5. Face the truth!
When Sheila's friends returned at the starting point, they suddenly heard her scream.
"Oh no, that was Sheila!" Diana called and they started to run without hesitation.
So they arrived at the place and saw the stranger standing in front of Sheila. Sheila sat on the ground, trembling and breathing heavily.
But both Sheila and the vampire noticed the friends long ago as well...
"Sheila? Sheila, what's the matter? Why did you scream? Is everything all right?" Hank asked worried.
The others threw an interrogative glance to Sheila at first and then to the stranger. There they noticed the red shining eyes of the stranger.
"What the...?" Presto only could start.
There Pankratius said to Sheila, looking at the friends, "You have to do what's now in your nature."
There the friends noticed the unnatural sharp and long fangs.
And they suspected as well what the stranger actually was all the time: a vampire!
The friends looked scared from the man to Sheila, who still sat on the ground and stared at them motionless. She also was now pale as death.
Bobby stepped forward to his sister and asked carefully, "Sis? Is everything ok with you, Sis?"
But Sheila didn't recognize him and also didn't answer him.
She didn't recognize any of them any more.
There the friends looked at each other at a loss. But when they looked back at Sheila she also had red shining eyes and she hissed at them.
There she also bared her sharp long fangs: Sheila also was a vampire now.
"Oh my goodness..." Eric whispered, while they all stared at Sheila.
Not believing in what he just saw, Bobby took a further step towards Sheila. There Sheila jumped up with a jerk. Bobby yielded back again frightened. She glared at them.
"Come on, Bobby, we have to disappear from here!" Hank said to the boy, grasped him by the arm and pulled him away.
The others also turned around and ran away.
"No! Let me go, Hank! I gotta go to her... Sheila!!" Bobby screamed and struggled.
"No, Bobby, it's no use any more! We can't help Sheila any more..."
The words hit Hank rough.
He realized the sad and frustrating truth in them.
What has he just done?
He's allowed that the group got separated.
He's allowed that Sheila was left behind by herself with this stranger.
It was his fault that Sheila wasn't with them any more now.
He's to blame for it, only he.
He had the responsibility about this group and he had failed as leader!
He realized that Sheila didn't know them any longer and that she only was out to bite them and to drink their blood. She wasn't the Sheila he loved any longer.
Now she was turned into a soulless monster - a vampire - and this only because of him, it's his fault.
How should he ever make up for that again?
How would the others react to it?
How would Bobby react?
Would he ever be able to forgive him?
Forgive him his fault?
But above all there was now the question: will they ever be able to get out of this forest (alive)?
Sheila chased them.
The stranger stayed behind laughing.
His new companion would cope with her friends just fine, he was sure of that.
If she didn't, he would sense it and come to help her and do the rest.