Creepsville: Vampire's Curse (BOOK ONE)

Chapter One

The chilly breeze tickled across my bare arms, sending a shiver down my spine. I quickened my pace, eager to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the dreary hallway. The face of an old portrait on the wall seemed to leer at me with open hostility, his eyes following me until I turned the bend and was out of sight.

My footsteps echoed loudly through the corridors as I rushed outside into the sunlight. A murder of crows watched me pass with beady eyes, their raspy caws sending a shiver up my spine. Such an odd name for birds, I thought as I strode across campus. It sounded like a group of assassins or spies. Strangely enough, here in the quad, they seemed like normal birds who flew around and pecked at the grass when no one was looking.

"Alex, wait!" a hushed voice called from behind me. I turned to find my friend Cindy jogging up, her chestnut hair wild around her face.

"We still need to do that project for Mrs. Throne today or we're in trouble."

"I know," I said, trying to rub the last bit of sleepiness out of my eyes. I grabbed an apple off the dining hall table and took a bite out of it.

Cindy plopped down in the seat across from me, a worried look on her features. "You don't seem like yourself this morning," she observed, green eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"What's going on? Are you thinking about that vampire legend again?"

A half-smile tugged at my lips as I nodded. She knew me too well. "It's the anniversary," I explained, leaning forward and dropping my voice to a whisper. "Six centuries ago today, a half-vampire went crazy and killed people in this town causing havoc."

Cindy rolled her eyes and groaned loudly. "How many times have we heard this story? It's just a dumb legend about some stupid vampire."

I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a whisper. "But the stories say he was different - he had powers that no other vampires possessed. Daylight walking, mind control, even healing mortal wounds! The vamps were gonna use him as their secret weapon against the hunters. And when they got to him first, the vampire king cursed Creepsville with a vengeance - every century, townspeople either die or get turned into vampires. They say this time the vamps will finally get their revenge and invade." I shivered with excitement and anticipation.

Cindy shot to her feet, her bag flung over one shoulder. "You need to stop believing everything you hear, Alex." As she spoke, her expression suddenly softened.

"Just try and make it through the day without causing any more trouble, okay?"

I watched as she sauntered back into the dorms, feeling a wave of defeat wash over me. Despite my attempts to shake off my reputation as the 'weird vampire-obsessed kid', people still believed the legends were true. A heavy sense of dread weighed heavily in the air, and something dark was stirring beneath Creepsville. I could feel it deep down in my bones.

The morning passed in a blur of classes, but my mind kept wandering to the cryptic histories that lurked beneath our sleepy town's surface. As I slid into my usual seat in English, I found myself once again pondering the mysteries of the past.

"Good morning class," greeted Mrs. Throne, her ageless eyes alight with secret knowledge. "Let's discuss local folklore, shall we?"

She gestured to an ancient tome, its crumbling pages crowded with spidery script. "Some claim that centuries ago, a vampire plagued Creepsville, cursing us with death and undeath. But might it have simply been a rabid animal? History becomes warped as stories pass from one teller to the next."

I pounced on the opportunity to ask more questions. "Is it true that their writings recorded vampire attacks?"

Throne gave me a thin, grim smile and shook her head once. "Their tales often serve as warnings. We would do well to take them with a grain of salt." Then she clammed up completely when I asked about the bodies found around town. Jeremy stared at me with his gaze glassy and hollow.