The Seducer: A Gone From Daylight Inspired Story - 20. William Harker’s Journal: Entry 20

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Tuesday, October 2, 1989

Dr. V drove me to his class this evening.

We had a discussion about the goings on Sunday night and, it seems, I have let my imagination run wild with me again. Despite Dr. V’s stern commands Sunday night to ‘stay safe’, there was, apparently, nothing to ‘stay safe’ from!

Ambrosio had been found all right!

It seems that he had his driver take him by the scenic route near the ocean and that he, simply, continued down the coast to LA by Highway 1. It took them hours going that way and during that time the Big Guy was incommunicado. There was no car phone and no pay phones along the way so he didn’t know he was being missed.

That’s a relief to me, certainly! By the way Dr. V had been carrying on you’d think Ambrosio had been murdered or something! But, he simply took an unexpected route to a place he didn’t tell anyone he was going. Strangely, LA sounds like the perfect place for someone like Ambrosio! Why didn’t anyone think about his going there?

“Ok, but what about the ruckus Sunday night?” I had to know about that! That was too freaky to not mention to Dr. V.

But…

“What ‘ruckus’?” Dr. V seemed truly perplexed by this. Perhaps, he hadn’t been there to get in the fight that I’m sure must have gone on upstairs from my ‘rabbit hole’! So, upon this assumption, I explained to him what I had heard and that it had frightened me.

“Oh, my dear boy! I must apologize! I should have come and gotten you long before that. That was simply the cleaning crew for after the party! I cannot abide a mess, you see.” Dr. V said with a chuckle.

A chuckle? He simply forgot I was down there afraid for my life? Here I was in a full on panic room reading about vampires from a book provided by a poltergeist and hearing a fucking war going on upstairs and it was the fucking cleaning crew? I suppose the book dropping for no reason has a perfectly rational explanation too. I wish I knew what it was though…

Like I said, that place of Dr. V’s must be getting to me! Why does all this keep making me feel like there’s something creepy behind it? What’s wrong with me?

I had my final mystery solved when I decided to show Dr. V the bloody ring I found. Well…solved in part, because what he did with the ring was a little weird.

“After you got me, I found this lying in the corner. Do you know who it might have belonged to?” I showed Dr. V the ring.

“A-ha! Bless you, Mr. Harker! I and my serving staff have been looking for that since Sunday evening! Yes, it belongs to one of the attendees of the party! It must have come off his finger while dancing and had been kicked into a hidden place. He has been beside himself having lost it. Apparently it is an…heirloom.” Dr. V said with a strange level of joy at its being found. He then took a handkerchief and whisked it right out of my hand and into his pocket with such speed that I had a hard time following the movement! He then licked his thumb clean of some of the dried blood that had still been on the ring and had gotten on him!

“There was blood on that ring, you know.” I said with a great deal of suspicion.

“Yes, that is to be expected. Apparently, it cut the owner’s finger as it was snagged off of him.” Dr. V seemed to have an answer for everything.

So, the mysteries of the weekend have been solved and there’s nothing to worry about. Right…

…then why do I still feel worried?

~

Here’s another shocker…

Mike’s moved out of our dorm!

He left a note saying he got a place off campus. He gave me the address in case I’d want to visit. There’s nothing about why he felt it necessary to move and he’d given no indication that he wanted a place outside of campus. But, I guess if he can afford it…why not?

Maybe, I can get his reasoning sometime. I’m going to miss him. He’s been a much needed rock of stability and normalcy since I got here to Stanford.

Do other Freshmen go through this kind of weirdness? Is this all a big rush haze happening to me? If so, which fraternity is doing this and why are they using Dr. V to do it? Maybe, I’m just being paranoid, but after this past weekend…it’s hard not to be, you know?

I’m a little worried who’ll they pick to be my roommate this time. I hope they’re normal-ish!

~

Well…there goes that hope!

His name is Jacob Renfeld and, yeah, he’s a weirdo alright!

He’s yet another ‘creature of the night’ type! I swear, everyone I meet these days seems to be a ‘night person’! He’s not as bad as others I’ve met (including Dr. V) in that Jacob does go out during the day if he has to, but insists on wearing a stylish black wide-brimmed hat and round black sunglasses!

This is how I discovered my new roommate: I walked down the corridor to my dorm room and heard the same-ish kind of weird dark twisted music I’d been hearing at the Salon Rouge coming from in there. I thought Rochelle might have come to pay me a visit and had gotten past the Men’s Den Mother watchdog somehow. When I entered, the drapes were drawn tightly closed and it was dark except for a lantern with a large votive candle inside it. I immediately went and turned on my reading light at my desk so I wouldn’t bump into things.

“Oh, hello!” I heard from ‘Mike’s Corner’ of the room. It was a light voice that was pretty girly. Before I turned around to see Jacob, I expected it to be some girl other than Rochelle who’s voice is not nearly as effeminate as this voice was.

Jacob is ‘goth’, in his own words. Certainly, he’s the very definition of that particular fashion! In the short time I’ve known him, he’s worn nothing but black from head to toe. He also wears varying degrees of makeup at all times, mostly a pale foundation with eyeliner. Rather than scary it makes him look ‘pretty’. I don’t know if he knows that’s the effect it has, but his care at ‘putting his face on’ means he knows very well what it makes him look like.

Jacob is actually very attractive, if I can say that without sounding too ‘gay’.

“My name’s Jacob Renfeld. I guess I’m your new roomie. Sorry about my atmosphere, it helps me to chill.” he said coolly.

“No, that’s cool. Just unexpected. You want me to turn my reading lamp off?” I offered.

“Oh, no! I’d rather you be comfortable than have to deal with my ‘eccentricities’. Hehehe!” He lisped.

“I’m William Harker,” I came over and offered my hand to shake. He took it in one of the lightest, limpest grasps I think I’ve ever known and just jiggled my hand from side to side a bit. It was a, kind of, off-putting handshake, to be honest!

“Yes, I know! The housing people mentioned you’re name when they assigned me here. Not, at all…a bad arrangement, really!” Jacob said in a slightly flirtatious way that made me blush despite myself.

“I promise, despite my ‘ways’, I’m quiet and clean. I won’t be any trouble. Promise.” Jacob actually smiled and, like the rest of him, it was a pretty smile. Warm and heartfelt.

“No problem. Likewise. Hungry, Jacob?” It was getting on towards dinner so I thought a trip to the canteen might be a good way to break the ice.

“Oh, I don’t eat much. But, I’ll accompany you to the canteen if you’re hungry. Something’s got to fuel those big muscles and that marvelous brain, right? Oh, and I’m Jake to my friends!” Jacob continued to smile and I continued to blush at the compliments.

At the canteen, it’s true, he ate nothing. He only had a drink of tomato juice. No wonder he’s so skinny! He talked about his favorite music, mostly. That seems to be the center-point of his life: music. He said he had even been in a band in High School. They ‘sucked’ according to him, but it helped determine his major - music and performance art. Yes, that fits Jake perfectly. Even his flamboyant way of talking seems to be a constant performance.

He was surprised I knew so many of the same bands as he did that he liked, even the more obscure ones like ‘The Dead That Dance’.

His curiosity about how I knew these things and not be ‘goth’ took us into a conversation about the Salon Rouge. I’d heard most of the music Jake was talking about there, naturally. I even brought up Lestat to him.

“No fuckin’ way! You’ve met Lestat? I’d give my left nut to meet that guy! He’s so-o absolutely outrageously cool! I have every one of his CDs! You say he plays live at this place you go? Geeze, even I’ve never heard of that place and I know every dungeon in the city!” With that, arrangements were made, and Jake and I will pay the Salon a visit this Friday!

I know I seem to get in nothing but trouble at that place but there’s something…seductive about it! Perhaps Dr. V and/or Rochelle will be there. I’d be interested in what they think of my new ‘dark’ companion here. Maybe, Jake can take some of the interest away from me when I go to the Salon. That’s the part that always gets me when I go there. Honestly, when I’m in there, I feel like a pork chop in front of a den of hungry wolves! But, even so, I must also like the attention because I keep coming back!

Like I said…the place is seductive!