Callum headed back to town, feeling even less confident than when he’d arrived. He didn’t know what to think of Van, who seemed so well-educated, despite his rantings about vampires.

“Excuse me!” he called out to a young man who was headed in his direction. He startled and immediately turned on his heel and rushed away from Callum. A few others did the same, leaving him alone and confused.

Most of the people Callum tried to speak to either left quicky or turned away, pretending not to see or hear him. He stood in the middle of the road and sighed. How was he supposed to learn anything if no one would speak with him? Didn’t they want to know what was happening to Umbra Harbor? Didn’t they want it to stop?

The sign over the bookshop caught his eye, and he let out a breath as he ran his fingers through his blond hair. If the people wouldn’t tell him anything, perhaps the archives could.

The shop was dim and quiet, and Callum was relieved to be greeted with warm dry air, instead of the biting ocean breeze. Every wall was lined with books, and the room was filled with the earthy scent of aged paper. It brought a comforting wave of calm over Callum, who hadn’t even realized just how tense he was.

“Can I help you?”

A relatively young man, barely older than Callum, was standing near the back of the shop, a stack of books tucked under his arm. He looked a bit nervous, eyeing him suspiciously from a distance.

“I’m here investigating the attacks in town,” he explained. He kept his distance so he didn’t frighten the man. Everyone in town probably feared that Callum was the Bloodsucker. “Doctor Helsing said you store the local archives here.”

“I do,” he said as he placed the books down on an old cart. He brushed his hands together to get some dust off before finally approaching Callum. He reached out to shake his hand. “Jasper Morris. I own this shop with my fiancé, and we store the local archives for Umbra Harbor.”

“Callum Harker.” He shook his hand, then Jasper motioned for him to follow.

He led him to the far back of the bookshop, to a staircase the led down into the basement. Down below, there were more rows of shelves, with books that looked like they hadn’t been held in ages.

They ended up in a small backroom that was stacked floor-to-ceiling with shelves and old boxes that were labeled with dates. The room was cool and dry, and looked more cared-for than the rest of the old musty cellar. Even the oldest-looking boxes didn’t seem like they were at any risk of falling apart.

“What can you tell me about the most recent records?” Callum asked, fingering through the files in an open box that was sitting on a small table in the middle of the room. It was only dated for the last year or so, but it was almost full.

“Awful stuff,” Jasper said with a shudder. “A lot of death, mostly with unknown causes. Helsing has been telling everyone it’s a vampire, causing nothing but more panic. A few families left town too.”

“Do you believe in vampires?”

“Well… I don’t know enough about the world outside of this town to say they don’t exist.” Jasper shrugged. “There’s an old book upstairs that’s got some interesting stuff in it. I’ll see if I can find it. You let me know if you need anything else.”

Jasper left Callum along in the little room, and he let out a sigh. He sat at the small table, the chair creaking softly under his weight, and he took his glasses out of his pocket.

“Let’s see,” he said to himself as he tilted the box to see what was inside. “What have we here?”

The records were similar to the letters that Van had sent about the state of the victims. There were also records of people leaving the town, one after losing her husband. The record said his cause of death was unknown, and Callum wondered if it had anything to do with the Bloodsucker wreaking havoc.

He spent over an hour going through the box, but was no closer to any answer than before. Every unknown death, every mysterious symptom… it all just gave rise to more questions, but the townsfolk wouldn’t engage with him, and Van was convinced it was a vampire.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

So, what was he supposed to do?

Callum spent the larger part of the day going through the rest of the archives. Aside from the most recent records, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It all lined up with what Van had told him. Everything was there on paper.

Everything except for anything regarding the Count.

In fact, the only thing Callum found was the deed to the Count’s estate. It was an old, yellowed paper that felt like it might crumble if he handled it too roughly. Most of the ink was faded, and it was impossible to make out the date or the smudged signature. The only clear part was the signature of one of the past Crown Princes, who was long-gone and buried. There was no way to know who the original owner of the county was.

He finally gave up on his fruitless search. He took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes, aching in the dim light of the basement lanterns. He felt like all he’d done for weeks was read about Umbra Harbor.

He headed back upstairs, where he found Jasper rearranging a bookshelf. He had a large tome with black pages tucked under his arm that was tied shut with thick twine.

“Thank you for your help,” Callum said, and Jasper startled, dropping the tome and a few other books on the floor.

“Oh!” He knelt down and picked up the books he’d dropped. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Not really.” Callum stuck his hands in his pockets, feeling defeated. “I have more questions than answers. It seems everyone in town has encountered the Bloodsucker in one way or another, directly or indirectly, but no one wants to talk about it.”

“Well, most folks are wary of any newcomers these days. They’re probably just afraid that the Bloodsucker might hear them or come back for them. Who knows?” Jasper placed the books he’d dropped on his cart, then held out the large black tome to Callum. “This is the book I was telling you about. I’m not sure where it came from—I buy lots of stuff when I travel and don’t always look through the boxes. It's handwritten, and it’s all about vampires and whatnot. You can have it, or give it Helsing.”

Callum raised an eyebrow at the man before he put his glasses back on and took the book. The twine that held it was old, and he untied it carefully, lest if fall apart if he pulled too hard.

Everything in the book was written in white ink, and most of it in a language that Callum had never seen before. There were sketches of vampires and werewolves, even detailed parts of their inner anatomy in comparison to humans.

“What language is this?” Callum eyes, his brow furrowed while he flipped through the pages. There was no name… no indication of who might have written the book or where it had come from.

“I’m not terribly fluent, but I’m pretty sure it’s the old language of the indigenous people of Intuneric up north,” Jasper explained. He tapped his finger on a page that had drawings of two different hearts. “It’s similar to their language now, but some things changed over the centuries, making it a bit rough to translate. The few things that changed can sort of be pieced together through the context. For example, this is explaining the anatomy of a human heart versus a vampire one. When a human becomes a vampire, it says the heart becomes enlarged, the walls thicker, which enhances the creature’s strength and speed. It accommodates for the consumption and distribution of blood in larger quantities throughout the body.”

“How could anyone know these things?” Callum asked, riffing the pages. “You’d have to do an autopsy to even guess what the inside of their bodies are like, and even more through studies to understand how their cardiovascular system functions. In order to do any of those things, vampires would have to be real.”

“I already told you,” Jasper said with a shrug, “I don’t know enough about the world so say they aren’t read. I also don’t know who wrote this book—maybe a madman—so who’s really to say? I’ve never seen them, but it doesn’t mean they’re not out there. The recent attacks are at least enough proof to be cautious when the sun goes down.”

Callum shut the book and sighed. Van must have been spreading the idea of vampires for quite a while, since almost everyone seemed to believe it.

“Who can I speak to in this town who isn’t convinced there’s a vampire in Umbra Harbor?”

“I mean, I’m not convinced, I just don’t know what the answer is.” Jasper rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. “At this point, it’s just as probable to be a vampire as it is to be a human or an animal. Even those who have seen the Bloodsucker himself, claiming it’s some good-looking guy in fancy clothes, aren’t convinced it’s entirely human."

Callum just rolled his eyes. The whole town was full of lunatics. Since when was being handsome or having nice clothes an indication of humanity?

“Your best bet would probably be the Count,” Jasper told him. “I’ve never met him, and from what I hear, he hates Doctor Helsing. He’s a bit of a recluse too. That’s probably why Helsing thinks he’s the Bloodsucker. If vampires are real... and I’m not saying they are... then I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Count was one of them. He’s the only one we don’t see regularly, and nobles have all the power and money to get away with all sorts of evil things, don’t they?”

Callum left the bookshop in defeat. He was frustrated, to say the least.

And what about the Count? Jasper was the second person to imply that he might be the Bloodsucker, regardless of whether he was human or not. Was it just because Van was convinced of it, or was it something else? Perhaps the attacker’s apparent clothing choice?

He let out a long breath as he stretched his arms over his head and stared up at the dark, cloudy sky. He hadn’t seen the sun in a clear sky since he left the Capital City.

“I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and go see the Count.”