Darren: what are you doing here Why have you captured me? What on Earth do you think you're doing?
Tutankhamunfreak: I'm sorry! I know, I know, I should be working on my other stories but this couldn't wait!
Darren: Then why am I here? What is the point of me being here?
Tutankhamunfreak: So I have someone to talk to. And so no one knows that I ramble on to myself. Now no one can call me crazy!
Darren: Well if you think I'm staying here…
Tutankhamunfreak: Have you not noticed that you're tied up?
Darren looks down and struggles for a bit then gives up. He sits and curses in foul words that should never be heard again.
Tutankhamunfreak: Don't swear. (To audience) I hope you enjoy this! This is not the actual fan fiction. I do not own Darren Shan sadly. Although…
Darren pales instantly.
Darren: Oh Lord please no! Gods of the vampires help me!
Tutankhamunfreak: Enjoy!
Alan knew that this was a mistake. He knew that they should never have tried it. They should have done anything but this. It was madness the world he was in now. Not that he would have known it earlier this morning. Earlier this morning he had not been clinging to a mountain and staring into the faces of hungry wolves. Earlier this morning he would not have been captured by bloodthirsty vampires. Earlier this morning all he had cared about was paying the next bill when he got home and telling Tommy all about his fellow scientist's idea of replicating the dinosaurs. No he would never have believed that this would have happened.
They had hiked up the hills, despite what the locals had told them about the place. The locals had a name for this place. T'ap'arrogh hogineri vayry. Place of wandering souls. Place of death. Place of the hungry wolves. They had just thought that it was a good story, how blood-drinkers would travel here every twelve years for some meeting up in the mountain. It was laughable. But it wasn't anymore. It was a nightmare.
They always made trips like these. Always on the eve of his death. They would talk to his spirit; let him know how they were doing. Alan was a scientist, looking into cloning. Tommy was a well-known goalkeeper. He would have been proud. He would have been a world class striker. He and Tommy would have made the local team unbeatable. But that fall had taken everything…
Now look at them. Here they were, trapped, because they had come across some wolves. Some wolves that had swiftly been followed by a load of bulky guys that smelled as if they had not showered in weeks. Now they were being dragged through a load of tunnels and told to keep quiet if they valued their lives.
"Who goes there?" someone shouted up ahead in the gloom. It was a man holding a long spear. He too was well muscled but not massively so. He too was covered in too many scars to count.
"Yebba and Bacchus. We caught some spies. We're here to take them to the Princes," the men who had caught them said. He shoved them into the light of the brazier that was lit by a wooden door. The man scrutinized them for a few agonizing moments before opening his arm wide. The two men behind them shoved them forward through the door. There was another long tunnel and then suddenly they were being shoved through a large hall filled with tables. Some of the tables had occupants. Alan noticed two women near the back of the hall. One was in her late fifties. One was in her thirties, around their age. Neither of them was looking at them with sympathy. They just glared harder than the rest as if to say 'how could you'. Alan wasn't even sure what they had done to do deserve this.
They were shoved through more tunnels once they left the hall. They came to a stop outside a pair of white doors. More guards stood here. They knocked on the door wordlessly when the two had told their story. The doors slowly swung open, revealing the room behind. It was a huge dome made of some white stone. Marble perhaps? But it had a strange quality to it that Alan couldn't explain. There were rows of benches that were empty ringed round a kind of dais. On the dais were four thrones. Two were filled. The first was by a man who had green hair and was wearing skins dyed purple. At least Alan hoped they were dyed purple. He looked as if his last shower had been in a rainfall and Alan could smell him from where he was standing. The person next to him had long black hair and black eyes. He was dressed entirely in black and his skin was so pale Alan would have believed anyone who had told him that this man had never seen the light of day.
The two vampires threw them to the ground and stood guard in case they tried anything. The black haired one glanced around him.
"What is taking that boy so long?" he fumed as if annoyed by this person's tardiness.
"I'm sure he won't be that much longer. The whole Mountain must have heard the news by now," the other said, sounding bored. He skin was oddly red as if he had spent too long in the sun but he was inside a mountain so how that was possible was beyond Alan.
"Your point is? He has no excuse for being late. He just knows that we can't do a thing about it even if he is late," the first one hissed. Alan felt sorry for the poor child. The second one rolled his eyes as if to say 'what am I going to do with you?' Somehow Alan found the courage to speak.
"W-Why are you doing this?" he asked. He had a feeling that they would die anyway so he might as well be condemned for it now. The green haired man gave him an odd look.
"What do you mean? We haven't done anything to you yet." Alan didn't like the way the man said 'yet'. It was another sign that they would surely die.
"Why kidnap us and bring us here? We weren't doing you any harm," Tommy said keeping his eyes fixed to the floor. The green haired man raised an eyebrow.
"We haven't technically kidnapped you either. You can walk out of her anytime you like but first we need to know what you know of this place. For the moment we're waiting for our last Prince to bless us with his presence," he said.
"So as soon as we're done we can leave?" Alan asked hopefully. He never got an answer to that question. Just at that moment the doors to the hall opened and, even though he had to twist his entire body round to see, Alan saw a boy enter. He wasn't really a boy. More a teenager of seventeen but considering there was only a load of middle aged men here he was a boy. He had dark hair and dark eyes. They were not black like the man's eyes, far from it in fact. They were a light hazel brown but they showed scenes of death and horror that even Alan had never seen. They were that kind of dark. His skin was pale as well but not anywhere near as pale as the man on the dais. He was wearing a leather jacket over a black t shirt sporting a heavy metal band. He had black jeans on and a pair of combat boots. Something silver glittered from his wrists but Alan couldn't make out what they were as the boy lowered his hands from pushing the door open. Alan couldn't shake the feeling that there was something familiar about him.
"Ah, Darren, so nice of you to grace us with your presence," the black haired man said sarcastically.
"I am sorry Mika. I had… other business to attend to," the boy said evenly. Odd that he shared a name with their deceased friend. Alan could tell that if you placed the two next to each other this would be how Darren would have looked at this age, minus the scars. They ran across his face, marring the perfect skin with their horrific violence. Alan could tell that there more across the rest of the boy's body. He could make out burn wounds on the boys neck and there was a triangular scar just under the boy's left eyebrow. The boy didn't even acknowledge their existence and simply stalked past them and flopped into the spare throne next to the dirty but friendly one.
"Now to business," the dark one named Mika said as if they had been waiting for eternity to start. "You were found skulking round the walls of Vampire Mountain. Do you deny this?" Tommy glared at the man so Alan answered for him.
"No but we didn't mean any harm."
"So what were you doing then? You know if you don't work for our blood cousins," the green haired man said. Alan stared at him blankly.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," he said.
"We were just climbing the mountain. We didn't actually know that anyone lived in it until we were dragged off here!" Tommy argued. He had stopped glaring at the dark one to fix his gaze on the other man.
"Is this true?" the boy asked but his gaze was fixed on the two men that had brought them here. "Did you not question them as to their intent?" the two men shifted uncomfortably.
"Well… err… no," the one known as Yebba said. The boy raised an eyebrow.
"Well there is your answer Mika as to why they were on the mountain in the first place! They clearly didn't know we were here and decided to go mountaineering," the boy said. Both Mika and the other man stared at him confused. The boy smacked a hand to his head. "It means that they went climbing up the mountain! That's what some humans do for fun!" Alan would have laughed at the expressions on their faces if he hadn't been so terrified.
"Well what do we do with them now? We can't have them wandering off telling everyone about this place," Mika said.
"We're still here you know," Tommy said, irate that they spoke as if they weren't. The vampires ignored them.
"We could always stick 'em with… what're they called…" the green haired man said, clicking his fingers as he thought of the word he was looking for.
"The vampirates," the boy said tiredly as if he was bored of the conversation already. Alan wouldn't have blamed him. He was a teenager in a world of adults.
"That's it. The vampirates. They can go train with the ladies," he said with a wink towards the boy. The boy just rolled his eyes and looked the other way.
"Fine. State your names and your free to go the leaders of the vampirates," Mika said turning to them.
"So you're saying we can't leave?" Alan asked.
"You can leave when you've trained enough," the green haired man said.
"Ok," Alan said slowly. He looked at Tommy who just shrugged. "My name's Alan Morris and this is Tommy Jones." Alan hadn't thought that their names would have much effect on the vampire world but it seemed that that wasn't the case. As soon as he said his name the boy started so violently it looked as if he had jumped at something. The look on his face was as if someone had thwacked his across the face and walked away without a reason. Everyone in the hall stared at him.
"Is there something wrong Darren?" Mika asked. He seemed concerned for the boy. The boy didn't answer for a moment.
"I'm fine," he said eventually but his voice said anything but. He sounded shocked and his eyes darted around the room as if he was suddenly uncomfortable being there.
"Well if you're sure then you can show them to the ladies," the green haired man said playfully but Alan had a feeling that there was a reason that he had done that but he wasn't sure what. Perhaps he simply wanted to be alone to discuss something with the man named Mika. Perhaps he was teasing the boy named Darren. Perhaps it was nothing. Alan wasn't sure.
The two from before stepped back as the boy descended from the thrones. He didn't even make a move to hold them. He just walked past and carried on walking. It was as if he expected them to follow him.
"Should we?" Tommy asked. Alan shrugged.
"Might as well. I want to know what made his jump. It was like he knew who we were," Alan whispered back to him. Tommy nodded and they followed the boy out of the hall.
Tutankhamunfreak: So what do you think?
Darren: Why am I so jumpy? It's like I'm not even me.
Tutankhamunfreak: that shall be explained in the story! You know that! We just had a discussion on it!
Darren: No we didn't. All we had was you goin on about how great the saga is. I know how great it is but it's not so great to live it.
Tutankhamunfreak: Oh well. Your loss. Please review! They are very much appreciated.