*  *  *  *  *

Jack, the doorman, seeing Eve and Mark together as the elevator landed in the lobby said, "Hi, Sabrina.  Mark.  You two going out tonight?"

"For a little while,"  Mark said smiling at Jack.

Jack, who was in his early sixties, plump and bald, watched the couple walk to the garage elevators, slightly envious of their youth and good looks.  He enjoyed seeing happy young couples and it saddened him to see them this way.  Sabrina was not smiling and holding Mark's arm.  She looked serious and different.  They must have had a terrible fight.  Jack watched them enter the elevator for the garage and clucked sadly to himself.

Mark drove in uncomfortable silence.  Every time he glanced at Eve, he saw her face immobile, no expression whatsoever, staring at him.  She had forgotten to blink and he did not know why, but her concentrated attention was making him nervous.  She watched every move he made and had no problem staring directly at his crotch. 

Mark kept reminding himself that this was actually happening, not a science fiction movie.  The person next to him might have been an alien from another planet for all her similarity to Sabrina.  She was just as beautiful, but inhuman and untouchable.  He thought the whole experience was eerie. 

Eve pointed out Ferd's Tanning Salon and they parked directly across the street.  Mark turned off the motor and they sat silently looking at the darkened building.  Mark glanced around the street.  It was very quiet.  There were a couple of parked cars, but they looked unoccupied.

"Do you hear anything?"  Mark whispered.

"No.  But there's light in Ferd's living quarters above the tanning salon."

Mark gazed up at the second story and could see faint light haloing the closed black curtains.  He had a nervous premonition that getting out of the car would be a bad mistake.  "Take my arm and act like you're talking to me."

Eve took Mark's arm, holding his bicep with her hand.  He moved her arm so that it looped his in a more normal fashion and they walked to the corner and across the street.  They began moving toward the dark recessed doorway.  It was very cold and Mark shivered.  It might be nice not to have to feel hot or cold.  But maybe it would be lethal.  Eve could stay outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, unaware she was freezing to death.

Eve suddenly stopped dead, head cocked to one side.  Mark tried to pull her along.  Whatever she was made of, it was certainly heavier than Sabrina.  Tugging Eve was like was like trying to move a large, firmly rooted tree.

"Come on,"  Mark whispered.

"They're up there."

"Who?"

"Ferd and the other two."

"We'll come back another time."

Eve took hold of the door knob and twisted it.

As Mark asked, "Locked?"  he heard a crunching noise.  The doorknob broke off in Eve's hand.  A shrill, excruciatingly loud alarm pierced his ears.

"Oh, no,"  Mark moaned, but no one could have heard him. 

Eve walked into the darkened tanning salon, and was heading behind the front counter to a stairway beyond.