Cosmopolitan Blood Loss.

Chapter 8

Like I could sleep...

I could feel my brain pumping blood to itself, preparing a good show for when it saw fit to explode. I was just happy I still had a brain, as illogical as it made things at the present time.

But even preoccupied with explosion preparations, as I was, I managed to still maintain a train of thought.

Right now, I was chugging steadily down Deceit Railroad. Yet again, left alone with my thoughts, I was finding all these blatant lies about Vampire Folklore. "Modern myth," he says. "Just inventions people want to believe," he says. But, all I kept thinking about was why I was here and Shant wasn't. Sleeping while the sun scraped through the sky very slowly, in a coffin...Was this not screaming the highest ranking vampire folklore!? The true question was, "After being alone, why wasn't I already high-tailing it down the street? Why did I stay here?"

I resolved the issue with, "To have Shant answer my questions, 'nough said."

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Homesickness spread through my heart like a bad chill cheese dog, burning holes through my pulmonary arteries, as waiting for Shant to arise proved very similar to a familiar boredom; the same as waiting to be asked to help with an examination by Doctor Leone.

It didn't help to ponder the feeling, so I flipped through my mental Rolodex of options, settling with "make a to-do list".

In total, I came up with grabbing some stuff from my flat and leaving a note for Dr. Leone. It was the least I could do to calm her nerves after all the woman had done for me. It would ease this extreme feeling I had of being a douche bag. It also helped that she wouldn't be in the office until 6 pm, so I'd skate by without question and a, no doubt, talk of a lifetime. Easy in, easy out.

In the light of day, everything seemed less sinister, even the Apocalyptic stained glass windows as I passed though the Cathedral out into the streets. The sun had warmed the air by at least 30 degrees since last night and the wind had died down significantly. There were suddenly people in the streets now, the shops all opened, despite what had gone on mere hours ago before dawn. I realized I was completely and utterly alone in the things I had experienced, my own little private madness didn't stop the world from turning. The heartache returned along with the cold as I walked up the cobblestone street, racking my brain as to where my apartment was situated from here.

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The sun had risen nearly to the invisible halfway point in the sky when I finally stumbled upon my apartment building. My ankles were protesting in horrible krik-ing sounds, walking so far on uneven cobblestones. I stopped in front of the building's door to find my keys in my bag...

My eyes rolled back into my head as I patted the place under my arm where my messenger bag should have been. Of course I hadn't taken it with me when Shant forced me out of my work place. My bag, my senses...

Every muscle in my body seemed to go into a hard spasm as I turned to walk another fifteen minutes to the Morgue, settling into immense cramps with my first step and growing painful with every following step. It was a fantastic analogy to explain my time thus far with Shant. The only positive things that kept me out of the hysteria of breaking down and throwing a fit were the sun's warm rays heating my skin and all the possibilities of how I could kill a handsome vampire with kidnaping fetishes. It certainly did keep my mind off the pain.

The automatic doors slid closed behind me as I limped across the lobby to town hall. The insanely stuck-up receptionist, Rochelle, eyed me wildy as I flashed her my crazed smile, focusing more on how, folklore wise, Shant's body might burn when in contact with the sun, rather than greeting her. Not that I'd ever said more than "Kiss off" to her before. My homicidal fantasies followed me, crawling slowly up the elevator shaft, through the long hallways of stagnant air and dim flickering florescent lighting, and finally through the heavy, dual swing doors of the Morgue.

For all the time I'd worked in these quarters, I shivered for the first time at the bodies hidden away beneath their cheap, cotton sheets. Now when I looked upon these covered corpses, I thought of the monsters that had just recently entered my life; the first of which in this exact room, in a similar form, a hidden terror. Uneasiness flooded my body as I edged the perimeter of the room, my feet moving toward the offices to retrieve my belongings while my eyes stayed focused on the sheets.

As I'd expected, the door to Dr. Leone's office had been locked until her return, so I'd had to precariously stack a few chairs on top of each other to slip in through the foot and a half space left between ceiling and wall, a failed architectural attempt to encourage the air to circulate. I'd manage to scrawl out a little apology letter, mentioning loads of times how grateful I was for all she was doing for me, but I needed a little break. Just a petit break. I, of course, left out the whole leaving via vampire. My belongings were stashed in a locked drawer she probably planned on using as collateral to get me back to work, but I simply removed the drawer above, recovering my bag with personal items, my laptop, and my beat-up sweater I'd bought in a grunge inspiration, but ended up getting called the female Freddy Kreuger. Leaving the office was significantly easier as I unlocked the door from my side, remembering to twist the lock so it would latch again as soon as it swung shut and I juggled my belongings back to the swinging doors.

I eased up finally as I took in deep breaths on my elevator ride down to the lobby. With steady hands I was able to stuff my laptop in my bag and pull my head and arms through my sweater, freeing my hands, running the fingers through my hair in a calming motion. For once, I'd gotten past a tongue lashing from Dr. Leone.

Just as suddenly as the though popped into my head, the elevator screeched to a halt, rattling me inside. The semi-circle floor dial skipped from my current floor descent of 2 up to the 3 and then, settling back on 4, the floor of the Morgue.

Dear God, I'd jinxed myself. And I'd thought I'd been so slick thinking I could escape the cunning that was Dr. Leone herself.