It was a grey blustery day
when we moved into Aunt Wilmira's old manor house on the hill. The trees
looked like skeletons without the leaves that had covered their limbs all
summer long. I personally had not wanted to move, but after mom and dad
told me that old Aunt Wilmira had died in the creepy old house, I decided
that it sounded interesting and needed investigating. We had just finished
moving the last of our belongings into our "new" home and sat down to a
well deserved coffee break, when the
doorbell rang. Mom answered the
door. A lady and two kids stood there. They had noticed our moving van,
and came over to say hello. She introduced her son Brant, two year old
daughter Shelley, and herself, Katy. Mom invited them to join us for coffee.
After surviving a lengthy, boring
conversation between our parents on the school and the shopping malls,
Brant and I quietly slipped away to explore the dusty old house. As we
walked down one of the many passages, we noticed a door with a name plate
on it. We knocked and a girl about our age opened the door. She explained
that her name was Jennie, and she was the daughter of Aunt Wilmira's maid.
We told her who we were and invited her to come exploring with us.
After a while, Brant said he was
hungry. We decided to look in just one more room and then get something
to eat.
I could tell this room was special,
by it's purple door with a crooked gold cross. This room looked like no
one had lived in it for a long time. I saw an old chest and a bed with
a little table beside it. I opened the bedside table and pulled out a small,
black book. It had the initials A.D. on it. I put the book in my pocket,
planning to read it later that night.
All Jennie found in the chest was
a black suit with a red tie and handkerchief. Two white triangles, resembling
teeth, had been embroidered side by side on the coat pocket. She carefully
folded the suit and put it back in the chest.
Brant found by straightening the
cross on the door, that a compartment opened in the bed revealing a small
chunk of garlic. He wondered why anyone would want to hide garlic....but
not being partial to garlic, Brant shut the compartment.
We walked back to the kitchen and
found that Katy was just getting ready to leave. Even though Brant pleaded
and said he'd be good to his sister for a week, he wasn't allowed to stay.
Jennie also had to go as it was time for supper.
Later that night, I got into pajamas
and started to read the black book I had found earlier. The book was a
journal. It started out normally enough, telling the boring events of the
day. Then, I learned that the writer's name was Antony Daemon. This guy
was really strange, sleeping in the day and prowling the streets at night.
There was a note of some sort of transformation, but the words were blurry.
The writer went on in the most recent entry, to tell that a family was
moving into his house. This seemed
strange, because apparently the
family didn't know he lived there.
I looked at my clock to find it was
already quarter past twelve! I didn't realize how long I had been reading.
I shut off my light and soon dropped off to sleep, a deep, dreamless sleep,
from which I awoke with a start.
A loud crashing noise had awakened
me. I crept cautiously into the hallway and saw a shadow of a person, just
turning the corner. I followed that shadow, being careful not to make a
noise. It went into the room with the purple door.
Peeking into the room, I saw that
one of the windows was open. I thought the young boy had climbed out the
window, but I soon found out I was wrong. An icy hand touched my shoulder.
I turned around and fainted!
Some time later, I woke to find I
was back in my room.
All I could remember was a feeling
of pain in my neck. I got up and looked into my mirror, hoping I didn't
look as badly as I felt. Crying out, I put my hand to my neck, where two
small holes could be seen. I looked almost like a ghost from a horror movie!
My eyes were set in hollowed out spaces which accented the black-blue rings
around them, and the white highlights of my face. My veins had shown up
like the moon in the night sky, part of life - but ghastly.
Now I knew why the man Antony Daemon
walked at night! (after all, I had read vampire stories before) I grabbed
the black book, flipped it open to the last entry and stared at the date:
October 7, 1994. This entry was written only one week ago! I dialed Brant's
phone number and told him to come over quickly! I also phoned Jennie.
I grabbed the black book and hurried
to meet Brant and Jennie. I felt like I was dead; like a feather floating
by in a cool breeze. Fidgeting nervously, I told them to read the last
few entries in the black book.
I told Brant and Jennie what happened
during the night, but they didn't believe a word. When I showed them my
neck, Brant fell off his chair, and Jennie started to scream. (after all,
they had read vampire stories too!)
After we got Jennie to stop screaming,
we thought up a plan. All day we practiced our roles, and got equipment
ready. The last thing we needed was in the kitchen across the hall, and
since I was in the least danger ( I had already been bitten) I went to
get it.
As I bent down to open the cupboard
where the spices were kept, I blacked out. Minutes later, I came to and
found myself in a room that looked like a dungeon.
It was totally bare, except for the
chains around my wrists. This had to be the work of the being who bit me,
the vampire of this house! I wriggled around trying to work my way out
of them but the chains were very tight. I strained my neck trying to see
out the window. Almost sunset! Hearing a creak from the direction of the
door, I pretended to be asleep fearing that the blood-sucking beast might
have returned. Someone shook me. By carefully opening my eyes just a sliver,
I saw that Brant and Jennie were
there. A wave of relief swam over
me.
They covered my mouth and told me
to be quiet. Jennie whispered that there were three ways to kill a vampire:
1. Drive a stake through his heart. 2. Expose him to sunlight. 3. Expose
him to garlic.
Brant told us his plan and we agreed
that it would work.
We snuck into the purple room, closing
the curtains to give the appearance of nighttime. Brant stationed himself
behind the curtains, and Jennie hid behind the chest. I tore the sheets
off the bed, assuming that I would find a coffin. Sure enough, there
it was right where I expected it to be! I knocked three times on the lid
of the old, worn coffin, then quickly ran and hid behind the other curtain.
With a creak and a groan, the coffin lid slowly rose upward, releasing
the smell of centuries old dust.
We all rushed to throw open the curtains,
but to our horror, they were stuck.
Brant remembered the garlic and rushed
to straighten the cross on the door.
As the compartment slid open, I grabbed
the garlic and blindly threw it in the direction of the vampire, who by
then was chasing Jennie. By some miracle the garlic lodged itself in the
vampire's throat. As we watched, the vampire disintegrated and all that
remained was a handful of powdery white dust.
Not wanting our parents to know any
of this as they would never believe it, we decided it would be to our benefit
to keep everything a secret.
The next day was a bit of a blur,
as I was feeling tired from the events of the night before.
When mom said supper was ready, I
staggered to the table, slumping into my chair. The aroma of garlic was
quite strong and I couldn't help thinking to myself how lucky it was that
werewolves (like us) could eat anything.