Shadows and Crossbows

My name is Andrew Moore, and I’m a vampire slayer.

It all started 12 years ago, on the 14th February 1993. I was twelve years old, such a young age to witness something so horrible. You see, I got into the slaying business because of one vampire known as Merari. My old town was a hunting ground for those demonic creatures, each year they’d attack the town only killing one family at a time. Of course, at my age I didn’t know about any of this; about vampires, about the ‘curse’ on the town, none of it mattered to me. Let me start my story several days before that night.

My dad had seemed so edgy that week, he always tried to keep clam but you could see it in his eyes, fear. Mum tried to hide it, too. But she was nervous, you could tell by just looking at her. They both looked tired, scared, like they were waiting for something bad to happen. I’d never seen them this way before, around this time every year they got a bit nervous but never like this before. This was beyond scared. Dad had been in his workshop for hours every day, at the time I didn’t know what he was making though now I know, he was making stakes. My dad was a slayer in his day, apparently he’d ticked off some bloodsuckers and they found out where he lived. He was scared they’d come after him, in the very week that promised another dead family. It’s the perfect cover, every year some poor soul ends up dead this time of year, nothing new to the locals.

The night came, it was a Thursday, and dad had looked much more relaxed today which had made mum relax. Everyone had dropped their guard, a huge mistake. Guess my old man got sloppy in his age.

I was in my room, asleep. Something woke me and to this day I don’t know why I woke that night. Maybe it was the rustling in the bushes; I am a fairly light sleeper. There was a knock at the door, “Who would be here at this time?” I thought to myself. I went over to the window, I had a perfect view of the doorway from my bedroom. There was no one there. The door creaked open, and my dad stepped out to see who it was. He passed it off as some kids playing knock a door run. But you could see worry in his eyes now, they way he’d looked all week. I went downstairs, told my parents I’d had a bad dream so I could stay down here for a little bit longer, I wanted to try and calm my dad down. He tried to keep his calm, though you could see he was panicking. Mum picked up on his nerves, she was getting edgy. Dad went over to his workshop, at the time I had no idea why he had gone to the workshop at this hour of the night. You can imagine the surprise I got when he came out holding a stake in one hand and small dagger covered in blood in the other hand. “They’re here.” He stuttered out, trying to sound like everything was going to be okay. I just sat there, looking confused, staring at my dad holding those weapons. “Why is there blood on my kitchen knife?” Mum asked in surprise, clearly as clueless as I was. “Dead mans blood, it’s like poison to the bloodsuckers.” Dad replied after giving some thought as to tell the truth or not, he must have decided this was no time to lie about what was going on, “Look, I used to hunt and slay these things, I heard a rumour that they wanted a little revenge, that’s why I’ve been nervous all week. I think that it or they are here. I saw a figure in the bushes as I went outside. I may be wrong, I’m not sure. But if I’m right, we are all in danger.” He cut off, I never found out what he was about to say as at that moment, a voice came from the corner of the room. “Hello.” His voice was deep, cold, you could hear years of hatred in his voice. Before I could even get a glimpse of the man he had moved, he was so fast, it wasn’t humanly possible. My dad let out a scream, a dark figure was behind him, blood dripping from my dad’s neck, the thing released him and he dropped the floor, dead. Mum screamed and before you knew it, the thing was on her too, in seconds this creature had killed everyone I loved without even blinking.

I was shaking, tears in my eyes. It walked over to me, he stepped out into the light and for the first time I caught a glimpse of his face. Horrible black eyes staring at you, his teeth glistened with blood. Or should I say, his fangs. Two horrific fangs sat in his jaw, covered in blood, sharp enough to pierce a person’s skin, and I’m sure they can bit through a lot more than just skin. He stopped and glared at me, almost like he was studying me, the way I was reacting, the fear I was showing. He advanced again, I was frozen with fear. Running wouldn’t have done that much good anyway. I saw the small knife in my dads hand and recalled what he had said just 5 minutes ago, about the blood being like poison to these things. I plucked all the courage I could and leaped from the sofa. Landing a meter away from my dad’s body, I scrambled for the knife. Plucking it out of his hand I turned around and flung the knife. The creature let out a screech, the knife had hit its target. I looked up to face the thing, the knife was lodged into its leg, the thing looked faint and weak. I should have picked up the stake and driven it through him then and there, but I was too scared, I didn’t know what too do. I remembered dad being down in his workshop a lot recently, I decided to go and see what was in there.