Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
The west side of the mall, home to the maintenance and tech staff, was immediately identifiable by the ubiquitous bags of cleaning supplies and batteries scattered across the floor.
The sharp, clean scent of lemon and bleach danced in the air, a familiar comfort that reminded me of my penthouse after the maid’s meticulous cleaning.
My body cried out for the familiar embrace of my bed high atop Elysium, longing for its plush comfort and the sweet smell of fresh linens.
A sense of hopelessness overcame me, knowing I may never feel relaxed in my own bed ever again.
As we walked through the west wing, the hallway was lined with repurposed shops, their former lives hinted at in faded signs and dusty displays.
To the right, colorful mops and brooms leaned against sudsy buckets, their soapy scent filling the air, while the left side was a chaotic jumble of rusty metal parts and cracked computer monitors.
The morning rush began, and the aroma of frying faux eggs reached my nostrils as people streamed into the shops with their daily breakfast sandwiches.
I watched as men and women zipped into their bright orange maintenance jumpsuits and filled buckets with sudsy soap.
“Follow me, vampire boy.” Jude waved me toward a shop to our left.
After rolling my eyes, I saw a blank space outside the storefront where the sign once hung, and I recognized the logo from years ago.
I believe the shop once sold used CDs and DVDs.
Years ago, I vividly remember begging my mom and dad to buy me a poster from this store.
My mom said no, but my father secretly bought it and gave it to me on my birthday that year.
He used to be so caring. The memories of those days filled me with bittersweet nostalgia.
Back when this mall was a vibrant shopping center, the store we stood inside was once a haven for vinyls, CDs, DVDs, figurines, and posters, but all that was now replaced with desks cluttered with tools, surrounded by piles of metallic junk.
Jude guided me to a desk piled high with defunct electronics. “I’m here to see Michael,” he said to the tower of junk in a deep, authoritative voice.
A woman’s head emerged from behind the haphazard stack of metallic objects with a bright headlamp illuminating her face.
She brought a finger to the side of her frizzy hair and clicked the light off.
“Uh…hi th-there, Jude.” She squeaked, her voice high and trembling.
“I-I’ll let Michael know you’re here.” She scurried to the backroom and quickly returned.
“You can go back there to speak with him.”
“Stay here and don’t do anything stupid,” Jude instructed as he turned to the short woman before him. “This is Nessa. You two can…chat?”
As Jude retreated toward the back room with a sheepish grin spread across his face, I couldn’t help but feel annoyed.
Wasn’t he supposed to watch me at all times?
Or was this another test? This thought irritated me even further; it was like they were observing me, being given a test I’d never know if I passed. An experiment.
“Whatta man, huh?”
I looked at the rotund girl sitting in the chair, propping her face in her hands.
She had wildly long brown hair that looked as if she’d been electrocuted a few times, sticking out at various angles.
The metal frames of her glasses magnified her pupils, making them appear ten times larger, perched delicately on the bridge of her nose.
Her light green eyes, sparkling with adoration, watched the man in the flowing white robe vanish through the nearby door.
“Who? Jude?” I asked, a slight uncertainty in my voice.
“Yeah, whenever he’s around, I get all nervous and shaky.” Swaying her head toward me, she sighed heavily. “There are a lot of men in Silvertown, but none are as fine as him.”
“You need to get out more.” I scoffed, a smile creeping at my lips. I liked Nessa; her presence was magnetic, and her innocence was refreshing compared to who I’d been around lately. Considering how annoying I found Jude to be, it was hard for me to agree with her.
“We don’t have many men like Jude here.” With a wistful sigh, she looked at me, her eyes wide and sparkling with mischief. “Although the rumor is he doesn’t play for my team anyway.”
I was surprised to hear this and unearthed memories from before the apocalypse.
People were scared to be who they are for fear of ridicule.
I guess that’s one good thing about the end of the world—all the unnecessary hate ended.
I supposed, even after all these years, humans will still be humans after all.
In Elysium, sexuality wasn’t discussed because everyone was fluid.
There were no labels on the gender of whom you preferred because we desired everyone.
Blood made us horny, and limiting ourselves would only lose precious time before it wore off.
Just because I’d never been with a girl didn’t mean I was opposed to it—I just found myself gravitating toward men.
A playful smile crossed her face, like a secret was about to be told. “Tell me all about the hot vampire men you have in the Elysium.”
“Y-you know I’m a vampire? And that I’m gay?” Nessa’s playfulness was infectious. My heart drew me closer to her. It was clear she didn’t leave Silvertown often and found a strange reflection of myself within her.
“It’s kind of obvious.” She shrugged before looking expectantly at me. “Now spill.”
I wasn’t sure what was obvious, but I decided politeness was key—you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as they say—so I grabbed a nearby metal chair and pulled it up to the desk.
I leaned closer to Nessa, whose breath shallowed.
The words were caught in my throat, a smile stretching wide across my face I couldn’t suppress.
“My boyfriend, Gabe, is the hottest. Tall, dark, and handsome—what more could you want? He’s part of the military, so his body is muscle upon muscle. To boot, he has a heart of gold.”
“Good in bed?”
My eyes rolled backward. “Amazing!” I had no one to compare it to, but I can assume he’s better than most. “I wish you could see him, your mouth would drop as soon as he walked in the door.”
She raised a finger, a serious expression settling on her face. “You have to promise me if there’s ever a way to see him, you’ll bring him to me first.”
I laughed. “Promise.” This was a breath of fresh air after the last twenty-four hours I’ve experienced.
Even though she was a human, Nessa lightened the heavy cloud over my head.
Between the bitter resentment in my body toward Jude and the other humans who kidnapped me, and the gnawing fear for my safety, her lightheartedness was a surprising and welcome relief.
“So if you’re a gay vampire, does that mean…”
“I suck dick and blood? Yeah.”
We both stifled a giggle as I gazed at the chaotic array of curly springs, wires, and tools scattered across Nessa’s workstation. I gestured to a pile of cogs with a rusted wrench lying atop. “So what is it you do here?”
“I tinker.” She shrugged. “We try to find ways to enhance the lives of humans using technology, but we have the same broken items we’ve used for years.
Sometimes we get new things we’ve stolen from the vampires we find in dumpsters, but that’s rare.
” She turned to me and covered her mouth. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
I shook my head. “There’s so much waste in the Elysiums that whatever you’re able to scavenge, no one would even know. I wish I knew where we threw everything away so you could salvage it.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Wanna see something I recently figured out how to fix and have hidden away, just for me?”
My eyes brightened, nodding. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Nessa pushed her chair backward, rolling across the floor before lifting her body upright. Her hips swayed rhythmically when she walked, her curly hair bouncing with each step. Reaching into the worn leather bag hanging on the wall, she gently cradled the object and held it close to her stomach.
“What is it?”
Nessa gingerly put a small, black circular item on the desk between us.
The surface was marred by deep scratches, obscuring the words that had been scraped away entirely, leaving only faint ghosts of their former presence.
Her eyes glowed. “It’s a CD player. We haven’t had a working one in years, and I stowed this away from our last shipment.
All it needed was some light fixing and new batteries. ”
“Do you have any discs to play on it?” I was smiling, a thin veil over the laughter bubbling up inside me.
“It does use discs, right?” The world’s most prominent tech moguls were turned into vampires, giving all residents of Elysium access to countless digital music libraries, available anytime, anywhere.
“We got rid of most of the CDs years ago. I think someone told me they were used as kindling during the first winter after the war.” Lining the outside, numerous silver buttons, each displaying a unique symbol, gleamed faintly.
A press from Nessa’s chubby finger on one of them caused a satisfying click as the lid opened.
“But this had one in perfect condition.”
“Can we listen?”
She nodded. “This is the last CD in the world, and even though it’s so scratched and beaten up that it only plays one song, I love it.” She plugged the white corded earbuds into the device and handed me one before putting the other in his ear.
A synth-pop tune with a driving bassline reached my ears, and a powerful beat drummed through my body.
The soothing, wavy melody reminded me of being on a beach.
Life seemed so much simpler before all this happened.
The artist’s high, breathy voice, a strained attempt at sultriness, filled our ears.
A cringe reached my face as I listened to the music—I knew who was singing; she and her family were leaders of an Elysium on one of the coasts.
The final note faded, and Nessa’s grin was radiant as she looked at me. “This song gets stuck in my head for days. Even though it is something you can dance to, the lyrics are pretty deep.”
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Pretty deep for her, sure.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I know the singer, her father was one of the first to purchase the brETH cure. If I remember correctly, she produced only a few albums. This may be the last song of hers in the world.” Her eyes narrowed, questioning my statement, so I had to clarify with more details.
“Not because of the war or the vampire uprising, it was because she realized she couldn’t sing without digitally correcting her voice. ”
“Digitally correcting her voice? How’s that done?”
“A lot of singers used to do it before the war,” I explained. “It was all a money-making scheme.”
“I wonder how all their money is treating them now.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Do you want to listen again? You have to admit, it’s catchy!”
She was right, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was one of those songs that would worm its way into your head and never leave.
I sighed and put the headphone back in my ear.
“Replay it.” Looking back over my sixty-five years, I couldn’t remember a friend, besides Gabe, that I could do this with.
I didn’t know where my friends went before the war.
They may even have found refuge in Elysium, but I’d never know unless they appeared inside my penthouse.
I never realized how much I missed this camaraderie, how I craved it. Until now.
We listened to the song five times. The catchy beat and lively tempo had us dancing around the desk, swaying our bodies back and forth with our arms in the air, completely lost in the music.
The music in my headphones created a bubble of carefree normalcy, blocking out the world’s concerns.
It was like we were at a sleepover, listening to music and gossiping about boys.
Until the music stopped.
The back door opened, and Jude emerged from behind. Nessa snatched the headphones from my ears, the music ending abruptly, and then slipped the CD player under a stained cloth. Beads of sweat gathered at her temples as she leaned her face into her fist, offering Jude a shy, awkward smile.
The man looked at me with an oddly amused expression. “Everything okay out here?”
I nodded and turned away from him. Why did he need to interrupt us? This was the first time I felt normal in years. “Nessa and I were getting to know each other.” I flickered my eyes at Jude, who looked back at me with a cold stare. “I think we hit it off. It’s nice to know someone likes me here.”
“We’re definitely friends,” she agreed, her voice cracking. “Vincent is always welcome here. A-and so are you, J-Jude.”
A sly smirk crossed Jude’s face, and he bit his bottom lip.
Was he enjoying the attention Nessa was giving him? Were all humans this egotistical? Honestly, their need for attention was exhausting.
“Let’s get going, vampire boy.” He cocked his head toward the door. “I have to update my dad about what Michael had advised me.”
“And what did you find out?” I asked through my teeth.
He squinted his eyes and held one condescending finger toward me. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
With a playful glint in my eye, I turned toward Nessa and winked at her. “I hope I’ll see you soon. The stars may be blind, but hopefully they can convince Jude to bring me back to see you.”
A wide smile lit up Nessa’s face, her cheekbones pinching her eyes shut.
“What are you two talking about?” Jude’s face twisted as he turned to us with a sneer. “Is this some code you two came up with?”
My cheeks burned as I fought back the grin threatening to split my face, our gaze never breaking contact. I incorporated the lyrics in my farewell, and she caught on. It was like we had a secret between just the two of us.
Before we could answer, a cacophony of screams sounded from outside the door.
A sharp crack followed by a tinkling cascade of shattered glass cut through the terrified screams of the humans outside.
Like a monstrous beast unleashed, a deafening roar ripped through the chaotic scene, draining the color from my face and leaving me weak with terror.
The Dog escaped.