Vampire Madhouse
Chapter 1:Home coming
Aboard American Airlines Flight # 676 to London, England:
A young blonde sits staring out the window at the English capitol, as her flight descends, anticipating and dreading the new life she's about to begin. She hated change. Little did she know her life was about to make an even bigger change than she realized. A change that would pit her against her own humanity and force her to fight for her very soul.
I hate flying. I griped my bag closer to my chest, till my fingers formed a vice around it. Ugh, I'm such a spazz! I couldn't help but feel jumpy; who doesn't think about dying when you're flying these days? I stared out my window at the hundreds of buildings and houses below us. My eyes were drawn to Big Ben, England, home sweet home, right? Wrong!
I was born and raised in the Bronx. I'm what you would call a true-blooded American. My mother recently passed away, and now I'm here on a flight to London, to live with my dad. The dad I haven't seen or heard from in ten years! After the divorce it was like the guy fell off the planet or something. Hey maybe he landed in the twilight zone! That's sure where it feels like I am.
The intercom of the plane came on, and the pilot's monotone voice echoed through the cabin. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have nearly reached the end of our voyage to London. We will be landing within five to eight minutes, so fasten your seatbelts, and fold your meal trays in the upright position. I hope you've enjoyed your flight, and thank you for flying with American Airlines." I rolled my eyes. What's he got to be so damn cheerful about?
The plane landed, without a hitch, thank God. I leaped up from my seat and ran out of the second class cabin, jumping over luggage and little kids as I went.
After retrieving my bags, there was a rolling one and a red duffel bag, I descended down the escalator, where my social worker was waiting to take me to my dad's place. She was a medium sized woman with graying blond hair and eyes the color of mud. She was dressed in navy power suit and black pumps. Someone must've gotten dressed in the dark this morning. I walked up to her, taking my dear sweet time of course, I wasn't in a hurry.
She introduced herself, "I'm Mrs. O'Conner, your social worker." I, trying to be polite, shook her hand, "Dawn Night, nice to meet ya." She gave a small laugh, like the twinkling of a very annoying little bell. I wanted to strangle her. She then led me to her black Lincoln in the parking lot. I guess it was a Lincoln, it looked like a Hurst to me. She had the driver put my luggage in the trunk. Then I slid into the back seat, and looked out the window, as we rode towards my Dad's house. My stomach was in knots.
After what felt like a lifetime, we pulled up in front of a really big house. I got out and stared up at the ominous building in front of me. It towered above us, reaching up into the gray English sky. It looked like a reject from "Scooby Doo"! I looked around us, and found that, get this, we were right next door to a graveyard. Oh happy days! Mrs. O'Conner knocked on the front door. Within minutes, A tall, dark haired woman with golden eyes answered. "Can I help you?" she asked, with no emotion what so ever. "Hello, Mrs. Helsing. I'm Mrs. O' Conner, we spoke over the phone." The woman nodded. She turned away, into her house and called for my dad.
Before I even had time to breathe, a brick wall crashed into me, knocking out what air I did have in there. I looked up at this brick wall, embracing me. It had my father's face. It was my father. He held me tightly, crushing me against him, his arms around my neck, and his face buried in my curly hair. "Dawn, my little Dawn, it's been so long." He sounded like he was about to cry. He released me, but kept his hands on my shoulders and stared, looking me up and down. I noticed that he now wore an eye patch, wonder how that happened? How dangerous can being an exterminator be? His dark hair was turning gray and he was growing a beard, and creases were appearing on his once handsome face. In a word, he looked haggard, like he'd been through hell and back. I managed to force a greeting from my mouth, "H-hi…Dad." A nearly invisible smile came across his face, "Look at you, all grown up." That smile disappeared, "you…you look just like Diane" I couldn't bare to look at him anymore, so I averted my eyes to my sneakers.
Dad then went and thanked Mrs. O'Conner for going through the trouble of bringing me over here. Mrs. O'Conner left shortly after that, leaving me here to rot. Dad told his new wife, Maria, to take my bags inside and show me to my room. "Dusk is fast approaching, I have work that needs to be done before nightfall." With that he turned his back on me, I figured old habits die-hard.
Maria and I walked through the door, the interior of the house was decorated in an old Victorian style. Creepy. She led up the stairs to the top floor, my new room was in what looked like a tower near the back of the house. The minute I stepped into the room, she dropped the bags on the dusty floor and left, slamming the door on her way out. There are a lot of nasty names I could use to describe my new step mom. Bitch was the only one that fully described her, in my opinion. Oh well, I'd tried to be nice.
I looked around the room. It was larger than I'd thought it was. It had obviously not been used in a long time, dust caked the floor, there were cobwebs everywhere you looked and it smelled of must. At least it had a veranda. That's a plus.
I took off my jacket, and pulled my hair up, a little elbow grease and this place should be a decent place to live. I grabbed a broom from a downstairs closet, and began my tedious work. After about four hours, it looked decent enough to sleep in. I was too hungry to start unpacking. I washed up and headed down the hundreds of stairs to the ground floor. I entered the dining room to find no one but a little, curly, black haired girl sitting at the table, eating a dinner of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and green peas. I cleared my throat, to get her attention. She looked up at me with big yellow eyes like Maria's. "Hello there." She said in a cheerful tone. I managed a weak, "hi." Her smile broadened, "You must be Dawn. Mama and Papa told me you were coming to live with us. I'm Anna." She hopped out of her chair and landed perfectly on her feet. She gave me a flawless curtsey. Now that she was standing I could see that she wore a pink frilly dress, with lace around the bottom of the skirt, the sleeves and around her neck. She wore a big bow in her raven curls, and she had freckles about her nose. She reminded me of a porcelain doll. I smiled at her, "Its nice to meet you Anna. I really had no idea I even had a sister. I've always wanted one though. How old are you, Annie?" "I'm five years old," she replied, illustrating the number with her fingers.
I quickly ate some dinner and talked with Anna for a while. She was a very nice kid. Smart too! She had to be the most sophisticated five-year-old I'd ever met! She had to go to bed around 9:00 so I headed upstairs as well. I spread my sleeping bag over the mattress, grabbed my copy of "Blood Brothers" and snuggled into the covers.