The Midnight Cleaning Company

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

On my return to the second floor, I found the new recruit to be much changed. Instead of the previous melancholy and nervous acquiescence to his fate, he was confident and cheerful. He lounged on his chair, with his feet up on the desk. His eyes had changed from their Human dark brown to a bright blue-grey to match mine. They were especially striking in contrast to his dark caramel skin.
"Good evening". He beamed. "I feel amazing! I fink I'm gonna like being a vampire".

He stretched his arms up behind his head and looked around at the room, enjoying his new heightened perception. "What kind of pussy vampire doesn't drink human blood? Don't tell me your a vegetarian". He snorted in amusement.

"You are not a Vampire", I said seriously as I walked passed his desk, pushing his feet off as I went.

"Fam, I have mother-fucking fangs!" he proudly showed me his slightly enlarged and sharper canines.

I laughed dismissively at his naivety.

"They are nothing, and you are nothing. You aren't 'lord of the night', you are an indentured Cleaner. You work for the Elders and in return you get to continue to exist".

His grin faded.

"You don't even want to meet a real Vampire. Your diluted blood is an insult to them, you are worse than Human. They see you as just as weak and pathetic, but without the benefit of being edible".

His excitement vanished. He stared blankly into space, looking lost.
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Andre Johnson." He sighed, deflated
"It's just Andre now. You can never be part of the Human world again. To them you disappeared along with your friends. From now on you are an indentured Cleaner. You will serve to prop up Vampire society and help maintain The Secret."

"What if I refuse?"
"We will kill you. You cannot refuse, you cannot make choices. You are not an individual, you have no agency. You are an invisible and anonymous aspect of the infrastructure".

I had brought a uniform upstairs from the basement.

"Put this on" I ordered as I threw him the bundle. Andre complied, pulling off the flashy clothes of his previous life: a red hoodie with colourful graffiti writing on the front, large white trainers, baggy blue jeans and a gold chain. He replaced them with the anonymous uniform of the Cleaners, designed to enable the wearer to hide in shadows and be easily forgettable: black suit trousers, a black shirt, black leather shoes, and a dark leather jacket.
"There are some leather gloves in the jacket pocket, and a cyanide pill is sewn into the inside of the collar on the left side.", I informed him.

Andre looked back at me blankly.

"Come with me and I'll show you the ropes... I'm Fleming by the way", I said in an attempt to be friendly to the dumbstruck new recruit.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance", replied Andre with bitter sarcasm.

"This floor is fairly self-explanatory and you know where your desk is already. Your meals are in the fridge over there," I said, gesturing like an air-hostess in the safety demonstration.

"Help yourself whenever you feel hungry, it's pretty frequent when your freshly turned. We get regular deliveries from contacts at several local butchers, but we could pick up more if necessary. Heat the blood in your mug for fifteen seconds in the microwave. You won't need any other sustenance but it won't do you any harm if you miss your Human comforts... although we don't have a toilet here," I said, aware that I was talking out loud to myself while Andre stared apprehensively at the fridge full of blood. He followed me in a shocked daze as we descended the metal spiral staircase.
"You've seen the acid vats in action already", I continued.

Andre seemed hesitant about entering the disposal room so we stayed outside.

"It is through force of habit that we still call them that, we have not used acid as a means of disposal for many years. It took far too long and the smell was awful. Now we use alkaline hydrolysis. You've got to scoop some sodium hydroxide from those barrels then add water from the taps. The process strips the hydrogen from the molecules of whatever is in the vat. A corpse vanishes in just three hours, leaving only coffee coloured water and salt behind, which is drained into the sewers below".

Throughout my initiation monologue Andre remained silent, nodding occasionally to show he understood, but his attention was distracted from the chemistry lesson by the two Rogue prisoners that had killed his friends. The leader and the girl were securely strapped to chairs facing each other. Michael and Charles were with them, attempting to extract information. Taking advantage of the evident attachment of the Rogue leader to the girl, they were threatening to hurt her unless he co-operates.
"That's Charles," I said pointing to my colleague who was talking to the Rogue leader, "and the ginger one is Michael".

As I said this Michael slapped the girl hard across the face, making the Rogue leader wince and talk faster. Charles briefly looked up from his note pad to nod in our direction in greeting.

"This room is pretty self-explanatory too", I said as I steered Andre from the disposal room to face the rest of the ground floor. "Vans park here and everything else you need is in these".

I patted one of the metal lockers that lined the walls. It made a loud tinny noise as items inside dislodged. The sound echoed around the room off the bare stone floor and brick walls.

"Ah! That reminds me".

I walked across to the locker on the far side and removed a padlock.

"This is for you, do you know how to use it?"

As I handed Andre a large combat knife he laughed, visibly relaxing as he drew the blade from its leather sheath to examine it.

"At least 'dis I have some experience wiv", he said with a grin.

The smile fell from his lips when I showed him his bed in the living quarters downstairs in the basement. He said nothing as he glumly surveyed the room. I left him there to sort his small quantity of personal effects into the chest at the foot of his bed and for John and George, who were downstairs resting, to explain anything I might have missed.

I returned to the top floor to heat some more pigs blood in my coffee mug and catch up with my paperwork.

By the time Andre returned to the second floor, looking exhausted, I had finished my report of the previous night's Rogue hunt and was putting the final touches to the new recruit form.

"Time for your first assignment", I said, tossing a thin brown paper folder like a Frisbee towards him, which slapped onto Andre's desk the moment he sat down.

"You are to take your Human blood to the morgue at UCL Hospital".

Andre shot me a puzzled look.

"You'll see when we get there", I said.