Chapter 6: An All Too Familiar Face

Jonathan was numb walking out of the library, the black book in his bag. He unlocked his bike, swung his leg over it and settled into the seat, but didn’t start moving yet.

He stared into the middle distance, his hand idly raising. He started to pick at the skin of his lips nervously, a habit he tried to curb but struggled to suppress sometimes.

The book in his bag posed an issue to him. He had gone in hoping to find a fresh perspective on his thesis topic. His mind, however, was connecting too many dots between what he had read and what had happened just last night.

A pale man, who invoked a strange paranoia, lapses of judgment, and strong fear in his victim. It was difficult for him to put into words exactly what had happened, or even remember it clearly without feeling the same inexplicable dread.

And the creature’s first victim, the woman, had been found dead, drained of blood the following morning. A cool bead of sweat ran down Jonathan’s back under his shirt.

He tried to shake the feeling off. It was a coincidence, it had to be. What, a vampire had come to San Luis, California, and was going to kill him? That’s ridiculous. The German peasants must have been driven by superstition, hunger, and desperation to say crazy things to explain what was happening to them.

Then why did it bother him so much? Why couldn’t he stop thinking about the stranger’s eyes, boring into his? Why couldn’t he get the thought of the man’s oddly pale face out of his head?

Jonathan leaned forward and started peddling absentmindedly, not sure where he wanted to go.

San Luis had benefited from a generous donation for the purpose of building public bike trails in the first couple of years of his college career. The town was close to a national park, and the trails connected with it if you went far enough out.

Really, San Luis was a nice place. A small town of only a couple thousand, about an hour from the ocean and a little more than that from the Sacramento Valley. The weather was mostly temperate, never getting unbearably hot or unbearably cold.

Traffic was light, and Jonathan felt a cool breeze as he coasted along the street, heading towards one of the bike paths.

On a whim, he turned down a couple of random streets. He wanted to get lost a little bit. It was something he had done occasionally, using the small town's streets like a puzzle to distract his mind and refocus.

San Luis was a tight grid of streets, a small core of businesses in the center of town, surrounded by a ring of residential housing. The town was fairly successful in keeping large chains out of that core area, with most people turning first to local businesses for what they needed.

He was at the edge of that core area now, when he saw a sign he didn’t recognize one of the buildings. He couldn’t remember what it was before, but its fresh, unfaded paint confirmed it was new.

M&M Consulting.

He slowed to a stop opposite the building, head starting to spin. He had left the card at home, but thinking of it, this was the address.

The front of the property stood out from the rest of the storefronts. Most of the rest of the buildings on this street had large glass windows to show off what you could find inside, while this one was all brick facing the street. It was painted a sort of dolphin grey, with M&M Consulting written in a flourishing white script where the window would have been. The building faced west, meaning that now that the sun was on its descent, he was in the shade opposite the building’s entrance.

A frosted glass door with a darker grey frame was the only entrance, offering little more detail.

Jonathan stared at the building, thinking. It was a totally innocuous building, and “consulting” was broad enough that he didn’t know what type of services they offered.

But the man had had a card from here, a business card. Did he work here? Had he just visited and happened to have a card from them on hand?

Surprisingly, this did a lot for Jonathan’s peace of mind. The idea of the pale man having a job put him so far away from what he thought of vampires that he almost laughed at his earlier fears.

He stood up a little bit straighter, and kept looking at the building, following each flourish on the logo. He smiled to himself and decided he would head home. It was the afternoon, gearing towards evening, and if he stayed out any later, it would be dark before he got home.

Jonathan was determined to get back on the road when his heart stopped.

There ahead of him, in the shade of this row of buildings, standing on the sidewalk, was the man from before, staring directly in his direction.

The man was dressed in black still, with dark shades mercifully covering his eyes. He leaned slightly on a dark umbrella with one hand, tip resting on the sidewalk.

A thin smile spread across the man’s lips as Jonathan gaped in his direction.

With smooth strides, the man approached Jonathan. He was tall, and in the slightly clearer light, Jonathan couldn’t deny he was handsome as well. Short dark hair, a tall forehead, and attractive features drew Jonathan into his face. He couldn’t look away.

“Hello. I see you’re feeling better,” the man said. “What brings you this way?”

Jonathan was stunned. He didn’t know what to say. He swallowed. “W-well, I was just passing by. And I thought I, uh, recognized the sign out front here. Do you, um…Do you work? Here, I mean?”

The words tumbled out awkwardly after he started. The man’s smile never wavered, and he answered at the end. “Why don’t you come in and sit down a moment?”

Before Johnathan could respond, the man turned away from him, unfurled the umbrella, and crossed the street in the same smooth strides, the umbrella between him and Jonathan.

Jonathan swallowed, got off his bike, and wheeled it across the street after the man.

Jonathan’s heart was pounding out of his chest. With every step, a new vision of what would be inside burned itself into his mind.

“I should run,” he thought. “This is crazy.”

But he crossed the street and locked his bike to a signpost as the man held the door open for him.

“After you,” the man said with a smile.

Jonathan let out a shaky breath and slowly stepped past the man, into…

A lobby. Very modern, for a small town like this, but undeniably a lobby.

The room was a tight rectangle with enough room on the small wall to Jonathan’s right for two chairs and two plants. On the long wall adjacent to the door sat four more chairs and a small end table close to the door.

White light illuminated the room from wall-sconce lighting. Something about the light and the room was simultaneously relaxing and off-putting. Johnathan squinted at its harshness.

“It was a dentist’s office before,” the man started, closing the door behind them, and propping the now closed umbrella by the door. “The layout remained structurally the same, but I… updated the look, significantly.”

Jonathan watched as he crossed to the next door, opened it, and beckoned him in with a jerk of his head. For some reason, he still wore his sunglasses.

Jonathan hesitated for a second. “I’m, uh. I’m sorry, what was your name?”

The man smiled again, and stepped towards Jonathan, letting the door close. “My apologies! Good G*d, my manners. I am Alphonse Muller, but you may call me Alphonse.” He extended his hand towards Jonathan.

“My name is Jonathan, Jonathan Gates.” Instinctively, Johnathan reached out to the presented hand with his own and nearly recoiled when he felt how cold it was.

Alphonse’s grip on his hand was gentle, but Jonathan felt suddenly as if he wouldn’t be able to let go until Alphonse released him.

The man gently placed his other hand on top of their handshake, and Jonathan shivered at the feeling of his hand being placed in a cold cage.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance and meet properly this second time,” Alphonse grinned. Just a flash of white teeth behind his smile., Then, he released him.

“I arrived in San Luis only a week ago now. I purchased this property and ordered the necessary renovations before my arrival so that I could begin work immediately.” He opened the door again and gestured for Johnathan to enter.

Jonathan rubbed his hands together for a moment, trying to bring warmth back. “What, uh. What do you do? ‘Consulting’, I guess?” he asked as he headed through with Alphonse behind him.

“Yes,” Alphonse stated. “’Consulting’ is how I would describe it.”

The room beyond the lobby was very similar to many of the doctor’s offices Jonathan had been in. Past the receptionist’s desk was a central, open office, denoted with a sort of countertop at about chest height.

A few doors split off from this central room, one marked with a blank, grey plastic triangle. Alphonse led him to a heavy-looking door in the back corner of the large space.

“This is where I will be doing most of my work,” Alphonse noted. Without any apparent effort, he opened the door.

Jonathan stood next to Alphonse, looking into the room before stepping in. A windowless space, furnished distinctly from the rest of the office thus far. The room had plush, red carpeting, with dark brown wood paneled walls. A particularly inviting brown leather chaise stood close to the center of the room, facing a matching leather chair. A shaded lamp stood over the chaise, turned off for now. A low row of bookcases lined one wall.

It was almost like…

“A therapist’s office?” Jonathan asked.

Alphonse smiled. “Yes, but don’t say it too loudly. I charge for confidentiality of a particular kind.” He closed the door and continued. “Please, come to my real office.”

The room they entered instead was furnished closer to how the rest of the space was, with mostly shades of grey and clean, modern furniture that looked untouched.

Alphonse sat in the swivel chair and gestured across the desk to indicate one of the chairs to Jonathan, who sat, messenger bag on his lap. Without thinking about it, Jonathan began working his jaw around nervously and bit the inside of his lip slightly.

Alphonse, still wearing the sunglasses, beamed at Jonathan. “You must think I am a strange man, Jonathan. We are perfect strangers, almost, and I invite you inside my workplace, giving you the tour.,” But why did you come in with me anyway? Can you tell me that first?”

Jonathan opened his mouth to answer but found he didn’t have one ready. He wanted to say, “I was curious” or “I had nothing better to do”, but the words didn’t come.

His throat choked slightly, and there was a pressure that wasn’t there before. Before Jonathan knew what he was saying, he heard his voice say, “You scare me, and I don’t know why.”

Alphonse smiled. He leaned back in his chair, and in one motion, removed his shades and ran his hand through his short hair. His eyes were closed, but then he looked up and fixed his gaze on Jonathan. His pupils were almost entirely dilated, just the slightest sliver of dark brown around black.

The room was gone from Jonathan’s awareness; everything in the world was reduced to Alphonse sitting across from him. Jonathan felt a sort of vertigo, almost like the sensation of falling as Alphonse bared his white teeth in a grin.

“That’s smart of you,” he said, and Jonathan tried to scream.