Sleeping Terrors
As soon as they woke up they knew it was going to be hot. However there was still that freezing chill in the air that they had noticed ever since they stepped into this strange, spooky castle.
Yesterday seemed an age away. It had all been like a dreadful nightmare.
Laura and Scott, two teenage lovers, had been walking on the cliffs by the sea on that evening when they were stopped by a strange looking girl. She looked about the same age as them. She had masses of black hair, flashing eyes, long full-embroidered skirt and a gypsy shawl. She looked as if though she had just stepped out of the last century.
She had stopped in front of them, her eyes wild and laughing and had pointed in mockery at their clothes. She said, looking at Laura's jeans, "Why are you not wearing a skirt? Why are you dressed like a boy?" Laura was embarrassed and did not know what to say, but Scott kindly intervened by saying that it was usual in this day and age for girls to be wearing jeans. The strange girl looked totally puzzled by the term 'jeans' and both Laura and Scott realised with a shock that she did not know what jeans were. Their curiosity aroused; they asked her where she came from.
She pointed high along a cliff-edge to where they could see the outline of an incredibly scary-looking castle and were astonished when she said, 'I live there.'
They did not believe her but she was adamant and insisted that they come with her to see for themselves.
'My parents are sleeping;' she said, 'and I'd love to have you come to keep me company. It gets lonely during the days while they're asleep.'
They followed her along a narrow path that skirted the cliff top edge. At times it got terrifyingly narrow and Laura panicked inside, every-time she caught sight of the crashing sea on the rocks below. Scott put out his hand to reassure her from time to time as she quavered dangerously every time she stopped in fear. Eventually, the path led away from the edge and grew under until suddenly, around the next bend, they saw the castle, immense, forbidding and even scarier-looking close-up, than from a distance.
Inside it was extremely cold. From the heat of the outside, the change in temperature was a shock and somehow they did not seem to be able to get warm, no matter how they stamped their feet and rubbed their hands and pulled their jackets closer round their necks. Surprisingly it wasn't just the cold air that made them uncomfortable. The whole atmosphere was damp and depressing.
'It's like Dracula's castle,' Laura whispered to Scott and the strange girl, as if having ears like a bat was startled at these words. She led them to a huge ...
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Inside it was extremely cold. From the heat of the outside, the change in temperature was a shock and somehow they did not seem to be able to get warm, no matter how they stamped their feet and rubbed their hands and pulled their jackets closer round their necks. Surprisingly it wasn't just the cold air that made them uncomfortable. The whole atmosphere was damp and depressing.
'It's like Dracula's castle,' Laura whispered to Scott and the strange girl, as if having ears like a bat was startled at these words. She led them to a huge room with big beds by a leaded glass casement window high up over the sea. The staircase was dusty and full of cobwebs between the banisters, and the suits of armour looked surreal. Scott was sure he could hear bats squeaking in a far off tower and once or twice a rat crept out and whisked over the stairs. Laura shuddered.
There was a log-fire blazing in the huge room but still it felt so cold. 'Like being buried alive,' Laura said to herself in her imagination. Again, the strange girl, as if she could hear Laura's thoughts, turned and looked at her in panic. She suddenly withdrew, fled and locking the door behind her wished them to have an 'interesting night'. Her choice of words and the menacing tone in which they were said, made Laura and Scott realise that they had been kidnapped and were now made prisoners in this room.
All that had been yesterday though and yesterday seemed an age away. Since then they had been through hell.
Huddled together trying to get warm under the mountainous white feather curtains; they had drifted in and out of sleep until just after midnight.
A huge wind seemed to blow down the chimney pipe, blowing out the dying log-fire below. All at once, the enormous windows blew open and another wind rushed into the room. There was an unearthly laughter echoing around the room. The vampires had arrived!
They were circling the air above the bed and lunging at the covers. One was a male vampire with black cloak and deep blood stained lips. Long edges of incisor teeth were gleaming like fangs from between the lips. The other was a female, floating dress, ghostly complexion and dark hollow eyes and again the same telltale lips and fangs.
Laura was screaming. Scott was running through his mind all the facts and information he had ever gathered, watching movies and reading books, about vampires. He caught sight, with the corner of his eye, of a silver gleam coming from Laura's ears. Of course, crosses. They could protect themselves with crosses. Laura was wearing earrings, tiny silver crosses. It would surely be enough.
'Give me your earring,' he demanded. Laura didn't seem to understand what he was saying, as she was in total terror.
Overhead the frantic, lunging and cackling grew more and more threatening. One of the vampires shouted out, "You must carry on the tradition". Scott tore the earrings from Laura's ears, making them bleed. She screamed. This was enough to get the vampires going. They flew greedily after the blood. Scott held up the crosses over his and Laura's necks and with a violent shriek, the vampires receded and blew away from the way in which they had entered. Shaking and trembling they closed the casement window. There was to be no more sleep that night.
As the new day dawned, a pink sky tinged with violet, and a huge sun rose. They had talked all night about plans for escape. They knew now that the vampires would be sleeping.
Scott remembered the strange girl's words of yesterday: 'My parents are sleeping.' Was she a vampire child?
Scott looked out of the window and down over the sea. He thought of all the kids' stories he had read and films he had seen where people climbed out of windows in such situations like these, by knotting together bed sheets. He looked at the bed. It might be a stupid, childish idea but it was worth a try. They spent the next couple of hours tearing, ripping and tying the bedclothes, glancing nervously at the door, frequently, in anticipation, dread of a visit from their strange 'friend'. All was quiet. They worked quickly and undisturbed and worried whether the knots would hold. Laura was frightened of the whole prospect. Scott said, 'We have no other choice.'
The descent was grim. The crashing rocks beckoned, their hands slipped and it was so hard not to brush them to death banging into the side of the castle wall. Scott went first so that if Laura were to slip, he stood a chance of preventing her from falling off the 'rope' completely. When he had lowered himself out of the window he thought for a split second that Laura would not come down, but she had.
When they got to the bottom of the rope they were on a rocky ledge, nowhere near the sea edge. With much faltering and clambering they helped each other over the rocks until they reached a safe piece of beach leading to a cliff path and back to 'civilization'.
Tired, completely drained both physically and emotionally, they arrived back at Laura's house. There was no one in, neither was there any answer at Scott's house. They sat together on Laura's bed by the open window looking at the sea and piecing together all the mysterious events of that day and the previous night. Presumably their parents were out looking for them. Surely they would be back soon.
The pair lay back on the bed, exhausted. There was a gush of wind, a breeze. It touched their faces, nearly choking them with it's chill. This was about the same time as they met the strange girl on the previous day.
As if she was brought on by their thought, the strange girl was standing in the room and looking at them again with her curiously frightening eyes.
'All our parents are sleeping now,' she said. 'So, like me, you will need someone to play with.' With these words the girl vanished into thin air again. Scott decided that it was time he left.
When Scott arrived home, he rang the bell. There was no answer, so assuming his parents were also out, Scott took out his keys and let himself in. He walked into the living room and found both his parents sitting on the couch with shades on for some reason. They had the television switched on, but the channel wasn't very clear. Then both his parents turned around. Scott was taken back. His parents' faces were pale white, but their lips were just bright red, as if, they were blood stained!
Srisharangan Sathiyanathan Short Story
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