THE MEETING

Pale moonlight lit the old avenue with it aged buildings just a bit better then the flickering, neglected streetlights of Baker Ave. The night was growing long when Kira finally arrived at the agreed upon location, a nearly forgotten and decades old apartment in the seedier part of town, she carefully parked her well kept black '99 Pontiac Sunfire and quickly entered the dusty lobby of the apartment. A sense of the age of the place immediately apparent with it's interior décor clearly lost in time, circa late 1940s at least! Does anyone still live here, she wondered but apparently so from the footprints in the dusty/dirty floor.

'Click-clack, click-clack' when her heels on the old linoleum floor as she made her way through the lobby and down the hall to the managers office, decked out in a beautiful, skin-tight shimmering red cold-shoulder Cire mini skirt affair with glossy red high heel pumps, Kira wondered if she was properly dressed for this late meeting. Perhaps her outfit was better suited for the clubs but it was the only nice thing she could grab at the last moment before heading out, nonetheless she made her way down the long, dimly lit hallway in which a single door was at the end with a simple brass sign on it clearly stating this was the manger's office. She could not ignore the strong sense she was being watched but from where she could not tell. There were no other doors or openings or even cameras in this long hallway, she just chocked it up jittery nerves. The hallway wasn't particularly dirty but simply had the weight of decades on it, was it supposed to look this old or did management barely have enough money to remodel this place, she pondered. While the wallpaper, charming with it's old timey pea green color with rows of little pinkish flowers it did have the occasional old water stain and these odd, subtle bulges....as if roots of some kind were growing underneath, it was surprisingly in decent shape.

Kira firmly knocked on the door and mentally readied herself, always try to make a good impression, she remembered. A minuet and some seconds passed before the door slowly opened to an even more dimly lit room that was larger then she was expecting. "Uh, hello, Mr. Thulos? It's me, Kira Cranzen, I'm here about our meeting.", she politely said.

"Excellent, Kira, come in and sit down! This won't take too long.", Mr. Thulos cheerfully said.