Symphony of Ruin

I believe that very few people would actually like a sad story, but there's often a trail of truth in the bitterness one finds in such tales, and the truth is necessary for us if we are to survive in this dark and cruel world. As I hold the pen in my hand, I don't know if I really should relate the strange things that happened or if anyone would ever believe them. But nonetheless, I'm going to leave this story behind, let those who have eyes and God-given wisdom be warned of the dark routes that the soul may take after death.

The story begins when my old friend, Christopher Traynor, invited me to go to his house and stay for a few days. I knew him from our days at the college; he came from an old, wealthy family who had dwindled in the recent years. His older brother had died two years ago, leaving him as the only heir to the family fortune, and the sole inheritor of the Traynor Mansion which was located near a small village called Abrianna. After graduation we still saw each other, until he married a lovely young woman by the name of Adah. I was quite busy myself and therefore we could hardly keep in touch, and usually by telephone or occasionally through email. I only visited him and Adah once, and that was when they had a baby boy, whom they named Shawn.

It was during the holidays when he had invited me, and I was just happy to go out of town and inhale the fresh air of the country. So I was preparing myself for the short trip, when he called again, five days later, asking me if I could postpone my visit and apologizing to me because something weird had happened, and at the time he couldn't entertain me as he should. He sounded tired, sick and sad, and this got me worried, but when I asked him what had happened, he merely said that he didn't feel well, but I had the feeling that he was hiding something from me; however I soon forgot the whole thing.

About two weeks later, I received a letter from him that greatly troubled me and at first I couldn't really believe it. It ran like this:

Dear Stanly,

I'm sending you this letter because neither Adah, nor myself can tell you what I want in any other way. I'm terribly sick and in bed as I dictate this letter to Adah, who has been affectionately nursing me for some time despite her own grief. I'm afraid that I must give you some terrible news; Shawn, our beloved child, has gone to the angels and left us heartbroken. His death was, as the doctors said, due to loss of blood, although we couldn't find what caused that blood loss, what a painful and cruel way for such an innocent creature to go.

I am so sorry for not telling you sooner, but my mind was numb and I was incapable of rational thinking, and neither of us knew what to do. However Adah has been much braver than I am, in facing the horrible truth. Even now I have difficulty believing the tragedy, and I have fallen sick. I'm so weak that sometimes I faint, and sometimes I see things in my delirium. As if these have not been enough, the whole place is now dark and gloomy, two of villagers have died of unknown causes in short intervals, and everyone is now scared. I feel that a dark shadow has fallen on our peaceful region and the night itself seems ominous, reeking of death.

Earlier I asked you not to come because I thought you would find me an incompetent host, but now as a friend in need, I beg you to come to us. My doctor keeps telling me that I need to go to a hospital, but I want to stay here; there is something in this house that makes me reluctant to leave it, happy old memories perhaps. Your presence here will be really helpful. Adah too, will be happy to have my old friend over, as we believe it will ease our pain. So please come as soon as you can.

Your friend, Christopher

Needless to say, I was saddened by what I read, and the next day, I was on my way to Traynor Mansion. It would take about four and a half hours to get there, by car. I had set out in the afternoon because I had something urgent to do that morning, so when I got there it was already dark. It was a huge, old manor house with grayish stone walls and numerous statues that decorated both the interior and the unattended gardens. Wild red roses had grown here and there, and vines had crawled up the cracked walls. I could see the full moon shining brightly whenever the cold wind scattered the black clouds. The place was, as Christopher had mentioned, dismal and dreadful.

Adah greeted me inside, she was very pale and her eyes had sunk in a little and she looked hungry, yet by no means had she lost her beauty, I even thought that I found her prettier that ever, specially now that I knew how patiently she was enduring the loss of her only child and taking care of a sick husband. I offered her my condolences, and she thanked me.

"Chris is asleep," she said, and her voice was sweet. "He was very sick this morning, and couldn't get out of bed at all."
"I see," I said. "I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier; something important had come up."
"Ah that's alright. I hope you are in no hurry to go back."
"No, actually I intended to stay to the end of this week, if that's alright."
"Absolutely, Chris really needs a companion."
"Does a doctor see Christopher regularly?"
"Yes, Doctor Blake, but he's not here now. He had to go to town. He'll be back tomorrow. But you must be tired and hungry; dinner is on the table."
She led me to the big dining room, where a hearty dinner was set out on the long, oaken table. The room was dimly lit by two lamps on the wall and the fire in the fireplace. The wind howled outside and it seemed that a storm was coming, but inside it was warm and soothing. Adah tended to the fire and sat in front of me at the opposite side of the table, looking at me earnestly. I sat down and looked at the feast in front of me.

"You really didn't have to go to all this trouble Adah; a simple meal would be good enough."
"Oh, I'm just happy that someone else is here beside us."
"Are you not going to eat?"
"I haven't had much of an appetite lately; maybe I'll have something later."
"I understand. Has the doctor told you what disease is Christopher suffering from?"
"He says that he can't be sure until Chris goes to the hospital and some tests are done, but it can also be psychological, you know ..."
"Yes, of course. I'm really sorry Adah; it must be very hard for you two."
She sat silent for a few minutes and looked at the fire. I had some wine, wondering why Christopher wouldn't go to hospital; it was foolish and could be dangerous, so I decided to ask him to listen to the doctor when I saw him. I put my glass down and noticed that she was looking at me again. The silence was making me a bit uncomfortable so I tried to find something to talk about. There was an embossed relief on the wall behind her, partially covered by small, dark red curtains; it depicted some figures, each one in a different position, but I couldn't see exactly what.

"I didn't notice those when I came here last time," I said, pointing to the figures. "What is that?"
"Ah, it's beautiful isn't it? These designs are as old as the mansion itself, you should see the statues."
"They may look a little weird at first, but they are delicate."
When I finished my dinner, Adah showed me my room upstairs. It was nice and cozy, and the mere sight of the comfy bed was enough to make me feel sleepy.
"Sometimes I sleep in the morning," Adah said as she stood in the doorway. "Because I have to tend to Chris during the night, so I can't sleep, not until the doctor comes, he's a friend of my father, and he usually stays until night. So if I happened to be sleeping you'll have to excuse me."

"Don't worry about it Adah. If there's anything I can do just tell me, it doesn't matter if it's day or night, I'm here to help."
"Thank you, that's very kind. But hopefully there won't be much to do and Chris will be better tomorrow. You can have a walk around the village if you like. It's very beautiful and refreshing in the morning."
Although I was tired, I had difficulty sleeping that night; it had begun raining and the rain drops tapped on the windows, and every now and then there was an extremely loud burst of thunder, like a portent of death and ruin. I had the constant feeling that something was lurking outside my window in the vast garden below. I got up and looked out, but could hardly see anything; it was almost pitch black outside, but I could see the grayish statues here and there, like wandering ghosts, and I could sense something out there, something that kept watching me from the darkness. The feeling was overwhelming, and I quickly withdrew, closing the curtains. But all the night I could still hear the wind howling and I thought it sounded like someone shrieking; something sinister was at work.
*******************************************************

The storm was over in the morning, and I woke up to a delightful and sunny day. I put on my clothes and went to the door of Adah and Chris' bedroom, but the door was closed and I knew that they were asleep, so I went downstairs. Breakfast was ready on the table for me; poor Adah must have been really tired now that she cared for yet another person. As I sat down to eat, I decided to ask her to take it easy on herself and to remind her that I was there to help, not to be entertained.

Since there was nothing to do, I went outside for a short stroll. The air was fresh as Adah had said, the wet green leaves glittered in the sunlight and the hills were golden. It was so beautiful that I thought nobody could be sick on such a day, feeling sure that when I went back, I could find Chris awake and in a better condition.

A fifteen minute walk along the road took me to Abrianna; a nice little place with old stone houses and lovely gardens in the front. People were busy with their daily routine, but when they saw me, an stranger, they began to look a bit nervous and some of them went back inside their houses. I was aware of the unfriendly looks I got as I walked through the place. There was a small tavern in village's main square, where I went to get something to drink as it was getting hot.
There was no one there, save a tall, sturdy middle-aged man with a black mustache and red nose behind the counter, who asked me what I wanted.
"A soda please," I said. "With a slice of lemon."
"New in these parts, eh?" he said as he handed me the drink.
"Yes, I'm a friend of Mr. Traynor."
"Oh, I see. Poor guy must be having a really hard time, but it's not only him whose having misfortune around here."
"People here don't seem to be kind to strangers."
"Well, like I said, several of us villagers have had bad things happening to us, real bad things; two dead, one disappeared, four or five people getting mysteriously sick ... You'd think somebody put a curse on this place. You'd find us hospitable in older days, but now it's better to be careful."
"What does it have to do with strangers?"

"You see, there's this weirdo renting a room in here. He came about a week ago, left an unpleasant impression on us the moment he walked in; a grim face, long gray hair and he limps. Only goes out at night; Tommy, my friend, once saw him wandering about in the darkness. He told me he freaked him out. Then there was this one time, when he asked one of the sick women here to let him "examine" her, but her family angrily drove him away. People here are a little superstitious."
"So they think he has something to do with the strange things happening here?!"
The man shrugged his massive shoulders. "Don't know," he said as he took the money I gave him. "To me he seems to be a harmless enough fellow, seems particularly interested in the old graveyards."

"Graveyards?"
"Yeah, I figured he may be a, what do you call them, you know ... an archeologist or something. He's been lurking in the graveyard and the ruins of the castle Hergoth"
"I didn't know there was a graveyard here!"
"Yeah, there's one. Funny thing you didn't know, it's pretty close to your friend's mansion. Some say it's as old as the Traynor house itself."
When I went back, I saw a silver car parked in front of the house and found the doctor inside. The patient was resting on a four poster bed with velvet curtains, and next to the bed was sitting the doctor examining his pulse. Chris was awake, as I had expected, but he was merely a shadow of his former self, like a withered skeleton with a greenish yellow skin wrapped tightly around it. I was gazing in pity at him, when he saw me. A little sparkle of light returned to his eyes and he smiled faintly. It was dreadful to find my old friend like that. In a few words I told him how sorry I was to see him in such anguish.

"I'm glad you're here Stan ..." he said. "I really need someone to talk to."
But his mere effort he made to talk was apparently too much for him and he closed his eyes. The doctor was jotting down the results of his examination in a note book; he was a thin man of about forty with a clean shaven face and sleek black hair and a pair of glasses.
"You must be Mr. Cargan, right?" he said before I could introduce myself.
"Yes, that's right," I said. "And you must be Doctor Blake, how are you? I see that you're doing everything you can for Christopher. Thank you." I went forward and shook his hand.
"No need to thank me," he said as he stood up and put the notebook in his pocket. "It's merely professional integrity. But I become more concerned everyday; his health keeps deteriorating."
I noticed that all the curtains were closed and the room was rather dark, and asked the doctor if it wouldn't be better to pull them aside to let the light in.

"No," he said, looking at me over his glasses. "Apparently Christopher is suffering from some kind of hypersensitivity to light, in addition to fever and weakness. It will only cause him pain."
"Have you found the cause of the disease?"
In that moment Adah came in, she looked better than she did last night; some color had returned to her face, her eyes were brighter and to me it seemed that her charm and grace had doubled overnight; she must have finally got some rest. She smiled at us, Doctor Blake smiled back and looked at me again.
"It seems to me that it could be combination of a mental breakdown along with some physical reactions I haven't encountered before. Your friend is constantly looing blood."
"Losing blood?!" I said, terrified. I suddenly remembered what Christopher had written in the letter about his son's death.

"We must do something about it," I said, anxious. "Blood transfusion or something."
"We have already tried that," said the doctor, pointing to a set of equipment in one corner. "It has proved to be a temporary solution, and it's also highly risky to administer the transfusion in home, because there may be some undesired reactions to the received blood and if that happens, we don't have access to emergency medical care. Strange wounds and scratches appear on his body, his neck or on the arms. It's through these that he's losing blood."
"We should take him to a hospital." I insisted. "Even if he doesn't want to go, we must take him."
"I agree, but ..."
"No!" Christopher shouted suddenly. "No, don't take me away from here!"

We all looked at him and Adah quickly went beside him, "Easy Chris, easy now," she tried to calm him down. "No one's going to take you away. Take it easy."
Chris stopped shouting; he looked around him with wide eyes, panting. Doctor Blake wanted to go near him but Adah motioned him to stop, she then put her delicate hand on my friend's eyes and gently put his head back on the pillow. It was effective and a second later Christopher was asleep again. Then I saw small puncture like wounds near his neck.
"Please, don't try to take him out of this room," she said, walking towards us. "Leave him alone, at least for now."
"But Adah ..." I started, but she just shook her head and asked us to leave the room. We all walked out and she closed the door behind her. The corridor was also dark, the whole house was more or less like that, probably to make sure if Chris gets out of bed the light won't hurt his eyes.

"It's not right, you know," said the Doctor. "He really needs to go ..."
"I know," she said in a sweet tone marred with sadness. "But I cannot stand seeing him in pain like that."
"Very well," the doctor sighed, and turned to go downstairs, but then paused and looked at us.
"One other thing," he said with a serious expression. "The blood samples that I got for the compatibility tests, well I conducted some further tests and the results were very odd."
I looked at him curiously, but Adah suddenly seemed worried.
"What did you find?" she asked.
"I wish I could explain; there are several anomalies. The behavior of the red cells is ... peculiar. But we still need further tests to find out exactly what's going on, and for that we need more blood samples."
"But he's in no condition to take more blood from," I said, and Adah agreed with me.

"Yes, well," Doctor Blake said. "That is true, but at this point I'm really considering doing that. Meanwhile, I think I'd better stay here for the night."
"That's fine." Adah said, and went away deep in thought.
"No matter what Adah and I do for your friend," the doctor whispered to me when she was gone, "he's not recovering at all. Are you staying here?"
"Yes I am"
"Good, I will be in the patient's room. Can I ask you for your help, should something happen?"
"Yes, absolutely."
And something did happen that night. Something really strange and terrifying. I was sitting beside Christopher's bed, holding his hand. He was burning in fever. Barely conscious, he sometimes muttered "the angel" or "pleasure". When the night came, I retired to my room, yet I was uncomfortable as if I had a premonition that something unpleasant was under way. As I twisted and turned on my bed, trying to get some sleep, I had the feeling again that I was being watched. I opened my eyes and suddenly looked at the window; I felt my blood froze as I saw a white, ghostly like face behind the glass. The face was as pale as chalk and hardly discernible, yet I could see two demonic eyes that fixed me with their cold and cruel stare. A red mouth widened in a hellish grin and in less than a second, two white hands with exceptionally long fingers began scratching at the window panes. Three panes were already shattered with a loud noise when I managed to jump out of the bed and shout with all my might.

I threw everything I could find at the face, and kept shouting, a moment later, Doctor Blake rushed into my room and the first thing he did was to turn on the lights.
"What is it?!" he said.
I pointed at the window quickly, but right in that moment I realized that nothing was there. The wraith had disappeared with lightning speed.
"What was it?" he asked again.
"There was something standing outside my window, something ... demonic!"
"This room is on the second floor, no one could have come there!"
"I'm telling you I saw it, it broke the glass, see?"
Doctor Blake saw the glass shards on the floor, and carefully went forward and opened the window. It was a cold, moonless night, he looked outside for a moment then showed me that there was nothing outside the window where anyone could climb up or stand on.

"I'm telling you that there was something there, a monster! It was trying to enter through the window, it broke the window."
"Are you sure you didn't break the window yourself?" he said, pointing to all the objects that I had thrown at the window.
I stood beside him and looked outside; at first I couldn't see anything but then I thought I could see a dark figure moving about in the garden with an astonishing speed. We both heard a flutter as I saw it suddenly disappear. A moment later there was the loud sound of doors slamming shut and a shriek that made all the hair on my hand stand on end. The doctor was now scared too. We couldn't say if it was a man or a woman's voice; it barely sounded human at all.

"It's coming from downstairs!" I said, and we both hurried there, not being able to even imagine what it could be. The shriek still echoed in the mansion, but we couldn't find the source of the sound. Through the French windows of the sitting room, I saw a shadow moving. Picking up the poker near the fire place, I opened the window and a second later we were both outside. Doctor Blake pointed to the far end of the garden and I thought I saw a dark figure with long gray hair, quickly limping away.

"I know who that is." I said when we went back inside. "He has rented a room in the village, we'll get him tomorrow. Now I now why the people there were suspicious of him."
But something wasn't right, how could he have come to my window? I couldn't find any explanations. Adah had come downstairs too, really scared and confused. The doctor explained to her what had happened and asked her to go to Chris' room and lock the door and the windows. While she was there, we stood up the rest of the night, watching. After what I had seen, I couldn't sleep anyway. That demonic white face with floating long hair and the blood red mouth kept coming to my mind, and that scream ...
********************************************************

The morning was as bleak as possible; black clouds had gathered and everywhere looked gray. The morning brought terrible news too; first, the body of the villager who had disappeared a few days before, was found. The neck was broken and the body savagely mauled. The doctor and I were there when the police were removing the body; they said it must have been an animal attack. The man was drunk and had probably walked away from the village, getting lost and meeting his horrible end. But the people were not convinced, they kept insisting that the man was drunk most of the time, but always could find his way back home without any difficulty.
The second tragedy was the death of one of young girls who was sick. The grief of her family was beyond words. They stood there in shock and sadness, watching her body being removed from the house. But her fiancé, a young man with shaggy hair stepped forward, crying.

"Can I say goodbye to her?" he said, bending down and kissing the girl on the forehead. It was very moving.
We had gone to the village to find the stranger, but the man in the tavern told us that he had gone away the day before, and he didn't know where he could be now. Since there was nothing we could do, we decided to go back to the mansion. We didn't have enough evidence to take the matter to the police. But I kept asking myself what that stranger could possibly want from these victims.
"By the way, I think I've found something," Doctor Blake said to me. "It may explain the loud banging noises we heard last night. I was sitting in the library for a few minutes, near the northern wall and decided to smoke. But noticed that the flame of the lighter was flickering; a breeze was coming from somewhere. I checked and saw that there was a slight gap in the middle of the wall."

"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that there is a hidden door in there."
"Did you open it?"
"Tried, but couldn't. There must be a mechanism that slides the door open. I thought maybe that stranger could have used it to get inside. That place is very old, I doubt if the Traynors know anything about it."
"Why didn't you say anything about it sooner?"
"I wanted to but I wasn't sure, and forgot it after what we saw in the village. One other thing, last night I took a blood sample from Christopher."
"Doctor Blake ..."
"It was a very small sample, I need it if I'm gonna find out what that damn disease is."
More tragedy still awaited us in the House of Traynor. The first thing we saw was Adah slowly descending the stairs to the dim hall. Her fair face had turned red, almost scarlet.

"Chris is ... dead." She said.
Blake and I looked at each other in grief and shock. I tried to console her and he went upstairs. A few minutes later I went upstairs too, but Doctor Blake came out of the room and closed the door, I got a glimpse of the bed and saw that he had covered the body.
"It's very unpleasant," he said as he closed the door. "Believe me; you don't want to see him like that."
He went downstairs to make a few phone calls to arrange for an ambulance, and I stayed there for a while, not knowing whether I should go inside or not. I remembered our good old days, it was truly painful.
When the doctor came upstairs he showed me a vial of blood; the sample he had told me about. He assured me that he would get to the bottom of this and make sure no one else would suffer from the same fate. But then something weird happened again; as he was carefully putting the vial in his medic bag, it jumped out! Yes it had jumped out, without any of us touching it, and fell on the ground and broke; the only blood sample was now lost. For a long time we remained there, gazing at each other, not knowing what to say.

"This is not natural," I said finally. "Nothing that has happened in these days was natural. I'm not superstitious, but I'm not blind either. There is something ... something supernatural behind this. There should be ... how else can we explain these things?!"
"I can't believe it."
"You have to, I'm going to solve this riddle."
The doctor remained silent, thinking. I suddenly remembered what he had told me.
"That secret door," I said. "Show it to me, something tells me that our answer must be behind that door."
We went downstairs, I felt terrible that I wasn't there beside Adah to console her better in this tragedy, but I had to do something about the happenings first. In the library I found the door, it wasn't easy to find unless you knew what to look for. I noticed a painting of an angel on that wall; it was very similar to something I had seen earlier.

"Isn't that the statue in the garden?" Doctor Blake said. "The angel in chains?"
"Yes exactly, this can be our clue, let's check the statue."
It was already getting dark. The statue of the angel was bigger than the rest of statues in the garden, it also looked older. It was the figure of a sad, crying angel with chains wrapped around her neck, arms and wings, the head was bent and her hands were raised towards the sky. It was made of a black metal which had rusted and turned dark red in some places, making it even creepier. We examined it for a while and found something was written on its pedestal, which was partially covered by roots and bushes. I sat on my knees and tried to read it:

The winds of death blow, to where will they carry thy soul? A drunkard laughs at the mourning child. To the North I saw, the grim faced friar rushing to the dead old woman, but the Devil came in between. Solve the riddle of fate and the dove shall fly away, leading you to the eternal resting place, whence there is no return.

"To the North!" said the doctor.
"The northern wall of course," I said. "Everything we need to know is right here in the text."
"I can't make head nor tail of it."
"I think I can, let me see." I thought for a few moments, pondering about the text on the pedestal, and all of a sudden it came to me. I led the doctor to the dinning hall, where I had seen the embossed figures on the wall. There were six of them.
"The first verse is simply the introduction," I said, looking at the figures. "We can skip that. Now a drunkard laughs at the mourning child."
We looked carefully, there in the middle was the figure of man holding a goblet; the drunkard. I gently touched it and saw that it moved.

"Buttons!" cried the doctor. "Now it becomes clear, we must push them in the right order."
I pressed the drunkard, then remembered the rest of the text; the mourning child: the figure of a girl sitting on the ground, crying. The grim faced friar, the third button was easy to find. He rushed to the dead old woman. I saw the figure of a woman resting on a raised platform.
"But the Devil came in between," said the doctor as I was about to push the figure of the woman.
"You're right." I said and pushed the figure of a laughing demon with a trident and goat's legs. "The dead woman is the fifth button. Now ..."
"The dove shall fly."
"And the dove is the sixth"
Hardly had I pushed it when we heard the faint sound of machinery, like an old hydraulic engine. We rushed to the library and saw the door was now open. In front of us was a dark and narrow corridor. We decided to check it but I suggested we arm ourselves first; since there was no telling what we might find in there. I picked Christopher's hunting rifle that hung on the wall near some other weapons, and loaded it. Doctor Blake held an antique battle- axe in one hand and a flashlight in the other, and slowly, we walked into the silent corridor.

We proceeded for about ten minutes, then we heard a noise and suddenly hundreds of bats, scared agitated by our light, flew around us, screeching, and their wings touching our faces. When they had gone, we found ourselves in a larger area, like a cavern. I thought I could hear someone or something in front of us, and we went forth, passed through an archway and entered a cold, large, stone walled room. There were large holes in the walls and in them decayed skeletons were visible. In another part of the chamber there were heavy coffins put on special shelves, all covered in cobwebs. Here and there we saw urns, containing the ashes of the dead. There was an empty coffin in the middle of the chamber between four pillars. Someone had lit some candles there and as we were looking around us, a gray haired man limped forward from behind one of the pillars.

"Hold it right there!" I said, pointing the gun at him. "We've been looking for you. Hands up, you're coming with us and explain what your game was."
He was not intimidated; slowly, but confidently, he walked to us and I saw that his face was covered in scars.
"You must be the friends of Mr. and Mrs. Traynor." He said in a firm voice. "I agree that I owe you some explanations."
"I think I already know a few things about you," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. "Crazy at it may sound to us, I think I have the answer to everything that had happened. Normally I wouldn't believe it in a hundred years, but now I know what could have done those horrible things. You are a ... vampire!"

The doctor looked at me in horror, but the stranger laughed.
"Well, not bad at all. I see that you've made a very good conclusion. But there's only one major flaw in your theory; I'm not a vampire, or maybe I should say the vampire. Like you I'm here to solve this riddle."
"What?" Doctor Blake said. "Just who are you?"
"My name is Miles Tiron, and you can point that gun away; I mean you no harm. I came here because I heard about the strange things that were happening, in my career it's very important to keep track of the enemy."
"What is your career?" I said.
"I am a ... hunter, a hunter of the supernatural. I've been doing this for many years now. One of main things that I track and destroy is the undead; souls trapped in dead bodies."

"What?!" said the doctor, but the stranger ignored him.
"Vampires are one type of the undead, the most dangerous, and you were right, there is a vampire behind all this. There are a number of ways in which one can become a vampire; an exceptionally horrible death, in some cases suicide. Being regularly bitten by a poisonous vampire, because not all vampires can turn a human by biting him. And if one drinks the blood of a vampire while dying. These are some of the ways that a demon can be invited to bind to a soul and keep it within the body after death. A vampire feeds on the blood of the living to sustain its own doomed existence."
"And you came here to kill the vampire?" I said, lowering my gun a little. "How did you get in here?"

"You can't kill what's already dead, you can just destroy it to release its soul. This mausoleum is in the local graveyard and, as you can see, is connected to the Traynor Mansion. I was searching in the graveyard for a few days before I found the entrance."
"So that's why ..." I said. "The locals were afraid of you."
"Yes, but it couldn't be helped, I had to find the sanctuary of the vampire in the area as soon as I could. I have to confess that I'm indirectly responsible for what happened here."
"How so?"

"About two months ago, me and my friend and fellow hunter, Clyde Enstone found a coven of five vampires. We destroyed them in their tombs during day light, one by one. It however turned out that there were actually six. The sixth was hiding somewhere else, and attacked us. We managed to destroy him but he had already bitten poor Clyde on the neck. He was poisonous, and Clyde fell on the ground twisting in pain. I had to finish him off right there and then, but I ... I couldn't. He knew what I would do to him and he didn't like it, so he tried to run away ... and I let him. I couldn't bring myself to kill such an old ally."
"So it was him."

"Not exactly, soon I began to track him down anyway. I knew that he had attacked at least three people in this region. I finally found him and ... put him to final rest. But it was highly probable that he had turned someone else. When I learned about the deaths here, I knew my assumption was true. I've been trying to find the vampire here, the one behind all theses deaths. As the day is approaching, the vampire may return to its lair."
"And who is it?"
"Adah?!" said the doctor. He was looking behind us at the archway, and there was Adah standing, cold and motionless as steel, beautiful like a vision but with cruel eyes that quickly reminded me of the face I had seen that night. Her fingers ended in long talon like nails, she smiled and we saw sharp teeth and two long canines in her red mouth.

"Adah!" Doctor Blake said again, shocked. I couldn't believe what I saw. As soon as she looked at me, I felt that I was frozen.
"That is who we were looking for!" cried the stranger.
"Your heart is beating faster than a rabbit's." Adah said to me, but now her voice was cold and threatening.
"Adah, what have you ... done?" was all I could say.
"You know very well Stanly."
"You killed your own child?! And Christopher ..."
"And many others," she laughed. "Don't worry; I will help you see your friend again."
"You fiend," I whispered. She kept looking at me and I suddenly realized that she was moving towards me, so slowly that I didn't see it at first.

"Stand back, Cargan!" shouted the stranger, producing a big wooden cross from his pocket and brandishing it in front of Adah. She screamed, and all her features turned into a demonic white face, I quickly remembered that bloodcurdling scream I had heard. She suddenly attacked the stranger, with such speed that we were startled. I pulled the trigger twice, and she fell to the ground. For a moment none of spoke, then Doctor Blake slowly walked to her.
"Don't, she's not killed!" the stranger shouted. Doctor Blake turned around to look at him, and a second later, Adah was on her feet again, holding him in the air by the neck, like a puppet. The stranger and I rushed to her but she knocked him down, breaking his cross. I hurried forward and hit her hard in the face with the butt of my gun. She seemed not to feel any pain as she punched me with such a force that my vision blackened and a few moments later found myself some meters away on the floor.

Adah held the doctor in front of her. "You've caused enough trouble already," she said. "It's time to pay for it."
I shouted as I saw her sink her teeth into Blake's neck.
"Attack her!" the wounded stranger told me, pointing to a bulb of garlic and a shiny stake that he had dropped when Adah hit him. Gathering my strength, I picked them up as fast as my painful body could move and rushed to help Doctor Blake. She saw me and dropped him, and before I could do anything, she was pressing me in her steel-like embrace. The silver stake fell from my hand, but I held the bulb of garlic and just as she was about to bite me, I shoved it into her blood covered mouth. She screamed, for the first time, in pain and I managed to kick myself free. She stumbled back and was about to run to the caverns through the archway, when Blake, having picked up the silver stake, drove it hard into her chest with the last of his might.

Blood gushed out of the wound, forming a big pool on the ground; I was shocked to see how much blood could be contained within that slim body. As she lost blood, the blood that she had drunk from others, I saw her wither and shrivel as she cried in agony, now it was truly a monster in front of us.
She fell to the ground, trying to crawl to the empty coffin.
"You missed the heart," shouted the stranger, who had stood up now. He quickly opened the door of the mausoleum; the bright light of the morning sun shone in, covering Adah. She let out one last painful shriek and then she was silent. All that was left of her was a smile pile of bones and ashes on the bloodied floor.
The stranger was helping Doctor Blake, tending to his wound. In the light, I thought I could see something like a fog, rising out of her ashes, and in it a demonic visage was visible, just like Adah's face when she attacked us. Slowly, it disappeared.

"Do you hear her?" said Doctor Blake faintly, looking around him. "She's thanking me! I can hear her whisper!"
This experience left me shaken, to the point that my whole perception of reality changed. What I felt and how I felt, is beyond words. But sadly that wasn't the end.
We walked back to the mansion, where we tended to our wounds and rested a little. The stranger then told us that we should tear out Christopher's heart from his chest and burn it and sever his head to make sure he won't return. Blake told him that the body was left in the bedroom, but when we got there ... the bed was empty! We were too late!
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This is how I will end my narrative; on that fateful that day we decided to hunt Christopher to stop the curse from spreading, and we did it; only our triumph came in a high price. Now Blake is dead, and as for me... I have been turned. I realize that I'm dead, yet cannot remain in the grave, and Tiron is now hunting me. I shall keep roaming the world, lurking in the night like the restless undead that I am, until I too, become hunted and taken down; and I wonder... if on that day, I will be grateful.