Professor Lau opened the door to one of the university's screening rooms, located just a few doors from his own basement office. He took a peek inside, happy to find it dark and empty.
He looked around the main hall, making sure it was empty. He didn't want to be caught getting into the screening room. When he knew he was safe, he entered the room.
The room was like a small movie theater. A couple of rows with a total of thirty seats or so, it was usually used to screen student films for class. Now, Professor Lau was determined to use it to find out the contents of the strange tape he had just borrowed from the vault.
He walked to the projector; the only sound in the room was the thud of his cane against the cold floor. Hooked to the projector was an old VCR. He pushed the tape he had just taken from the archives inside. He hit the play button, and he sat down as the color bars appeared on screen.
Finally, the mystery of the tape was going to be revealed.
***************
Apartment 2-B
NYC
5:00 PM
"Welcome to the Shrine of Pain," Psycho said with a sly smile as he opened the door to his home. Alarms had sounded in Grace's head since she left the university's library with him. 'during the subway ride' 'the three-block ride' She had asked questions about him; about where they were going. Psycho had only answered with the phrases "hmph", "yes", "no". Now, the final of her alarms blared inside her head as she glanced inside the apartment.
There was nothing to see. It was pitch black inside, even when it was only 4:15. Heavy black curtains covered the windows, making it impossible to determine the time of day from the inside. Psycho entered his house, but realized she wasn't following him. He turned a sarcastic smile at Grace as he said, "Don't worry bookworm. I won't bite unless you want me to." Swallowing hard and determined not to let him know her fear, Grace walked inside. The door closed behind her and she heard the lock click in place.
"The TV is that way," Psycho pointed toward the end of the hall. From up close, Grace noted that the walls of the hall were painted black and red. A beheaded mannequin with a hundreds of pins plunged inside the flesh and red paint all over it decorated the hallway. She looked up at the hall's ceiling, only to find the hanging figure of everyone's favorite demon, Pinhead, from the Hellraiser franchise. He looked so damn real that for a moment Grace was scared.
"Don't worry. I just have a unique decorating style. I'm Martha Stewart's public enemy #1,�" Psycho said as he walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Grace saw him take an orange juice jug from the fridge and drink from the bottle. "You want some?" he offered the bottle when he finished. "No thank you," Grace said politely. "Alright, just don't tell everyone that I'm a bad host," he said as he left the kitchen and guided her to the room.
After the initial shock of Psycho's loft, Grace realized that the place was actually quite big for a lone student in the world's most expensive city. The place had at least three rooms, one kitchen and hopefully one bathroom. It is a miracle how someone like Psycho could afford it.
"The place belonged to my grannie. She croaked last year and left it to me, so I did a little redecorating," he said as he stepped inside the room. Funny that someone like him says grannie, instead of 'old lady' or 'bag of bones'. Grace followed him, noticing that the curtain dividing the room from the hall was designed to resemble human intestines. "Nice touch," Grace said as she pointed to the curtain. "Hard to find a girl who appreciates the nicer things in life," Psycho said as he threw the backpack on the floor.
Another small alarm sounded in Grace's mind as she inspected what was obviously Psycho's bedroom. Two walls were covered with posters and photographs from the bloodiest horror films of all time: Hannibal Lecter from Silence of The Lambs, zombies from Romero's Night of the Living Dead, the original posters for The Exorcist and Poltergeist. A blown-up picture from the cube of Hellraiser completed the strange wallpaper. In the other wall was a nearly completed collection of masks from horror films: Jason's hockey mask from Friday the 13, Mike Myers mask of evil from the Halloween series, Hannibal Lecter's prisoner mask, and a mask from Killer Clowns from Outer Space that sent shivers down Grace's spine. Her biggest weakness was her unreasonable fright of clowns.
However, she didn't mind any of this. After all, she did have a unique decorating style also since her room was filled with Sesame Street memorabilia. What truly terrified her were the props Psycho had on the last wall. Ranging from Jason's machete to Freddy's scissor gloves to Norman Bates' 9-inch stabbing knife, Psycho's room was full of weapons that could be used against her.
She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to go to that wall and to touch the knife. She touched the blade softly, only to find out it was real. And very sharp. Funny that this little fact brought comfort to her. In case Psycho behaved funny, she knew she could run to this wall, pry the knife from the frame and use it against him.
"Planning to kill me?" Psycho suddenly said behind her. He was standing a few inches from her; close enough for her to feel his breath in the back of her head. She quickly composed herself, turned around and gave him a brave smile. "Not if you behave, I won't," she answered smugly. He smiled at her and said, "You should feel lucky; no one's ever come to my hideaway."
"And to what do I owe that honor?" Grace said as she watched him walk toward the armoire in the far corner. "You are gorgeous. I want to get you into bed," Psycho said blankly. Grace was shocked. The guy that had made her life miserable in every class they shared thought she was gorgeous?
He definitely had a funny way of showing it. And he wanted to sleep with her? At least she knew she could always trust Psycho Tse to tell her things to her face. His sincerity was like a slap to the face. "Well� thank you for the pretty thing, I guess," she stammered. "Don't thank me. Thank your parents. You were born that way," he said seriously. Another slap to the face.
"You know what's the problem with the university's staff and with people like you? You wouldn't know good cinema if it bit you in the ass," Psycho changed the subject. Grace smiled and asked him, "And for you, what is good cinema?"
He pointed to the armoire and said, "what I have here." With that, he opened the armoire's door. Hundreds of videotapes stared back at Grace. "Now, what does Miss 'Thang' want to see?" he asked as he browsed his collection. "What do you have?" Grace asked. "Let's see� I have porn of every type� soft� hard� oriental� European. You name it; I have it. This shit is the hottest you can get!" he said.
Porn, bedroom and Psycho Tse. It wasn't a good combination for Grace. Besides, she didn't come here to see that. "Actually, I'm not interested in porn. It's easy to get. If that's all you got�" she said as she clung her backpack, signaling she might leave if he didn't pique her interest. He smiled wickedly and said, "So, the bookworm wants some action, eh? Let's see."
"I need violent images, Tse. Pure and essential violence," Grace said. Psycho picked a videotape from his collection and said, "Violence? Okay, the baby wants violence. This will make you shit on your pants then." He took the tape, put it on the player and turned on the TV.
"What is it?" she asked. "It's called Fresh Blood, a very beautiful and educational film. You can sit or you can spend the next hour and a half standing up. It's your choice," he said as the title credits rolled in.
She looked around. The only place to sit on was the very messy and undone bed. No other chairs or sofas could be seen. And there were two persons in the room. Two persons, one bed. "It's okay. I'll stand up. I don't mind," she said uneasy as she dropped her backpack to the floor.
Psycho sighed and said, "Look. Don't worry about me jumping your bones if you don't want to. I won't ever touch a woman unless she wants me to, even if I want to fuck her as bad as I want to fuck you." His tone was serious and calm as if he had been talking of something as simple as what he ate for breakfast. It amused and annoyed Grace at the same time.
"You don't have a problem expressing what you think, do you?" Grace asked as she sat on the edge of the bed, not before throwing a pair of black jockey boxers that were on the bed back to him. The boxers hit him right in the face, but instead of being angry, he smiled genuinely. It was the first non-sarcastic smile Grace had seen in Psycho in four years. He took the underwear from his face and threw it on the floor.
"Nope. I don't. I got it from my grandmother. She always told me that life was too short to waste in formalities and pretense," he said as he sat on the floor a few feet away from her. That secretly relieved Grace. And so did the fact that someone seemingly so crazy and psychotic could mention his grandmother twice in less than 5 minutes of conversation. In Psycho's voice, she could feel the love and the respect he had for the old lady and that was a relief.
But of course, her mind always deviated to the paranoid thought. 'Norman Bates from the movie Psycho' he loved his mother to death' and that's what made him crazy,' she thought. But as she watched the back of Psycho's head, she realized that for all the craziness and the freakiness he displayed, he shared nothing else with the movie Psycho other than the nickname.
The first image appeared and the screen suddenly captured Grace's undivided attention.
***************************
Apartment 2-B
90 minutes later
The ending credits rolled, but still Grace couldn't get her eyes off the screen. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," Psycho asked softly. And indeed, she did look shaken. She was visibly pale; her cheeks seemed to be devoid of color. Her mouth hanged wide open, and her brain refused to process what it had just witnessed.
In 90 minutes, Grace had seen autopsies, brain surgery on a patient without anesthetic. She had watched as that scalpel broke the flesh as the saw divided the bone into two pieces. She had watched in silence as the top of the head was taken and that bleeding, pulsing mass of flesh that was the brain expanded and contracted.
And if that wasn't enough, there came the accidents caught on tape� the executions� the hangings� the Satanic cult ceremony where a woman was gangbang by ten men while they made little cuts with their obsidian knives in her skin and she begged for more. Even the image in the credits, that of a man that had just been shot in the head for stealing a car, affected Grace. She felt numb and dead inside. For a second, she really did wish she had done her Thesis on Mickey Mouse.
"Hey, are you okay?" Psycho said as he got up the floor worriedly and touched her face. His touch made Grace react and she turned her attention from the screen to him. "Yes� yes I am,"
she said as she swallowed hard. "Girl, don't get squeamish on me," he said as he turned off the TV.
"That was all real, wasn't it?" Grace asked, still numb. "Of course it was� I thought that's what you wanted to see," Psycho said. "Yes, that was it, but, I could never have imagined, that, that, I have never seen a dead body before. Well, I've seen dead people, but never someone that had died a violent death and it's� I can't find words to describe how horrible it is," Grace said. She then turned her warm eyes back toward Psycho. "Have you ever seen a dead body?" she asked him.
"Of course. The guy in the subway today," he answered softly. "I had forgotten about that. Funny how stupid his death seems after watching this," she said as she pointed toward the TV.
"Why do people watch this stuff?" she asked more to herself than to him. "I don't know. You just watched it. Why did you?" Psycho asked. "It's different. I don't enjoy it. I'm disgusted by it. Why do you watch it, Tse?" she asked him. "I pledge the Fifth," he said softly.
For the first time, she noticed the Felix the Cat clock he had. It read 8:00. Time had certainly flown in the company of Psycho Tse. "Shit, I have to go. My parents must be worried," she said as she took her backpack from the floor and started walking to the door.
"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you home? You don't look so good," Psycho called from behind. Grace opened the main door and once she was outside, turned to him and said, "Naw, it's okay. I'll get a grip on myself on the way home." The truth was that she didn't felt comfortable with Tse knowing where she lived. She gave him a small smile and was surprised when he smiled back. "Well, the invitation for porn is still open! You can come back here anytime you want," Psycho joked.
"You are something else, Tse, I give you that. Thank you for your help. This definitely helps my Thesis," Grace said sincerely. "Glad I could do something right for once. Who knows? Maybe I still got a chance to get into your pants," he said with a sly smile.
She gave him a quick peck on the cheek, which caught him off guard. "Not in a million years, Tse," she said as she slapped him softly on the cheek and left him standing in the doorway of his apartment.
**************************
Home of the Yip family
9:00 PM
Grace opened the door to her house. Coqui, the family's black Labrador, greeted her on the door. "Hey, buddy. Where's mom and dad?" she asked the dog as she scratched him behind the ears. She had noticed her parents' car wasn't in the garage, and silently thanked God for that small miracle.
"Where the fu*k were you?" someone suddenly asked from behind her. Grace gasped, suddenly scared to death. But it took her less than a second to recognize the voice of her sister, Lillian. "Lil, you scare the crap out of me!" Grace told her sharply. At seeing Grace's face, Lillian's anger turned into concern. "Shit, Gracie! What happened? I was waiting for an hour for you till I finally gave up and came here! And why the hell do you look so frightened? Did something happen?" Lillian asked.
Grace took a deep breath and calmed herself. To tell her sister that she had just spent three hours at the apartment of NYU's most feared guy will be stupid. Lillian will rat her to her parents and Grace would be grounded till her wedding day. "I'm sorry. I just had a visit to the city's library," Grace lied as she ran up the stairs to her room.
"Lil, I'm going to go to bed early. Good night," Grace said as she closed the door before her sister could ask her anything else. "Stop! I have some good news and I can't wait to tell you!" Lillian said from the hall. Grace sighed and opened the door. "Guess what?" Lillian asked happily.
"Mmm, the government admitted the existence of extraterrestrials?" Grace said sarcastically. "Hahaha, I think I heard my bunny slippers laughing their ass off. But since you are obviously not in the mood for guessing, I might as well tell you. Guess who I got as my partner in my final project?" "The gay Teletubbie?" Grace replied.
"Vicki Zhao!" Lillian said happily. "You mean the Versace model?" Grace asked surprised. "Yes, and that's not the cool thing. She told me I could make it in the big leagues and that she would set up an audition for me! Isn't that sweet of her?" Lillian asked. She was brimming with so much happiness Grace couldn't help but be happy also. For a moment, the horrors she had just witnessed were nothing but a fleeting memory.
"I'm so glad for you, sis!" Grace said as she hugged and kissed Lillian. "My sister� a model! I can't believe it!" she said happily. "Well, the first thing I'm going to do when I become super famous is to set you up with the CK male underwear model," Lillian joked. "You mean the one from the Times Square billboard?" Grace asked with a smile as Lillian started leaving the room.
"Yes, the one whose 'merchandise' you are always drooling at," Lillian joked. She ran to her own room and closed the door before Grace could catch her and kick her butt. "Hey, I'm going to get you for that! Good night," Grace said with a smile as she closed the door to her room and locked it.
That night, nothing but restless sleep accompanied Grace. The images she had just seen played over and over in her head like a bad scratched record.
What was so attractive about those films? Why did people like Psycho buy them?
What was so irresistible about violence?
And all the while, she could feel someone was watching her. She dismissed that feeling as nothing more than a paranoid thought that came from the movie she saw.
Yet, she didn't feel any more at ease. For a moment, she felt as if someone was making a movie about her own life.
And like the movie she had just seen, it was just waiting for the inevitable.
Waiting for the end.
Waiting for the final credits to roll and for the final fade to black.
*************************
The next day
NYU Media Building
6:55 AM
"Okay, I'm going to go meet Prof. Lau. I don't know if I'll be able to come back home with you, but don't worry. I just have a lot of catching up for my thesis," Grace told Lillian as they were about to part ways. However, Lillian wasn't paying attention to her. Something behind Grace had caught her attention.
Grace turned around, and sighed as she noticed what was stealing her sister's attention. A young man was standing 20 feet away from them, talking with two other girls. Grace had seen him before around the faculty, and she really couldn't blame her sister for being distracted. The young man was handsome, to say the least. He was like someone you would expect to see in the cover of People's magazine. With his perfect eyes, his full lips, his chiseled nose and chin, and his streaked stylish hair, he looked like someone that belonged to be in front of the camera rather than behind it.
"Edison Chen," Grace said as she turned her attention back to the drooling Lillian. "Oh, you know him?" Lillian asked her excited. "I know OF him. he's rich, charming and cute, and according to some people a great filmmaker. But I have never crossed words with him," Grace said. "Oh, he's dreamy," Lillian said to herself. Grace wanted to laugh out loud, but settled for saying, "Well, you are an up-and-coming supermodel. Why don't you go ask him out?"
"Are you kidding me? Do you know who's his girlfriend?" Lillian asked her shocked. "Mm, I'm afraid I don't,� Grace said casually. "He's Vicki Zhao's boyfriend! They have been going out for like 2 years! Everyone knows that, Grace!" Lillian told her. "Well, I don't. And I don't care. I have to go and meet the professor. See you at home. Be good. And don't go drooling over anymore taken guys," Grace joked as she pinched her sister's butt and walked down the stairs to the basement.
*****************************
NYU Media Building
6:55 AM
Basement Floor
"Professor Lau?" Grace called softly as she knocked on his door. Professor Lau had told her to meet him in his office at 7:00 AM sharp. She was looking forward to their meeting, knowing Lau would have done what he could to get her images she could use for her thesis, although after what happened at Psycho Tse's house the afternoon before, she wasn't sure she could stomach them anymore.
"This is odd. He's the living atomic clock. Always on time," thought Grace as she tried the door to his office, surprised that it wasn't locked. She stepped inside, but found no one there. Still, his briefcase and his belongings were scattered around the desk. "He must be in the bathroom," she thought as took the seat in front of the desk and decided to wait for him.
When 15 minutes had passed, Grace decided to search for him around the floor. Maybe someone had seen him. maybe he was in someone else's office or in one of the screening rooms. The truth was that she was impatient by nature; she didn't like waiting on nobody.
She walked outside; only another student was walking around the hall. To her surprise, the student was none other than Psycho Tse. "You? So early?" Grace asked him. "Of course. I always come at this hour looking for girls to grope. Do you know of any?" he asked her smugly as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter," she said sarcastically. "Have you seen Prof. Lau?" she added. "Nope. Can't say I have. Man, you do like them mature, don't you?" he asked with a smile as he walked past her.
She gave him the finger, which only made him laugh harder. "I'll see you in class," was the last thing he said as he pushed the heavy doors and walked out of the hall. "Bastard", she whispered amused. She walked on the other direction and heard something out of the ordinary for the deserted hall. A small sound was heard ' hissing' static.
She closed her eyes and traced the sound with her hearing. She identified where the sound came from: screening room 11. She pushed the heavy metal doors and stepped inside.
She noticed the still figure of Professor Lau on the first row of the small cinema. "Professor! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you," she said as she stepped inside the room. However, she got no reply back. He just kept still, his back to her, his attention seemingly fixed on the projector screen in the front, the source of all the static.
"Professor?" she called, her voice a little worried. Slowly, she walked toward where he was sitting. "Professor Lau, are you okay?" she asked a bit panicked as she stopped next to Professor Lau and turned around to face him.
"Oh my god," she gasped as she dropped her notebook on the floor.
She wasn't a doctor, but she knew what she was seeing.
Professor Lau was sitting on the chair; his eyes wide open staring at the screen. His mouth was hanging open, contorted in a painful gasp. The fingers of his hand were stretched out, as if he had been trying to take something. He looked scared. no, make that terrified.
But there was no other sound in the room but Grace's panic breathing and the sound of the projector's static.
Professor Lau was dead.