4. Trust your feelings!

Sheila found the stranger creepy and she wondered why only she had this feeling and not her friends as well.
And she was even more surprised that Hank left her behind that easy and turned to her brother.
Of course, Hank wanted to make sure that nothing's going to happen to Bobby and that's why he wanna take care of him, but didn't he usually take her with him, too?
Why did he leave her behind here with the stranger, although he knew exactly that she hated being alone?

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the stranger turned to her, "Would you accompany me on my search?" And he looked at her.

Sheila frightened and answered, "Um, I don't know..."

And she threw a seeking help glance to her both remaining friends.
The last thing she wanted was to be completely alone with this man.

But Diana and Presto didn't notice her glance and walked away together.
Sheila gulped. Now she either had to run behind her friends or go with the stranger, come hell or high water. But both possibilities weren't exactly the best.
She rather would like to get out of this forest as soon as possible again. She didn't know exactly what she was afraid of, but now she was quite sure that there was something here, which was out to kill them. And for this reason she wanted to go away as soon as possible, it didn't matter any more if there was a portal or not.
And inside herself she agreed with Eric; she didn't hate forest in general, but this one here.

"Well, what is it now? Are you coming with me or do I have to search for the ring by myself? Make your decision a bit faster, 'cause it's getting dark soon, even if you can't see this here in the forest. But I've been living here long enough to know such things." Pankratius turned to Sheila.

She nodded slowly and somehow against her will. And also her legs followed the stranger against her will, as if the man was getting her to follow him.

But she put this thought right out of her mind again and thought to herself, "Don't flip out now! Maybe it's nothing at all. Maybe Pankratius is really only a hermit and no... ah, I don't know what..."

And she forced herself to calm down and to follow Pankratius. They walked some time silently through the forest. Pankratius always turned his sight to the ground and searched for his ring.

But Sheila stared at him, until she suddenly interrupted the silence, "Why are you actually living here all alone in the forest?"

She knew this question sounded a bit stupid, but she couldn't stand the silence and the noises in the forest any longer.

Without looking up Pankratius answered, "Well, I was driven out of the village I came from. And because I didn't get a place to stay somewhere else I decided one day to move into the forest and swore to me never ever go into the town again."

"Um and how did you meet your wife then, if you never ever wanted to come near people again?" Sheila kept on asking.

This seemed already more than odd to her.

There the man suddenly stopped and meant, without answering to her question, "Oh, I guess I finally found what I was looking for!"

"Really? Where's the ring?" Sheila asked and got a bit closer.

Pankratius replied, "My dear child, I didn't mean the ring with that!"

And he turned around and slowly came up to Sheila.
Sheila realized with horror that the look of the stranger has changed: his eyes, which just were deep blue a little while ago, sparkled now in wild shining red and his healthy coloured cheeks have been turned into an ashy pale.
But it weren't the eyes or his face that scared Sheila!
She stared with wide eyes at his teeth: 2 sharp, long fangs which flashed white dangerously.
With open mouth and bared teeth Pankratius came up to Sheila, who neither could move for fear nor do something else.
She couldn't even give a scream, she just was too shocked about it.

And when she looked at the stranger, she knew it: he was a vampire, who's sucking the blood of the living.

The myths about this forest were true, through and through, and they all were credulous this way and ignored them that easy.
They believed they could handle it casually, as well as they have coped with everything before.
They were stupid like that; blinded by the wish to finally come home that they simply shut their eyes to the truth.

There really were creatures, which wanted to do something to them.
This forest really was a 'Forest of the Damned'.

When Pankratius nearly was at her she tried to escape from him. But she didn't succeed because he quickly seized her by the arm and pulled her towards himself. Then he got closer to her neck with his teeth. She defended herself desperately, but she wasn't a match for the man.
When he reached her neck he bit violently and abruptly into it and began to suck her blood right away.
Sheila winced and let out a scream. Then, when he was done, she sank weakly to the ground and looked at the man gasping and breathing heavily.

"What... what have you done?" Sheila asked.

The man only smiled as answer.

Author's Note: Sorry, I'm nearly obsessed with vampires ;)