"Name”? "Slade" "Just Slade"? I nodded. "Hmm...", then copious scribbling. "Had much experience?" "Experience in what?" "For this job?" "Oh, so this is the interview?" He looked up slowly over the rim of the glasses and smiled grimly. "I like your attitude kid, but enough with the sarcasm". I looked back at him and said in the most polite voice I could muster" Well when I entered this room, you made some crack about it takes all kinds and when I asked if this was where the interview was held all you said was "Interview?". I assumed it was part of the process so I just followed your lead". "Ok, Ok," he sighed and looked directly at me "I've had a bad day and everyone that's come in here has been less than useless from an interviewers point of view. I just want to get this over with and get something done about this damned situation. Do you think you can handle just about anything? If you can't , let's not waste each others time". Having said his piece, he leaned back into the leather of the chair and seemed to relax a little. I felt the air around me suddenly become a little less constrictive and actually grinned my most charming grin, the one that everyone I know seems to be charmed by. I actually felt sorry for the poor guy then and eased myself back into my own chair hoping that the atmosphere would remain just so and not return to the way it had been moments ago. The guy sitting across from me seemed not quite right somehow, but I put it down to his distaste of having to be interviewing for most of the day and his unwillingness to prolong it anymore than he had to. "Right," he sighed and opened the book beside his left hand. This book seemed incredibly old with its' tatty leather binding and gold inscription in a language that seemed incredibly foreign but rather familiar at the same time. "I understand you've had a number of jobs in the past and none of them seem to be fitting for you after a time. Most of them lasting just a few short months although I do believe there was one that you actually stayed at for a couple of years .... interesting. Now let's see what that was all about", then he began flicking through a few of the pages until he came to what he was obviously looking for. He smiled then, a genuine smile that gave him a look of someone who’d managed to get something over a rival. It was not a pleasant smile, but whatever he'd discovered changed his entire attitude towards me. This did not seem to be a good thing and I watched him warily for a moment or two. "Good, good" he smiled again, "Why didn't you say you'd been to the continent?...it would have saved a lot of time and I don't have too much of it left to waste." With that, he closed the book, stood up and beckoned for me to follow. Turning to the wall behind him he pushed a hidden switch and the door opened slowly inward, revealing a rather dark looking passageway lit intermittently by flickering oil lamps imbedded in the walls. "Come, come. I think you'll do quite nicely for the job" and for better or worse, I followed him through. We walked silently through the twisting passageway until we came to a solid metal door with a large rusted ring for what I took to be a handle. Stopping in front of it he fiddled with something that was just outside of my line of vision, picked up the large ring and turned it in what seemed to be a very ritualistic way. Just like when you open a safe ... you know, 34 Left, 23 Right, etc...and slowly this door creaked open to reveal a further passageway with one subtle difference, the walls seemed to be a very deep shade of red and the heat was tremendous compared to the passageway we had just passed through to get here. The hairs on the back of neck stood up immediately and I froze, unable to cross the threshold just then. He must have sensed my fear for he suddenly turned to me, draping an arm over my shoulders like some crazily obscene gesture of affection and guided me through the door. "You were adopted as a child, I believe, were you not?" he asked helping me along the heat imbued passageway, "You can tell me. There's no need to be shy with me. We're going to be good chums you and I." I looked over at him astonished at his knowledge of my past, "How did you know I was adopted?" "I know all about you now" he smiled guiding me to the right of us into another opening, this time without a door. Here I stood frozen to the spot as I realised that it was like a zoo, with some of the most bizarre exhibits behind bars and a great deal of moaning that seemed to come from any number of these exhibits. I was fascinated in a morbid sort of way when I realised that some of the exhibits were actually human. On closer inspection I discovered these were some of the worst examples of humanity ever to have fouled the surface of the earth. My companion turned away from me for a moment and seemed to shimmer, growing larger and less human looking than he had. "Aaaahhh,much better. I hate the confines of that awful humanity suit" he grinned, his red pointed tail flicking and his red eyes glowing maniacally, "The exhibits need taking care of my young friend and I'm not up to doing it anymore." He passed me some kind of instruction manual for the care and feeding of these 'things' and turned to walk away. Suddenly he stopped and, turning back to me he said with more honesty than I'd heard in my life "This is a job I know you can do quite well. Your true father was spectacularly good at it and I've not found anyone since who could even come near him for ingenuity and guile. Like father like son, I've always said. Happy keeping Mr Dahmer" and with the flick of his tail and his cloven hooves clicking on the rocky floor, he disappeared through the passageway, leaving me with the very unwelcome and incredibly horrifying knowledge of who I really was.