Jack and the Vampire

o n e

JACK DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. He had been waiting there from sunise... And although the market itself was packed, he couldn't have been more alone.

In the three hours he had waited for, not one person had stopped to buy from him.

He should have told his mother that it wouldn't work from the beginning... After all, it was obvious. The Vampire was only a fairytale. No sane person would actually pay money for a wooden stake.

It was insane that his mother actually believed such a creature existed. Perhaps she was mad... It definitely didn't surprise him if she had been driven insane after his father's death.

As a child, he had become accustomed to seeing his parents attached to one another. The loss of his father had damaged his mother beyond repair.

"Good morning, young man," an unfamiliar voice brought Jack out of his trance.

The stranger was extremely ordinary looking. With his mousy brown hair and dull eyes, he had a face that was easily forgotten. It didn't surprise Jack that he didn't recognise him... Even if he had met him before, he would most likely have forgotten who he was.

"Good morning to you, too."

"You do look a little young to be out alone," the strange man remarked. He slowly scanned the boy with his brown eyes, making him shift uncomfortably on his feet.

"I am seventeen," Jack muttered indignantly.

It wasn't the first time he was mistaken for being younger and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

Scrawny and underfed, Jack and his mother were the definition of poverty in their town. His dirty blonde hair and light brown eyes only added to the effect, making him seem more like a slave than a living human.

After his father had died, they could scarcely manage one meal a day and were shunned into a lifetime of suffering.

"You look as though you haven't grown since your fourteenth year." Between the lack of food and the absence of happiness, Jack doubted that he had. "Well, then... What have you got to offer me."

He stared up from the dirt path, not believing what the strangee said. Was he actually considering to buy the wooden stake?

"It is a wooden stake."

"Ah, I see... Its to protect yourself from the Vampire above, isn't it? Clever... Very clever."

"You believe in the Vampire that lives in an unknown land above us?" the blonde-haired boy could not conceal the disbelief in his voice. What kind of a grown man would believe in fairy tales? "Is that not some kind of fairytale or such?"

"I see... So, you're the skeptical type." He paused. "It's only what you believe, young man. It changes from person to person," the strange man told him. "Regrettably, I have no money to buy the stake, at the moment."

Jack should've known it was too good to be true. It wasn't possible to find someone stupid enough to buy a wooden stake.

"But... We can make a trade."

"What are you willing to give?" Jack asked hopefully. Maybe, there was still hope.

"Garlic," he stated, stretching out his palm before him. There, in the center of his hand, lay a clump of garlic seeds. "Garlic seeds. I'll give you all of it..."

"All for the wooden stake?"

"I've wanted one for quite a while," the strange man admitted. "Such a coincidence that you would have one."

Jack frowned. Seeds were useful for the poor, of course, but they were of long term use. If there was no food for the present, how was he and his mother supposed to survive for the future. There was no point in taking the seeds of he didn't have food for the day.

"I apologise, but I ought to say no to-"

"But young man, you do not understand. This garlic is magic."