Chapter 1

"Welcome to Fright Night."

The candelabras exploded into life basking the grand, musky room in an ambient glow. The tall cast iron stands branched off in all directions, each branch cradling its own lump of yellow wax that had melted and curled to resemble the tortured expressions of screaming faces, their waxy tears dripping down the stems and onto the floor.

Cobwebs lined the ceiling and the dust particles that swarmed the room were made visible by the candlelight. It was the epitome of a vampire's den. It was a corner of the ancient five storey apartment building that was untouched by the renovators and retained its gothic splendour. No one would disturb them.

The flames flickered as if quaking in fear of the vampire's presence. The air shook like a storm cloud was rolling in.

"Are you thirsty Charley?" asked Regine seductively.

He was desperately thirsty. It was taking all his strength not to give in.

Charley's grip on the rifle he was holding tightened. He held it up in defence.

"Come kiss me."

He stepped forward.

"Charley, no." pleaded Alex. Charley paused, but the lure of Regine's beauty was too strong. Her hypnotic eyes drew him close to her.

Alex rushed to Charley's side.

"Charley, please listen to me." He pushed her off his shoulder and into the constrictive arms of Belle, one of Regine's vampiric entourage, an effeminate man with dark, flawless skin.

"Chaaarrleeey." The way Regine sung his name made his heart melt. It was like a siren call beckoning him to his doom. He succumbed and kissed her passionately.

Alex looked on in fear and disappointment. She had lost him. She silently prayed that he would be able to resist her. She knew in her heart he was strong enough to fight her.

Bozworth, another of Regine's devotees, a brute of a man, tall and wide like a mountain, his muscles rippling through his shirt, grabbed Peter by the coat. Bozworth kicked him in the gut and punched him across the face. Peter fell to the floor unconscious. Alex willed him to get up but he was unmoving.

"It's time." said Regine, taking the rifle from Charley's hands and removing the holy cloth from his shoulders, her hands sizzling.

She led Charley to where Alex was knelt on the floor, still held captive in a vice like grip. He knelt down to face her, his eyes wide and hungry.

"Charley, don't do this."

He didn't seem to be listening.

"Charley I love you."

In any other situation he would've said it back but all of his attention was focused on her supple neck.

"Did you hear me Charley Brewster, I said I loved you." he looked at her with a lust and hunger that made his eyes wild and ravenous.

"He can't hear you anymore. All he can hear is the sound of your blood pulsating and it's irresistible, isn't it Charley?" Every time Regine said his name it sent a shiver down his spine all the way to his groin.

His fangs were primed. His mouth was salivating. Alex smelled sweet, like peaches and vanilla. He could only imagine her blood tasted just as delicious. He sunk his teeth into her tense, firm neck. As he pierced her skin and the first drop of blood touched his tongue, an intense euphoria washed over him like a drug. It was unlike anything he had felt or tasted before. It was so all-consuming he forgot where he was or what he was doing. Reality twisted and bent out of shape. He had no cares or no worries, just a perfect serenity. It all melted away except for the taste of blood, warm and alive as it gushed down his throat like a waterfall.

Before long he had drained Alex dry. He lost grip of her and her dead weight slumped to the floor. Like a child eating for the first time he had gotten his food everywhere. His teeth were blood-stained and there was a mass of blood dripping down his chin.

"Now you have a taste for it perhaps you should kill Peter Vincent." suggested Regine alluringly.

Charley was still so thirsty; he looked upon Peter with a primitive need.

Charley crawled over to Peter's unconscious body. The vein in Peter's neck throbbed enticingly, his heart pounding hard, pumping delicious blood around his body.

Something felt amiss. His heart rate was too strong and too fast. Charley realised Peter wasn't unconscious.

Peter grabbed hold of the nearby curtain and yanked it open. The crumbling railing gave way and the curtain fell to the floor, flooding the room with the faint sunlight from a rising dawn.

Charley covered his face with his arms, the light burning him even through his clothes, and retreated to a shadowy corner. The other vampires had scattered including Regine, although Peter felt as though her eyes were still watching him.

He didn't know what to do next. He was safe for now in the basking sunlight but he couldn't stay there forever. He had to get out of the building before the vampires had a chance to regroup, or indeed before the sun went down again.

"Charley, please, you have to listen to me. You don't want to do this; you don't want to be a vampire. Think about everything we've been through together. We're vampire killers and I don't want to have to kill you."

"It's too late for me. I've tasted blood and I can smell yours." growled Charley.

"It's not too late, not if we kill the vampire that turned you, if we kill Regine."

"I can't, her hold is too strong. I won't let you!"

"You have to fight it."

"I've tried, I can't. She's too powerful."

Peter almost tripped over Alex's corpse.

He choked down the vomit that was churning in his gut.

"Look what's already happened to Alex. Look what they've done to her. Are you going to let them get away with it? Surely her death is enough incentive to want to drive a stake through their hearts."

Charley forced himself to look down at her body, to face the reality. Her lifeless eyes stared at him, judging him, condemning him.

"But I did that. I killed her. I deserve the stake through the heart. Oh my God, what have I done?"

"Calm down Charley. We can still make this right."

"How? Look at her. She's gone, there's nothing…unless…I will make this right. I'll undo what I've done. I can turn her."

"What? That's not what I meant."

"I can turn her into a vampire, like me. At least she'll be alive."

"But she'll change. She'd be something dangerous and unnatural. She wouldn't thank you for it."

"I need to at least try. I don't know what else to do."

"I don't think it will work. She's dead. She can't be turned once she's dead." said Peter, trying his best to convince Charley that this was a bad idea.

"Peter, please. Cover up the window so I can get to her."

Peter hesitated.

"The light is my only defence." Peter exclaimed.

"Then bring Alex to me where the light doesn't reach."

Against Peter's better judgement he took hold of Alex's still warm hands and dragged her body to the edge of the room.

Charley tried to feed her some of his blood and when that didn't work he tried to resuscitate her.

Peter hovered between the light and the shadow, a part of him hoping, against his conscience, that Alex would open her eyes.

Charley breathed into Alex's lungs one last time to no effect. As he pulled away he kissed her lips gently, saying goodbye.

"It's too late, she's gone. I'm sorry my boy." said Peter comfortingly, wanting to console Charley but wisely keeping his distance.

"You were right, I couldn't save her." Charley jumped up and grabbed Peter by the throat, forcing him against the wall. "I think I knew all along it wouldn't work. She's dead and that's that, but it got you away from the sunlight."

"Charley, please, don't do this." pleaded Peter, straining to speak, his trachea slowly being crushed. Charley hadn't yet realised his newfound strength.

"I tried to resist Regine but I couldn't and now I've tasted blood I need more."

"She doesn't love you. She wants to torture you."

"I know what she plans to do to me and it frightens the hell out of me, but that doesn't change the fact that I need more blood. I'm sorry Peter, forgive me."

Charley plunged his teeth into Peter's neck and sucked him dry in a matter of moments. Peter's screams faded into a gargle; the fear in his eyes now permanently transfixed on his inanimate face.

Charley wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve.

Peter's corpse slid down the wall and crumpled to the floor.

Charley expected to feel guilty for killing the two people he cared for most in the world but he didn't. All that seemed to matter to him was that his thirst had been satisfied.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Regine appeared before Charley, through the door into the next room which was shielded from the sunlight. "The satisfaction of fulfilling your thirst; the intoxication of their blood flowing through your veins. There's nothing like it."

Charley felt himself subconsciously walking towards her. He should be running for his life but her spell still held strong. She brushed her fingers through his hair, caressed his cheek, touched his lips; he was enthralled by her beauty; captivated by her sultry eyes. She licked a smear of Peter's blood off his chin and his body quivered with lust.

"But that euphoria will soon go away, the thirst will return and you'll realise how you brutally murdered your friends. The guilt will hit you like a speeding train, it will eat away at you from the inside out, and when that happens, I want a front row seat."

Belle and Bozworth appeared out of the shadows and grabbed him by the arms. Her spell broke and he could finally see the unadulterated hatred she had for him.

"Lock him in a coffin until I decide what to do with him."

"No!"

Charley awoke screaming.

Alex sat up, startled.

Beads of sweat streamed down his face. His breathing was heavy and laboured. He took in his surroundings and saw Alex was led next to him, alive and well, and realised it was just a nightmare.

"What's the matter? Are you alright?" asked Alex. Charley nodded his head. "Did you have the dream again?" He nodded again. He couldn't speak yet, he was still catching his breath. "Did it play out the same way?"

"Same as always. Regine turns me and I kill you and Peter, but before she has a chance to torture me for eternity I wake up. Watching the two of you die in my arms, by my hand, is torture enough. It's like she's still here, haunting me."

"It's only a nightmare. Regine has been dead for thirty years now. We won, not her. She can't hurt you."

"I know but it feels so real, even after I wake up, it doesn't feel like just a dream."

"You just need to relax." she said, massaging his shoulders. "You're going to make yourself ill if you keep surviving on just a few hours sleep a night."

"I know. Believe me, I don't want these nightmares. If there was a miracle cure to make them go away I would take it. Oh, right there, that knot in my back." Charley closed his eyes as Alex worked the heel of her hand into his shoulder blade.

"Well, perhaps I can take your mind off of it." Alex kissed his cheek and started nibbling his ear.

"You have my attention."

She whispered something in his ear and then pulled the duvet over their heads, giggling.

Their family home was quaint and cosy but spacious enough for a family of five. There was an antique fireplace in the living room, a homely kitchen/diner that was the heart of the home, four bedrooms with master en suite, a large back yard and to top it all a white picket fence. They were the epitome of the all-American family, living the American dream.

"I'm going to the cemetery." Charley called to Alex. "Where are the kids?"

"Pete is doing his homework and Chloe is listening to music, I think, if you can call that music."

"Well, I'm going to make a move. Are you alright holding down the fort?"

"I'll be fine. Give Peter a rose from me."

"Of course." Charley kissed Alex on the cheek and opened the front door.

"Dad, wait. Are you going to see Peter Vincent?" asked Pete.

"Yes, it's the anniversary of his death."

"Can I come?"

"Pete, why would you want to go to a gloomy old cemetery? Have you even finished your homework?" asked Alex.

"Pretty much." he lied.

"Your studying is important."

"Oh Mom, please, can I go? I want to hear more about the time he and dad spent together."

"I don't like this morbid obsession with vampires. And you don't help," said Alex, hitting Charley on the arm, "telling him stories about them and 'Peter Vincent the great vampire killer'."

"They're harmless, besides, at least this gets him out in the fresh air and away from his video games."

"Fine, but be back before it gets dark, and you go straight upstairs and finish your homework when you get home. Oh, and don't forget to pick up these supplies at the store." Alex handed Charley a short grocery list. "Judy's coming home from college next weekend and she's going to take some stuff with her when she goes back."

"Sure, love you."

The sombre cemetery was bright and peaceful, cast in an ambient glow from the afternoon sun streaming through the last remnants of the rain clouds. The surrounding trees scattered the beams over the gravestones and rainbows bounced off the puddles from the rain the night before.

Peter's grave was at the opposite end of the graveyard to the main gates which allowed Charley time to tell Pete a story of one of the infamous vampire killer's adventures.

"How did Peter find the vampires?" asked Pete.

"He used the mirror in a cigarette case and noticed that they didn't cast any reflection."

"Huh!" Peter had heard this story a hundred times but he loved the theatrics of playing along.

"So, Peter fetched his stakes and crosses and holy water and hunted the beasts down."

"Did he get them all?"

"Of course he did. He's Peter Vincent. No vampire can escape his cunning and bravery."

"Peter Vincent was the coolest. I wish I had met him."

"So do I, you two would have got on like a house on fire, but I'm glad he was around long enough to see you born before he died. His was positively beaming with pride when we told him we were naming you after him."

Charley wrapped his arm around his son's shoulders and let him pick a rose from the bunch to personally put on the grave.

"Mind the thorns." warned Charley.

A towering oak tree stood on a small grass hill at the back of the cemetery, keeping watch over the rows of graves that lay adjacent to it.

Charley and Pete walked through the shadow of the tree but when they had passed it the gloom remained, shrouding them in a half light. A chill came over Charley and a blanket of mist rolled in swirling around his feet like a smoke machine on a horror B-movie. He looked around to see where the mist was coming from but when he turned back, Pete was nowhere to be seen.

"Pete!" exclaimed Charley, trying to keep the panic in his voice to a minimum. "If you're hiding I'm not in the mood. Come out."

The graveyard was silent, eerily silent. He couldn't even hear Pete breathing or giggling from his hiding place.

"Pete! Where are you? I won't be happy with you if you're playing games with me right now." Charley searched around frantically but there was no sign of Pete.

He ran over to Peter Vincent's grave in case Pete was hiding behind the large stone cross.

Nothing.

"Pete!" Charley cried again.

At the end of the row of gravestones Charley saw him stood with his back hunched, his face turned away. Charley ran to his side and put his hand on his shoulder. Charley immediately stood back in horror. Pete's face was ashen and his eyes sunken into their sockets. He didn't look at Charley, he didn't even seem to be aware of his presence.

Charley shook him but then his hands passed straight through him. Pete began to fade away like a ghost. Charley reached out for his son but he couldn't get a grip. Pete continued to fade until eventually he vanished completely.

"Pete!" screamed Charley. He stepped back, distraught, unable to believe what he was seeing.

He stared down at Peter Vincent's grave on the verge of tears. Even through his tearful eyes and the mist that covered the ground the mistake was glaringly obvious. The date of Peter's death now read 1988, the year of their encounter with Regine. But in reality, Peter had died some fifteen years after that. He was alive for the birth of his son. He knew that.

His eyes fell on the stone cross immediately to the right, identical to Peter's. That hadn't been there before. It had always been a subtle square headstone with a pot of flowers in front of it. The air almost escaped his lungs when he saw the name engraved on it.

Alex Young

Beloved daughter and friend

Died 1988

It was the same as Peter's, as if they'd died that night Charley was almost turned into a vampire, just like in his nightmare. But Regine died that night, not them, he told himself, trying to convince his delusional mind that what he was seeing wasn't real. But it felt real, disturbingly so. He closed his eyes and rubbed the sides of his head, hoping he would snap out of this waking nightmare. On opening them again, the headstones were unchanged and there was something hanging from the oak tree in front of him; three bodies swinging from ropes, the bodies of his three children. Their faces were white but their lips and ears were blue. Their arms and legs dangled lifelessly. Their eyes were bulging and pale and bloodshot. The sight of his dead children shocked him to his very core, petrifying him to the spot. The scene was horrifying but somehow he couldn't look away.

Suddenly, without warning, the ground opened up beneath him. He fell straight through like a trap door on a stage.

Charley kept falling and falling down a never-ending tunnel of earth. The mud and dirt flicked in his face. He reached out with his hands, desperate to stop the descent but there was nothing to hold on to. He feared he might keep falling forever. Just as his fear turned into panic, his back hit the ground. He could feel the damp grass tickling his ears and the back of his head pounding. As his eyes came back into focus he could see the headstone of Peter Vincent looming over him, the date had returned to normal.

The darkness dispersed, the clouds parted and the sun shone through like a radiant beam of light from heaven.

"Dad! Are you ok?" asked Pete, holding out a hand to lift Charley off the ground. Charley took it and heaved himself to his feet.

"I'm fine." he lied.

"I tried to warn you about that muddy patch but you didn't hear me. The grass is slippery from the rain last night."

"Come on, we're going home."

"But you haven't laid the flowers on the grave."

Charley threw them next to the headstone, some of the petals coming loose and blowing away in the breeze. He grabbed Pete around the arm and headed for the front gates.

"Dad, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just don't feel very well."

"But you never miss an opportunity to reminisce about Peter Vincent, the great vampire killer."

"Pete! Just drop it! I'm not in the mood right now! We're going home!"

The journey in the car was silent all the way home. As Charley opened the front door Pete ran straight upstairs to his room, stomping his feet as he went.

"Pete, I'm sorry."

Pete's bedroom door slammed shut.

"What happened? Why's he so upset?" asked Alex.

"It's my fault, I yelled at him and I shouldn't have. He didn't deserve it, it was just me being cranky."

"Why, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Charley, you're the most laid back person I've ever met. For you to shout at our son for no reason means it's not 'nothing.'"

"I had another nightmare but this time I was awake, unless I lost consciousness for a moment when I fell."

"You fell?"

"I only slipped on the grass. I'm fine."

"You hit your head?" Alex examined the back of Charley's head, stroking her fingers through his hair.

Charley recoiled, her act of affection momentarily reminding him of Regine.

Alex was taken aback by his reaction.

"What's the matter? What did you see?" she asked. Charley hesitated. He didn't want to frighten Alex with his apocalyptic visions. "Please, you can tell me anything."

"You won't like it."

"I don't care."

He huffed, defeated. He couldn't argue with her.

"I saw…your grave next to Peter's, as if you died that night, like in my dream…and then Pete disappeared, I couldn't find him, but when I finally did he was vacant like a ghost and he started to fade away, I couldn't hold him. The next I saw of him it was his dead body hanging from the large oak tree along with Judy and Chloe." The image flashed before his eyes. A sickening feeling came over him. "Then the ground opened up beneath me and I fell into your graves but I kept falling. I finally woke up on the ground."

Alex put her hand to her mouth, her eyes going misty with tears.

"There's something seriously wrong with me Alex." He hugged his wife and buried his head in her shoulders.