Title - Night Side Of Eden
Chapter Title - Gone
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Supernatural
Disclaimer - I do not own The Little Vampire in anyway, shape or form. I entirely own the plot for this fic and my original characters.

C.4

That night, after Rudolph and Gregory had given the girls their presents, the Sackville-Bagg's left for home. Eve and El went up to their room to listen to El's new CD whilst Eve tried out her new brushes. Tony bounded up the stairs after them 20 minutes later with a large bag of crisps and a bottle of tucked in his arms. The three were trying to do an all nighter, telling each other scary stories and playing games, making most of the last week of the summer holidays before school started again. Eve of course, had finished her compulsory school education and was now contemplating college or work. She did wonder what Gregory would do, given that he too was too old for school and didn't have any Gcse's to get into a college with.
When it got to around 2:30 in the morning, the three were fighting hard to stay awake. That was until they were startled by a loud pounding on the front door. Eve opened the bedroom door to see a very tired looking Bob wondering down the hall with Dottie padding bare foot after him. Silently, Eve tip-toed after them, El followed her with Tony holding tightly onto her hand.
When they got to the bottom of the stairs, the three children waited and watched with baited breath as Bob swung the door open, ready to yell at the early morning unwanted guest. However his voice failed him when he saw Freda and Frederick looking both angry and traumatized at the same time.
"What's happened?" Were Bob's first words when he finally found his voice.
"Gregory...He's.." Freda stopped, glancing over Dottie's shoulder at Eve who was still on the last step. Eve ran over to the door, fear threatening to choke her.
"He's what?" She managed to squeak.
"Gone. We thought maybe he was here."
Eve couldn't hear what Dottie was saying. She stumbled backwards, to the stairs and sat down, a hand over her heart. She didn't know for sure that he was in danger but she couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was happening. El knelt down infront of her sister as Tony ran to his parents.
"Eve? Look at me, Eve."
Eve lifted her head to look at her sister.
"You don't even know anything bad's happened yet. He might have just gone out for a while, you know what he's like. Come on." El stood back up and held out a hand for her sister. Eve took it and let El pull her along and through into the living room where the adults and Tony were now sat.
"Anna and Rudolph are still asleep. We didn't want to worry them." Said Freda, nervously fiddling with the many rings that adorned her long, thin fingers.
"We woke when we heard a noise from Gregory's bedroom...some kind of loud bang." Explained Frederick. "We went in to see what he was up to but he wasn't there. His window was open and we thought maybe he'd snuck out to see Eve."
"Only..." Freda glanced at Eve. "His boots were still on the floor as were his clothes."
"He wouldn't have gone out in his pajamas." Mumbled Eve, struggling to comprehend what had happened.
"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but would anyone want to hurt Gregory?" Asked Bob.
Frederick smirked but there was no humor in it. "When we were vampires, Gregory spent his existence terrorizing people. Even before we were turned he was known as Gregory the Gruesome. Yes, there are probably people that would like to hurt Gregory but none of them would know where we live."
"Can I come back to your house?" Everyone turned to frown at Eve as she stood up.
"What for?" Asked Dottie.
"I need to see something." Eve went into the hall to grab a pair of her trainers and returned soon after. "Please."

The Sackville-Bagg's agreed and everybody returned to their house.
"Should we wake Anna and Rudolph?" Asked Tony. Freda sighed and nodded, leaving Tony and El to go and wake them up. Eve went straight upstairs and into Gregory's room. Eve knew she was probably kidding herself and that she'd watched far too many CSI shows but never-the-less she started to hunt around his room for something out of place. Eventually, she reached the open window and stuck her head out and looked down. The drainpipe by the window had mud tracks down the side where someones shoes had been, and at the very base of it, something was glinting in the darkness. Eve turned and ran back into the house and downstairs towards the back door. When she was outside she ran to the underneath of Gregory's window and knelt down in the mud, reaching forward to whatever was glinting. When she cleared the mud from it, she realized it was a pale purple glassy stone. The very same pale purple glassy stone she'd used in the slingshot this morning. She stuffed it into her pocket and started to use her hands to dig up the patch where it had been. No far below the surface was a piece of dirty paper. She unfolded it and started to read.

Dear Mr, and Mrs, Sackville-Bagg,
Your charming son is with me and you may have him back on one condition. You give me the Stone of Attamon. Not all of us wanted to be mortal, you know.
Bring it to the square at 12:00 am tomorrow, I'll bring Gregory. If you try anything I will kill him.
Your, sincerely
Bart.

Eve read the letter twice but still came up blank when she tried to think of any mention of someone called Bart. Feeling numb from the cold she ran back inside.

Meanwhile, El had silently made her way into Rudolph's bedroom and across to his bed. He was lay on his back, his arms spread out either side of him and his lips slightly parted. El smiled lightly at how peaceful he looked and hesitated in waking him. She didn't want to have to tell him that his brother was missing and in potential danger. Suddenly, Rudolph wrinkled his nose, reminding El of their first meeting in the fireplace when he tried to get rid of his bat nose. He turned his head slightly toward El and frowned.
"What's wrong?"
At first El thought he walking in his sleep but then his coal black eyes fluttered open, still misted with sleep. He repeated his question, more concern in his voice this time.
"It's Gregory. He's missing." The sleep disappeared from his eyes and he shot up and out of bed.
"Since when?" He asked.
"I'm not sure. Your mum and dad turned up at our house half an hour ago."
"How's Eve?"
"I don't know. She hasn't said much apart from that she needed to come here to see something." El moved over to Rudolph who hadn't moved since he stood from the bed. "Are you alright?"
Rudolph nodded. "We'll find him. He'll be fine." He stared into Eve's eyes for a long moment before seizing her arms and pulling her close. They stayed in their embrace for a while before they heard Eve run past the room. They went out into the hall just in time to see her vibrant red hair flying behind her as she ran down the stair.
"Brother, have you heard?"
The two turned to see Anna, still in her nighty beside Tony. Rudolph nodded and gestured for them all to go joined Freda, Frederick, Dottie and Bob in the kitchen where they stood watching anxiously from the backdoor to where Eve was knelt beneath Gregory's window, Eventually she came back. From her elbows to the tips of her fingers and from her knees, down her shins, she was covered in mud. However, clutched tightly in one hand was a dirty piece of paper. She handed it to Frederick who scanned it over quickly, a look of disgusted horror on his face.
"What is it, father?" Asked Rudolph.
"He's got him. Bart has go him."
"Bart? What on earth does he want with Gregory?" Freda now too looked positively terrified for her son.
"He wants to exchange him for the stone." Informed Eve, as she dropped down onto a chair. "Who is he?" El moved over to her sister, holding her hand despite the mud.
"He's our nephew, Gregory's cousin. He relished the life of the immortal. So much so that the rest of the family disowned him for being too monstrous. Of course not all of us stuck to cow blood but non of us were as...ruthless as Bartholomew. He went through whole families in a go and that still didn't satiate his thirst. He disappeared though, we haven't heard from him for 280 years." Fredrick grimaced.
"So if you give him the stone then he'll give us Gregory?" Asked Tony.
"If only it were that easy." Sighed Freda. "If we give him the stone he'll turn us all back and the search of 300 years would've been for nothing."
"You can't turn back." Panicked El, moving back to Rudolph's side and gripping his hand tightly.
"But if we don't the he'll kill Gregory." Freda broke down at her husbands words and started to shake with her sobs.
"There must be some other way." Gasped Bob.
"I don't care. I'd rather have Gregory back as a vampire than not at all." Growled Eve standing so fast she knocked her chair over. She left the room and the rest of the group could hear her footsteps go upstairs and into Gregory's bedroom.
Rudolph pulled El closer to him when she looked torn between helping the Sackville-Bagg's and going to her sister.
"Give her some time along. She'll be fine." He whispered and she nodded, thankful that he was here.

"There may be another way." Said Frederick as if nothing had happened. "But it'll be very dangerous."