Spain

   ‘Beg your pardon?’ I wasn’t sure I heard Tabitha right.

  I could hear Gloria flying towards the office at a vampire pace. She slowed to a human pace right before she could be seen through the open door. Gloria did not show herself in the doorway, but I could hear her just outside the office.

   ‘I was wondering what it was like to be a vampire.’

   ‘Tabs what are you talking about?’

  Tabitha turned and picked up the picture of Gloria and myself as a human. She looked hard at the picture, the placed it back on the desk. Tabitha came over and sat in the other high back leather chairs.

  She smiled and said, ‘Come on Conner, when was the last time you, Gloria and I went out for dinner?’

  I didn’t say a word.

   ‘Or when was the last time Gloria and I went to lunch?’

  This one I knew the answer to, ‘Right before Gloria went to Idaho.’

  She nodded her head, ‘Your right just before she went to Idaho, do you know what she ordered?’

   ‘I couldn’t tell you.’

   ‘A glass of water that she didn’t drink.’

   ‘Just because Gloria doesn’t like to eat out, doesn’t make me a vampire Tabitha.’

   ‘Oh we’re getting formal now are we?’ she asked with humor.

   ‘No, but I’m not sure what you’re asking me.’

   ‘Do you mind if I go into the kitchen and make a sandwich?’

  This was a problem, Tabitha was Gloria’s best friend. How could I answer that, sorry we don’t keep food in the house. Or, no you can’t we’re running to low on

food and money so…sorry? Damn it. I knew moving into the suburbs was a mistake. How many other people had suspected us? Damn it. I didn’t mind rumors but this, Tabitha was straight asking me to my face what being a vampire

was like.

   ‘I don’t know what you want from me Tabs. But I think you’ve seen too many movies.’

  Tabitha smiled and looked around at my office. Gloria was still right outside the open door, she wasn’t breathing. She was as still as a statue.

   ‘Conner aren’t you supposed to be on oxygen?’

  What the hell was she talking about? Oxygen, Tabitha did your cheese slide off your cracker? I thought to myself.

   ‘Now why in the world would you think I would need to be on oxygen?’

  Tabitha shrugged her shoulders, ‘I don’t know, your eyes and lips always a little blue, and you’re always so pale. You reminded me of my grandmother right before she died of emphysema.’

  I just eyed Tabitha through my sunglasses. I was tempted to just take them off and show her the monster, I could hear Gloria moving into the door way.

Tabitha’s ears were not sensitive enough to hear Gloria, though we had our backs to the door of the office I could tell Gloria was starting to become upset. Gloria

moved away from the door, I could hear her walk back into the great room. Tabitha never took her eyes off of me. Gloria finally spoke to me from somewhere in the house.

   ‘Conner don’t tell her please.’

  Tabitha I knew couldn’t hear Gloria, but I was stuck. I had no idea how to deal with this.

   ‘Conner you don’t mind if I make a sandwich right?’

   ‘Conner what are we going to do?!’ I could hear Gloria’s panic.

   ‘I don’t know.’ I said that to Gloria, but Tabitha assumed I was talking to her.

   ‘You don’t know if I can make a sandwich?’

  I decided I would just tell her, I figured it would be better for everyone if she knew the truth. What Gloria and I didn’t need was Tabitha sharing her suspicions with others. She already knew about us, so I figured damage control.

   ’So when did you start thinking I was a vampire?’

   ’Conner!’ I smiled listening to Gloria disbelief at where this conversation was obviously heading.

   ’I remember the first time I saw you, I thought to myself that poor girl. Her husband has one foot in the grave. Then I asked Gloria what was wrong with you.

She cheerfully said nothing. I thought that was so strange for her to say, but I didn’t think about it for a long time. Then a few months ago, after running Gloria went up stairs to shower and to change, I went looking for something to eat. I opened your fridge and it was empty, I thought that was strange so I looked in your cupboards for something.

   ‘They were all empty, I had no rational explanation for that. Then I started thinking about how cool yours and Gloria’s skin always seemed to be. Then a few weeks ago I followed Gloria into your office while she was looking for something. I saw this picture here on your desk, and I thought who is that with Gloria? So I asked her and she said that was Conner last summer. I couldn’t believe it, it looked nothing like you. I picked the picture up and really looked at it, then I could see your face. You had such a nasty looking scar on you cheek.’

   ’Hmmmmmm, it’s been a while sense I thought about that scar.’ I remembered back to getting blown up in Iraq, I didn’t think too much about my human life now that I had become a vampire.

  Gloria was about in a panic, ’Conner please, what are you doing!? You can’t tell her! Have you lost your mind?’

  I got up and picked up the picture, the picture was a four by six print. It was Gloria’s favorite picture of me, she kept it in a solid silver frame. I looked at my

human face, the war had taken a horrible toll on me. The dreams, the flash backs, the large scar on my face. I used to think that my mind was worse off than my

face. None of those troubles I carried now that I was of the vampire kind. I was like I was a new being. My human memories where like those of something you had seen on television.

   ’It’s for the best Gloria.’ I set the picture back on my desk. ’This picture was taken a few moments before I was changed.’

  Gloria was in the office door way looking at me. I still had my back to Tabitha

and the door, I could feel Gloria’s eyes on me. Tabitha waited patiently for me to continue, never moving from her chair or making a sound. Her heart was going a hundred miles an hour in anticipation of what she might learn from me.

   ’Conner no.’ Gloria pleaded with me from the door way.

  I took my glasses off and placed them on my desk. I took a deep breath. Tabitha held her breath, for the last year or so I tried to look as gentle and safe as I could. I smiled, I laughed, I tried to be the picture of pure joy. A feat that wasn’t hard being touched by Gloria’s love, but now I was going to expose myself as the

monster that I was. I was going to show a human not the Conner Steele the diamond broker, but Conner vampire. The walking death that stalked the night, with the dead eyes and the menacing glare of cold blooded death. I summoned up the most foreboding and dark scowl that I could muster and I slowly turned and

let my eyes pierce into the very depths of Tabitha’s soul.

  Tabitha screamed at the sight of me. She went sideways out of the chair trying to get away from me. She ran right into the other chair and screamed again. Tabitha fell in between the two large chairs, she couldn’t seem get her legs to obey her. She tried to crawl towards the office door, once she got to her feet she

tried to run but I was in front of the open door in a instant. Tabitha hit the brakes and screamed again, she took two steps back from and put both her hands over her mouth to try to stop the scream.

  At a vampire speed Gloria came out around me and was at Tabitha side in blink of an eye. Gloria touched Tabitha’s arm, Tabitha turned and faced Gloria and screamed again jumping away from her. Tabitha put her hands over her mouth and stepped back away from Gloria, she wobbled for a second and passed out.

   ’Damn it Conner! What the hell’s a matter with you?! Why the hell would you scare her like that?!’

  Gloria kneeled next to Tabitha on the floor, she rolled her over on her back and brushed her hair out of her face.

  Gloria looked up at me, ’A*s!’

   ’Will you relax, grab her a cold wash cloth, I’ll take her into the living room and lay her on down on a couch.’

  I picked Tabitha up and took her into the Great room and laid her down. I sat down on the other couch and let Gloria nurse Tabitha back from unconsciousness.

   ’Can you go back into you office for a bit please?’

  I got up and walked back into the office, and chuckled to myself as I went. Well what can I say? That’s what you get for trying to be cute with a vampire. I sat down behind my desk and waited for Gloria to let me off grounding.

   ’Conner I can’t believe you did that to her.’ she said from the Great room.

   ’Gloria let it be a good lesson not to be cute with vampires, I scared her a little, think of what John Barleycorn would have done if she would have asked him

what she asked me?’

   ’That’s not the point, why in the hell did you tell her that we were vampires?’

   ’She already knew Gloria, I figured it was best just to tell her and do damage control. We didn’t need her talking about her suspicions with the whole neighborhood.’

   ’Well did you have to scare her so bad? Conner she fainted for crying out loud.’

   ’She’ll be alright. I can hear her heart, she’ll be fine.’

  I sat there smiling, for once Gloria was going to have to do damage control. She should be happy that it wasn’t a couch. Tabitha started to come around, this was going to be good.

   ’Tabitha, Tabs can you hear me?’ Gloria had such a beautiful voice.

   ’Tabs, baby look at me, there you go hun, look at me.’

  Yeah look right into my vampire eyes! Hahahahaha. Gloria was going to kill me when this was over.

   ’Oh Gloria, what happen?’

  You bumped into a vampire you silly human.

   ’Tabs you fainted. How do you feel?’

   ’Oh, I had a horrible nightmare. I dreamed Conner turned into a monster and tried to kill me.’

  Tried? Like I would need to try.

   ’He was so scary, his eyes Gloria I can still see them. They were horrible.’

   ’Now Tabs I know sometimes Conner can be a little unsettling, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that. I happen to think Conner’s eye are quite beautiful when he’s

not wearing is contacts.’

  I could hear Tabitha sit up on the couch.

   ’Gloria, I wasn’t dreaming was I?’

   ’Tabs please, just try to listen to me for a second.’

   ’Conner’s a vampire isn’t he, oh my God! So are you!’

  I could hear the panic starting all over again. I figured it was a time to intercede. All this panic was getting us nowhere. I got up and walked in a flash and stood in front of Tabitha. To her I just appeared, Tabitha jumped back into the couch and screamed.

   ’That’s enough! Quiet!’ I yelled.

  Tabitha put her hands over her mouth to stop the scream.

   ‘Now sit there quietly for a moment.’ I walked over to the liquor cabinet and grabbed a bottle of spiced rum and a tumbler. I poured a few swigs worth into the glass and replaced the bottle back in the cabinet. I came back and handed Tabitha

the glass.

   ’Drink it, the whole thing in one swig.’ I said harshly.

  Gloria frowned at me, she didn’t like me being angry and she didn’t like me

barking at her friend. Tabitha choked down the rum and handed me back the glass.

  I handed it to Gloria and she took it into the kitchen. I didn’t say anything till Gloria came back.

   ’Let’s not have any more of that foolishness.’ I told Tabitha sternly.

  Until she was ready to not act foolish I wasn’t going planning on going back to the nice oblivious Conner, I looked at Gloria.

   ‘Gloria my love, can you do something for me?’

  Gloria just looked at me.

   ‘Can you go take your contacts out for me please?’

  Gloria nodded and went up stairs. I looked back at Tabitha, she was still terribly frighten.

   ‘So?’ I asked Tabitha.

   ‘I, I.’

   ‘So now you know. We may be your neighbors Tabs, but you must always remember what we are. I’m sorry I scared you so bad, but you left me no choice. You convinced yourself that we were vampires, and then you painted me into a

corner that I had no choice but to show you what we are. Be grateful that it was us you pulled this on me and not John Barleycorn. He would have just killed you as

soon as you would have asked him if he was a vampire. Tabs, our kind are ruthless, violent and deadly.’

  Gloria came and sat on the far side of the couch Tabitha was sitting on. Gloria folded her hands and placed them on her lap. She just looked at her hands.

   ‘Are you going to hurt me?’

   ‘Don’t be silly Tabs, you’re Gloria’s best friend, asked her what I did to John Barleycorn right before he left a little while ago.’

   ‘Gloria?’ Tabitha asked.

   ‘It sounded like he tried to crush his head for talking to you.’

  Tabitha looked up at me.

   ‘I squeezed his head so hard that one of his contacts shot off out of his eye socket.’

   ‘So you’re not going to hurt me?’

   ‘Of course not Tabs. But you needed to see how dangerous we are. That’s why I scared you.’

   ‘But you and Gloria aren’t dangerous right?’ She looked over at Gloria, ‘I mean at least not Gloria right?’

  I looked at Gloria and started laughing, Gloria looked up at me and glared. Tabitha was watching Gloria when she looked up, gasped at the sight of Gloria’s

eyes. Gloria looked at Tabitha’s and smiled a humorless smile.

   I went over and sat on the couch that was facing Gloria and Tabitha, I chuckled at Tabitha’s assessment of Gloria.

   ’Should I tell her Gloria? Or would you like too.’ I asked.

   ’She doesn’t need to know that stuff Conner.’ Gloria said sharply.

   ’I think she does, you can see how off her judgment is.’

   ‘Tell me what, how’s my judgment off?’

   ‘Out of the two of us, Gloria is far more dangerous to you then me.’

   ‘What? I don’t understand, how can Gloria be more dangerous then you?’

  I could see Tabitha was confused, I looked at Gloria, she just shrugged her shoulder.

  ‘I’ve never taken a human life as a vampire, I did in Iraq but that was in war so it doesn’t count, or at least I don’t count it.’

  Tabitha looked at Gloria.

   ‘I fed on humans till Conner became vampire. He wouldn’t feed on them so neither would I.’

   ‘You’ve kill people Gloria? How could you, you’re so sweet and innocent.’

   ‘No Tabs, she a fully matured vampire. I’m the one who’s sweet and innocent.’

   ‘I can’t believe it. She’s, she’s so, so young.’

   ‘Tabitha you’re seeing the vampire, I’ll tell you the truth, up until this morning Gloria was the most dangerous person I had ever met. Plus, she’s far from young.’

   ‘Conner! Just because I’m a vampire doesn’t mean you can talk about my age!’ Gloria shrieked.

   ‘Just like a vampire, who cares about the piles of bodies in your wake, but don’t make jokes about the age. Women.’

   ‘Conner!’ Both Gloria and Tabitha said angrily.

  I just shook my head and scowled.

   ‘So are you two like, old then?’ Tabitha asked shyly.

   ‘I’m not. I just became a vampire at the beginning of last summer. I’ll let Gloria tell you for herself so you all don’t yell at me.’

   ‘I was born in the spring of nineteen forty nine. I was eighteen when I became a vampire.’

   ‘That would mean, you’re sixty!’ Tabitha said with a shock.

   ‘Sixty one.’

   ‘I would have never thought that, I would have assumed Conner was older.’

   ‘Most do.’ I said.

   ‘So how did you become a vampire then Conner? I saw that you and Gloria were together when you were human.’

   ‘Conner wasn’t paying attention and he whacked me in the mouth with the back of his hand and I infected him.’

   ’But wait, you come out in the day time.’

   ’Okay here it is in a nut shell Tabs. All the old myths? Coffins, crosses, garlic, wooden stakes and all the rest is crap. We do drink blood, but we can also eat

meat, though Gloria won’t if she can help it, as for me I don’t care.’

   ’That’s because you’re a barbarian Conner.’ Gloria added.

   ’So why is it you two look so much different?’

   ’We don’t know.’ I answered.

   ’You said something about Gloria being not being the most dangerous, is John

more dangerous then?’

   ’Conner is more dangerous than John Barleycorn. But that wasn’t who Conner

was referring too. We were attacked this morning by a very dangerous vampire.’

   ’Oh my God. Are you two okay?’

   ’Yeah except Conner put a big old hole in my floor by the stairs with the attacker’s head.’

   ’Wow, I wondered how that hole got there, I didn’t want to say anything because I know how much you love this house. I didn’t want to get Conner in trouble.’ 

   ‘So you just assumed it was me?’

   ‘Turned out I was right.’

  I sighed at Tabitha.

   ‘So why did this vampire attack you guys?’

  I could feel myself becoming angry just thinking about Augustus coming near Gloria, ‘Gloria.’

   ‘Gloria? I don’t understand.’

   ‘This vampire in Europe doesn’t like me for some reason, so he sent this other vampire here to kill me.’

   ‘What are you going to do?’

   ‘Gloria and I are going to Spain to find out what’s going on and what we can do about it.’

   ‘When?’

   ‘As soon as I can buy the plane tickets.’

   ‘Plane tickets? Conner I don’t want to fly, and anyways why should we fly when we can just swim?’

   ‘Hold on, swim? You two are going to swim the Atlantic Ocean?’

   ‘I’m not.’ I knew I could, but I knew running and swimming would take almost a week. And with flying, we could be there in a day.

   ‘Conner I don’t want to fly.’

   ‘Why not?’

   ‘I’ve never been on a plane before, nor do I want to.’

   ‘Don’t tell me you’re scare of flying?’ I couldn’t believe that.

  Gloria looked away from me.

   ‘Gloria it’s not like you could die if the plane crashed. Plus it would be faster to fly then it would to run and swim.’

   ‘I don’t know Conner.’

  I couldn’t believe she was afraid of flying.

   ‘Gloria, don’t worry about it, we’ll sit in first class, it won’t be so bad. I hate flying, but I’ve done it lots of times. Now that I’m not worrying about crashing it’ll be no sweat.’

   ‘You can’t die in a plane crash? How’s that?’

  I kind of smiled, ’I would just jump from the plane on its way down. I know I would survive a belly flop from ten thousand feet.’

   ’Oh.’

   ’Gloria can you do me a favor and go to the bank and get our passports while I’m calling about tickets please?’

   ’Yeah, I guess I could since you’re going to make me fly.’ Gloria got up from the couch and looked at Tabitha, ‘Do you want to come with me?’

  Tabitha got up, ‘Sure, I still have a ton of questions.’

  As Gloria and Tabitha headed towards the front door I called after them, ‘Don’t rob the place.’

   ‘Rob the place? Don’t tell me you’ve robbed a bank before.’

  Gloria slammed the door on her way into the garage.

   Gloria and I were able to get a flight that day to Spain. We would fly from Seattle to Chicago. Chicago to New York. New York to Spain. Total it would take twenty seven hours including layovers to arrive in Spain. It seemed like it took forever for Gloria and I to get through the security at SeaTac Airport. The airport

security was not satisfied with me taking my shoes off and going through the metal detectors. After going through they had me stand with my arms out and the used the wand on me.

  When they found nothing on me they put Gloria and I in a holding area and were questioned about our business in Spain and the length of time we would be there. They wanted to know why I was flying into Asturias Airport. I told them I

was a diamond broker and I was meeting with my European counter part and I didn’t know how long I was planning on staying.

  Gloria continually reassured me by touching my arm when she saw that I was becoming irritated by their questions. When they started examining our passports to our IDs I had mentioned to Gloria that we were about to see if they

had been worth the money we paid. Eventually they let us out of the holding tank and let us get to our flight.

  We received a few unfriendly looks from the flight crew for delaying the departure of our plane, who cares it wasn’t my idea to hang out with security.

  Gloria had also had told me that Tabitha wanted us to turn her into a vampire. She had asked Gloria about it on their trip to the bank. Gloria had said that she would have to talk to me about it. I wasn’t crazy about the idea, Gloria said we would talk to her about it when we got back. Gloria had explained that we did not

have the time to sit with her through her change. Tabitha had wondered why we would need to be there with her, but Gloria had told her that changing was very hard on a person and it would be irresponsible for us to leaver there on her own.

  I wasn’t going to think about it now, Spain was going to be difficult enough on it’s own to worry about Tabitha’s wish. Gloria had no idea no idea how to find Roberto, she just knew he was somewhere in northern Spain. At least she suspected as much because that’s where she had run into him in the past. Damn women, they’re going to make me crazy.

  Several times in the flight across the Atlantic the flight attendants had asked Gloria and I if we needed any refreshments, we politely declined. Eventually they stopped asking. We arrived at the Asturias Airport in the middle of the afternoon.

Great, the airport was going to be crammed full of people. I had worn one of my business suits, I figured it was the best way to hide my skin. I had also wore military dress white gloves and sunglasses, I also had my contacts in just in case.

Gloria had worn a business suit also. Her suit was a black pinstriped with a dark green silk blouse, I loved Gloria in pinstriped anything. We had no carry on, and we were in first class so we just needed to wait for the door to open to let us off. I

wasn’t looking forward to customs, if it was such a pain in the a*s for me to get on a plane, I couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like trying to enter a foreign country.

  As Gloria and I were walking into the terminal Gloria touched my arm to stop me. I looked up and there at the end of the ramp was a vampire. He was tall and thin with black hair wearing sunglasses. He had his hands behind his back. When he saw that we noticed him he smiled, I nodded to Gloria to go. Gloria walked a step behind me on my right, meeting this vampire as we were getting off the plane gave me a bit of a knot in the pit of my stomach. Well, at least we weren’t going to have to go hunting for this Roberto.

  We stopped a few steps away from the unknown vampire. The vampire smile at Gloria and bowed.

   ’My Lord, I am Horatio. My master sends his complements, and his car to be at

your disposal. He has instructed me to at all haste, to escort you to his estate.’ Horatio bowed and again and waited for a response.

   ’Was that a polite way of saying we’re under arrest?’ Gloria asked peeking around my arm.

   ’No my Lady. Begging your pardon, are you not here to see my master?’

   ’That depends on who your master is.’

   ’I am in the service of His Grace Roberto.’

   ’We need to get our luggage.’

   ’My Lady, your baggage is being loaded in the car as we speak.’

   ’Customs?’ I asked.

   ’You need not worry about Customs my Lord. Such laws do not apply to the guest of His Grace.’

   ’Right.’ I said with a humorless smile.

   ’If you would be so kind to follow me my Lord.’

  Horatio turned and walk in the direction of the customs area. I shrugged my shoulders at Gloria and followed. We walked past the line that had formed by the passenger. We bypassed the line and went through a door next to several airport security, they nodded as we passed through.

  As we exited the airport there was a Rolls-Royce Wraith. It was jet black with tinted windows. The car reminded me of something out of the nineteen fifties, it had amazing looking white wall tires. The shine of the car hurt my vampire eyes through my sunglasses,  Horatio never missed a beat walking to the car. Gloria

and I walked a few steps behind him. Horatio opened the back door for Gloria and myself, after closing our door he climbed into the font passenger seat. The driver pull away from the curb into traffic.

   ’Where does Roberto live?’ I asked.

   ’His Grace’s estate is about four hours from here. He resides at the Castillo de Arevalo.’

   ’How did His Grace know that Gloria and I were coming to see him?’

   ’His Grace knows many things. But I do not share His Grace’s counsel my Lord.’

  Gloria sighed heavily through her nose, Gloria had spent her entire life running from other vampires and being in such close contact with then made her quite uneasy. I suddenly noticed that our driver was a vampire and chuckled to myself that I hadn’t noticed before.

   ’So what’s your name?’ The driver looked at me in the mirror, Horatio answered him never looking from the windshield.

   ’His name is Sebastian. He also is a servant of the master.’

   ’Horatio can I ask you a question?’

   ’Yes my Lord?’

   ’Are you the Horatio that tore a John Barleycorn’s arm off?’

  I could see the corners of Horatio’s mouth curl up into a smile.

   ’Is that the name that John is going by now? How, if I may be so bold to ask, did you cross paths with that scoundrel?’

  I could hear I bit of affection in Horatio’s voice when he referenced John.

   ’He followed Augustus into my house.’

  Sebastian and Horatio glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes when I mentioned Augustus’s name, Gloria looked at me after seeing their reaction. I smile at her and touched her leg to reassure her.

  Spain was beautiful, I had been here once as a soldier. All I had seen was the Air Force base. I wasn’t aloud off of it. Gloria held on to one of my arms with both of hers. She had learned her head against my shoulder and had her eyes closed, Gloria was terrified. True to his word we arrived at the Castillo de Arevalo after about four hours of driving. It was sunny and quite warm, the sun was starting to set in the west. Spain was pleasant in the fall.

  The main gate opened as we drove up to the castle. The castle was quite large, the walls were tall and perfectly square. In one corner of the wall near the main gate was a huge tower that stood twice the height of the wall. In the opposite corner was a smaller tower.

  Driving though the gate, we entered into a an empty courtyard. There were two vampires waiting near the door into the large tower, they looked like two butlers from some old movie. They were similar in height and build. One was blond and young looking, the other was older and graying. They were dressed in the same butler uniform, both were wearing cloth white gloves. They were standing as still as statues. The car pulled right up to the still vampires, as soon as the car stopped the two vampires went to the rear of the car to recover Gloria and my suitcase. Horatio got out of the car and opened the back door for Gloria and myself. Horatio held out his hand to help Gloria out of the car, as I stepped out he bowed to both of us.

   ’My Lord, if you would be so kind to follow me, my master awaits.’

  Horatio turned and headed towards the large tower door that we had parked next to.

   ’Why does he keep calling you my Lord?’

  I didn’t know the answer to Gloria’s question so I just shrugged. As we entered the tower I heard Sebastian close the back door of the car. The two servants with our luggage followed us into the tower.

  The foyer was incredibly luxurious there was a decorative wrought iron stair case. One went up into the tower, another went down. The two servants came around the three of us and went up into the tower. Horatio smile and went down the stairs. Gloria was beside herself with fear, I reached out and took her hand and led the way down the stairs.

  We went down two levels, the stairs emptied into another foyer. There were three doors, two were average looking, they were to the right and the left of the foyer. But directly in front of the stair case were two large solid oak doors. They looked closed to ten feet tall and were quite intimidating. Horatio walked up and opened one of the double doors and motioned us to enter.

  At the far side of the huge room was a large desk. The wall behind the large desk was one large bookshelf completely filled with books. There was a wrought iron framed ladder with wheels that would roll back and forth in front of the bookshelf. The ceiling in the large room was very high and had several chandeliers hanging with candle looking eclectic lights. The sides of the large room had different sculptures and bust on display. The walls had large and ancient painting hung on them, each of the paintings had a small light shining up

on the painting. All of the art looked old. There standing in the middle of the room was Roberto.