Keen's Turn: Descent & Depravation

Chapter 5: Vampire Vigilante (third quarter)

Jared opened his eyes and stared up at the torn ceiling.

It was quiet.

This was a very bad sign.

He extricated himself from the sweaty blanket and stumbled to the sill to check the time.

Shit.

As he rubbed his puffy eyelids, the hopeless extent of his tardiness just beginning to sink in, he became aware of the bed beckoning behind him.

C'mon, you idiot. You gotta go.

He struggled through the abbreviated version of his morning routine, doubling up on deodorant in lieu of a shower and tripping over the pan in front of the door on the way out. Passing the payphone in the lobby, he considered calling the office.

No. He'll just get two chances to take my head off.

He had never, he thought, been more tempted in his life to call in sick, but this was the day before publishing day, and Lou wasn't exactly an understanding guy. As important as holding down this job was, and with his already spotty record, it wasn't worth the risk.

As long as I'm up...

Still, he needed a solution to his sleeping problem, and fast. There was no telling when, or even if, the vampire would return to his apartment. But he couldn't sleep there. He could get coffee to make it through today and tonight, and...also tomorrow? And tomorrow night? And sleep through Saturday morning, and then cancel on Rose to go to the power station...? He pressed his palms into his eyes.

This isn't gonna work at all.

He made it to a seat on a stifling subway car, its rattling jarring him in and out of sleep. At the office, he braced for Lou's onslaught—but it didn't come. Lou didn't even acknowledge him, though his door was open and he looked up as Jared came down the hall. With a sense of having slipped into an alternate reality, Jared set about his business for the day, lining up the last of Suzanne's articles for review. When Lou delivered a third piece on a sighting by ghost hunters at an old hospital, his tongue started to move on its own:

"This ghost thing again? Didn't we lay this to rest already? It was just a pair o' normal incidents."

No response.

"Hey, you seem in good spirits today. Not gonna throw any shade?" Lou was starting to look irritated, and Jared couldn't stop. "Ooh. Spook too soon?"

But Lou only grunted and swaggered off, leaving Jared staring at his retreating back.

Maybe he's sick.

With a shake of his head, Jared turned back to his desk and his editing tasks. Whatever was wrong with Lou could wait. But he found it impossible to concentrate, reading and rereading Sue's copy, his neurons quailing at non sequiturs and nonpareils of nonsense.

"Many more people reported it than he did." Did he report it, then more people...reported more... Never mind. Keep it moving. Next sentence. "After putting in the crops in the area, multiple sources conquer lambs were being delivered by the area farmers with two heads." Oy...

He skipped ahead.

"If they modify the tomatos, at the end of the day they will modify the sheep. And if they let that happen, the next thing you know their will be modifying humans too. And after that, who knows??"

His tired mind continually slid off the sides of these slippery slopes into the gulf of uncertainty around his short-term survival. It was all very well to put off the longer-term questions, but with the day wearing on, he needed a plan for somewhere to sleep, and fast.