The Dead Game (13 page)

Linda couldn’t believe that Abe spoke about vampires so nonchalantly—as if everyone else was also aware of them.

Anna continued with the story, “These vampires have a very strong leader who is the epitome of evil. He lures people to End House and then massacres them. He has even trapped vampires in the walls of the house to terrify the helpless victims before they are eventually slaughtered. The house is alive with The Dead and therefore, must be destroyed!”

Linda thought that Anna was enjoying telling the tall tale a little too much: her eyes were gleaming with excitement as she moved closer to them. On the other hand, Abe seemed unfazed by the story and their sudden visit out of the blue.

“Have you been living here for a long time?” asked Linda hesitantly. She couldn’t make up her mind if she believed the two of them and their strange stories about vampires. However, at the fishing village, these tales were also told and believed in.

“We’ve been living here for centuries. Our children live all around the world, belonging to different peaceful sects of vampires. Their rooms upstairs have been kept exactly how they left them before they’d moved out. Come and see the rest of the house,” offered Anna.

Linda held back, but Shana determinedly followed Anna toward the front desk. Linda didn’t want to remain downstairs alone with Abe, so she trailed along with Abe close behind.

Anna led them across the front room, which was furnished with antique couches and chairs—all elegantly preserved. To the right, Linda stole a quick glimpse of the dining room with its beautiful crystal chandelier and large dining room set. On the left, she had already seen the quaint living room with its flowery curtains and ornate antique furniture.

They climbed the narrow staircase, which was set back behind the front desk. At the top, Linda looked around and was startled to find that the house was much larger inside than it had appeared from the outside. As they followed the long hallway, they were shown five bedrooms: each with its own unique color scheme and furniture. The first room on the right was done all in pink with white and gold furniture. Toys were scattered about the room with dolls lined up perfectly on the bed—as if the inhabitant were expected to return at any moment.

The room to the immediate left was decorated in blue, with boys’ dark furniture and toys. The next two bedrooms, on either side of the hallway, also displayed children’s furniture and belongings: one with green furnishings and the other one with purple. The last bedroom, straight ahead, belonged to Abe and Anna. Their furniture was old but showed great craftsmanship that could no longer be found in newer homes, pondered Linda in awe.

She was entranced by the rooms and all the furnishings. When Anna requested for them to visit the attic, Linda readily agreed. She hoped the attic was full of old clothes and items from the past.

They climbed a narrow staircase that descended from a trap door in the hall’s ceiling. They discovered the attic to be bare, except for the lone rocking chair, facing the gravel road leading out of town. Linda walked over to gaze out the small triangular window, when the chair began to rock by itself.

Anna explained, “Everyone in the family takes turns watching the supposedly deserted mansion down the dirt road, and End House at the edge of the dark mountain. Both spots can be clearly seen from this vantage point.”

Linda realized that this meant that someone was actually sitting in the chair—right at that moment— causing it to start rocking. She didn’t ask any more questions, but just grabbed Shana’s arm and pulled her out of the room, bidding the couple a hasty goodbye. She didn’t think that she could remain in this unnatural house one moment longer without either screaming or pulling her hair out.

Shana, on the other hand, had remained very quiet during the tour of the house as she tried to absorb what she’d just heard. She fully comprehended that it made some kind of weird sense. She just couldn’t figure out why the rocking chair was facing the deserted mansion. She understood about the evil in End House, but she had always assumed that the mansion stood empty and didn’t have a wicked history attached to it.

After hurrying down the front steps, she breathlessly suggested, “We must now visit the mansion and discover what’s hidden over there that is so important for Abe and Anna to keep watch over. And what did she mean about it being supposedly deserted? Either it is or it isn’t.”

Linda shook her head back and forth. “This place terrified me. I don’t know if I can handle another place like this.”

“Nothing happened to us. It appears that Abe and Anna are good and are just trying to protect our town from evil vampires.”

“That means that they are vampires themselves. How could vampires be good? How could we trust them?” Linda began to pace up and down the road in frantic circles.

“You readily accepted the fact that vampires exist, but yet you can’t decide whether to trust them or not? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the existence of vampires,” answered Shana with amusement.

“I’m happy that you find this so amusing.”

“We’ve witnessed supernatural events at End House, so why would believing in vampires be farfetched? We should just accept the possibility of their existence and continue on from there.”

“Okay,” Linda relented, “let’s visit our next destination before I chicken out…I just hope that I won’t have to say ‘I told you so’ afterward.”

They continued their journey down the road until they reached the tall black metal gate of the mansion. The house stood dark and bleak on a small rise of land that lacked any form of vegetation among its rocks and dirt. They cautiously entered through the open gate. The property appeared to be deserted and very isolated from the rest of civilization, shivered Shana. The wind moaned eerily, swiftly brushing the dirt back and forth beneath their feet like a giant invisible broom. Huge mounds of dust rolled by, eerily resembling a deserted town from the Old West.

Shana heard weird shuffling noises down by her feet. Looking down, she was terrified to find two Doberman Pinschers growling up at her.

Both of them stood completely still, not wanting to agitate the dogs any further. A tall man approaching them from the direction of the house, loudly called out, “Zeus! Apollo! Heel!”

Shana felt like she’d been in a vampire movie at the bed and breakfast and now she was smack in the middle of an episode of 
Magnum P.I.
At least the man didn’t look like Tom Selleck. He was more of a cross between John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. He was tall, with a cheerful smile on his face. He looked strong and muscular. He also appeared ageless—like Shirley and Hank—with his thick black hair and unlined face.

The dogs trotted happily away, their tongues lolling out to one side, to stand on either side of their master. Shana realized that she was able to breathe normally again, now that the dogs weren’t standing so close to her anymore.

“What can I do for you, pretty ladies?” inquired the huge man.

“We’ve been having problems in town and were wondering if you were experiencing similar unexplained occurrences out here?” Shana asked, warily eying the two panting dogs.

“What kind of occurrences are we talking about?”

“Strange shadows stalking us, young girls disappearing from town, and a deadly party at End House that ended in two disappearances…” replied Shana.

“Out here it is always quiet, but over the years I’ve heard about the strange events in your town. That’s why I’ve kept away from town and don’t visit any longer.”

“I guess that’s why we’ve never seen you before. What about the couple who own the bed and breakfast? Do you ever talk to them?” Linda asked.

“I met those two a long time ago. I’d found them to be very strange, so I’ve kept my distance from them.”

Shana believed that they were getting nowhere with this man. She wondered if he would let them inside the house to look around. She noticed Linda glancing back over her shoulder at her. However, she was determined to remain here until she found some answers.

“Does anyone live here? Could we come in and see the house?” asked Shana, despite the murderous looks being given to her by Linda.

“Sure. I live here alone. By the way, my name is James. Please follow me and the dogs…they are really harmless, but enjoy barking at strangers.”

“My name is Shana, and this is Linda.”

They followed him through the front yard, which was overgrown with weeds. The tall trees and the rocky ground were bare of any greenery. Shana looked around and saw that nothing seemed to flourish here; even the house looked dead, with its grey walls and grimy-looking windows.

Once inside, they were stunned by the drastic transformation from the colorless scene outside. Whereas the outside was dull and lifeless, the inside was alive with colors and a wide range of fabrics and styles. In the front hall, Linda twirled around in a circle to admire the museum-quality rugs, paintings, furniture, and chandelier. The house looked like a page torn out from a nineteenth-century magazine, she dreamily decided.

James proudly took them on a grand tour through the countless number of rooms in the house. The hallways were lined with mirrors, with intricate carvings traversing between them. The first room they entered was a sitting room, decorated in a French style. The room was painted a bright yellow color with matching cushions and drapery. Everything looked much too delicate to touch, so Linda just observed without touching anything.

Next they entered a huge library, its four walls filled with books all the way up to its high vaulted ceiling. Linda, who had always loved books, walked around the room, reverently touching the bindings on the old books. She couldn’t believe that any library in the world could carry such a vast collection of priceless books in one place. Shana had to physically drag her away from the library to continue on with their tour.

James led them to the kitchen, which seemed to be straight from the past, with old-time appliances and a huge hearth. There wasn’t one modern appliance—like a dishwasher or even a coffee maker. Linda wondered about who cooked in this huge mansion. Then she began envisioning the whole place as a pretty illusion. No cooking or cleaning was ever done here—since no one lived here. The fancy period rooms simply disappeared when they departed from the house.

They were next led to the ballroom, which Linda felt was the most beautiful room, with its massive sparkling crystal chandelier and mirrored walls. The room was enormous, with an open dance floor—just waiting for the right party, except she didn’t believe that any dancing would ever take place here.

Afterward, James guided them upstairs to view the ornate bedrooms: each room having its own theme correlating to the time period of the room’s furniture. One room resembled a bedroom in the South during the Civil War, with heavy draperies and rugs—similar to the furnishings in the movie 
Gone With the Wind
. Another bedroom looked very English, with needlepoint pillows prettily laid out on its huge canopied bed.

Linda’s favorite bedroom was decorated in the theme of the Wild West, with cowboy boots standing by the bed, sawdust on the floor, and a lasso resting along the top of the dresser. She could easily envision the cowboy sauntering in after a hard day lassoing horses, leaving his boots by the bed and his lasso on the dresser, before flopping down on the bed. She could almost hear the sounds of gunfire in the distance.

Linda reluctantly followed James and Shana back down the stairs after their fascinating tour was completed. They bid their host goodbye and departed from the unreal mansion with its elaborate but empty rooms.

“Am I going to hear an ‘I told you so’?”

Linda dreamily replied, “No…I would never give up the chance that I’ve just had to touch all those precious books.”

“But I don’t think they were really there,” she continued. “I don’t think the house or any of it was real. How could a man live there alone without servants? He doesn’t even go into town….How could he survive like that?”

“He could survive if he was a vampire.”

Linda finally understood what Shana was hinting at: John was a vampire and therefore, Abe and Anna were keeping a close eye on him. In response she just giggled, “There seem to be too many vampires roaming around this town.”

Shana laughed out loud. “I think one vampire is too many. We’d better get back before dark and Todd finds you gone. I don’t want him to know what we’ve been up to.”

Linda agreed. “The less Todd and Sam know the better.”

For the past half hour, Todd had been furiously pacing up and down the street in front of the bookstore. He couldn’t figure out where Linda had disappeared to. After checking Shana’s store, he realized that she was also missing. This made him suspect that the two of them were up to no good again.

From a distance, he spotted the two of them strolling down Main Street, from the direction of the road leading out of town. The only two buildings along that road were the bed and breakfast and the old dilapidated mansion. Who did they know in those places? And why were they out walking when darkness had already fallen?

As they neared the coffee shop, his felt his temper beginning to erupt. “Where were you? I’ve been worried!” He grasped Linda by her shoulders, wanting to shake some sense into her.

“Stop worrying about me! I can take care of myself! We only took a short walk,” she yelled back, shrugging his hands away from her shoulders. “And don’t ever manhandle me again!”

Todd, upset with himself for losing control, contritely apologized. “I’m sorry, but I was worried.” Turning to Shana he politely suggested, “I can drive both of you home.”

“No, it’s all right; Sam walks me home every night.” As Shana turned to leave, Linda whispered softly in her ear, “I’ll pick you up at 8:30.”

Infuriated with her, Todd took Linda by the arm and abruptly led her to his car.

Now he was past being just angry. “Where are you going tonight? And when were you going to tell me?”

“Where I’m going is no concern of yours, but I’ll tell you anyway. I’m going with Mike, David, and Shana to Diane’s party…Shirley invited us to be her guests.” Linda huffed in return, turning to walk home.