A Vampire Story, Don't you just love the title? ^

[x_fascination_x]

The night was fairly chill, a breeze every so often. But one can’t feel that chill when inside, or underground…oh, did I say that? Oh…er...nevermind. Anyway, my parents and sister had just left…well, let me rephrase that. My parents had just left for a 9:00 movie, and my sister was at a friend’s house. Did I forget someone? Oh yes, my brother was at Faith’n’Fun. Anyhow, everyone was gone. Typical huh? Everyone leaves the middle child alone at home. I didn’t mind particularly. That meant that I could do pretty much whatever I wanted. So, I did. Occupying myself with watching television, going on the computer, listening to music, doodling, and playing Nintendo 64. The latter was what I was doing at the moment, right when it happened.

I was on the level called ‘Click Clock Wood’. Now, I won’t say that level’s hard, and I won’t say it’s easy. All right, so it’s hard. For me. Anyhow, this game the level was on called, is Banjo Kazooie. I love that game, really I do. Anyhow, my dog Molly was down stairs, snoring slowly as she always does. We call her a gorilla. Now, I know it’s mean, but honestly now. She’s a big, old, fat, black dog, who smells really bad. What can I say, she’s a gorilla! Back to the story. I was sitting on our little rug in front of the downstairs couch, eyes glued to the screen, a quilt over my shoulders. (Our basement’s cold.) When it happened. I should keep saying that…never telling you exactly what ‘it’ is….that would be fun, wouldn’t it? No, that would be mean.

Anyways, the floor started to shake. It shook sort of like…you know in the dinosaur movies, when a tyrannosaurus rex is approaching slowly? The rumble…rumble…rumble…rumble… Well, that was how it was, like someone pounding on the floor repeatedly. This freaked me out, and caused me to instantly flip the quilt off my back, stand up, and rip the rug from over the floor. Smooth, bare concrete, nothing more. Until a crack spread slowly from a point in the rock, and kept growing. This unsettled me even more, and I took a few hurried steps away from where I’d been sitting moments before. As the crack grew, the pounding louder, I hefted my dog Molly into my arms, and ran upstairs. I didn’t think I had it in me, carry my dog running upstairs.

And there I waited. Well, actually I didn’t wait in my kitchen, that being right outside my basement door, but I waited in my living room, heart pounding, dogs barking madly. The hammering continued, growing louder, until I heard a new sound. This was the sound of rock hitting rock, these rocks sounding rather heavy at that. What on earth was going on?

Then, silence. Silence so bleak and unending, the dogs even ceased to bark. My heart pounded so hard I thought it was going to break out of my chest. Damn I was afraid. The quiet continued, until I finally plucked up the courage to see what had caused it. A giant worm? A giant mole? Who could know?

Moving to the door, which I had conveniently left open, I looked down the stairs. Nothing. Not any sort of movement at all. The light had gone out, shattered more, and another was flickering dully, but other than that, nothing. So, taking this into consideration and the fact that it was still quiet, I crept down the stairs. Stupid stairs…why do they have to creak so badly? I flinched every single time it creaked! Even though I hesitated on the stairs, I did not hesitate when seeing what, or who, it was.

Moving round to get a full look at the basement, my eyes automatically looked passed the man standing observing our still up Christmas lights, and to the mess all over the floor. There were great slabs of cement littered about, a few clumps of dirt and filth, all in all a great big mess. My parents wouldn’t be happy. The air felt different too. It was still cold, but seemed damper, like in a cave. Also, it smelt like wet dirt and worms. Then after seeing the mess in full, knowing there would be consequences even though it wasn’t my fault, my eyes turned to the random person standing in my basement. He was tall, well not overly tall, but tall. Dark hair, and he looked to be wearing something you wouldn’t see a teen from the past few years wearing. And he was covered in dirt.

“Err…” I began rather hesitantly. ‘Er’ isn’t a word, is it? Well, what can one expect? Especially if this ‘one’ just dug up a big hole in my basement!

His eyes instantly turned to me, his gaze shooting tiny little holes into my face. It was like I couldn’t wrench my gaze from him. No, not a good thing actually, it was frightening. A little smirk picked up on the edge of his lip, eyes turning back to the Christmas lights. But this time, he actually took one into his hand, examining it. “What do you call these?” he asked, not even turning to regard me.

I was a bit startled by his sudden rather random question, and it took a few moments to whip up an answer. He didn’t know what they were? “Er…Christmas lights,” I began. “Used…to, well, decorate your house around Christmas time.”

“Ah,” He stated, saying nothing more.

I was beginning to get rather uncomfortable. Who the heck was this guy, and why didn’t he know about Christmas lights? I mean, come on. You know what they are, right? Colored lights on strings used to decorate houses?

With a sigh, I turned my eyes back up to him, hoping he wouldn’t catch and hold my glance again. “Who are you?” I asked, a rather obvious question at the moment.

His eyes turned to me immediately, but I diverted my gaze. “Ethan,” He stated. A bit quiet, ‘eh? Then again, I’m no better around people I’ve never met. It was his turn to give out a sigh. “I take it you’re wondering why I’m here?” he asked, voice carrying a tone of indifference, his tone also emotionless

I nodded, saying nothing.

“It’s a long story, would you like to take a seat?” he asked, gesturing at our blue chair. Someone died in that chair...I don’t want to sit there! But, as common politeness goes, I went obediently to the chair. Why was I doing as this ‘Ethan’ person requested? Don’t know. But as I walked past the hole, stepping over clumps of dirt and cement along the way, I looked down. It was larger than I’d seen, and the opening was yawning and dark. It was unsettling, for it looked rather like a cavern.

Sitting myself down on the chair, my eyes wandered back to him. He didn’t even look at me, making his way to the couch and seating himself comfortably. The smirk had left his face. “Well, first let’s get things down. I am a vampire.” Very straightforward, he. I didn’t believe a word of it. His eyes turned to me, a ghost of a smile striking his features. His entire appearance was rather spidery, limbs long though he looked only a few years older than me.

Silence fell between us, me avoiding any glance he tossed my way. What am I saying? His eyes never left me! This unsettled me beyond anything else. Of course, there was also his face, the only bit of skin showing. It seemed to reflect each color of the Christmas lights. His hands were
gloved. “You don’t believe me, do you,” he finally stated, an amused expression coming to his face. “What sort of proof do you need? I came out from the ground, and I have been under your house for years and years.” His voice lowered a bit. “I thought that you more than anyone in your family would believe in such a creature like me.” He paused for about…twenty seconds at the most. “What about all the books you’ve read, mingled opinions on the vampiric race. Lestat and Bo, each vampire different. You believed in them.” His voice was a hiss now, eyes never leaving me.

He must be stretching the truth…how did he know all this? So, yeah, I’ve read vampire novels. I’m drawn to vampire books, I can’t help it. But I don’t believe they are real, that’s far fetched. So, I shook my head slowly. “I don’t believe in them,” I said quietly, eyes still turned away from him.

“Then why are you so hesitant to make eye contact with me?” he asked, that thin smile of his widening.

“I…don’t know,” I stated truthfully, eyes lingering the rug that I’d thrown aside.

We were both silent now, but he was no longer watching me. After several minutes, he broke this silence. “I’ve been listening to you and your family. And after listening to you for the entire time you’ve lived here, I must admit you people are far more interesting than the last. Of course, the last two died here, didn’t they.” He stated more than asked, looking at me once more. “In that chair. Am I correct?”

I only nodded. Yes, it was true. Before my family had moved into this house, an old man and woman had lived here. The man apparently was sleeping on the chair, and had died. The woman, though I don’t think on this chair, had died in this house as well. It’s sort of unsettled me, these things, but they’ve never been proven.

“Do you have any idea how they died?” he asked, eyes leaving me again.

“Well, I’ve always thought they died from a stroke, didn’t they?” I asked, a bit confused about his questions. Maybe he was a vampire after all…?

“I killed them of course,” he said easily. “Don’t think this is the first time I’ve come up from under ground. Those two I couldn’t stand. They hardly ever spoke, and their stench was so bad I couldn’t stand it!” his voice had risen a bit, anger evident in his eyes. But it wasn’t just the sudden outburst of anger that startled me a bit; it was that he’d killed the people in the house.

“Why did you kill them?” I asked, knowing that my ever-curious mind, and nosiness would somehow get me in trouble.

“My dear,” I didn’t like that. “No vampire can stay comatose underground without a drink at least once every few years.” He stated, that same grin on his face, dark eyes moving towards me again.

How long had it been since we’d moved here? Let’s see…I had been going into the third grade, and I’m going into tenth grade now… Seven years? That was a long time when one thought about it. A lot can happen in seven years. Wait. Oh, it was all making sense now. No vampire can stay comatose underground without a drink at least once every few years. Of course! This must be one of those ‘once every few years’! Now I get it. This is so not good.

He must have seen the realization in my eyes, as I thought it all through, for the grin widened. This time showing white teeth. Pointy white teeth. Now don’t get me wrong, he only had two pointy white teeth, but they were sharp! Time to go.

“Look, my parents will be home any minute, and I still have to feed the dogs, so I really should be going.” I said stupidly. Feed the dogs? What on earth was I thinking? And my parents certainly wouldn’t be home in a few minutes. But for now, that would do. So standing quite quickly, a bit too quickly actually, I walked just as quick towards the stairs.

“Oh, but we were having the most interesting conversation, Mae. Why leave so soon?” I turned, having nearly reached the landing to our stairs. So close…so…close. But I turned, knowing very well that the light above me was still shattered, and I was standing on glass. Barefoot.

He had stood, now even taller than he’d looked before. But I said nothing in return. I was far too afraid to say anything. His face still reflected each Christmas light color, body that of total relaxation. No. I wouldn’t stay. I would call the police, the theatre, the army, and the president, someone who could help me! Turning back around my heart literally jumped into my throat. Oh, he was good. Somehow he’d moved over half my basement, and appeared right in front of me --or in back of me, whichever way you see it-- before I turned around. Of course this startled me more than a bit, and I backed away. That same sneer was on his face. I hate that sneer.

My body was shaking, that much I was sure of, and somewhere in my mind I was scolding myself for doubting him. Doubting him completely, actually. So, maybe he was a vampire, and he was in my house…Shit.

His hand shot out to my neck, face now taking on a hungry appearance. All right, I was terrified. I couldn’t move, I was so afraid. And when I’m afraid, I freeze, and am not able to say or do anything. He drew me nearer to him, the other arm snaking its way to my back. Ooohh, I’d never thought this would happen to me…well, this is the end. Good bye everyone…it was a good story for what it’s worth.

Well, my parents would come home to see their dead daughter lying at the foot of the steps, only to be killed like I was by the vampire. What did the vampire care though? Another dead mortal family…because of him.

He held me so close to him now, that I could feel his…cold breath on my neck? Odd, I was expecting his breath to be warm like everyone else’s.

It was over before I’d even registered it had begun.

[x_fascination_x]

I was tired. Dead tired. (Heh, get it? Dead…) Except the thing is, I could open my eyes and see the ceiling above me, and the dull glow of the Christmas lights. I wasn’t dead! Three cheers! That lifted my spirits some, but when I felt that incredible thirst, and the dead weights that were my arms and legs, my spirit fell a couple hundred feet. Well, he’d drained me pretty darn good. Now the question was, had he stuck around, or had he left? No doubt he’d left, and speaking of which, had my parents come back? Oh man if they saw me in this state, with a male vampire in the basement. Fur would fly.

With a groan, I tried to sit, a headache that would make even a tyrannosaurus rex keel over in pain. I lay back down; eyes now open all the way to the ceiling. I had to look at the clock…had to turn…over. I tried, and managed to lie on my side. The clock read not five minutes since I’d been bit. Wow, that wasn’t too bad. Maybe if I could get up and walk upstairs, pour myself a cup of water…yeah, that sounded great right about now.

I managed to get into a sitting position, rub my eyes a bit, vision bleary. My mind pushed me to get up, but my legs wouldn’t move. Have you ever had that happen to you? When you urge yourself to move, but you just can’t? That was how it felt. And another feeling accompanied the last, and that was the feeling of being watched. I don’t like that feeling. Sometimes when I’m downstairs alone I get that feeling, and it seriously bothers me. It feels like there’s someone else with you, but you know there isn’t anyone else down stairs. But this time I knew there was someone with me.

God I felt like hell. This was like being sick from four hundred different sicknesses in one night. Well, so I’m exaggerating. All I wanted was a glass of water. Maybe I could ask him, but the question now was, what were the odds he’d do what I said? Why should he? I don’t want to be too optimistic about this situation, but a little optimism never hurt anyone, right?

“If it isn’t too much to ask, could you get me something to drink?” I asked, my voice sounding odd, even to myself. My eyes turned to him, now sitting where I had been sitting minutes before. Except he was a bit more laid back, literally. He almost looked to be sleeping, an almost peaceful expression on his voice. But at the sound of my voice, his body took on sudden movement, as if he was suddenly attacked by something. Then his eyes swiveled to me.

“Why should I do that?” he growled.

I just looked at him. I’d figured he’d disagree. I looked away. My eyes turned up to the television, it was still obediently paused, the controller sitting on top of the entertainment center. That wasn’t what I was bothered with. I wanted water, and I wanted it bad. I turned my eyes back to him, but he was gone. All right, this was odd. Where’d he gone? Heck, I hadn’t seen him move! I was a bit afraid now, and my eyes wouldn’t move from the chair. Weird to the tenth denominator.

Until he returned, as silently as he’d gone. Except this time he held a familiar plastic cup, a translucent blue one. It was filled with water. He offered this to me without a word, I taking it without a word. After draining the cup, feeling a lot better than before, I said, “Thank you,” except this ‘thank you’ was said quietly, for I’d been lowered down a notch when he’d actually gone to get the water. I hadn’t been expecting him to do that.

An uncomfortable pause. I wasn’t going to break this silence. I’d leave that up to him. My eyes stayed on the game, no sound coming from it. I’d muted it as the thuds had started, and it was muted still. What had I been expecting? It to blow up? Not likely.

“What is this,” he stated more than asked, gesturing at the television.

He didn’t know what a TV was? “Er… it’s a TV?” I said, a bit confused at the question.

“Yes I know what that is, what’s the game on the TV?” he asked, voice sounding more than a bit irritated, saying this all very quickly. It was odd how easily a change could come over him.

“It’s called Banjo Kazooie,” I stated in return, keeping my tone down a bit as though my parents were home.

He did not reply.

“You can…play if you want,” I said, now having my wits about me.

His eyes slid back to me, I holding his gaze. He was the first to look away. “Do you have, a, what do you call it…” he paused. “A two-player game?”

This caught me off guard a bit too. Were vampires supposed to be even a little social, and a bit kind too? “Er…yes, we do,” I said, getting out all the games we had that were two player. Making it a grand total of three. Such a great selection. He turned down the first two, which were shooting games, and chose the last one. A Star Wars game, where you could either work together to destroy the bad guys, or you could dog fight, race, and do all other assorted stuff.

Obediently I stuck the small disk into our Game Cube, and turned it on. After this, I plugged the two controllers in, each with an extension cord, and we waited for it to load.


The last--two hours was it? —we spent playing Star Wars. He lost nearly everytime. I didn’t push him to continue playing, he wanted to play. Whatever, it wasn’t every day that
someone wanted to play two players with me. I guess I was ‘too good for them’? That was what my brother and sister said, more or less. ‘You always win!’ Psshh. He never said this, but whenever he won he made it a point to let me know. Multiple times. And to add to that, we played ever game until he won one. A bit selfish, maybe? Whatever. At least someone was enjoying themselves. Not me.

Finally, as the clock was beginning to hit 11:00 p.m. my brain was so fuzzed I had to put a stop to it. “My parents will be home soon,” I stated, shifting my glance to him. We were still doing some sort of race thing, he repeatedly hitting the trees off to the side.

He merely shrugged. “They won’t mind a vampire staying in your basement will they?” he asked, as if we were merely discussing the weather.

“Yes, I think they would mind actually…and you’re staying here?” I asked, for even that I hadn’t known. I thought that he had just come up for a meal and a video game or something.

“Yes I will be staying here. I don’t plan on staying under the ground any longer. The fresh air even of your basement has reminded me of the open night skies. The moon above the stars on a clear night…” he paused, for he hadn’t even been looking at the screen.

I had stopped playing too. “So you’re staying here.” I stated.

“Yes.” He answered.

“How do I know you won’t pick a meal off of my sister or brother? Or my parents? Or even my dogs?” I demanded of him.

His eyes turned to me now, a worried expression in them. “I won’t,” he said. “Because you know what I am. And you also know where I am. I’m not a very much-liked vampire in this city, this state, or this country. If my name gets out, and others know I’m here, everyone’s dead. Not just me. They’d take your family, and your dogs, as meals.” His voice had lowered to a growl. “In other words, you tell no one, and I won’t hurt your family. And think of it, your family will be asleep, while I awake—“

I interrupted him. “And you’ll be asleep while my family’s awake.” I growled in return.

He paused, mid-thought. “I see your point. So, have we a deal?” he asked, holding out a hand for me to shake.

Now Mae, think about it. You’re making a deadly deal with a vampire, giving him your word you won’t tell anyone about him, or harm him in the daylight, in return for him not harming your family. A good thing? Probably not. Maybe I should think twice about it. Maybe I should use a little thing called ‘common sense’. But no. I took the vampire’s hand, and I shivered as I touched his hand. It was like a chunk of cold rock.

He hadn’t noticed me shiver, and had shaken my hand. But after this, he froze. He almost looked now like a hunting dog that’d caught a scent. I’d seen that plenty, considering we owned a hunting dog. He acted nearly exactly like her. Stiffening. Unmoving. “Your parents are home,” He stated, voice lowering.

“Crap, that’s no good,” I said, shooting a glance to the stairs as if I’d expected them to come tramping down the stairs like clowns or something. I was nervous, definitely. But I had an idea. “Ethan,” I began, finding it odd to use his name at first. It’s always odd using people’s names when you’re just learning about them. “Could you talk to my mom and dad about you staying?” I asked hesitantly. “You’d be able to get the point out better, and they’d listen to you, not immediately dismissing it as nothing.”

He thought about it for a few moments, and then said, “I suppose I could. I don’t see why not.”

With that, and without much further ado, he went towards the stairs. My heart must have stopped, but it couldn’t have because I was still breathing, and alive. Oooh I was nervous though. He went up the stairs slowly, apparently sure of what he was doing. If he got away with this, and without my parents thinking me an insane child and taking me to a shrink, I’d forgive him for biting me.

What am I saying? Do I want him to stay? Well, why not? I mean, he’s not going to hurt my family, or me for that matter, and he didn’t seem that bad. So maybe vampires just had a bad reputation. They’d been given a bad reputation by all the authors out there who give them bad reputations. Maybe he did have a bad reputation, and he just wasn’t telling me about it. Whatever.

Silently I lowered myself into the couch, eyes never moving from the stairs. I heard talking, dull and indistinguishable, and the mad barks of my dogs. Shouts, and no doubt my puppy was being put into her cage. Then, silence. Deep, undisturbed silence. No doubt they were talking up there, my brother probably sent off to bed. They wouldn’t want him talking to a vampire now would they? I mean, honestly now. Even the thought of having a vampire in the house would give me the shivers. Every night. I don’t think I’d be able to stand it. I mean, it wasn’t as though I was afraid of vampires, but…after tonight, I don’t think I’d be afraid of them. They seemed rational creatures, able to make deals, and think rationally.

The stairs creaked, someone no doubt coming down them. I froze. Who was it? I really, really hoped it wasn’t my mom. She could really go off the wall some times. It turned out it was my mother, followed closely by my father. Well, where was… “Where’s Ethan?” I asked.

“He left,” stated my mother, and seeing my look, she said quickly. “Not for good, until dawn. Now Mae, I don’t think this is a good idea…and what he said he did to you…” her bottom lip trembled dangerously, and I’d noticed her face was red. She’d been crying.

“Mom, I’ll be fine…after a drink of water, I was just fine, and—“ I began, but she cut me off.

“Mae, I don’t want you dead! I…Oh, a vampire in the house! I must be out of my mind! Maybe I should call an exterminator, or someone who can fill in that hole…” she said all this quite quickly.

“Mom, we’ll be fine. I made a deal with him, so now he can’t hurt us, and we can’t hurt him. We’ll be fine.” I added this last thing with much force.

Now the tears were falling freely, my dad who’d stayed silent took her by the shoulder and led her upstairs. Now I felt bad, and I was tired. I moved to turn the game off, then paused. What if he wanted to play it more? My hand hovered over the ‘off’ button. Well, maybe I wouldn’t turn it off. But I did unplug one controller, and wrap it up, putting the first controller on top of the entertainment center. So, when he came back and if he had time, he could brush up on his Star Wars gaming skills.

With that, feeling exhausted, I made my way back to the stairs. The same way I’d gone when we first met, and I paused before stepping on to the first step. A shiver ran down my spine.

I never wanted to be bitten again. Ever. That had been the most unpleasant experience of my life. I just wanted to go to bed…no better yet, take a shower. Or wash my neck. Something to get that cold touch off of me. Another shiver touched me as I came up the steps. My sister would find out tomorrow, and no doubt my brother would be curious. How to explain a vampire would be living in our house? And what about my friends?! Oh, the thought…

Making my way down the hall, diverting my gaze from my parents, I went in my room. It had a cold stale smell to it, and it would be nice to get under the covers. But first, retainer. I hate retainers.

Having changed and brushed my teeth, I turned out the lights in my room in the hopes of getting some, any, sleep.