Present day. Tanya eats korean food called Kimbap made by India Greene. Gimbap, also romanized as kimbap, is a Korean dish made from cooked rice and ingredients such as vegetables, fish, and meats that are rolled in gim dried sheets of seaweed and served in bite-sized slices.
She never ever tasted this food before until India made it for her. Tanya took another slice and ate it with closed eyes. She savoy it.
"Oh god! "This is amazing, where did you learn how to make it?" asked Tanya. "Never ever taste this".
Cutting the slice. "I don't know". said India. "I just thought maybe I need something new, changing my cooking talent into asian. Who knows".
"Good. As for Professor Van Helsing, did he really bring you there? what is it like, the building, the patient you met there".
"Obviously I met someone there. Imogene's her name. Her backstory are very sadistic to hear, she is one of the raped victim when she was sixteen. Because of that, she had a son with her rapist".
Tanya stops eating, "Oh my god! how cruel it is".
"Truly. The boy is grown, he knew that she is his mother but he had to deny it for the sake of her health. Professor Van Helsing asked the family to do so. So she will know her son as her little brother".
Tanya shake head unbelievably, resuming eating the Kimbap. "Poor girl. Older than us isn't she?" India nod yes, "World is cruel sometimes. The judge never sided with the women's victim".
"Yup. That is what her family fights for, we find out her rapist is going to be jailed for the rest of his life. And the family think it isn't fair, they want him dead!"
"True. Obviously I want him dead too if something happens to my sister, my cousin or my daughter one day. We want justice! Women's rights!"
India ate the food, she spoke. "The place is amazing. Didn't I tell you he owns that place?" She slide the picture from her phone. "It was Heaven!"
"Can't wait if I can join him for the next road trip. Text me if he will".
"They are still human, and have a heart and feelings. They trust a man so quick, they sacrifice for them so much just like our mother to our father. But the man never appreciated what we as women had done for them".
Tanya snorted, "Like your dad?"
"One of them. They should protect women like us, not hurt us!" Tanya nods agree, her mouth never stops eating. "I mean we should respect each other right?"
"Such a beautiful word darling. Guess you right, man sometimes such a dick! not Professor Van Helsing, he's the greatest man we ever know. Well of course Harker too". she laughed. "Speaking of Harker, we barely saw him around, am I right?"
Kim ran downstairs, reached the door knob then twisted it and swung the door open. Grayson with a smile standing right in front of her door, early this morning before going to school.
"Mr. Grayson?" her eyes look around the neighborhood. "Can I help you with something this morning?". she asked.
He nodded, smiling. "Well, no. Actually I was wondering if you knew that our town had been attacked. I asked you because you claimed this nature as a reporters, journalist. So me and my partner had to be precautionary for ourselves, to not be one of the victims in the middle of the night".
"Oh yes. Mr. Grayson, I may claim the nature and I got my good news from the Sheriff's office to whom he agrees this case has been attacked by the Vampires".
She smiled. "I still cannot believe the Sheriff will believe me and even the chief medical examiner also claimed the same. Isn't it amazing?"
Grayson's face lit up, said. "Indeed. Well, I also can't believe you would claim this, the vampires walking among us in the 21st century, Ms. Kim?"
"Of course I do. I believe in everything I do in my life. Do you ever believe that I went to the other town when they spotted aliens on their farm? you should. It's all over the news, Mr. Grayson".
He chuckled, "Okay then. I should go to the grocery and buy lots of garlic. Thank you for the news, at least we all know what happened in our town, without you we could have died not from the creature, maybe from the other things".
"Not to mention that, Mr. Grayson. Glad to help".
Nodded. "Oh, before I go. How's your daughter doing? Is she in good health? I'm impressed with her talent and her professor, a great opportunity she got there. Sending my regard as her former teacher".
"She's fine. That will do, Mr. Grayson".
He smiled and turned his feet to walk toward the car where Renfield had been waiting for him in the driver seat. Grayson opened the back door and shut behind him.
Renfield looked over his shoulder. "So is it true then, sir?"
"She claimed it, Renfield".
"You must be careful before killing someone then. This is her town, I read her reports and it's very very convincingly".
Starting the engine, Renfield drove the car on the road. Grayson sighs. "You will not know what she'll do next behind us, sir".
"And I make sure I will know before she does". breathing. "Let's visit our old friend shall we?"
Someone burst through the door and it was Harker. Smiling as he shut the door behind and took a seat beside Tanya.
Plate and food were still on the table, he ate it without asking too many questions.
The girls are eyeing him. He looked up. "What? I am just hungry. Oh, this food is really good".
"Where'd you been, Harker!" asked Tanya to him, "We barely saw you everywhere".
He choked, India gave him a glass of water, he drained it. "I am, always just a bit busy here. I hear Professor Van Helsing take you into the mental hospital. Isn't it, India?" she nod yes, "What is like?"
"Why are you guys asking me that kind of question, never he ever brought you there?" Tanya and Harker shake heads. "Wonder why. Okay, it's the best thing I will ever experience for the rest of my life there".
"Yup, she ever met one of the patients". said Tanya to Harker. "Worst sadistic story of the woman I ever heard".
"Really, you wanna know why we never ever been there". she shrugged. "Because we are not his favorite students but you are, most of his medical students have never been invited to nowhere with him. You are his special student which is why you are here now, India. He knows you're gifted".
Harker eats more, "Still I can see your mom right?"
"Why do you need my mom, you saw her before!"
Tsk tsk tsk, Harker smirking. "You are so naive, India. Haven't you noticed the way your mom convinced the sheriff about your town? Midnight Mass Killer! exclusives, front pages. All over the news headline, everywhere. What I am proud of about your mom is, she didn't hesitate when she claimed that nature".
"Sounds fun". Tanya said. "Vampires living among us, woo woo woo!"
The next day, Kim drove the car through the road. She got another job where she was supposed to meet this charming man who was living with his own wealth.
Rich and mysterious widower man. Nor children of his own have been conceived or inherited from the wealthy.
Her assistant suddenly opened up the articles about this widower, but there was no explanation how the wife died. All she know, the widower never married again.
So, now she got all his profile details through email and she is on her way to meet him now. She follows the dash directions maps on her car.
Going straight.
"Oh come on! where the hell the manor was".
Now turn right.
"You make me crazy, chica! Urgh! how many times I had to circle around the middle out of nowhere!"
One hour you will arrive at your destination.
Kim breathed heavier, turning off the maps and drove the car to whatever road she liked.
Moments later, she pulled up at the nearby diner, since she hadn't got any breakfast yet this morning. Why not fill her empty stomach first before meeting this widower.
Parked the car, turning off the engine, she breathed and waited just a moment before entering the diner and taking a seat on table no.3.
She leaned back, the place took a long journey to arrive. Gracey's Manor. Yeah, she should go there today.
"Ready to order?" Kim looked up as the waitress spoke to her, "Today our special menu is creamy mushroom soup".
Kim nods and smiles. "Urmm, let's see. One mineral bottle, pancake with maple syrup, hash brown with scramble eggs, bacon and black coffee. Thank you".
The waitress nodded, before walking back to the counter. Kim asked the waitress a question.
"Excuse me. I am not kinda familiar with this place, Miss... Juno? do you know which road I should take straight to Gracey's Manor".
The waitress' eyes wide open, even the customers who enjoyed their food suddenly stop and turn to Kim curiously.
The waitress spoke. "Why do you need to go there?"
"I have business there".
"Well good luck then. I pray for your safety, and make sure you will come out from that manor alive".
Kim breathed, said. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that the manor is haunted! Nobody dares going in or out, especially at night. Since your curiosities show on your face, I tell you this... nobody getting out there alive. Once you go there, there is no way out. Our town is filled with missing person posters and never been found until now".
"So the town thinks Gracey's manor had to do with these missing people?" the waitress nodded, "My assistant asked me to go there, thank you for your concern".
The waitress nod, smiled. "Aren't you scared?" Kim shake head, then the waitress walks toward the counter.
Kim sat there without a word and blank mind, the waitress spoke back from the counter.
"I don't know what kind of business you are with Gracey's Manor, just be careful alright".
"Thank you".
Moments later. Kim drives back on the road, the waitress shows her how to get there without using any technology maps. Doesn't know when or will she arrive at the Gracey's Manor at the right time.
The car sped down the country road, past old stone walls, out into rolling meadow. She rolls down her window to take in the fresh air of the country road.
Beautiful and rising. Farther and farther into the glorious hills.
Countryside speed by, Kim beams, iridescent in the hues of fall. She passes an antique store in a barn with a gravel turnout for a parking lot.
A hand painted sign warning revealed from the owner. Kim looks out at the forest, feels the chill. The road is more like a tunnel, through the forest than a road.
Finds Kim's car through the trees and rises up and away, tracking it higher and higher into the awesome solitude.
Kim takes a final switchback, and the road straightens. Something off to the right catches her eyes, then is gone in the trees.
She watched it again.
There. A glimpse of a gray stone property wall set back twenty yards from the road. There it is again, moss greened, twenty feet high a wicked array of iron spikes and glass mortared atop it.
And then out of the tangled forest in front of her looms a pair of immense stone pillars. Between them, a steel gate as high as the wall, chained and padlock.
The gate stands immense. Silent. Forbidding. Beyond them a gravel drive curves away through the trees, without killing her car.
Kim gets out, instructions with hand. No one in sight. A long beat, she reaches in and blows the horn. Shatters the air, rackets off the trees beyond the gate, echoing.
Silence.
Kim blows the horn again. A sustained staccato in annoyance. The echo replies in terrible, deafening battering of sound. She covers her ears, silence once again.
"Hello!"
She looked around. The place is cold and chilling. Spooky and creepy, you never know.
A moment later she was waiting. She touched the padlock and the chain, though it was locked but it wasn't. Such a good trick by this man.
She pulled the padlock and chained it away from the gate, then she left it on the side of the gate inside. Then she drove her car inside the manor.
She left the main gate open. She bet no one will step in here as the waitress said earlier about this. They were afraid of this manor, the man behind all this.
Driveway. Gracey's manor. The car rumbles up the long drive, winding up the hill past enormous old trees, overgrown lawns untended and wild, thickets of briars and berries.
Kim grips the wheel. Through her windshield the shroud of forest peeling away. A glimpse of stained stone. Then she looks up and there before her, a grasping stone thing rising out of the earth as if from a grave, stood Gracey's manor.
She stops the car in silence, she can hear her own breathing. The house stands brutal, stark, tortured. It sprawls in immense, multi-winged, multi-levelled chaos.
She knocked on the door and still no one answered her. She reached the handle door then swung it half open.
"Hello?"