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Corporate Bloodsuckers | No. 1
Fiction | Magical Realism Short Story #3 | Castles in the Sky #40
This is installment #1 in the Corporate Bloodsuckers serial novel.
This was originally written as one of a series of standalone short stories inspired by the Twitter Account Magic Realism Bot. This story is inspired by this Tweet. You can see the first two stories here.
The first thing that Smit noticed about Brancorp was the windows. Seventy stories of pitch black. From afar they looked like normal windows, but the strong tint prevented people from seeing either in or out. They kept the fluorescent lights inside lit 24 hours a day. It created an artificial effect. Every once in a while, one of the haggard employees would lose track of time and keep working in her cubicle into the early hours of the morning.
Brancorp was a major conglomerate. Curious new employees would often be surprised that the top nineteen floors were inaccessible by the main elevators. There was a separate elevator that went straight from the VIP parking garage, behind several gates and security booths, all the way up to the 51st floor. There were rumors that those floors were nicer, arranged like luxury apartments for the partners and owners, who had access to the helipads that would sometimes take off after dark from the roof. But this was pure conjecture. Rumors circulated about wild parties and the occult, as people only ever heard noises from the top floors at night.
The bottom fifty floors and top twenty may as well have been in different countries given how they communicated, strictly through chat and video calls. But occasionally, for hugely important meetings, the department heads from the bottom fifty would ride their elevator as high as it would go to attend a meeting in the conference room on the fifty-first floor.
The fifty-first-floor conference room spanned the whole floor. It looked and felt more like a European palace than a drab office building. The ceilings were high and all the furniture was priceless antiques. This contrasted with the equally priceless cutting-edge technology.
On the day Smit and his team arrived, it was freezing outside when they disembarked from their fleet of black SUVs, yet his pale forehead glistened with sweat as he rode the elevators up with another twelve people. He was, by far, the sloppiest person there. Everyone else was fitter, more serious looking, and more smartly dressed. Each was immaculately styled in professional business attire, in stark contrast to Smit’s rumpled suit.
When they arrived at the fifty-first floor, the intern showed them how to enter another key code before she left. Smit and everyone else from the elevator entered and faced the U-shaped conference table that sat 40, with additional rows of seats arranged around it. Every seat was filled with an impeccably dressed, beautiful board member. Outfitted in designer clothes that could be traded for nice cars, the board members had a svelte menace to them. Smit sighed heavily and one of his companions elbowed him in the ribs.
Smit was working as a contractor for Daylite LLC. He clutched his leather padfolio full of contracts. Tia, Daylite's lead negotiator, stepped off the elevator and shook hands with the Brancorp lead. Tia was tight-lipped, tightly wound, and her head was on a swivel at any given time. The Brancorp leader shook Tia's hand. Before they let go, he brought his other hand up and bent down as if to kiss the back of hers, but she smoothly pulled hers out and nodded her head, without smiling.
"Apologies, I thought you were European," he said. He had perfect bone structure and flashed a subtle, wry smile.
She softened. "You are correct, but I have lived in the US for a long time."
"Please, call me Delmonico." He was handsome, pale, and unnaturally graceful. "Sit," he said, motioning to the row of seats prepared for the Daylite delegation. The two sides exchanged pleasantries about the building, the weather, and their travels. Then the Brancorp board brought over drinks for the Daylite executives.
"I hope you find this good enough. We don't normally have people in our office but since you insisted on meeting here, we are happy to oblige. Also, since this is such a momentous occasion."
"This is great," Tia said. "I have prepared the contract for you, and also brought copies for everyone here to read along." Tia nodded at Smit.
Smit stood and shuffled over to Delmonico. The two men being that close to each other made Delmonico look inhumanly clean and handsome. Smit stood and fingered through his padfolio, shifting his weight awkwardly and breathing heavily through his nose. Finally, he brought out a stack of papers stapled together. The top paper was green. Smit turned back to Tia, who gave an approving nod.
Delmonico began to leaf through the contract, while Smit slowly made his way around the room. For nearly twenty minutes Smit ruffled the papers in his padfolio, walking and breathing loudly through his nose, and handed a stapled stack to each Brancorp board member. The vast majority of them had green paper on the top, but a handful had red paper.
Smit walked over to Tia, who nodded at him. He looked at the ground and scurried as far back behind the Daylite team as he could. Several Brancorp board members had walked to Delmonico and whispered things in his ear, pointing at parts of the paper. He discussed each in turn and sent them back to where they were sitting.
Finally, when everyone was done, Delmonico smiled at Tia. "This all looks perfect. Legal says this is the exact copy we'd already reviewed." She nodded back and Delmonico continued. "Frankly, we were shocked you were able to borrow and raise the capital to make this work. But we're glad that the cultures between our organizations were such a good fit." He turned and grinned at a colleague, then looked back to Tia. "Do you actually want me to sign the papers? Or should I send it electronically?"
Tia smiled at him, her first full smile since they had arrived. "We're rather old-fashioned here at Daylite, so why don't you do us the honor of signing it?" She handed him a pen, which he took with a smile, and signed the contract. "We have actually brought commemorative pens for everyone on the team." Tia continued. The Daylite executives opened some briefcases and took the pens around to all of the Brancorp board members, shaking their hands, smiling, and handing them out.
Tia was chatting with Delmonico and a few others. As they talked, a Brancorp Board member noticed Smit had not moved and seemed to wince every time he looked up at the crowd. The Brancorp board member raised a finger as if to point and Smit and began to ask a question, but Tia cut him off.
"OK, one last thing," Tia shouted. "To celebrate, we would love to get a picture of you all with your new pens." The Brancorp board members looked to one another and Tia continued, "I know, I know, a little peculiar, but the board requested it." Delmonico looked at them all and gave a subtle nod, and they began to walk to the rear of the room. The Daylite executives lined up opposite them and began to laugh and clap. Once the Brancorp side had organized, Tia pulled out her phone and another pen. "OK, please, go ahead and smile and hold your pen lightly like this, like a microphone." She held the pen in front of her sternum.
Slowly, most of the Brancorp board members obliged. Smit shuffled up next to Tia, "but the red papers?"
Half the Daylite team whipped around to look at Smit with barely contained rage. Tia’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t stop smiling but subtly turned to Smit and said, "this will have to do." They held each other's gaze for a moment, then Smit dropped his head and began to slink back. Just as he was about to get to the wall he turned and ran in front of Tia.
"Sorry!" he shouted, his voice cracking. "Sorry," he said again more sturdily, "um, yeah if you. . . uh, if I gave you a red contract, I need you to uh . . . I need those back!" And Smit ran to the side of the room. Delmonico looked at Tia who was staring at Smit. Smit said again, "I know it's just, uh . . . it's a legal thing. I was supposed to retain those," he smiled a huge smile that was betrayed by the desperation in his eyes.
“After the picture!” One Brancorp board member shouted and smiled.
Smit panicked and gulped, “uh, actually, I have to uh–leave early. So if you could do it now, before the picture.”
After a few seconds of silence where everyone took the measure of Smit, Delmonico said, “Certainly. Go ahead."
One Brancorp board member asked, "did I have a red paper?"
Smit pointed at four Brancorp board members, "you, you, you, and you, bring it over here." The four of them looked to Delmonico who nodded, and they walked over to Smit.
Smit looked at them all and patted one on the shoulder, “hold on, don’t go back yet–let me make sure everything is here.” He started slowly flipping through the pages of the first red packet.
Tia looked at him, "thank you, Smit. We’re going to get started taking a few pictures while you’re doing that.”
Tia called everyone's attention back to her. Several Daylite executives on either side of her were holding the large briefcases they had brought the pens in. "OK everyone, let's get one picture now, pens back up." They all got ready while Smit fumbled through the same first stack of papers next to the window. "Here we go, 1, 2--"
Tia pressed a button on an app on her phone that was not the camera. Nothing happened. Smit dropped the papers and fell to the floor with his hands covering his face. One of the Brancorp board members began to say, "wha--" and the room erupted into chaos. A thick mist sprayed out of all but two of the pens. The Brancorp board members coughed and groaned.
"Silver!" Delmonico shouted. The room erupted into chaos. Delmonico wiped his face, looked right into Tia's eyes, then crouched to lunge. "You! I knew--" but he stopped and clutched at his chest, where there was a wooden projectile lodged. He looked down and screeched an inhuman sound, then exploded into ash.
The whole room whistled as Daylite executives pulled the hidden triggers on their briefcases and wooden projectiles were launched out of the side of them. As the stakes would hit the Brancorp board members, they would screech and burst into ash. In less than a minute, all but one Brancorp board member had been shot. The last remaining one looked at Tia and then back to Smit. His eyes flashed red and he bared two long teeth from seemingly nowhere. He leaped for Smit but before he made it, Tia fired a last wooden stake and dropped him in his tracks.
"Oh God," one of the women standing next to Smit said. Of the four people Smit had pulled aside, one was catatonic and two were hysterical. The fourth just looked afraid. Brogden, Tia's right-hand man, walked to the one who looked afraid. Brogden grabbed the man and ripped open his shirt and jacket, revealing a tattoo above his heart with curious lettering and a specific design.
"He's a familiar," Brogden said.
Tia walked over and told him, "have you had your first blooding yet?"
The man looked terrified, "no, no!" He looked back and forth from her to Brogden. “I was supposed to have it on the solstice next month. I’m clean!”
Tia nodded at Brogden who grabbed a stake and held it to the man’s temple. "No, please! No! It was a mistake! They promised me so much! I didn't know what they would make me do, please!" the man wailed, tears streaming down his face.
Tia spoke calmly, "If we let you live, you have to come back with us and tell us everything. I cannot guarantee that you'll live beyond that."
"Anything!" the man said, and he fell to the ground weeping and grabbed Brogden's knees. Brogden slapped him across the face.
"Take him," Tia said to Brogden.
The catatonic man turned to her, "Are you going to kill us?"
Tia turned to him and the other two. "No. Nothing you have seen today makes sense. Don't try to make it make sense. What you need to know is that the people you worked for are evil. I wouldn't even call them people. You are in danger. They do not see you as people. You are insects to them. They will not think twice about killing you.” Tia paused. “But they will also not waste any resources on hunting you down. You have one, maybe two days to run away before they discovered what has happened. You need to get all of your money together and take anyone you care about, and get out of town. Move far away and don't come back. For as long as this building and Brancorp are here, stay hidden and stay away."
The man looked as if he was going to ask a question, then looked at Brogden, nodded to Tia, and ran to the elevator. The other two followed after him and caught the elevator.
Tia turned to Smit. Her look was ice cold. "If you ever pull anything like that again, I will not hesitate to kill you."
Smit, who knew better than to confront her with the truth, said, "OK." Then Tia began to walk away, and he had a change of heart, "I'm the only one who knows which is which. I'm the only one who knows who the vampires are. Humans get green, vampires get red. It’s my job to make sure humans don’t get killed. You do need me."
Without turning, Tia coolly said, "No, we don't. We don't need you. Next time, we could just kill them all. Your stunt with reviewing the contracts almost clued Delmonico into what we were doing."
Smit looked away, "you can't just kill civilians. What about the bodies?"
"The bodies?" Tia looked up from reviewing the contract. "What about the bodies? The people who'll find them are undead--they're vampires.” She chuckled to herself, like what Smit suggested amused her. “They kill people all the time, every day. What are they going to do? Report them missing? No, Smit, they just incinerate them.” She handed the signed contract to Brogden and walked over to press the elevator button and turned around. “I never wanted you here. You are just getting in the way. I don't care what they say--your little party trick doesn't impress me."
With a shaky whisper, Smit managed to utter, "I don't see why we don't just like, blow up the building."
Tia sighed. "This isn't the movies. We can't just run around killing vampires hoping something changes. Look at this building. Look at this art. These are assets." She pointed at the wall. "We can kill all the vampires we want, but in the real world, if you want fewer vampires, you have to take their money." The way Tia said money, it sounded religious. Everyone in the room was transfixed on her except Smit, who continued to stare at his shoes.
The elevator opened behind Tia, and she and the rest of the Daylite executives grabbed their briefcases full of stakes, adjusted themselves, and stepped into the elevator behind her.
Smit grabbed the red contract packets, shoved them into his portfolio, and trotted to catch the elevator.