“Warm blood always tastes better than cold,” April said, once again surprising me by the attention. She eyed my shirt. “That shirt is nice. I'd love to have one like it.”
“We have some in stock,” I said. “I could maybe get you a discount.”
She smiled. “Thanks. You know, it takes me a while to warm up to new people. I hope you understand that.”
I told her I did, even though I really didn’t.
Moments later Michael found us. He approached with a smile on his face and a cup of blood in his hand. His eyes were fixed on me. Only me.
“You look swell, girl!” he said, noticing my wardrobe and tattoo. Dressed in a shirt with a moving 3-D head of a vampire biting forcefully with his fangs, he looked pretty decent himself. His tattoos consisted of some really detailed serpentine creatures that wound themselves around his arms and neck. If I'd not been with Brett, I’d have let him hit on me. But that obviously wasn’t gonna happen. I squeezed Brett’s smooth hand tightly.
“Hey Janice, would you like to come see my room?” Michael said. “I have a gigantic 3-D lava lamp. You'll love it.”
I sensed a storm of jealousy building up inside Brett. Not only had Michael invited me to his room, he'd also failed to include Brett in the invitation.
Noticing Brett’s reaction, he quickly added: “Oh, don’t worry. You can come too.”
We both told him thanks but no thanks.
The rest of the night I met so many beautiful and wealthy vampires that I lost count. Quite a few of them were surprisingly friendly to Brett and me, introducing themselves and holding pleasant conversations. They invited us to more parties, which was certainly exciting. However, others gave the not-so-friendly impression that they were above us, and that my little tattoo and relatively cheap shirt were no match for their lifelike body art and stimulating dresses. Sure, I wished I could afford what they had, and I was going to get it eventually when I won the fireball tournament. But as I hugged Brett, I knew in my heart that I already had everything I wanted.
I felt wonderful when leaving the party, and far from thirsty. I hoped that Brett and I would now be heading for the graveyard. But I wasn't going to say anything. He needed to be the one to take charge.
“You can drop me off at the hotel, baby,” he said after we'd climbed into Mr. FreeCut's car.
That’s not what I wanted to hear. Nevertheless, when we arrived at the hotel I kissed him goodnight. I was sure he could sense from the way I kissed him that I was disappointed, even though I didn’t say anything about what I really wanted.
I pulled up at my house and tried not to feel glum. I wondered why Brett wouldn’t take the leap. Was he scared? Did he really love me? Or was there another vampire?
I loved him; there was no doubt about that. I just hoped he felt the same way about me.
Because the garage door was locked, I parked Mr. FreeCut’s car in the driveway. As I walked to the front door I heard a voice coming from behind. Turning around, I heard it again. It sounded like someone was whispering my name.
I walked to the street. “Hello?” I said.
An SUV appeared out of nowhere and sped towards me. I attempted to run, but someone grabbed me from behind. Two more figures dressed in what looked like ninja suits jumped out and together the three of them bundled me inside the vehicle. I tried to scream, but a hand clamped over my mouth.
I felt a sharp prick in my left side. Then I blacked out.
TRAPPED
I woke up in an upright position, chained against a stone wall by my arms and feet. Awful memories of the orphanage punishment cell came to mind, especially with the soul swallowing darkness that engulfed me. I knew that someone was standing in front of me, even though I couldn’t see them.
“Well, well,” said a harsh voice. “We have many questions for you.”
“And you better not lie to us,” someone else added.
A beam of light appeared above my head, immediately sparking an agonizing sensation that ran through my entire my body.
“The beam is unprotected reflected light from a nearby star,” the first voice informed me. “I’m sure that you can feel its pain right now. If you lie to us, the beam will lower and you will feel increased agony. If it gets too low, you will burn to death.”
“Okay, I understand,” I said. The pain was excruciating enough now, and the beam was still several feet above my head.
“So tell me, what were you doing in our tunnels? How did you get access to them?”
Oh, they had seen me. And they knew I'd seen the bodies. I was in trouble. And it was my messenger's fault. I thought I was safe trusting him. But I was wrong. I didn’t know what to say. How was I going to explain to them that I was being secretly led by someone I'd never met?
“Talk!” the voice demanded.
The beam of light lowered a little. It was like my whole body was on fire.
“I swear I didn’t mean to go into your tunnels,” I said. “I was playing with the gargoyle’s claws after taking a break from fireball….I was tired and dizzy…and I accidentally opened a secret passageway.”
“Her story doesn’t make sense,” one said to the other. “It’s not that easy to open the entrance.”
“So, she is telling us lies.”
The beam dropped even closer. The pain was so bad I could barely talk. But somehow I managed to babble on a bit more.
“No! Please! It’s the truth, I swear. I’m sorry I stumbled on your business and I promise to keep my mouth shut!”
“Do you swear?”
“YES! I SWEAR!”
A frightening silence followed, during which it felt as though my skin was about to melt off. Then the voices started talking to each other as if I wasn't even there.
“What should we do? Kill her?”
“I don’t know. We could. Or maybe she is telling the truth.”
“But that still doesn’t give her the right to invade our space.”
“Let’s just throw her in Bloodwood Forest. If she survives, which she won’t, she’ll make sure never to stumble on our property again.”
There was laughter. I still couldn’t see anything, and was only conscious of the light burning deeper and deeper into my very soul. Then, in a moment of sheer ecstasy, it stopped. I was still thankfully sucking in great mouthfuls of air when there was another prick in my side and I blacked out again.
When I woke up this time I was cold. Very cold. I was in the middle of a vast and extremely scary forest. Massive trees with midnight black trunks shot way up into the air like the downtown skyscrapers, hemming me in and suffocating me. The canopy of foliage, though sparkling, was so dense I couldn’t even see the sky or Garlic Moon.
I dragged myself up off the swampy ground. I was covered in mud; my cute new outfit was filthy. I wandered around in a daze, trying to recall how I'd arrived in this awful place. Then I remembered everything. The torture chamber, the darkness, and the threatening voices all came back with a rush. It was my fault I was here. I should never have listened to my secret messenger in the first place.
So now I knew that I must have been dumped in Bloodwood Forest. I moved around cautiously while trying to avoid the colossal roots that snaked out of the thick trunks, but tripped and fell anyway, landing head first into the freezing mud. It took me a few degrees to get back up. Eventually I did, but I had never felt lower. And this place stunk like hell.
I remembered Brett telling me that a vampire would not last in Bloodwood Forest. Yet here I was. Somehow, I had to raise my spirits and try to find my way out of this mess.
That was never going to be easy. The dark forest looked the same whichever direction I headed, with no end or clearing in sight. I felt like I was trapped and going around in circles. The night was getting colder too. I climbed over countless pointy roots that jutted out from the nightmarish trees. I hated them, even though their radiant leaves were lighting the way. But which way?
After several frustrating degrees of staggering
around in circles, skinning my knees, twisting my ankles and getting mud into my fangs, I began to despair once more. I screamed for Brett. Nothing. Mr. FreeCut then. Still nothing.
Placing icy hands over my eyes, I sat down and cried. Not even my secret mentor knew where I was. As the temperature plummeted even further, the thought of having to spend the whole damn night out here terrified me. And what if I had to spend much longer than that?
Yet in the midst of all my troubles, there was a ray of hope. I thought about all the good things that had come my way recently. Was I going to just give up and lose all that? Hell no!
With a burst of energy, I got up again and renewed my search for a way out. As I trudged over more hazardous roots, I suddenly noticed dozens of small creatures climbing over the tree trunks. About the size of large cockroaches and with multiple eyes and spider-like legs, they were quite sickening to look at. From each creature's body dangled what appeared to be two transparent worms.
Continuing on, the ground became ever more swampy and the mud increasingly full of these slimy creatures. A few scrambled up my leg. I brushed them off, but they kept coming. One of them crawled onto my thigh. Just as I was about to brush it off, its creepy worm-like arms wiggled about and stabbed into my skin. I felt a sharp sting.
The transparent tubes turned red, and then I realized with horror exactly what they were. These were suction hoses designed to drain the blood from me.
I tore the creature away and it hurt like hell, but at least the hoses were detached. Even though it had only taken a small amount of blood, I felt noticeably weaker. And now dozens more of the creatures were assaulting me.
I was not going to let these bloodsucking bastards take any more blood from me. I tried to leap over a large root in order to reach drier ground and get away from the hellish insects, but I misjudged the height and tripped. Instead of escaping, I landed face first in a puddle of black gook filled with the creatures. They crawled all over my face while I struggled to stand up and swat them off. One of them remained stubbornly attached, draining blood from above my right eye before I finally yanked it away.
The forest spun wildly as I ran for my life. Somehow I made it to another dry patch of ground without killing myself, though I was gasping for air and dizzy by the time I reached it.
I couldn't see any of the bugs crawling toward me, so after recovering my breath I relaxed a bit. Surprisingly, there was now a bit of welcome space to move around in. It was comforting not to have a monstrous black tree trunk only inches away from my face. Even so, when I glanced up, I still couldn’t see the sky. Just a scary mass of leaves and scarlet branches like in a creepy scene of a nightmare that never ends.
I checked my knee that was badly skinned and bleeding from the fall, hoping that it would clot soon. Then I heard a hissing noise from close by.
One of the bloodsucking creatures scuttled from behind a branch and hissed again. Except this time it was the adult version: much bigger—about the size of a large dog. It peered at me with its three ruby eyes, its spider legs dripping with ooze. Then the revolting suction tubes began wiggling about in a circle. It wanted my blood.
Another bloodsucker the same size appeared behind me. I grabbed a heavy gnarled stick off the ground, and as the first creature lunged at me, I plunged my makeshift weapon right into its stomach. It fell onto its back, wriggling around with the stick still protruding from it. Black ooze spewed out of the wound. Within moments it was dead.
There was no time to relax. I tried to pull the stick out from the dead bloodsucker, but it was difficult to move. Before I knew it, the second creature was on top of me, pinning me to the ground with its startling weight. The stench coming from it was horrible as it prepared to plunge its suckers into my body.
With a burst of strength coming from desperation, I managed to push the creature off and scramble to my feet. For a moment the bloodsucker was on its back and struggling to regain its footing. Using this brief respite, I grabbed a big rock. When the creature came at me again, I smashed the rock hard into its face. Two of its eyes fell out. While it stumbled around blindly, I at last managed to pull the stick out of the dead creature. Using this, I gave bloodsucker number two the same treatment to finish it off, not caring about its insides spewing all over me.
I stared at the dead creatures, dizzy, not from losing any more blood, but from sheer exhaustion. At least I was free from danger now, I told myself. Then I heard another noise coming from the brush, way louder than anything before.
The ground in the clearing shook, along with the bushes and trees surrounding it. My mouth dropped open in sheer astonishment when I saw the new beast appear. It was enormous, perhaps even the size of an elephant. I was now staring at a fully grown bloodsucker. Those two I had just beaten the hell out of and initially mistaken for adults, were in fact just adolescents.
The giant's suction feeders cut through the brush, twisting like angry pythons. Its immense body oozed with blood. Hundreds of the monster's children crawled on the ground alongside it, hissing in unison.
Scared out of my wits, I backed up to the center of the empty clearing with no idea what to do. Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet collapsed. I tumbled down through a large hole that had been covered over by branches and foliage. I hit the bottom hard. OMG….no wonder there was a clearing in the woods. This was the monster’s feeding ground.
And I was trapped in the middle of it!
STUCK
I saw its giant feeders twirling about, ready to suck my head off. I shrank back, but there was no escape. I was stuck at the grimy bottom of a hole ten feet deep. The giant insect moved up to the edge, shrouding the pit in darkness as it made ready to devour me. It was all over now.
Then I saw a cloud of ruddy gas starting to engulf it. The creature hissed angrily and backed up. “Aim for the big one,” I heard a voice shout. “The rest of you take the perimeter.”
What the hell? It must be vampires!
I could no longer see the giant insect. Was it gone completely? A burst of rejuvenating energy ran through me as I stood up in the mud. I was alive. I was freakin alive! I cried out for help at the top of my voice.
“She’s down there…”
Oh my gosh… somebody was actually searching for me. How did they know I was here?
A rope was pitched to me. I grabbed it and was pulled up. The air smelled of death as I surfaced. I gazed at someone wearing a mask.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I..I think so…my arms hurt though. And I’m f..f..freezing.”
He handed me something from his dark vest. “Here, take this. It’s a blood pill.”
Still confused and dizzy, I glanced around and saw the mangled corpse of the insect monster lying in the muck. It looked like its skin had been melted.
I swallowed the pill. Next I was given a thermos full of invigorating hot blood. Since blood was a natural healer, I soon felt better and became more aware of my surroundings.
“How did you know I was here?” I asked. “Have you been following me? Who are you?”
“We’ve been monitoring your location for quite a while,” he told me. “We’ve been able to do this because the person who you've been receiving secret information from put a tracking device on you.”
Oh my goodness. My secret messenger hadn't told me this. “Who are you?” I demanded.
“My name is Martin,” he said.
Three other vampires also wearing masks surrounded me. They held sophisticated, hose-like weapons. They must have used these to spray the deadly gas that killed the giant bloodsucker and its hundreds of babies that were also lying dead in the mud.
“We’re opponents of the organization that your informant has revealed to you,” Martin continued. “That organization, which goes by the name of TriFang, almost had you killed. So do us and yourself a favor and take heed of my warning. Do not listen to the stranger guiding you. He’s up to no good, and will continue to put you in harm. And most important of all,
stay well away from TriFang in the future.”
A burst of questions flooded my mind. “Who is my stranger? Please tell me.”
“It’s better that we don’t. For your safety, Janice. All we can do is tell you to ignore him. Trust us. Please.”
I couldn’t, I told myself. Maybe because I had been beaten-up, not just physically, but mentally too. Ever since waking up in Vampire World I'd had a feeling that I was being lied to and used. I was tired of feeling this way. I wanted to know the damn truth.
“Tell me, dammit!” I screamed. “Who are you all? And who is my guide? Tell me NOW!”
Martin nodded. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a vampire reach by my side. There was a sharp prick, just like before. Then I passed out again.
When I came around I was on my back staring straight up at Garlic Moon. For a moment I thought I was still trapped under the dark, depressing canopy of Bloodwood Forest. But then I realized the significance of the moonlight.
I was lying on the welcoming dead grass of Mr. FreeCut’s backyard.
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL
Recalling all the vampires who had been spying on me recently, the first thing I did after standing up was look around for anyone suspicious. It seemed all clear.
Surprisingly, all the cuts and bruises I'd collected during the insect attack were now gone. I felt fine physically, although very confused. Should I listen to Martin and stop following my mysterious stranger's instructions? Or was my messenger telling the truth? Damn, I simply didn’t know.
Just as I was about to go inside the house, I spotted a new letter lying on the grass. I opened it and read.
'Janice, I want to apologize to you for what happened, and I’m very glad you’re alive. I wasn’t aware that the security cameras in the organization’s tunnels were active. Please understand that my intentions are not to harm you, but to help you discover the truth about your life. And remember, there is nothing greater than the truth, even if you have to endure the trials it takes to reach it. I am thankful that you were rescued, but please understand this. Your rescuers do not want you to know the truth. They want you to be hidden in the darkness of lies and never see the divine light of what’s real. I’m asking you this. Do not listen to them. They want you to stop discovering my secrets. But you must understand that my secrets are your secrets! Please do not underestimate the truth, Janice. It may not seem like much right now. But I promise you, if you are loyal to my cause, good things…make that great things...will come to you.
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