Increasing Numbers(Open)

[Ahmad]

The sun had just set on the horizon of Paris, the moon was bright, but only at half, the moon was actually eclipsed and was a shade of red, the lights of Paris set the town ablaze with light, a sight to truly behold. Ahmad stood on the viewing ledge of the Eiffel Tower, looking down at the insects below him trying to see if any of them were worthy to join the ranks of his vampire coven. Ahmad knew he answered to Dane for the current time, but he wanted his own. And as Ahmad continued to grow, he needed allies, but he wanted numbers under him. He wanted vampires of his own. He needed more vampires to be able to take not only Rome, but Stockholm as well. The lycans had driven the vampires out of Rome and now the vampires were in hiding in a variety of places.

As Ahmad stood over looking the city, he pulled out a variety of files he had been given by Dane, to look over each person who had been carefully observed to see if they had what it took to be a vampire, but he let Ahmad choose which ones he wanted to turn, the first file was a soldier, little brains, a lot of muscle. Not to bright, but he would do alright as a grunt, but Ahmad didn't want to turn this one, he may let a subordinate vampire turn him. The next was a politician, the connections would be nice, but other than that, he would not be a good vampire, Ahmad wanted those willing to fight, but also those who had strength in knowledge, that had to be smart and strong. A variety of candidates were shown to him in the form of personnel files, none of them particularly fitting his interests in what he was looking for in a vampire. Ahmad knew that his numbers were small, but he wanted only the elite, and nothing less.

Time pressed on as he procured the files, looking at each one, feeling unsatisfied with each one. Then he finally came across a file to which he seemed to be interested in, business woman with some attitude, she was smart and brave, she wasn't strong but being a vampire would fix all of that. Moved to London from America, and toured all of Europe, changed her name when she came here, trying to cover her steps, Ahmad was impressed with this one. Anna Carter was her name, and Ahmad flipped through her files, looking over each part of the file he had in front of him.

"She is definitely attractive, even for a human." Saying that to himself as he found a picture attached to her file. "Smart, well connected, finally one I like, I was starting to get disappointed." Ahmad continued to say to himself as he overlooked her file. He labeled her file as approved and continued to overlook the rest of the files. Unfortunately he didn't see any of the other files to be worthy of becoming a vampire, but he would send the files up to Dane for him to overlook, but he wanted Anna. Putting the files in his bag, he pulled out his cell phone and called one of his scouts. "Hey, I finished overlooking those files you sent me, next time send me a better batch, I only found one that was good. I need you to better next time." He hung up the phone, went through his contact list, found Dane and called him, he didn't get through but he left a message for him. "Dane, I found one, I'll be sending the other files to you but in the mean time, I want the one I found."

Ahmad then hung up the phone, the time was around 2:00 A.M, but the city was still bright because of all the city lights. He called his scout again, "I want you to find the current location of Anna Carter... the one in the file you sent me... Paris?... Well how fortunate for me... No I will do this alone, I will be fine... I don't expect to run into anything I can't handle... If she refuses? Then I will have to drain her dry... I hope it doesn't come to that, I want her on my team...Right... Bye." He hung up the phone, pulled out Anna's file and looked it over one more time. He pulled out his phone one more time. "Hey... me again... can you arrange a meeting?... Make it seem like an interview, follow her to see if we can get a situation where she would meet with me... Get it done quickly..." Ahmad hung up on his scout and looked at Anna's picture again. "Sure is pretty, probably look even better as one of us. I hope I don't have to drain her dry, but she would be tasty."

He put the file down and into his bag. He looked back to the city, looking to see what his next move should be. He jumped over the edge of the building, landed on the ground without any problem, and walked off disappearing into the night, hoping to find Anna soon.

[Anna Carter]

Paris was nothing new for Anna, she had been there several times before and had worked a different job each visit, yet some of the sights never ceased to take her breath away momentarily. Above all, the Eiffel tower. What seemed like a gigantic, beautiful tower, when all it was is nothing but a whole bunch of metal sticks connected together. From up close, it only had its height going for its magnificence. But from afar, your brains could be blown right out. For dear Anna, however, height was enough, since she couldn't think of a better way to spend an hour or two than climbing a tower about a thousand feet high. Tonight, though, she decided to pass on that. One reason being the darkness itself with its low visibility. The other reason is the percentage of alcohol in the human's system, which well exceeded the permitted level for driving.

When she woke up in the morning, she promised herself one thing: Whatever she does throughout the day, she'll be doing it without an ounce of alcohol. That promise was broken approximately 30 minutes after it was made, due to an unfortunate turn of events, which had put the rather wealthy woman in a living quarter that could hardy even be called a motel room. That terrible twist of fate was followed by a disastrous ordeal: The lack of hot water, the details of which are in no need of elaborating.

After countless accidents and dramatic catastrophes, Anna was finally handed a good card. A strange - rather freaky one - just happened to bump into her, and made her a deal she just could not refuse. She didn't understand much of what he had said, but she did catch something about a high-paying job with practically no duties. She always suspected that she would one day be appreciated for the awesome wonder that she is, but she could never guess it would happen coincidentally. Or at least she thought it was just a coincidence. Still, it couldn't hurt to try, right? She figured that it couldn't, so why the hell not?

Strangely enough, the interview had to take place later during the night, but that was no problem. As the saying goes, no pain, no gain. Going out in the middle of the night wearing what Anna was planning to wear was certainly the pain part, but she was willing to take that chance if it meant she would finally get a good, permanent job. After all, good things do require some sort of sacrifice. In comparison to other things she had to sacrifice in her life, this was nothing. Picking what to wear was no problem. Anna's first choice was a business suit, but since she had messed all of those up during the last billion interviews, she had to go for something else, like a long, formal dress, that fortunately concealed the footwear she was wearing. A pair of sneakers no less.

Ready to rock some worlds, Anna set out to meet the mysterious interviewer. Where her cell phone was hiding was only for her to know, but the important thing is that it was with her at all times, with 9-1-1 on the speediest dial. If anything was to go wrong, she would be more than prepared - Or at least that's what she was hoping.

[Ahmad]

Ahmad and just finished draining a homeless man dry when his scout came back to him. "Well well well, did you do what i asked you to do? And did you convince her to meet with me?" The scout just handed him a card with the information about what Ahmad was supposed to be and what Anna thought, along with the location where they were to meet and at what time. "Well 10:00 and that means I still have 2 hours, better get something nice." And Ahmad departed, leaving the scout to deal with the dead body.

Ahmad walked down the street to find a men's warehouse. He casually entered the building and was greeted by a tailor. "Get me your best suit." Was all Ahmad had said, the tailor nodded and took him to the back, where Ahmad was fitted for a Calvin Klein suit, black, he also got a red dress shirt and a black silk tie with black dress shoes. "I like it", as he looked at himself in the mirror, he noticed his eyes were still slightly red from feeding recently, so he blinked like he had something in his eye until the red was completely gone, and the brown returned. The suit was placed into a bag and he paid for the suit and left.

He then proceeded to the location where they were supposed to meet for the interview. He looked up at the sign, it was a cafe just beneath the Eiffel tower. He headed to a restroom to change into his suit. He looked at himself in the mirror as he straightened his tie. "Well I look like I could actually be giving an interview."

Ahmad then proceeded to the cafe and sat at a table just on the outside of the cafe. As he sat down, a server asked him if he wanted coffee. "No thanks, I'm just meeting someone here for an interview. I don't have time, plus I'm not a fan." He sat and awaited for Anna to arrive. He thought it might look even more like an interview if she brought her file, so he pulled it out of a briefcase he had been carrying from before and looked it over as he waited for Anna.

[Anna Carter]

You would think an interview for a fantastic job would take place at a top-class building, but instead, all Anna saw was a normal little cafe under the tower. It wasn't bad, of course not, but if she had known that the address given to her would be nothing more than a simple restaurant - one in which people normally have breakfast - she wouldn't have bother dressing up so much. Still, what's done it done. Can't go back home to change now, 'cause then she would be late for the interview - and that's never good. So she swallowed down all the complaints she had already built up and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. Fact is, inhaling and exhaling slowly never helped her calm down, but she did it anyway, God only knows what for. Still somewhat anxious, Anna pushed through the door and entered the cafe.

To be honest, she expected a little less. The place seemed rather... nice. There were even waiters and waitresses serving food and beverages. How surprising. From outside, it almost looked like your average McDonalds. After one brief scan of the room, Anna came to an horrible realization that she had no clue who she was supposed to be meeting. The stranger that invited her was nowhere to be seen, but she could have sworn he said there would be someone else here to talk to her. God dammit, why didn't her brain tell her to ask for a name or general appearance of the interviewer? Oh well. The red dress of hers was clearly screaming Interview, so hopefully the interviewer will find her himself... or herself. What the hell, she doesn't even know the gender of the person she was supposed to be meeting! Cruel world - 1. Anna - 0.

She didn't just stand at the entrance like an idiot waiting to be shoved away. Fortunately. Instead, she walked to the counter and ordered a cup of coffee for herself, which was all prepared at an astounding time record. In the end, she was left standing at the counter with a cup of coffee while looking around for someone she didn't even know, until the black suit materialized in her line of sight. There were several other men in suits, but none of them seemed quite as formal as this one. Oh yeah, she identified her interviewer with no external assistance. What a genius.

After yet another pointless deep breath, Anna walked over to the table that was being occupied by the formal individual and politely spoke to him. "May I?" She motioned towards the seat across from him. The man's red dress shirt freakishly resembled in color to her own dress, which she immediately found somewhat disturbing, though didn't make a comment on that nor let it ruin her mood. It's just a color, after all.

[Ahmad]

Ahmad watched as she entered the cafe passing right by him. Maybe she was just to worried to notice, this was supposed to be an interview, or at least she thought. Her flowing red dress was beautiful on her and he thought it kind of funny that her dress matched his shirt, almost like she had been following him. Ahmad quickly dismissed the thought as no one could follow him without him noticing it. He watched her go over and order a cup of coffee, finally noticing him and coming over and asking for a seat. He stood up, walked over to the chair and pulled it out, "Absolutely, please." And then returned back to his seat. "Now I apologize if my associate didn't explain much about this position, but be rest assured, it has many opportunities for advancement, and comes with many perks. The work would be nothing a woman like yourself can't handle and it does pay quite well. I also figured meeting you here would be nice because I find the business office way to stuck up and snobby. I like the casual setting much better in my opinion. Now I have been looking over your file." Ahmad flipped through her file like he hadn't read it or gave it too much thought. "I also want to apologize for having to meet you at such a late hour for this interview, I have such a busy schedule during the day. So this was the only time I could fit this in." Ahmad closed the file and set it down on the table, "Look, this really isn't an interview, if this were an interview, you wouldn't have the job if you wanted it. The position is yours if you want it. I merely called you here to ask if you wanted to go for a walk to talk about your future with our company." Ahmad hoped that he had convinced her to join up with them, but Ahmad was wondering how to break the part about being a vampire, but for now he thought he was doing quite well with this. He hoped she would say yes, but Ahmad was ready to kill her if need be, but he really didn't want to ruin his shirt, and it would be too bad to kill such an attractive human, she would be an even more attractive vampire.

[Anna Carter]

The gentleman's manners were certainly impressive, but as soon as he began speaking, it sounded all too familiar. The presence of her entire life in one little file in front of him was rather creepy, to say the very least. Seriously, how many people had access to other people's personal files? Clearly this man was not a lowly nobody, he had at least some status on the face of the Earth. That new realization gave her another reason for doubt. He had such a way with words, though, that almost made the rest of the conversation seem meaningless. It was nearly hypnotizing. If experience has thought Anna anything, however, it's holding her own during an interview.

"To be honest, this is one of the best offers I've gotten in years. If not the best. If I've learned anything, though, it's that the better the deal, the higher the price." She replied politely, trying not to sound room, since this could be her best opportunity ever. "So, Mr. X, what's the catch?" She asked. "Judging by your attire, mind blowing speech, and almost romantic choice of location, you must really want me to accept. Why me, though? With over two million of a population in Paris, you must have a pretty good reason for choosing one person in particular."

Anna was well aware that she was probably asking too much and acting like a smart-ass with someone who is no doubt a busy individual. Partially she was acting that way due to the spike of anxiety poking at her brain. Mostly, though, she thought that this job offer was a little too perfect. Even if this man went only for the ladies of Paris and only those belonging to higher class, there still must be hundreds fitting those categories. As much as she didn't like admitting it to herself, Anna was nothing extraordinary. At least she didn't she was.

[Ahmad]

Ahmad listened to her as she asked her questions, no doubt it seemed odd, a good offer nowadays would almost always seem fake. Immortality is a great thing to acquire, but she didn't know about that part yet. Why me is what rang through his ears as she asked that, Ahmad thought only for a moment, then he remembered she called him Mr.X. "Please, call me Ahmad, and as for why I selected you, I must admit I had a lot to choose from for this position, soldiers, politicians, all kinds of powerful people. I have been looking for someone who has the potential for power, but isn't weak, and also could be well connected if you understand my meaning. And even your attire speaks volumes about you. I've been around a lot and I notice a lot of different things. By your gown, you have a professional if not wealthy and probably famous background, and you carry yourself very professionally. But you also are wearing sneakers, a woman walks differently in high heels. So that tells me you are down to earth, not one of those super model types that only cares about your looks, but I must admit, I am impressed that you have been able to so well take care of yourself, it's never easy to keep ones self in prime condition, especially nowadays with all the junk food and garbage. Which tells me you care about yourself and will look out for yourself to be the best you can be. From my file it tells me you don't have parents that we know of, which tells me you are very independent. There are a lot of qualities that we are looking for that you seem to have. You have the potential for tremendous advancement in our organization. I also have connections, and I have heard that you have been traveling all over Europe, and people don't do that unless they want to and have the courage to, our company needs someone who is willing to travel. Lastly based on your questions, I can tell you are able to read people quite well, something very important to our company. Like I have said, I've been around, I've seen a lot, and I can say I at least retain quite a bit of knowledge. So I finish my little monologue by addressing my original question of would you be willing to go for a walk and see what it is we do. Because this is something that cannot be told, it has to be shown." Ahmad sat, trying to keep his cool and doing quite well awaiting her response.

[Anna Carter]

Under other circumstances, this would be the best compliment anyone has ever made to her. Sadly, this was beginning to sound like the man needed her for a job that required not only the utmost commitment, but far more than that. He mentioned that soldiers and politicians were among his candidates. What job could those two possibly apply for? Did they even apply? If not, what exactly does the word 'Candidate' mean for this man? and oh God, he noticed the sneakers! The interview was quickly growing from a little strange to utterly bizarre. Kind of like in those supernatural movies, where a normal dude signs a contract with the devil and then deeply regrets it. Anna may not be regretting her arrival just yet, but something was annoyingly bugging the back of her brain.

"All right, I'll walk with you, but I will not accept before I know exactly what it is your organization does, and what are the precise requirements I must meet." The kind, polite voice she spoke with earlier had taken on a sharper tone, a more serious and determined one. It wasn't meant to be offensive, but she needed this man to know that she was not a gullible doll he could manipulate with his pretty words. Realizing that this was deal was a lot more than she bargained for, Anna immediately took on the defensive and professional. Good thing she didn't wear heels tonight. Something told her that if this man was to be angered, running away would be the most intelligent option. Truth be told, his black suit with red dress shirt didn't cool the atmosphere any.

Rising from her seat with the cup of coffee in her, Anna kindly smiled and motioned her hand toward the exit. "Lead the way, Ahmad, you've caught my interest." It was silly. She could have just walked out of there and found a normal job. Not like she didn't have enough money for a good life. But something, whether in that person or in his offer, truly did catch her interest, and she was compelled to find the details of it all before throwing it out the window.

[Ahmad]

Ahmad thought this moment over plenty of times in his mind, he kept trying to think of the best way to do this. She seemed a bit freaked by his demeanor. He didn't want to frighten her by having a big group of vampires gather at the door of their base and try to eat her instantly. He debated whether to take her somewhere else or whether to try and come up with a clever lie to try and get her not to go straight to the building. He then thought of the idea of taking her back to the Eiffel Tower and showing her from afar which building was there's. Or maybe he would still go there and lie about which building they were in. He got up and out of his chair, "Right this way." Was all he said, he led her up to the sky deck of the Eiffel Tower, he led her to the observation deck. Looking out over the beautiful city of Paris, the lights, the sounds, the smells, it was enthralling. Ahmad leaned on the railing next to Anna, "This city is but one small city we work out of. We have sites, some small, some big, all over the world. I know I may be asking a lot but I believe that you are definitely up to the task. You see we are out to save the world from a plague that infests it. We have been fighting it for a long time, and it may not be what you think. The general population doesn't even know about it, otherwise they may be in panic. This is a greater calling than anything you will ever get again. You will be apart of the greatest cause for mankind the world may never know of. It would be a hard life, I won't deny that, but the rewards are so much greater. I am not just talking about money. If we want to save this civilization from the evil manifestation that plagues it, a plague that is destroying this world. Then we need to work together, and this is the company that is doing just that. This organization is out to change the world and to save the world. And I have been looking for certain individuals that are among those I would consider elite, to save those who are not. I am not trying to scare you, but those who are on the other side of our company probably know that you have met with me. I am trying to call out the best in you by asking you to join us. But I also have a warning for you. I am sorry but if you refuse then you may want to go into hiding. Because those on the other side will want to get you, and they may kill you." Ahmad watched her to see the body language and emotions she would express as he shared these words with you. As he continued to look out over the city, he felt a need to share something personal with her to try and calm her down. But he was trying to charm her in to not only believing him, but joining him as well. "We recently had a great loss on our side, in Rome, and many of our organization were killed. As I am saddened by their loss... I need to press on for them, the evil that claimed their lives still spreads, stronger than ever, and the time is coming that we need to strike back soon. That is why I am out here, that is why I do what I do. That is why I am talking to you, and that is why I need you. And if this were a fake, then I would have to be the most creative person in the world, and believe me I am not, I have just poured out my thoughts to you, I don't do that all that often." A tear fell from Ahmad's eye as he remembered his fallen comrades. "I was there in Rome, when it happened. They came like a fire, didn't even care, they came, killing and killing. Trying to wipe us out whole-sale, I managed to get out alive. But only because I have been doing this a lot longer. They need to go for the sake of this world. They need to be taken out. So I ask you now, will you join me?"

[Anna Carter]

Many kids, while they are still young, want to be either a superhero or a very famous person. Anna was no exception during her own childhood. It was no secret that there was a time in her life when she wanted, and strongly believe, that she could be some kind of ninja who stalks the night and hunts for the bad guys. In the end, however, those were no more than fairy-tales obscuring a child's mind. What this man was saying was ridiculous. He wanted her, a person who could barely get out of bed each morning, to help him save the whole world from some kind of plague, which apparently nobody has heard of. She was just about ready to burst with laughter, but soon realized that the vivid details of his story and physical reactions he had to it were a little too real to mistake for a lame fiction.

"Your story sure is convincing, but you still haven't told me what's my role in your organization. I'm no brainy scientist to fight a microscopic menace nor am I a relentless soldier to battle a larger enemy." It was becoming painfully obvious that Ahmad was trying to avoid a certain detail about this entire deal. He hasn't yet mention what she'll be doing and how exactly she will be doing it. Until she knew that, there was no way she was going to accept. She was crazy enough to go for a walk with a complete stranger, but handing herself to him without knowing what for? Nuh-uh.

"Tell me, exactly - without encrypted messages or double meanings - What do you want from me?" How many times has she heard people claim tha tthey wanted to make the world better or save it from something? Probably too many times to count. Thing is, none of them seemed as genuine as this fellow, and none of them had ever spoken of the flaws of their offers, unlike this dude. He clearly states the risks. But did he mention all of them?