THE COLLECTION ROOM

Where he lived was a bit far from the bookstore -- a stately street along New Wick Drive. Looking at the windows, there were no lights in there, and Kylie swallowed hard while they made it into the house.

"You stay here alone?" Kylie asked.

"I adjusted myself to it," he said.

"With horror books?"

He laughed and pushed the door open. He switched on the lights in the living room and she saw the beauty that laid within the house. What seemed to be emphasised on in terms of decorations were mostly wall paintings and frames pictures.

Frances walked in with him, seeing thrilling abstract paintings and nature paintings -- most of which had the faces of wolves with beautiful expressions. She began to wonder why the family had a thing with wolves. She also saw pictures of him and his parents. The looks of his dad struck her mostly, maybe because Brad looked alot like him, or maybe some other factor she couldn't grab.

"Now you're welcome," he said.

They took a seat and he spent time telling her alot about himself and his family. She seemed to be more interested in knowing why he loved horror books so much, but he chose to reserve that one until when they're his 'collection room'. He told her that she'd learn more about it seeing than in hearing, and it sounded a bit eerie to her.

They had some snacks in the living room, and when they were done they proceeded to the collection room.

They met the room in a shade of cold blue lights. Kylie saw ambiguous figures having alot of shadowy outlines and corners. He sensed she was getting uneasy and he put on the florescent lights. Things got clear and relaxing when he put on the lights. The room was kind of a gadget dump. She was very unfamiliar with the structures in it. The room seemed to be a dumping ground for failed prototypes.

At one corner of the room, there was a compressor tank with thick copper wires coiled around it. Close to it was a lawn mower with rotary blades and cameras attached to it's engine. At another corner was a large wardrobe atop which unnamed devices stood. One arm of the wardrobe was open, and she could see protruding spikes with copper wires coiled around them. The walls themselves were decorated with framed Goyaesque paintings, horror movie characters, and spooky graffiti.

"This is it?" She made a sweeping gesture along the room. "You must have put a life into this."

He laughed. "Actually, most of the things here were constructed by dad. I'm only learning from him. We've got interests that uniquely inspire us. He's are books and pictures of nature. Mine are just -- I guess you know already."

"So why does he do all this? He's an engineer or something?" Kylie asked.

"Well, kind of. He runs a virtual reality enterprise, quite large. Part of what gave him the initiative to be able to do all this. Though, he had always told me he just knew how to."

"And what's the essence of making these structures? All I see are complex fabrications."

"It began from his need to construct an EEG machine that could bring back his memory. He suffered amnesia some years ago."

"Oh, really? What caused it?"

"He really can't tell. He had tried and failed with his devices alot of times, so he just had to drop that and venture into other things -- EMPs, holograms, exotic experiments, etc."

"Interesting. I guess he was the one that made the Dream-Cold watch then."

"That was actually made by me. My dad really wanted me to do weird sciences like him. He placed a bet on one of the most sophisticated brands of the virtual reality sets if I came up with something quite out-the-box. I now own a pretty cool VR set cause of the watch."

"That's really awesome, I must say. Seems you're more fascinated by holograms, cause I loved what I saw the first night I used the watch."

"I read about holograms in one of my horror books. Doctor Feild-Fred made holograms of monsters and used it on juvenile patients with toothaches. It made them open up their mouths in a yell. " He laughed. "I made a lot of researches after that and dad got me the DIY kit -- lasers, lenses, mirrors, and some fine screens."

"And you perfected really fast, because that watch is one hell of a masterpiece," Kylie said in admiration.

"I have another too, but trust me, you wouldn't like to use it," he said.

"A hologram of Freddy Kruger ripping a kid in half I guess," Kylie said.

He laughed. "A kid tied to a tree and being tickled by slender hands."

"Please say less of that." Kylie quivered.

"Okay, no horror talks tonight," he said.

"Maybe you could tell me about the EGG machine," Kylie said.

"EEG you mean." He walked to the wardrobe and took out a bunch of wires with flat electrodes attached to them. "This was made from a DIY kit my dad bought during his days of trials and errors." He attached two of the electrodes on her forehead. "EEG stands for electroencephalogram. Mostly used in hospitals to monitor brain signals and anxiety stuffs. But my dad wanted to make one for himself with a special ingredient."

"Hope it wouldn't hurt," she said while he planted more of the electrodes in her scalp.

"This is just a demonstration, there's nothing passing through them for now." He kept attaching them to random places in her scalp while he talked softly to her.

She watched his lips while he talked, feeling the warmth of his breath. It got to a point where she couldn't hear the words he spoke, just nondescript sounds, due to what she saw while his face was close to hers, she was falling. He looked at her and noticed she had been removed from what he was saying, and he understood. Their eyes fixed on each other's, drawing their lips ever closer, until their lips locked in a warm, passionate kiss. She gripped his head, pressing him more tightly to her like her life depended on that ecstatic moment.

They kissed for quite some time, but when Kylie felt a frenzy coming she withdrew immediately. They stared at each other like they couldn't explain what just happened some seconds ago. It was sudden and like an exchange of an exotic energy. Their mouths were left hanging, unable to say a word.