* * *
Emily and Will slowly came to consciousness again, opened their eyes, and sat up straighter. They looked like they were in a daze. Then as if they were snapped on again, they were suddenly alert, and back to listening for the story to continue. Dorand was in the same spot, but no longer held the guns in his hand. 'I must have spaced out for a moment,' Will thought to himself. Emily had a similar feeling swimming in her brain. But she felt well rested. Why was that?
Dorand saw the expectant looks come back onto their faces and continued as if nothing had happened. "You were chosen because we had been surveilling and studying a number of people in the area, seeing who would be best suited for this job. But then you," he looked at Will, "Were bitten by that vampire and we decided it may as well be you who we made the offer to first."
Will looked incredulous and shook his head as if he hadn't heard right. "I was bitten by a what?"
Dorand looked surprised, "Oh, didn't you know you were bitten by a vampire?" Maybe Will had repressed the memory.
Will answered with another disbelieving chuckle, "I thought I was bitten by a psycho."
"Ah," Dorand said. Not repression, only denial. "Vampire, psycho. Potato, potahto." He shrugged his shoulders.
Will gave him a strange look.
Emily looked only slightly surprised by the news that it was a vampire. She still wasn't sure it was a real one. Maybe some crazy man who believed he was one? Pretending to be one? She sighed. This was becoming a long exhausting day. Brain-wise.
"The two of you are apparently good employees, smart, open to the odd and unusual, judging from your avid reading of science fiction novels and renting of science fiction DVDs."
The couple looked a little taken aback by this personal knowledge thrown back at them.
Dorand went on, "You have high SAT scores—"
Will interrupted, "You have our SAT scores? How did you get those?"
"Do you really want to know the boring particulars?" Dorand asked.
"No." Will slunk back in his seat and continued to listen, suspicious.
"We find that married couples make good teams. For us anyway. Mostly because people have a hard time not telling their spouses what they do at their jobs. Having both members of a couple working for us solves that problem." Dorand walked around the desk and opened the files and began sifting through the papers in them, looking for something. "If you choose to begin working for us, you will have to sign a contract, with a very sturdy confidentiality clause. You will then have 3 days of tests, both physical and psychological, to see if you really are well equipped to deal with this job. Once having passed said tests, you will then have 7 days of intensive training where you will learn basic maneuvers and protocol. In future, I will be your only contact within the agency. I do not work in this town. I will give you a cell phone number only. Should any problems arise, you will contact me using it. Any updates to your job description, technology you are using, or definitions of paranormal creatures and phenomena will be sent to you in a timely fashion through secret but reliable channels." Finding the papers he was looking for, he set them neatly on top of the other papers, folded his hands over them, and looked at the awestruck couple on the couch in front of him. "Should you choose not to accept these jobs, I will erase the memory of these conversations you have had with me and it will be as if we've never met."
Will laughed again and said, "You can't really do that."
Dorand gave almost a half smile and said, "I can. I could prove it to you, but you wouldn't remember." Dorand smiled a bit wider now, in love with the private joke he had with himself. Will looked at him even more suspiciously now.
"We pay well enough, with insurance, etc., the usual benefits. Interested?"
Once more Will chuckled. He and Emily looked at each other. They shared a silent "Is this guy for real?" look.
Dorand got up and said, "I'll give you a moment to talk it over." He left the room.
Will and Em stayed speechless as they stared at each other.
Finally Emily spoke, in a hushed voice, "How can we not do this?"
Will looked surprised by this.
She continued. "I mean just to see if it's real, see what happens. It's like an adventure, no?"
"I guess..." Will said, slowly coming around to her way of thinking. "This has got to be a crazy hoax of some sort, Em," he said.
"I know it could be," Emily said smiling. She spoke in even more of a hush now, excitedly, "But what if it's not?" Her eyes lit up.
He loved how excited and happy this made her. He smiled. "Okay," he said. "It's not like I had a thriving career in the bakery industry to look forward to."
"Yay!" She gave a small yelp, and grinned.
"Uh," Will said loudly, "Dorand?"
Mr. Dorand stepped back into the room from the file room again. "What have you decided?" he asked as he sat down at the desk once more.
"Um," Will said, "We decided yes."
Dorand smiled. He took the contracts off the top of the small stack of papers and stood up to hand them to the two, with pens.
Emily and Will huddled over their contracts, studying them carefully before signing. They were very detailed and full of big winding sentences with long boring words.
Emily said in a whisper to Will, "I'm just making sure we aren't signing away our first born or anything."
Dorand heard this and chuckled.
Emily and Will looked up at him, startled. They looked down again quickly, with worried expressions on their faces, and read their contracts even more thoroughly than before.