"Yeah, it's a family. Except I haven't seen the boy," she replied.
"Ooh, a boy. I'm going to get ready, then."
"Anna, just leave them alone. I'm sure they want to unpack in peace without the neighbors annoying them."
"I'm not gonna annoy them. I just want to introduce myself."
"Fine, Anna, but if I get any complaints, you're not going over there again," she said and turned away.
"I'll be nice, mom. I promise."
I finished my cereal and raced back upstairs to change from my pajamas and go meet the new people.
The house next door, though usually known as the "freaky" house was anything but freaky. It's where my friends and I spent a lot of our time when it was unoccupied. But I guess our parties were over now that it was full.
I finished getting dressed and went outside to greet the new family. The mother, I guessed, was standing next to the moving truck, giving orders to the movers.
I walked up to her and stretched out my hand.
"Good morning, new neighbors. My name is Anna Step."
She grabbed my hand and gave it a flimsy shake.
"Hi. I'm Ellen Rudmore," she offered reluctantly. "Thank you for introducing yourself."
I'm sure the way she said it was something like "you shouldn't be talking to me, go away" but I was not going to give up that easily.
"Umm... so are there any other members of the family?" I tried to ask as politely as I could.
"Yes. My husband and son."
"That's great! So if your son ever needs any new friends or someone to show him around, I'm here for that." I couldn't help adding the insinuation that I might be interested on the new guy. What can I do? I don't like roaming around the house when there's the possibility of a new beau.
"That's ok... Anna. He doesn't get out much, so I think it's best if you leave."
She turned around and didn't say more. I was a little angry at that. No way was I going to miss out on meeting a new guy. Well, it wouldn't matter. If he didn't get out much it probably meant that he was a computer geek who never had a girlfriend in the first place, so I had no reason to bother. So much for my curiosity.
I went into the side yard to cut through there and go to my backyard and see if I could hit a tree or something. I wasn't one for staying indoors.
But as I walked through the uncut grass -knee-high as it was- I heard an inhuman growl come from the house next door. I thought it was just too strange to ignore. I ignored the dead cat theory. Curiosity got the better of me. I climbed the fence -like I had done many years past in an effort to have a party next door- and landed on the foot step that I had created with some rocks for that same reason.
The backyard was the same as it always was, but now something took up a lot of space at the back of it. A big, wooden shack. It was dark inside, so I couldn't see if there was anything in it, but I was sure no one would bring in something like that and not have anything inside. And I was sure that the growl I had heard came from in here. I inched closer to peer inside.
But before I got too close, something leaped at me, only to be stopped by the iron bars that formed the doors, but it was still an effort that made me fall back to the ground.
I gasped as I looked up at the thing that did that.
It was a guy. A rather... cute guy, but evil looking. And of course it would be evil. Nothing leaps out at you with an intent to kill if it was being nice. He had auburn hair and green eyes, paled by constant sleepless nights. Or at least that's the look he had since he had dark shadows under his eyes. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he was a vampire.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I yelled at him. He was giving me a hard stare from behind his bars, trying to reach out to me with one hand.
"Come closer and I'll tell you," he said in a raspy voice.
"No way! You almost tried to kill me, didn't you?"
I was a little shook up from the scare that he gave me, but he seemed completely accustomed to it.
"Get closer," he said again.
His eyes seemed almost hypnotic, and I was inclined to step closer, but my better judgement got ahead of me.
"What do you want?" I asked him, stepping to a much safer distance from him.
"Blood," he breathed. I thought I hadn't heard him right.
"What?"
"Blood!" he yelled at me and again tried to leap at me, but the bars stopped him.
I stopped being scared. "Oh, so you are a vampire." This would be so hilarious once I told my friends.
"I'm not a vampire," he growled. "I just want your blood. It smells sweet."
That was a weird statement. "Well you can't have it. It's my blood and the only people allowed to have it are the doctors when need be necessary."
He was staring hard at me again.
"What's your name?" I asked.
He actually straightened up. All gentlemanly like. So he definitely was a vampire. I wondered if I was going to need a cross and garlic next time I came in contact with him.
"It's Patrick," he answered, now in a less raspy and hostile tone.
"And you drink blood?" I unconsciously stepped closer to him.
"Yes," he said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "I need it to live."
So as vampires go, this one was definitely the best I had ever met. Ok, the only one I had ever met, but a pretty good one compared to all the ones I read about. But because I knew better -commonly- I knew that this guy was just messing with me. Though staying a safe distance from him was still a goal of mine.
"Great. An incredibly cute yet psycho guy moves in next door," I said. "After all the years of living next to old couples and families with little kids, I was hoping that luck would give me a break, but she sends in a psycho!"
He was staring at me. Well, not exactly at my eyes, but I'm thinking somewhere where the blood flow was of greater advantage for him. I was thinking my neck.
"Must you keep staring at my neck?"
He looked up to meet my gaze, for the first time in fact, and it gave me chills. He was very intent on murdering me. It was there in his face. But I couldn't look away from his demonic stare.
"What...?" I couldn't really speak anymore, hardly breathe. It was shocking staring at the face of a killer. Or at least that's what he seemed to be.
"Forgive me," he said, now in a smooth voice. "I don't mean to scare you. But your blood is more than I can handle."
"Why are you trapped in this box?" I asked.
"Because I've killed too many and I can't stop myself."
The revelation didn't seem to have phazed his perfect features, almost as if he had no regrets of doing so. But I could tell that he was sad about that fact.
"Why did you kill them?"
"Because I needed the blood."
I had once again stepped closer to him without noticing it, but now I was in danger. I heard a growl escape his throat and his eyes twitched. He wanted to attack again! His hand reached out to me once again, too fast for me to notice, but I was quick and threw myself back, away from his grasp. I screamed and he leaped up in his cage, holding the bars firmly, trying to dislodge them. I was on the ground now, looking in terror at what he was doing. But then someone came up behind me.
"You!" She yelled. It was Mrs. Rudmore. "Get out of here!"
I got up quickly and headed for the fence. I climbed right over and ran to my house, where I stayed the rest of the day.
End of Part 1. heart
Ha! I don't think anyone would like it, but I wanted to do a little story telling. It gets better, I think, but typing a story that I thought of the night before is not too easy cuz I lose my inspiration. So much for an aspiring writer.
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