Love Bites! {[So do Vampires]} Chapter 1

If you ask me, this whole idea was stupid, stupid, stupid.

Actually, on the contrary, it wasn’t even my idea.

I just played along because, well you know, my friend dared me to.

Well screw friends.

Friends are the ones that you get you into messes like these.

Now I’m sure you’re beginning to wonder exactly what happened. Let’s just put it this way, truth or dare was so five years ago. Please, don’t try to relive those good old days from junior high, because suddenly ding-dong-ditching your neighbor just isn’t entertaining enough. No, instead, you’ve got to do something a little more monumental, like… illegally slipping past the yellow “do not cross” lines to spend the night in that creepy old Victorian home that’s been abandoned for years now.

I didn’t want to do it. But naturally, my best friend… or my so-called best friend, triple dog dared me. And you know me. I’d never back down from a triple dog dare.

So there I was, in the middle of the night, sitting on the floor of this mansion the size of the White House, too stubborn to admit—even to myself—that I might be just a tad bit scared.

But hey, don’t try to act like you’d handle it any better. This house is just like the ones you see in the horror movies. There’s this constant storm hovering over it, the rain leaking through the roof makes this eerie dripping sound and the winds make the house groan worse than my grandmother after that time she threw at her back bending over to weed out the garden. I just know that waiting for me around that next corner is some psycho axe murderer. He’s probably just waiting for me to fall asleep before he makes his move.

I glanced behind me, and craned my neck to see further into the next hallway, “Okay Elaine, now you’re just starting to become paranoid,” I mumbled. “… and now you’re talking to yourself. Okay!” I stood, brushing away a few dust bunnies on my pants legs, “Guess it’s time to check out the rest of the place. I’d rather find that axe murderer now than wake to him hovering over me.”

I peeked behind the wall again; just to be sure that axe murderer wasn’t standing there, axe raised and ready to chop my head off.

I then made my way down the empty hallway. The walls were cracked, and any remaining paint was peeling away. I looked through a few of the rooms as I passed them. Most were empty, but some held furniture like a desk or a chair. Even from the little amount of furniture I could tell the home’s previous owner must have been filthy rich.

Which kinda’ makes me wonder how they let it turn into this pig pen.

You’d think whoever owned it would’ve passed it onto a relative, or at least a close friend. Hey, I would have been their friend.

Although having my own personal tour of a restricted house was exciting, I found myself yawning. It was late, and I was beginning to tire. I’d been in the house for a while now, and the hour hand on my wrist watch was already beginning to creep to one in the morning.

I was only dared to spend the night in the mansion. Technically, it was morning now.

‘Freedom!’ I thought, smiling to myself and turning in the other direction to return home, but then another thought hit me. ‘She’ll probably just take that as an excuse…’ letting out a small sigh, and turning back to continue my exploration of the house.

A little further down the hallway, I found a spiral staircase leading to the attic. “Hm,” I considered the wooden steps, some were dark and looked rotten. I placed my foot on the first step, and pressed all my weight on it. The stair protested with a moan, but didn’t give way. I tried the next step, and then the next, and the one after that. Before I knew it, I’d reached the top.

The attic had obviously once been a bedroom. I knew this because, surprisingly enough, most the furniture was still there. The room had a dark color scheme of dark brown, maroon, and gold. The dresser was a dark red oak which matched the bed frame and rocking chair in the corner of the room. The bed was nearly made, with gold silk throw pillows and down comforter. The pillows were stacked up so high I could barely see the ones on top. I eyed the bed, it looked so tempting to jump onto it, curl up beneath that sea of warm blankets and sheets and drift off into lala land.

And so, I did just that, practically engulfed by the feather down blankets and Mt. Pillow-est. I let out a pleasant humming noise, “As Goldilocks would say… this bed is juuust right.”

Within immediate contact of the bed, I fell asleep. My light snores filling the once eerie silence of the entire mansion.

Though I suddenly awoke when I felt an unusually cool tingle on my air, and then, “And who, my dear, are you?”

I bolted up lightning fast from that bed, blinking a few times, frantically searching for the source of the voice.

I heard a chuckle. I squinted, suddenly able to make out the outline of masculine figure standing at the foot of my bed… or perhaps it was his bed.

The man smiled wickedly. His teeth flashed a perfect white as he smiled. What really caught me up about his smile though were the two-inch long fangs.

My eyes bugged out, and I opened up my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. ‘Fantastic! I’m about to get attacked by some really sharp toothed maniac and I can’t even summon up a good scream!’

The man raised an eyebrow at me, curious by the horrified expression that had crept onto my face. He immediately understood, and smiled again, sending shivers down my spine.

“What, these?” He asked, running his tongue along the edge of a fang. “They’re not so bad…” he told me, and then disappeared in a flash to stand beside me.

All I could do was stare at him with wide eyes. Although incredibly frightening, the guy wasn’t half-bad looking for a psycho maniac. He had a rather handsome face, though he seemed a little old for me… about twenty or so. I was only seventeen… not that I’d ever end up with the guy.

“In fact,” he then continued, “You’d hardly feel any pain at all, as in a few minutes you’d be dead, and the pain from these,” he stopped for a dramatic pause, smile broadening, “Won’t seem to hurt near as much as actually dying.”

I narrowed my eyes on his, and started to back away from him slowly to the other side of the bed. ‘Maybe he doesn’t notice I’m moving… I could always shout, “Look a spider on you head!” And then make a scrambling run for it. Yeah… that’s good…’

All thoughts ended though when his hand touched my face. I flinched at its coolness, and shuddered.

“Don’t worry… soon you’ll be dead and the pain gone…” he told me in a matter-of-fact tone, proceeding to lean forward and rake his fangs across my neck. I was paralyzed, I couldn’t even reach out with my hand to push him way.

“Jared!” I heard another man’s voice bark.