Now Vampires? Part 4

  “You teach 7th grade, correct?” the vampire said. He grinned when he said it, and that grin

promised something very nasty the way Brandon saw it. He took a few steps back in the squishy

watered logged yard and prayed that he wouldn’t slip. 

Think, Brandon commanded himself. Think! But, nothing was coming to mind. He just needed a verse, just one verse and he would be safe. The vampire took a step forward and reached out its hands. Its mouth opened and revealed rows of dagger-like teeth that reminded Brandon of a shark or a leach. 

“Can’t think of a verse teacher,” the vampire said. He made the word teacher sound like a curse or something dirty. “No one hurts my girls. No one, but me.”

The vampire lunged.

Brandon cowered.

Then suddenly Brandon heard the sound of Jess’s audio bible come on in the kitchen. It was the closest room to the backdoor afterall. The vampire blanched at the sound of scripture, turned and then ran as if he were fleeing a legion of angels.

“This isn’t over yet!” he shouted over his shoulder. “We’ll meet again!”

Then he was gone, and Jess was at the back door.

“What in the world is going on?” she said.

“Get in the house quick,” Brandon said, and he pushed her back in through the door and locked it. 

“Who was shouting?” Jess said.

“A vampire,” Brandon said. He was looking out through the window. “He ran off when you started playing your audio bible.”

“What are we going to do?” Jess asked. She was panicked, but she was also still sick, so she didn’t have the energy to do much but lay down on the couch in her sweats and try not to throw up.

“I’ll think of something,” Brandon said.

It took two days for Jess to recover. By the second day she was up and about, but it didn’t help that there was now a vampire lurking around trying to get at the family. Brandon had to assume that the vampire would go after the family. Maybe he would try and hurt Jess or one of the girls to get back at him. For a moment, Brandon started to panic, but he calmed himself and remembered that God was sovereign in all things even this. 

Another two days passed without any problem. Brandon and Jess took to carrying around their cell phones on speaker with their audio bibles cued up in case they were attacked by vampires during the night, but so far there had been nothing and no one, not even the security system had picked up any movement. 

Brandon tried to make sure they did everything during the day. He took out the trash early. They played outside only during bright sunlight and they never went out near dusk, but the mornings were the most dangerous time of the day, because Brandon had to be at work. The sun wasn’t even up completely when students started coming to class. Brandon zipped up his leather jacket, turned on his audio bible and took a deep breath.

“Have a good day,” Jess said from the laundry nook that was the entrance into the kitchen and the den, which was at the very back of the house. Brandon usually left from this door, and he didn’t really know why except that it was a habit.

“You too,” Brandon said. “Pray for me.”

Brandon took a step outside into the frosty air and looked around.

There were always a couple of options when Brandon left early in the morning and it was still dark. He could run down the skinny driveway to the street where he usually parked. This strategy was based on surprise. If there was a vampire waiting for him, he could hope that the speed would take him by surprise. There was a chance though that there was a vampire around that wasn’t paying attention and the fast movement might draw that attention and he would get caught. In this case, you could try to go slow and sneak to the car. There were pluses and minus with each scenario. Brandon looked into the darkness of the backyard and tried to look up the hill, which sloped upward from the basement up to the backyards of the houses on the next street. He tried, but he couldn’t see anything, and he knew, or thought at least that vampires could probably see in the dark better than he could.

The air was wet and heavy, and there was a thin mist in the air that felt like misting rain. He walked quickly and made it to the car without incident. Once in the car with the doors locked, Brandon relaxed a little bit. A few minutes later he was coasting down the big hill out of his neighborhood onto one of the main city parkways. He was nearly at the school again when he saw uncle sam. He was lounging under a street light like the other vampire had been doing. It was like they planned it or something, like they were trying to make themselves more dramatic. Brandon decided to just try and drive by and pretend like he hadn’t see the vampire. Sweat beaded on his forehead and sat ramrod straight in his car seat and looked straight ahead as he drove through the light. His heart was thumping in his chest and he knew that if he hadn’t been squeezing the steering wheel so tightly that he would have been shaking. Just a few more seconds, Brandon thought and I’ll be out of view. Finally after what felt like an eternity, he looked around and saw only empty streets and a few passing cars as he turned onto the road that would lead him to school. He let go the breath he was holding and tried to calm himself.

The parking lot was empty as it usually was except for the custodian’s car and a few of the cafeteria workers. He grabbed his bag quickly and did a quick scan before he got out of his car and ran up the stairs from the staff parking lot to the main building of the school. He couldn’t see anyone outside of the school, which was probably a good thing. He walked quickly up to the main doors, and the hair on the back of his neck began to stand up. He felt like something was watching him and the fear grew inside of him. He started to walk faster, and then he began to run. He passed the main door on instinct and went to one of the side doors by the cafeteria, which had a keypad, which would let him into the building. He punched in his code, the door clicked and he jerked the door open and slammed it shut.

There was the vampire. The one he had passed just a few minutes before on the other side of the door smiling at him from outside and waggling a finger. 

“Next time teacher,” the vampire said, and then he seemed to vanish or fly or both. 

Brandon’s legs suddenly gave out and he spent a minute sitting on the floor and watching the door.