There aren't any vampires...

“Girls can be so aggravating!” The expression on his youthful face was contorted with frustration. “There aren’t any vampires”, countered his pretty companion for the tenth time. The existence of vampires had been the subject of an ongoing debate ever since their father had announced the family would be vacationing in Romania.

As they walked down a cobbled side-street of Bucharest, the sun was just setting and the sky was a stunning portrait of reds, yellows, and purple. George sulked to himself as Gloria peered into the ornate windows of ancient shops that had probably been there for centuries. This part of the city had not been renovated over the years and exuded a certain surreal quality that could only be felt when prowling a burial crypt at midnight.

“Hey, look at this”. The girl pointed to a collection of carefully displayed garlic wreathes in the aged window case. George came out of his funk to see what Gloria was pointing at. “Wow…a real garlic necklace to ward off vampires”, exclaimed George. “Silly boy! Those are just souvenirs for tourists.” “Oh, yeah?…then why is there a display of crucifixes in the next window?”, taunted George. Gloria peered with doubt at the second display. “It’s just a coincidence…there’s no such thing as vampires!”

Gloria began to run down the street exhibiting her best vampire theatrics yelling, “I’m the vampire…I’m the vampire”. She ran headlong into a gnarled old woman that was turning the corner and knocked a basket out of her hands. “Oh..I’m terribly sorry”, said Gloria as she reached to pick up the basket. “Don’t…no…don’t touch it”, screamed the old woman. Her face was a mask of hatred. Gloria jumped back from the vicious look. “I…I…I am sorry”, cried Gloria. “Foolish child, you should not be here…vampyres”, remarked the old woman. She made a peculiar sign in the air toward Gloria and resumed her slow arthritic gait up the street looking back only once.

“What was that all about?”, asked George. “I..I…don’t know”, replied Gloria. “I said I was sorry but she was still angry…I don’t know why”. “She made some kind of sign at me”. “I saw that”, grinned George…”it was the sign to ward away evil”. “Evil..evil…what evil?” George just shook his head…”I’ve been trying to tell you…vampires!” “Vampires?”, questioned Gloria. “Yeah…remember…you were running down the street yelling that you were one?” “Oh, that”, said Gloria feeling a little embarrassed. “Forget it…let’s go on…I want to be on time to meet Vord”.

Feeling a little relief, Gloria joined George as he began to walk a faster and faster in the twilight. “Hey…slow down a little”, complained Gloria. “I told Vord we’d meet him at 6 pm so we have to hurry”, chastised George. Gloria ran a little to catch up to George. If they hadn’t been walking so fast, she’d have had time to notice that the section of town they’d reached would have made a good set for a remake of Frankenstein.

They were just passing an alley when a young voice called out, “Hey…George…over here!!” Peering into the now darkened alley, George could just make out the silhouette of a boy about his age. “Vord…is that you?” “Yeah…it’s me…come in here”, said the silhouette. George began walking down the alley that was strewn with garbage. A trail of vile-looking greenish liquid trailed down the middle of the alley. It was so gloomy that there appeared to be fog and the small amount of light left was fading fast. “George! Who’s that with you?”, asked Vord. “Oh, that’s just my silly sister…my parents made me bring her with me”. “What’s her name”, inquired Vord. “Gloria”, replied George with a tone of disgust in his voice. “Come here Gloria”, called George. “For what”, asked Gloria…”who are you talking to?” “It’s my friend Vord…come on”. “I don’t see
anyone”, said Gloria as she walked slowly down the now dark alley. A feeling of dread was growing within her as Gloria strained her eyes to see.

Just as she turned to run, George called out, “Gloria, this is my pen-pal friend Vord that I’ve talked so much about”. In a rich thick accent, Vord introduced himself….”Hello… Gloria…I am Vord”. Gloria looked deeply into the darkness and while she could not see anything more than a mist, she could plainly hear the voice. It was melodious and seemed to strike some chord in her childhood. “Hello Vord…it’s nice to meet you”. Gloria felt her fear beginning to melt away. “Come closer Gloria…I can hardly see you”, returned Vord. “Yes…it is a bit dark here…we were just talking about vampires”, said Gloria with a slight giggle. George smiled conspiratorially at Vord. “Vampires??”, asked Vord. “Yes…yes…vampires…I was just telling my silly brother that there were no vampires in Romania”. “That’s exactly right”, solemnly confirmed Vord with a subtle sadness in his eyes.

The trio at Vord’s insistence started on down the alley which was a shortcut to Vord’s home. The fog and shadows grew denser as they traveled. Gloria suddenly tripped over something unseen. Before she could recover, she felt powerful arms wrapped around her and a hot painful prick in her neck just below her left jaw. As she screamed and struggled to see who the attacker was, she found it to be Vord. She could feel her life’s blood draining away like water swirling down a deep abandoned sewer. “But..but…you said there were no vampires”, Gloria managed to blurt in a hurt voice. “That’s not exactly right Gloria…I agreed that there were no vampires in Romania”, replied Vord between sucking noises. “Those of my kind have been long driven out of Romania…I am from Hungary…the last stronghold”. The last thing Gloria heard was her brother laughing and calling out “There’s no such thing as vampires…there’s no such thing as vampires….”.