The Case of the Counterfeit Curses

Ethan-Vision

Ethan Morgan here.

If you're reading this, you might be wondering why I'm writing out this particular adventure in full. And why I'm going into all this detail. After all, we, Team SaBRE, have only ever wrote out short reports of our fights with monsters . . . just to keep track of how we defeated them.

I mean, take the siren we fought at the talent show. I thought we needed to remember exactly how we made her jealous, and reversed the sound waves of her song right back at her. You know, just in case we ever ran into another.

But this battle is different. I'm writing a novel-length account. Well, speaking into the mike on my voice dictation program while chillin' in my room, but same difference.

I'm calling this The Case of the Counterfeit Curses. Bringing rationality into the supernatural.

I'm spending a Friday morning in December, and just not any Friday morning but the first snow-day this year doing this. Why? For weeks now, the adventure's been giving me nightmares. I'm know I'm whining (after all it was nothing compared to the one-year and nine months of being a vamp that Sarah went through). But I went through what was for me torture. For anyone who hasn't dealt with the supernatural . . . at least the evil supernatural . . . it would be worse. Imagine not being able to . . . well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Well, first things first. I was going to play video games with Benny today, but Benny thinks a snow day's for sleeping in until noon. As for Rory, well the snow's heavy and wet so he's out making a snowman with his puppy Krypto. You'd think a 16 year old guy was too old for that (too old for anything but tobogganing, tobogganing that's still cool!), but that's Rory for you.

I'll be going over to Sarah's tonight, to say goodbye before she leaves. They expect the snow to be over and the roads to be cleared by then. More on that later. But right now Sarah's relaxing by the fire in her living room catching up on some reading. We were just talking.

Okay, back to this adventure. It's the worst that I've faced PERSONALLY. I mean for me. Way worse than being tortured by Coach Ed, spending a couple days as a werewolf, framed by a possessed car, even my Toronto battle-to-the-death with three very old and very angry vamps.

It's tough to say what was the worst overall. It's a matter of opinion. Like asking someone their favourite Star Wars character. Is it Obi-Wan Kenobi (mine), Hans Solo (Benny's) or Yoda (Rory's)? Or even someone like Luke Skywalker or Chewbacca?

Man, but I think that our worst adventure overall was the very first! That was the one that made Sarah, Rory and Erica vampires to begin with (for one-year nine-months, but it looked like forever back then). We also lost several of Sarah's Dusker friends to the vamps. On the plus side, we defeated Jesse's plan to bring back his un-dead pals from his Reverend Black days. And how can I forget that's how I came to be friends with Sarah!

A close second for worst was Jesse's return. We were completely pawned. Jesse got what he wanted in making Sarah a full vamp. Third worst, Hottie-ho-tep, who tried to give Sarah his special tea. In fact, as far as villains go he may have been even worse than Jesse! But no one believes me on that!

Most awesome adventure, no question, was the Lucifractor. It started out crappy, make no mistake. Stern in complete control. Benny hypnotized. Me, seeing everyone as a corpse. But, man, how it ended when I tricked Stern into detonating the lucifractor! Sarah, Rory and Erica cured! Sarah and me girlfriend and boyfriend! Vampire council building, powder! Anastasia, dead! Jesse, dead! Every other vampire in Whitechapel exiled and unable to come back.

How did my friends (okay, friends and Erica) get cured? Well, when Jesse told me vampires need dark energy to survive, he was wrong. The vampire's CURSE needs dark energy to survive. When the lucifractor's power was concentrated on a vamp, it acted like a laser beam. It destroyed the vamp along with the dark energy. But with the explosion, it actually sent out a shock wave that destroyed all the dark energy in the area without destroying the vamps. The blast just knocked them out, while starving them of the dark energy that their curse ran on. That's what happened to Sarah. By the time she recovered consciousness, she was as fully and permanently human as if Jesse had never bitten her in the first place.

Because once dispersed, dark energy takes a few YEARS to rebuild, any vamp going into Whitechapel gets slowly starved of dark energy and cured. That's what happened to Rory and Erica. A couple days later, Benny and I gave Rory a demonstration on all he needn't to know about vamps that he didn't know before. Now Rory likes the idea of being a vamp as much as Benny, me or Sarah. That is, not at all! It's not too surprising when you remember Rory was always, like me, a sci-fi geek (a crazy sci-fi geek in Rory's case, but Rory's insane in a good way) and was making fun of Dusk just hours before he got invited to the wrong party

Erica was harder. At first, she wanted to be a vamp so badly she was going to run away to find one to bite her again. But a vision told me the fracking creep she had in mind was going to drain her dead (as for that vamp creep, he died after losing his arm to vengeful ghosts - friends of Benny, Rory and me - and being personally staked by me. But that's a long story).

Erica wouldn't believe me. In fact, I had to make a bargain with her. When she's 21, I promised to trade a pint or about 500mL of my blood to those bloodsuckers who run the phony blood-drive. In return they bite her again and turn her into a vampire. Erica, for her part, promises not to prey on anyone in Whitechapel, not to turn anyone in Whitechapel into a vamp, and not to encourage anyone in Whitechapel to become a vamp. Those conditions weren't only to protect the town, but Sarah and Rory.

As for everyone else but Erica, we're officially dedicated to protecting Whitechapel from supernatural evil in all its forms. Supernatural evil, because good supernatural phenomenon (like the spell-master powers Benny inherited from his grandmother) don't need to be fought. As for ordinary evil, we'll fight it when we can but at least, here, we have the police on that job. We even have a team name now, Team SaBRE. As in light sabre. It's also an acronym. SArah, Benny, Rory and Ethan. Sarah definitely deserves to be first. If you're thinking it's unfair I'm last . . . you're right. But we went with the Canadian spelling for SAbre.

But . . . the end-result was Team Sabre fought well and good. We crushed a Yeti. Even without Sarah; Benny, Rory and I managed to take down a few vengeful bloodsuckers when were staying with Benny's mom in Toronto. With Sarah, and even with Erica along, we dispatched a "murder" of angry gremlins. And then . . . nothing.

For several weeks everything was normal. Well, Benny practised his magic but didn't cause any major havoc. My "expanded" seer powers were under my control.

In fact, everything was cool. For me, taking Math, Physics, Computer Programming and Biology together, in one semester, was awesome.

(Benny claims our math teacher, Ms. Steele, makes Stern look like Mr. G. Benny has a point, discipline wise. But Benny shut-up when I told him Ms. Steel hadn't yet put him in a magical trance or tried to shoot fire-balls at me)

Benny and Rory are in all my classes, which is cool. Sarah's a year older, so she's in none. Which sucks, but what're you going to do?

That's okay as I'm used to it and it hasn't meant any trouble. We've hung-out a lot, I even went with Sarah to a Halloween party a pal in the Mathletes threw (I don't need to repeat what happened at my party last year). Is it ever cool going to a party with your girlfriend!

Benny took Della. Would you believe I fixed the two of them up? Sort-of. With, uh, encouragement from Benny, advice from Sarah and a major assist by Rory.

Della was in shock for well over a year over the incident with her dog Puffles, and the demon that possessed Puffles' revived body. A type of PTSD. Della went to counseling, and had it all explained away. But that's what normally happens to people who face trauma. I guess one of the "gifts" that comes with being a seer is bouncing back from things like that. It doesn't explain . . . I'll get to that later, but for now back to Della.

Della's dad is one of my dad's most important clients. A little detective work, and I, uh, copied the number from my dad's cell and gave it to Benny to call Della at home. The old-school landline number. But by Benny timing his call just right, Della was the only one home to answer. Benny agreed to meet Della at the dog-park on a Saturday morning. He told her he had to walk his friend's dog. Benny'd meet her and PJ at the park.

The dog was Rory's major assist. Lending Krypto to Benny. I won't go over how much Rory didn't want to lend his puppy out, even for one morning. Rory thinks lending out a pet is insulting to the dog. Weird. But Rory finally gave in and agreed.

Sarah's advice was good, and it was given direct to Benny.

"You can't be a jerk" Sarah said bluntly. "Don't follow the advice in Be A Man magazine. Try to be yourself . . . but just try not to act like jerk."

Benny and Krypto met Della and PJ ("Puffles Junior") at the dog park. Benny wasn't a jerk, and the two hit it off. They went to a movie, they went to the Halloween party and then they double-dated with us for dinner at a restaurant.

That's where "disaster struck", as they say. And I'll never forget when. Saturday, November 2 at 7:16 pm.

Author's Note

This chapter details some of the events that occurred in previous stories in this series. In order, the stories are; "The End of the Beginning", "Ethan to the Future", "Good versus Evil or Some Assembly Required", "Busman's Holiday" and "The Attack of the Gremlins".

This story is the last in this series. Thanks for reading. Reviews appreciated.