Episode 1.06 Unforgettable

Jennifer pauses and listens to the tune, waiting for it to end to see what else she might hear afterward. It is like a record player being reset so that the song repeats. Probably like a gramophone or something. There is no light shining out from the boarded up house. She gets a creepy feeling about the place.

She investigates. She enters the property and walks up the path to the front door. She stands, listens and then knocks. The door is boarded up. “Hello?”

No response – the music just keeps playing.

She walks around to the back of the property and sees the back of the property has all been recently dug up with graves and crosses marking them. The graves are perfectly formed, not open but covered over. PERCEPTION 17 – Jennifer hears what sounds like a baby crying inside.

She pulls out her cellphone and calls the professor. He answers.

She whispers loudly “Hey professor – you won't believe what I've found – an abandoned house, all boarded up with a dozen fresh graves out back back.. Small ones. Hang on a minute – now they've disappeared. That's weird ...”

“Do you want me to be there or can you handle it yourself.”

“I think I can handle it – now the graves are gone – I just thought it could be heaps of vampires. I'm at … address so if anything happens to me you at least have a clue about where to start searching for me. See ya.”

She goes to the back door. It's boarded up. A big single piece of board, nailed in place. She then looks along the ground at the foundations, looking for any opening to the basement area of the house. There are basement doors which open out. They are latched but not locked. She opens them. She calls out “Hello?”

The music stops.

“Who's in there? I know there's someone inside, why don't you come out? I'm just concerned, that's all? This place doesn't look safe for you. I'm here to help.”

The music starts up again.

Jennifer drops down into the basement and lets her eyes adjust to the darkness. Then she looks around moving towards the music. It is a storm shelter basement. Old tins of food and things are down here. There are candles and a lamp. Torches. She grabs a torch and uses it to light things up. She looks for some stairs. They lead up to a trap door. She pushes on it. It opens., She shines the torch light up – there is a musty hallway up there. She climbs up into the hallway and looks around. She follows the music.

There is a stairway by the front door that leads up. Other doors are closed. She goes up the stairs. There is a baby crying up there. She follows the sound of the baby and looks for it. Second room on the left upstairs – the door is ajar. She opens it and enters. Shines the torch around.

The room is sparsely furnished. There is a cot. No people. She examines the cot, shining the torch. Inside the cot is a doll with a dummy in its mouth. That's weird Jennifer thinks.

She goes looking for the source of the music. It is in the room opposite. She goes in. There is arecord playing unforgettable on a gramophone. There is also a rocking chair in the room. It is rocking slowly. The chair faces the door at an angle and there is no one in it.

She approaches the gramophone and lifts the stylus needle to stop the music playing. “Hello?”

No answer. The baby cries again. She stands and waits to see what happens. Then there is a creaking stairs sound and there is a rasping voice “we are unforgettable” and there are shuffling footfalls on the floor in the hallway.

“Hello? Are you OK? I'm here to help you.”

An old lady enters the room and she is dressed in a winter dressing gown and she has a shawl around her face. She shuffles into the room and Jennifer can see she is a vampire. She draws her witch blades and prepares to fight. “My my, you are far too old for me. I wonder why they sent you?” Then she sees the witch blades and starts flying/floating around the room.

Jennifer says “This is sick and I am going to stop you.” She swings twice with the witch blades and prepares to dodge the vampire. She connects the first time.

The vampire bashes Jennifer, who attacks again but fails to hit her as she flies past, laughing and cackling. “There's a fight about you young lady, warming up your blood just for me.”

The old vampire strikes with her hand as she passes Jennifer.

Jennifer slashes the vampire in response and then dodges successfully.
Jennifer then strikes her twice in quick succession, resulting in the old lady vampire dissolving into a white powder on the floor.

“Sucks to be you,” Jennifer says. She kicks out the boards from the window and looks outside to the back yard. She can see the graves are there with twelve children standing beside them, looking up at her. She knows immediately that they are all vampires.

One of the children looks up, pointing a kitchen knife and says … “she killed our nanna.”
One of the others says “let's play hide and seek.”
Then all the children enter the house using the basement access.

Jennifer exits out of the window and drops to the ground below. She moves to the basement entrance and looks down. There is no movement. She drops down. Grabs matches and some lighter fluid and climbs out of the basement. She then sprinkles lighter fluid all around the basement entrance, lights a mtahc and drops it in, closing the doors.

She stands by the back door waiting for any of the kids to come out, with witch blades at the ready. She only wait for about 3 minutes, because she is acutely aware that neighbours might call the fire brigade.

She exits the property and moves on down the road, avoiding obvious street lights and waits a bit. She sees the house go up in flames. Moves away on her patrol. She calls the professor. He answers.

“Is everything alright?”
“Yes – I just killed a nasty old lady vampire and torched her place with a dozen little vampire kids inside. So … job done. I am continuing patrol.”
“Yes … well … well done ...” he says.
“I'll let you know if anything else happens. See ya.”

The remainder of the patrol is uneventful.

“So how did it go with the Japanese dudette?” Jacob asks Jennifer.
“Great – we went to the park and talked a lot,” Jennifer tells him.
“Right, girl talk right?”
“Yeah, mostly. Did you know that Shikarsu had never eaten a hot dog before? ”
“Really?” Jacob says. “See, she is most exotic.”
Tanya replies by jabbing her hand into his ribs. “It's been the conversation about you two leaving together.”
“Yes … well people have such sheltered lives,” Jennifer replies. “Shikarsu actually speaks very good english. She has travelled the world to be here. Her dad's the ambassador and they are going to be here for five years.”

“Yes … well people have such sheltered lives,” Jennifer replies. “Shikarsu actually speaks very good english. She has travelled the world to be here. Her dad's the ambassador and they are going to be here for five years.”
“Speaking of which, her dad was on TV last night being interviewed.” Jacob says.
“What did he talk about?” Jennifer asks him.
“Hmmm … talked about trade and how he's looking forward to his assignment here. A little bit about Japan. Hey, they play baseball over there. Did you know that?”
“Yeah – Shikarsu told me. She told me all sorts of stuff. But some of it was weird so I repeat it. Not here.”
“Well if it's weird weird then I don't want to know about it.” Jacob says. “Anyway we're shooting off to pick up Scooby. Want to come with us?”
“Yes, I'd like that. How is he doing since his little accident in the cemetary?”
“Well,: Jacob says. “The vet says we can take him home so he's OK. He'll have a leg in plaster for a little while.”
“It's good he's well” Jennifer replies.

They go in a station wagon and pick up Scooby from the vet. His front left leg is in plaster. They then go to an old style two story colonial house and Jacob says “This is where Gabriel and Ryan have set themselves up. Come and have a look!”

“Thanks, I''d like that.”

They go inside and meet up with Gabriel and he shows them the basement. Shelvings of books are down there, with loads more books in boxes that haven't been set up yet. Another room has computers and Gabriel introduces Ryan to Jennifer.

“Pleased to meet you,” Jennifer says. “Thanks for your warning about the hunters the other night. That saved me.”

“Yeah, no problems.” Ryan says. “They've been fairly quiet since then. But there was a report last night about a fire at a house in Crawford Lane. It looked like the hunters suspected the place as a target for some time. But someone beat them to it and burned the place down.”

“I know,” Jennifer tells them. “Can you guys keep a secret?”

Gabriel says “We already knew. The professor called us. We're a lot closer in case you get into trouble than he is, so we could have helped.”

Ryan says “An interesting thing about this is that police have been getting calls throughout the night. I've got a recording here -” he activates a computer file.

Operator “9-1-1 can I help you?”
Female voice “Yes, Ummm, my children have woken up to this strange sound we are hearing. It is coming from down the street. It is an old song.”
Operator “Are you calling this as a disturbance madam?”
Female “Yes yes my neighbours can hear it too. We just had fire engines here as old Nanny Hetta's house was burning. Its the same song she always used to play until she died three years ago. No someone else is playing it and its very loud. Everyone in the street can hear it.”
Operator “Right maam we have a vehicle close by and he'll be with you in three minutes.”
Female “Thank you thank you”

[tape ends]

Ryan says “That was about 3.30 this morning. About seven hours after the fire call out.”

Gabriel asks “Did you hear that song at all Jennifer?”

“Yes I did when I was on patrol. That is what got my attention in the first place. The thing that bothers me is I destroyed the old lady vampire. But before I fought her she entered the house and the hallway saying 'we are unforgettable' … the name of the song was 'unforgettable' … but now I can't help but wonder whether either some of her children vampires survived or if there is another in that neghbourhood who is doing the same thing. Tell me … did any of the police radio traffic make any mention of twelve graves being found in the backyard of that derelict house that I burnt?”
“they called in a codeword that meant whatever they needed to discuss had to be encrypted,” Ryan says. “They went to a secure channel. Maybe that is what they were going to discuss.”

Gabriel says “Look, have you heard of the Art of Memory?”

“No, should I have?”

“Well .. perhaps not. When Shakespeare did a play at the Globe theatre there were certain props used on the stage and certain guests were dressed in certain outfits. The idea of this was when performers would do the play that the props and clothing that the guests wore activated specific words or phrases of the play. So it meant that the actors knew the basics of the play but when they went out and enacted it the detailed script was prompted by the props. It was thanks to this that we have blackboards and whiteboards at school. Now the song 'unforgettable' could be tied in a similar respect that it is the song that is the power … not particularly the person who played it. The song had significance in that place. I am thinking that the song that was heard last night was a resonance from the remains of the house. Like its haunted, but by a song, rather than a thing or a person.”

“Can it be stopped?” Jennifer asks him.
“Its ironic that the song title represent its power. No one in that area will forget that song. And because they cannot forget that will give that haunting song more power. It is like an annoying ditty that you can't get out of your mind. When you do get it out of your mind you hear it on the radio and its starts all over again.”

“So, over time, it will take the residents who heard the original song to leave and be replaced by people who never knew the song so that it will diminish in its power. Is that the only way to stop it?”

Gabriel nods and says “Yes that's about it. It's going to take time.”

Jacob says “So this song is going to haunt the street every night? Because if it is then that's one street I intend to avoid.”

Gabriel says “No. Similar things that I have researched tend to indicate its an anniversary of the event. Like the burning of the house and the death of the woman.”

“That's not so bad then,” Jennifer says. “The residents can probably live OK with that.”

Gabriel nods and says “Provided it doesn't manifest itself into something else. Only time will tell.”

Tanya says “So where do those children come from I wonder?”

“Probably missing kids?” Jennifer suggests. “They were all very young.”

Ryan says “What did they look like. I mean were they like us, or foreign?”

“Like us, I guess. I didn't get a good look at them. ”

“There have been a couple of reports recently of illegal immigrants from the middle east, or somewhere, and they have been buying children from other immigrant families in Old Town.” Ryan says.

Tanya blanches at that “That's disgusting, what would they use them for?”

Ryan says “Well child slavery does exist out there. We're lucky its illegal here.”

“The other option,” says Gabriel “is that they could have been sequestered from hospitals or the likes by people dressed as nursing staff. Its just an option, one that requires considerable organisation when you think about it.”

Ryan says “the end product really is just them staying with an old lady. That's what it seems to be.”

“Hey! They were vampire children. Whose to say vampires can't have kids?”

“That's just weird,” Jennifer says.

Jacob says “Hey there are a lot of people out there who would think that what you did last night is weird.”