A little boy and his friends were playing in front of the old, wooden church

                                                of the little village they lived in. In the graveyard the old grave keeper was

                                            getting the weed off the graves. Men were working at the river, and the women

                                      were preparing dinner.

                              The little boy’s friends got called inside to wash and eat. The boy’s mother was always

late with dinner, so he was left outside alone with the grave keeper. He decided to go watch the old man

work, so he opened the gate to the church and walked up the path to the graveyard. There, he opened the

graveyard gate and stepped inside. He walked towards the man and sat down on the base of a statue of an

angel with her wings spread.

The boy sat there observing the old man. After a while, when the grave keeper was finished, he said:

“Boy, come help me getting this stuff inside. It’s hard work for an old man like me, but for a young lad like

you it’s easy!”

The little boy got up and carried the shovel into the church. They went upstairs to the bells where the grave

keeper kept his tools. The man opened a case and dropped his own tools in it.

“Put that shovel in here, boy.” he said.

The boy did what he said and then looked at the bells while the man was doing some things. When the man

was finished, the boy asked him:

“Why do these bells never toll?”

The old man was silent for a moment, but then answered:

“If these bells toll, the vampires wake up.”

“Vampires?” the boy asked, amazed.

“Yes,” the old man replied, “They are asleep in the forest mansion. They wait for the time that there is

enough blood for them to breed. They are the only vampires left in this world.”

“Can I go see the mansion?”

“Of course. I’ll show it to you. Follow me.”

They went out the church and followed the path leading into the forest. There, they followed a small path

until they came to a big, old mansion. The little boy found it fascinating and stared at it with open mouth.

“It is beautiful!” he said.

The old man laughed.

“Please, never go inside that cursed place. You could disturb the vampires in their sleep, and if they ever

wake up, this world would be doomed. There are no vampire hunters left, and they never recorded how a

vampire can be killed.”

“I promise I won’t.” the boy replied.

Back in the village, the bells tolled. The old man and the young boy couldn’t hear it.

Written by Nathalie van Basten Batenburg on 05-01-2006