Grace left Professor Lau's office just to find one of her best friends, and her sister's ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Lin, flirting with a prospective student in the hall. Grace had to suppress a smile; she loved ruining his conquests and she had the perfect opportunity to do so.
"Hey, handsome," she said as she give him a quick peck on the lips and wrapped her arms around his waist. Jimmy opened his eyes wide, while the girl he had been talking with changed her demeanor from flirty to furious.
"Hi, I'm Grace, Jimmy's girlfriend. And you are?" Grace asked with a sweet voice. "I'm, I'm Justinne and I, I'm late. I have to go," Justinne said as she took her backpack from the floor and left Jimmy and Grace alone. Grace was trying to suppress her laughter, and Jimmy was too shock to stop Justinne from leaving.
"Dude, why you did that for?" Jimmy asked Grace after he conquered his initial shock. Grace fell laughing on the floor. His eyes were wide, but he couldn't help but laugh at his Grace's reaction. "I'm sorry, Jim" but that girl was obviously a minor. Do you want to go to jail, Jimmy Lin? Want to be someone's bitch?" Grace said as she continued laughing.
"A minor? She told me she was 20!" Jimmy said in shock. "J-man, if that girl is 20, I'm already a grandmother," Grace said as she took him by the arm and started walking toward the school's library. "A minor? Man, that sucks! She was fine! Dude, why does this always happen to me? You know what will make it better? Another kiss!" Jim said as he made 'goo goo' eyes at Grace and offered his lips. Grace pushed him and said, "Yuck! Get that filthy mouth away from me!" They kept walking, joking and playing with each other, until they arrived at the library's entrance.
"I was actually looking for you cause I need something from you," Grace whispered more seriously as they walked into the NYU library and sat on a free desk. "Sure, what do you need?" Jim whispered back. "I know you have 'interesting' movies. You know, miscellaneous stuff: porn, S&M, autopsies, bla bla bla," Grace started saying. Jimmy opened his eyes wide and screamed: "Are you looking for porn, Gracie?" The words resounded across the silent library.
All the eyes in the library fell on them. Grace kicked his leg under the desk as she squirmed farther into the chair. "You idiot! If you only let me finish! I'm not looking for porn! I was wondering if you had violent images that I could use for my thesis," Grace said between clenched teeth. "Okay, okay! Besides, who told you I had porn?" Jimmy asked surprised. "Jimmy, I know you better than my sister did. I have been in your room and I have browsed your video collection. I have to say that my favorite title was 'The XXX-Files' and of course, who could forget 'Star Balls'," Grace said with a smirk as she innocently adjusted her glasses.
Jimmy's face was as red as a tomato. "You never told your sister, did you?" he asked sheepishly. "Of course not. now, answer me, do you have the images I need or not?" Grace asked.
"Violent images? I'm afraid that aside from 'Alien Autopsy' my movies are pretty straightforward. I have some S&M, but it's very lightweight. However, I know of someone who can help you. These guy supposedly has a collection worthy of a freak museum," Jimmy said with a knowing smile. He knew Grace would hate him for his suggestion, but Jimmy could give as well as he got. "Who?" Grace whispered.
"The guy four desks behind you. The one with the thick glasses," Jimmy said, unable to suppress a smile. Grace turned around and looked behind her.
"You have to be f*cking kidding me," Grace cursed as she noticed who it was. 13,000 thousand students in the university and the one that could help her was the one that loved to make her life a living hell.
"Nope. Look, I have PE now. Go there and ask him. Or are you afraid?" Jimmy said as he got up from his chair and kissed Grace on the cheek.
'Afraid' wasn't the word to describe how she felt when she dealt with Psycho Tse.
********************
'Give me the blood.
Give me the life.
Give me the taste
of hell in your eyes.
I am the killer
I am the sin
And I am the beast within.'
Psycho Tse was whispering the song he was hearing on his Walkman as he copied some notes from Anasazi's 'The Art of German Cinema in the 1930's'. Every now and then he would forget that he was in the library and would start banging his pencil on the desk at the beat of the deafening music. A nervous attendant had to come and ask him to stop.
"Excuse me," he faintly heard a female voice saying. No one ever spoke to him, so he ignored it. He felt someone touch his shoulder and he turned around sharply. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you," Grace said with a shy smile.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite bookworm. What are you doing here? Going to give me a hard time about contradicting you in Lau's class?" Psycho said without a trace of a smile. His eyes looked abnormally big with the eyeglasses on, almost deformed. Grace's smile turned to a scowl. "You know, you really make it hard for people to be nice to you," Grace said seriously. At her words, Psycho smiled a sadistic smile.
"I don't need people to be nice to me if they don't want to. Besides, I know you didn't come here to lecture me on my manners. What do you want?" Psycho said. Grace sighed and said, "No beating about the bush, eh? Well, a friend told me you were quite an aficionado of violent films and that you have quite a collection of those types of movies�"
"What types of movies?" Psycho asked crossly. "You know: gore, porn, sadomasochist� that sort of thing," Grace answered. "Well, your friend lied to you. And even if I did have them I wouldn't give them to you," Psycho said seriously. "Look, I know you don't like me but I really, really could use your help," Grace said softly.
"Man, are you sick?" Psycho said loudly, obviously trying to get unwanted attention. For the second time, all eyes in the library turned to Grace. She wanted to strangle him, but kept playing nice. "No, I'm not. The reason I need those images is purely educational. I take no pleasure in violence and gore. I need them for my thesis about 'Audiovisual Violence'. Besides, with the little display of human empathy you put on today in the subway station, you are the person least suitable to lecture me on 'sickness'," Grace said very seriously.
Psycho held her penetrating gaze for a while, but finally looked away. "Look. I'm sorry but I can't help you. You should have done your thesis about Mickey Mouse. Besides, if you really are looking for a turn on I can take you to a nice sex shop or we can go to the back of the stairs and fu*k each other brains out. I certainly wouldn't mind helping you with that," Psycho said smirking as he turned his attention back to his notes. Grace wanted to punch the lights out of him, but she had had enough unwanted attention for the day.
Grace got up from the desk, but leaned into him and whispered in his ear, "Tse, I don't know what's your problem, but you are one f*cking *sshole. Just to make one thing clear, I would rather be a lesbian than be near any position where the probability of fu*king you existed. Thanks for nothing." Grace took a perverse pleasure in seeing him squirm, but couldn't help but to feel a little guilty.
She finally gave up on Psycho. He had never been nice to her, nor to anybody; she didn't know how she could think he might help her. She took a deep breath and went back to her own desk. Grace took from her backpack the things she needed to study: her pen, her notebook, her books and her Walkman. She put on the classic Carmina Burana and started writing the first sketch of her thesis's hypothesis. All the while Grace couldn't help to feel someone's eyes over her.
'O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurate
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.'
She didn't know how much time had passed, but she was already listening to the 6th song when she suddenly felt an unfamiliar hand in her shoulder. She took of her headphones and looked up, only to find Psycho's penetrating gaze on her face.
"Do you really need to see those tapes?" he asked softly. "You told me you didn't have them," she answered crossly. "Do you want to see them? Yes or No," he asked for a second time. He wasn't being cocky or smug. He was simply making an honest question. This was the first time she had seen him like this, and she couldn't stop herself from nodding softly.
"Then come with me," Psycho said seriously. "I would love to but I have to meet my sister when she comes out of.." Grace started saying as she gathered her things when he rudely interrupted, "My house is not a 7-11. It's not open 24 hours. if you want to see those tapes, you come with me now."
Grace thought about it. To go with a stranger, not to mention psychotic, man that has made numerous sexual references to her and go to his home to watch movies of dubious contents, was stupid and dangerous to say the least. But she was desperate. No violent tapes� no thesis� no graduation.
"Alright. Lead the way, Mr. Tse," she said as she put on her backpack and follow Psycho to his home.
********************
NYU
Film and Media Building
Basement Floor
"Excuse me," Professor Lau said to the vault's attendant. "Professor Lau? It's been years since you've been down here," Alec, the attendant, said warmly as he shook Professor Lau's hand.
"I know. been busy with the kids upstairs. However, I recently remembered a very interesting Czechoslovakian film I watched years ago, but I can't seem to remember the title. I was wondering if you could let me into the vault so I could take a look around at the cartons and see if I can find it," Professor Lau said.
"Well, that's not the protocol, but hell� I don't see any problem. Follow me," Alec said as he got up from his chair and guided Professor Lau to the vault's door. He used the heavy key he had on his pocket to open the vault and turned on the light inside. Professor Lau walked with his cane and entered the biggest movie repository in the United States with one thought in mind: find something for Grace to use in her thesis.
"It's funny," Alec suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "What is?" Professor Lau asked. "You are the second professor to ask me to let him into the vault today," Alec replied. Professor Lau was interested; vault's protocol declared that you would give the information of the movie you wished to check out to the attendant and the attendant would search the vault for the movie. At no time were the professors or the students supposed to enter the vault, probably for fear of them stealing the contents or for misplacing them.
"Who was it?" Prof. Lau asked. "Some young professor from the Psychology Faculty. I'm not sure of his name, but he comes into the vault quite often. In fact, he's in there right now," Alec answered. "Well, then I should wait for him to come out. I don't want to disturb him," Prof. Lau said. However, he was more worried of someone finding him browsing thru the movies.
"Nah, don't worry. This vault is so big I'm sure you won't even see each other. Well, I'll be outside. Knock when you finish," Alec said as he closed the door and locked it, leaving Prof. Lau in a dimly lighted warehouse. Beside the door was posted a list of the movie categories and their location in the warehouse:
'Action' 1A
'Comedy' 1B
'Drama' 2A + 2B
'International' China' 3A
'International' Denmark' 3B
'International' Germany' 4A
'International' Hong Kong' 4B
'International' Japan' 5A
'International' Latin America' 5B
'International' Spain' 6A
'International' Others' 6B
'Art House' 7A
'Science Fiction' 7B
'Anime' 8A
'Cartoons' 8B
'Miscellaneous' 9
"Shelf 9," Prof. Lau whispered as he limped toward the shelf. He was nervous. He couldn't let the other professor see him in the miscellaneous section. The section was famous for its Adult's contents: hardcore and soft porn from every country imaginable, terrorist manifestos and incredibly violent and real images. He knew if he was found there, the title 'Freak' was going to be branded on him forever.
He finally arrived at Shelf 9. His face got redder and redder as he browsed all the offending tapes. Unexpectedly, he heard a heavy iron door open. He walked to the main hall and saw that the vault's door was still closed. "Is anybody out there?" he called out, but got no answer. "Professor?" he called again, thinking it might have been the other professor in the vault.
Prof. Lau thought he heard footsteps coming from the far side of the vault. He walked slowly toward the footsteps, but he didn't find anyone. What he found was an open door, heavy and old, probably belonging to the universities first constructions. He peaked inside the door and a musty odor hit his senses. The air smelled stale and full of fungus. He felt his lungs contract and he started coughing violently. He took his inhaler from his pocket and took a mouthful.
Prof. Lau's curiosity won over his hesitation as he walked inside. Behind the door, he found a tunnel, filled with iron tubes. He knew the university had been built around the First World War, and air raids shelters had been built throughout the basements. He concluded he must be inside one of those rarely used shelters. "Hello, is anybody there?" Prof. Lau asked, but again got no replied.
He kept walking the dark tunnel until he arrived in a small room. He searched the wall for a light switch and finally found it. Boxes piled the room, filled with cameras and unused equipment. On the left corner, there was a shelf filled with videotapes. He walked to the shelf and inspected the tapes; they had no marking other than a number on a label. The numbers read from '1' to '214'. This was, to say the least, weird. All tapes had to be inside the vault. Who could have brought this inside the tunnel?
"Professor Lau? Professor Lau, it's time to close," he heard Alec's voice calling for him. Alec was obviously looking for him in the vault. Professor Lau quickly grabbed one of the tapes at random and left the dark tunnel, careful to shut the light after him.
He found Alec searching for him in the vault. "Did you find what you were looking for?" Alec asked. "No. I'm afraid not. I will have to get more information on the movie before I try looking for it again," Prof. Lau answered nervously.
Alec didn't notice that Professor Lau had slipped the strange videotape inside his jacket pocket.