Kathleen was standing alone in a small room, holding her silvery mask with her shacking hands. She stared at her face in a large gold-freamed decorative mirror. Signs of fear and sleeplessness marked her brown eyes. Quickly she slipped the mask back over her face and turned to the would have to go back to the ball -- even though womewhere in the crowd a so called vampire waited for her appearance.
Along the hallway, she passed by a man in a Roman Toga and a woman dressed as Cleopatra. Like her, they wore masks, but even without their masks, she could not have knowned them. She knew only the host of the party, an old acquaintance of her father.
She came to the top of the wide spiral staircase that led down to the front hallway of the mansion. From below, the sound of laughter and talking floated up to her. She put on a forced fake smile and step by step, she started to walk down the staircase.
Halfway down the steps, her attention was caught by a dark figure gliding through the crowd. His blackcape swirled as he moved through the brightly colored costumes. Her heart skipped a bit when she saw the said figure, and her knees weakened, making her almost fall down on the flight of stairs. It was the same man she had glimpsed earlier and run away from. She had only seen his black getup and his dark, shiny hair. But she knew who he was -- The vampire...
Kathleen forced herself to take another step down the stairs. Then the man turned around and looked up, stairing straight at her. In one terrible second, she saw the two fangs curving his red lips. She felt the strength in her legs ebb away. Then her mind went black...
~xXx~
WHEN Kathleen opened her eyes, the blackness had gone. She was hunched on the staircase and was looking at the masked face of a young handsome man with coffee-colored hair.
"Are you all right?" The young handsome man asked her with a hint of worriedness in his voice.
She traightened up and remembered where she was. Many of the masked faces in the hall below were turned towards her. But the dark figure with the horrible fangs was nowhere to be seen!
"Let me help you down the stairs" The young man said.
Kathleen turned to him and smiled. He was dressed in a red braided jacked and black pants. A full mask covered his face. "Thank you" she said. "I must have fainted..."
"Come with me." The you man said. "Perhaps you need something to eat. My name, by the way, is Robert."
"Im Kathleen" she answered, feeling as thought a shadow had been lifted from the evening.
She walked beside the young man through the crowd of curiousmasks staring at her. They made their way to the ballroom, where a large table was laden with food. She tried to eat a sandwich but found that her appetite had disappeared.
"I made a fool of myself on the staircase.." she said, turning to Robert. "You see, I thought I saw a vampire..." She paused and then continued saying, "For many nights now, I have had terrible dreams -- nightmares -- about a vampire..."
Robert stopped eating and stared at her intently. "What are your dreams like?" He asked.
She hesitated. She did not know how her strange story would sound to him. But he waited for her to begin.
"I always dream that a vampire dressed in black is coming to get me," she said. "No matter how I try to elude him, he is still always there.. and just as I see his fangs.., I scream.. and wake up."
As she finished her story, she noticed a change in Robert's eyes. They became harder and darker. Suddenly, she was embarrassed. Prehaps he thought she was crazy.
"Im sorry," she said.. "Im spoiling your evening.., could we dance..?"
He took her hand and led her to the dance floor. Soon she completely togot about the man in black and her nightmares.. Then, as another dance began, she saw a white hand reach up for Robert's shoulders and tap it. She and Robert turned to face the dark figure standing beside them.
"May I cut in and have this dance with the young lady you're with?"
Katleen shrank back in terror. It was the man in black -- the vampire -- standing only inches away from her. Her eyes were drawn to his mouth. Now she could see that the fangs were made of plastic, they were not real at all.. But she turned away quickly, gripped Robert's tightly in hers.
"Im sorry." Robert said to the other man firmly, "but she wants to stay with me."
Kathleen watched the black figure slip away like a cat through the crowd.
"That was him, the man I saw before.." she said to Robert as they began to dance again. "Did you see his fangs?"
"They were not real" he said. "You shouldnt be afraid of him."
"But I am afraid," she said. "My dreams are so real that Im afraid they might come true..."
"You are overexcited," Robert said. "It is Hallowneed night."
His voice sounded hard and cold, so cold that a chill ran down her spine. Perhaps he was becoming bored with her talk about the vampire. Suddenly she wanted to leave the ballroom and get a breath of fresh air.
"Please come with me to the patio," she said. "I cant stand it in here anymore..."
Robert led her from the dance floor to a set of French styled doors that opened onto the patio. They walked into the warm night air. She looked up at the full moon in the sky. It was still shining brightly, but the shadow of a cloud loomed near it.
"Now I feel safe.." she said, turning around to look back at the windows of the ballroom. Then she saw the silhouette against the window. It was the vampire, staring at her.
Kathleen checked back a scream and ran down a flight of steps into the garden, pulling Robert along with her when she ran down.
~xXx~
"Its hard to see" She gasped as they followed a path that twisted among the high bushes. " I have to take off my mask.. " She pulled her silvery mask away from her face and looked at Robert, expecting him to take off his mask as well. But he just started at her and then hurried down the path.
Suddenly the path ended at the edge of a lagoon. Kathleen found herself standing on a narrow wooden dock that had a rowboat tied to it. Robert gestured towards the boat.
"I'll take you for a ride in the moonlight," he said.
She stepped into the row boat. Then before he got in, Robert unbuttoned his red braid jacket and pulled it off. Kathleen noticed that he was now dressed in all black. He stepped into the boat, picked up the oars, and pulled the boat away from the dock.
Kathllen sat up straight on the boat and nervously looked back at the distand lights of the mansion. In front of her, Robert lifted the heavy oars in and out of the water.
"This is hard work," he said. "Would you hold the oars while I take off my wig?"
Kathleen grapsed the oars with both hands and watched with curiousity as Robert pulled off the brown wig, holding his mask carefully in place with his other hand. As he took the oars back, Kathleen noticed how the moonlight shimmered on his shiny back hair.
"Why dont you take off your mask?" She suggested to him. "It must be very uncomfortable."
He did not answer; he just kept rowing farther and farther away from the shore.
Kathleen looked up at the moon. It was still shining bright and full in the sky, but she could see the could drawing nearer to it. She turned back to look at Robert. His mask looked eerie in the moonlight against the darkness of his hair and get up.
"Please, take off your mask," she started to beg him.
"In a few more minutes," he answered her, "when we get to the middle of the lake.."
Kathleen realized that her heart had begun to pound. She looked wildly around the dark lagoon, searching for the shoreline.. Just then, the clouds passed over the moon. Now she could see only a shadowy figure in front of her..
Suddenly the sound of oars lapping in the water stopped. Kathleen heard them being dragged onto the boat. Then all was quiet...
Kathleen sat very still on the boat as the cold fingers of fear reached around her heart. In the pale light, she could see Robert's hand moving up to take off his mask. Then the moon broke out of the clouds, and a scream rose from deep within her throat.
The light of the moon shone down on the face of the vampire -- and glittered on his long white fangs
This is a story I share with you, my part ends here.. Let your imagination take over and just make your own part in this story.
Either you make it an escape or a helpless struggle, you decide.