Sleepover Club Vampires

by Fiona Cummings

  We followed them right to the entrance of the building.

  “Hey, what’s this?” Lyndz bent down and picked up something from among the weeds on the ground.

  “It’s a c-cross!” she squealed, opening her palm so we could all see it.

  A gold-coloured cross, streaked with mud, glinted faintly in the sunshine.

  “You know what this means,” I told the others firmly. “Someone must have been trying to protect themselves against the vampires by holding this up – then they got scared and ran away.”

  Fliss and Rosie made some weedy gulping noises. I moved further into the chapel to take a closer look. Frankie and Lyndz came with me, whilst Fliss and Rosie hung round the door.

  “What’s that?” Lyndz whispered, pointing up to a dark shape hanging from the exposed beams of the ceiling.

  “Dunno.” Frankie went to inspect further. Then she went kind of pale and started to back out of the chapel.

  “Bats!” she shrieked when she was by the door. “Loads of them!”

  We started screaming and running all at the same time.

  When we were back at the house we collapsed in our bedroom. Thank goodness we could lock the door this time – the locksmith had sorted out the problem.

  “Everything adds up,” I gasped. “The noises we heard, the cross, the bats. I reckon we did stumble upon some vampires the other night.”

  “Shouldn’t we tell someone?” Fliss asked frantically.

  “No way! Besides, I think Uncle Bob knows,” I told them. “Remember how he told us to go to the chapel? Maybe he’s testing us out. We’ve got to get ourselves prepared with crosses and stakes and go down there and slay ourselves some vampires!”

  “Not tonight?” Rosie looked alarmed.

  “Nope, tonight we’ve got another mission to accomplish,” I reminded them. “Tonight we’re going to scare Molly and Carli witless!”

  You know when you’re really up for something but you’ve got to wait for the right time to do it? Well, it’s like time goes on strike, isn’t it? Every minute just stretches out in front of you. Even listening to Uncle Bob’s stories wasn’t so much fun because we were so keen to get on with some action of our own.

  We went to bed ahead of everyone else and ran through our plan one last time. Then it was just a case of waiting until Molly and Carli came upstairs before we could sneak out to the attic.

  “What if Ben and Spike wake up? Mum might rumble what we’re up to.” Lyndz looked anxious. “And she’s been so great since she’s been here, I don’t want her relapsing into one of her moods again.”

  “Look Lyndz, that’s a chance we’ll have to take,” I said firmly. “We know where the boys’ bedroom is – we’ll just have to make extra sure that we don’t make any sound when we walk over it. Ready?”

  The others nodded. “Ready.”

  We wrapped ourselves in our dressing gowns and crept out into the passageway. The others crept towards the door leading to the attic and I went to Molly and Carli’s room.

  “Mum says you’re to turn off your tape and go to sleep NOW!” I shouted through the door. “She’s still mad with you about our bedroom door. And if you don’t shut up she says you’ll have to miss out on the party.”

  “You creep!” Molly yelled back, but within seconds she’d turned off her music and the lamps.

  “We’d better do what the scumbag says,” I heard Molly whisper. “She’ll probably grass us up otherwise, and there’s no way I’m missing that party!”

  I put my thumbs up to the others and crept to join them.

  Now I’m glad that we have torches as part of our sleepover kit, because we certainly needed them up there in the attic. It was so dark you just couldn’t see anything in front of you. And cold too! Somehow it seemed so much bigger than it had done in the daytime.

  “We must be there by now!” whispered Rosie. “Are you sure we haven’t passed the packing cases we used to mark out Molly’s room?”

  “No way!”

  “Listen!” Lyndz suddenly hissed. “Isn’t that Spike crying?”

  We all held our breath. If Lyndz’s mum came to check on him, as sure as eggs is eggs she’d check on us too. Molly wasn’t the only one who might be missing the party!

  “It’s OK, I think he must just be having a dream,” Lyndz sighed with relief when there was silence below us again.

  “Well at least we know that Molly’s room isn’t too far away,” Frankie whispered. “Look, the cases are here.”

  We tiptoed to the middle of them and grinned at each other.

  “Let’s do it!”

  Frankie and I took off our dressing gowns and started to drag them over the floor, making a loud swishing sound. Fliss and Rosie danced and stamped around whilst Lyndz moaned and groaned.

  To begin with, we thought Molly and Carli must be asleep because there was no sound below us. Then we heard a low urgent murmuring. We stopped where we were, then started again – swishing, stamping and moaning. It was all going fantastically – until Lyndz’s moans were joined by loud “hic!”s. She’d got the dreaded hiccups!

  “No Lyndz!” I almost shouted, running over to her and clamping my hand over her mouth. “You’ll give the game away.”

  By that time we could hear anxious sobs below us.

  “Time we were gone!” I whispered to the others.

  We hurried to the stairway as quickly and quietly as we could. Turning to the others I laughed, “Go on, tell me that wasn’t our best yet!”

  But no-one spoke. They looked terrified. I spun round to see what the problem was – only to be met by the shadowy figure of a man looming up the stairs towards us.

  I took one look at the lumbering form and started to scream. I wanted to run back up to the attic, but my legs had turned to jelly.

  “Away with your screaming,” chuckled the figure, emerging out of the shadows. “Anyone would think you’d seen a ghost!”

  “Uncle Bob!” we gasped in unison.

  “You see!” sobbed Fliss. “He keeps appearing without us hearing anything.”

  “Fliss!”

  “Well it’s weird! And scary!”

  But there was something much scarier coming up the main stairs – MUM! She was on the warpath, wanting to find out what all the commotion was about. Molly and Carli were outside their bedroom weeping and wailing about spooky sounds in the attic. Mum was bound to see us and put two and two together – she’s very good at that kind of maths.

  Uncle Bob motioned for us to hurry along the landing and closed the attic door behind us. As Mum rounded the corner, we were almost back outside our own bedroom.

  “Ah, there you are, Valerie,” he greeted Mum warmly. “I found these wee lassies terrified out of their wits. They say something has been making a proper din up there.” He pointed to the attic. “It must be Headless Eric doing his rounds again. He’s the house ghost; a noisy wee thing but he’s harmless enough. Wouldn’ae hurt a flea.”

  Mum looked at us suspiciously so we tried to look as terrified as possible.

  “D-did you hear it too?” Frankie stammered as Molly and Carli appeared, trembling and shaking. “Wasn’t it gruesome?”

  They both nodded, and it took me all my time not to burst out laughing. Respect to Frankie, she played an absolute blinder. They were totally convinced that we really had been scared by Headless Eric!

  “I’ll hear no more talk of ghosts!” said Mum sternly, ushering us back to our rooms. “There must be a perfectly sensible explanation for the noises.”

  She stared hard at Uncle Bob as she spoke. He just carried on smiling, but as soon as her back was turned he gave me a great big wink and the cheekiest grin!

  When Mum had finally gone back downstairs I nearly exploded.

  “Isn’t Uncle Bob just the most fun?” I grinned, tossing a handful of fizzy fish at the others. “I mean, how many other adults would have got us out of that mess?”

  “He certainly is one barmy old dude!” agreed Lyndz,
whose hiccups had disappeared in the excitement.

  Fliss didn’t say anything, she just sat on her bed chewing her sweet thoughtfully.

  “But you were pretty awesome too, Frankie,” Rosie reminded us. “Talk about thinking on your feet!”

  Frankie stood up on her bed.

  “I thank you all, my humble servants!” She bowed elaborately.

  “No need to get carried away!” I said, thwacking her with my pillow.

  We hadn’t had a pillow fight for ages so the others joined in. Wicked!

  Afterwards, as we lay exhausted on our beds, I told the others, “If we put as much energy into our vampire-slaying, those demons won’t stand a chance!”

  “Aw man, can’t we have a break from all that?” Rosie moaned. “This holiday is turning out to be pretty exhausting.”

  “Look Rosie-Posie, we’re on a mission,” I told her firmly. “And we cannot fail.”

  I had intended to go on our vampire patrol the very next night, but we set out in the morning to do the touristy sightseeing thing and it was dark when we arrived back. However much we pleaded, there was no way that Mum was going to let us “roam about outside”, as she put it.

  The next day, party-frenzy hit town. We had to help tidy up this room and help trim up that. And just when we thought it was safe to go outside, Uncle Bob got us to help move all the furniture around. Typical!

  The same thing happened the following day too. As soon as the light was beginning to fade and we were about to head out of the door, Uncle Bob called us back.

  “Ah there you are now,” he chuckled. “I was hoping you’d be able to help me with these.”

  He produced a bag containing about a million balloons.

  “We want the place looking nice and cheerful for the party, don’t we now?”

  “Couldn’t we do that tomorrow, Uncle Bob?” I pleaded. “The party isn’t until Saturday. We’ve still got two days left.”

  “Ah now, there’s all the cooking to do tomorrow, Kenny,” he told me with a gleam in his eye. “And you don’t want to miss out on the haggis-making, do you?”

  He handed over the balloons.

  “Kenny’s the right one for that job!” Molly called out snidely as she and Carli walked past. “She’s full of hot air!”

  I could have strangled her. But Uncle Bob went one better – he made them dust all the books in his library! Classic!

  “It’s almost like your uncle doesn’t want us to go outside, isn’t it?” Rosie said, taking a breather from blowing up balloons. “Do you think he’s got something to hide?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied, thoughtfully. “But we’re definitely going to find out tomorrow night.”

  In preparation for our vampire-slaying mission we went to bed early and made crosses from pieces of wood which we’d found in a box next to the fireplace in the lounge.

  “Do you think these are going to work?” Fliss asked, holding up a very wonky-looking cross held together with Sellotape.

  “Deffo,” I assured her. “It’s the symbol of the cross that vampires are scared of, it doesn’t matter what they’re made of.”

  I sharpened a few sticks as best I could with the help of Fliss’s nail file.

  “Look, I’ve got myself some stakes too! Bring on the vampires!”

  But that night it wasn’t vampires we had to deal with, but Headless Eric again. Or at least, that’s what Molly and Carli would have liked us to believe. At about two o’clock in the morning I felt someone shaking me.

  “Wassup!” I mumbled crossly. “Leave me alone will you?”

  I looked up to see Fliss and Rosie staring at me.

  “Listen!” Rosie whispered.

  At first I couldn’t hear anything. Then there was a scraping and moaning noise above us.

  “It’s c-coming from the attic!” Fliss stammered. “Do you think it really is Headless Eric?”

  “Don’t be daft!” I told her. “That was just Uncle Bob’s story to get us out of trouble. It’s got to be Molly, she must be stupid if she thought we’d fall for that trick ourselves.”

  “You mean she sussed it was us?” Frankie asked. She and Lyndz were now sitting on my bed with the others.

  “Must have!” I shrugged. “Come on, let’s go and sort her out!”

  We crept to the door and out on to the landing. We were halfway along to the attic door when all the lights were turned on.

  “Sprung!” Mum announced viciously.

  Molly and Carli were just in front. They looked absolutely amazed when they caught sight of us.

  “Now I don’t know who it was that rigged up that little charade,” Mum was looking from me to Molly, “but it’s beyond a joke. Nobody believes in ghosts, OK? And if there’s any more mischief like that, you’ll all be grounded and none of you will be going to the party on Saturday, is that understood?”

  “But that’s not f—” Molly began.

  “Is that understood?” Mum repeated firmly.

  “Yes!” We all nodded glumly.

  “Now back to bed, all of you!” Mum watched as we headed back to our bedrooms.

  As Molly passed behind us she hissed, “We’ll get you back for that!”

  “What did she mean?” Rosie asked crossly when we back in bed. “They were the ones pretending to be Headless Eric this time.”

  “I just want to know how they got back from the attic so quickly,” Frankie yawned sleepily.

  Hmm, that certainly was a mystery. But I could tap Molly for that information later. We only had one more chance to slay the vampires before we went home, and I was determined that nothing was going to mess that up.

  All the next day we were as helpful as possible – fetching, carrying, peeling and chopping. We figured that if we worked our socks off all day, nobody could refuse us the chance to cut loose for a little while in the evening. And as we were in the kitchen I had the perfect opportunity to ‘borrow’ a little garlic – vampires hate that!

  By late afternoon, the kitchen was groaning with food. There was just one last dish to prepare – haggis!

  “What on earth is haggis anyway?” Fliss asked.

  “Well,” Mrs Barber grinned. “As Robbie Burns once wrote, it’s the ‘Great Chieftain o’ the puddin’ race’.”

  “Pudding, great! Count us in!”

  Mum and Lyndz’s mum exchanged weird looks.

  “Well you’d better help me with the ingredients then,” Mrs Barber smiled, leading the way to the fridge.

  Frankie took one look inside and dashed outside with her hand over her mouth.

  “Gonna hurl!” she moaned.

  Fliss and Rosie ran after her. Lyndz and I stayed to have a closer look.

  “Och, the girl’s gone soft. Has she never seen a sheep’s heart and liver before?” Mrs Barber pretended to look amazed.

  “And w-what’s that?” Lyndz asked, pointing to another bloody-looking container lurking inside the fridge.

  “Why that’s the sheep’s lungs!” Mrs Barber explained, removing the container. “And this here’s the sheep’s paunch, or stomach bag. We mix up all those goodies with oatmeal, onions and seasoning, then stuff it back in here and boil it. It’s the most delicious thing you’ll ever taste.”

  Lyndz had gone a funny shade of green. And I was feeling none too clever myself.

  “Why don’t you two run along and see if Frankie’s OK?” Lyndz’s mum ushered us out of the kitchen. “You’ve worked ever so hard today, go and get some fresh air whilst we finish up in here.”

  We didn’t need telling twice. We ran and ran until we finally caught up with the others leaning against a tree outside.

  “You OK?” I asked Frankie.

  “Mm,” she nodded. “It was all that bloody stuff, it was disgusting.” She went pale again at the thought of it.

  “You don’t suppose your Uncle Bob really is a vampire himself, do you?” asked Rosie. “And that was the remains of one of his victims?”

  Fliss squealed.

/>   “Nah!” I shook my head. “But speaking of vampires, look it’s getting dark. This might be our last chance to slay them. Let’s go upstairs, grab our things and prepare to do battle.”

  We charged up to our room, stuffed the crosses, stakes and garlic into our pockets and ran outside again. Uncle Bob was just walking up to the house.

  “You’re brave venturing out there,” he grinned. “You want to be careful, you never know what you might meet.”

  We all looked at each other and he went inside, rubbing his hands and chuckling to himself.

  “There’s something going on here and I don’t l-like it,” Fliss shivered. “Let’s go back inside.”

  “Look Fliss, do you want to come with us or stuff disgusting muck into a sheep’s stomach?” I asked her. “The choice is yours.”

  Felicity remained rooted to the spot.

  “Felicity Proudlove, you are the weakest link, goodbye!”

  We started to walk away towards the chapel.

  “No, don’t leave me!” she yelled and came hurtling after us.

  “We’ll be OK if we stick together,” I told everyone firmly.

  When we had the chapel in our sights we went in single file, creeping carefully and trying to make as little noise as possible.

  As soon as we got to the chapel, we knew we were not alone. Something was moving about on the other side. Torches occasionally flashed, and there was a low murmuring of voices. I peeped through the open doorway and saw a hooded figure. I gasped and pulled back.

  “There’s something round the other side,” I whispered to the others. “We’ll have to creep round. It’s too dark to go in here.”

  “I want to go home!” Fliss sobbed. “Please let’s go back.”

  “I’m with Fliss,” Rosie agreed. “Come on, this could be dangerous!”

  My heart was pounding in my chest. And I admit that I was scared. Really scared. Part of me wanted to turn and run. But part of me thought: Come on Kenny, this is exciting!

  Besides, I knew that the others would never let me forget it if they thought for one second that I was as terrified as they were.

  “You stay here if you want,” I hissed. “But I’m going in!”