Changes chapter 7
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Max left the gardens, noticing the sun rising in the east. He made his way down the hall, to the spiralling staircase the student had pointed him to.
As he made his way down the stairs, noticing how most of the steps had been worn away over time, he could smell the faint scent of dried blood. Strange. The further down he went, the darker it got. The stairs went ln for a long time, and at one point, even Max had to stop and wonder why it was so dark. Even though he was quite capable of seeing in the dark, he still decided to use a lighter to light his way. One day, a couple of months ago, he had confiscated it from Paul when he was smoking a joint in his videostore. Now, he was beyond grateful that he had done so - because if someone wanted to come down, they'd see him and suspect nothing. It would be weird to see a man walk down these dark steps without a light, scary even for some. But a man holding a lighter since he didn't have a flashlight? Not that weird.
It took a good ten minutes before Max finally ended up at the bottom of the stairs. Attached to the wall was a gaslantern. Max took it, lit it up, and shone the beam around. He was standing in a dark, muddy hallway. There were small pools of water on the ground, and he could hear the irregular drip of waterdrops. The hallway smelt slightly off as if mould was growing somewhere. Along the walls were low filingcabinets, all of them chained together and locked. Max frowned, wondering why Lucien - or someone else - would have done that.
As he walked further down the hallway, he found that it ended leading to a single door. He pushed it open, stopping as he smelt the same scent of dried blood. Something had happened here.
He stepped further inside, placing the gaslantern on the desk in the middle of the room, and looked around. The place was a mess. The desk was littered with ripped pages, broken inkbottles, and broken cups of coffee. The carpet on which the desk stood had a dark brown dried spot on it, which was undeniably a spot of dried blood. On the wall next to the door stood a bookcase, but all of the books had been pulled out, laying scattered on the floor. At the two walls left and right in the room, the wallpaper was ripped, and framed pictures and documents had been thrown carelessly on the ground. Max looked further, stopping when he saw something that was out of place. A small, green chest. It was made of wood and could have easily been broken. And yet, it wasn't. The surrounding area was also free of any damages. Max frowned as he walked towards it, opening the lid.
The box was filled with papers, all sorted in envelopes and case files. Max flipped through them, stopping when he found Luciens name first. He read the latest entry.
Subjects 'mate' has successfully been removed from the playing field. Subject responds badly and refuses any form of nutrition.
So this wasn't Luciens room, then? This was - someone had killed his mate. And taken Lucien. Max flipped through the papers, hoping to find more, but he couldn't. Most entries he found were just distant observations to decide whether or not Lucien was a vampire. Max decided to take the file with him, just so he'd have proof. He looked through the other files, finally ending up on one titled Julie.
Max swallowed as he saw the thickness of the files. That poor girl, she had been through to much - he thought quietly as he opened it up - and he'd be damned if he let anything else happen to her again. She had been nothing but sweet, even when she'd been frightened beyond imagination. And even if she hadn't been sweet, even if she was the worst fledgling he had ever come across - even then did she not deserve any of the things she had gone through. No, Max thought bitterly. Just making sure Julie would heal and be safe wasn't enough. These people who had done this to her, they needed to go.
Max was about to take the files out of the chest, wanting to take them with him as proof - as a way to help Julie heal - when he heard footsteps. He froze, quietly closing the lid, hiding in the shadows of the room, behind the door.
"And you're certain he's still here?" A female asked.
"Yes, he never came back."
Max had to restrain himself not to groan in frustration. It was the student that had brought him here, that was now talking to this woman.
"I don't hear or see anyone, Danny. Maybe you just missed him."
"I didn't, I payed attention all-"
"Maybe you just missed him." The female said, much more ice cold force in her voice. Max could imagine Danny nodding, fearfully looking away. He could imagine the way the woman grinned, like a lioness playing with her prey.
He heard one pair of footsteps disappear. Then, after a moment, he heard the strangely infuriating sound of heels being clicked against the floor. He kept quiet, willing himself to be as invisible as possible, as he felt the woman step closer and closer.
She stepped into the room, looking for a moment, and then disappearing. Max waited for her to leave, hearing the distant taptaptap fade slowly away before he made his way out of this room. He quickly went up the stairs, grateful to realise he had some time left - not much - before the sun started to rise. He quickly made his way to the second floor, flying out of the window and back to his car - speeding towards Luciens crypt.
It was only after he parked the car and made his way inside the crypt that he realised he had forgotten the files with Julie's name on it. He sighed, closing the crypts entrance. Maybe he'd have another shot tomorrow. Until then, he'd have the time to clean up this crypt so he could sleep and to read through the files he did take.
Cleaning up the crypt took longer than he expected. Sure, the dozens of lose papers were quickly piled together and put aside, but the shrapnels of the broken coffin and the other broken pieces of furniture took longer to clean up. After an hour, Max just decided to give up his efforts and shove everything aside. He found a pillow that didn't smell terribly - something he was grateful for after spending the previous night in a bathtub - and decided it would do for that night. He went to sit down in the cleared corner of the crypt, lighting a candle he found between the debris. He then opened the file he found, hoping for some answers. The first seven pages were lists of observations. How the testsubject never appeared until dark, how they'd never seen the testsubject eat or drink anything - all observations were to answer the question if the testsubject was a vampire or not. Max flipped through them, seeing nothing interesting. He put them aside, looking at the next page.
The Company of Life (COL) is pleased to inform you that starting from November 2nd 1984, you'll be employed by us. We are certain that you'll fund your time with us enjoyable and that we will all work together for a better tomorrow.
Max frowned, looking at the paper. The Company of Life had a green branch with two leaves as its logo, with three red droplets falling of them. He'd assumed the droplets would be blue, indicating water - the source of life for almost everything. So why red? He put the paper aside, reading the next one. It was a newspaper article.
COMPANY PROMISES CURE FOR SEVERAL BLOOD DISEASES WITHIN FIVE YEARS
Miss Walker, director of COL, has announced this news this morning during the bimonthly press conference. "Our research teams are working as hard as they can, and the clinical trials have proved to be successful. We still have a lot of testing to go through, but for now, it does seem promising. Our goal is to eradicate all of these diseases to make sure the human race will flourish in the future.
When asked how they came to the discovery of a possible cure or how they are testing it, Miss Walker stated that those details would remain confidential until further notice.
He read the article another time, and then another time. If his gutfeeling was right, and he was sad to conclude that it most often was, it meant that this COL was using inhumane methods of finding a cure. A vampires blood, for instance, Max knew, could heal a human. It could heal diseases and eradicate anaemia in certain conditions. If a power-hungry doctor discovered that, there was no telling what to do. He sighed, placing the article next to him. Was this what Julie had been through?
SEVERAL HOMELESS YOUTH HAVE BEEN REPORTED MISSING - IS THERE A SERIAL KILLER ON THE RISE?
Ever since the discovery of the 17 year old John Doe in Berkeley Park, local police have been getting more reports from homeless people reporting friends and acquaintances gone missing. All reports state that the missing people are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, and that they didn't have any family members to look out for them.
Since there's hardly any information available about these people, we ask you to call this number ----- if you believe to have any information. Even if you have seen them weeks before they went missing, any piece of information can be vital in recovering these youths.
Underneath the article were eight pictures, all of young people. Max didn't recognise Julie in any of them, but he didn't know whether or not he should be happy about that. Still, seeing the several articles together, it seemed logical that COL was behind those disappearances. Still, he did wonder why this file held Luciens name. Did Lucien work for COL, and was he gathering evidence against them? Or was it something else? Max was about to put the folder away, deciding to go to sleep, when a small scrap of paper slipped out.
He took it, seeing an address scribbled in a messy handwriting he didn't recognise. Tomorrow, he decided, he would visit whatever was at the location first. Hopefully, this time, he would get some concrete answers.
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