“Like me,” I say.
“Exactly.”
I look around, wondering what he hears in the minds of the people on the street, what it sounds like in his brain. I suspect it’s similar to the feeling I get when I have an intuition about a person, that I instinctively feel they are or aren’t someone I can trust, or someone I may not want to be near. Only louder.
“And, of course, I bring back-up.”
He nods toward the street, and I’m slightly freaking out on the inside. The red van is still there, slowly following us. It’s only a block or so back.
“I knew that van looked sketchy,” I say.
“It must be all that Luminos training that’s rattling around in your head.”
I laugh. The last thing I feel like is a highly trained vampire assassin.
We cross the street and approach my favorite building, the ominous Omnicom tower. And, as always, I can’t help but to stare at it. There’s a small plaza out front, with a beautiful fountain made from a rough slab of granite, which has a series of flat surfaces carved into it. It almost looks like a stone crystal, and mirrors the building’s odd shape. Tiny lights in the pool of water at its base illuminate the fountain, and I think it looks gorgeous, especially on this night.
For a moment, I think about asking Adam to go inside with me, to finally check the place out. And I wonder again where it is he’s taking me.
“So where is this party?”
“Right here.”
“Right where?”
“Right here,” he says, pointing up to the tower.
“Here? In the Omnicom building?”
“Yes,” Adam says, smiling. “It’s our company.”
I stop in my tracks, and there’s a sinking feeling that hits my stomach, which is becoming almost too familiar.
“Adam, you’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve been staring at this place for months from my rooftop.”
“Hmmm, interesting,” he says, looking me over, studying me, once more. “You really do have a strong intuition. You always did.”
“No, seriously. This is freaking me out. This building has always fascinated me. I’ve practically been obsessed with it. I wondered what kind of company it was. I even wanted to go in and apply for a job, just to see what was going on inside.”
“Well, now’s your chance.”
He leads me up the steps toward the entrance, but again, I stop in my tracks. A wave of panic hits me.
“I’m not sure I can do this.”
“Come on, Meridian. You’ve got to be strong. I’ll be with you.”
And even though I feel anything but strong, my fascination with the tower is all too real. I’ve wondered about it for so long that I’m almost relieved my curiosity will be fed. But I can’t help but to be scared that going inside will be like opening Pandora’s box, that I’ve been so intrigued by it because I knew on some level the dark secrets it holds inside. And once I open the lid, I’ll never be able to make them go away again.
I take a deep breath, and allow Adam to lead me in.
It’s not like the Creative Quorum building. There are glass doors that automatically part for us, triggered by a sensor. And everything is clean and bright. There’s no shabby brown carpet or dull, earth-toned paint. Instead, the lobby is all white marble, a few shades lighter than the kind used for our receptionist stations on the 16th and 18th floors. And there are two middle-aged men who sit behind a slab of their own, as they stare at what has to be a row of concealed monitors. The guards don’t seem particularly vampiric, and they don’t so much as look up as Adam and I walk by.
Past the two security lumps, there are elevators, three on each side that face each other, and a small hallway behind them that holds a snack shop. The hall veers to the right, which is where Adam takes me, toward a door that reads, “Maintenance Staff Only.” He smiles, as we go inside.
Right past the doors is a service elevator, and another small hall. Adam presses a button, and the doors immediately open. He swipes a keycard, and hits a button for the 40th floor. And according to the buttons on the panel, there are 20 more floors above it.
I’m no stranger to freight elevators, working as an assistant in Administration at Creative Quorum. I’ve ridden the one in our building many times, showing the new mail boys their routes or directing a mover where to put an expensive piece of furniture for some spoiled executive’s office. They’ve always been sexy to me, dirty and filled with rough men, and I’m reminded of the time I made out in the freight elevator at Creative Quorum with the former Mailroom Supervisor, Roger Bauer, an aspiring actor who quit the company to perform in an off Broadway play. And I’m wondering if Adam and I will grovel here, though I try to restrain myself.
It seems odd to me that this is the method we use to get to the vampires’ inner sanctum.
“We have the other elevators rigged so they can’t go any higher than the 39th floor,” Adam says. “Floors 10 through 39 are the company, but the higher levels are our living quarters.”
“And is everyone at the company …?”
“Not vampires. Most of our workers are humans, even the higher-level executives. Very few of them even know anything about us.”
“What exactly does Omnicom do?”
“Everything. But a good chunk of our business is biopharmaceuticals,” Adam says. “We specialize in blood diseases, but work on cures for all illnesses. We have a vested interest in keeping human beings healthy. But, as I’ve mentioned, we have other investments.”
“And doesn’t anyone question what’s happening on the top floors of the building?”
“As far as our employees know, the top floors have been rented out to a think tank that’s doing research for the company. And the rest of the building believes it’s all just part of the mysterious Omnicom.”
“I’m surprised they don’t question what’s going on.”
“Our workers are very well taken care of. If you made twice the going rate of what your job normally paid, would you question things?”
“I probably would, but that’s just my nature.”
“And those are the ones whose contracts we don’t renew. Or we simply … influence them, to feel less inquisitive. It makes for a good exercise to hone the minds of our younger initiates.”
Adam smiles a Cheshire cat’s grin, looking proud of himself. But it’s ghoulish, to think that the vampires are manipulating the minds of the people who work for them, their pawns.
The elevator stops, and I can only imagine what will come next.
The doors open into a kind of walkway with a low ceiling that curves around the floor in the same circular shape of the building. It’s darkened, and there are no windows, but there are openings that look out into a large space in the center of the room. And at first, I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at, but the view is spectacular.
The center of the floor is filled with plants, lush ferns and exotic flowers that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. And they surround a tree that is absolutely amazing. It looks like an ancient beech, with roots that stick out over the ground they’re planted in, and twisting branches that reach out around it. And the leaves are vibrant, a bright green. There’s a little waterfall that runs near it, and farther back, a stairway that leads up to another floor. But the view of the tree is so mesmerizing, it’s hard to take my eyes from it. It’s so beautiful, I almost shed a tear.
I’m confused how the vampires even keep it alive. I try to peek up, but the lights that shine down on it are too high up, I can’t quite see the ceiling from where we are. But I almost wonder if it goes all the way up to the roof, and if it opens up there somehow, to let natural light in during the day.
Adam studies my reaction, and I’m fairly certain my mouth has been hanging open the whole time.
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”
“That tree is fantastic. It’s almost like there’s energy coming from it. I want to sit under its branches.”
“We can later,
for as long as you like. Come on.”
Adam leads me around the circular hallway that hugs the walls of the floor, and it’s a nice walk, because it gives me a view of the tree and the greenery that surrounds it. The place is so relaxing and serene, which I didn’t expect. I’m not sure I even want to see the rest of their quarters, if I could just stay here instead.
As we traverse the circular path, we pass a man with brown, shaggy hair who comes from the other direction. He’s young, at least in appearance, and is dressed in a blue, long-sleeved button down shirt and khaki pants. In fact, he looks like one of the interns from the agency. And it’s hard to tell if he’s even a vampire.
But I get a quick glimpse of something silver under his shirt, a piece that almost looks like a choker or collar, which strikes me as odd.
The man says nothing as he passes, but for some reason, I get the impression that he’s nervous, and I can tell he’s peeking at me from the corner of his eye. As he finally walks by, I involuntarily tense up. And the man lets out a strange gasp.
Adam leans over.
“That’s one of the new guys,” he says in a low voice, though not so low that the new vampire won’t be able to hear. “We should go. It’s hard for them to be around humans.”
I look back, and the man has also turned, and watches me with a desperate gaze as he walks off in the opposite direction.
Adam brings me to a door that leads to a stairwell, and we climb to the next floor. This place is so strange, almost like a maze. But when we step out, we enter an elegant hallway that’s lined with wood paneling, and filled with pictures and quaint antiques. It gives me a chill, because it looks like we’ve stepped into another era, perhaps a page from my Victorian novel, which has somehow come to life. I know nothing about art, but I quickly suspect that the paintings on the wall and the little pieces of furniture that line the walkway are all priceless. And the faces that stare back at me from the portraits give me a chill, because I begin to wonder if they depict vampires from the ages.
One woman in particular catches my attention, a beauty with flowing brown hair. She looks the same in all the paintings, even though they depict different eras; a view of her traipsing through a park in England hand in hand with a distinguished man, a scene in a Parisian court, with other noblemen and women. There’s one from the Italian Renaissance. And like the Mona Lisa, she has a certain fetching smile that I see over and over again, that’s quite charming. And I know she has to be a vampire, to look the same throughout time.
I can’t help but to wonder who she is.
As we walk along the hallway, it freaks me out, because I realize it’s curved once again, ever so slightly. It’s like an optical illusion, and I realize I can’t quite see where it ends. What the hell is it with these vampires and circular spaces? I’m about to ask Adam about it, but a man comes out from one of the doors, startling me. He’s older, at least in appearance, maybe 60 years of age. And he has a confused expression on his face when he sees us.
“Oh. I’m sorry, I had no idea anyone was here.”
“It’s all right, Nicodemus,” Adam says.
And the man looks at me, openly staring, as if I’m an alien. He has fuzzy white hair, and reminds me of the rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland.” And for a moment, before he speaks, he sniffs at the air in a way that I find repellant.
“Oh, she’ll make a lovely addition to our family,” the man, Nicodemus, says.
“No, Nico. She isn’t meant to become one of us,” Adam says, full of regret. And I suspect he despises even uttering the words.
“Pity. So pretty. Well, then, excellent fodder for the tanks. Such a sweet treat.”
“No, no, Nico. She’s not meant for the tanks.”
In an instant, the older man’s dull, rheumy eyes fill with rage, as he glares at Adam.
“Arrogant boy! Do you mean to challenge me?”
“No,” Adam says, trying to be patient. “Of course, I meant no disrespect. I’m simply telling you the facts as I believe them to be. I thought you might want to know.”
And it seems to placate him, just a bit.
“Well, we’ll see about that,” he says, eying me again. “Until we speak again, my dear.”
He turns and walks away, dismissing us. And I know in my heart that if there’s one thing that I want, it’s to never speak with that man again.
Now the place is starting to get creepy. Horrifying, even. And I could barely understand what the old vamp was trying to say. But he mentioned the tanks. Adam had spoken about them, had said something about donors giving away a month of their life in exchange for a bit of vampiric riches. And that must have been what Nico was talking about, that he thought I would be doing the same.
Only he almost made it sound like I was being put there against my will.
Adam continues walking, and I sense just a bit of frustration in his gait, even though he keeps a moderate pace. But I begin to wonder if he was just as upset by our encounter.
“That man is a vampire? I would think that you wouldn’t transform the elderly,” I say.
“We don’t, but an exception was made in his case,” Adam says. “But apparently, we’re not completely immortal. He was created at an age when senility was beginning to set in, and it has increased very gradually over time. Or maybe he’s just gone a bit mad. But he’s actually a point of great interest amongst our scientists, who study him extensively, to try to determine the nature of his condition. Or more importantly, to solve the riddle of how rapidly we are or are not aging. He’s like a constant cause of fear, that we might all end up like him one day.”
I shake my head. Just thinking of the man chills me to the bone.
Adam leads me further down the well-appointed corridor, and he finally stops at one of the doors and unlocks it. Adam looks to me, and whispers.
“This is my place.”
He opens it, and the room inside is big, almost as big as my whole apartment, though not quite. An expansive couch dominates the center, which faces a widescreen TV on a stand, and there’s something larger than a king-sized bed under four posts that’s off to one side. The walls are painted a deep olive color, and there’s no art on them, save for a strange piece of metal with figures pressed into it mounted on a wall, which serves as a sort of backdrop to the television.
And slowly, I look around and realize something. The room is round, almost oval in shape, save for where a wall cuts through it, slicing off a section of the circle. There are two more doors leading to what looks like a closet and bathroom, and I somehow suspect that those two rooms form the rest of the sphere. And the more I look at its shape, the more it blows my mind, to realize I have never seen anything quite like it.
I get dizzy, just thinking about it, and have to go to a nearby chair to steady myself.
“Okay, what’s with the round rooms?” I finally say, turning to Adam.
“It’s a design philosophy of our leader.”
The woman in the pictures. I know it, in an instant.
“She’s an architect, among other things, and she helped create the plans for the building,” he says. “There’s a message in it somewhere, though she refuses to share it, just to be aggravating. But knowing her, it’s probably not terribly deep. Maybe she likes that we have something that’s unlike anything else, to show we’re unique, round pegs in a world full of square ones. Or perhaps it’s that the circle symbolizes the eternal, and the fact that we’re immortal.”
“Only you’re not immortal,” I say. “You’re dying slowly, aren’t you? Just like Nicodemus?”
“Perhaps,” Adam says, smiling. “We still don’t know for certain.”
The words come tumbling out of my mouth before I can hold them back. I’m not sure why I said it, it sounded so bitchy. It almost felt like the Luminos in me had come out for a moment, to taunt him, to knock him down from his position of superiority.
“If I am aging at an imperceptibly slow rate, I imagine that when I’m finally decrepit
, I’ll be more than ready for the end. You’re the only one who’s truly immortal, Meridian.”
Immortal. Only I don’t feel immortal. I feel all too human, and frail. And looking at Adam, and his beauty, I think what a pity it would be if it were ever to fade. But there would probably be a good million years or so where he would be an indescribably attractive older man, with salt and pepper hair. And I begin to get flustered just thinking about it.
I turn away, and look to a desk that’s huge, made of wood that’s so deep in color it’s almost black. There’s an iMac computer that’s all widescreen monitor, and I can only imagine how souped up it is inside. It rests under a moderate window, the only one in the room. And I figure the walls must somehow block the rest of the view from the mirrored exterior of the building, which isn’t all windows, as I had thought. But the vista of the city that unfolds before me is still a spectacular sight, one I would kill to wake up to every day.
And as I look out the window, I realize something; that you can see my apartment building from here. I wonder for a moment if this is where Adam spotted me, with his keen vampire vision.
He’s watching me, no doubt analyzing my reactions to the place, and I walk over to the bed. It has thick green curtains that are pulled back. The frame is made of wood, the same black color of the desk, and when I touch it there are odd ridges and grooves. No, not grooves, I realize what I’m looking at are carvings, figures of horses and deer, naked humans reaching up to the sky, desperately trying to escape the madness they’re trapped in. I can see flickers of flame carved into the wood behind them. The poor creatures seem to be writhing in an inferno, and I quickly pull my hand away.
Adam still watches me, and I wonder how anyone could want to sleep in such a thing. I wonder if the bed frame will give me nightmares, wiping away any post-coital bliss I might experience in its clutches. The horror of it all disturbs me, but it turns me on at the same time. Or maybe it’s just being near Adam. And I realize that no matter how creepy the furniture is, I want him right here and now.
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