Robin will no longer be fainting everytime he sees a vampire. Yay! Instead, other problems arise because soon we're going to have to say goodbye to an old favourite from series 1+2. :(

When Robin awoke, his first thought was, what happened?

His second thought was, that's right, Esta came round yesterday.

His third was, Oh that's right. The Counts aren't humans. They're vampires and their real surname is Dracula.

Vlad was a vampire.

Vlad was a vampire…

Robin sat up suddenly. His staring eyes found the poster on the wall. The Counts were vampires. They weren't the Counts, they were the Draculas. What the heck was going on?

Robin clutched at his head and groaned. He felt like there were church bells ringing inside his head. The room span. Esta had been right; there had been vampires in Stokely.

So why can't I remember them?

Robin pulled the covers off himself and scrambled across the room. He didn't remember getting into bed, but he didn't let that bother him. He was reaching for his old sketchbook. He hadn't touched it since Vlad had left. It had pained him too much. But now, he gathered up the scruffy pages and poured over them.

There were the usual gory drawings conjured from Robin's mind, but every now and again, Robin would see something that wasn't from his imagination: the crest sketched roughly in the background of a feasting vampire, the oncoming vampiress who looked suspiciously like the Ingrid that Robin remembered, the tattered growling wolf howling in the foreground before a gothic castle reminded Robin of the stuffed wolf Vlad had kept in his bedroom, the alchemist at work looked a bit like Renfield…

Robin waited for the memories to come flooding back, memories of Vlad and Ingrid and the Count, as Robin now felt like calling Vlad's father, Renfield and Zoltan, memories of their adventures and slayers…

Nothing came.

Robin was just standing in the middle of his room, holding fragments of his past, just as lost as he had been a year ago when Vlad first disappeared.

Esta was sitting at their usual desk at the back of the classroom when Robin first entered. She smiled at him as he passed her, but he didn't respond. He was holding a sketchbook which he dropped in front of her instead. Surprised, Esta commented, 'this is nice.'

No response.

Esta sighed and opened the sketchbook. Gothic pictures of black and grey were on every page she turned to. Some slightly morbid, but no-one could deny that Robin had talent when it came to drawing. 'They're nice.'

No response still.

Esta sighed again, more heavily this time. 'Robin,' she said, 'you're going to have to tell me what this is about. I'm not a mind reader, you know.'

'Do you have a coloured pen?'

Esta was taken aback by Robin's sudden question. 'I'm sorry?'

'Do you have a coloured pen?' Robin repeated, 'or pencil? Anything that will stand out against black.' He gestured to the sketchbook.

Still not fully understanding, Esta reached into her bag and pulled out her pencil case. Her hand emerged with a red pen that Robin snatched off her and began to write in the book.

'Robin! What are you doing? Those pictures are… great. You don't want to ruin them.'

'If it helps…' was all Robin said. He had taken the sketchbook off her now when she had tried to protect it and seemed to be scribbling all over his own work. Esta shook her head. She didn't understand this boy sometimes.

'There.' Robin flung the book back in front of her. Esta read.

Robin had been labelling his drawings. Out of the dark covered pages words like "the Count", "Ingrid" and "Dracula" caught her eye. Esta turned to Robin, demanding some sort of explanation. She didn't fully understand still.

'You were right,' Robin said in a hoarse whisper, 'Ingrid is a vampire. They all were vampires. That's why Vlad was such a good friend. He wasn't…' Robin trailed away.

Esta remembered that she needed to breathe. She took a deep breath and gaped at Robin. 'Seriously!' she squeaked.

Robin nodded seriously and opened his mouth to say more.

'Robin Branaugh! I've called your name four times now, are you here or not?' the teacher called from the front.

'Yeah, I'm here,' Robin muttered as the rest of the class began to titter.

'Then stop talking to Miss Lyte and pay attention!'

Esta and Robin shared a small smile as the rest of the class turned their attention back to the teacher. The meaning of it was very simply, let's talk later.

'So you've remembered that you knew vampires, and that's it?' Esta said, trying to hide the disappointment from her voice as she and Robin discussed the Draculas in the school playground.

'I know,' Robin scowled. 'It'll come back. Hopefully. I want to remember. It just…'

Esta put her head back in thought. 'Maybe we should visit the castle,' she suggested, 'maybe that will restart some memories?'

'That's a stupid idea,' Robin scoffed, 'you don't know what could be up there.'

'I don't hear any better suggestions,' Esta snapped.

'I might have some more stuff in my bedroom,' Robin said casually, 'an old gift from Vlad. I don't know. How do you go about trying to bring back memories?'

'That's what I've spent most of this year trying,' Esta murmured, 'as soon as I realised that you were forgetting everything to do with vampires when you saw proof of them, I tried finding out more. When I hit a dead end, I decided that the best thing to do is subtle hints. Most of which you totally ignored by the way.'

'You're welcome,' Robin muttered. They stared out at the playground for a while. Then Robin asked, 'am I the only one affected do you think?'

'We know that Jonathon and Chloe are both affected by this memory wipe thing,' Esta pointed out, 'who knows. Maybe your families are affected too?'

'That would explain why my family avoids my bedroom at all costs,' Robin agreed.

They both watched Mr Van Helsing across the playground. He was on duty and was busy telling a group of boys off for kicking their football at the school windows.

'Who would brainwash a woodwork teacher?' Esta asked aloud after they watched Mr Van Helsing move off.

'I don't know,' Robin said, misunderstanding the question, 'who would brainwash a woodwork teacher?'

'It wasn't a joke, Robin.'

'Oh. Sorry.' There was a pause. 'Then again, who would brainwash a mechanic and a housewife?'

'If they knew something, there's a motive.'

'What would my parents know that was dangerous?'

'You knew the Draculas were vampires,' Esta pointed out, 'what's to stop your parents knowing too?'

'My Mum,' Robin said shortly, 'she'd never believe anything like that.'

Esta chuckled. 'That's true.'

'What you saying about mum?' Chloe dropped down the other side of Robin.

'We were saying that she's been brainwashed by vampires,' Esta said casually.

Chloe scowled. 'Not that again. I thought you'd stopped.'

'So why did you continue to accuse me of making people disappear?'

Chloe decided that walking away was the better option. 'Come on Robin. You don't want to listen to this rubbish, do you?' When Robin didn't reply, Chloe rolled her eyes and said, 'fine, be like that! But I don't want to hang around with weirdoes anymore.'

'What are you still doing here then?' Esta asked, 'apart from giving your brother earache?'

Chloe glared at her and stalked away. There was a moment's silence before Robin commented, 'you like winding Chloe up, don't you?'

'I do admit that I do get some satisfaction from it,' Esta admitted with a grin. Robin couldn't help but grin back.

'Do you have any siblings?' he asked as they re-entered school for afternoon lessons.

'Two older brothers,' Esta told him, 'twins, ironically, same as Paul and Ian.'

'Are they the same age as them?'

'Older, and could probably outwit them too.'

'That's not hard.'

'No,' Esta laughed. Someone caught her eye and she said offhandedly to Robin, 'you go ahead. I need to speak to someone.'

Robin did as she said, but glanced back as he entered their classroom. Esta was talking to Jonathon Van Helsing. Robin couldn't help noticing that she was smiling at Jonno in a way she never smiled at him. An overprotective nature rose up in Robin. He didn't want Esta to hang around with Jonno, he decided. He didn't want to lose another friend.

But he had barely taken one step towards the couple when Esta laughed (in a way she never laughed with Robin) and said goodbye to Jonathon and began to walk towards him. As Esta passed him, Robin looked back. His eyes met Jonathon's. The message was clear: Robin didn't know what was happening, but he was not losing Esta without a fight.

Jonathon's going to be hanging around more from now on. Fingers crossed, I'll be sending Robin and Esta on the hunt for Vlad soon.

Let's just see how quickly I can make four years fly by.