The narrator wakes up in the middle of the night to find that his fiance has died in a car accident. He's not sure if he's dead or alive, but he wants to find out. He asks the doctor if he has been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or the "vampiric" disease. The doctor tells him that he has, but that he'll have to wait until the case is closed before he can tell if it's true or not.