Closing my eyes that night, I didn’t find the demon from the nightmarish kitchen scene. No, staring back, even in the confines of my own room, were the emerald green eyes haunting me like a message from beyond.
I hardly payed any attention to the movie after what she whispered to me. The words stayed in my mind long past the movies run time.
‘Vampires live in the old house on Tremaine. Come by after midnight and I’ll show you.’
The fleeting image of her face stuck in my mind. Those wet eyes, her small mouth, that wild hair. I painted her picture in my mind, trying to pinpoint her likeness to any of the girls in my class or school. She wasn’t there. Not in the school yard, cafeteria, or any of my 6th grade classes. I thought her a bit younger than myself, due to her childishly round face. So, the fantastical element to what she told me were obviously the whims of a child, or I wanted to believe that. It was her tone and the seriousness of her face that told me otherwise.
The clock on my wall, ticked past 11:00, which got me thinking about that old house on Tremaine. The neighborhood kids nicknamed it, the old church. In part to its massive structure, and domed roof top. There were crosses on the windows and hanging around the house like it was its own little church. The entirety of the yard, including the house gave off a very religious sect feeling. Although nobody went there to pray.
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The entirety of the block was off putting, the old church topping the cake. Rumors surrounded the place, like spirits. Some of the rumors had the old preacher living by himself, taking to the houses haunted atmosphere, making him the crazy man we thought he was. Others had the preacher with a family. Which made me think back to him calling the girl over, and how she might be related. Those rumors included the family of course. Stories that never strayed or stayed true to the original telling, that neither of us ever remember telling.
There was one about a boy, the preachers son. We thought it a cautionary tale to get kids to stop playing in the streets. Supposedly the boy, unsupervised, ran out into the street, chasing a ball when a semi truck rumbled through and tore through him, leaving odd pieces to find, for the man and his wife. Another, which was a favorite among us all, was the wife’s tale. Hearing this one gave me nightmares, due to its graphic nature. It included a false alarm burglary, and a case of mistaken identity that led to a child of the household being strangled to death. The wife’s deteriorating mental was to blame, and what this one served was to keep us away from the house, less it happen to one of us.
All tales were grossly exaggerated many times over, with differences appearing in the details each time. No one really knew the truth behind the rumors, nor did anyone have one about a little girl being in that house, or Vampires.