The Recording Room

Chapter 1-3

“Rainbows around here are mostly purple colored.”

Lucian blinked. “Huh?”

Nate was standing before him, hands at his waist. “You’ve not been listening to me, have you?”

Lucian felt like he was coming out of a fog. “I’m sorry. I was—”

“…busy with your own thoughts. At least your grandma always listens to what we say.” Nate said the last sentence behind gritted teeth but Lucian could still catch it and it made his face warm.

“You think I’ll be a bad boss, don’t you?”

Nate shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t make a habit of judging people before I know them very well. I just thought you’d make a bigger effort to get acquainted with your future staff. Just because you come from a big city—”

“I never meant to act like a, a diva, or thought since I came from a big city, I’d act like a jerk,” Lucian snapped. “And this comes from someone who a second before said he never judged people. Tell me, Mr. Lockwood, what—”

“Lucian Salvatore, stop right there.”

Both Lucian and Nate froze. Helen strode over in their direction. She was still smaller than him, but Lucian felt as if he were ten-inches tall at that moment. Nate didn’t look as confident as he usually was, either, when Lucian glanced at him.

“Grandma, what are you doing here?” Lucian asked weakly.

“To stop you two from killing each other, obviously.” She glared at him and then at Nate.

Neither of them dared look back at her. Lucian suddenly felt terribly interested in the sign on the door right next to him that said Recording Room and wondered what Nate or anyone at the station usually did there.

“Well, does anyone want to tell me what it was about?”

Lucian felt like a student getting caught throwing a stone and breaking a window. He stole another glimpse sideways toward Nate and felt annoyed when he realized the man wasn’t going to say anything. He sighed in resignation as he turned his gaze to his grandmother.

“It’s nothing. Really.”

“Nothing? The security officer outside thought something was on fire.”

Lucian grimaced. “I guess Mr. Lockwood here thought I wasn’t fit to replace you. I didn’t pass his first evaluation.”

“What?” His grandmother stared at him as if he’d grown horns. With her eyebrows high, she turned to Nate. “What was it about?”

Nate had the grace to look embarrassed. “Uh, he was just being inattentive, Helen. So unlike you. He didn’t…he didn’t listen to what I was saying.”

Grandmother switched her attention back to Lucian, the creases on her forehead slowly smoothing out, her eyes telling him something. Telling him to…Lucian shook his head a little. No. He knew what she meant to say, but he couldn’t do that. It wasn’t Nate’s or anyone else’s business. They didn’t know him, and vice versa. Lucian looked at the intricate patterns of the tiles.

“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” he said, mumbling. When he looked up again, he saw his grandma take Nate by his arm.

“Come here.” They shifted a bit from where they’d stood earlier, and she whispered something Lucian couldn’t catch. He frowned, especially when Nate stole a glance at him. Lucian felt his blood begin to boil. His grandmother had no right telling Nate what had happened to him. It was his problem, not hers.

Lucian found himself standing behind his grandmother without being aware of moving. He grabbed her elbow—an act he’d realize later to be a bit too harsh.

“What did you say to him?” he whispered in her ear.

She jerked back in shock. “Lucian, my goodness. Don’t do that again to my old self. I could have a heart attack.”

He cringed. “I’m sorry, but you have no right telling him stuff about me.”

“What?” She turned to Nate. “Did I tell you stuff about him?”

Nate shook his head, speechless.

Lucian snorted mirthlessly. “I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t believe your own grandmother.”

“No. I mean, I do. What I mean is…God.”

“Are you swearing?”

Lucian sighed, running his fingers in his hair. “Grandma…”

“Don’t Grandma me. Nate, tell him what I told you just now.”

“S…she told me to go easy on you. Everyone fights their own battles and I should be careful with what I say or do.” It was obvious how uneasy Nate looked.

Nate’s reply inexplicably made Lucian even more upset but he didn’t feel like talking to Nate. He returned his gaze to his grandmother. He knew he threw daggers at her with that gaze, another thing he might be sorry for in the future, but he held back from saying anything. Suddenly he felt tired. He hadn’t slept a lot last night after dinner though his body had screamed for rest after the long journey, but still he couldn’t close his eyes.

* * * *

It heard the steps on the other side of the door and shivered as it sniffled at the scent. It had never came across this smell before though somehow it resembled that of the old Salvatore lady. Could it be another…Salvatore?

It groaned low, making the air around it vibrate. Finally, after all this time, it got to meet its target, the real blood. After so many nameless, faceless lives it had taken to relieve its hunger, finally it would get the chance to take its revenge.