DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.

CHILDREN ATTACKED: CULPRIT UNKNOWN

For three consecutive days, incidents of children being stalked and going missing in the night have been reported. Out of the seven cases confirmed, all of those abducted were found alive and mostly unharmed the morning after their disappearance. Each child identified the person responsible as a young red-haired lady dressed in white who led them to Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1. After this, they remembered nothing else.

Emma slapped the newspaper down over the map on the captain's and looked at Charles and Scarf. "Well?"

"Well what?" Charles asked.

"Read it!"

They scanned the front page. "Rather strange, but — "

"Not that, the bit afterwards!" she said, pointing to the next paragraph.

When found, the children exhibited disorientation as though from blood loss. On their necks were two small holes resembling bite marks. The creature which administered them is yet to be determined.

The three of them were silent for quite a while before looking at one another. "One of his sisters, y'think?" Emma offered half-heartedly.

"That," Scarf said, "would require us being lucky."

"But we've already looked for the captain in the graveyard," Albino Pirate said once they were gathered around the table that evening.

"We aren't going to look for the captain tonight," Scarf told him. "You'll all have to stay here."

"Why?" Jenny asked.

Scarf unrolled the newspaper and slid it down the table. "We need to take care of Lucy."

They all stared at him. "...We need to what?" Jenny finally exclaimed.

"Red hair, white dress, takes them back to the cemetery, leaves the same marks, who else could it be?"

Jenny shook her head. "But I watched them bury her. She's dead."

"She's undead. One of them now." Taking the black book from his coat, he began flipping through the pages. "Someone needs to stop her before she gets stronger."

"And how is that supposed to work?" she demanded.

"I'm going to drive a stake through her heart while she's asleep. She'll be able to die properly."

"What's this 'you' cobblers?" the Pirate With Gout said. "We're coming whether yet want us or not. Isn't that right?"

"Aye!"

"I can't afford to lose anyone else," Scarf told them.

"And we can't afford to lose you," said Charles. "Ask yourself this: if you end up going missing, do you really want me in charge?"

"...Go get some silver."

Charles smiled. "I didn't think so."

The cemetery gates were locked, but the walls were just short enough for them to scale. Inside, the stone pathway wound between the monolithic crypts like the streets of a miniature city. "Which one is hers?" Scarf asked Jenny.

She kept her eyes cast downward. "The northeast end. It's black marble." They were the first words she had spoken since the group had left the boat.

Leaves cracked beneath their feet as they walked, each one magnified by the silence. Scarf lit a lantern as clouds swept over the moon. A shadow seemed to flinch and shy away at its yellow light.

"That one," Jenny said, pointing. Up ahead, a tall black stone clashed with its lighter neighbors.

Setting down the lantern, Scarf took out his knife and began to chip at the edges of the tomb door. The plaster gradually cracked and disintegrated until they could move the panel aside and pull out the wooden coffin.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Jenny finally snapped. "How could she possibly get out of that? We should go before — "

"I wonder why they didn't make sure it was locked," Albino Pirate said when he saw the coffin. The clasps were undone.

With trembling fingers, the pirates lifted the lid and forced themselves to look inside. There was no body, only the padding where it had lain.

"What are you doing here?"

The voice didn't really send shivers down their spines so much as it completely froze them. When they turned around, they saw a feminine silhouette which glared at them with yellow eyes. An unconscious young boy was clutched in her arms. "What are you doing here?" she repeated in little more than a hiss.

"Lucy...?"

At the sound of Jenny's voice, the creature paused before abruptly dropping the child. "Jennifer," it crooned as it put on a smile. "Of course it's me, Jennifer. Is there something wrong? I do feel rather strange." It put its arms out. "Oh, I'm quite frightened, Jennifer. Can't you help me?"

Jenny couldn't help herself; she reached out to the image of her friend and took a step forward. "Yes," said the not-Lucy. "A little closer..."

"Get back!" Emma shouted, pulling Jenny to her side while waving the lantern at the not-Lucy. "Back!"

The not-Lucy shrieked with rage and jumped back as the light touched it. Its eyes turned red, and it bared its fangs, hissing. The pirates watched as its body dissolved into black mist that seemed to dissipate with a gust of wind.

"Keep your guard up!" Scarf told the others, taking out the sharpened stick he had brought. "She's probably still around — "

"AAAHHH! Help! HELP!" Albino Pirate screamed. He had dropped to the ground, and something was dragging him backwards by his leg.

The Pirate With Gout struck at the air with his crutch and got another pained yelp in response. The not-Lucy materialized again, snarling. It crouched and lunged, only to be stunned and stumble back when Scarf waved the lantern in its face again. After a moment, though, it growled and swatted at the light. The lantern went flying out of Scarf's hand, landed on the ground and went out.

Scarf gasped as he felt the creature's spindly fingers clamp around his throat. He frantically rummaged through his pocket for the silver coins he had brought, pulled them out and flung them into its face. It fell and writhed, clawing at the burn marks. Raising the stick, Scarf jammed it into her heart. It screamed yet again and began to sit up, trying to grasp at him. Scarf pushed harder, but the not-Lucy pushed back. The stick was beginning to bend and fracture.

"Oh no you don't." Running forward, Jenny pushed down on the stick. The not-Lucy's scream increased in pitch as it was forced back to the ground. Dark red blood seeped from its chest wound as it struggled less and less. Eventually it hissed one last time and finally lay still.

Jenny dropped to her knees, staring at the destruction as tears welled up in her eyes. "...Is she dead?" she finally managed to ask.

Scarf placed a hand on her shoulder. "She's at peace."

Her eyes had faded back to green, her fangs had vanished and her face had untwisted itself into something resembling sleep. The not-Lucy was Lucy once more.

They placed her back in the coffin and sealed her inside the tomb. They would have stayed longer to clean up the blood and help the boy, but they heard voices in the distance and had to leave "...Thank you," Scarf said to Jenny as they walked back.

"...You're welcome."

"What's that?" Charles asked as they entered the harbor. A single light was flickering in the captain's cabin.

"Maybe it's Dracula," the Pirate With Gout said, his eyes narrowing. "We'll show 'im what fer, we will!" Brandishing his cutlass he hobbled up the gangplank.

The others chased after him. "Gout, no...!" They were trying to hold him back when the cabin door swung open. "I say, what's all this?"

"Captain?"

Well, that turned out a tad darker than I planned. Sorry.