The Fangs of Bloodhaven by Cheree Alsop

button on the elevator and it carried them down to the tiled floor without incident. Everett felt his walls return the further they got from the banshee. Their footsteps echoed in the silence of the doctor’s floor.
    “Jeraldine has a strange gift,” he said quietly.
    “And a powerful one,” Dr. Transton noted without looking at him. “You were right when you said banshees usually sing to herald someone’s death. Their gift, as you put it, is to ease someone into accepting the inevitable, to help them welcome their passing.”
    He sat down at a desk and motioned for Everett to take the seat on the other side. “Jeraldine, however, found out at a young age that those she sang to didn’t die, they became stronger. She tried to teach her gift to the other banshees, but they were afraid of her differences and they cast her out.”
    “Is that why she’s here?” Everett asked. A thought occurred to him. “Is that why all of them are here? Chirit and Kai, Sonia and Xander, are they outcasts?”
    Dr. Transton linked his fingers together on top of the smooth burgundy desk. “It’s a good hypothesis considering what you’ve learned here, but not entirely correct. While some of our inhabitants are, indeed, outcasts from their species for some reason or other, most are here because of deeper circumstances known only to themselves and to me. It’s up to each individual whether or not they tell you their story.”
    “Whether or not they tell me their story,” Everett repeated, his tone guarded. “So you’re not kicking me out again?”
    “That’s left to be seen,” the doctor replied, watching him closely.
    Everett’s voice was quiet when he asked, “Why trust me now?”
    Dr. Transton sat back in his chair. He looked past Everett at something beyond his shoulder, but his gaze was unfocused as though he saw memories instead. “Life isn’t always fair, Everett,” he replied, his words soft.
    “Tell me about it,” Everett replied dryly.
    Dr. Transton’s gaze focused back on him, and the corner of his mouth lifted in what could have been a smile that vanished as quickly as it appeared. “You surprised me today. That doesn’t happen often. Usually I’m a good judge of character, but in regards to your species, my judgment is a bit, shall we say, clouded.”
    “When Adrielle said you would run me through with a stake, I thought she was kidding,” Everett told him. “Then you realized what I was and I think it almost happened.”
    “Almost,” the doctor conceded.
    “So,” Everett continued, watching Dr. Transton closely. “I haven’t changed. Why did you?”
    Dr. Transton nodded as if pleased with something. “That may be the best question you could have asked.” He fell quiet for a moment, then said, “I want to show you something.”

Chapter Nine
     
    Dr. Transton walked back to the elevator and stepped inside. He put his finger to a small metal square above the set of floor buttons. To Everett’s amazement numbers lit up above the first ten ranging from eleven to thirty-three.
    “There aren’t that many floors,” Everett said, staring at the numbers. “Outside, I counted ten. There can’t be thirty-three.”
    Dr. Transton pushed the button for floor thirty-two without replying. The elevator started up.
    “This place just keeps getting weirder,” Everett said under his breath.
    He saw Dr. Transton smile out of the corner of his eye.
    The elevator stopped at floor thirty-two and dinged. The doors slid open. The room revealed was fairly normal. Couches, chairs, a video screen, and a small dining area took up the majority of the space. Pictures hung on the walls and sat on shelves. In appearances, it looked like a normal apartment flat.
    Then the smell hit Everett. He covered his nose with one hand at the assault of decay. The scent of rotting corpse made his eyes water. He glanced at Dr. Transton, worried at the dismay he would see on the doctor’s face at the fact that one of their tenants