by P. J. Day
“I don’t want any trouble. There is a kid who stole my wallet in that room,” I explained.
“You think you own the world, don’t you? You guys think you’re smarter than everyone on this planet? Taking whatever you want, saying whatever you like-raping...pillaging...” said the old prick, clenching his teeth while turning redder than a mandrill’s ass.
“What’s your problem? Can’t you see that I’m after someone who stole my wallet? How much clearer do I have to be with you? You got issues, man,” I yelled at the rage beast.
“Issues...issues? Oh, so you’re a bloody psychologist now, aren’t you? Come here, you little fucker!”
The wrinkly brawler lunged at me; his bronze fist connecting with my forehead. The force of his hay-maker surprised me with its sheer speed and power. A sharp pain penetrated the frontal portion of my skull, resonating to the back of my ears. In an instant, I realized I had my hands full. This man was more than capable of hurting me in ways that I had never been hurt before. Before I knew it, I was on my back in front of the room I thought Milton had gone into. My head had fallen back and connected with the door, opening it in the process. The sharp cold air that I felt when I peeked into the room immediately engulfed the hallway where the Aussie and I found ourselves tussling. The Aussie threw himself onto the floor and began to grab at my throat. I fought off his frenzied attempts at a choke hold. His eyes were bulging out of their sockets. His instinct to kill was uncharacteristic for a random guest who had most likely paid over $500 a night for his hotel stay.
Finally, I managed to foster up enough strength to push him away. I had never had this much trouble repelling a mortal off my body, let alone someone who looked twice my age. With the little energy I had left, I sprung up from the floor in an instant and propelled myself at the attacker, wrapping myself around his upper torso. With every single ounce of strength that I could muster, I spun the Aussie and myself into the freezing, dark hotel room. I landed on top of his stomach as he lay on his back. He began pummeling my head with his fists in a disjointed manner, without proper technique and in a frenzied panic.
As my head continued to be bashed in for what seemed like an eternity, we both immediately felt a cold snap. The pummeling ceased and the Aussie looked up and above his forehead while he continued to lie on his back. A tall, dark haunting figure wearing a blue silk robe emerged from the darkest portions of the hotel room. A matching hood obscured its face. The mysterious being then raised its right arm, its hand and limb covered by an oversized silk sleeve. The sleeve retracted, revealing a sharp, gleaming three-foot Bushido Sword. The blade was so sharp that the hallway light that shone through the doorway created a sublime blinding reflection which temporarily squinted the Aussie and me.
The robed specter gripped the handle of the sword with both hands and lifted it over its head in a pre-strike motion. My combatant’s expression went from one of unadulterated madness to a look of submissive terror. I immediately backed away and crawled to the wall by the doorway; instinctively shielding myself with my arms and hands. As soon as the Aussie got up from the floor, the sword flashed and the ghostly figure’s robe swirled. A decapitated head thudded to the floor. The Aussie’s head just laid there, its mouth agape, staring at me. His death was swift, yet cruel.
“No, please don’t!” I pleaded, hoping to strike a merciful chord with the merciless apparition.
“I have no idea what I’m doing here. I’m so sorry. I’m just going to get out and go back to my room.”
The figure just stood there, sword at its side. I hunched over while grabbing my stomach.
I got up quickly, too quickly. It was all I could do to keep my dinner down, especially with the dismembered head staring up at me from just a few feet away. With the apparition looking at me, I stumbled toward the door.
“Jack, wait,” said Milton hastily, “Where do you think you’re going?”
I looked up at the boy. Defeated, scared, and vulnerable-these were the feelings I expressed subconsciously to Milton as I laid in a withered state.
“Milton, keep my wallet. I’m just going to see myself out,” I said faintly.
“No, I saved your life. You owe us.”
“Son, I don’t owe you anything. Leave me alone, please.”
“I knew you would chase me here. We know who you are. We have studied your work for many years. We have what you are looking for.”
I plopped myself down on the floor again. My strength, which at one time felt limitless, was completely drained.
“Fine, I’ll talk. But first, what is that?” I asked, as I pointed at the sword-wielding apparition behind Milton.
“He is a Jiangshi. He is currently in his superior form.”
“He’s a what?”
Milton stepped behind the figure. He cocked his fist and proceeded to punch through the perceptively solid apparition.
“See, he’s ethereal, but invincible and powerful. He is in a superior form.”
I shook my head back and forth in disbelief and confusion. I was convinced that I was in an altered state. Was I somehow drugged last night?
“I need to go, Milton...please let me go. I need to sleep on this...I have no idea what’s going on.”
Milton took a few steps toward me, bending his knees into a crouched position, and placed his little face a few inches from mine.
“Tell me about your work with Dr. Nunez.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have already told you...I don’t know who he is.”
Milton motioned the specter to come closer by snapping the fingers on his right hand, never looking back at his companion.
“You’re lying. I can see it in your eyes. You knew him. In fact, your exact words were ‘What about him?’ when I first inquired about him.”
I was cornered. No strength to fight. No will to even flee. I was no longer a vampire. I felt so confused. Milton was also convinced that I was not a vampire. If he thought I wasn’t, how come he thought that I knew Dr. Nunez? Dr. Nunez had died over a hundred years ago. The disjointed incoherence was beginning to pound my head.
“Are we talking about the same Dr. Nunez?” I asked Milton.
Without flinching, Milton responded, “Bogota, leper colony, coagulation of blood; he was a pioneer in genetic engineering.”
“Milton, that was over a hundred years ago. How would I know him? I’m only a human being.”
Milton stood up. He gave me a precocious smile.
“Do you like this state? Isn’t this what you wanted—to be human?”
I wrinkled my brow in self-reflection. Without guilt or provocation, what seemed to be the right words, began to naturally trickle out through my lips, as I answered Milton’s loaded question, “Yes. Feeling is visceral—even the pain.”
“Good. Now, Jack, tell me what you know about the doctor’s work.”
My stomach began to hurt again. What felt at first like small cramps of gas, suddenly turned into spearing pangs. I had no choice but to curl into the fetal position on the floor.
“Oh, God! It hurts...I think I’m bleeding internally!” I yelled.
Milton crouched again by my side. He put his left hand on my head. The skin on it felt like a frozen slab of meat. I began to hear a knocking sound that seemed to grow louder every second. The inside of my eyes began to pulsate to the rhythmic nature of the knock.
“Jack, stay with me. Tell me, are you close to a cure? I think we may know what you need for the cure.”
The knocking began to drown out Milton’s voice. I clenched my stomach, forcefully, my fingers digging deep into my own skin. I closed my eyes and let out a scream.
I awoke.
I was sitting up in my bed. Sweating, itchy, and out of breath, I got up and raced toward my cell phone that was charging on the desk with the laptop. I dialed Ted’s number. It went straight to voicemail. My arms were flaky again. I grabbed my phone and took a picture of myself. I looked at the screen; my eyes were dilated. The knock
on the door startled me. It was the same sound I heard pounding my head a minute ago in my dream, but not as painful.
“Jack, wake up. It’s time to go. Can you hear me?”
I grabbed a razor from my toiletries bag. I pressed it against my bare chest, drawing blood.
“Alan, is that you?” I asked.
“Yeah, are you ready? I called both your phones, but you didn’t answer,” said Alan, his voice slightly muffled on the other side of the door.
“I was taking a shower. Give me a few minutes. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
“Jack, we got a problem.”
I grabbed my suit from the closet. However, I couldn’t find my ties. Thankfully, this outfit looks just as good without one.
“What’s the problem?”
“Ted’s AWOL.”
I glanced over at the clock. It was 5:45 p.m. I had overslept.
“Did you check his room?”
“Yes, no one is answering.”
I hoped that Ted was asleep. Either that or I sincerely hoped he was in fact, AWOL. I wouldn’t want to find him overdosed. Luckily, I’d learned my lesson from the night before when I feared Ted would oversleep. I made the right move and took the spare key card to his room when he wasn’t looking.
Chapter Three
Alan and I walked side by side in the wing of the hotel where Ted’s room was. I quickly checked my chest where I made a cut with my razor. There was not even a hint of a laceration; however, there was a small cut on the bottom of my lip, nothing too bad, but I guess I did bite it while I slept. We arrived at Ted’s hotel room door. Alan was right behind me, looking over my shoulder as I inserted the card into the electronic slot. When the green light lit, I opened the door. We both walked into the room and the first thing I saw was Ted’s laptop by the window, which was off, but still plugged into the charger. The laptop’s charge light was orange, shining brightly in the dark room, giving the walls a sickly glow. Alan and I saw a giant lump on the bed; we presumed it was Ted, judging by the size of the bulge.
“Ted?” I asked, as I gingerly walked toward the bed.
“Here, let me turn the light on,” said Alan, making his way to the lamp, with the simplistic decorative shade, resting next to the LCD television across from the bed.
As soon as Alan flicked the switch at the base of the lamp, I grabbed the bed sheets that were all bunched together and pulled them right off.
“Nope,” I said, surprised that the pile of pillows was not Ted.
“Should we check the bathroom?” Alan nervously asked.
We both walked into the bathroom and flipped the switch. I could smell Ted’s aftershave as it laid open next to the sink. The shower curtain was completely open. It looked as if it wasn’t used since we arrived. Alan and I then made our way to the closet. Ted had placed two of his suits on the hangers; both nicer looking than the outfit he had on last night. There were no signs of his cell phone or wallet on any of the desks, dressers, or nightstands that were spread throughout the room. It was apparent that Ted most likely never made it back to his room last night. We both walked out into the hallway and closed the door. Alan grabbed the cell phone out of his jacket pocket and proceeded to dial.
“Straight to voice mail,” Alan muttered at me, rolled his eyes in frustration and left a message: “Ted, this is Alan. Our meeting is in half an hour. We need you to call us back as soon as possible. I’m with Jack. We are leaving the hotel in 10 minutes.”
Alan angrily pressed the power button on the top right hand corner of his phone and placed it back into his jacket pocket. He rubbed his chin, looked extremely pensive, while avoiding eye contact with me.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young woman pacing quickly toward us from the east wing of the hallway. It was Rebecca, wearing her best business suit. Her hair was flowing with volume; probably wearing contact lenses, she wasn’t wearing the glasses she had on the night before. She stopped a few feet in front of us and with a slight wheeze said, “Our ride...is here.” She bent over slightly and then looked up. “What’s the matter?”
Alan seemed very flustered. His cool, calm, rational demeanor, that he so clearly possessed over dinner, was now a victim of one of Ted’s notorious bouts of flakiness. He began pacing back and forth in the hallway like a caged puma. “Jack, do you have any idea where he might be?” he asked, with evident restlessness.
“Ted’s missing?” asked Rebecca.
“I don’t know. The last time we saw each other was early this morning. I went up the elevator to my room and he went to the gift shop to buy some sleeping pills,” I said.
Alan punched the wall with the bottom of his fist. I didn’t expect a reaction like this from such a well-respected academic. “You were supposed to be on top of him, Jack,” he said, as he looked me straight into my eyes, aggressively.
I took step back. “Alan, calm down. What the hell has gotten into you? It’s okay, we can manage without him for right now,” I said.
Rebecca, preventing further escalation, stepped in between the both of us. She placed one hand on my chest, and pointed her other index finger at Alan. “Let’s take a deep breath, guys. We have five minutes to search for him downstairs, let’s make most of what little time we have.”
Alan abruptly turned around and headed toward the elevator. Rebecca chased after him and whispered something in his ear as I lagged behind. We all eventually ended up at the elevator. An awkward silence overtook the spirited camaraderie we’d all gained over dinner last night.
The elevator doors slowly opened. We walked in, no one saying a single word. The doors closed and I could see Alan’s face reflecting on the metallic doors. His face was still as a stone, oblivious to my lack of reflection in the doors. His thin lips remained still. His eyes filled with focus and worry. Rebecca was slightly jittery, flipping her cell phone in her left hand front to back over and over again. I looked straight up at the chromed ceiling; I was invisible.
I understood their reactions, but my rebellious side slightly reveled in their pain, for keeping Ted and I in the dark for such a long time. Alan was beginning to annoy me with his antics. He was acting like a petulant child and I was on the verge of grabbing him by the neck and posting him against a wall somewhere. I wasn’t Ted’s babysitter, and Alan had to understand that this was still my account and that he had no right to think that he led this team.
“Alan?” I asked, as we walked out of the elevator.
“What?” he replied, scanning the hotel lobby for any signs of Ted.
“You need to relax. Ted will show up. It isn’t the end of the world.”
“How do you know, Jack? You’ve never met with these guys. Rebecca and I have had many meetings with Guangzhou. If we are going to infiltrate the meat of their operations they need to be buttered to the fullest extent. We need Ted’s linguistic talent,” he said.
“We don’t need Ted. Believe me, the three of us are more than sufficient. I can do this without Ted,” I said to Alan, with a slight pleading tone.
I felt it was important to reiterate to Rebecca and Alan that I was more than capable of running the show. This was my account, for God’s sakes!
“He’s kind of right. The account is under Jack’s name,” Rebecca said, turning to Alan and saying aloud just what I was thinking. “Try to lift your foot a little off the gas pedal.” She patted Alan on his tense shoulder, he immediately let Rebecca know he was in no mood for physical contact by immediately brushing her hand away. Rebecca continued unabated,“If we really are the team you say we are, then you need to trust Jack a little more. Now, if you excuse me, gentlemen, I’m going to check out the last spot Ted was seen last night.” She then lightly jogged to the gift shop in hopes of getting any information on Ted’s whereabouts.
Alan grabbed his phone from his jacket and motioned toward the exit. A black S-Class Mercedes with tinted windows was waiting right outside the door. “Wait here...keep an eye out for Ted. I’ll be right back,” he said, speed-walki
ng toward the hotel exit.
I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of Ted. All I saw was a smattering of hotel guests, and a tall group of eight or ten men, most likely an international basketball team. A few of them had real thick mustaches. They were either Turkish or Greek, judging by their olive skin tones. One of them was wearing a walking boot. Ankle sprains must really suck, never had one, so I tried my best to empathize. I gave him a feigned wince as he walked by. He nodded back.
Looking concerned, Rebecca walked out of the gift shop, her laptop bag over her right shoulder. She came up to me, slightly stammering, “No one working at the counter saw Ted last night. In fact, probably no one saw Ted anywhere last night. What’s the point of running around looking for him?”
As soon as Rebecca paused in her resignation, Alan ran back toward us, phone in hand. With his face slightly flushed he said, “We rescheduled for tomorrow night.”
Rebecca taken aback at the sudden change in plans asked Alan, “Are you sure?”
“I talked to Rald and I spoke to Ji, they are okay with us meeting tomorrow.”
“Who’s Ji?” I asked.
“What? You didn’t read the envelope I left at your doorstep, did you?”
“Sorry, no I didn’t. I was going to read its contents on the way to our meeting. I’m a fast reader.”
Alan looked at Rebecca. “You see? This is what I’m talking about. Sales guys are always so unprepared.”
Rebecca gritted her teeth and grimaced. “Alan, take it easy, please.” She pulled Alan aside and became inaudibly animated in her words. A lot of hand gestures and not a single word loud enough for me to overhear.
The lights outside, lining the sidewalk, began to turn on. Each one flickered faintly at first and then snapped into their luminous consistency. The fading sunlight was almost completely obscured by the skyline. This was my favorite time during a day. The transition from day to night. Everyone was still running on all cylinders from a hard day’s work, yet looking forward to a smooth, relaxing evening. The energy at this hour is by far the most addictive. I appreciate humanity more when the sun sets; their carefree natures are on high display. I couldn’t wait to see Holly tonight. In an indirect way, it seemed that my best friend had come through for me once again, giving me a whole night to entertain Holly. I know the guy was safe. He was big boy. He could take care of himself. He’d turn up. When? I didn’t have the slightest clue where he had been all night, but I knew that he would return.