Silver Banned: Book 2 of the Saddleworth Vampire Series

by Angela Blythe

  After that Freddie seemed to be a lot more comfortable. Whilst the other group had taken Rose and Natalie round to the other house, Brenda had put the kettle on. In came several steaming cups of tea. She had cut up some fruitcake into small pieces so they could pick at it and didn’t need plates. Terry told them that they must wash their hands vigorously before eating or drinking anything. For half an hour they sat in their dirty clothes amongst the blood, quietly eating the fruitcake, washing it down with tea. There was a tranquility about the moment. It fully refreshed them. They could feel themselves relaxing, the tenseness drifting away. Adrenalin draining out of their system. After that came immense tiredness, however, especially as the majority of them were no spring chickens.

  ‘I’ve still got that cheese pie in the oven,’ Brenda said.

  ‘I can’t face it, Bren,’ Freddie said. The others agreed, so Brenda took the now cold pie, out of the oven and placed it in the fridge.

  ‘We need to think about what to do. I think that tonight we are all too tired to make rational decisions. Or have a decent conversation about it all. I vote that we all try and get some sleep. Then we will think about our next steps in the morning. But early!’ said Freddie. The survivors said that was the perfect idea and they locked the doors. Jennifer said she wouldn’t sleep that night, so would stay and keep watch for them. The rest went to bed. For the first time ever, Our Doris allowed Haggis to come upstairs and stay on the duvet with her.

  Excerpt from Anne’s Diary.

  Wednesday, 14 December

  Tonight I took eleven children and five wolves, my best pack, to the house. Norman had made this plan for his own purposes, but it suits mine too. Many of the people had returned to Friarmere, so I was no longer outnumbered. My infected local was still there, and as a lovely bonus another male infected was there with her. Alarmingly his infection is somehow fading. How did that happen? The group inside were surprised that I could just walk in. I told Sarah to wait at the end of the street with three of the new children.

  They were still weak and would have been useless in the fight. These three struggle with instructions, and I suppose I should have kept them inside until they were stronger, but I wanted to have a show of force. And for their own progression, they could watch and learn. I took seven strong acolytes to the house with me. Although Carol stood with the wolves at the gate, during the fight. So, the truth of it is, they have spoiled my looks. That is what I am most vexed about. The group killed six of my children tonight. Three faithful experienced ones and three, which were strong new ones. Luckily my Sarah, my best creation was safe. I managed to take two of them out however, but they were not the most useful humans that I have ever seen. I had to leave at the end but I left Carol there to bring home my wolves. They have not returned and it is nearly light now. I fear that Sophia is gone. I last saw her biting down on the old man’s hand. She saved my life, but I had to flee and I left her there. I will regret that forever. I will now treat my wounds with the fresh blood of a child. I have one somewhere. I have done it before. It does not work straight away, but it will work over a matter of days. I will be beautiful once again. How dare they? Who do they think they are?

  33 – The Return

  The group that was staying in Bob’s den woke early, had a quick sandwich and began packing their backpacks. They did not know where they were going to start in Friarmere. People were quiet and thoughtful especially Carl. It was a cool crisp morning. Although they wanted to get on, a couple of them were reluctant to move out of the relative warmth of the den.

  They wandered one by one out of the trees, moved onto the footpath, and finally congregated as a whole in the middle of the lane. The group in unison walked over to the opposite dry-stone wall. They looked over towards Friarmere. It looked quiet and content in the morning light. As if nothing had ever happened.

  The rescuers started to walk down the lane. Not talking, just looking at the village. Watching it come ever closer. Within a few minutes, they went from the flat of the Pennine Ridge to the descent down to Friarmere.

  About half an hour after that, they came to the junction that would them straight into the centre of the village. Opposite them was the road where Christine Baker and Norman lived. Danny was the first to break the silent magical spell that they were all under. He pointed to Blackfriar’s Grange.

  ‘Down the bottom of the lane, the big house. That’s where he lives. The head honcho. The Nosferatu,’ Danny addressed Carl mainly with this information.

  ‘That is probably where Kate is now. I will go there then. While it’s light,’ Carl said nervously.

  ‘No,’ Gary said. ‘Come help us with all them kids and then we will come and help you with Kate. I think that that’s sensible.’

  ‘Yeah, Carl you have no idea,’ Danny continued. ‘You are going to be walking into a load of predators and she won't save you mate.’

  Laura then pointed to Christine's house.

  ‘There is one or two in there as well,’ she said.

  ‘Shit!’ said Beverly. ‘We really have walked into the lion's mouth!’

  ‘We did warn you.’ said Gary, ‘Come on, let's go further down his throat.’ They set off again towards Friarmere. ‘The obvious place would be the school, but that really would be a trap especially the way it is situated with the long drive. Once we are up there, they could come out of the trees and surround us.’

  ‘I have been thinking,’ said Sally, ‘I might be wrong though.’

  ‘Yes?’ Gary said.

  ‘Maybe it is kind of like a trap with no cheese. They would think we will check there first, so might be waiting there, and the kids might not be there,’ Sally said. ‘So where else is there in Friarmere, you know, public buildings, large houses, I suppose. Big enough to house all the kids. I mean, I don't even know how many kids we’re talking about.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Gary said, ‘but a lot less than we think. So many were taken the last night we were here.’

  They were moving quite quickly now as the descent was steep. One of them would slide every so often on the thick snow. Luckily it had not snowed for a few days now and the snow was becoming compact. With less to fluff it up, it was easier to walk on.

  The group still had their eyes on Friarmere, but nothing was happening. It just looked its usual sleepy old self.

  ‘I would like to call at that lady's house where we saw the Coopers,’ said Sue. ‘Now, before anyone says anything, I know she won’t be alive. I just have a feeling I would like to sweep that area and not have it behind us.’ Gary agreed with that wholeheartedly.

  ‘Anything you like. We need to act on our gut feelings. Trust ourselves. We won’t go wrong like that.’ Gary thought for a few steps, quietly looking at the village. ‘Going back to where the kids are. Maybe they will be in an unexpected place. Perhaps he has split them up, hiding them in lots of places, each with a vampire guarding them. There is no guarantee they are all together, or that he has them all. There could be pockets of survivors. We have a long laborious job in front of us.’

  In a short while they were at the lady's house that Sue had spoken about, which was one of the first houses in Friarmere. The group put their backpacks on her drive and walked up to the house. Sue looked at the state of the curtains when she was still six feet away from the window. They were still half pulled out of their curtain hooks, in fact Gary looked up and saw that the plastic curtain rail had been bent downwards. They were exactly like they had been a couple of days ago. Obviously there was no hope that she had survived. Sue looked through the gap in the curtains and so did Gary. They couldn't see much in the half-light washing over the room, just that furniture was tipped over. It was quite dark in there. Maybe dark enough for …..what….them, to walk around in.

  ‘Do you still want to go in?’ Gary hoped that she would say no.

  ‘I want to go in, even if Sue doesn’t,’ Liz said, surprising Gary.

  ‘Ok,’ he said.

  They decided that Gary,
Tony, Andy, Danny, Liz and Sue would go into the house. Liz wanted Sue with her, so these two and Gary were the first to go in. The other three would follow them and sweep the upstairs, which they thought was most likely to be housing a bloodsucker. They crept towards the back and the kitchen door. The door was open about six inches. They looked at one another and thought this was not a good sign. The first three walked into the kitchen and took ten slow steps inside. Gary had a bad feeling and thought he should actually take his own advice and follow his gut feeling.

  ‘Sue, you know she's not going to be alive. What are we doing?’

  ‘Getting used to scouting out buildings and getting jumped. If we can’t defend ourselves against an old lady, how will we manage against Norman’s gang. Is that a good enough reason?’

  ‘It’s a reason, Sue. I don’t know if it’s a good one,’ he muttered unconvinced. The other three came in behind them and pushed past, to check out the upstairs.

  ‘Wait a minute. Let me get my knife out ready,’ Liz said. She took it out of a zipped compartment on her coat, grasping the handle. It led the way. She started to talk, it was more to comfort her than anything else. ‘Right, okay we don't know what we are going to face. Well we do really. Something horrible and then we will have to do unspeakable things to it. Okay Liz, you will be alright.’

  ‘Liz, do you want to go back out? You are talking to yourself now,’ Sue said putting her hand gently on Liz’s arm.

  ‘No I have to do it,’ she said, squeezing her mouth together tightly. They walked into the hall, listening for any noises every couple of steps as the house went quiet. Not a sound could be heard. Inching into the dark living room, Sue thought it looked darker in here than when she had just been looking through the window. Now there were more faces outside at the gap in the curtains. Beverly, Laura, Sally and Bob were crowded there. Carl just behind them, trying to see over their heads. Bob pointed to the sofa, which was tipped over against the wall. When he had caught her eye, he put his two fingers either side of his mouth pointing downwards. Sue furrowed her brow. She wondered what he meant and then the penny dropped. Sue realised that there was obviously something under there and his young eyes had spied it. She tapped Gary on the shoulder. Then began to whisper in his ear.

  ‘Go round there. To the front, where Bob is looking. I think there is one under there.’

  The three of them walked around the sofa, from the back of the room, by the door, to the front by the window. The sofa had been tipped against the wall and this had left a triangle of space behind it.

  Just peeking out of the space, half in the shadows and half in the dull light was a hand. An old ladies, very white, hand.

  Gary stepped closer and stooped down. He could see her long thick yellowing nails. Dried blood was under her fingernails the cuticles were caked in it. He stood up and stepped back.

  ‘I think she's one of them,’ he said quietly, ‘we need to fling the sofa back. Liz moved to the front and readied herself with the knife. Sue went to the back of the sofa so that the sofa would lift easily. Liz and Gary would be at the dangerous end of the vampire.

  ‘Wait,’ said Gary, ‘I have an idea.’ He took the big hammer out of his belt. Alongside that was a pouch full of long nails that he had used to attach the tarpaulin onto the trees. He took about five of the nails out, put them between his teeth, all pointed outwards. He took another, walking slowly to the hand. Placing the nail above the middle of the hand, he looked at the other two.

  This had to be done in one shot. With a mighty sweep of his hammer, he drove the nail straight through in one hit. The nail went well into the floorboards pinning the hand to the floor.

  The scream was terrible. A piercing, vibratory, dreadful noise. Sue threw back the sofa. Gary dropped the nails out of his mouth. There she was, Mary, pinned to the floor thrashing about, trying to pull her hand out of its tether, whilst at the same time trying to grab and claw at Gary.

  The men upstairs had obviously heard the scream, their footsteps thundered up above, towards the stairs. Sue backed out of the way, towards the window. She had not taken out her weapon yet as she had needed both hands to throw up the sofa. Liz was hacking away at the old woman, but Mary was still very quick and unpredictable, so Liz wasn’t landing any fateful blows. Tony picked up her coffee table and smashed it across her head, which certainly damaged part of her ear and face. It also made an awful lot of wooden stakes that smashed all over the floor. Gary grabbed a big sharp chunk of it. He cocked his head at the vampire, examining its movements.

  ‘Look how much she wants my face. Why the face, not the neck or anything else. Weird.’ Mary was still thrashing. She had not noticed Andy at all. He ran to the other side of the sofa behind her. Her knees were still on the floor. He did a round kick to her head from the back and she fell forward. He walked up the length of her body until she was flat. Andy stood on her shoulder blades, which kept her down. She still wriggled even with his weight on her.

  ‘These suckers just don’t give up. Gary, nail her other hand down,’ Andy said. Gary quickly picked up one of his dropped nails. Mary’s hand was on the floor, as she was trying to push herself up with this one hand. He whacked his hammer down on top of the nail. This time it was so hard that the head of the nail, disappeared into Mary’s hand. He picked up his chunk of wood again.

  ‘Let's see if this works, shall we.’ He plunged it down through her back. Mary’s flesh gave no resistance. Just like flicking a switch, she stopped.

  ‘Now she’s properly dead!’ Gary said.

  ‘Yeah that wasn't much fuss at all,’ Sue said sarcastically.

  ‘Let’s take some of this broken wood. This is invaluable.’ Danny said. They picked up the larger pieces of the smashed coffee table.

  ‘One dead vampire nailed to the floor already. Just the safe rescue of tons of kids to do today. One down, about three hundred to go,’ Andy said.

  ‘So what shall we do now?’ Liz said.

  ‘We are leaving here now,’ Gary said, ‘but I suppose we had better check the house for any more. Or any of the kids.’ They opened the front curtains. The ones outside spread out to see the carnage. They went into each room, opening the curtains and checking every wardrobe and cupboard. The house was clear. Mary seemed to have had a meal of an owl, upstairs, which distressed Liz and Sue greatly.

  As they walked out of the back door, Bob was waiting for them.

  ‘Dad, we might have to do this a lot.’

  ‘More than I want to, I bet,’ Tony said.

  ‘Yeah lad, we probably will, why?’ Gary asked.

  ‘I was thinking of some kind of sign on the house, so that we know which ones we have done. Just so we don't forget and have to keep coming back. Someone else might be going round, doing this as well. I think it would save them time too. They will work out, that it’s our sign and know it’s safe. They will also know that they are not on their own in Friarmere.’

  ‘That's a good idea lad. What about a red cross on the door,’ said Carl.

  ‘That would be the best thing,’ Gary nodded, ‘but we would have to carry some red paint around. What about if we just leave the front door open and then we know that we have checked them.’

  ‘Yes, that is a good idea.’ Bob said. Gary and Tony walked again to her back door, went inside then straight out the front, leaving it wide open. He looked back that the house.

  ‘Yes, I’m pleased with that. It is a clear sign that the house and been cleared.’ Andy looked amongst Mary’s rockery for a loose stone. He found a large white one, walking back to the front door, he placed the stone in front of it.

  ‘There. Now it won’t blow shut.’

  They all put their backpacks back on and set off again. Within a couple of minutes they arrived at Wee Renee's house. The house had had it’s back door forced open. It was obvious from all the dirty footprints in the house that it had been searched, but there was nothing sinister inside and her house was safe.

  ‘Right let's do min
e now,’ said Sue. She was a little worried about not finding her cat’s alive. The front looked safe but again, as they got halfway around the house they could see her back door had been forced too and the house searched. She was so angry. Sue felt violated. She ran through the lower floor of the house, returning to the kitchen. She could not find her cats and felt heartbroken.

  ‘Oh Tony,’ she said, her eyes full of tears. He put his arms around her. Then there was a small bump outside.

  ‘Sue, quick!’ Sally shouted. Sue heard a meow and her little ginger cat was there. As large as life, happy to see her.

  ‘He must have heard your voice,’ Andy said. She picked him up, cuddling him.

  ‘I was sad. I missed you so much Basil.’ He purred and nuzzled into her neck. ‘Where are the others, eh?’ He looked at her as if to say how should I know. She went into a box under her table, pulling out two bags of cat treats. Standing at the back door, she shook them. It sounded like maracas. Within one minute the other two cats had returned. They were all in hiding but knew the sound of treats from their owner. She was so happy that they were safe. What clever cats they were. They had managed to evade all the vampires and the wolves from Melden.

  Sue put some fresh wet food down for them and was stroking them. They would not leave her alone.

  ‘It's nearly twelve o'clock now. I suggest we have something to eat, if we may Sue. Then try the school while it is still light,’ Gary said. Sue had loaves of bread in the freezer, beans in the cupboard and cheese in the fridge. She defrosted the bread in the microwave. Sending Tony out to the shed for a carton of longlife milk that she had there, in her Christmas Food Hamper. Sue always put a couple of items in her shopping basket every week from September, all longlife. By the time it got to Christmas, it was only fresh meat and vegetables she had to buy.