The Arrivals (THE NARRATIVES OF VAMPIRES, BOOK 1)

CHAPTER 1.1: ANGELA

She had a lot of trouble sleeping through the night. Why? First, she was all alone. Somewhere Tim Kavanaugh received the news and was unhappy with his delayed flight. He was stuck as well as his wife Olivia and step-daughter, Cleopatra. Second, was the nurse. Her voice was not only disturbing, but it continuously bugged the older gentleman, whom Angela believed was her colleague, to open up.

There's a bit of hesitation, fear as well as discomfort whenever he spoke of a group of people he called The Invincibles. Whenever he did talk of them, his lips struggled a lot and worse words came out of his throat back. His scary folklore was taunting though it had too much of mythic ingredients and was more exaggerated. The Invincibles were demons that used to roam the earth when he was under ten.

Angela thought he was kind of demented and laughed at how he referred to them, "They're not alive. They're half dead and half alive. They fear garlic powder and rosaries. Blood drives them nuts."

He went ahead, "Spice your diet with garlic. Otherwise, you risk telling them your secrets or forgetting their evils when they've left town."

In his talk, there were three groups who were kind of related in their evil schemes, his favorites the neighborhood witches who hated their name and preferred to be called warlocks, some crazy guys who've morphed into ferocious dogs and the half-alive-half-dead people, The Invincibles, and their committed followers.

The second group more than intrigued. How could people become dogs for a night and change back into humans by twilight?

This old black guy was obviously a lunatic.

Unlike the servants of nature, witches, he said the other group were people who'd lots of problems and they were bringing them to us. One name kept coming up, Archus. Who in this world could name their child Archus? This weird-named-evil-person, Mr Archus, must've been either the head or the oldest of the so-called Invincibles.

There were more bothers from elsewhere. Noises. Especially the parliament of owls hooting. The Browning Creek Hospital and its environs seemed to be having issues making her more uneasy.

How she wished that dad was here? He'd transfer her to NYC.

When they luckily left for their duties, she was able to tune away and relax. She called it a day and closed her eyes when the wall clock's hour hand was close to pointing eleven. Glad that she was still alive, she recited The Lord's Prayer then managed a good but a little comforting sleep.

**

At some point, during the night, she attempted some complex tasks. Sleepwalking. Removing the blankets off her, Angela rose from her warm bed and took some awkward feet drag to a window, opened it and peeked outside. She didn't know why or how. She a fear for darkness. But she went ahead and did it anyway. There's some force, like a little virus that had invaded her tired brain. The force that was not only invading but making her do what she didn't feel like doing as well.

Outside was not dark like all normal nights. Thanks to the good beautiful lighting around the hospital compound. There's no patch of cloud blocking any area of the night sky allowing a good view of the stars beautifully sprinkled across the sky. Common ones like Orion The Hunter were absent but Gemini and others were in their place in the night sky doing nothing but their beautiful twinkling. A soft breeze was making trees dance like gigantic magician marionettes. Amidst the beautiful quiet night, she spotted an owl in flight. Her eyes followed his flight paths till he camouflaged into a dark vegetation. He spent more time in the thicket. A good guess is that he took a break and perched there. Leaving him alone, she gazed elsewhere. That's when she caught sight of a wisp of smoke. When like a cat she curiously looked down to know its source, her eyesight caught something at the place it was coming from. The thin mist, without fire, was creeping up from a bush of flowers. It was expanding. It grew and grew till a dense fog formed all over the basement and lawns that were surrounding the hospice building.