I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 111: The Unconventional Vampire (Patreon)

When Liam arrived at the TV station, he was greeted by the most chaotic scene he'd ever seen.

For some reason, the place was packed with hippies of every description. They were sprawled all over the floor, cigarettes in hand, filling the room with smoke.

Strangely enough, James and Taylor seemed completely unfazed by them. They were even treating the hippies quite politely.

Liam walked over and asked,

"Hey, guys. What's going on?"

James immediately looked up warily, but the moment he saw Liam, he relaxed.

"Kid, you're finally back. Something big happened yesterday."

Liam's heart sank.

He hadn't expected trouble to break out after he'd been gone for only a day.

Seeing his expression, James laughed and explained,

"Relax. Someone just reported us for stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and contraband."

Weapons of mass destruction?

Liam immediately knew who had reported him.

Fortunately, all his weapons were in his truck, so that trick hadn't accomplished anything.

"Then what's with all the hippies?"

James grinned smugly.

"That cop friend of yours really came through for us. He tipped us off about the surprise inspection ahead of time, so we hid all the important videotapes to make sure nobody could secretly sabotage them.

"After the inspection, we wanted to keep those competitors from reporting us again, so we had Dylan round up a whole bunch of hippies and surround the police station and the FCC field office.

"We had a perfectly legitimate reason for protesting, and once I promised them free cigarettes and booze, they were more than happy to help."

James shrugged.

"And that's how we got the FCC to agree that, for the time being, they won't accept any more complaints against our station."

James made it sound simple, but Liam knew it couldn't possibly be that easy.

They had temporarily avoided the crisis by making enough noise to draw attention to it, but that only meant whoever was targeting them would be more careful next time.

Still, Liam was glad James and the others had managed to handle the situation themselves while he was away.

Without even realizing it, he'd built up a fairly solid network of contacts in the city.

At the same time, something bothered him.

Liam glanced out the window.

In the past, whenever he'd stayed in one place for too long, strange men in black would eventually appear.

They never approached him. They simply watched him from a distance.

For some reason, though, they had never shown up at the TV station.

Maybe they'd stopped monitoring him.

Or maybe they were preparing something much bigger.

Liam couldn't tell, but he was prepared for trouble either way.

He turned back toward the hippies.

These people might not be particularly good at accomplishing anything, but they were remarkably talented at ruining things. It was worth staying on good terms with them.

"Guys, thank you for all your enthusiasm. To celebrate the success of this operation, I'm going to hold a concert dedicated to freedom!

"And everyone here gets in for free."

"Mr. Liam, you're amazing!"

"That's right, Mr. Liam! From now on, you're our spiritual leader!"

The hippies erupted into cheers.

Liam didn't care about being called their spiritual leader, but increasing his influence among people like them could still be useful.

Recently, he'd been coming into contact with more and more factions, and he was starting to feel painfully short on manpower.

Besides, various programs and public events might also allow him to gather some faith.

Before long, the hippies finished off the free cigarettes and alcohol and headed home.

At last, only the station's own people remained.

Liam looked at Dylan and the others.

"So, how are your technical skills coming along?"

"Ahaha... pretty well, I guess?"

Dylan laughed awkwardly.

They'd spent the past two days having such a good time that they'd completely forgotten they were supposed to be learning how to operate the cameras.

Liam shook his head with a smile.

He'd expected as much.

These guys would never pass up an opportunity to slack off.

Still, they were decent people at heart, and they had genuinely helped out, so Liam didn't hold it against them.

For the rest of the day, Liam, James, and Taylor taught Dylan and the others the skills they would need later.

The young men were college students, after all. Their schools might not have been anything special, but they were perfectly capable of learning.

They picked things up quickly.

Liam estimated that in another few days, they'd be able to operate the equipment well enough to handle basic filming.

Meanwhile, Liam began writing plans for his upcoming programs.

James came over to look through them and quickly noticed a major problem.

"These shows need a lot of kids, but we're running out of time. And some of these activities look pretty scary. I don't think we'll be able to find enough guests."

Liam smiled mysteriously.

"Don't worry. I've already found all the kids we need, and they're plenty brave."

James stared at him suspiciously, then suddenly looked horrified.

"You're not planning to kidnap children from an orphanage, are you?"

"Is that really the kind of person you think I am?"

...

After work, Liam didn't head home right away.

Instead, he went to Wolf's house.

Nikita had already been waiting there for quite some time.

As soon as Liam arrived, Nikita anxiously asked,

"Mr. Liam, you said you encountered some unusual Vampires, right?"

Liam nodded and told him what had happened in the town, describing Brown and Vlad in detail.

After hearing the description, Nikita actually seemed relieved.

Still, he asked cautiously,

"Can you guarantee that everything you're telling me is true?"

"I'm the host of a children's TV show. I don't even lie to kids, so why would I lie to you? Besides, I recorded the whole thing."

Only then did Nikita finally relax.

He was just a minor member of the organization, and this was the first time he'd ever been caught up in something this serious.

He said to Liam,

"I'll take you to meet our boss. He might be able to give you some answers."

The mention of his boss made Liam curious.

"Who exactly is your boss? I get the feeling you people operate very differently from Vlad and his group."

Wolf cut in from the side.

"He's a mob boss. Nikita's always trying to recruit me as his muscle."

Nikita frowned.

"Wolf, show some respect. We only made it here safely, and managed to do a little business along the way, because of him."

Wolf fell silent.

Liam, on the other hand, became even more curious.

There was a huge difference between an Eastern European gang and a hospital.

What had caused the two Vampire groups to develop so differently?

Nikita made a phone call.

After receiving permission, he and Liam drove to meet the boss.

Eventually, they reached an old, run-down neighborhood and stopped outside a club with music blasting from inside.

Nikita led Liam through the entrance and pushed through the crowd of dancers until they reached a quiet room in the back.

Inside, Liam saw several Vampires with Eastern European features.

The man at their head stood up and greeted him.

"I'm Balankov, boss of the Eastern European gang."