Part Six

********** Are we having fun yet? - Night shift mantra **********

Giles stumbled as he came out of the light trap into another darkroom. Or was it the same one he had just left? "This place is like a bloody maze." He muttered as he looked around the red lit room. Shelves of film, a punch, the back end of a processor. "Blast it! I just came out of here." Rupert stepped back into the trap and held onto the frame. With his other hand at the opening he rotated the door around in its frame until he felt the sides fall away. There was another doorway but it led into total darkness. Again he turned the trap which opened up into a yellow light room. "Yes, this one has been accounted for - I think." A third turning of the door - a second red light darkroom. He stepped into it and scanned the contents. "This is different, maybe." He wrinkled his nose. There was that smell again, like burning cherries. Whatever the hell it was it was giving him a headache. Rupert took off his glasses and rubbed his face. There was another light trap at the far end of the room. Was that the one he had first used to come back here? He couldn't remember.

As his bafflement increased to almost a panic a thought shot into his mind. "I can't remember? Oh hell, that's it.... confusion spell. They're on to me." Giles put his glasses back on and headed for the far trap. He realized that he had to get out of the warren of darkrooms and away from that odor if he was ever going to find Joyce. Giles entered the light trap and spun it - red light, red light - white light! He stepped back into the plate area and he was not alone.

~~~~~~

"Four vampires, eight demons, five goblins, one witch and one warlock in training. That's the night shift. Day people are mostly humans who don't give a shit with a scattering of demons and goblins to keep them in line. Oh yeah, and one robot - that's Ken. Someday Adam is going to slip one of his head banging CD's into his drive just to see what will happen. All the sales staff are into sorcery. Half the time Donna back in 'Human' Resources doesn't know whether to shit or wind her watch - you should see those insurance claims. Just last week...."

Joyce waved her hand at the chattering goblin perched on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I asked." She said as they walked down the warehouse corridor. "So Rupert is going to meet me back here?"

"Who?"

"Ah... Mike."

Kimmie swished her tail and stared intently into the dimly lit space. "Yeah, he's suppose to have come on back here. Whoa, whoa, stop!"

Joyce froze as the goblin pointed over to the right. It cocked its head and peered up onto a rack and whispered. "Move over that way, real slow."

"What is it? What do you see?"

"Just get me over there, and move that broom will ya?." It instructed as Joyce stepped over toward the bin rack. "Now hold still." It said as it crouched down on her shoulder for a second before it leaped off and disappeared into the cones of coiled twine. "Got ya!" Kimmie crowed as it reappeared with her prize.

"Eeeww!"

"What's with this 'eeeww'? Can't you say anything else?" Kimmie asked as she gave the wolf spider a whack on the edge of the bin. "Wanna leg? The crunchy parts are the best."

"Ack!"

"Ack? Oh that's better.... then be that way." The goblin muttered while munching on a spider leg. "Well... come back on over here and let's go."

"You're not getting back on my shoulder with that thing." Joyce corrected.

"Okay, we'll just hang here until spider break is over."

"No, we're going to get moving and without the spider. Mr. Giles isn't back here and you know it."

Kimmie looked around the warehouse before snapping off another leg. "Yup! Give that lady a cigar."

Joyce felt the hair go up on the back of her neck. "What's going on. What's really....."

"I had to get you back in this end of the plant. Hell and gone out of the way, 'cause if you hear it... well that could stick in you subconscious."

"If... if... I hear what?"

"Your friend's accident. Ssssshit happens... Heh, heh...."

*THWACK!*

The goblin left the receiving end of the broom propelled at a high rate of speed....

~~~~~~

Rupert's hand went for the stake in his back pocket as the two men morphed into vampires.

Gregory shook his head over the motion. "Don't go there, remember we still have your lady friend."

The younger vampire picked up the phone and punched in the intercom code. "Rick, call 4027" blared out over the speakers. He depressed the bar and waited for the return ring. "Yeah, he came out over here in plate. And you were right, he is that Watcher dude.... Uh huh, will do."

"I take it your orders are to hold me here. Is that correct?"

Adam let out a sarcastic whistle. "Man, he is smart. Whoo! What a mind."

Gregory gave his compatriot a not too gentle shove. "That is why he is he Watcher. Remember that and maybe you will exist for more than a dozen years. So show some respect." He stroked his beard for a moment and then nodded to Giles. "I ran into a Watcher back in 1823. But under different circumstances. He had come to me, quite by accident, to have his memoirs printed. Fascinating man, he was in Vienna for research, if I remember correctly....."

Rupert gave a grim smile. "And since you are here to relate this story, I'll assume you killed him."

"Yes... of course. Then I printed his tract, three hundred of them. Used that lovely Bodoni Book typeface, it was, and still is an elegant form of type. It came out so beautifully that I kept a copy for myself. Sold the rest at a tidy profit."

"Greggor's been in the trade for quite a while. You should hear some of his stories." Adam said enthusiastically.

Rupert edged back toward the light trap. "I see... and you have been in the 'trade' for how long?"

"Seven years. I got nailed back in Dayton, Ohio. My sire was a platemaker and he got me into printing. Followed him out west when he relocated to Tucson. Then I heard about this place, been here for three years. You'd be surprised at how many print shops have vampires."

Giles took another half step back while nodding in agreement to Adam's comment. "I'm sure I would. So you are saying this industry attracts creatures of the night?"

Gregory gave a evil grin. "Printing just gets into a person's blood. As you soon shall see."

Rupert swallowed hard. "I know Joyce is dead. Just tell me, has she been turned?"

Rick arrived in time to hear Rupert's question. "No, she's fine, we don't kill customers. Kimmie took her back into the warehouse for the time being. But you on the other hand, we can't pass up the chance to dispose of a Watcher." He then changed into his feeding face and gave the other two the order. "Take him alive..."

Giles stepped back into the light trap and spun the door toward the next entryway as the three vampires hit now closed entrance to the darkrooms. The pounding which the trap took as they tried to force it around caused the metal cylinder to come free from its track and jam. Rupert wriggled through the exposed space and ran for the next darkroom complex. His mind raced as he tried to remember the sequence of the next warren. "Red light, yellow light rooms had no exits... I'll have to take my chances with the pitch black." Entering the second trap he rotated the door to the darkness and took a cautious step inward, he then spun the doorway back toward the other rooms. Rubbing his hand along the wall he felt for a switch.

"Damn, damn... there it is!" Giles flicked the switch which activated not an overhead light but the high intensity camera lights in the adjoining room. As the light poured through the ajar camera room doorway a agonized howl cut through the air. Rick had been passing within inches of the light enclosures at the same instant they had ignited, blinding him and charring the skin on his face. Rupert froze at the scream and removed his hand from the switch. With a smile he read the label posted above it. "Camera - Focus."

The eight banks of lights in the camera room caused Giles to squint as he approached the vampire which knelt snarling on the floor. "One down..." He noted as the stake descended.