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Appendix Two
Outtakes and Exerpts
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These are story parts which ended up on the cutting room
floor.
They have no bearing on the story, and in some cases are flatly impossible.
Enjoy at your own risk.
Winter 2 BC, Outside of Rome...
Eadgils watched as the man bent over the woman, his face suddenly changing, as his teeth
elongated into fangs.
With a growl, he tore into the woman’s throat, greedily gulping at the suddenly
released flow of blood.
“Vampire!” Eadgils hissed to himself. While he had never seen a Vampire before,
he had heard stories of them for as long as he could recall. Some of the stories said they
were humans, whose souls had been replaced by demons. Others claimed they still had their
human souls, however they were alternately dammed or burdened by some taint or curse. Some
stories claimed they could fly, or change their forms, others said they could not.
According to some tales, they were afraid of, or harmed by the sun, garlic, wood, holy
ground, and blessed articles or relics. But one thing all the stories agreed on, like an
Immortal, if their head left their shoulders, it was all over for them.
As silently as he could, he readied his sword, and approached the feeding beast.
Despite his precautions, he must of made some sort of noise, for as he stopped, the
Vampire turned his head to look up, even as Eadgils started a move he had executed on his
own kind hundreds of times in the past.
The only sound in the night however, was the swish-chunk, followed a few moments later by
a hollow thunk as the creatures head bounced onto the hard packed earth.
Eadgils looked mournfully at the creature’s victim, then turned away and headed back
into the night...
...Looking out through the window, Eadgils could see someone tossing a brown canvas
suitcase out of a car, and drive away.
Patrick made it outside before the suitcase stopped rolling. Bending over, he picked it
up, only to have the handle break on one side, the suitcase swing back towards the ground,
slide along it, opening the zipper, and spilling the contents into the dirt.
Eadgils had to fight an insane urge to laugh, the whole scene looking like something
Laurel and Hardy would of staged in one of their films.
As Patrick bent down to start gathering his belongings, Eadgils made a decision. He could
give the boy a lift to Memphis, he supposed. After all, picking up strays was something he
was always good at...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Winter, 869 BC, Egypt
Eadgils cringed at the crunching sound as the cart crushed the older man known as Tak Ne.
However, since he had met the man shortly before, he knew a secret. While Tak Ne was now
dead, his journey through life was just beginning. But he would need a teacher. Eadgils
supposed it would have to be him. At least for a while.
He waited until after Tak Ne had revived, and escaped.
“Tak Ne!” Eadgils called.
“Ead Gil?” Tak Ne responded in shock,
“Yes, Tak Ne. Come with me. We have to talk.”
“But Ead Gil, it is most amazing. I died, and now I walk again!”
“I know that my friend, and walk you may for a very long time, as long as you keep
your head on your shoulders.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I, like you will heal from almost any injury. Observe.” With that,
Eadgils pulled his belt knife, and slashed the heel of his hand, holding the wounded
appendage out for Tak Ne’s examination. Tak Ne watched in horrified fascination as
the wound pulled it’s self closed and healed, little sparks of light stitching the
wound until there was nothing left but bloody, unbroken skin.
“Are you a God?” Tak Ne asked.
“No, you and I, we are Immortals. There are many of us, oh, not so many as of regular
men, but it seems like every week or so one of us turns up somewhere. When two of us turn
up at the same place, we will occasionally fight. If we do, then it is just between the
two of us, one-on-one. That’s the First Rule. The Second Rule states we will not
fight on Holy Ground. It matters not the God or Goddess, nor the faith. If you don’t
know, and try, you will feel a pain in your head, like the ringing of a gong in your mind.
Beyond that I have not heard what happens. Finally, when two Immortals do fight, and one
of us loses, then only the one who wins will walk away. The other will not rise, because
Rule Three says simply, In The End, There Can Be Only One.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taking a deep breath, Eadgils headed on outside, and called to Patrick, “Need a new ride?”
Skate Place:
First Practical Bank Of Memphis:
Bottom of Foster's Canyon, New Mexico:
.
Chillin' and Killin' - A possible sequil to Meeting Of
Minds
...It was one of those hot , sticky afternoons, the kind which remind you
that LA is a city built in a desert alongside an ocean, when she opened the door and
strolled into my place with more wiggle in her hips than a truck with bad springs on a
bumpy road.
I could tell from the look in her eye that she was trouble. Trouble with a capital T. The
dame spoke, her soft voice so smoky and full of promise it could be used to preserve meat.
"You the Private Detective Maxwell Chillin?"
"Sure am toots, what's it to ya?" I asked, my eyes traveling the length of her
gorgeous gams, past curves worthy of a mountain road, to settle on her face.
"My name's Sue Danning, and I need to find someone."
I took in her delicate, ringless finger, and looked into her cool green eyes, her face
framed by a fall of long, soft brown hair so shiny it seemed to glow. "Who ya need to
find?" I asked her.
"Myself" she replied, sitting on the available chair and reaching into her purse
to extract an envelope...
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Afterward
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Many of the places and things described in this story are real. I went to
quite a bit of trouble finding phones from Scotland that would work in the U.S, stores
open at 9:00pm on a Sunday in Memphis, Restaraunts, Hotels, Morgues(Patrick was busted out
of the same room the real Elvis Pressley was stored in immediately after his death), even
the CD playing in the Roller Rink (“Queen The Platinum Collection” The last 2
songs on that disk are “We Will Rock You, and “We Are The Champions. And the
first track, should the CD start over again, would indeed be, “Bohemian
Rhapsody”. All the lyrics quoted from those songs are owned by their creators, or the
people they sold them to, not to me. I used them here only out of respect, and as I said
in the beginning, there is no copyright infringement intended) was real. I hope you
enjoyed this story. If you liked it, let me know. Perhaps I will do a sequel. Sue has been
wanting to visit Seacouver for quite a while.
Dana Short. September, __ 2003
(www.DanaShort.com)
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