The Lonely Vampiress

Chapter 1

The above picture is of the father, Sebastian.

Revised, 4th Draft

The air was cool and calm, and the sounds of the forest outside were unusually quiet. The young man, barely in his late thirties, veered off the street bustling with cars packed in like sardines and turned down a narrow, almost lonely dirt road poking out from behind a few maples. His teenage daughter gazed at him with inquisitive eyes from the passenger seat. "Dad, where are we going?"

He grinned at her and said boisterously, "We're going on an adventure. Off the beaten path, in the wild of the unknown!"

She rolled her eyes. "Really, Dad? We're driving down a logging trail in the middle of nowhere. We couldn't possibly be going anywhere that exciting."

He raised an eyebrow in her direction and retorted, "What ever happened to your sense of adventure? You used to be —"

"I used to be a kid. I've grown up. Deal with it."

He wiggled his eyebrows, making a face. She suppressed a laugh, instead focusing her attention on her iphone or, once the battery had depleted, looking out the window. The sky grew pink, and the father kept going, now on the lookout for moose. When it became too dark to see clearly, he switched on his headlights. But even with the lights on, he could barely differentiate between the road he was traveling on and the trees to either side. Unfortunately, by this point the road was too narrow for him to turn around, and with all the twists and turns it had made, he didn't dare risk backing out. So, with a sigh, he looked once to his daughter softly snoring in the seat beside him, and cautiously proceeded down the road at half his previous pace.

It must have been nearing half an hour before he came across any sign of civilization. Hidden in the trees to either side of the dirt road loomed two great stone pillars, a grotesque stone creature perched atop each. As the young man passed them at two miles per hour, he noticed that the stone did not stop there; in fact, it rose even farther, forming two halves of one gigantic gothic gate.

Instantly, the dirt road turned to gravel, and the trees began to thin. It wasn't long before a building materialized out of the darkness. As he drove closer, he could tell that it was an old, grandiose victorian mansion. The gravel road became a driveway under his tires, and in what seemed like no time at all, he was parked in front of what seemed to have once been a stable but in recent times had been converted into a large four car garage.

In the dim light he could make out little more than silhouettes, so after a minute or so he prepared to turn around. But as soon as he put the car in reverse, a loud rumbling sound, followed by a great clang, erupted from behind him. The stone gate had closed, trapping him and his daughter inside.

He thought of waking her, but didn't want to disturb the peaceful look on her face. So with a sigh, he turned the car off, removed the keys from the ignition, and stepped out into the brisk night air of northern Maine. Even in the height of June the nights were chilled, though with every step he took toward the lifeless mansion, he could swear the temperature dropped by at least a degree.

Slowly and cautiously, the young man ascended the solid wooden front steps and approached the dark stone door that loomed before him. A large knocker in the shape of a gargoyle's head protruded from the center of the door, and he reached up to grasp it. The stone was cool to his touch, the knocker heavy. When he let it go, the sheer weight of it was enough to open the door without a sound.

His heartbeat quickened as he stepped inside. He was surrounded by pure darkness, and from what little he could make of his surroundings, he thought himself to be in a hallway of sorts. But it was unlike any other hallway he'd ever been in. As he looked around, the young man was filled with a deep sense of foreboding, as though he were being watched. "Hello? Anyone there?" He called, his voice tentative. No one answered.