Krovi.

I looked up from my black combat boots and towards the rainy sky; it hadn’t stopped raining for the past three days… since I saw it.

Fortunately, my father let me out into town; I had to sleep inside his house for the past few days instead of my apartment, for safety supposedly.

I pushed away the thoughts and crossed the street to the Book Store. I had tried to write down all the little sentences and words I had heard that… thing say to me that night. I wasn’t sure what language it was but was hoping Mr. Harper, the book store owner, would.

The small bells at the very top of the door rang as I walked in; making the elderly man jump up in surprise.

“Oh my, you certainly frightened me child.” He said, chuckling slightly.

“Hi, uhm… I was wondering if there is any book here that might help me translate some words.” I said simply, pulling out my notebook and hovering it in the air.

The man squinted and pulled on his large eyeglasses; he walked towards me and grabbed the notebook.

“Hmm, very interesting.” He whispered, more to himself than to me.

“Do you know what it is?” I asked curiously.

He didn’t respond.

“Sir?” I asked again.

“What? Ah, yes, indeed I do! I believe it’s Russian.” He responded, finally snapping out of his trance.

“Russian?” I asked, even more confused than before.

“That’s right; although, most of the things are misspelled. Take a look.” He said, leaning the notebook into my view.

I looked through it and saw nothing but gibberish.

“Here!” he said, pointing to the first word. “Krovi means blood.”

“Blood?” I asked, silently gulping.

“The rest for example, this should be glupye devushki, not glupeey debuskey; it means foolish girl. This other one should be krovi devushka; meaning blood, girl. Most likely they meant your blood, girl or something along the lines. And this last one is idi suda; it means come here.” The old man finished, taking off his glasses and giving me an awkward look.

“What?” I asked a bit annoyed.

“Exactly where did you get this?” He asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I-I… uh, it’s a school thing assignment they asked us to do over winter break.” I replied, smiling in a much exaggerated form.

“Including blood?” He asked, not so fond of my response.

“Yeah, well we have to translate a foreign book and I just happened to love horror novels; isn’t that great?” I said, my voice really sounding false now.

“Alright, well, is there anything else I can help you with?” He asked.

I shook my head and started to head out of the store when I remembered something.

“Well, actually… yeah.” I said, turning back towards the man.

“Yes?” He asked.

“Have any books on demons and vampires and those kinds of things?” I asked, again smiling widely.

The man let out a heavy sigh and waved me over to follow him.



I slammed my three thick, recently purchased books onto one of the empty tables in Joe’s diner. Some, actually most, of the people there eyed me and stared as if I were some freak; probably because of the incident three nights ago. Regardless, I requested a big chocolate shake and French fries with melted cheese on top; and a lot of jalapeno.

I looked over to some of the people who were staring at me; including the local farmer. Some of the men had even went looking for Sarah and found her body in the dam; totally ripped and in an odd position, so they said. I felt bad for the girl of course, but for some reason, I wasn’t that affected. I guess I just had uglier things to worry about.

I shook away the thought and concentrated on the first book; it was called: Satania, History and Origin of Belief in Demons.

The very first page bared an image of a demon plowing its right claw into a young woman and in its left, a man’s head.

“Yeesh!” I said, wrinkling my nose in awkwardness.

I raced through a few of the pages until stumbling on one in particular; Demons Part One: Warning Signs One is in Your Midst.

I almost snorted when I read the name but none the less continued to read on.

Before we go on with this chapter, with the typical signs of Demonic presence, I need to warn you that this article might be too much for some souls. If you are a suggestible person, I recommend you do not read any further into this for this might become perilous to you. I do not intend to scare you but this is not something to be taken lightly. So it is only on yourselves if you continue this lecture. Beware and be safe.

Mental Changes in Person Affected
1.- Personality changes. If the person has a drastic change in his way of identifying with other people, beware. If the person is very much outgoing, they might even become extremely quiet.

2.- The person becomes isolative after a life of being very active.

3.- Changes and disturbances in sleeping patterns.

4.- Sudden weight change (either loss or gain).

5.- Hate or fear towards religious objects.

6.- Self mutilation (can become very dangerous).

7.- Sexually pre-occupied.

I let out a low laugh.

“Doesn’t sound too bad if you ask me.” I said to myself.

I was going to continue but decided that I was definitely NOT possessed or had a demon following me and had also stumbled upon the photograph of the author of said demonology book; he was a sort of muscular old guy, at least forty, who looked like one of those self-help preachers on TV. Fuck that!

I laughed to myself slurping up another sip of my delicious and heavenly tasting milkshake. My eyes wondered onto the second and third books; both of them were about vampires and legends and myths revolving around them.

The first book was called: Historical Vampires

I opened the second page of the book to find a listing of supposed vampires throughout history; amongst them the all so famous ‘Dracula’ also known as Vlad the Impaler. The list went on with a so called Peter Plogojowitz who was a Serbian peasant said to have turned into a vampire after death and supposedly killed nine fellow villagers. Then, there was Montague Summers who was a priest who in a nut shell, kind of went cookoo with all that demonic mojo and supposedly turned into a vampire/spawn of Satan or some bullshit like that. There was also Arnold Paul who was said to also be a blood sucker and who died of a stake through his heart or something of that nature; and then, there was Elizabeth Bathory who basically was this crazy bitch who killed girls and bathed in their blood to rejuvenate. Creepy indeed.

I turned to look at the other book; The Last Confession of Vlad by C.C. Humphreys. That book in particular was a sort of historical detail-fiction book; I picked it up and began to read the prologue when something slammed onto the table.

I let out a small yelp and jumped in my seat. I looked up and saw Dave peering down at me.

“Hey… Buffy!” He said, trying to be funny.

A loud and annoyed sigh escaped my lips as I put the book down and focused my attention on my supposed best friend.

“What do you want?” I asked, still a bit upset he had let me go to the cliff on my own.

“Dude, seriously, let it go! I told you not to go and you decided to anyway so don’t try to blame this on me!” He replied; a bit aggravated himself.

“Fine, whatever, what do you want?” I insisted.

“I just wanted to know how you were feeling. I mean, you were cooped up at your dad’s place for three days. You hear about Sarah?” he asked.

I looked away. “Yeah, I did.”

“What did you see that night?” Dave asked, leaning in closer to me.

“A thing… it looked human enough but made that same growling sound I had heard in the forest the day those guys chased me. I didn’t get a good look at its face but its eyes looked like fireballs.” I said, whispering so no one else would hear me.

“Fireballs?” Dave asked, smiling a bit.

“Yeah, asshole, fireballs! You have a problem with that?” I said totally annoyed by his stupid sense of humor.

“Whoa, fine, calm down I was just trying to-“ He began, but was cut off by an awkward and uneasy silence.

The bells, something obviously common in town, above the door rang as a man walked in. No one spoke and the only thing defying the sudden silence was the clanking of industrial-looking boots.

Dave and I looked towards the man and my jaw dropped in awe. Dave did the same but added a whispered ‘holy shit’ to his confusion.

The man that had walked in was about twenty eight, give or take a few years, and very tall, at least six feet. His skin was an awkward shade of pale and his eyes were grey; and I don’t mean typical kind of grey, no… His was… cold.

As the man walked in further into the diner I noticed his black, waist-long hair and the tattoos covering his whole right arm; they seemed to be of Baphomet and other demon-like creatures. His Goatee and black leather pants and jacket gave an extra touch to his menacing look.

“Hello.” He said to the waitress in a thick coated accent.

The blond girl stuttered, wide-eyed. “He-he-hello; how ca-can I help you?”

The man smiled and leaned in a bit closer. “I wanted to know where the closest motel was in town.”

The girl looked over to Joe, the diner’s owner, who was now right beside her. “May I ask your name first, stranger?”

The unidentified man smiled even wider. “My name is Oren, Oren Petrov.”

As he said his name, my jaw dropped even lower and my eyes widened.

“What’s wrong Kris?” Dave asked, obviously aware of my shock.

“It-its him!” I whispered.

Dave looked back at the man.

“And where you from, Oren?” Joe asked, with a bit of an attitude.

“But you haven’t told me your name, stranger.” He replied, mimicking Joe.

Joe turned a peculiar shade of red with the man, Oren’s, remark. “It’s Joe!”

“My pleasure meeting you Joe. Oh, and as for your question, I am not from around here, I am from Russia and I am just passing by.”

“Well, the motel is just a few blocks away, down that way.” Joe replied, pointing towards the south side of town.

“Thank you.” Oren said and bowed slightly.

On his way out, he passed by our table and our eyes locked for a split second. Oren smiled at this, seeming amused, and kept on walking.

“Kristen, Kristen?” Dave asked, shaking me out of my shock.

“It’s him, I know it is!” I hissed, looking out the large glass window.

“Okay, well we can go tell Officer Berry.” Dave said, trying to calm me down.

“No!” I replied, pulling away and quickly gathering my belonging; including my newly attained books.

“But you just said he that-“ Dave began.

“I’m going to go see for myself!” I cut him off, rushing away from the table.

“Kris, Kristen wait!” Dave called behind me, falling behind inside the diner.

This time I didn’t care if he dragged along or not, I needed to know what was going on and who this so called Oren really was.