Do Vampires Day Dream - Parts 3-5

 

Part 3 – The Girl in the Yellow Horse Pajamas

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 realized 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 pajamas.  

“Are you ok?” her 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.”

There was a silence as neither spoke.

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

Vlad turned to look at her. Now she was nearer, he could see the horses on her pajamas 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 said making Vlad half smile.

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… relaxed. 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.”

As she spoke the words, the girl stopped and looked into the glass cabinet. Inside a series of butterflies, in brightly different colours were pinned to a board, their wings spread showing the many varieties, pinks, blues, greens, yellows, you know, colours. 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, voices echoing along the corridor. He grabbed Wendy 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, there feet bouncing heavily off the stone flooring. 

“I’m telling ya Tomothy…” said one of the three stooges as he lead the man-child 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.

It is said, reader, that elephants never forget. Well some elephants do. There is one elephant in Africa, who forgot where he lived. He now just wanders around, asking if anyone can give him directions.

The bullies were close, Vlad could hear the wheezing breath of the man-child and grinding teeth of another. He could hear them getting closer still, there shuffling feet stopping on the other side of the elephant. 

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

Vlad could still hear their breath and could see Wendy was beginning to turn purple, from where she was holding hers, the colour matching his own eye rings. 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 before, 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. Animals of many species, most trapped behind thick layers of glass that made up the cabinets, looking out, their eyes appearing to still live. 

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. Vlad looked into its face, his nose inches from the glass. He looked to its teeth, sharp, pointed like daggers ready to bite. As he moved his focus, he could see his own face, his own mouth reflecting in the glass. He opened his lips and peered at his own teeth, no fangs, none of them particularly sharp. He stood upright staring through the glass but not at anything in particular. 

“I’m a vampire.” He almost shouted the words, not knowing why he trusted this girl he had only just met. 

There was no noise, no sign of movement. Vlad turned to see if the girl was still in the room. She was a few feet away, continuing to look into another cabinet. There was a moment, when Vlad was left staring in the silence, at the back of the girl’s head, her dark brown hair flowing over the yellow pajamas.

“I know.” The girl finally responded after what to Vlad seemed like a decade. 

“But let me explain… it doesn’t mean I…” Vlad began, before pausing, “Wait, what do you mean you know?”

“I just know things. Can’t explain it.” The girl’s voice continued to be happy and carefree, more like she was talking about what she had for lunch, than learning about a real-life vampire. If you are interested, she had a ham, pickle and cheese sandwich for lunch. The ham was smoked, the cheese cheddar and the bread wholemeal.

“Are you not frightened?” Vlad asked running to catch up with the unusual girl who had continued walking. 

“No, why… wait… you’re not going to bite me right?” she asked, barely any concern in her voice.

“No of course not.” Vlad responded.

“Then why would I be frightened?” The girl said, leaving Vlad once more stopped in his tracks, as he pondered the question. “So, you’re a vampire, I know I’m not in danger from you, so what? What I don’t know, is what’s your name?”

“Vlad… Vladimir.” He was still trying to understand what was happening.

“Oh, like Dracula…” the girl correctly acknowledged, “…was he your Great, Great, Great…”

“No, no relation.” Vlad interrupted.

“I’m Wendy” she stopped and turned to face Vlad, raising her hand, she took his and shook it firmly. “Very nice to meet you Vladimir.”

 

Part 4 – The Vampire and The Girl Who Knows Things

The night was not going anything like Vlad had imagined. He certainly did not expect to be having such an open conversation with someone he had just met. He had never opened up to anyone before, not even his father. But with Wendy, it was easy, not once had she seemed shocked by anything he had said, and she even knew a lot of the things he wanted to say before he spoke the words. 

“Why do you want to become human?” asked Wendy, the question catching Vlad off guard. He had not told her this, not yet anyway, but looking into his eyes she somehow knew.

“I just don’t…” Vlad did not know exactly how to say it, or even think it, as the truth was, he just wanted to. “I want to be able to do things… outside… in the day… normal stuff.”

“Like what?” she asked.

Vlad again struggled to answer, thinking of his list in his mind, the reasons felt unimportant. He looked into her blue eyes and spoke the words he had never even thought to himself.

“I just don’t like who I am.” He said, keeping his eyes fixed to hers for a further moment before looking to the near by cabinet. 

“Why not?” Wendy asked, her voice, for the first time, showed a sign of surprise. 

“What’s to like.” Vlad continued to look into the cabinet at the strange looking frog that was preserved, its beady eyes staring back at him. 

I don’t know if you have ever had a frog look you in the eyes, reader. But I can tell you, from my own experience, that a frog’s eyes are filled with judgement.

“How can anyone like a vampire?” Vlad continued. “I mean we’re literally monsters.”

“You are definitely not a monster, Vlad.” The tone of Wendy’s voice was less concerned and more factual. As if what she was saying was in no way challengeable. 

“You don’t even know me.” Vlad turned to look at Wendy, finding himself surprisingly annoyed at how casual she was reacting. The annoyance was only brief, for as soon as he looked into the blue pools, she called eyes, it had gone. Somehow, she did know him. 

“Remember Vlad, I know things, can see things sometimes as well, to be more precise. So, I can see you Vlad and you are not a monster, you are just…” she paused. Vlad could see she was struggling whether she should say the words or not. “You’re just lonely. You don’t need to change, just to be with friends.”

“But I don’t have any!” Vlad shouted, once more staring at the frog.

“You didn’t have any,” Wendy reached out and touched Vlad’s hand. 

“There he is!” the voice was hard, extreme versus the soft words of Wendy. “And look, he’s with the freak. Don’t they make a lovely couple.”

Tomothy and the four boys walked through the surrounding exhibits, heading straight for Vlad and Wendy. 

“Not now Tomothy.” Wendy spoke firmly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting?” the man-child mocked.

“For once, just flub off!” Wendy did not actually use the word ‘flub’.

The man-child stopped, the smile changing on his face, distorting to a look of sheer anger. He started walking toward Wendy, his steps quick. Vlad continued to stare into the judging eyes of the frog. He was only half aware of the man-child’s presence. It was like he was looking into himself, not that he was a frog, or anything close, but the eyes were hypnotic.

Tomothy was now closer, ready to pounce on Wendy, his eyes fixed, with no concern that she was a girl. Just before he was able to grab hold of her, Vlad’s hand hit him directly in the chest, pushing him away and nearly knocking him into the open jaws of a cheetah, that stood proudly, preserved in the middle of the room. 

Vlad moved himself between Wendy and the four bullies. Again, two of the boys, the thinner two, were looking a little sheepish. 

“You don’t touch her!” Vlad’s voice came out strong, deeper than his normal tone.

“You little…” Tomothy began to shout as he regained his balance and came once more toward Vlad and Wendy. 

Vlad stepped forward to meet him, his mouth spreading into the grimmest of grins, grimmer than any grin he had grinned at home. This time, Vlad could feel his fangs, slowly getting longer, until they stuck out from the rest of his teeth, by at least an inch. His vision changed, now seeing not just the figures of the bullies, but a deep red flow of blood that pumped around their bodies, beneath their skin. He knew his eyes were darkening, becoming all black inside the purple rings. Three of the boys ran, the red blurs scurrying out of the room, leaving only the big boy to remain. The man-child’s face softened, distorting from a scowl, through a frown and settling on a look of horror, as the boy’s chin hung low, his pupils dilated. The scream didn’t erupt until after the man-child was already inside the next exhibit, running back to the rest of the class.

Vlad turned to Wendy, catching a glimpse of himself in a reflection as his eyes became normal once more. 

“I hope I didn’t scare you.” He said to Wendy.

The words were lost, unnecessary as she stared back, a large, grin, not a grim one, on her face. 

“That was totally Awesome!” she shouted, raising her hand for a high five. Her hand hung there awkwardly for a minute whilst Vlad took his time to catch on.

“Look if you ever want me to bite you…” she started casually, whilst beginning to lead Vlad out the exhibit, “I will… not tonight. But I don’t know why you would want to, not after that. You rule!”

 

Part 5 – So What Do Insomniac Vampires Do In the Day

It was unclear from the look on Mr. Thompson’s face when Vlad had left the museum early that morning, whether he had either not believed Tomothy’s story, who remained cowering behind the teachers back. Or he was just too scared to act. But when Vlad had walked, through the gates, the last moments of night still hanging in the air, he knew he would not be in any trouble. 

Back at home, he promised he would tell his father about his trip that evening. Of course, not all the details. All he wanted to do now was go to his room. 

Lying back on the bed spread, his onesie blending with the bed sheets that featured the same print. He stared at the ceiling. The image of the frog’s eyes still echoing in his sight. Right now, Vlad felt good, for the first time in a long while, he felt really good. In the museum, with Wendy, the way he had confronted the bullies, had woken him to who he really was. He was still unsure whether he wanted to become human. Wanted to change, but right now, it did not matter. In this moment he was happy with himself.

The frog’s face began to fade and with it, Vlad’s mind began to wander, to what he was going to do that evening. He was already looking forward to getting together with Wendy and some of her friends after the sun had set. They were going to order a Pizza Hut takeaway. 

Grabbing his list of day dreams that lay next to him, along with a pencil, he flipped the page over and started a new list, he wrote just two words.

Vlad’s Daydreams Version 2

See friends

Placing the page back down on the sheet, he closed his eyes.

I cannot tell you what all insomniac vampires do in the day, but I can tell you that one, little Vladimir Jones, on this day, slept.

End