The Curse of Meir Link's Hill

The name’s Orlando. I’ve never been a big believer in mythological creatures such as Bigfoot or werewolves, let alone a believer at all. So just know, I don’t really have an explanation for the following events. They just happened, out of nowhere. I have no idea why and I never learned why.

I was about 17 at the time. You know, the high point of my rebellious times. My group of friends and I were all about stupid dares and adventures all to have a good time. So when we heard about the legend of Meir Link’s hill, we were all over it. There are plenty of different backstories but the most consistent ideas are that the cabin on top of the hill never really belonged to a Meir Link, but to a family of vampires. They say that the family of four roam around the hill and lake in the middle of the night waiting for their next victims.

My friends and I thought it was all silly. But you got those crazy lunatics running around with their scraggly hair screaming about the vampires on Meir Link’s hill. One of them just happened to be my friend Sebastian’s sister named Annie, who was about twenty-six. She was the main reason we wanted to go. We wanted to prove to her that vampires were just a silly idea, and she wanted to prove to us that the vampires were there. The mission: spend a week in the cabin at Meir Link’s hill.

It was actually very easy to convince everyone to go; five boys (me, Sebastian, Lee, Matthew, and Koby) and four girls (Annie, Haley, Mackenzie, and Katie). We left in my pickup truck with some people in the back around eleven at night so we would arrive at the town at midnight. It would normally take a twenty minute ride but we had to be obscure and take the streets so no cops would see us.

An hour long drive later we arrived at a motel just bordering the forest. We could barely see tall trees that scraped the sky, but it was hard to at night and in the giant cloud of fog.

“Well we made it,” Koby said, jumping out of the back of the truck. “From here on out we need to travel on foot, but we need to keep quiet and try not to be seen. Don’t wanna be caught. Now somebody take the flashlight and every else help carry the stuff to the cabin.”

Katie ended up taking the flashlight and leading the way while I took a cooler and my backpack full of clothes. As I was getting the cooler out from the back, I noticed something strange.

“Hey, Annie,” I said. “What’s the shotgun for? It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“In case a vampire decides to come in,” she replied with a grim expression. Annie was polishing the barrel with a white rag. She was awfully pale and was shaking, obviously scared to death. Overall she was acting ridiculous.

“You don’t still believe vampires haunt the cabin, do you?” I asked. “It’s a bunch of nonsense. A child’s story. Probably made up by the owner of the cabin to scare people of his property. Don’t be a wuss.”

She kept concentrated on polishing her shotgun with a stern and grim look on her face. Once she was done she pulled her backpack over her shoulder and gave my a look that told me, ''shut up and start walking. ''With that I went up the trail to the cabin.

The walk ended up taking about thirty minutes, which is actually quite short if you’re carrying a loaded cooler and a backpack. The cabin lay up on a beautiful, bare hill overlooking a lovely lake and the forest around it. You couldn’t see quite far from the top though because of a thick fog surrounding the hill. The cabin was much bigger than we expected; about the size of a large house with two floors, and an attic and basement.

We all went inside to be greeted by a luxurious, yet dusty, interior.

“Wow,” somebody muttered next to me. We set the flashlight on a couch and began lighting candles. Soon enough, all the rooms were completely lit. We laid down our sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets and got ready to go to sleep. While I was laying on the couch, I noticed a key on the cabinet by the lamp. I took it, just in case. It was decorated very nicely and had a gothic style to it.

“Shit,” Sebastian said. “We forgot our sweatshirts in the back seat. I’ll go run and get them. You guys stay here and get some rest.”

He took the flashlight and ran out the door. He didn't give anyone time to respond before he was out. Besides we were too tired to argue. I laid down on the couch and curled up in my blanket and dozed off.

We all woke up to a loud banging on the front door. It didn’t sound like the person was panicking, it was a cool and collected thud thud thud. We were all laying down waiting for somebody to risk opening the door when Mackenzie got up. She slowly made her way up to the door and turned the knob ever so slowly.

“Can I come in?” Sebastian asked sarcastically, with all of our sweatshirts wrapped around his arms. “Locked me out.”

“Come right on in,” Mackenzie said sarcastically. Sebastian made his way into the room and then we all finally went to sleep. The next day officially began for us at about eleven in the morning. We were all so tired from the night before. The rest of the day was spent playing in the lake, telling ghost stories, and playing crappy board games, but Sebastian spent the whole day inside, sleeping. It wasn’t until that night that I noticed something strange.

We were all eating burgers at night, laughing around the fire, having a good time. Even Sebastian woke up to come eat with us, and he seemed pretty happy too. Not one of us noticed the whole day…until Lee brought it up.

“Have any of you guys seen Katie today at all?” he asked. We all looked at each other with blank expressions. Had anyone seen Katie today? We all quickly abandoned the fire and the burgers and went frantically looking for Katie. No one found a trace of her, but we all remembered seeing her the night before. We went in groups to search the forest and go back to the car, but to no avail. It ended up taking about two hours.

It was finally my turn to search the forest with Matthew and Annie, with her shotgun, for Katie. After about fifteen minutes of looking we came across a robed figure behind a tree, about four meters away. It wore a black robe and it was tall, obviously a male too. We saw two piercing snake eyes peering under the hood. He was watching us.

“H..hello? Who are you?” I asked. I felt a tug on the back of my shirt and turned around to see Annie. She had a worried and terrified expression on her face, but her eyes were glued onto the mysterious figure.

“Don’t speak to it,” she said, lifting up her shotgun. “It’s a vampire. We need to run. RUN!”

I didn’t think it was a vampire, but I knew the figure meant trouble. I mean, a vampire?! Matthew and I turned and bolted out of the forest. Annie put the figure into her sights and fired, before quickly following us. When I looked back at the sound of the gunshot, I couldn’t see the figure get shot, only a mass of bats swarmed the figure and the surrounding areas when Annie fired. When we arrived back at the cabin we saw our friends pale and worried faces glad to see us.

“What the hell happened out there,” Mackenzie asked. “We were worried sick.”

Before Matthew or I could say anything, Annie broke out. “Vampires! A vampire was in the forest watching us! I shot it but I don’t know if I killed it! Heck, I don’t even know if I hit it! We can’t leave the cabin with a vampire roaming around! We need to secure the cabin! Find weapons! There are vamp-“

Before Annie could finish Matthew hit her in the back of the head with a stick. She had a small cut on the back of her bald head. Everyone was shocked, yet happy because she finally shut up.

“Orlando and I saw the thing too,” he said. “Definitely not friendly. Might have been the thing that took Katie. Maybe even killed her. I think we should follow what Annie says, just as a precaution.”

Everyone looked at each other, dazed and confused. I nodded my head in agreement with Matthew. I don’t know what we saw, but we shouldn’t sit around waiting for it to attack us. Matthew left for the door of the cabin, then I followed, followed by Annie. Slowly, one by one, people made their way up to the cabin. It was quiet in the main room, everyone sitting around, waiting for everyone to get inside. Once everyone was in I spoke up.

“So, I think I’ve devised a plan until somebody thinks of one better,” I said. “Board up the windows so he won’t get in. Two people brave enough will go back to the truck and drive it up here, maybe then we can leave and report Katie missing. Meanwhile, we’ll find weapons to defend ourselves with. Ok?”

Everyone slowly nodded in agreement. We spent the rest of the night figuring out who does what. Sebastian and Haley were tasked with taking the shotgun and going to the truck. Lee, Matthew, and Mackenzie were to board up the windows and reinforce any weak spots in the cabin. Annie, Koby, and I had to find any weapons the previous owners left in the house, or anything that could be used as a weapon. We carried on with our duties the next morning.

“Never saw this door before,” said Koby, admiring a wooden door with a padlock. It had writing carved on it that read “Dear God, help us.” Koby slammed his body against the door.

“Harder than I thought,” he muttered, rubbing his shoulder.

“Let me try,” Annie said, stepping forward. She took a running start and hit the door full force. The door shook but wouldn’t give in. Annie looked frustrated. She kept hurling her body at the door, when I remembered. The key!

“I got this,” I said as I put the key into the padlock and turned. It opened!

We went down into the room, which turned out to be the basement. I turned on my flashlight and looked around. I was happy with what I was greeted with. I could see a pistol with six bullets, a sledgehammer, some boards, some nails, two hammers, three very expensive looking daggers, and even a chainsaw. We spent no time gawking and carried everything upstairs immediately.

Everyone finished their jobs in the afternoon, except for two people: Haley and Sebastian. It wasn’t until nighttime when we saw Sebastian running towards the cabin, alone. He looked frightened and we opened the door for him. He burst inside and quickly slammed the door back shut. He was pale, sweating, and shaking.

“It got Haley,” he said. “The thing. I saw it. It chased after us and eventually got Haley. We got lost so it took me a long time to find the cabin. But it did something to Haley. It tackled her and bit her. Now she's not normal. She’s crazy. She’s insane. She’s trying to kill us. She’s not human.”

“Calllllllmmmm doooowwwnnnn,” Mackenzie said. “You sound just like you’re sister here. I bet you’re just imagining things. Look, here comes Haley right now.”

I looked through the slits of the boards. I could barely make out a figure running up the hill. It was fast, faster than any human I’ve ever known. It seemed to be angry and it eventually became clear it was in fact a female. But I could tell something was wrong.

Haley was definitely faster than usual, but I didn’t believe Sebastian until she hit the door. She jumped and came flying at the door, hitting her head hard against the wood. She got up immediately and started clawing frantically at the door, throwing her body at it. She would not stop, letting out terrifying, ear-piercing screams and wails, almost like a banshee. She kept going at the door, until finally, she stopped. And looked at me.

This was Haley’s body, but this thing was not Haley. It was breathing heaving; chest rising and falling. Her clothes were shredded and in a mess. Her skin were covered in scales. Her hair was in a mess and in tangles. Haley’s fingernail had now become black claws. Her eyes had become one of a snake, but wider, and I could feel her gaze burrow into the back of the skull. Her mouth had grown much larger with pointed teeth filling her mouth. Her canines were now long fangs like daggers. Haley’s tongue was long and her mouth was filled with blood. Her mouth was wide open showing off her deadly display and she looked angry. She looked ready to kill.

“Is…she…really…a….v…v…vampire?” I asked. No one responded. They were all too busy looking at the beast.

“Weapons! What weapons did you find?” Sebastian asked. We quickly gave him the chainsaw. He roared the chainsaw to life and grabbed the doorknob.

“On the count of three,” he said nervously. “One….two….” He took a deep breath. “Three.”

He quickly burst open the door and stood there with the chainsaw, but what was Haley did not move. It kept on staring at me. Without warning, she turned her head, squatted down, and readied her claws. With a shriek she leapt over Sebastian, into the cabin, and on top of Lee. Lee was knocked down immediately and struggled to get the thing off. It hissed in his face, sending bloody saliva everywhere on Lee.

As it raised it’s claw to strike Lee in the face, Annie jumped in and grabbed it’s wrist. I jumped in and grabbed it’s other arm as it was struggling against Annie and it hissed at me. Lee grabbed both of his legs.

“Where do we take this thing?” Lee asked. I thought, but it was hard to think with the thing in my arms.

“Koby!” I yelled. “Grab the key from my back pocket and open the basement and we’ll throw it down there. Hurry!”

Koby did exactly what was told. He opened the basement and waited by the door to shut it at the right time. Annie, Lee, and I threw the monster down the stairs but just as it was about to go down it grabbed onto something; Lee. Lee was caught off guard and slid down the stairs with it. I caught a glimpse of the thing grabbing Lee, who was trying to climb up to safety. The monster was directly on top of him and we knew he had no chance.

“I’m sorry Lee,” I said. “Koby close the door.”

Koby closed the door and locked it. The last I saw of Lee was him reaching out from hallway down the stairs. We stayed at the door and listened to the struggle. Lee screaming for help and praying to God. Hissing and what sounded like meat tearing. Cries of pain. Eventually, there were scratches on the door which got lighter and lighter. Lighter until you heard a weak, “Help me,” and nothing but the sound of a bite.

Lee, Katie, and Haley were all gone. Either lost, dead, or a monster with no hope. Mackenzie slumped down on the wall and started crying.

“I want to go!” she yelled. “I want to leave NOW!”

“I know,” Matthew said. “We all want to leave. But we’re stuck here until we find a way out.”

The day ended with constant banging on the door and Mackenzie sobbing. Nobody got a wink of sleep. Annie spent the whole night with her head down, shotgun in hand. We had to devise a plan to leave. Until then we’re stuck with these monsters straight out of hell. Presumably vampires. We came up with many different ideas. Leave in the day. It was too foggy and dark in the woods and the path for that. Just go all out. Can’t. If one person turns then we would all turn with how fast those things were.

The next two days were spent hiding in the cabin like a bunch of cattle for those monsters. Every now and then we would come up with a new plan and set a foot out of the cabin only to scurry back inside. We would eat, plan, and play games, but they were not fun. Only to pass time. Then on the third night the next tragedy struck.

We were getting ready for bed, and Mackenzie was getting ready for his night of watch duty in the kitchen, when I noticed something wrong. Koby was throwing his sheet onto the coach. I was looking into the mirror when I saw it.

“Hey Koby,” I said, reaching for the pistol next to me. “Um… You feeling okay?”

“Obviously not,” he replied, focusing on his sheets. “I’m worried sick and nervous too. Who knows who the next victim will be. First Katie went missing, probably taken away by the weird dude. Then, Haley became that monster, and we fed Lee to it. I try to forget it, but you can’t just unsee stuff like that.”

“No,” I said, gripping the pistol tighter. “Are you physically feeling okay?”

“Well its kinda hot,” he said. “Sore neck from sleeping on these couches too.”

He rubbed his neck and underneath his hair I saw it. Maybe for a fraction of a second, but I know what I saw. Two holes on his neck. He’s been bit by one of them.

“Koby,” I said sitting up and readying the pistol. Everyone was staring shocked at me, but Koby didn’t noticed. “Why don’t you have a reflection? I only see the sheets fixing themselves, I don’t see you.”

He stopped. He stood there staring into darkness for a while. Everyone else in the room was reaching for a weapon and got them ready. I could see his fingernails elongating into claws. I didn’t know why nobody was making a move. I think the difference between then and when we saw the robed figure is that this was our friend. That’s when the unthinkable happened.

His head spun around halfway to look at me with the same ugly features that Haley had. We locked eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he roared and the rest of his body spun around and charged toward me. He jumped on top of me and I could not believe the weight. I could understand why Lee struggled.

Annie, Matthew, and Sebastian all tried to get the beast off of me, but to no luck. It would spin his head at them and either hiss, scream, roar, or throw up projectile vomit bile at them. He spun his head towards me and opened his mouth into a disgusting smile and began to come down, fast. When Koby was almost completely over me, I heard a gunshot and Koby fell silent on top of me. His bloody saliva was all on the side of my face. I looked around to see glass shards everywhere. The body was lifted off of me.

“Annie shot the chandelier,” Matthew said solemnly. “Would have been two victims today if she didn’t.”

“Oh,” Annie said, reloading her shotgun. “There will be two victims today.”

“What are you talking about,” I asked. A smile spread across her lips. We were all backing away from her and got our weapons ready. She just sat on the couch and started to polish her shotgun. Sebastian even picked up Koby’s body as a shield.

“How was he bit?” she asked. “How did he become one of them. He didn’t spontaneously become a vampire, did he? He didn’t travel out of this cabin for the past three days. One of us here is a vampire.”

We were locked into an argument with Annie, trying to convince her not to kill anyone else. Her point was true though. How was he bit?

Mackenzie burst through the door and immediately covered her mouth in shock. She dropped to her knees and began to cry. She kept muttering, “Why?” under her breath.

“I came down here because I heard the ruckus,” she yelled through tears. “When someone shot the roof I accidentally bit my tongue and now it’s bleeding. Next, I come down here and Koby’s DEAD!”

We didn't know what to say. Mackenzie was a hysterical mess, Koby was just killed, and Annie was sitting there smiling like a maniac. But we had a bigger problem. One of us was a vampire. I looked at Matthew. He was in shock and couldn’t seem to comprehend what happened. I looked at Annie. Sitting there smiling, she’s obviously the most suspicious. I looked at Mackenzie. She was standing up then and crying with a mouth full of blood. I couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for her. She was the most scared out of all of us; we needed to car-

Her head was blown off. Blood and parts of her head flew all over the walls. Her lifeless body slumped onto her knees before falling completely onto the ground. I stared at her body in disbelief. She was dead. I looked around. Sebastian and Matthew were in the same state as me. Annie was holding her shotgun up, steam blowing out the end.

“What….the fuck Annie,” I said. “You shot her head off…You killed her….You’re insane…A monster…”

“She was a vampire,” she said calmly. “I knew it and I killed her before any damage could be done to us. The fake story of biting her tongue should have shown that she bit Koby.”

“You can see her fucking body in the mirror,” Sebastian pipes in. “She wasn’t one of them.”

“Oh,” Annie said. She looked into the mirror like me and saw the reflection of her body, whereas you couldn’t see the reflection of Koby’s. She looked down at the ground.

“Are you going to play this off like nothing happened!” Sebastian shouted. “You murdered our innocent friend, you little-“

Annie stood up and pointed the shotgun at us. We all moved back slowly. We didn't want to deal with her anymore. She had gone insane and she was turning on everyone. She waved her gun back and forth, making sure to target all of us.

“That still means one of you guys is a vampire,” she said.

“Put that gun down, Annie,” Matthew said. “Don’t hurt us. We’ll discuss this later. For all we know you could be one of them.”

Annie lowered her shotgun and sat down on the couch and cried. We all left the room and found a room upstairs to sleep in. Annie joined us after about an hour. We were all too scared and stressed to talk. The next few days were spent with us roaming around the cabin lifelessly, not speaking to one another. This situation was truly making us go insane. I couldn't trust the best friends I’ve ever had because of this.

Annie was acting the strangest. She would guard her shotgun like that was Sebastian. She would glare at every one and usually spent her time looking out through the boards in the windows. Over the following days, we noticed that bats began to circle the cabin in groups. The numbers grew more every day until there was a black ring around our cabin. One day I noticed Annie acting especially strange. She was leaning on the lit fireplace with a throwing dart in hand, no shotgun in sight.

“Annie…” I said. “You okay? You’re acting really strange right now.” The grip on her dart tightened. “Annie, how about we put the dart down.”

Before I knew it I felt a searing pain in my left eye. I reached up and felt the end of a dart. I saw Annie standing there with scaly skin, wicked eyes, and the gruesome mouth. She was staring at me, panting. She roared and swung at my face with her claws. I jumped back and grabbed the nearest thing I could find. A fireplace poker. Great.

The thing hit me in the back of the head and I fell forward. My vision and senses were being blurred. I turned around and she jumped on top of me, knees over my arms. The poker was knocked out of my hands. She showed off her claws in the light for a second and then started going after my face and chest with it. I kept reaching for the poker, but it was barely out of my reach.

With a strong yank I freed my arm and grabbed the poker. I stabbed the poker into the middle of Annie’s head and she began to scream. I forced the poker forward, but the monster only leaned back. Eventually, I gave the poker a hard push and Annie’s face went up in flames. I didn’t realize that I was pushing her into the fireplace. Her screams were loud and sounded like a deep and high wail from  many tortured souls. Her movement began to slow until she stopped moving entirely. Then Matthew and Sebastian burst in.

“Annie?” Sebastian yelled sobbing and running up to her body with the head in the fireplace. “Annie! Oh my god! Annie! Please! Annie!”

Matthew helped me get up. “What happened to your eye, man?” We need to get this taken care of.” As Matthew was dragging me away, I fell unconscious with the last thing I saw being Sebastian yelling at the ceiling. When I came to I was sore all over. Matthew was there by my bedside and Sebastian was standing in the doorway with a sour look on his face. There was heavy layers of bandages over my left eye and I saw the dart and my eye attached laying on the counter.

“Ugh, I feel terrible,” I said. “I’m so sorry Sebastian. She attacked me and she was a v-“

“A vampire. I know,” Sebastian snapped. “Now if you get off your lazy ass and help us before we all die here. We have a bigger problem on our hands.”

I looked over at Matthew who had a worried look on his face. “Um…” he said. “We kinda ran out of food….”

“Kinda?” Sebastian shouted. “This is serious Matthew! We are trapped in this cabin with a vampire among us, barely any food, and no way out. The bats create too strong of a circle to get through. I cut myself testing it out.”

I looked at Sebastian’s chest. It had a long slash stretching from one shoulder down to his opposite armpit. It was bandaged already but it was bleeding a lot. We all stared at each other for a while. Trading looks. Waiting for someone to come up with something.

“Well?!” Sebastian exclaimed. “We’re going to starve until someone figure something out.”

With that he left the room, leaving just Matthew and I. The mood was very glum and we barely talked to each other. I laid in bed the rest of the day recovering the massive headache I had and the loss of one of my eyes. I didn’t have the strength to ever get back up. Nor did I have the peace and security to fall asleep. That proved to be something terrible.

Over the course of the next few days I gained back my strength to where I was finally operating again only to have it sapped again by the lack of food. We trudged through the days eating what we only had left: cornflakes and pop-tarts. It was still not enough.

On the third night after my recovery I headed into the room I slept in before. I needed to bandage myself after I cut myself a couple minutes ago. I opened the door to see Matthew. He had his back to me, and he was eating something. I knew this was not going to end well. It’s happened all too often.

“Sebastian!” I yelled. Matthew turned around as another monster. He probably got hungry from the lack of food because he was now chowing down on my eyeball. He swallowed the rest of the eyeball whole and looked at me in my eye. I heard a roar behind me and turned around to see Sebastian with his chainsaw. Sebastian charged forward and took a swing at the vampire’s neck. It ducked and grabbed Sebastian’s arm. Matthew uppercutted him in the jaw and sent Sebastian crashing into the wall. Matthew turned his attention to me.

By now I had found a weapon and readied it. A kitchen knife was the closest thing to me that I could find. The beast hurled itself at me and I evaded it by moving to the side. It rolled forward and snapped its head at me when it landed. It outstretched its arms and came after me swinging its claws around, screaming like a psycho.

Sebastian grabbed onto it and struggled to keep Matthew in place. I ran up with my knife to kill it, but it was too wild. It whirled its head in all directions making it almost impossible to hit it. It was kicking its feet widely, struggling to get out of Sebastian’s grip. I didn’t want to touch any more of these. I had to sum up my courage and grab its cheeks. I drove the knife through his forehead. Matthew’s movements slowed and weakened, until Sebastian could finally let go. Sebastian went over to pick up his chainsaw. Something still wasn’t right, I could just feel it.

“Hey Sebastian,” I said.

“Now is seriously not the time Orlando,” he said picking up his chainsaw.

“I was just wondering, how come no vampires went after you. I mean Haley jumped over you, Matthew went after me. And you never killed a vampire, why is that?” Sebastian turned his head slightly. “Also, how were you able to get a hold of those vampires. They’re super strong.” I tightened the grip on my knife. “Sebastian… what are you?”

He paused before throwing his chainsaw aside. “Won’t need this,” he said. He spun around to show his gruesome vampire face.

“We need to savor every last drop of blood,” he hissed. “Just like with all the others. Haley, Koby, Annie, and Matthew.”

He jumped and I slid underneath him just in time. He let out a painful scream and charged after me. I threw my knife at him but it didn’t connect how I wanted it to. It just bounced off him. He tackled me over the bed and onto the floor. My head was suffering from massive pain. I broke free from his grip and tried crawling to the chainsaw, but Sebastian too me by the leg and threw me at the wall. I landed with a thud on the bed frame.

“Oh, you want the chainsaw,” he hissed. He put his hands in between the boards on the window and cracked them open. He threw the chainsaw outside with the swarm of bats. I grabbed the knife and jumped onto his back. I managed to lodge the knife in his shoulder before he threw me off.

I landed on the bed and quickly dived out of the open window. I suffered a terrible land and rolled down the hill. My right leg was screaming in agony and I couldn’t walk on it anymore. I slowly crawled to the chainsaw with my arms and one leg. I got to it and managed to bring it to life. I turned around to see Sebastian’s ugly face grinning. He opened his mouth up wide and let the blood fall all over me. He came down quickly for a bite.

I moved at the last second and grabbed a hold of his head. I slammed it into the chainsaw and the sights were horrific. It tore his face up down the middle, blood flying everywhere. It cut down far; no chance he could have survived. I stopped the chainsaw and slowly sat up. Th bats began to clear up, flying off into the distance. It was over.

I managed to find a stick to help me walk into the cabin. I slowly made my way to the bed. I sat down and let out a huge sigh of relief. Then I began to laugh. Laugh because all my worries were gone. Laugh because there were no more monsters. Laugh because-

I stopped laughing when I heard the panting. The same panting all the beasts did. I looked around. I saw no one through the hallway or out the window. Yet I could still hear the panting. I had no clue what was happening until I looked up. Katie was on the ceiling, legs and arms outstretched to keep her up there. She was smiling at me.

Out of desperation I tried to leave the room but hit the floor because of my leg instead. Katie dropped down and got up close. I was drenched in sweat out of fear. I couldn’t get up. She screamed in my face and then I felt two pricks in the back of my neck. I felt the warmth drain out of me. And did it feel good. You should join us.

We’re waiting for you. The family of vampires did own the cabin, but we kicked them out. It’s our turf now. Come and visit us. Haley and Lee are still scratching the door. Katie is still crawling on the ceiling. The robed man is still wandering the forest. The bats are ready to circle the cabin again. Come to Meir Link’s hill and join us. I’m very thirsty.