Welcome to another Day of Scary October. Today’s story submission from Literary Tiger is an excerpt from a short story she’s working on. Here’s her blurb: “A young associate in a law firm is given a new client. The new client says he has a breach of contract issue and needs an attorney. Oh, and he also thinks he’s a vampire.”
Enjoy!
from Wikimedia Commons
Ana left Marcus Miller sitting in her office. She stalked down the hall to Richard’s spacious corner office in the Chase Bank Building. Good, Richard was still here. It was close to 8 o’clock. She interrupted him as he was putting files in his briefcase.
“Do you have a minute?” Ana asked.
“Make it fast, I’m leaving.”
“The new client you gave me says he’s a vampire.”
“He thinks he’s a vampire, Ana,” said Richard, putting the stress on the word think. “Big difference. Real ones are few and far between.” Ana detected the sarcasm, and she looked at him sharply. Maybe because the hour was late and Ana’s eyes burned with weariness, but she thought his smile seemed particularly chilling in its smugness. Of course, it was also possible that Richard was once again enthralled by the fact that he was going to make yet another associate hate life. As if the billable hours weren’t bad enough. Richard took fiendish delight in the sink or swim method. Law professors loved the Socratic method and used it to put the fear of God into hundreds of law students. The firm’s partners felt the same way. Anna thought there were less painful ways of learning.
“Whatever, Richard. I’m not dealing with him. It’s all very creepy.”
“You need the billable hours, Ana. And this guy paid us a $15,000 retainer.”
“What?”
“That’s right. He’s willing to pay you 250 dollars an hour to fix his problem.” Richard reached for his Hugo Boss suit jacket.
“There is no way to legally FIX his problem. He says that he paid some girl $5,000 to drink her blood. She supposedly took the money and ran. How exactly am I supposed to fix this? This is a society where vampirism is looked down upon, remember?”
“Did you listen to his whole story, Ana? He’s willing to settle for drinking her blood out of plastic bag.”
“We’re a top-notch firm. Why are we taking on this loony?”
“I don’t care if he’s a leprechaun who’s hired you to find his Lucky Charms. Don’t you remember your professional ethics? Everyone is entitled to a lawyer, and this truism becomes particularly relevant when that person is able to pay our fees. In case you haven’t noticed, the economy sucks. We need to get more business.” Richard looked up. “Better get back to your client, counselor. This is what you’re paid to do.”
“I hate my job.” Ana muttered as she stalked back to her office.
Marcus Miller aka Vampire-Client was still sitting there patiently. His eyes roved over her office, taking in framed pictures, plants, books and diplomas on the wall.
“Nice Doberman” Marcus complimented as Ana walked back into the room.
“Yeah, he’s very protective.” Ana said, a little creeped out. Did he plan on visiting her?
Marcus smiled “Please don’t worry. I never harm my attorneys.”
“Oh? Does your kind retain them often, then?”
“Count Dracula retained Jonathan Harker to purchase properties for him in London.”
“Yeah and look where that got him. Imprisoned in the count’s castle, his fiancé seduced by the count and he almost dies himself.”
Hahaha! Not exactly scary in the usual sense, but the fact that the poor lawyer has to deal with a vampire in the first place is a little chilling, although if you think about it, a blood-sucking lawyer with a REAL blood-sucker for a client is rather poetic justice, don’t you think? lol
Thanks, Literary Tiger, for sharing this with us. If you like book reviews and great literary quotes, check out her site (above).
I know this is about the American Thanksgiving. Just thought I’d plug Mike’s book! 🙂
In other ‘scary’ news, I’ve been debating whether to continue posting excerpts from my Little Green Men? story. After going back over the manuscript (which has been sitting on my computer for years without an edit), I realize it’s not as scary as I remember. I’ll leave it up to Comments whether I will post any more excerpts of this particular story or not. I do have some more ghost stories I could share, if you’d prefer.
To all my Canadian family, friends and followers (I love alliteration!), I hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! 🙂
mywithershins 