The Freakish Family: Part 3

Lam and Varney travelled Europe for a few years. Varney's final bit of unfinished business was in Mount Vesuvius. Eons ago a powerful demon that had warred with the gods hid itself at the bottom of this volcano. It did more than hide however. It fused its demonic energy with the molten core of the volcano in the hopes that when it erupted the lava would not simply burn its victims. It would transform them into fire demons who could serve as an army to claim the world.

The demons first attempt was the infamous eruption which destroyed the city of Pompei in 79 AD. This tragedy cost thousands of people their lives. The process did not go as planned however. Whilst an army of demons was created, many of those were trapped in the middle of their transformation. Frozen in demonic skin like statues, but still baring human souls. As the process was extremely painful, the people were trapped in a state of constant agony and madness.

The demon was slain by the Deaneria a powerful group of sorcerers devoted to battling evil who eventually isolated themselves from humanity, but even they were unable to undo the effects the demon had on Vesuvius. Despite its death, the volcano was still contaminated and threatened to erupt again. The Deaneria monitored the volcano and tried and suppress the demons effects, but sadly even if they had seemingly erased it, the energy would always regrow. There were many more eruptions, though none quite as horrific as the 79 AD eruption.

The last of the Trajans (organisations set up to combat the supernatural by the famous emperor himself) eventually took control of the volcano after the Deaneria isolated themselves from humanity. The emperor himself had actually placed a single Trajan base there, which had only survived the rise of the vandals, because they were terrified of Vesuvius and allowed the Trajan to continue their work on it.

The Trajan eventually discovered that the only way to remove this permanent demonic stain on the earth, was through a ritual that required the blood of a demon. The demon in question however had to give its life voluntarily, through no force, in order to truly redeem the tainted earth.

Not surprisingly there weren't many demons willing to jump into a volcano, that is until the Trajan stumbled upon Varney before he came to settle in London. The vampire instantly agreed due to his restorative powers and even became part of the ritual, but just as they were about to carry it out, he learned that this would not be the same as his other deaths. In order to truly shut Vesuvius forever, Varney's soul had to be completely destroyed.

Even he was terrified of a death this permanent and fled. The shame of not giving his life to save others, especially those who were trapped in their burning demon bodies from the very original eruption constantly remained with him, throughout his entire time with the five.

Now however that his family was breaking apart, Varney finally felt that it was time to face his responsibility though he also hoped to help Lam just one last time first.

Eventually however his travels with Lam soon became another excuse to put off the inevitable, until several of the frozen bodies from the original eruption of Pompei began to come to life. The constant quakes and eruptions over the centuries had helped to progress their transformation through the demonic energy it spewed out, so that now they were ready to follow their dead masters will.

These demons hoped to accelerate the process of the eruption as they contained pure, untainted demonic energy from their master that hadn't been watered down by years of the Deaneria and Trajan's magics. (Even their magics could not undo the process once it had taken root around a human soul.)

As these demons overran the local area, with even the Trajan struggling to contain them. This spurned Varney to finally work up the courage and he and Lam went there, helping to fight off the demons. Realising that there was no other way to stop it. Varney ultimately threw himself into Vesuvius which finally stripped the volcano of its demonic energy. That said however the volcano was still dangerous as the constant magics had made it unstable. Still at the very least the demons plans were finally defeated and its previous victims allowed to rest.

Varney did not want to say goodbye to Lam in person, finding it to be too difficult. He left a note with a local priest that he had saved the last time he was in Pompei, which explained everything. Lam later made sure the note was passed back to the Carlene and the others in London.

Lam was absolutely devastated by his friends death and went into seclusion for decades afterwards. During that time however he mastered control over his magics, both to keep himself busy and as protection against the Zeta Reticulans, whose lack of knowledge of magic made them particularly vulnerable to it.

By the end of the 1890s Lam finally came out of his seclusion, but by that point the rest of his family had long since gone from London and Lam was forced to travel alone for many years until 1940, when he came into conflict with the occultist Aleister Crowley.

The self proclaimed wickedest man in the world was in reality nothing of the sort. In actual fact, though he had some skill as a sorcerer. Aleister Crowley used his magic for mostly mundane, albeit personal and selfish reasons and was more of a hedonist than a truly wicked man. Sadly however many genuine warlocks and demon worshippers were taken in by his image and the ridiculous hysteria built up around him by the media. Crowley through these followers was soon able to gather a large supply of magics from all over the world, that he had no idea what to do with. The followers of the demon king Abramelin would take advantage of Crowley's naivety. Their master had once been one of the kings of hell before Satan overthrew him and overtook his hell universe. The demon king fled to earth as a result hoping he could plant sleeper agents via the souls that were sent to hell to slay Satan from within and gathered a team of loyal followers. Unfortunately for Abramelin however, in his weakened state he was finished off by the vandals who did not want to risk incurring the full wrath of Satan on the earth.

Abramelin's followers however needed to conduct a very complex ritual to restore Abramelin's soul after the vandals had destroyed it. It could take up to six months and they didn't have either the time or resources to do that. Crowley however gave them the sanctuary and the resources in his Boleskine house on the shores of Loch Ness, with Crowley assuming that it would be nothing but six months of orgies and parties.

Lam was given a heads up by the Loch Ness Monster however. Centuries ago during the age of the gods, Loch Ness had been used as a prison for their criminals. (It contained a pocket dimension at the bottom.) The first prisoner was a gigantic magical Plesiosaurus that had fought on the side of the dragons, but was imprisoned rather than killed as it had been a useful ally in the fight against Set many centuries prior.

Over the centuries the gods and the humans who later discovered the portal would use it as a prison for many creatures, who gradually became the original Loch Ness monsters family to some extent.

Nessie and the other prisoners were able to leave the pocket dimension (which had everything they wanted) and swim about Loch Ness. Nessie could even leave the Loch and travel round the nearby area of land though that was as far as she could go. She was less willing to do that after a few bad experiences in the 1930s where she had been seen and even photographed. Leading to a monster craze (which would help keep the tourism in the local area alive for centuries to come!)

The other monsters in the pocket dimension below never let Nessie forget the humiliation of seeing herself in the papers around the world.

Still in spite of this the monsters did not remain completely reclusive. On the contrary they provided help to hunters and others around the area for centuries. Among the most famous examples being St Columbia who Nessie helped by pretending to be driven away by him. St Columbia was a great man and a hero, but he needed a big, public gesture to help win the people around and Nessie who believed in him was glad to help provide that. In truth however she was his greatest ally during his time in Scotland.

Similarly, Nessie aided Lam when he detected the great magical upheaval in the area, and with her knowledge, he put an end to Crowley's ritual just as it was nearing completion. Unfortunately however it was at a great cost. The spirit of Abramelin had already been constructed when Lam broke the ritual and in order to stop it from taking refuge in one of his most loyal followers, Lam drew it into himself.

The spirit of Abramelin was weak, and without help would eventually die away within a decade or so. Lam just had to wait it out and his strong will, coupled with the demons unfamiliarity with Zeta bodies and souls meant that he was able to hold on for several years, though the alien was also forced to take powerful magics which slowly, but surely altered his body and appearance to some extent in the process too.

In the year 1947, Lam lost control of his body and Abramelin used his saucer to go on a horrific killing spree around the world for six months as well as create an army. Lam however barely managed to regain control of his body enough to make his saucer crash in Roswell New Mexico, hoping it would kill both himself and the demon.

Lam's corpse was then discovered by the military who took both his saucer and the body back to their base, where Lam was dissected by the scientists. Unfortunately however the demon was not dead, and took control of his cadavar just after it had been autopsied and went on the rampage throughout the base, killing dozens of military personnel. The crashing of the saucer soon drew the attention of the other Zetas however, leading to a fight between the army and the Zetas. Seeing both the humans and his own people killed in a needless battle gave Lam's spirit the strength to overcome the demon again. (His soul was still trapped in his dead body, as the demon needed it to help reanimate Lam's corpse.)

With the aid of one of the scientists at the base Lam's corpse had been taken too, Area 51. The possessed alien stole one of the fallen Zeta's saucers and fled the area with the scientist, named Doctor Noella with him.

The Zeta's meanwhile eventually overran Area 51 and destroyed all evidence of Lam's autopsy and saucer, though one tape of Lam's autopsy did survive which surfaced many years later. It was largely dismissed as a hoax by most.

Not long after the crash, Lam was summoned by Aleister Crowley again. Having felt guilt for what had become of him. Crowley had used his vast resources to try and find a spell that could pull the demons soul from Lam's body. There was no one spell strong enough for Abramelin, but through the combination of numerous exorcism spells he could perhaps accomplish this, though doing would be incredibly risky and may have very well either destroyed or pulled Lam's soul into the hell dimension it sent the demon.

Still with the Roswell crash having become news all over the world, Crowley knew he didn't have time to try and perfect the process and summoned Lam through a process known as the Amalantrah Workings, which was a heightened form of telepathy.

Lam arrived at Crowley's new place in New York and with Noella's help, they managed to finally pull Abramelin soul from Lam's body and send it back to hell. Crowley sadly was killed by the strain of holding all the spells together, but in his dying moments he thanked Lam for giving him a chance to redeem himself, whilst Lam in turn thanked Crowley for finally freeing him.

Lam continued to live even after the demon had been expelled, as it had reanimated him. The combination of the demons influence on his body and the magics he had taken to suppress it however had changed his body in many ways, now rendering him immortal. Unfortunately for Lam this was during his first cycle of being old, meaning that was the form he was stuck in from now, though at the very least he was not physically weak. On the contrary thanks to the magic he now possessed the strength of several Zetas.

Finally Lam also absorbed much of the demon's knowledge of magics too which allowed him to become an even more skilled sorcerer than ever before.

Lam and Noella spent the next few decades travelling the world, fighting demons and other monsters to make up for the horrors Lam had carried out when the demon possessed him. His main enemies became the demons he had created under the influence of Abramelin.

During the late 40s, 50s and early 60s Lam was also still hunted by the Zetas (with Noella eventually leaving him to start a family in the 60s.) Lam however finally achieved redemption in the Zetas eyes in the early 70s when he exposed a criminal empire within the federation.

Some of the Zeta monitors of the earth where involved in the capture and selling of human and other alien organs. Due to their alien bacteria and germs, human and other unknown species organs could be valuable weapons on the black market. The new head of the Zeta monitors on earth during that time was in on this vile racket, ordering that many of the humans and animals who were abducted be horrificly mutilated and killed in order to harvest organs. (With eyes in particular being very popular.)

The leader of the Zeta monitors was bitter that he had been demoted to working on such a pathetic planet as ours and often enjoyed taking his frustrations out on its "ugly, primitive inhabitants." Following his exposure, which Lam did at a risk to his own safety. The Zeta high command punished all those involved, whose crimes were seen as a blight on the entire history of their planet.

Lam meanwhile was also put on trial for his actions, but he was eventually not only let go, but sent back to earth when the now magical alien pointed out that without his influence the earth would have been destroyed many times over. Understanding that he was a positive force for good on the planet they allowed him to return. In exchange however Lam's role in exposing the organ trafficking was covered up. The Zeta high command after all didn't want to encourage more renegades. Lam could therefore never return to his home planet, but by this stage the earth was his home anyway.

Not long after this Lam would meet Carlene for the first time from her perspective in the 1970s and their partnership that endured for decades began.

Carlene and Lam travelled around America for a short while in the 70s, before eventually moving to New York. Aleister Crowley's spirit once again summoned Lam. Crowley had not crossed over to the other side, fearing what awaited him there. He instead monitored his followers to make sure that nothing could be unleashed by them. Unfortunately however one of Crowley's more twisted followers discovered an ancient spell in Crowley's collection that could transform him into a species of demon that had long gone extinct elsewhere. Not wanting this species to be unleashed again, Crowley used the same"Amalantrah Workings to summon Lam from beyond the grave and helped the grey alien and the vampire slay the first of these reborn demons who were hiding and converting people in the sewers of New York.

After this Crowley allowed them to use his flat and resources, whilst he finally had the courage to move onto the next life. Whatever that had in store for him. Lam and Carlene only lived in Crowley's flat for a short while however, before moving into the Dakota building. Over the decades Lam had built up a fortune, though he was able to get by the famously snobbish board of the building due to his expertise in the supernatural, and the building had more than its fair share of hauntings and supernatural dealings. 

The team that Lam and Carlene assembled during their time in New York included Rachel Reed, Fritz Klaber and Gemma Shue. Sadly not as many of their exploits are known, though they were still great heroes nonetheless.

Rachel was a trans woman, born Richard in the year 1947. She transitioned in her mid 20s and got a job as a designer in Paris in the early 70s. She did have some talent, but the truth as to why she was granted this cushy position at such a young age, was because something was manipulating her and others into Paris.

Her family, centuries ago had been followers of a vampire king, who planted in one of them, a piece of vampiric dark energy. Not enough to turn them into a vampire, but strong enough to be passed down to their descendants, unknown to them. The power had absolutely no effect on the descendants either physically or emotionally whatsoever. The descendants were still 100 percent human. 

The fact that the power had been allowed to gestate for so long, meant that when the vampire king wanted to activate it. The energy would effectively rip the descendants to pieces and form into an incredible power source that if absorbed into him, could make the king into a god. He kept tabs on the family who spread out across Europe, and gathered as many of their descendants in Paris as he could to complete the ritual. He hoped to activate them all at once and then fuse their power together himself to become the most powerful vampiric creature the world had ever seen since Khastran.

Rachel was spared from being ripped apart by Marcus Cushing, and Amy Tunstall. 

After fleeing Paris, Rachel was advised by Amy to go to New York where her friend Carlene was. Carlene and Lam then removed the final part of the demonic energy from Rachel, and helped her come to terms with what had happened as well as train her to become a formidable vampire killer in her own right.

Fritz Klaber meanwhile was an immortal demon hunter who came from Germany. He was born in the 17th century and it is known that he helped build the village of Arkin, which after the vandals demise became one of the most powerful villages in Germany and served as a prison for supernatural creatures all over the world.

Certainly Klaber was responsible for many of Arkin's powerful weapons. His mastery of magics in some respects eclipsed those of even Lam at this stage. In spite of this however he was not there when the village finally fell in the late 18th century and ironically became a hotspot for demons, vampires and other creatures from all over the world.

Fritz travelled the world afterwards before finally settling in New York to deal with a creature that he had imprisoned years ago, and whose prison had fallen into the clutches of Crowley. Typically the faux wizard had no idea what it was and simply let it gather dust on a shelf, but eventually one of the demons followers freed it, drawing in Klaber.

After Klaber helped Carlene, Lam and Rachel defeated the beast, the legendary vampire killed decided to stay in New York. At first he claimed it was because he needed to make sure the demon didn't escape again, but in truth he had grown quite fond of this intrepid band of demon hunters. In time they became a new family, with Klaber and Rachel even falling in love with one another.

Gemma finally was originally a normal Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York, who one night when she was just a teenager, babysitting her friends children was drawn into a battle between hunters and vampires on the streets of New York. Her boyfriend at that time Peter was a young, reckless member of a gang of hunters. All of her friends had told Gemma not to bother with him, and assumed he was another useless bad boy, but ironically Gemma was attracted to him because she could see that underneath his bravado he was a kind, brave man who wanted to help free his city from the undead monsters that were ripping it apart. Vampires had always been drawn to New York as it was the city that never slept, but the 1970s was a particularly prosperous time for vampiric activity. It wasn't for nothing that New York even in tourist brochures earned the nickname "Fear city" during that decade.

Sadly however whilst Peter may have been brave and noble, he and the other hunters he had allied himself with were amateurs at best, and after one battle where they were almost wiped out, Peter was forced to flee to Gemma's house whilst she was babysitting, which soon drew the vampires wrath on their house, forcing Gemma and the children to flee into the streets of New York for the night.

After barely surviving the night, Gemma cut ties with Peter. Whilst she still respected him, she did not want to be dragged into his world. 2 years later in 1973, Peter was killed and Gemma overcome with guilt at having turned her back on him soon began to take a more active role in battling the vampire horde. 

Sadly however he own lack of experience eventually caught up with her and in 1974, Gemma was turned into a vandal. She tried to control her hunger for souls and fed on animals, whilst hiding out in Central Park. Eventually Carlene found her, when several vampires had made a nest in Central Park. 

Gemma in spite of her condition, helped Carlene defeat the vampires, after which Carlene took her back to the Dakota. She and Carlene developed the closest relationship, with Carlene helping her control her hunger for souls the same way she had controlled her bloodlust a decade earlier. 

By the 1980s this new family broke apart when Carlene left to help Amy deal with demons in London, though Lam continued to operate from the Dakota in New York until the early 00s before he was reunited with Carlene again in the Highlands of Scotland where they would work alongside the likes of Daniel Winn and Lindsey. Following Carlene's disappearance into the early 19th century in 2007 however. Lam grew tired of the earth. It was not that he disliked humanity, but he had originally set out to explore the universe and had now been trapped on this world for over 100 years.

He soon gained an opportunity to leave in the early 2010s when the grey alien rescued a woman who had fallen victim to another group of renegade Zeta Reticulans. Ingrid Emerald.

This group targeted the earth due to the fact that the federation, other than a few Zetas had largely given up on our planet. These Zetas however didn't just simply extract organs. They actively mutated people into hideous creatures. Experiments on the harvested human organs had allowed certain renegade factions within the federation a mastery over human genetics to the point where they could be tampered with. The renegades then realised that they could rewrite the DNA of humans and other aliens on primitive worlds, turning them into useful foot soldiers and servants.

Ingrid Emerald came from a wealthy family in Holland and found fame as a romance novelist. She was something of a snob, with a taste for the finer things, though she was also incredibly generous too. Unlike the rest of her family.

Sadly however the Zeta's targeted her due to her wealth and influence. Previously they had targeted people in more remote regions, but now the Zeta's wanted the healthiest humans, which they believed they could get from high places.

Ingrid was experimented on to the extent that she gained several incredible abilities, including enhanced intelligence capable of storing greater knowledge, and advanced healing capabilities. Before the Zeta's could finish the grissly procedure, Lam infiltrated their craft and brought the cruel aliens operation down.

Ingrid was the only mutant who survived. The others on board the craft were so far into the mutation, and many of them had already been lobotomised to ensure loyalty. Lam gently put these poor, tormented creatures out of their misery. Ingrid's mutation could not be reversed, and Lam monitored her for the next few days to see that she didn't transform into one of those horrors. Thankfully she did not, but her mutation soon caused Rentros as well as the Zeta monitors to chase her. The monitors wanted to destroy her to ensure that human development was not altered, whilst Rentros wanted to imprison and if need be dissect her to make sure Ingrid wasn't a threat.

Lam once again came to her rescue, which made him a renegade from Zeta Reticuli a second time. Using magic, the remains of the craft he picked up in Roswell and Ingrid's advanced intelligence. She and Lam created a unique magical craft unlike any other which they used to travel the universe. They were also assisted on their journey by Reg, a former Rentros agent who also turned on them to help Ingrid and Lam escape.

Together this new trio saved hundreds of planets in their adventures through the universe together, though they did return to earth many times to help it. Again Lam never completely gave up on humanity. Sadly however it is not known what became of him after this. Some believed he died fighting the Hylexans, others believe that he is still out there somewhere. The last confirmed sighting of him on the earth was in the year 2035.

The other members of the Freakish Family meanwhile went on to similarly do great things, though not quite as many of their exploits are known to us.

The monster and Sycina eloped together not long after Varney's death. The two had always been the closest of the five. Sycina who was used to nothing but running and fighting for her life, appreciated the monsters kindness and support. Meanwhile the monsters frightening appearance did not bother Sycina at all. She was used to far more frightening, disgusting creatures than a tall guy with some scars on his face.

The two continued to fight vampires and creatures on the continent of Europe for the rest of Sycina's life. They also had to face Victor Frankenstein, who it turned out was not quite as dead as the monster had believed and was eager for revenge. In spite of these troubles however, the two had a very long and happy life together, before Sycina passed away in the early 20th century. The monster's story continued however, though we will see how later.

Carlene was left on her own for several years in Victorian London. The monster and Sycina did return to visit her, but gradually as their lives drifted apart from the beehive topped vampire, their visits became less and less frequent. Carlene continued to fight both vampires and criminals, which was much easier now thanks to Varney having left his mansion and fortune to Carlene. She eventually closed the agency and came to work unofficially for the London police, helping them deal with supernatural threats. This led to even greater attention from the public than before however, and sadly very little of it was positive. Many locals and even members of the police force found her to be somewhat sinister, simply because she was reclusive and always there when something strange happened. It was a lonely and hard time for Carlene, but it came to an end in the last decade of the 19th century when she joined the Circus Family and explored all of time and space with them. Carlene ended up being the longest serving member of the Circus Family, with her tenure spanning multiple Circus Masters. Her mansion and wealth were left to a young boy named Daniel that she had rescued from vampires, and he continued to use her resources to fight evil throughout the 20th century, as would his descendants.

During Carlene's final years in 19th century London she did gain a new ally. He was not her friend like the others had been however. Their relationship was strictly professional and though they respected each other, things were often uneasy between them. The ally in question was Professor Lawrence Van Helsing, truly one of the greatest and most influential vampire hunters of all time.

In the next chapter we will explore his life and battles with the most evil vampire of them all Count Dracula.