clad hands, dyed a deep black.

Ellen smiles at Tay, scratching her behind her cat ears. “Please, I wouldn’t look nearly as good as you do with it. Can’t be looking busted next to the dapper-est vampire around.”

She throws a black t-shirt over her hair — she didn’t want to stain any of the towels around — and sits on the rim of the tub. Dabbing at her head, she playfully pokes at Tay’s shins with her feet.

“Sooooo, you excited for fireworks?”

Tay wrestles back with her feet. “Yeah! I haven’t seen them in a long time. A lot of people in my neighborhood set off fireworks when I was young but I didn’t get to participate much. You?”

She stands up and moves to clean up the dyeing supplies, stripping off the gloves and yeeting them in the trash. “Hey, uh…” She frowns, as if unsure, then continues. “Why did you want to dye your hair? You seemed pretty fond of the pink?”

“Oh, you know, just felt like changing things up. Had the pink for a while, thought it was time for something different. Why, does the black look bad?” She drops the box from the dye in the garbage bin and begins scrutinizing the stains around her hairline in the mirror.

“No! No, it looks great!” Carm shakes her head vigorously. “It really suits you! Just… Every other Ellen has them too so I figured it was like - pretty important to… Ellen-hood or…. Ugh I can’t explain myself well -”

“- Wait, uh.” She goes wide-eyed. “Is that… Is that why?”

Ellen stops picking at her hair and slowly turns. “Yeah,” she sighs, “Like it wasn’t bad enough having *one* other me, now there’s… hell, I didn’t count ‘em all. I just… don’t want people to think I’m just another one of them. Lame, right?” She smiles weakly at Tay, feeling like she’s been seen right through.

“I just thought ‘Maybe if I look different, people will treat me differently.’ But let’s be real, that’s not gonna happen. I’m an Ellen; who’s gonna see anything else, right?”

Tay is silent for a few moments, face frozen in… some indefinable expression. Guilt? Anger? Both? It was hard to tell.

“No, it’s… that’s not lame. I just… *You’re* Ellen. *The* Ellen, not *a* Ellen, the others are… Ugh!” She throws her hands up in frustration. “*Scheiße*! I wish I knew how to talk good, like a fucking… shrink or something, but I just… I don’t CARE about the rest! They’re not you! Maybe it’ll be useful to be able to tell you apart in a crowd of them but I’d *always* recognize you! And if other people don’t see that, if they just see an Ellen, then *FUCK THEM*. You’re *my* Ellen.” She stands there, fists clenched and ears laid flat against her head, hair poking slightly upwards like an upset Ghibli protagonist - her tail, flicking behind her, has puffed up to about twice the size.

She deflates. “It… It looks good on you. I just hate that you feel like you had to do it! I wish I could grab all the others and force *them* to dye *their* hair.”

“You know, I think they’d let you. Apparently the other, like, requirement of being an Ellen is being into you.” She takes Tay’s fists in each of her hands and speaks softly, chuckling through her words. “But fat chance there. You’re mine, too.” She takes a step closer and rests her chin on Tay’s shoulder, leaning their heads together.

“Thanks Tay. And sorry for being such a fuckin’ downer. We’re on vacation! I should act like it, huh?” Ellen starts to rock side to side, pulling Tay into a slow dance, hoping she’ll relax and join in.

Tay wraps her arms around Ellen, one hand playing with a strand of her hair that had escaped the T-shirt.

“It’s okay. I basically lived in a hospital for eight years - I’m used to downers. Probably was one.” She sighs. “I’m just glad you told me. Honestly… I’ve been a bit down too, today. It’s nothing big, but it still makes me feel better that I’m not the only one.”

“Yeah? I didn’t even notice. What’s up?” She asks as she tries to lead the dance out of the bathroom — the lack of space and, y’know, the toilet were really killing the mood.

“Family stuff, I guess.” Tay follows, bumping the bathroom door closed behind them. “I miss them and shit. I mean, duh, right? Dead family, bla blah… Who wouldn’t. But like… yesterday I was thinking that my mom would have liked you.” She smiles. “She had a thing for rebels. And it made me so sad that I don’t get to introduce you. I never even got to come out to her.”

“Is she where you got your ‘jump out of a window to go to a party’ attitude from? ‘Cause if so, I’d probably like her, too.” Ellen giggles and spins Tay around.

“What were they like? Your family, I mean. Unless you don’t wanna get into that, I just… Sometimes realize I don’t know a whole lot about you, but so much of what I don’t know seems like it’s probably really hard to talk about. So, like, no rush or anything. But, if you ever wanna tell me, just know that I wanna hear it. Promise.”

Tay laughs, tail flicking to keep balance during the spin. “Maybe! Apparently she did some wild shit as a kid. Baba - my dad - was serious and stoic like a rock but he could really talk your ear off once he got started. I had two younger siblings....” She trails off, clearly reluctant to talk about them. “We were happy, I think. It’s hard to remember… when I got sick they never told me anything anymore. I think they thought I had it bad enough, that they had to spare me from… I don’t know.” She stops dancing, looking at Ellen apologetically. “Hold on.”

She walks over to the bed and rummages in her bag until she finds her phone, then pulls a photograph out of the inside cover.

“Here, this is us.”   The photo shows a family arranged around a hospital bed. A short but wide man stands on the left, arm around a tall woman in a dress and headscarf who is sitting on the side of the bed. She clutches the hand of a girl sitting up in the bed, wearing a Guilds and Guardians shirt over a long-sleeved t-shirt and a black hijab around her face. It’s clearly Tay, though she looks rather more alive. On the front of the bed a boy of around ten sits with a big grin on his face, and a girl of around seven hangs on to her father’s coat.
Ellen holds the photo close to her face and takes in as much detail as she can. It’s definitely Tay — she’s seen pictures of her when she was alive before — but she looks like a completely different person in the context of her family. She has her mom’s nose. Her little brother has the same big toothy smile, minus the fangs. And Ellen had only seen Tay be serious, like dead serious, a few times, but she would get the same look on her face as her dad has in the picture.

Ellen is quiet aside from sniffles and finally a soft, “Wow,” after a few moments.

Tay sits down on the side of the bed, kicking her feet. “I wasn’t like, intentionally keeping them from you or shit. It’s still very new to me. I know it’s been two years but I was asleep for what, eighty percent of that? And...” She looks up at Ellen, tears in her eyes too. “And I thought it’d be mean of me. To talk to you about my family. I mean, uh… You…” She gestures with her hand.

“‘I…’ what?” Ellen looks up from the picture, confused. “What about that is supposed to be mean?”

She sits on the bed next to Tay and hands the picture back. “If you mean that I don’t talk about my family either, I mean fair. They’re not, like, dead or anything. It’s just… complicated for bullshit time reasons. Totally different. And I know you weren’t tryna hide anything. I just don’t want my trash life to make you feel like you can’t, or shouldn’t, talk about you. I *always* want you to talk more about you. You’re, like, my favourite person here!”

Ellen is nearly shouting by the end and flops back onto the bed, breathing deeply to try to calm herself. “Sorry.”

Tay flops back next to her and grabs hold of her hand.

“Me too. Am sorry, I mean. I guess some part of me thought it’d be bragging. It sounds really dumb now. Bragging about my dead family.” She turns on her side, looking at Ellen. “We both have pretty trash lives, huh.”

There’s a pause before Ellen responds. “It ain’t all bad.” She smiles and squeezes Tay’s hand.

**Just outside Fredericton. December 31, 2019. 11:45 pm.**

Tay cradles the disposable cups in her hands, making sure to wrap the mittens so the drinks inside don’t get cold too quickly. She’s happy they’re still warm in the first place - the thermos was a new acquisition, and she hadn’t been sure the contents would survive the trip.

“Here, babe,” she says, walking back to where the bike was parked, next to a small copse of trees on the top of the hill. “I thought you might want some cocoa.”

“Hell yeah I do. Thanks.” Ellen takes the cup and holds it up to her face, hoping the steam will warm her almost frozen nose. “Wow, it’s good,” she grimaces immediately after speaking, “not that you can’t make good cocoa. Heh.”

Ellen crouches next to her bag and starts rummaging through it with her free hand.

“Soooo, I know it’s not as fancy as whatever this fireworks show is gonna be, but I figured we should get in on the action too…” She smiles a mischievous, toothy smile as she pulls a pack of sparklers from her bag and waves them at Tay.

Tay’s eyes widen. “Hell yeah, sparklers! I love those little sons a bitches! But we’re not ready, hold on -” She grabs a blanket from where it’s lying, folded on the back of the bike, and wraps it around the both of them. “I’m glad you like it. Hot choco was my favourite drink when I was… you know.” She smiles and picks up her own cup. “Now I’m ready.”

Ellen rests her drink on the ground while she lights two of the sparklers, handing one to Tay before snuggling back in under the blanket. She swishes her sparkler around in the air, scribbling in golden light against the dark night sky.

“So what’re you gonna wish for?”

Tay takes her sparkler and holds it still, looking at the lights half-lidded until they become but flashes in a blurry sky. “I don’t know. Until recently all I really wanted was to survive but now? Hmmm…” She closes her eyes entirely, feeling the chill of the winter’s night sky, the softness of the blanket, the warmth of Ellen’s body next to hers.

“I will wish… for us to be left alone.” She nestles a bit closer.

*Why are both of my stupid hands full?!* Ellen chugs the rest of her hot chocolate, still too hot to drink that fast, just to have a hand free to pull Tay in closer under the blanket. She sputters through the words “Worth it,” breathing through her mouth to try to cool it off.

“Yeah, that’d be pretty fucking nice. All the time in the world to do whatever we want? Sign me up.” Ellen rests her head on Tay’s, rubbing her ears softly. “Actually, yeah. If you didn’t have to do anything ‘cept what you want - no worrying about fucking gambite, or vampires, or whatever - what *would* you do?”

Tay puffs up her cheeks. “Wow… uh. I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I guess I’d want to like, help people somehow? Maybe? Or…” She is quiet for a moment, leaning into Ellen’s touch. She may or may not purr slightly, don’t make a big deal about it. “I dreamt of making music, once. When I was very young. Saw bands on the telly, all jumping around and screaming and banging on drums and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.”

“Wait, seriously? Tay!,” Ellen reaches an arm out of the blanket, expecting her guitar to be there but instead just waves her hand through empty space, “oh right. Well, whatever, if you wanna learn to play, I can teach you! Guitar, anyway, it’s the only instrument I know. I left mine back at Mel’s, but we could start when we get back, or maybe there’s a pawn shop around here somewhere? Or maybe you could sing? I mean, I’ve never heard you sing, but you sound great just talking, so it’s not like being louder is gonna hurt.”

Having thrown it out of place, Ellen readjusts the blanket. “We should play something sometime. That sounds awesome.”

“I’d love to learn guitar! I can sing a bit, though I never got to have lessons.” Tay took a sip of her own drink. It was just hot cocoa - no blood in it, she’d run out - so it tasted like ash, but the warmth was pleasant. “Don’t know I’d be any good at writing lyrics though. Do you write the songs you perform? With the flex girls?”

“Uh, some of them. Mine are mostly just shouting about stuff though. Plus, we don’t perform - I mean, where would we? Who would even book us? Same way with Aman, and Marlie,” she snickers, “and Seth. It’s mostly just fun to hang out and shoot the shit and occasionally actually play some music. You should hang out with us sometime, it’s nice to just vent your feelings with a tune in the background.”

Ellen checks her phone for the time out of the corner of her eye; not much longer until midnight.

“Whoa, you don’t? But you’re so good! And you have like, singles and shit! And you’re all cool superheroes! I listen to your songs!” She makes an angry face on Ellen’s behalf. “We should get some venue to host you guys. It’ll be awesome.” She takes her own phone out and makes a note. “I’ll corner some music exec boomer in an alley and threaten to eat him if he doesn’t sign you. You’ll see!”

She puts an arm around Ellen, looking up at the sky.

“Should be soon.”

“Thanks for caring, but I promise that’s *so* not necessary. The music industry is super bogus and that exec would probably try to rebrand us in a super gross way, so no thanks. Plus, I’ve got all the audience I need right now, so whatever. Wanna count down?”

“Alright.” Tay smiles, and pulls up her phone so the countdown is visible as they look out over the city below. She imagines everyone in their houses down there, with family and friends, preparing for the new year to start just as they are.

The new year is ten seconds away. Then five, then three. At two seconds left, Tay turns to face Ellen. Her girlfriend’s face, one moment outlined only by the light of the moon and her phone, lights up the next second as fireworks go off in the distance. She can see them in her eyes, explosions of every colour and configuration reflected in the lenses.

She doesn’t know if she’s ever seen anything more beautiful.

Tay puts a hand on Ellen’s cheek, and kisses her.

**VHS Bar, Moncton. January 2, 2020. 10:09 pm.**

 Ellen rolls her bike to a stop, lowers the kickstand, and looks up at the dim neon sign above the door. Mallory was right; if she hadn’t been given the name and address, she’d have driven right past. A short, plain brick building with tinted windows, sandwiched between a diner that looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 80s, and a “shoe” store. She wonders why the word “shoe” has quotations around it, but decides it’s not important.

“This is it! Think Mal’s already here?” she asks over her shoulder.

“Probably!” Tay replies, getting off the back of the bike. “She spoke of it like this was, like, a home away from home. I just hope it’s as cool as she made it sound!” She looks around the street, inspecting her surroundings. “Definitely hard to find though. It’s like when in films there’s some secret fancy place only some people know of that you gotta have a password for and enter through a hole in a wine cellar or summin.”

“Yeah! Dude, do you think this is some kinda wrestlers only club that, like, you gotta *know someone* to get an invite to? Ugh, this is so cool.”

Ellen loosens her scarf and fixes her helmet hair in the window reflection of another parked car. She smiles at her reflection, finally accustomed to the black hair. She spins on her heel and points two finger guns at Tay. “Okay, got your passport?”

“Of course!” Tay smiles, holding it up between two fingers. “Think they’ll be fooled by our amazing secret identities, Joan?” She says, walking backwards towards the door and opening it - only to bump into someone on the other side of the door. Someone very large.

The bouncer looks down at the two girls, raising an eyebrow and holding a hand out to them palm up. “ID,” they demand in a low voice, drawing out each letter into its own sentence.

“Yeah sure thing, big guy.” Ellen plucks Tay’s passport out of her hand and drops both into the bouncer’s palm. “Careful with those, huh? We got borders to cross.” She returns the eyebrow raise.

They scan each document, their eyes visibly tracing each line of text on the picture pages. Their eyes move between the passports and the two “adults of legal drinking age” before them, and their eyes linger on Tay.

“Karnstein, huh?” Again the words seem to last forever.

“Hahahaha… yes…” Katayoun responds, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the scrutiny. Does every Canadian bar have a bouncer this suspicious? “It’s Austrian? Some old nobility shit I think I don’t have anything to do with it I’m adopted do you need my birth certificate.”

The bouncer raises one corner of their mouth in amusement, though their eyes remain unmoving. “No need.” They hand the passports back and stand aside, opening the way for the two to get inside. The sound of music, something with a heavy bass, emanates from the dark entryway.

Tay looks for Ellen’s hand and grabs it, then walks inside.

The bar is deceptively large, despite its humble exterior. It isn’t busy, but the people that are there seem lively, laughing and chatting and drinking. The walls are covered with photos and maps and strings of long white beads - except for one wall, which is covered in weapons.

“This place is AWESOME.”

“I guess…,” Ellen shrugs, looking around the place with a mix of confusion and frustration, “Y’know, from the name I was expecting there to be a ton of tvs with movies playing and stuff. Like, why else call this place ‘VHS bar’?”

She wanders over to the weapons wall, dragging Tay along with her, and nods at a pair of crossed axes in the middle of the display. “Think they’re real?” She asks with a tone of disbelief.

“Oh, they’re real alright,” Mallory says, from behind them. “Saw my aunt use ‘em in a hunt once, cut the head clean off! Got a wicked edge on ‘em. Hey guys!” She grins and claps them on the backs. “Glad you could make it!” She looks over the both of them, raising an eyebrow. “Still in your wrestling outfits?”

Ellen’s expression eases at seeing Mallory, finally a familiar face. “We told you we packed light. Good to see you, Mal. How’s your arm?”

“Eh, it’s been better, that’s for sure.” Mallory rolls her shoulder a few times and wrinkles up her face. Fresh bandages peek out from the neckline of her shirt. “That’s Les for ya. He means well, but *yikes!* he is too damn strong sometimes.”

Mal waves at one of the bartenders with a circle of her hand and leads the group to a free table. “You two look right as rain though. You’ve gotta tell me what kinda practice you get in with some of those moves you’ve got!”

Tay smiles widely when she sits down, excited at the scenery and the company. “We mostly fight a lot at home! Halcyon has a lot of people that need punching.” She laughs. “There’s never a dull moment, really. We do train sometimes - there’s like this weird holographic shit - but it’s not the same you know -”

Tay pauses her story for a second as a round of beers are brought to the table and launches right back into it, each girl sliding a glass towards themself. As Ellen is about to add the descriptor ‘probably haunted’ to Tay’s description of the danger room in the Big Base, she stops herself. There’s an uncomfortable but all too familiar feeling that makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end: people are watching her.

She sighs in disappointment. Even here, all this way away from Halcyon, people are keeping an eye on her. “Sorry guys, bathroom. Keep talking, it’s cool,” she pushes back from the table, “be right back.” Moving slowly towards the back exit, her eyes are darting around, trying to catch someone staring, when they catch the wall of weapons again. She’d gone straight for the big, fuck-off axes the first time, but now she notices the dim bar light glint off of one of the smaller trinkets on the wall. A string — maybe a necklace? — of long white beads. Still checking around her, Ellen sidles up to the display and focuses on the necklace. She very quickly realizes, and confirms by touch, that they aren’t beads at all; they’re teeth.

Fangs.

She practically jumps back from the wall, completely freaked out. Who the hell has a necklace of fangs? Whose fucking fangs? As the thought hits her, her eyes are furiously scanning the rest of the weapons arrangement: most of the weapons have some kind of cross symbolism on them, other bunches of fangs hang like tinsel around the room, a map that highlights locations in Washington State and Rhode Island.

Okay, she has no idea what that last one is supposed to mean, but once she realizes that the wooden handles of those same battle axes are tapered to points — stakes — the maps don’t matter. Ellen spins on her heels, horrified, and ready to run back to Tay.

The same Tay who is animatedly talking to Mallory, drink forgotten. “- So that’s how we ended up escaping the vault! It was really cool.”

“Wow. Sounds like it.” Mal replies, taking a sip from her beer. “So how’d you end up getting superpowers?”

“Oh, uh-” Tay seems taken aback by the question, taking a second to respond. “I… got them at a hospital, actually. An… experimental treatment, I guess..? Yeah.”

Mallory raises an eyebrow. “Huh. And then you moved to the US? Why?”

Tay frowns. “Uh… I just… I wanted something new..?”

Mallory narrows her eyes.

Ellen knocks into a few people as she rushes back to the table, barely able to keep a cool face. “Shit, Ta- uh... Carm, I just remembered we have those movie tickets! We gotta go, like, now if we wanna get good seats and stuff. You ready to head out?” She pleads at Tay with wide eyes, hoping she’ll go along with this obvious bullshit.

She keeps her eyes moving, checking to make sure they have a way out. Some other patrons of the bar are starting to move, getting up from their seats, looking in this direction. Tay’s direction. Mallory is staring directly at her.

"Huh? What?" Tay looks up at Ellen in confusion. "Oh, um, okay. Right, the movie. I'm sorry Mal, we can talk later - AH!” Before Tay can fully get to her feet, she is rocked by a sudden, piercing, burning pain in her hand. Looking down, a wooden stake is pinning her to the table; Mallory’s grip on the stake tightens as she rises from her chair, a very satisfied smile on her face.

“Sorry, but I don’t think you two are making that movie. Well, Ellen you can go if you want, you’re clean. *You* on the other hand,” her attention returns to Tay, “oughta go right back where you belong. Don’t worry, we can make this quick and pai- well, maybe not painless. Definitely quick, though!”

“THE HELL YOU CAN!” Ellen shouts as her boot makes contact with Mallory’s torso, launching her back and onto the floor. “Oh my god babe are you ok ok clearly not we gotta go ok this is prolly gonna hurt sorry!” She winces and yanks the stake out of Tay’s hand and hopes that won’t make things worse. Not like Tay has any blood to bleed, right?    "What the fuck! Ow!" Tay scrambles out of the chair, holding her injured hand. She dodges a second assailant coming after her with - oh, great, those are the axes from earlier. The music has stopped. All throughout the bar, patrons are rising to their feet. Pulling out weapons - hand crossbows, stakes.
Tay attempts to turn into a bat, but the people attacking them seem prepared, firing into the air to force her back into humanoid form. She manages to take out a few, knocking the handle of a crossbow back into its wielder's face and kicking another's legs out from under him, causing him to fall into those behind. Still, she ends up back to back with Ellen.

Throughout, the enormous bouncer stands stoically in the doorway, blocking it off.

“Ok Tay, I don’t like our odds here. I am accepting any and all ideas at this time!” Ellen hisses through gritted teeth, arms up and ready to take a swing at anyone who approaches. As she and Tay circle, still back to back, Ellen ends up face to face with Mallory.

“What the fuck, Mal?! I thought Canadians were supposed to be polite! First false advertising, then *this?* There isn’t a single goddamn VCR in this whole piece of shit murder bar, is there?!”

Mallory cocks her head to the side, the confusion clear on her face. She and several other patrons-turned-assailants share in the puzzlement until the bouncer says in their low drawl, “VHS. Like the old movie tapes.”

Mallory’s expression shifts from confusion to realization to amusement as she starts laughing. “Well yeah, E,” she wipes a tear from the corner of her eye, “we couldn’t really just get a sign that says ‘Vampire Hunter Society’, now could we?”

Despite the pain, Tay can't help but snort. "Okay, that's actually pretty hilarious." She shakes her injured hand. "Man, I've been staked before but that *really hurt*. Anyway, uh, it was nice meeting you all, but -" she grabs Ellen's hand - "We really do have to go! See ya!" She says, suddenly darting off not towards the door, but towards one of the walls, breaking through the hunters in their confusion.

As the wall looms ahead, her features change - the eyes glow red, her fangs and nails elongate, and the skin on her elbows and shoulders darkens as it seems to harden into a bone-like structure, peeking through the sleeveless shirt she wears as her jacket lies forgotten at the table. She raises a clawed arm and CRASH - the wall breaks before them.

They dash through the dust and debris into the building next door, running through racks of - shoes? Something seems off, but they *really* don't have time to investigate.

The door is right there. It's probably locked, but what's a lock to them?

Ellen coughs and waves the dust out of her face with her free hand while still being pulled along by Tay. They break down the store door easily and are out into the night again. Ellen doesn’t even mind the cold right now; they’ve got escaping to do, she can complain about the temperature later.

The two runaways jump on the bike as hunters pour out of the bar, heading for their own vehicles. Ellen revs the engine, shouting “GET A BETTER SIGN, IDIOTS!” at the oncoming mob before taking off.

**Alleyway behind a gas station. Moncton. January 2, 2020, 11:03 PM.**

Tay peeks around the corner, watching the last motorcycle drive away. The hunters may have had the home turf advantage, but they’d successfully escaped the pursuit.

“Phew.” She walks back to the bike and slumps against a wall, sliding down until seated. “That was a lot.”

“God, I thought they’d never leave. We should wait a few minutes before we move again; motorcycles aren’t exactly quiet, know what I mean?”

Ellen sits cross-legged in front of Tay. “How’s your hand?” She reaches hesitantly for Tay’s injury, unsure whether touching it will hurt her again.

Tay tries to smile reassuringly as Ellen takes her hand in hers. “It’s fine. Got a hole in it, but it doesn’t hurt anymore.” She closes her eyes. “I think it’ll heal next time I eat. Just gotta keep gloves on until then, I guess.”

She opens her eyes and looks worriedly at her girlfriend. “Are you okay?”

“Me? I’m not the one who a whole bar tried to kill,” Ellen can’t believe Tay still has the composure to ask after *her* wellbeing. She leans forward and rests her forehead on Tay’s now sleeveless shoulder.

“Looks like you saved my ass again. Thank you.”

She squeezes both of Tay’s hands and exhales deeply, watching her breath disappear into the night air.

“Well… I was scared, obviously. Am still scared.” Her ears flick backwards, lying flat on her head. “But I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me.” She squeezes back.

“Sucks that I couldn’t be friends with Mal. She was cool.”

“Yeah, until she went all Buffy on you! I thought that was just her gimmick, not her *actual life*.” Ellen moves one hand to stroke the top of Tay’s head. “You deserve better friends, anyway. Ones who don’t get beat up by some dude named ‘Lester’.”

She gives Tay a peck on the cheek and adds, “I’m glad you’re safe. And scared or not, you got both of us out of there. You were awesome, Tay.”

Tay blushes. “Thank you. So were you, the way you kicked her to the ground…” She is quiet for a moment. In the aftermath of the fight, and the injury, her senses seem to have become stronger; she can sense Ellen’s heartbeat, the warmth of her body. Smell the people in the gas station they’re hiding behind. A dead rat in the dumpster down the alley.

She’s really hungry, fuck.

“Um. Ellen? Could we go home?”

“What? Yeah, totally. This place fucking sucks.” Ellen hops to her feet and offers a hand to help Tay up as well. “The sooner we’re away from those stab-happy nut jobs, the better!”

**VHS Bar, Moncton. January 2, 2020. 11:05 pm.**

 Back at the VHS bar, the society is in clean-up mode. Broken glass needs sweeping up, all the weapons need to be returned to the library, and there are plenty of wounds to patch up.

And standing in the middle of all of it is Mallory, leaning on the handle of a broom, lost in thought. As the door creaks behind her she whips her head around to see who’s just walked in; she doesn’t even try to hide her disappointment at seeing Lester.

“Sorry kiddo. We lost ‘em out by the 490, but Dana figures they just made a beeline straight out of the city.” He sighs and places a reassuring hand on Mal’s shoulder. “Don’t worry ‘bout losing out on your first big get. There’ll be others,” he narrows his eyes in disgust and stares off into the middle distance, “there’s always more of ‘em. Eugh.”

Les pats Mal’s shoulder as he’s about to walk past her, when she clamps a hand down on top of his.

“Actually, Les, they only got away if I let them.” She takes a few slow, deliberate steps over to the bar where “Carmilla’s” jacket was slung over a barstool. Mal dusts it off and slides it on; it’s tight, just barely fitting over her well-built arms.

“I wonder what Halcyon City is like. I feel like I only got a taste. Maybe I’ll go on a little road trip, too.”

Seeing Mallory’s confident smile, Lester can’t help but be touched. She might be the newest member of the New Brunswick chapter of the Vampire Hunter Society, but damn it, she has the spirit.