A tall, slender young man pounded on the door of the apartment. "Morgan?" he called. "Wake up! Let me in!" He frowned deeply. It was nearly 2 in the afternoon. She should be awake by now.
He stepped outside to a pay phone, dropped in the coins, and dialed a number. He tapped nervously on the phone, waiting for an answer. After nearly twenty rings, he tried a different number. It was answered after the first ring. "Hello?"
"Hello. Russ? It's Brad. Look, I'm over at Morgan's. I've been pounding on her door on and off since noon. I've tried calling and there's no answer."
Russ sighed on the other end. "Brad, you know she had 'company' last night. She's probably still out.... maybe at his place or something."
"But her car's still here! And she was supposed to give me a call this morning. We were supposed to get together and work on a couple of things. She wouldn't just blow me off like this."
"Well, if her car's still there, maybe he drove her.... or maybe they're in there and don't want to be disturbed. I mean, you know her as well as I do. But, yeah, I know what you're saying.... you're not someone she'd blow off, especially if you two had work to do. I'll tell you what. Why don't you come over here for a little while? We'll have a few drinks, then we'll be both go over there. The two of us pounding would be enough to wake the dead. What do you say?"
Brad reluctantly agreed to the idea and hung up the phone. It just wasn't like Morgan at all! He looked back at the building, clearly disturbed. "I don't like this at all. She should have listened to me last night. Something is wrong here." He sighed, got into his car, and headed for Russ's.






I awoke that evening in sort of a haze. The events of the night before slowly started to filter to my brain. My guest of the previous night was still with me. In fact, he was watching me with amused eyes. I looked around. "I'm in my closet!"
He smiled at me. "It afforded the best protection against sunlight. Your apartment will need some work before you can use it. You'll be staying with me for a time."
Sunlight. It finally struck me then what I'd become.... and I remembered feeding. I felt appalled. I was shook out of my reverie by a pounding on my door.
I got to my feet and made my way to the door. "Gimme a sec, ok?" Everything looked so different! I opened the door to find Brad and Russ standing there.
Russ kind of smiled and looked over my shoulder. "What the heck did you drink last night? Must have been good stuff to keep you sleeping this long." He winked at me."Or maybe you were just too busy to come to the door or answer your phone. You going to introduce us?"
I turned to my guest. "This is Russ Versace." Russ waved. "And this is Brad Wilkes. We write most of the music." Brad managed a faint smile.
"And this is..." I paused, having absolutely no idea who my guest was.
"Nicholas Hobbes," he obligingly filled in. "I'm pleased to meet you. I think I might know someone who would be interested in hearing you play."
Russ's ears perked up. Brad looked unimpressed, however. "Talk is cheap." He looked at me and frowned. "You look like death warmed over, Morgan. And you forgot to call me this morning."
Nicholas stepped forward. "It's my fault entirely. If you gentleman aren't busy, perhaps you'd help us move Morgan's things? And then you can discuss whatever it was. Or maybe even rehearse."
I heard Russ mutter under his breath, "Man, she moves fast."
Brad sort of glared at him. "I think he's the one moving fast."






When we got to Nicholas's house, we saw it was a rather substantial brick house in one of the older areas. He unlocked the front door while we dragged some of the stuff up the steps to the porch. He flipped on the lights as we stepped in. I was pretty awed by what I saw. Heavy velvet drapes on the windows, mahogany everywhere but most especially the staircase to the second floor, and off to the right, a magnificent baby grand. Brad set down what he was carrying and walked over to it. He sat down and began to play.