The Strange Story of...

The Strange Story of Jessica Falt

    School was finally out, and what did Jessica's brother want to do? Go to the library and watch old horror movies. What a nerd.

    Jessica had wanted to celebrate her finally being a senior at high school by going to a party at her boyfriend's, but her nerdy sophomore brother Isaac just had to meet his nerdy friends at the library, aka Nerd HQ, and watch black-and-white horror movies from the fifties and sixties.

     Jessica didn't belong there; while her brother had an A in everything except social skills, she was junior prom queen, head cheerleader, and was dating the hottest boy in school, Roy Sanders. Yes, he did seem to care more about his car more than her, and, yes, her parents were right that her grades had gone down since they started going out, but that wasn't his fault! And she was going to miss his first party of the summer if she didn't get out of there!

     "Isaac!" Jessica snapped her fingers to get his attention. He turned around reluctantly from an old vampire movie and looked at his sister. A stranger would never know the two were related. Jessica had a fair complexion, pretty brown eyes, was tall for her age, and had wavy black hair that fell to her midsection. Isaac shared her eyes and hair, but he wore hipster glasses, was a good three inches shorter than his sister, and had numerous pimples scattered across his face.

   "What, Jessie?" His voice was surprisingly deep for fifteen, and often surprised people when they first met him.

   "I'm leaving. Text me when you and your friends are done with your grandpa movies."

   "You're walking to the party in that?" Isaac looked over his glasses at her outfit. She was wearing a dark purple tank top, tight, ripped jeans, and four-inch heeled black boots, along with her favorite silver purse and a little too much mascara.

    "You know that the car is broken. It's warm out, and Roy's house is only a ten minute walk. I'll be fine."

    "Watch out for vampires!" said one of Isaac's friends, who gestured at the projector screen. A bat turned into a man with the classic puff of smoke trick.

    "Very funny." With that, Jessica walked out of the library.

   It was a warm night, and there was a full moon. She couldn't walk very fast due to her heels, so she was silently cursing herself for not wearing something better suited for walking. She decided to cut through the park. She had never told anyone, but she was afraid of the dark. It wasn't the dark itself she hated, but the sensation of something hiding in it, watching her. She felt that sensation then as she was walking, and she thought she heard something behind her...

   "Good evening, madam." She turned around quickly, eyes wide. Standing not far behind her was a tall, thin man. He spoke with a thick, eastern European accent and wore a black jacket and pants, despite the warm weather. The only skin she could see was on his face and hands, and she could tell that he was very pale. He looked like he was in his twenties or thirties, and had jet black hair that was slicked back to reveal a widow's peak hairline. He looked at her questioningly. "Did I frighten you?"

    "N-no," Jessica lied, "I was just a little, um, jumpy."

    "Jumpy, are you?" He smiled slightly, not showing his teeth.

    "Yes," she said. She had to get out of there. "Goodbye." She turned and resumed walking.

   She didn't hear footsteps, and turned around again. He was gone.

   She began walking again. And froze. He was five feet away from her. How did he get there so fast? 

   "By the way," he said, "what is your name?"

   "Jessica," she said, on the brink of panic. 

   "Well, Miss Jessica," he said, his smile growing wider, "do you know who I am?" A tear was snaking down Jessica's cheek as she shook her head. "My name is Vladimir." With that, he opened his mouth and let out a hiss. She saw that he had two sharp fangs.

    She screamed and swung at him using the only weapon she had: her purse. She hit his face and ran as fast as she could. She had gotten to a park bench when her heels tripped her and she landed on the paved sidewalk. Her hair landed in her face and blinded her. A rough hand touched her shoulder. She yelped and lashed out with her hand.

    "Hey, miss, are you okay?" She pulled her hair from her face and looked up. A middle aged man with grayish-blond hair was looking at her with concern. She felt something warm trickling from her nose; it was bleeding. But that wasn't her main concern.

    "Please help," she begged, "he's chasing me!"

   "Who is?" he said, looking around.

   Jessica looked around, too. Besides the man and herself, there was no one else in the park.

   The man made sure that Jessie got home safely, and told her mother that she'd said a man was chasing her. No one believed her claims that a vampire had been chasing her. Eventually, she told everyone that she'd been lying. When asked why, she refused to respond.

   However, the man who'd helped her never told anyone that he had seen a large black bat in the park before, and that, on nights with a full moon, he sometimes saw a strange man taking a walk at night. A tall, thin, pale man with a black coat. Of course, the man kept this to himself. He didn't want anyone to know about it, along with the fact that his ancestor was Bram Stoker.

Note: Bram Stoker wrote the classic horror story Dracula.