HOME | DD

Description
A Vampire's
By Austin Mansfield

Other title? (The Price of Immortality)
"Why did we leave Italy?" I asked my parents as I looked at the grotesque house. Summer vacation isn't to move," I grumbled.
"Joan, we've been over this at least a hundred times!" My dad said exasperated, not hearing my comment, or not caring. "So, what's the reason we're here?"
"Because people all over Transylvania have called for help," I replied.  My father is a doctor, the best. He's shorter then most people, five four. He's got brown hair and hazel eyes. His name is Jack Montry,
"So you were paying attention," Jack said tantalizingly in a tenor voice.
"Jack stop talking and more working." That's my mother and surprisingly she's taller then your father, five ten. She's a lawyer, also the best, that's what she says. She's got brown hair with        highlights. Her blue eyes stand out from her hard set face. Her name is Shea Montry and some how she was able to get the week off. "Joan, you too," she said in a motherly tone.
"I know, I know," I replied. I’m just a boy trying to get through the period known as life. I’m seventeen years old, almost eighteen. I've got my father's brown hair and my mother's ice blue eyes, and i'm about five eight.
I looked at the house and shivered. The house was two stories and only has five windows on each side of the house except the back, it has two. The back was surrounded by a seven foot high cement wall that covers the whole backyard and meets at the house where there's one wooden gate. The front porch was a mess; half the floor boards were broken. The over hang was on the front lawn and the rail wasn't even there. Around the whole house the paint was peeling, the doors alone were the worst. The left door was splintered on the floor and the right was hanging off one hinge.
"This is a dump. I mean, look at the front doors, they're not even there," I said. My family may be rich but it is all used on the medical stuff for dad. I turned around and look at the town. In the middle of the town is a castle. It looks like Dracula=s, I thought. "Dad, are vampires real?" I ask as I turned to face him.
"Why?" He asked walking up to me with a load of boxes.
"This town is something out of a movie" I said, there was hardly any sunshine and it was cloudy almost all the time.
"Yeah they're real." He said poking me on the neck with two fingers.  I recoiled, "you have too many scruples."
"Huh?"
"Misgivings.  It's Russian, I think."

"Oh. Just making sure." I knew he was joking. I walked into the house and see it's fine, except for the hall that's full of leaves. Upstairs, I looked left and right. The hall extends both ways with two doors on the right and left with one in the middle. I went down the left hall and open the door on the right. A bathroom. I opened the door on the left a bedroom, and the middle door, another bedroom. The same thing was down the right hall. I put my things in the middle bedroom down the left hall and went downstairs. As I was walking back into the house with a load of boxes I saw a family room on the right. I put the boxes down in the family room and walk straight down the hall to what I thought was the kitchen. I walked into the room, yep it's the kitchen. I looked around and saw that the kitchen took up half the house on the main floor. In the front I saw a counter that went from one end of the house to another. There's a space about two feet in the middle, enough to get inside. To the left against the wall was a walk-in freezer and regular fridge. I bent over the counter and saw stove tops. Looked up and saw two sinks with cupboards all along the far wall.
"Cool, huh." I jumped five feet into the air. I turned around and saw a teenager that looked like he was about seventeen, but yet he seemed older then that. He was six feet even and he had brown shaggy hair. One of his eyes was blue and the other green. His face was pale and I could see his cheek bones. His shirt was black with a picture of a wolf on it and he had baggy jeans on. "The people that used to live here had a little restaurant. The food was the best, if I do say so myself." He said, his voice sounded like it had been over used. The first thing I notice was his teeth were kind of pointed.
"Really?" I inquired.
"Ya, I saw you moving in. So, I thought I could help you. My name’s Justin, by the way. What's yours?"
"Joan."
"As in Joan of Ark?"
"Yeah." I said turning red.
"That's fine by me. Great person. I had to do a research paper on her." Justin said smiling.
"Who's this?" My mom asked, coming in with a load of boxes.
"I'm Justin, I live in the house across the street. I thought I'd come over and help you unpack," he replied.
"That's nice of you. It's all in the large moving van." She said. As Justin and I walked out to the van, Justin leaned over and said,
"Your mom is very opinionated." You look at him and smile.
Over the next few days I followed Justin as he showed me around the town. He took me to the park, which looks more like a gravel pit then anything. Then he took me to the best ice cream parlor around, so he says. The best place was the movie theater; it was just like an old opera house, booths and all. The last place he took me was in front of the castle, the drawbridge. I walked past a lot of warehouses; I looked at the ones by the drawbridge, because they looked the oldest. As I passed people they would smile at me and wave then they would see Justin, their eyes would go wide as saucers. They put two fingers on their lips like they’re taking a vow of silence.
"Why are the people doing that?" I asked after seven people did that vow thing.
"People here know me but they don't see me most of the time. Plus, there's something wrong with me and they’re promising not to tell you. I'll tell you when I'm ready, or when you are," Justin replied encroachingly. I stared at him surprised; I really didn’t care what was wrong with him, but I did, stupid curiosity. I looked over at him and made eye contact, he just smiled at me. I walked in silence as Justin showed me the neighborhood. After a while he took me to a burger joint and slid into the booth closest to the door. The waitress came as soon as you sat down. I ordered fries and Justin ordered a double hamburger cooked rare. I tried to think of something to start a conversation with and came up empty. I only had one thought bouncing around in my skull. I sighed and just let myself ask the questions.
“What you have, is it contagious?” I asked hesitantly. Justin, who was drinking his soda, barked out a heartless laugh and looked me in the eye.
“There’s only one way to get what I have and that way almost never happens to anybody. So, no it’s not contagious.” He said giving me the eye that said the topic was over. As we were walking back to my house a car pulled up next to us and rolled down its window. My dad’s head stuck out with a smile on it.
“Hey Joan, Justin.” He said. I looked him up and down. He was in his best lab coat.
“When did you get that car?” I asked. It looked like an Acura TL.
“Just now, you want to brake it in with me?” I looked at Justin, he shrugged, and we got in. Jack pulled away from the curb smoothly. The car was very nice. It had great gas mileage and was very quiet. “Oh, I for got to tell you, your mother is back in the U.S. for two weeks.”
“That’s a long time.” Justin said. Jack started to say something but his cell phone went off. He talked on it for a good twenty minutes. When he hung up he was silent.
“That was the Nilsson’s. The house they live in is pretty shabby compared with what you’re use to. If you say anything, so help me.” My dad said as we turned into a very depressing neighborhood. I shut the car door and started toward the front door. This wasn’t a house it was a shack, a very large shack. As soon as the hair on the back of my neck started to tingle I knew something was wrong. The two things that confirmed this was, first, Justin had stopped too. Second, when I spun around someone pulled back into the shadows of the house across the street.
“We don’t have all day guys.” Jack said from the door.
“Coming.” I said. As I walked by Justin a very low noise reached my ear, growling. Growling? Shaking my head I stepped up behind Jack as the door opens. The man that answered the door looked like he could use a little botox.

Description
A Vampire's
By Austin Mansfield

Other title? (The Price of Immortality)
"Why did we leave Italy?" I asked my parents as I looked at the grotesque house. Summer vacation isn't to move," I grumbled.
"Joan, we've been over this at least a hundred times!" My dad said exasperated, not hearing my comment, or not caring. "So, what's the reason we're here?"
"Because people all over Transylvania have called for help," I replied.  My father is a doctor, the best. He's shorter then most people, five four. He's got brown hair and hazel eyes. His name is Jack Montry,
"So you were paying attention," Jack said tantalizingly in a tenor voice.
"Jack stop talking and more working." That's my mother and surprisingly she's taller then your father, five ten. She's a lawyer, also the best, that's what she says. She's got brown hair with        highlights. Her blue eyes stand out from her hard set face. Her name is Shea Montry and some how she was able to get the week off. "Joan, you too," she said in a motherly tone.
"I know, I know," I replied. I’m just a boy trying to get through the period known as life. I’m seventeen years old, almost eighteen. I've got my father's brown hair and my mother's ice blue eyes, and i'm about five eight.
I looked at the house and shivered. The house was two stories and only has five windows on each side of the house except the back, it has two. The back was surrounded by a seven foot high cement wall that covers the whole backyard and meets at the house where there's one wooden gate. The front porch was a mess; half the floor boards were broken. The over hang was on the front lawn and the rail wasn't even there. Around the whole house the paint was peeling, the doors alone were the worst. The left door was splintered on the floor and the right was hanging off one hinge.
"This is a dump. I mean, look at the front doors, they're not even there," I said. My family may be rich but it is all used on the medical stuff for dad. I turned around and look at the town. In the middle of the town is a castle. It looks like Dracula=s, I thought. "Dad, are vampires real?" I ask as I turned to face him.
"Why?" He asked walking up to me with a load of boxes.
"This town is something out of a movie" I said, there was hardly any sunshine and it was cloudy almost all the time.
"Yeah they're real." He said poking me on the neck with two fingers.  I recoiled, "you have too many scruples."
"Huh?"
"Misgivings.  It's Russian, I think."

"Oh. Just making sure." I knew he was joking. I walked into the house and see it's fine, except for the hall that's full of leaves. Upstairs, I looked left and right. The hall extends both ways with two doors on the right and left with one in the middle. I went down the left hall and open the door on the right. A bathroom. I opened the door on the left a bedroom, and the middle door, another bedroom. The same thing was down the right hall. I put my things in the middle bedroom down the left hall and went downstairs. As I was walking back into the house with a load of boxes I saw a family room on the right. I put the boxes down in the family room and walk straight down the hall to what I thought was the kitchen. I walked into the room, yep it's the kitchen. I looked around and saw that the kitchen took up half the house on the main floor. In the front I saw a counter that went from one end of the house to another. There's a space about two feet in the middle, enough to get inside. To the left against the wall was a walk-in freezer and regular fridge. I bent over the counter and saw stove tops. Looked up and saw two sinks with cupboards all along the far wall.
"Cool, huh." I jumped five feet into the air. I turned around and saw a teenager that looked like he was about seventeen, but yet he seemed older then that. He was six feet even and he had brown shaggy hair. One of his eyes was blue and the other green. His face was pale and I could see his cheek bones. His shirt was black with a picture of a wolf on it and he had baggy jeans on. "The people that used to live here had a little restaurant. The food was the best, if I do say so myself." He said, his voice sounded like it had been over used. The first thing I notice was his teeth were kind of pointed.
"Really?" I inquired.
"Ya, I saw you moving in. So, I thought I could help you. My name’s Justin, by the way. What's yours?"
"Joan."
"As in Joan of Ark?"
"Yeah." I said turning red.
"That's fine by me. Great person. I had to do a research paper on her." Justin said smiling.
"Who's this?" My mom asked, coming in with a load of boxes.
"I'm Justin, I live in the house across the street. I thought I'd come over and help you unpack," he replied.
"That's nice of you. It's all in the large moving van." She said. As Justin and I walked out to the van, Justin leaned over and said,
"Your mom is very opinionated." You look at him and smile.
Over the next few days I followed Justin as he showed me around the town. He took me to the park, which looks more like a gravel pit then anything. Then he took me to the best ice cream parlor around, so he says. The best place was the movie theater; it was just like an old opera house, booths and all. The last place he took me was in front of the castle, the drawbridge. I walked past a lot of warehouses; I looked at the ones by the drawbridge, because they looked the oldest. As I passed people they would smile at me and wave then they would see Justin, their eyes would go wide as saucers. They put two fingers on their lips like they’re taking a vow of silence.
"Why are the people doing that?" I asked after seven people did that vow thing.
"People here know me but they don't see me most of the time. Plus, there's something wrong with me and they’re promising not to tell you. I'll tell you when I'm ready, or when you are," Justin replied encroachingly. I stared at him surprised; I really didn’t care what was wrong with him, but I did, stupid curiosity. I looked over at him and made eye contact, he just smiled at me. I walked in silence as Justin showed me the neighborhood. After a while he took me to a burger joint and slid into the booth closest to the door. The waitress came as soon as you sat down. I ordered fries and Justin ordered a double hamburger cooked rare. I tried to think of something to start a conversation with and came up empty. I only had one thought bouncing around in my skull. I sighed and just let myself ask the questions.
“What you have, is it contagious?” I asked hesitantly. Justin, who was drinking his soda, barked out a heartless laugh and looked me in the eye.
“There’s only one way to get what I have and that way almost never happens to anybody. So, no it’s not contagious.” He said giving me the eye that said the topic was over. As we were walking back to my house a car pulled up next to us and rolled down its window. My dad’s head stuck out with a smile on it.
“Hey Joan, Justin.” He said. I looked him up and down. He was in his best lab coat.
“When did you get that car?” I asked. It looked like an Acura TL.
“Just now, you want to brake it in with me?” I looked at Justin, he shrugged, and we got in. Jack pulled away from the curb smoothly. The car was very nice. It had great gas mileage and was very quiet. “Oh, I for got to tell you, your mother is back in the U.S. for two weeks.”
“That’s a long time.” Justin said. Jack started to say something but his cell phone went off. He talked on it for a good twenty minutes. When he hung up he was silent.
“That was the Nilsson’s. The house they live in is pretty shabby compared with what you’re use to. If you say anything, so help me.” My dad said as we turned into a very depressing neighborhood. I shut the car door and started toward the front door. This wasn’t a house it was a shack, a very large shack. As soon as the hair on the back of my neck started to tingle I knew something was wrong. The two things that confirmed this was, first, Justin had stopped too. Second, when I spun around someone pulled back into the shadows of the house across the street.
“We don’t have all day guys.” Jack said from the door.
“Coming.” I said. As I walked by Justin a very low noise reached my ear, growling. Growling? Shaking my head I stepped up behind Jack as the door opens. The man that answered the door looked like he could use a little botox.