Chapter Four

Michael rubbed his eyes groggily. It wasn't comfortable to sleep on a chair. He frowned. There was something that was just… not right about the room. And then, as he woke up more, he noticed it.

Sam was gone. And so was the doctor.

Michael stood up and looked around the room, looking for any sign of either of them. He didn't know what possesed him to do so, but he opened the door of the closet. There was the doctor. But the doctor wasn't standing in the closet looking for something. The doctor was propped against the wall, her pallor giving a good clue as to why she couldn't stand herself. She was dead.

The closet door creaked as Michael slowly closed it. He sank onto the bed. Where was Sam? Was he alright? Somehow, he didn't think so…

…

Edgar and Alan were sitting outside the house, on the look out. What for? They had no idea, but possibly it was something. Or they were just trying to seem cool.

But they were very surprised to see Sam walking towards them, a blank expression on his face.

"Feeling better now, huh?" Edgar asked. Sam didn't say anything. He walked – a slow, mindless, undead walk – right past them, towards the cabin. Edgar grabbed him.

"Sam?"

Sam turned slowly and Edgar drew back in fright. His eyes… there was something wrong with his eyes. They were all white, with no pupil or iris. That wasn't natural. Edgar never paid attention in school – he didn't always go – but he knew that all white eyes were not natural. And then he wasn't seeing Sam's face, but the face of a girl – he thought it was a girl – glaring at him, soaking wet hair barely pushed away from her rotted, dead face. But then the vision was gone and he was lying on the floor, unable to move.

"Hey! What did you do to my brother, you undead creep!" Alan yelled. "Wait, you're not a vampire…"

Sam looked at Alan with those eyes and Edgar saw his little brother go still, immobilized by his fear. Sam – okay, Edgar was pretty sure it wasn't Sam by now – lifted Alan easily by his throat. His brother squirmed in the powerful grasp, but whatever was inabiting Sam's body was too strong. He was thrown aside. Edgar wanted desperately to be able to run to his brother, but he couldn't move a muscle and couldn't speak. Not Sam walked into the cabin, closing the door behind him.

…

Michael raced out of the hospital, determined to find his brother. Nobody there knew where he was, although one of the nurses had claimed to have seen him walking out of the door, heading in the direction of the cabin. So that was where Michael was going right now.

The sight he saw when he got there was not what he expected.

Not that he was really sure what he expected but, well, this wasn't it at all.

Edgar and Alan were lying on the ground, a few cuts and scrapes but other than that no injuries. Michael knelt down, afriad he would find that they were dead…

He breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that they weren't after checking their pulses. In fact, they didn't even seem to be unconcious. But what was certainly worthy of note was the look of fear on each of their faces. They looked like they'd seen a ghost. Michael grimaced when he thought that maybe they had. He got up, entering the cabin as quietly as he could. He saw Sam right away. He was kind of impossible to miss, what with all the bright clothing. But what he was doing was, to say the least, pretty strange.

He was yanking up the floorboards.

Michael didn't know why his brother was doing that and he didn't know if he should stop him, but it didn't matter. Sam was standing up, turning his head, slowly. Michael felt an inexplicable sense of dread come over him, but tried to ignore it as his brother looked at him. But he couldn't ignore that sinking feeling, that horrible feeling in his gut…

"Get away from here," Sam said.

"What? But Sammy…"

"I said get away!" Sam glared at him, and Michael was sure he was about to do something. Something bad. But, maybe a little too conveniently, Edgar and Alan ran in.

"Get away from him," Alan grunted.

"Or we'll stake you," Edgar said.

"You can't stake my brother!" Michael shouted.

"He's not your brother right now," Edgar said.

"Or a vampire," Alan pointed out.

"Or in the damn room!" Michael shouted. Edgar and Alan looked at the spot where Sam had been standing just a minute ago. Michael was right. Sam Emerson was not there.

…

Later, Michael was pacing the room, seeming – and being – incredibly stressed. Edgar and Alan were sitting on the sofa, not being exactly annoying, but certainly not doing anything to improve his mood.

"What the hell could have happened?" He wondered aloud. Edgar and Alan didn't say anything. Of course they didn't say anything, they never said anything! And they had nothing to say… Because of course, not one of them knew what was up with Sam. Or was it Sam? Okay, they were all pretty sure they knew the answer to that one. No, no it wasn't.

"I think what we're looking at here is a pretty standard case of demonic posseion of some sort. We just don't know what sort…" Edgar said. Alan nodded.

"Thanks, guys. That's real helpful," Michael said, his voice oozing sarcasm.

"Wanna go find some vampires?" Edgar asked.

Michael shook his head. "I'm going to bed," He said. "I'm tired,"

"Suit yourself," Edgar replied.

…

Michael wasn't really going to sleep. He was going to find Sam. He didn't want to tell Edgar or Alan, because they might try to go after him. So he pretended to be going to sleep, but he climbed out of the window. He didn't really know where Sam could be, but he knew his younger brother hadn't just dissapeared into thin air. He had to be somewhere!

"Michael!" Michael turned at the sound of Star's voice. "What's going on?"

"It's Sam. He fell in the lake, and he- he got sick…" Michael proceeded to tell Star the whole story of what had happened to Sam.

"So… now he's gone missing?" Star asked.

"That's right," Michael said.

"I'll help you look for him!" Star said.

"No, you won't," Michael said. But Star was having none of it. She followed him. Michael really didn't want her to go, for her own good, but he knew that he could do nothing to persuade her otherwise.

Yes, I did lie. I said I wouldn't update until the Closet Monster was updated, but what the hell. I don't think PunkVampy is the only one reading this.