Do Vampires Day Dream - Chapters Three & Four

Three - The Rubbish Vampire 

 

As he closed the cubicle door, it was now Vlad felt furious, his fists clenched tight, so tight his knuckles whitened, even whiter than before if you can imagine such whiteness. He had the urge for blood, a calling to bury his fangs into the man-boy. 

 

‘How dare he talk to me like that.’ He thought. ‘Does he not know who, what I…’ Vlad paused his inner monologue, he was thinking ‘what he was’ but now he didn’t know himself, not knowing what he would become by the morning.  

 

Bang!

 

The bathroom door crashed open, the wood hitting against the tile with a loud crash. 

 

“Where are you paley.” The not so creative insult had unsurprisingly come from the man-boy. 

 

Vlad could here footsteps walking toward the cubicle, not just one set, but four, bouncing heavily off the tiled floor. Vlad did not know what to do. He had seen in films and on TV people standing on the toilet to make it appear like no one was in the stall, but that wouldn’t work, not in reality, not if they simply tried pushing the door to find it locked. He was conflicted. He did not know how he felt. The anger that had circled him moments before, was still hovering above him, like a cloud, but the bats in his stomach were now fluttering with fear once more. 

 

“Come out, come out.” It was still only the man-boy who spoke, the others just echoing with giggles. 

 

Bang!

 

Another door slammed as they threw open one of the cubicles and started their way down the line. 

 

Vlad wondered, if he just waited, then maybe they would get bored, move on. But what if that took all night? Vlad swallowed hard, that would mean he would miss his only chance of being bitten. He knew he couldn’t go on, not like this. The sudden clarity helped Vlad decide. He turned the lock with confidence, swinging the door open and stepping out to face the four bullies. Sure enough, leading the group was the oversized man-boy, behind him stood his three stooges. One chubby, but half the size of Tomothy, the other two, stick thin. 

 

“Well… well… well… there he is.” said the man-boy. “I can hardly see you there in front o’ the white tiles.”

 

Vlad just stood, staring the boy down. He realised, although he felt confident all of a sudden, he did not know why. What was he going to do? His father had specifically told him ‘no biting’. But then, he smiled to himself, he realised he did not have to bite, not to get these bullies to back off, he just needed to frighten them. He took a step forward, an act in itself that seemed to knock the man-boy off balance, he clearly was not used to people holding their ground in front of him. For a moment Tomothy took a step back, before correcting himself and hardening his face.

 

Vlad did not harden his, no, instead he just smiled, a grim grin that he had only ever practiced in the mirror (although he was never able to see himself). Already, two of the boys backed away, not sure of this new situation. Vlad continued to smile, staring directly to the man-boy leader. As his grin spread, he expected to feel the fangs getting longer, as they did at home, but running his tongue over his teeth, they were all the same size, no fangs at all. 

 

The boys, where previously they had been unsure, now showed conviction once more, the man-boy laughing as he stepped forward toward Vlad.

 

“What you tryna do, smile us to death?” He continued walking closer, the boys following. “Although, I don’t know about you boys, but he really is a little creepy lookin in’t he.”

 

Vlad tried even harder, focusing on the anger, willing the fangs to reveal themselves, but there was still nothing. The group of bullies were now closer and the leader reached out grabbing Vlad’s head and pushing him down into a head lock. He kept pushing until Vlad’s head was under his arm pit. Vlad could not just smell Tomothy´s sweat, but the rancid odour seeped into his mouth and changed to taste. He could hear the other boys laughing and encouraging Tomothy as his grip tightened around his neck.

 

The man-boy lead Vlad into the same cubicle he had come out of moments earlier, thrusting his head further down, Tomothy pushed it into the toilet bowl and into the blue stained water.

 

“Flush im… Flush im… FLUSH IM!” The boys’ chants got louder and louder until the sound was blocked by the noise of the waterfall cascading over Vlad’s face, the torrents flooding into his mouth, nose and ears. 

 

“Welcome to the class pale boy.” Tomothy said as he loosened his grip and lead the gang out of the bathroom. 

 

Vlad felt weak. A new sadness filled his stomach, drowning the bats, as the same sadness spread upwards and began to leak from his eyes. The tears ran down his cheeks, as the damns broke and the flood overwhelmed him. His head swam with questions. 

 

Why had he not been able to show his fangs? 

 

What sort of vampire was he if he couldn’t even deal with a few bullies? 

 

His thoughts led him to look at two of the cubicles. The left door, open, he knew represented him staying a vampire forever, nothing changing and forever being alone. The other door, which lay closed, had no destination. It was unclear, unknown. The tears continued to flow and for the first time in his life, Vlad could hear himself whimpering. 

 

A soft knocking startled Vlad in to shifting his head from the doors, he realised he was sat, his knees curled up on the cold tile floor. He looked to the sound. In the open doorway of the bathroom, a young girl was standing in yellow horse pyjamas.  

 

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Four - The Girl in the Yellow Horse Pyjamas

 

“Are you ok?” The girl’s voice was soft, sweet.

 

Vlad sniffled, trying to hide the tears, desperate not to show weakness. He tried to rise. 

 

“It’s ok… you don’t have to get up.” The little girl continued, stepping into the boys’ bathroom, seemingly without a thought. “I often have a weep in the bathroom… although…” she looked around at the empty stalls, “never in a museum. I saw what they did to you. I’m sorry.”

 

“I… I don’t know what you mean.” Vlad started defensively, his tears subsiding slightly, shy in the presence of company. 

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone…” She continued, “besides, they only picked on you because you were new, fresh meat, they were getting tired of bullying everyone else.”

 

Vlad flinched at the word ‘meat’, it was them who should have been nothing more than meat to him. There was a silence as neither Vlad or the horse girl spoke.

 

“So, what’s your story? Why you with our class tonight, are you joining our school?” the girl sounded very upbeat. 

 

Vlad turned to look at her. Now she was nearer, he could see the horses on her pyjamas more closely, only they were not horses, like he had thought, they were grey, tired looking donkeys. He looked to her face, seeing her smile expectantly waiting an answer to her three questions.

 

“No, nothing like that… well maybe.” Vlad stuttered; he didn’t actually know what would happen after he was human. 

 

“That’s really helpful.” The donkey girl mocked making Vlad half smile. “I’m Wendy by the way.”

 

“Vlad” he replied now standing.

 

After Vlad dried off under the hand dryer, his body having to distort into a strange sort of half crouch, to allow his head and shoulders beneath the warm wind. The two left the bathroom and began to walk down the hall, away from the rest of the class and deeper into the museum. A hope began to seep once more into Vlad. 

 

“Is it always like this? School?” he asked. 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, there doesn’t seem to be much discipline. I mean… Mr. Thompson doesn’t…”

 

“Well Mr. Thompson is a certain kind of teacher,” the girl interrupted. “No, school in general is not quite so… chaotic. If any other teacher were here then we would all be sat round in one room. My mum thinks Mr. Thompson is “incompetent”.” The girl raised her fingers quoting the word. “But I like him, it means I get to explore the museum in my own way.”

 

With these words the girl stopped and looked into the glass cabinet. Inside were a series of butterflies, in brightly different colours; red, yellow, purple, pink some pink and blue, some more blue than pink, you know how colours work, anyway the butterflies were pinned to a board, their wings spread showing the many varieties. She bent her head closer to the glass, her breath steaming up the surface.

 

All of a sudden, Vlad’s ears twitched, not in a physical sense, Vampire’s ears do not actually twitch, in fact, they are surprisingly normal looking, if a little more sensitive than most. No, his ears twitched on the inside, in response to the voices echoing along the corridor. He grabbed the donkey girl by the arm, and pulled her away from the butterflies, taking flight where the poor creatures could not, out of the room and down the corridor into the next exhibit. Wendy said nothing as they both ran, their feet thudding off the stone floor, but only the girls making a sound. 

 

“I’m telling ya Tomothy…” said one of the three stooges as he lead the man-boy and fellow bullies into the exhibit. “I heard something in ‘ere.”

 

“Well we better find ‘im.” Replied Tomothy. “I ain’t dun wiv that pale freak yet.”

 

Wendy and Vlad crouched still behind a large stand, that held the weight of a gigantic grey elephant, its huge tusks sticking out at least two feet.  

 

The bullies were close, Vlad could hear the wheezing breath of the man-boy and grinding teeth of another. He could hear them getting closer and taste them even more so, their shuffling feet stopping on the other side of the elephant. 

 

“Ya know sumfink about elephants,” Tomothy addressed his cronies trying to sound clever, “they never forget… that’s a fact that innit.” 

 

Imagine reader I am face palming my forehead as Tomothy shows his genius.

 

Vlad could still hear their breath and could see the girl was beginning to turn purple from where she was holding hers, her colour close to matching his own eye rings. If you are interested the purple of Vlad’s eye rings would closely match the Pantone colour PMS 2735, whereas Wendy’s cheeks were currently close to PMS 2725.

 

After another moment the shuffling and thudding of the footsteps began to move away.

 

“Well fanks Numpty Drew.” said Tomothy. “They obviously ain’t here, now let’s try this way.”

 

Waiting another few minutes, until the footsteps were but an echo in the next room, Wendy stood, admiring the great beast, before moving to look at the other exhibits. Vlad had not noticed until now, but he was in the wildlife exhibit where he had planned for the bite to take place. They were surrounded by a menagerie of beasts. (A menagerie means a collection of different wild animals, I know I could have just said that, but I am the writer here and need to try and at least sound a little clever at times). Most were trapped behind thick layers of glass that made up the cabinets, looking out, their eyes appearing to still be alive. 

 

Vlad walked toward the nearest cabinet. Inside were a number of different predators, the biggest being a tiger, that dominated the interior of the cabinet, the beautiful rusty, orange fur shining beneath the spotlights. Next to the great predator, stood a smaller, yet still impressive hyena and next to that a small meercat. Vlad was unsure if he was just projecting this as the meercat seemed so out of place in the cabinet, but he was sure the face of the meercat showed fear and even thought at one point he saw it shaking. Vlad looked to the predators teeth before touching his tongue to his own, the fangs still not there.  He stood upright staring through the glass but not at anything in particular. 

 

“I’m a va…” CRASH…

 

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