"The wizard of Oz" said Ralph
"What about it?" Arthur questioned uninterestedly as he finished off the last pages of his book.
"Remember watching it with Allistor and Peter?"
It took Arthur a while to recall the colourful film; it had been about six years since he'd seen it, but he did indeed remember. It was among the first technicolour films he'd seen and he'd loved it with all his heart.
"Honestly, Ralph I'm surprised you remembered. You must've been just two at the time"
"I remember things I enjoy" Ralph said as he scribbled something down on a notepad.
It was a rainy winter afternoon in January. It was also Friday, so school had finished for the week. Everyone was inside due to the rain, and the room Arthur and Ralph were in was on the second floor, so the last thing the two boys expected to hear was a knock on the window.
*tap tap* went the knock *tap*
With a bored expression on his face, Ralph went to open the window, not letting go of his notepad.
He was met with a boy with shaggy blonde hair and red irises hanging upside down outside the window, large black bag in hand "Hello good sir. Is there a reason you've come knocking at our window, or is it just for funsies?" Ralph said in a mock British accent.
"Hiya Ralph! I'm Vladamir! I've come to read stories with your cousin! He said we could."
"Is there a reason you didn't use the door or what?"
"I can't use the door, silly! I haven't been invited in yet!" exclaimed the eccentric boy
"…Right. I'm just going to say you can come in, maybe that'll fix things" Ralph slammed the window and mouthed 'use the door now' to Vlad. Vlad disappeared, and a few seconds later there was a knock at the door.
Before opening the door Ralph said "You have a crazy weird friend, Artie." Arthur wasn't listening; instead he was comparing his friend's behaviour to that of a vampire. The reason Arthur was so 'vamp-aware' currently was because the book he had just read was about the habits and behaviours of magical creatures in alphabetical order, vampires being near the end. He decided that, at this moment, he didn't know Vlad very well and thus didn't know how he'd react to being asked if he was a soulless, bloodsucking demon. Arthur would rather not jeopardise his friendship with the strange boy.
"Arthur. Arthur. Arthur" Ralph waved his hand in front of his cousin's face.
"hm?" Arthur realised that Ralph was trying to talk to him.
"He's eyeing you like you're a well-cooked steak" Ralph gestured to Vlad, who was indeed watching Arthur rather intently.
"Oh."
"Yeah. Maybe you should do something."
"I can hear you~" Vlad said as he smiled (or more bared his teeth) "let's read stories now!" At this Ralph rolled his eyes and went back to scribbling things on his notepad
Arthur shivered "Okay, what do you want to read?" he said.
Vlad had a look of confusion on his face before his eyes widened and he began to rifle through the bag he'd brought. He got out an old looking copy of 'the wonderful wizard of Oz'.
"I heard you and Ralph talking about it, so I brought my copy. Now, read to me!" Said Vlad
"I thought you could read." Arthur said. They were probably the same age, so why would Arthur have to read to him?
"I can! But I want you to read to me!" said Vlad.
"Only if you tell me how old you are" If Arthur was going to read to him he'd have to give him information first.
"That's an odd request"
"No more odd than you asking me to read to you"
"Fine… I'm sixty-nine"
"Your real age"
"One-hundred and nine"
"You're a mean person"
"Read to me."
Arthur groaned "Fine"
"Yay!" Vlad sat himself down next to Arthur so their shoulders were touching. Clearly he had no sense of personal space. Arthur heard a stomach growl.
Ralph was still rapidly writing things down, so he didn't see (or pretended not to see) most of what happened next. Vlad tackled Arthur to the ground and nipped his neck. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make Arthur a tiny little bruise that looked suspiciously a lot like a hickey.
Ralph just glanced over, said "What the shit Arthur, not while I'm around" and left the room.
"U-um w-what are you d-doing?" stammered Arthur. His cousin's behaviour was weird, but not nearly as weird as the almost-definitely-a-vampire on top of him.
"I'm hungry and you're food." Said Vlad, sitting on Arthur and going in for another bite.
"Can you not?!" exclaimed Arthur.
"No"
"Can you wait a while? I don't want to be food yet" Arthur thought if he couldn't persuade him he could at least prolong the time 'till his demise
Vlad looked up at Arthur just before he bit him "How long are we talking?" asked Vlad
"Umm… when I'm… twenty-three!" 'That's a long time and I'll be old and disgusting by then; he won't want to eat me' thought Arthur.
"So… ten years?"
"Yes"
"I can wait. Ten years isn't long. Let's read" Vlad got up and passed Arthur the book. The two boys began to take turns reading as Arthur was visibly shaken up by the whole 'Ima eat u now k?' thing. Vlad was happy to read to Arthur after a few minutes of stuttered sentences and nervous mispronunciations (though sometimes when Vlad wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, he'd begin to read the text out in Romanian, which made Arthur very confused).
People out in the hall had heard the thumps of Arthur being tackled.
"Ralph what's Arthur doing in there with the creepy Romanian?" asked Gilbert, reaching out for the doorknob.
"Reading stories." Replied Ralph "But if I were you I wouldn't go in."
Sorry I didn't update last week, I was being lazy (again). As always, please review and vote on who should win. Aw man, I hate time skips but I'll have to do one soon-ish *cries* Happy moustaches to all my thirty-one lovely following… story… people.