“Mommy, will you please tell me about the vampires again?”

                                                “Of course, honey. Now, sit down on my lap.”

                                            The little girl did what her mother told her to.

                                       “In our world, vampires are bad. People call them evil. They are dead and they

                               reproduce themselves by killing others. They kill by carefully picking their prey, and

    when the moment is there, they bite the victim. Then, they suck the poor thing dry, until there is not a

    drop left in the veins. When the victim gets to drink blood soon, it turns into a vampire. When the

    authorities find the vampire, they capture it and bring it to the House of the Dead. It is not a house, as

    the name suggests. It is a horrible jail. The vampire is put into a two by two meter cell without any

    windows.

    The walls are plain, boring, there is no bed, and the only thing that ever opens is a small opening in the

    door. Sometimes, a small bowl half filled with cat blood is given to the vampire through it. This is all they

    get to eat, and they only get it once per two weeks. Every vampire goes crazy in there. Some get

    flashbacks of their life; some get flashbacks of previous lives; some can see into their future. And some

    don’t get flashbacks or something similar at all, they just start scratching everything. But they all go

    nuts. Some find a way to kill themselves, even though technically they are already dead. Some have

    been there for ages now. But no one has ever succeeded in escaping. They say it is impossible.”

    “Mommy, are vampires really bad?”

    “I don’t know, honey. I have never met one. But I hope I never will, to be honest. I’ve heard terrible

    stories about them.”

    “One day, you have to tell all of them to me. But not now, now I want to go to bed.” The little girl said,

    with a big yawn. The mother then carried her daughter up the stairs and put her into bed.

    “Sleep well, my dear, and may you always be protected against the wicked beings of this world.”

Suddenly she woke up. She hadn’t really been asleep, but not awake either. It had been a flashback.

She heard a sound at the door. The cover of the opening in the door slid away. A small bowl was held inside

and she crawled towards it to get it. Immediately after that the cover slid back and she was all alone again.   

She gulped the cat blood down and put the bowl on the floor.

“Cat blood is the most disgusting blood there is, but right now I love it.” She said to herself. The sound of

her own voice scared her; it had been long since she spoke.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she thought. ‘It’s just your own voice. You should be happy it still works!’ Oh, she

wanted to get out of this terrible place. But she knew it was impossible. Her mother had told her over and

over again, so it had to be true. But what if it wasn’t?

    The cold of the night made her face feel numb. She wanted to get home as fast as she could. It was one

    block away, but it seemed much more because of the icy cold. And as if the cold wasn’t enough to ruin

    her mood, she also stepped in some dog droppings.

    “Oh, great. And now you’re also talking to yourself. Get a life.”

    She cleaned her shoe and searched her pockets for her key. For a moment she thought she had lost it,

    but luckily she found it in her inner pocket. She opened her door hoping to step into a warm house, but

    it was as cold as outside. Great. Her central heating had given up on her. And she didn’t have the money

    to get it repaired.

    ‘I couldn’t have picked a better moment to get fired.’ she thought. She would be better off dead now.

    She turned around and closed the door. Then she went up the stairs to her floor. She tripped over an

    umbrella once, but the rest of the walk up the stairs was smooth. She tried to open up the door but

     remembered she had locked it up before she went away. Then she remembered another thing: she had

    left the key in the door. So she went downstairs again, tripped over the umbrella again and got the key

    out of the door. Upstairs again, tripped over the umbrella for the third time, and finally opened her door.

    As soon as she was inside she let herself drop on her couch.

    But her luck had really left her that day, as her couch was already occupied. She jumped up with a

    scream. She turned to look what was lying on her couch and saw a very handsome man. He was dressed

    in black, had black hair and a pale skin. He was wearing sunglasses and was obviously asleep. A miracle

    she hadn’t woke him up.

    The man started to wake up. She just stood there, not knowing what to do. She had never been that

    good at thinking.

    “Hey, look at what we’ve got here. A very handsome young lady!” the man said. He got up from the

    couch, which got him standing only a decimetre away from her. She had to admit to herself that she sort

    of liked it. Just like the next thing he did. He started bringing his head closer to hers. She realised he

    was going to kiss her. She let him, and his lips felt soft on hers. She kissed him back. With his tongue,

    he asked for entrance to her mouth. She gave it, and entered his mouth too. Then he pulled back again,

    and started planting kisses on her cheek. He was kissing a way to her neck. He started sucking a little bit

    with every kiss. When he got to the softest part of her neck, he opened his mouth further. That's when

    she realised he had fangs.

    But it was too late to do anything. He pierced her skin and started drinking her blood. Before she knew

    it, she fainted.

She woke up again. She was shivering, although it wasn’t cold. She would give everything to just be in her

icy cold house again. Everything.

But she knew she would never see it back. She was trapped inside the House of the Dead. Forever.

Written by Nathalie van Basten Batenburg on 28-12-2005