The Source (8 page)

I reach for the
ignition to start the car again and there is another knock on the window.  Rick
leans down to peer into the car.  Whew.  I feel every muscle in my body relax
like air rushing from a balloon.  I unlock the car door and motion for Rick to
get inside. 

“Hey,” he says while
closing the door, “are you contemplating not showing up for work tonight?”

“No,” I respond, “I
plan on going to work.  I just don’t want to get out of the car.”  I sneak a
glance at him.  He’s comfortably dressed in blue denim and a black shirt.  Just
a glance.  Shouldn’t be obvious.

Rick slowly smiles,
“Well, to get to our research suite, you will have to get out of the car.”

"I know. I just
don't want to right now."

Rick stares at me. I
don’t look at him because that would have required me to say something. The car
suddenly feels very small. I twist in my seat to adjust to the sudden
discomfort I feel.

"Okay, I'll
bite. Why don't you want to go in right now?" he asks.

I continue looking
forward. "First off, don't say bite. You're a vampire so that expression
is a little unnerving. Secondly," I relaxed my shoulders, putting my hands
in my lap, "I didn't sleep well last night."  I stare out the front
window, aware that Rick is still turned to me.

Another long pause.

Rick starts to open
the door, "Okay, if you say so." He steps out of the car then leans
back in, "And Emma?"

I finally turn to
look at him.  One corner of his mouth lifts up in a lopsided smile.  His face
suddenly gets very serious.

"I would never
bite you.  For you, I would nibble."

He smiles then closes
the passenger side door and walks toward the facility.

I realize that I'm
still staring after him with my mouth hanging open.  Two males.  One a vampire
who flirts playfully.  The other a human who has the flirting skills of a great
white shark.  How can a woman work under these conditions?

I shake my head as I
gather my purse and notebook.  I step out of the car and take one more look
around the parking lot before beginning my journey into the facility. 

I walk slowly to the
entrance trying not to be obvious that I was looking around me to see if there
was anyone lurking in the shadows.  I cannot help but have the feeling that
something was crawling up the back of my neck.  Hopefully jumping right into
work will make that feeling go away.  Or at least distract me from it.

I open the door and
take a long look down the white hall. I breathe deeply and begin my descent
into the bowels of the research facility toward our suite. I walk very slowly
so that I won’t have any more humiliating run-ins with anyone. As I reach our
door, I let out a breath that I didn’t even realize that I was holding.  I
guess the issue with Tucker shook me up more than my conscious paranoia. My
subconscious was on the fight-or-flight bandwagon, too. Nice.

I open the door to the
suite to see Rick washing his hands at the sink and Ms. Montgomery sitting at
the table setting up what looked to be some type of digital transcription
contraption.  Jolly.  We're going to have an audience this evening.

I set my purse on the
table and begin to walk toward the sink in the middle of the room.

"We do have
closets."

I turn around and
look at Ms. Montgomery.  "I beg your pardon?"

She looks up at me,
"We have closets in each suite so that you may stow your personal items,
rather than leave them laying about in the open."

"Oh," is
all that I can think of as a response.  I walk back to the table to retrieve my
purse and begin looking around for obvious signs of said closets.  Ms.
Montgomery looks back up at me, "Would you like for me to show you the
closets?"

I feel that familiar
slight blush erupt across my face.  "Yes, please," I reply.

She gets up without
taking her eyes off me then walks to a far corner of the room and pushes a
button on the wall.  A door slides open and reveals enough space to house a
royal family that doesn’t want to accidentally see one another.  I smile my
thanks at her, place my purse on one of the shelves then press the button for
the door to close.  Ms. Montgomery is already on her way back to her seat when
I turn around so I begin walking to the sink where Rick is watching everything
with an amused look on his face. 

"Shut up,"
I say.

"I didn't say a
word, yet.  But now I will say that your stubbornness seems more trouble than
it's worth."

"My
stubbornness?"

"Yes, your
stubbornness," he replies.  "It would have been a lot quicker if you
would have just asked for her help to begin with."

Taking a deep breath
and the high road of not starting the evening with an argument I say,
"Yes, but she doesn't exactly project an air of helpfulness.  I'm not sure
I would even feel comfortable in approaching her to give me the Heimlich
maneuver."

Rick tilts his head
toward me. "Then, my dear, you would choke to death.  Sometimes your
comfort is just not worth it."

I huff with my bottom
lip slightly pouty, "Point taken.  But don't expect me to get all
buddy-buddy with her."

"Of course not. 
She's here to observe.  Not socialize.  You only have to worry about that with
me." 

Rick grins as if he
knew the butt of the joke and said butt was me.  I choose to ignore it.

I open my notebook,
ready to start working instead of talking. 

"So, I did a lot
of thinking out loud earlier today.  And there are some more things that I
would like to know more about with regard to the way the sun kills vampires."

"Okay,"
Rick says as he turns to lean his back against the center island, hands resting
against the edge of the countertop.

"I know that we
had originally talked about the possibility of the reaction being a severe type
of allergic response.  But is it really?  I was in the shower and the water was
really hot and I noticed how red my skin was getting, which made me think more
about something more mundane - like what if it is more like a burn and not an
allergic response?  I just really don't know how it affects vampires because
I've never seen it."

He turns toward me
with his hip still against the island, smirking, "Do you usually do most
of your critical thinking in the shower?"

"What does that
have to do with anything?" I say as I cross my arms against my chest.

"Sorry,
distraction.  I'm a visual thinker."  Rick smiles.  "So how do you
propose a way to observe the effects of the sun on a vampire?"

I can feel my jaw
clenching as I hug myself even tighter, "I don't know, maybe participant
observation?  You participate and I'll observe."

Rick continues to
smile, "I'll resign myself to less fatal ways of getting hot."

I put on my most
charming smile, "Oh, it doesn't have to be fatal.  We just need a small
piece of your flesh to see how it reacts to the sun."

"If I could
interrupt your pseudo-sexual banter, I may have a solution," interrupts
Ms. Montgomery. 

I turn to her and
exclaim, “I beg your pardon? It's not sexual!"

"Well, at least
it's not pseudo," Rick counters as he turns to face Ms. Montgomery.

She continues to sit
as she looks at both of us, "Regardless of what you all want to tell
yourselves, I am suggesting that you might view some of the archive footage we
have within the facility."

I walk over to the
table to give her my full attention and put some distance between Rick and me. 
I have the feeling that if I get too close right now, his participation might
indeed be fatal – in the deadly to my restrained libido type of way. 
"What kind of footage?"

"FOHVA has been
collecting data since its inception.  Part of what we have procured is video of
certain events considered of benefit for further research."  Ms.
Montgomery leaned back in her chair without offering any further information.

I look at Rick then
look back at her, "And some of this video is of vampires being exposed to
sunlight?"

"There are a
few, yes."

Rick walks passed me
closer to the table, "And just how did FOHVA procure these videos?"

Ms. Montgomery looks
at him with absolutely no expression on her face, "I'm not at liberty to
discuss such things even if I did know the exact circumstances under which the
footage was shot.  I can assist you in obtaining these videos if it will help
with your work on the project."

Rick lets out a
breath that I had no idea that he was holding.  Wait, vampires breathe?  Or
maybe he was just forcing air out without the need to rid his body of carbon
dioxide.  Whatever.  I'll ask that question later.

"Can you please
get us the videos, Ms. Montgomery?" I say, proud that I could force myself
to be gracious toward someone who was as sociable as a cold fish.

She slightly nods her
head, "I will make the call.  The videos will be here within ten minutes. 
Should I assume that you would like to peruse all of them?"

 I can see Rick's
back stiffen.  "Yes, Ms. Montgomery, that would be helpful," I
replied.

Rick looks at me,
"While we're waiting, I'm going to get something to eat."  He then
briskly walks out the door.

I look at the door,
then at Ms. Montgomery.  She goes back to her archiving work as if nothing has
happened.  I, on the other hand, am completely baffled by what has just
happened and why Rick has responded the way that he did.  And I definitely
don’t want to think about what him "going to get something to eat"
entailed and why it was happening right now.

I continue to stand
by the table not knowing what I should do at that point.  I wring my hands in
nervous confusion. I turn and walk back to the island, open my notebook and
begin preparing a section to take notes on the videos.  There are many things
that we need to look out for, such as smoke and fire.  That would be an
indication of burning, or at least cooking, like an egg on the sidewalk in the
middle of summer.  If something like an extreme rash developed, that might be
indication of an allergic reaction. 

From what Rick had
previously said with what the remains look like after a sun death, it seemed to
make more sense that it was some type of combustion.  Maybe it doesn’t have
anything to do with an allergy at all.

The door opens as I
am writing all of my thoughts down.  I look up to see a rather plain young man
enter the suite, hand Ms. Montgomery some plastic cases, then promptly leave. 

Without looking up
she says, “Here are the videos you wanted to see.”

I look around without
moving away from the island.  Taking a deep breath to cleanse me of my sporadic
immaturity I ask her, “Do we have a way to view the videos in the suite?”

She looks up and
replies, “On the back wall there are sliding closet doors.  Within you will
find a large stand equipped with a television and DVD player.”  She goes back
to working on her computer.  I suddenly feel like I have been a huge
inconvenience for interrupting her.  I try not to make any more noise as I head
to the back wall.

As I slide the closet
doors open to retrieve the television stand, I hear the door of the suite slam
shut.  I look over my shoulder and see Rick walking toward the back wall.  I
lock my fingers around the sides of the stand, looking down at the floor.  The
discomfort of before made it hard to look him in the eye for some reason.  He
steps close to me and simply says, “Did we get the videos?”

I nod while glancing
up at him. “Ms. Montgomery has them.”

“Alright,” he
exhales, “let’s get this over with.  I’ll get the television and DVD player set
up.  You go get the discs.”

Still feeling weird
while he acts blandly, giving direct orders, I choose to just follow them.  I
realize that if I feel uncomfortable not knowing what is going on, that may be
an indication of even worse feelings if I
did
know.  As mom would say, best to let sleeping dogs lie. 
Not really in the mood to get “bit” for trying to “wake” him up. 

I walk over to the
table and without saying a word, Ms. Montgomery hands the discs to me.  I take
them, say a near silent thank you and walk back over to Rick and the television
stand.

Rick takes one of the
DVDs and places it into the DVD player.  He then uses the remote control to
close the DVD tray and turn on the television.  The screen flickers with static
as if the video had been copied from some other media source.  The
black-and-white non-coloring suggests that the footage was quite dated, possibly
thirty years old or more.  It is very hard to determine what is going on
because the scene appears to be so calm.  An empty parking lot on a sunny day. 
Suddenly someone walks into focus on the screen.  In no more than ten seconds
the individual begins to smoke as his skin turned dark.  Amazingly his form
began to seemingly melt before finally exploding into piles of what looks like
dried
and
wet bits of flesh.