“Ricky! Jackie!” Candice called out running towards the doors, they were simple metal doors with small windows on them, the windows were blocked off with something and we could tell that all the windows we could see were blocked off. Candice had now reached the doors and was pounding franticly on them, “Ricky, Jackie, it’s mommy open up. Valarie what’s going on here unlock the door I’m here for my kids.”

  “Something very bad is in there,” Jackie said. “I don’t know how to explain it I just know that something bad is in there.”

  “Some kind of sense evil skill maybe?” I offered.

  “What could be evil inside of a daycare?” Beth asked.

  “Toddlers,” Melissa said.

  “We’re going in be careful,” I said. “Beth and Heather stay out here and be ready to back us up if needed.”

  We made our way to the doors with Candice, but before I could ask Samantha to break them down one of them opened slowly. The inside was pitch black and a small voice called out, “come on in.”

  “It’s a trap,” I said.

  “Was that captain obvious or Admiral Ackbar you were channeling there?” Kelly asked.

  Candice dashed into the pitch black daycare. “Ricky! Jackie! Where are you mommy’s here? Oh god what is that smell?”

  The rest of us filed into the building being only slightly more careful than Candice. No sooner had I entered the door when it slammed shut behind me, I tried to open it but it was locked.

  “We’re locked in,” I said. “Extreme danger. Jackie cast Light on something.”

  Jackie held her hammer aloft as light sprang forth from it and illuminated something no sane person would want to see. Haphazardly strewn about the room was the dried up bodies of children, seemingly drained of all their blood and left to rot where they dropped.

  “Ricky, Jackie?” Candice said quietly falling to her knees. “It’s OK now mommy’s here you can come out now.”

  “Little Ricky was so brave,” the voice said from the shadows. “He fought till the end. Jackie meanwhile just kind of shut down once she realized she was going to die and that nothing could change that, most of them did.”

  Candice let out a feral scream that morphed into a howl and charged into the shadows towards the voice. As she disappeared into the shadows we heard the sounds of hitting. We couldn’t tell who was hitting who but we got our answer when Candice came flying back into the circle of light with a shadow over her that slammed her into the ground and quickly fled back into the darkness. It was only for a second but I got a good look at it with my Titleist’s Eye.

Valarie Vampire Shadow Stalker/1 Possible Titles: Sadist, Child Killer, Sibling Torturer, The Depraved

  “She’s a vampire!” I yelled. “Get her into the light.”

  “Good eye,” Valarie said from the shadows.

  I moved next to Jackie hoping the light would keep her at bay. “Unblock the windows, Samantha bust open the doors, get as much light in here as we can.”

  “Nice try,” Valarie said as she came barreling out of the shadows faster than any of us could react and knocking Samantha down with a single blow and quickly retreating back into the shadow. “But to get rid of the darkness you’ll have to go into the darkness, and to do that you’ll have to get past me.”

  “We need a better plan,” Melissa said. “I can kind of see her at times, she’s moving around really fast within the shadows, she’s not standing still.”

  “Good kitty,” Valarie said. “I can have fun with you after I drain the others. Except for you my sister vampire.” There was a moment of silence as we all looked at Kelly. “Betray them, kill the paladin and we can feast on their blood together.”

  “Shut up!” Kelly roared. “I’m nothing like you, you’re a complete monster, I’ll never be like you. NEVER!”

  Samantha let out a roar and charged into the shadows. “Stupid cow I’m over here,” Valarie taunted. The whole building shook with a bang when she hit the far wall and more banging ensued. “Mad Cow Disease I guess.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Valarie again came out of the shadows knocking Kelly, and Melissa down and dodging a counterattack from Amanda before disappearing back into the shadows. Meanwhile Samantha had finally knocked her way through the far wall and light now poured into the room from the rising sun. Samantha ran out the hole she made and went around the outside of the building either pulling whatever fabric had been put up out and knocking over anything that had been placed. By the time she rejoined us by kicking in the front doors there was barely any shadows left for her to hide in.

  “Good going Sam,” I said. “That will help a lot.”

  “Meddlesome cow,” Valarie said. “All you had to do was be quite and get drained of all your blood and die. But no you had to make this complicated, now I’m gonna do it slow.”

  Valarie came out of what little shadows that remained, much slower this time and kicked Samantha in the face. The blow knocked Samantha off balance slightly, not so far off balance that she couldn’t throw a punch and miss with it though.

  “Still too slow,” Valarie taunted. “All that work and I’m still going to drain you all dry.” Candice, Melissa and Kelly were now back on their feet, ”here kitty kitty.” Valarie said grabbing Melissa and slamming her to the floor next to where the light met the shadows. She knelt down next to her and went for her throat with her fangs.

  “No!” Candice yelled jumping towards them with her daggers drawn.

  Valarie had to divert her attention and grabbed Candice by the wrists forcing her daggers out of her hands. “Pathetic, your children put up more of a fight than this.” Candice let out a roar and gave Valarie a mighty head-butt that did far more damage to herself than to Valarie. Valarie leaned her head back and let loose with her own head-butt knocking Candice down.

  Samantha came running up to Valarie and picked her right up and kept running towards the wall and with one charge put Valarie right through the wall. Not giving her any time to recover Samantha picked her back up and ran her through the building to the other side and put her through the other wall. Still not giving her any time to recover she picked Valarie up yet again and charged towards the parking lot, going right past Beth and Heather, and slamming her into a car with such force the building shook.

  “Jackie, Amanda, get Candice and Melissa up and let’s get out of here I don’t think this building is going to last much longer,” I said making my way for the door.

  While I was barking orders Samantha had picked Valarie up again and choke slammed her through the roof of the car and was now out of breath. Candice had slipped out of the hands of whoever helped her up and ran towards the wreckage. She straddled Valarie and brought her daggers down into her face, again and again until there was nothing left of her skull. A few moments later Valarie’s body turned white and disappeared into a loot crystal. With nothing left to take her anger out on Candice broke down into tears and then into a guttural howl.

New Skill: Mournful Howl Buffs all allies morale and lowers all enemies morale and causes Fear.

  I walked up to Candice and gave her a hug, I motioned for everybody else to come in for a group hug.

  It had taken awhile for Candice to calm down and for us to get her into the wagon.

  “Samantha tear out the corners of this building, that should finish it off,” I said.

  “Oh yeah Samantha just go over there and knock over that building there,” Samantha said. “Why? Vampire bitch is dead.”

  “What about the,” Melissa started to ask and stopping herself for a moment. “Bodies?”

  “We can do nothing for them,” I said. “If we knock the building over at least any parents that come looking for their children might be able to convince themselves their children at least died quickly.”

  There was a moment of silence that was broken by Jackie, “come on Sam, I’ll help you.”