Vampire a Go-Go

ARE YOU EDWARD KELLEY?

Yes.

Zabel pauses to say something to Allen and Amy, but I can’t hear it. It’s as if a translucent, purple curtain hangs between us. Zabel turns back to me.

Tell me about the philosopher’s stone.

I say nothing.

Tell me.

No.

Now Zabel gets tough. I feel something, like he’s reaching inside me, strong-arming. It feels like cold iron fingers in my chest, getting a hold of my soul, squeezing it like a physical thing. I scream, and nobody hears it. I cry. Nobody sees the tears.

I see the look on Zabel’s face. Annoyed. Like he couldn’t open a tough jar of peanut butter.

And then there is pain. I talk, spill everything I’ve ever known or will know about the stone. I’m not sure how long it takes. I talk until I stop, and then Zabel asks another question and I talk again. It becomes a kind of confession, but Zabel becomes impatient whenever I get too personal. He cares not one tiny shit about my tortured soul. Just the facts, man.

And I’m weeping. Telling it all over again. It has been so long, so many years. To talk to somebody and have them talk back. But he’s finished before I am. I want to tell him so much more, so much I’ve seen over the years and centuries. Zabel’s indifference is like a punch in the face.

Where is Roderick the astrologer buried?

I tell him. Why not? I’d tell him anything. Just please keep talking to me.

The Vysehrad. Prague’s other castle.