Arisen part 5 & 6

After a while I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was pretty sure there was no way that I could sleep in my bedroom again that night, but I was too tired to possibly stay awake. One more scan of the bedroom might help, I told myself. I crept back to my bedroom silently, checking behind me every few seconds.
When I got to my bedroom door I saw that my bedroom light was off. I could distinctly remember turning it on, as I had turned on nearly every light switch in my entire home.
You’re not ten years old, Macy. You’re getting scared over nothing, I thought. I walked in just far enough to turn on the light and – nothing. There was nothing in my room except my bed and dresser, just as usual. I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
I turned to walk out of my ordinary bedroom. A dark figure appeared in my vision, in the hallway directly in front of me. Before I could even scream, something was pulled over my head and tied around my neck. My hands were forced in front of me and tied with a rough piece of rope. As quickly as it happened, I was dragged down my hallway and out my back door.
As I was shoved to my knees and felt no more hands upon me, I pulled at the rope around my neck. When I had finally loosed it, I pulled the cloth off my head so I could see. I was more than shocked to see Granger there, in the middle of my backyard, standing between two other strange men. They looked older than he did, and they had all really outdone themselves.
They were heavily armed to obviously “ward off” vampires. Each of them carried several giant wooden staked attached to their belts, at least ten crosses on chains around their necks, and vials of water in their hands. They all reeked of garlic, although I couldn’t see it anywhere on them.
The one who dragged me out came from behind and was equipped with the same items as the other three. He pressed the point of a stake roughly against my chest.
“Are you ready to die?” He spoke firmly.
I didn’t know what to say.
“We know what you are,” Granger added coyly. I just stared at him, willing myself to speak.
“Wait, I’m not –“ my words were cut short by a quick shove to the ground. I tried to pull myself up, but the person beside me grabbed my tied hands and dragged me to my angrily to my feet.
“Let’s go, vampire,” he announced with pride. The others joined in and helped drag me to their van, which they threw me into and slammed shut behind me.

***********************

I counted the seconds while we drove. By my count we were driving for about ten minutes, give or take one minute or so. I was afraid the whole time of what would happen to me once we stopped.
The door slid open and Granger poked his head inside. He grabbed my arm and pulled at me until I was close enough to put the cloth on my head again. I was immediately ripped from the van and shoved around between all of them. They manhandled me until I was indoors, and threw me into a chair.
When my head was freed of the wretched cloth, I surveyed my surroundings. I was in a small room with a few desks and one light by the wall, so the room was rather dim.
“I don’t know why you guys think I’m a vampire, but I’m not,” I pleaded quickly in case one of them thought it would be wise to kill me.
“We are professionals, and we know our business,” stated the person who had dragged me from my home. He seemed even older than the others, like he might be going into his fifties soon.
“You don’t know anything. You think you are going to be safe from vampires by smelling like garlic? You wanna know what garlic really does? It makes you smell like garlic. That’s it. It makes people hungry,” I fumed sarcastically.
They were speechless for a second, as though they had to think about what I had said. While I had their attention, I went on.
“And just so you know, holy water doesn’t do anything either. Crosses are also worthless. Vampires aren’t stems of evil anymore – they’re a product of natural selection as far as I’m concerned,” I finished.
They went into a sort of huddle as though deliberating my words.
“We are vampire hunters,” the oldest man informed me, “we have just never come across a real vampire before. Not so close as we are to you, anyways.”
I just stared at him. They all made themselves look so stupid.
“So,” said one of the other two strangers, “how can you prove that you aren’t a vampire?”
“I can’t. Except that I am an actual vampire hunter, and I don’t know what exactly you people think you are doing but I have been hunting vampires for the last five years,” I answered proudly.
The oldest man shook his head at Granger and untied me.
“My name is Pearce, and I run this operation. My colleague Granger here said that you acted strangely during your chat. This,” he said, pointing to one of the strangers, “is Riley and this,” pointing to the other, “is Harton.”
“Did Granger happen to recount to you how strangely he acted that night?” I demanded, rubbing my wrists. Riley and Harton turned to him quickly and Pearce just looked at me inquisitively. “I asked him about his necklace and he freaked out. Does that make him a vampire?”
“Okay, we get it, you aren’t a vampire,” admitted Granger. “Now will you help us or not?”
“Um, not,” I said loudly to all of them.
“Look,” said Granger, who seemed more concerned than the rest of them to have my help, “we obviously have no idea what we are doing here. We really need you in this.”
I didn’t want to do it, but I thought about the person they were hunting. Who knew if there target was actually a vampire or not? I was suddenly filled with fear at the thought of them tracking down some innocent pedestrian and scaring the life out of him or her. Then I thought of them possibly killing someone, and realized I couldn’t just stand by and let them wreak havoc on the streets at their own discretion.
“Fine. I’ll need all the information you have right now.”