VACATION GONE WRONG

A supernatural tale.

    Myself and a couple of my friends went on a trip to England for our Fall vacation. We rented the top floor of an older house that was real nice, not elegant or fancy but very spacious and comfortable with some very nice views of the city. We each had our own cozy bedrooms. Once we were settled in our temporary home for a week my two friends took off to visit family they had living in the country which left me alone. I didn’t mind. It would give me some time to stroll through the neighborhood and get a real feel for the city.

  As I was putting some things together to take with me on my outing a loud knock sounded on the door. I jumped at the unexpected sound. Who would be knocking on our door, I wondered? Should I even answer it? I decided to, picking up my pepper spray as I headed to the door. I opened the door and found a tall, thin man standing there with shoulder length dark hair and very dark eyes surrounded by very dark lashes. And he was dressed in black clothing too. So very dark except his unnaturally pale skin. Not a sun worshipper, I concluded.

    “Yes?” I said, my eyebrows rose in question.

    The man smiled and that smile made me shiver. “An, you’re an American.”

    “And you’re British.” I replied. “What can I do for you?”

    “You can let me in. We need to talk.”

    “I don’t think so.” I made sure he saw I was holding my pepper spray. Even in Britain I’m sure they must know what pepper spray is even if they aren’t big on self-defense with weapons.

    The man smiled, looking amused as he noticed what I was holding. “I have something to tell you that you need to know.”

    For some reason I suddenly felt I should let him in so I did. We sat on the couch and he started talking just like we were old friends. I didn’t really take in what he was saying, something about spells and witchcraft that made no sense to me. I felt odd and I just wished he’d leave.

     The next thing I know some of his friends showed up, at least I think they were his friends and one lady said in a British accent, “So this is the American you’ve been waiting for.”

    I heard the man laugh and say, “Yes, this is her.” He put his arm around me and pulled me close. I felt I couldn’t struggle but I sure wanted to. I didn’t know what was going on nor did I know why I couldn’t seem to fight him. He talked a long time to his friends and while they were talking I noticed they were just as white as he was. It looked sickly, unnatural and very unhealthy. I sat and listened, feeling helpless, like I was not at all in charge of myself anymore.

     “We’ll leave you two alone. You’ve got things to do.” One of the women said in a very thick British accent looking directly at the man.

    He smiled. “I’ll deliver.”

    “We know you will.” One of the men said.

    After they left he pulled me close and hugged me tightly. “You’re about to change everything.”

    “What do you mean?” I managed to ask. I was wearing a sweater, not sure if October in England is cold or not. He hugged me tighter and started stroking my hair.

     I noticed a spider on the wall just behind the couch we were sitting on. I tried to pull out of his arms, frightened at the sight of the spider. It was not a small one at all. “A spider.” I said, wanting to get away from it. I felt I was too close to it.

    “No! No! Don’t tell me you see a spider!”  He seemed excited by the fact there was a spider on the wall behind us.

     “Yes. A spider.” It was a long thin rectangular shaped spider with thin long legs. “It’s a yellow one.” I wondered if the spider was a bad omen.

     Smiling he said. “Don’t worry. Come on. Let’s go. I have a place set up for us.”

    “I’m not going anywhere with you! My friends will be back soon anyway.” I wanted to scare him with the knowledge I wasn’t alone, there were others who knew about me and cared about me. That information didn’t seem to faze him a bit.

    “You are coming with me.” He said in a commanding tone of voice.

    I looked at him and suddenly I couldn’t help but want to go with him. What’s going on, I wondered. Why am I so helpless to resist? I felt fear trying to break through my desire to do what he wanted but it didn’t make it.

    We got up to leave and I turned around and saw the man snooping in one of my friends things. He took something out of a bottom drawer of a dresser, a brown flat bag of some sort. I wondered what it was but all I could manage to do was say, “You’re stealing from my friends?”

    His only response was a dark chilling smile as he tucked the brown flat bag into his jacket. “Come on.”

    And like a zombie I followed him. We exited the place and stepped out onto a quiet street that didn’t look too modern. He took a hold of my arm and pulled me along the dingy sidewalk. We passed a train yard full of old run down looking trains and passed tall older looking buildings that looked run down too. “Cool. So this is what England looks like.” I said then felt stupid. I was behaving as if I were a regular tourist and not someone who had just been kidnapped. We continued walking and the man kept looking all around as if he were watching for someone or perhaps making sure we weren’t being watched by someone else. What’s going on, I wondered again. Why am I just going along with all this? I felt like I wanted to struggle, to escape but I couldn’t find the will power or strength to fight him.

    We came to a gully that seemed real out of place with the city of London. The gully stretched before us and led to the ocean. I could see the ocean at its end and got all excited. “The ocean! Cool!” Somehow I felt my excitement was all wrong and very out of place.

    “Come on.” The man pulled me along and we started to climb down the side of the gully.  

    “No! I came here for a vacation not to be abducted by you.” I cried but I couldn’t stop what was happening.

    The gully was full of lush green grass with lots of saplings. There were ancient ruins sticking up from the ground making the place look a lot like a very old cemetery. Many of these were slightly pointed at their ends. There was a partial stone wall that was mostly crumbled. Along the sides of the gully and at the end there were large rocks jutting out of the earth towering skyward that looked a lot like columns and they framed the ocean at the end of the gully. The ocean heaved and shifted, looking strangely and impossibly high. I felt frightened by this sight and felt awed as well, because the ocean didn’t come rushing in and fill the gully like a flash flood. We walked along the gully toward its end. I stared at the ancient ruins as we walked by them and noticed the markings on them but didn’t say anything. It was obvious the man was aware of these markings too. But what surprised me was when I realized I could understand what these markings said.

    “Can you read them?” He asked.

    I shook my head no, feeling afraid. I didn’t want him to know I could read them.

    He laughed. “You can read them.” He turned suddenly, pulling me in a different direction. I noticed an opening in the side of the gully he was leading me to. “You are about to discover your true destiny.”

    He dragged me through the opening and into a large cavern. There were other people in there, dark people like him and with strangely white skin that seemed luminous in that shadowy place. He pushed me forward to a slab on glossy black stone and pushed me down onto it. I felt my heart beating painfully fast certain I was going to be some sort of sacrifice and still I couldn’t fight what was happening to me. He smiled down at me and I noticed his sharp white teeth all of a sudden. I knew I should be terribly afraid but I wasn’t. He’s doing something to me, to my mind, so I can’t be afraid and fight him, I thought.

    The other people in the room gathered close and circled the alter. “Let it begin.” A woman said. I recognized her from earlier. I desperately wanted to be afraid, I felt it was important for me to be afraid but I couldn’t feel the fear.

    The man pushed me all the way back on the alter and covered my body with his. I was helpless and passive and let him do to me what he wanted. He pushed my hair away from my neck and sank his fangs in deeply and started drawing out my blood. I couldn’t struggle, I just let it happen. It was a strange feeling, sort of pleasurable and comforting. I thought I should feel pain but I didn’t. I found the feeling of my life being drained from me was something that I enjoyed and I enjoyed it until I felt very weak. The weakness was quickly followed by darkness. I sighed softly at the end of my life.

                *                  *                                   *

    When I became aware again I understood a lot more. I stood beside the alter no longer human but a vampire. I was hungry, so very hungry. Devyn, the man who had done this to me, smiled. “You can feed, all in good time, my dear. All in good time. But first you must do something.”

    “What?”

    “Perform this ritual. You are the only one who can do it. You can read the markings on the ancient ruins. None of the rest of us can.” Devyn said. “I knew when I first spotted you at the airport that you were the one who could read them.”

    “I’m flattered so what will I be doing? What’s going to happen?” I asked him.

    “Power. For us. For our people.”

    I looked around at the other vampires in this dark mysterious place. Should I care about them? About Devyn? I sighed. I had to care about Devyn, I had no choice, but I didn’t really care about the others. “Okay.”

    Devyn led me around the ancient ruins and I read the markings on them and I did understand all of what was written there. And I felt very powerful with that knowledge, knowledge that only I had. I smiled a small smile. Once I was done he led me back to the alter and stepped back. “Begin.” He ordered me.

    Whispering the words I had read on the ancient ruins I pointed my fingers at the candles and blew on them. The wicks glowed then ignited into flickering flames, small but powerful. I marveled at my powers and I repeated this small ritual until all the candles were lit. As each one ignited the watching vampires all made soft sounds of delight. “She’s the one.” I heard a male vampire say.

    Once the candles were lit I stood beside the alter and started the ritual I knew Devyn wanted that would give him ultimate power over humans and other Immortals. I was his key to becoming the King of them all. Should I do this? Somehow it felt wrong. Devyn felt wrong. I started the ritual and looked over at him. His eyes were luminous, an ugly red with his belief he was about to become supreme. I thought of the yellow spider and how everything had felt wrong since he had come to me I didn’t know how long ago. And suddenly I realized he no longer had control over me. I smiled again but this time my smile wasn’t so small or passive.

    I continued saying the incantation and lifted my hands into the air then suddenly I pointed my fingers at Devyn and fire shot out of them and engulfed him. I knew this would kill him, that vampires might live a long time but weren’t truly immortal. He screamed and went up into a ball of flame. Then, before the other vampires could react I did the same thing to them. I set them on fire and they exploded into balls of flame. In seconds they were gone and I was alone. I smiled in satisfaction. I was the powerful one, not Devyn and his vampire friends.

    I left the cavern and walked out onto a London city street. The gully was gone. It was all part of the illusion I had been placed under by Devyn. I was a hungry vampire, a starving vampire alone on the now nighttime streets of London. There was plenty of blood here and I started my hunt. My human life was over, after all, and I knew I couldn’t go back to what didn’t exist anymore.

 

  

 

Reviews

[Eric Cox]

Very cool story. A cool read. Excellent creative pen on this tale!

[Star Wolf]

Awesome vampire story, it has a different feel to it then most. Very eerie and mysterious too.

[Black Cat Fever]

What an unusual and surreal vampire story. I am amazed and impressed. Outstanding creative write here.

[R J Askew]

Very inventive and imaginative. A totally surreal experience that coagulates into something very certain of itself. This puts me in mind of Stephen King, very strongly do. The power shifts at the end keep the story rolling along nicely.