by P. J. Night
“You know, Hannah, I don’t really know,” Emily said, feeling bad about continuing her fib. Maybe one day she would tell her friends the whole story. Or maybe not. What she did know was that if she told the whole story to them now, it would be all they could think about, and that would ruin the party for them. “I think it has a lot to do with their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Strig refused to allow Drew and Vicky to come to the party. They had no interest in meeting my mom and dad. But the thing that made me realize that Drew and Vicky were just not worth all the trouble was the fact that they couldn’t have cared less that they wouldn’t be coming to the party. In fact, it seemed to me that they didn’t care about whether or not we were even friends.”
“And who needs friends like that?” Ethan added as he placed the stuffed polar bear on the couch. “Especially when you have great friends like us who come over and help you set up a forest—er, complete with a polar bear.”
Emily giggled. “Thanks, Ethan,” she said. “You guys are real friends. You’d never do anything to make me feel bad.”
A short while later the decorating was all finished.
“This looks amazing!” Emily said, glancing around her former home theater and current private campground. “Thank you, guys, so much for helping.”
“And now, I’ve got to scoot home and change for the party,” Hannah said as the trio headed up the stairs.
“Change?” Ethan asked, sounding truly baffled. “I have to change?”
Hannah and Emily both turned around and stared at Ethan. He was dressed in a shirt that might have once had sleeves and a collar, but now looked like it stayed on Ethan’s body only because it was too tired and tattered to care enough to fall to the ground. He wore gym shorts—last year’s gym shorts, which were so faded the school logo was illegible. On his feet he wore sneakers with no socks. His big toe peeked out of the side of the left sneaker.
“No,” Hannah said dryly. “You look fine.” Then she and Ethan headed for the front door. “See ya tonight, Em!”
When Hannah and Ethan had gone, Emily went back downstairs. The room really did look like a small forest. She headed back upstairs to help her parents prepare the food. Soon everything was ready. Now came the hard part—sitting around waiting for the guests.
CHAPTER 12
Six o’clock finally rolled around. The doorbell rang. Emily ran for the door, followed by her parents. It was Hannah, of course. Emily knew she would be the first guest to arrive.
“Welcome to the campout!” Emily cried, opening the door and giving Hannah a big hug, as if she hadn’t seen her in months.
“Can you believe it’s finally here?” Hannah squealed joyously. “This is going to be so great!”
“Nice to see you again, Hannah. Long time, no see,” Emily’s mom joked.
“Come on in,” her dad added.
“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter,” Hannah replied.
She gave each of them a quick hug. “Thanks again for letting us use your house for the party.”
“You know that Emily’s friends are always welcome here,” Mrs. Hunter said. “And you kids did a fabulous job decorating the downstairs.”
“Yeah, it really looks like a forest,” Mr. Hunter added. “I had to take my GPS with me when I went down there so I didn’t get lost!”
Emily was in such a good mood that even her dad’s corny jokes seemed funny today.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Emily opened the door and saw Ethan standing there with another boy. This boy was not as tall as Ethan, but his hair was also bright red, though he kept it shorter and neater than Ethan did.
“Em, this is my cousin, Declan,” Ethan said. “Declan, Emily.”
“Hey, Declan, come on in,” Emily said. “Ethan, on the other hand, you can wait outside.”
“You’re very funny, as always,” Ethan said. Then he followed Declan into the house.
“Thank you for inviting me, Emily,” Declan said. “I know how much Ethan likes you.”
“All right, all right!” Ethan said, pushing Declan through the door. “That’s enough of that Ethan-likes-you stuff.”
Emily laughed. “Well, I really can’t stand him,” she said.
“Hi, Mrs. Hunter,” Ethan said, handing a grocery bag to Emily’s mom. “Here are the toppings for the ice cream sundaes.”
“Thanks for bringing those, Ethan,” Mrs. Hunter replied.
Over the next hour the remainder of the guests arrived. By seven fifteen everyone was down in the home theater and the party was in full swing.
As everyone munched on pizza, the talk turned to teachers the kids had this year and who they might have next year. Some kids talked about their plans for the summer.
“I’m off to Camp Cheapskate again in a couple of weeks,” Roger Higgins announced.
“Is that really the name of the place?” Emily asked.
“Nah, it’s really Camp Chesapeake, but everyone calls it Camp Cheapskate because the guy who runs it is so cheap,” Roger explained. “His idea of a camp T-shirt is a white undershirt with ‘Camp Chesapeake’ written on it in Magic Marker.”
“Sounds like my kind of place!” said Ethan.
“Ice cream time!” Emily’s mom called out from the top of the stairs. “Make-your-own sundaes.”
The kids all charged up the stairs, as if they hadn’t eaten in a week. On the kitchen counter, Emily’s mom had set up three flavors of ice cream, plus cherries, M&Ms, sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and a spray can of whipped cream.
One by one, the kids scooped ice cream into bowls, then tried to defy the laws of physics by cramming twenty ounces of toppings into a ten-ounce bowl that was already filled with ice cream.
Ethan picked up the can of whipped cream, shook it vigorously, then sprayed a stream right at Declan. Reacting as if he knew the whipped cream attack was coming, Declan ducked. The stream of white foam shot over his head and struck Roger in the face.
Rather than get mad, Roger picked up his spoon, scraped the whipped cream off his cheek, as if he were shaving, and shoved the spoon into his mouth.
One of the girls, Sarah Cooke, winced. “Em, what time did you say the boys were leaving?”
When everyone had finished their ice cream, the kids all tromped back downstairs.
Emily pulled out a bunch of tents. “Time to go camping!” she announced. The girls each grabbed a tent and began to set them up, with the boys lending a hand occasionally.
The girls set their tents up in a circle near the TV, under the dangling branches. Then Emily popped in her dad’s fireplace DVD, complete with a crackling fire in realistic surround sound.
“This is so dorky!” Ethan exclaimed.
“So it’s perfect for you,” Emily shot back.
Declan laughed. “I think it’s cool.”
“Thank you, Declan,” Emily said. “You are welcome here anytime. Now who’s got a scary story?”
“What kind of scary story?” Sarah asked.
“Any kind,” Emily said, shrugging.
“How about monsters chasing people through the woods?” Ethan suggested.
“Or maybe a wolf chasing someone through the woods,” Hannah chimed in, making a scary face and curving her fingers into the shape of claws. “Or how about a scary story about creepy neighbors?”
Emily shot a look of mild annoyance in Hannah’s direction. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of her wolf hallucinations, or the Strigs.
“She’s talking about Drew and Vicky, right?” Ethan asked.
“Right,” Emily replied.
“Who?” Declan asked.
“Did you notice that creepy old house across the street when my mom dropped us off?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well, the kids who live there are really weird,” Ethan explained. “Or so I’ve heard. I’ve never actually met them.”
“What’s so weird about them?” Declan asked Emily.
“Oh, nothing,” Hannah jumped in. “Just the wa
y they’re always together and the fact that they never seem to leave that house. The one time I met them, they never made eye contact with me. Not for one second. It was like they were somewhere else, even though we were in the same room.”
“And their house is filled with all sorts of old, dusty things,” Emily added.
That was all she would say. Just as she had promised herself earlier, she was not about to reveal the truth about just how weird Drew and Vicky really were.
“But enough about them,” Emily continued. “Who has a scary story?”
“I do,” Declan said. “It’s a tale all about vampires.”
“Cool, I love vampire stories!” Emily exclaimed.
“Me too,” Declan said.
“Did you ever see Vampire Babysitter?” Emily asked. “That’s one of my favorite movies.”
“Only a dozen times,” Declan replied. “It’s a true classic.”
“Agreed. So, what’s your vampire story?”
Declan cleared his throat and began. “Five hundred years ago in a remote mountaintop village—”
“In Transylvania, right?” Ethan interrupted his cousin.
“In the Swiss Alps, actually,” Declan explained.
“Ethan, no interrupting!” Emily scolded him. “Go ahead, Declan.”
“This particular Swiss village,” Declan continued, looking right at Ethan, “had been plagued by a series of brutal murders. Victims were found dragged from their homes, lying dead in the snow. All of the victims were bitten in the neck. But the odd thing was that some appeared to have been bitten by a person and some by an animal.”
“So the murderer had a vicious dog that helped him,” Ethan jumped in. Emily said nothing this time. Asking Ethan to stop interrupting was like asking him to stop breathing.
“Not necessarily,” Declan went on. “Because as it turned out, these were no ordinary murders. They were the work of a vampire. The villagers knew this because one by one the bodies of the victims started disappearing from the cemetery. People started reporting seeing their dead relatives walking through the village at night.”
“But what about the human and animal thing?” Ethan asked.
“Well, that was just further proof that the killer was a vampire. What most people forget is that vampires can shape-shift. They can change their form to look like other people, but they can also change themselves to look like animals. Some vampires actually prefer to hunt and feed in their animal forms.”
“Like as a mean, vicious dog?” Ethan asked.
“A dog, maybe, but also a wolf or a jackal, or, of course, the classic bat.”
“A hamster?” Ethan asked.
Hannah giggled.
“Not usually, no,” replied Declan seriously, totally ignoring Ethan’s joke. “Anyway, one day, during a particularly bad snowstorm, a local villager huddled in front of a blazing fire in his hearth. Shortly after the sun set, a sharp knocking came at his door, cutting through the constant howl of the wind outside. Peering out his window, the man spotted a stranger standing in the raging storm. He wore only a thin coat and no hat or gloves. He shivered and shook as snow piled up on his shoulders and head.
“‘Please let me in,’ the stranger cried. ‘It’s cold and I’ve traveled such a long way.’
“Now, the villager knew of the recent attacks, so he hesitated. Again the man outside pleaded with him.
“‘Please let me in!’
“The villager had a good heart, and the man outside looked so cold and tired. He looked as if he couldn’t hurt anyone. And so the villager opened the door. ‘Come in and get warm, my friend, before you freeze to death.’
“As soon as the stranger was inside, he began to change shape. He grew taller and stronger-looking. Well, the villager was never seen again. When his friends came to see what had happened to him, they found one set of footprints leading up to the door, and two sets leading away.”
“If the vampire was so strong, why didn’t he just bust into the guy’s house and bite him?” Ethan asked.
Declan shook his head. “He couldn’t. If a vampire catches you wandering around outside, he can do as he pleases. But the only way a vampire can enter a person’s home is if that person invites the vampire in. Otherwise the vampire cannot enter.”
“That wasn’t so scary,” Ethan said.
“I liked it,” Hannah said. “How about you, Em? You’re the big scary movie fan.” Hannah looked over at Emily. Her eyes were opened wide, and her face had turned pale.
“What’s the matter, Em? I never figured you for one to get so scared by a story.”
Emily’s mind raced. She felt as if her brain was going to leap right out of her head. The story was set so long ago, but so much of it seemed . . . familiar. It all made sense now. Everything. The coffins, the wolf, never seeing Drew and Vicky during the day, the homeschooling, the fake parents, the way they pleaded to be let in once they decided they wanted—what? What did they want?
Oh no, I know what they wanted, Emily thought. They wanted someone to fill that third coffin. They wanted me. It’s all so clear to me now. Mr. and Mrs. Strig weren’t lying in those coffins. They don’t even exist. Those coffins belong to Drew and Vicky, because Drew and Vicky are vampires!
CHAPTER 13
“I’m fine,” Emily said, waving Hannah away. She struggled to regain her composure. She was not going to let this ruin her party. Besides, she had never let Drew and Vicky in. She was safe. She pushed all this craziness aside and invited someone else to share a scary story.
A couple of other kids told stories. One was about an alien abduction. Another, about the ghost of a sailor doomed to sail the seas forever.
The storytelling was interrupted by Emily’s mom calling down from the top of the cellar stairs. “Okay, guys, it’s eleven o’clock. Time for the boys to go home and for the girls to go to sleep. Ethan, your mom is here to pick up you and Declan.”
“Okay, Mom,” Emily called back up.
The boys said their good nights and thanked Emily.
“Another successful end-of-the-year event,” Ethan said as he headed for the basement stairs. “Although not quite as memorable as puking at the top of the Ferris wheel.”
“Thank you so much for inviting me, Emily,” Declan said as he followed his cousin up the stairs. “I had a great time.”
“You’re welcome,” Emily replied. “Thank you for the vampire story. That was great. I hope I get to see you again soon.”
When the boys had all gone, the girls gathered in a tight circle and chatted about summer plans, what they might do at the end of the next year, and about how charming Declan was.
“Okay, girls, lights-out time,” Emily’s mom called down.
Emily turned off the TV, putting out their campfire, and one by one, the girls slipped into their tents. Just before she went into her tent, Emily glanced toward the basement window. There appeared to be a face peering in at her. She knew the face. It was Vicky!
She blinked and rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again, Vicky was gone. There was no one at the window. It’s been a long day, Emily thought. Just go to sleep.
She crawled into her tent and slipped into her sleeping bag. She was exhausted from the day’s events but was still wired from the excitement and the evening’s startling revelation.
Vampires living across the street from her. Now that she thought about it, it sounded ridiculous. There had to be some logical explanation, right? There were no such things as vampires. But she must have believed it to some degree, since she felt so relieved that she had never officially invited Drew or Vicky in. And in the last text she sent them, she’d specifically told them they weren’t invited to her party. Still, Emily thought about that third coffin and shuddered. She hugged the sleeping bag around herself tighter. Eventually she drifted off to sleep.
Emily’s jumbled dreams were shattered by the sudden, jarring ring of her cell phone. She groped around the dark tent until she found her phone. “Who is calling
at one eighteen in the morning?” she muttered to herself. Then she saw the caller ID.
She answered the call. “Ethan, are you out of your mind?” Emily whispered.
“Just listen, Em! Listen!”
Emily could clearly hear the panic in Ethan’s voice. She had never, ever heard him sound like this. She knew that this was no joke.
“What happened, Ethan? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Declan,” Ethan cried, his voice choking. “We found him.”
“Found him?” Emily repeated, moving deeper into her tent, turning away from the flap and trying to keep her voice down so she didn’t wake up anyone else. “What do you mean, found him? He left here with you and your mom.”
“No, he didn’t. He was never at the party. He was not at your house tonight.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“A little while after we got home, Declan said he had to go to the bathroom. He stayed in there forever, so I knocked on the door but got no answer. When I went in, I saw that he was gone and the bathroom window was wide open. I searched around outside, but he wasn’t there. When my mom finally opened the hallway closet, she found him. He was unconscious and all tied up. He’s okay, but he was really shaken up.”
“Did he tell you what happened?”
“He said that shortly before we left for the party, while my mom and I were out at the store picking up ice cream toppings, someone grabbed him. Someone very strong. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the closet when we found him.”
“So then, who was at the party with you tonight?”
“I was,” said a voice from behind Emily, startling her, causing her to drop the phone.
She had not heard anyone enter her tent. She spun around and there he was, looking down at her . . . Declan!
CHAPTER 14
“Who are you?” Emily gasped, her hand reaching instinctively to her neck. “Who are you?”
She watched in horror as Declan slowly changed shape. His features blurred, rippling like wax on a melting candle. Then the process unfolded in reverse. The wavy unclear face re-formed, and Emily found herself staring up at Drew.
