Truth be told, I'd never really thought about Vampires. My mind wanders, sure but for some reason I never strayed to Vampires. I'd normally be thinking about guitar or school or something. And the closest I actually came to seeing Vampires was at Halloween when I had to answer the door and give out sweets to children. Nightmare! I'm not good with kids.
Anyway, I said I never really thought about Vampires, but then I read that whole series of Darren Shan books. I'm a quick reader, and seeing as I'd been given all twelve of them in one day, I made short work of them. After that, the whole idea of them consumed my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about whether or not they existed, whether or not any of it could actually be true. I knew it was hopeless to think about it, but when I tried thinking about something else my mind would be pulled back to Vampires.
Then, events started unravelling. Events I keep believing are some part of a larger dream that I'm about to wake up from. No-one will believe me of course, but I feel that I need to put this down in writing, to try and sort everything out and make sense of it all. If any of you can, don't hesitate to let me know.
This whole thing started on a Tuesday evening. Every Tuesday I have a Guitar lesson at a Music Store where I spend an hour trying to iron out some weaker points of my guitar playing with varied success. Normally my mum picks me up after the lesson, but when I got out she wasn't there. I didn't panic. I remembered one time my mum had been really late because she'd been busy with work, so I waited. I didn't have a watch, but my MP3 had one, so I was frequently checking it. Five past. Quarter past. Half past.
I growled. Where was she? I wasn't going to freeze my ass off in the cold to hear some sorry excuse about being held up! So I decided to go over to my dad's house. It's only about a fifteen minute walk from the shop, so soon I'd be in the warmth and could get my dad to take me back home. It sounded better than waiting, so I started walking. The night air was cold, but I didn't mind it so much when I was moving around. There were a few cars around here, but they were driving fast, wanting to get to wherever it was they wanted to be as quickly as possible. I passed several shops, but they were all pretty much shut or winding down.
I lived in a small city. It seemed more like a town, but hey, I wasn't the one who chose to make the place seem more important. When we went shopping we still said we were going into town - it seemed weird saying you were going into the city. I went into reminiscent mode at that and thought about all the great times I'd had here, but it passed and soon I was focused on getting to my dad's house.
And that's when something happened.
I was walking past a deserted alleyway when I thought I heard two people talking. Normally I wouldn't have paid them any attention and not bothered to investigate, but one of the voices sounded like it was my mum's. It would explain why she hadn't picked me up, but what was she doing in an alleyway? I slowly crept forward, until I could see two outlines of people. Neither of them looked like my mum, so I was about to leave, when... "Where d'you think YOU'RE going?" I turned round to see where the rusty voice had come from and saw the two outlines terrifyingly close. Their faces were still shrouded by the shadows, but I could see that they were both wearing trenchcoats. As I willed my brain to think of a suitable excuse, one of the faces cupped their hands to their face and then pressed their hands on my mouth. I gagged as I started to feel woozy, and then I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was still in the alleyway, but no-one was there. I tried to remember what I'd been doing lying down in an alleyway as events slowly formed in my mind. I'd seen two people - one of whom sounded like my mum - and one of them had knocked me out with their breath. I laughed at that. Someone knocking me out with their breath! I walked out of the alley and continued to make my way back to my dad's, still thinking about what had just happened. As far as I knew, only Vampires could knock out people and...
Vampires.
I froze on the spot. No way! Vampires were real?? I thought Darren Shan had just made them up! But they had shown one of their powers to me: knockout gas! My mind was whirring now. Was that it? Was that the last I'd seen of the Vampires? What if they started following me? What if they planned on sucking all of the blood out of my veins? I relaxed at that thought, then stiffened. Vampires don't kill when they feed, but Vampeneze do! Vampires and Vampaneze could breathe the knockout gas! An even worse thought crept into my mind...what if they were Vampaneze and had TARGETED me? I realised I had stopped and started walking quickly, not wasting any more time. I needed to get to my dad's house, where I'd be safe. It was an absurd notion, but otherwise I might have panicked and done something reckless and stupid. As I filled the distance between myself and my dad's house, my brain picked up speed. Vampires and Vampaneze existed...I could hardly believe it.
No. A voice echoed in my head. You've run into a group of people whose breath can knock people out. That's all! There is absolutely no proof that Vampires or Vampaneze exist! The books you've read that from are fiction! I was still hesitant, and thought about how it was too coincidental, but the small voice in my head put down that notion. Which is more likely? There are people in the world who can knock people out, or Vampires and Vampaneze are real? That calmed me down, though I was still uncertain, I was able to think far more clearly than before.
I finally reached my dad's house and pulled out a key, opening the door. I walked up the many stairs until I reached the top to where my dad lived. I opened the door to the landing and called out, but no-one was there. What was this, no parent day? I decided to call mum's house and see where she was. My little sister picked up the phone.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Hi, it's Alastair," I said monotonously. Her voice became bored as well. I didn't get on very well with my little sister, and I got the feeling she didn't get on very well with me either.
"Oh, hi."
"Is mum there?"
"Yeah, she got held up making a hat for one of her customers."
"Well, could you tell her to pick me up at dad's?"
"Yeah, sure, bye." She hung up. I put the phone down and walked around a bit in the hall, waiting to be taken home. There was a mirror there and every time I passed it I looked at myself before walking on. I'm not really vain - I don't care what my hair looks like or what clothes I wear - but if there's a mirror I'll look at it. Not a very strong argument but anyway. I was looking at myself for the umpteenth time when I thought I saw something strange on my face. I turned the light on and took a closer look. At first I only saw what I normally saw: turquoise eyes, tons of spots littering my face, signs of a beard and moustache. But then I yelped as I saw something else. Three small scars on my cheek. The sign that a Vampaneze has chosen you to have all your blood drained so that it can eat!
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