THE CHARACTERS AND SETTINGS ARE THE WORKS OF AN ORIGINAL FICTION.
Rated M for Mature
Appropriate for readers 18 and over. May contain extreme violence, sexual themes, nudity, or profanity.
Immortality: Tales of the Undead- Unfinished Business
Vladimir Jenkins, a rich businessman and the CEO of Vlad Corporation sat on his seat, and stared at the files of his employees. These employees had worked hard to make his company a much broader and better place. He thought of promoting one of them, due to their best efforts. But he had a hard time figuring out who would become the ideal candidate. A promotion like no other human could achieve at the highest stake. Vladimir was human though, yet his ancestor had turned out to be none other than a brutal killer of the Turkish era, Vlad the Impaler. But everyone thought Vlad was a vampire who craved human blood, and that he had drank every drop of it and from the throats of his victims. He didn't want to accept the fact that he came from Vlad’s family bloodline. As a child, he was told by these stories, including his butler. The butler never wanted to tell this real-life story to anyone, not even the future CEO of Vlad Corp.
Vladimir expected something far above his recent achievements. He had been monitoring every employee below the building, listening to their secret conversations with their co-workers, working under tough pressures, having their own lunches, and so on. His eyes went back and forth, trying to see the human potential and how one of these employees could bring his company back to where it was.
However, the company turned out to become bigger than any other one in the whole wide world. His great-grandfather had founded Vlad Corp. and worked along with his son and his grandson. Now, it was Vladimir’s turn to bring the tables around. He felt comfortable, watching each and every step of the employees below the very building, where they didn't know who was watching them. But there was one person, standing beside him. This person was picked as a top business executive, so that he could work for Vladimir Jenkins throughout his lifetime. He had the charisma of a slight, thin and young man. Though he looked slightly pale, he had white eyes similar as that of any other human being, except for his tiny black eye-lids. He looked scary as hell than anyone could think of. There hadn't been a single employee, who knew that a vampire was secretly working for Vladimir Jenkins.
Julius was his name, which was taken out from a famous Roman Emperor in ancient Rome. He himself became a Roman citizen after he had moved from Greece. Normally, people would think that Julius was in fact a Roman because he originally came there. But it wasn’t true and that Julius had to make people understand his true origins. He was human back then. Later, one night, the much silent Julius had been attacked by a strange creature who sucked his blood until it got eventually dried out. That was the moment when Julius became a vampire, which he hadn’t the slightest idea of why it happened all of a sudden. Maybe he thought it was his destiny. The creature wasn’t found though and it took many years for Julius to try and understand why he had become one of the damnedest creatures of all. Likewise, he had learned the history of vampires and traveled to Transylvania for more information.
In the modern-day era, Julius had found out that the Vlad bloodline somehow stayed intact. He learned great details about their history, being told by the other vampire of Transylvania. He himself became a guardian for Vladimir Jenkins, even though he wasn’t a vampire. There were myths being told that the Vlad bloodline consisted of a vampire family. But the reports indicated it wasn’t true. In fact, one of them had the strong urgency to drink human blood. This unusual situation had not been described properly by scientists or even doctors of the modern era. Julius believed that he could take care of the family bloodline, because he was the only vampire being present amongst them. He also had no intentions to drink their blood.
Vladimir still stared at the monitors and wondered if Julius could pick one candidate out of the hard-working bunch. But it too became hard for Julius to recognize their human potential. If Julius were human, would it matter? Not likely for the once and former Greek citizen. He even watched alone, eye-to-eye on these employees when his boss, Vladimir was not around.
Vladimir rose up from his seat and paced the marble floor. Then he looked at Julius whom he still looked straight-forward, standing like a true gentleman with his worn black suit and a white shirt beneath it. Although he looked like a butler, he had done many good things for Vladimir since childhood.
“What do you think?” Vladimir asked.
Julius didn’t respond immediately as he looked at the monitor screens. His watchful eyes became too similar as the CEO of Vlad Corp. Julius always told himself that a human eye was not much faster than a vampire one. Yes, he had been watching their every single move, one of the vampire traits that no other vampire could have done before.
“I honestly don’t know,” Julius answered.
Vladimir looked surprised and didn’t expect to hear this from him. He walked in front of his desk, staring at the white, pale face of Julius.
“You don’t know? I can’t believe what you’ve just said.”
“I don’t lie, Vladimir. All these employees are the perfect candidates, yet they do share the same, fantastic abilities than any other human being.”
“You've got to be kidding me!” Vladimir laughed a little. “This is not some joke, Julius. We only need one person, who can bring this company back to shape.”
“How do you insist then?” Julius asked.
Vladimir didn’t say a word at the moment. He desperately wanted to make this company a wide open area for anyone to accept it. But the other company have beaten to their game by selling their best product in the world. Vladimir felt it was time to do the same thing. But it had to be something different.
“Hmm. You tell me, Julius. You’re the one who has the big ideas.”
“I’m glad that I've met you, Vladimir. But if it weren’t for you, the company would have been thrown into a trashcan.”
Vladimir thought that Julius made a big joke out of all this. Even as a kid, Julius made some silly jokes that the rest of the family had laughed at him. But did Julius become serious about it? He must be right about the company becoming almost to the point of bankruptcy. It became a horrible thought for Vladimir not to even consider the possibility. He had to do something fast.
“What do you suggest, Julius? I’m counting on you. You’ve been at my side for all these years. Now, you don’t know who will become our next executive of this company?”
Julius smiled and stared at his own boss for a while. Those times had been fun between the two of them. Sometimes, Julius had to play with Vladimir when he didn’t have any friends closer to him. It also became a satisfaction for the vampire to experience the joys of human life.
“I think I do have a suggestion,” Julius said.
“Well, what is it?” Vladimir said.
“We’ll have to make a vampire out of these candidates.”
“Another vampire?” Vladimir asked in a slight angry way. “You must be crazy.”
“Crazy indeed,” Julius said. "But it’s the only way that our company will be raised from its possible ashes.”
Vladimir didn’t like the sound of it. Even if his company were to go down, there was no way of turning back.
“Alright. But we need to carefully pick out one of the best.”
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It took a while for both Julius and Vladimir to pick out the best employee of Vlad Corp. They decided to pick this person, because he had managed to send out every single detail about the status of their product, in terms of marketing and communication. He had a blond hair, which made him look, quite young than any other man in the company.
The young, blond man sat down on a chair, facing across Vladimir from his desk. So far, there was no Julius in sight. Vladimir became quite nervous of the fact this person would become another vampire working for him. He was single, yet his parents had died of a plane accident. However, this was not just the only reason why they had picked him. The blond employee had the courage to perform his hard work in the company, and that it brought positive results.
“How are you doing, young man?”
The blond employee whose name was Steve, smiled. Though he didn’t know why he had come here, he felt it had something to do with their product itself.
“I’m doing fine, sir,” Steve replied in his confident voice.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
“Um... No, I don't."
Vladimir turned his eyes around and stared at the built-in closet of his private office. This had made Steve look quite uneasy. He too stared at it, wondering what his boss was thinking at the moment.
Steve decided to break the silence. “Sir? Is there something that I should know?"
Before Vladimir could say anything to his employee, the doors of the closet opened, and Julius came out slowly. The employee screamed in horror.
“Calm down, young man,” Vladimir said. “This is for the best to improve our business.”
“W-Wh-What?” Steve still trembled with fear.
Julius grinned. "Your boss is right. You have been promoted. Congratulations, Steve!”
The employee finally got up from his seat and ran, but Julius managed to catch him off guard. Steve cried out for help. But Vladimir’s main office had a sound-proof system.
“No. NO! WHAT YOU’RE DOING TO ME! HELP! SIR!”
Vladimir couldn't help but watch the frightful scene before him. He never wanted this thing to happen in the first place, but felt it was necessary to fix his unfinished business.
Steve screamed again. Then his eyes began to close slowly. Julius carefully carried his body and then placed him on the couch.
“He will be alright, Vladimir,” Julius said. “Our new business has just been started.”
Vladimir had a horrible feeling what this kind of new business shall bring the company to everyone’s attention. But time will only tell when Steve wakes up from his dead sleep.
Next Story- Merry V-Mas.
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