Chapter 3
Kyla pulled herself away from the hand, which was rapidly becoming an arm, and then a whole torso popped out of the earth. It was a man. Kyla had seen his death on the news! He had been murdered last week, but here he was, crawling out of his grave. He stepped out of the ground, and dusted off his suit. He looked over at them. A cloud passed over the moon, hiding his face from the dim light, but when the cloud cleared, Kyla saw his face and screamed.
Yellow eyes gleamed in the darkness, and his forehead was crumpled. Fangs shone from his grinning mouth, but then he paused. He raised a hand and ran it over his brow, and he jumped with surprise. Obviously, he didn't know what he was.
Darryl stepped forward. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that if you frown all the time then your face will just stick like that?" he asked. Kyla would have laughed, but she was too frightened to make a sound. "This, Kyla, is a vampire."
"I'm a what?" the vamp asked, but then he seemed to remember. "Oh, yeah! That pretty girl took me to her house, and then her face went all weird and….I'm a vampire! Cool!" Darryl rolled his eyes and shot a bolt at him. It went right into his chest. The vamp looked down at the bolt and then he crumbled. Just like that! He turned to dust and was blown away by the wind. Kyla screamed again. Darryl rushed over to her.
"It's okay. I just wanted you to see what happens when you kill a vampire. Most of them will be smarter and stronger then that guy was, but tomorrow I will teach you how to fight them. Vampires have super strength, but if you become the Slayer, then you will, too. I'm going to teach you everything." Kyla looked up at him.
"I think I believe you now." Was all she could say?
The next day, Darryl came to her house again. It was answered by Kyla's mother.
"Mr. Frost!" she said. "This is a surprise."
"Yes, well, I need to speak with Kyla, if that's all right with you." Darryl said.
"Kyla's out. She went out with some friends. But I want to talk to you, anyway."
"Oh!" Darryl said, sounding surprised. Kyla's mom led him into the sitting room, and they sat to talk.
"This is the second time in two days that you've had a private chat with my daughter. I think I should know what's going on."
"Oh, yes, well, you would want to know, wouldn't you?" Darryl's mind whirled. He needed to do some very quick thinking. "I'm a tutor." He invented.
"Kyla doesn't need a tutor. She's a very good student. Straight A's, in fact."
"Yes, her school has a special program for the smarter kids in the school, and they get a tutor to, umm, sort of give them a quick rundown for what they'll be doing next year. It's sort of a bonus program, and it just gives them some more challenging things to do, because most of the children in this program feel that their normal classes are too easy."
"I don't have the spare money to pay you for this. Plus, I didn't enter her in this program."
Darryl, who had been comfortable with his previous explanation, stared at her. "Ummmm, well, you see…..It's all free! You don't have to pay. And the principal signed her up for this. He hand picks the students."
"Right. Well, that seems all right with me, Mr. Frost. I won't get in the way of the tutoring sessions. I want to have a good, smart little girl, and if this will help her get there, then I'm all for it."
Darryl left Kyla's house, and tried to find a way to track her down. If he was a fifteen year old girl, where would he go? He found that he couldn't really answer this question. He decided to check the mall, or maybe the movie theatre. After three hours, he was about to give up and go home, maybe he'd call her from his house. He could hardly believe that he couldn't find her in this small, uneventful town, but he gave up anyway. On his way home, he spotted her coming out of a convenience store with several friends, laden with chocolates and candies.
"Kyla." He hissed, coming up behind her. She spun around, and so did her friends.
"Kyla, is this, like, your dad?" said one of her friends.
"I'm her tutor." Darryl said. Kyla looked surprise, but he looked meaningfully at her and she nodded.
"Yeah, he teaches me stuff. What do you want, anyway?" she added to Darryl. He handed her a small note.
"This is a list of books you'll need to get from the library. They should help you with your-ah-studies."
When her friends looked the other way, Kyla quickly read the note.
Meet me at the following address at 5:00 pm.
Underneath that was his address. Kyla felt a thrill of excitement and fear. Today she would have her first training session, and tonight might be her chance to stake her first vampire.
