Blood Buddies

BLOOD BUDDIES <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 1 I am Harry Boone and I have a little story to tell. You might just find it downright scary - because you'll know now that something like this could happen to any old dude at any time. The events in this story happened just a couple of months ago. I was fresh out of High School and ready to do something worthwhile with my life. I worked in the local arcade called "Turbo". Now here is the entire story... for the most part - unabridged... A crowd was building at the "Zombie Feast" arcade game. Usually, people who played it couldn't pass the first level, so I was curious. I squeezed in through the crowd to see what was going on. A pale kid - maybe a couple years older than me, wearing a long black coat was tapping the buttons furiously but he was really racking in the points. I watched the screen with my mouth gaping as his score shot through the roof. He wasn't missing ANY zombies. You see, the object of the game was to simply throw bombs at the zombies before they get the chance to eat you. The game's zombies were so fast that many players gave up after their first try. The pale boy smiled as the screen turned blood red and the high score list came up. He had beat the game! The ONLY score on the list was his. He slowly began to type his name on to the screen. The crowd still chattered in amazement. "I know I can beat the stupid game now," some kid said. Everyone stared at the screen as the winner typed his name in. It spelled 'C - O - U - N - T.' A hush fell over the crowd.

2 The boy, still smiling, turned to face them and explained, "Count..., you know, like, count the numbers in my high score! Funny, yes?" A couple people

understood and laughed. The crown soon dissipated and the winner was left standing there, gazing at the screen as it began to show an animated zombie video. "Where did you learn to play so good? You're the first person to ever beat it here!" He laughed and answered, "First try too!" "Do you live around here?" I asked him. "Yes, I just moved in right down the road. Our family came from Transylvania." I stood in silence, because I was remembering all the times I had read about that place. "Dracula lived there didn't he?" I questioned him. "Yes, um, so I hear... listen, you like the games of videos?" I picked up on his bad English but I didn't laugh. "Yeah, I do, I play Playstation all the time." He sat down on a stool and told me about all the games he had. "I have some that were never released in the United States... really cool games like that one." He motioned to "Zombie Feast". "Would you like to come over and play them later tonight?" I didn't want to sound to excited, but I loved playing new games no one else had. "Oh, and you can meet my sister, she is about your age and she is lonely here. I was definitely in. "Yeah man, how about 7:00? I'll bring my multi-tap and some of my favorite games." We decided we would do that and he told me where his house was. "Oh, I forgot to ask," I began, "What's your name anyway? I'm Harry Boone." He sipped on a soft drink he had and stood up. "I am Viktor Golichi. Sorry, I have to be going. See you at 7 O'Clock, Harry." He left and then I realized it was time to close the arcade. I let a few stragglers finish their games and then I started emptying the machines of their coins. I shook my head, still in disbelief of the 1,600,000 score Viktor had reached. It was really amazing. I unplugged "Zombie Feast" and unlocked its coin box. I reached in to retrieve the coins and felt cold steel. I tapped the box and it echoed. There were NO COINS in it.

3 That night I went to Viktor's house after eating dinner. When I drove up, I was surprised that I had never even seen the place, as long as I had lived in this town. It was a hulking structure, but kind of creepy looking in the dark. An iron gate blocked the path in. I walked up and found an intercom on the gate. "Bzzzt - Viktor, this is Harry, could you open the gate? - Bzzzt!" I waited a minute and suddenly the gate began to creak open. I walked along a cracked concrete sidewalk and up onto his front porch. A cobweb hung over the doorbell, but before I could press it, the door swung open.

"Hi there Harry!" I peered through darkness at what appeared to be Viktor's sister. "Oh Sorry," she held a candle up in front of her face. She handed me one. "We have been having power problems lately." I couldn't help but stare at her. She was perfect. She was like a goddess. She was clothed in a dark blue velvet dress leading down her long legs to high heels. It was almost as if she was dressed up to see me! I broke the silence finally with, "Hello, I'm sorry, Viktor didn't tell me your name." She closed the door behind me. "Oh, I'm Stephanie. Viktor told me you were coming." I looked down at the marble flooring and my eyes led to a swirling staircase up ahead. "Viktor actually had something he had to take care of, but he'll be back shortly." I had just noticed that her English was a lot better than Viktor's. "Why don't you come up to my room instead?" There was nothing I would rather do. "Sure," I answered. She reached out and took my hand and led me up the stairs. She had dark flowing hair that fell on her bare back gracefully. I could not believe this girl was really related to Viktor. We reached her room and she pulled me in. It was dark in there also. Candles flickered from all around. "So, here is my bookcase, my T.V., my bed. Why don't you have a seat on the bed?" I obediently took a seat. I picked up a book and started to read the title aloud. "Blood Raids: A tale of -" She grabbed the book and stuffed it under her mattress before I could finish. "Sorry, that's just a girly book. You understand." She sat down beside me and pulled my hand to her lap. She really had the hots for me! "I had no idea that Viktor knew such good-looking men." She smiled and rubbed my hand against her leg. She leaned forward and locked her lips around mine. I was in awe of her. Never did I expect to find a girl like her in Viktor's house! She didn't pull away, and I didn't either. Her tongue rolled through my mouth and I was on cloud nine. Then I felt a sharp pain in my mouth. "Ow!" She jumped back, "What is it Harry?" Blood ran down my chin and she stared deeply at it. Had Stephanie just BITTEN ME?

4 "Let me get that," Stephanie whispered. She quickly made the pain subside when she stroked her tongue down my lips and over my chin. "I'm sorry I cut you - I think I broke my tooth the other day," She explained. "That's fine Stephanie, you can bite me any day!" I put my arm around her shoulder and laid her down on the bed. She giggled as I kissed her once more.

Right at that moment, Viktor's voice broke the silence. "Stephanie! Where are you?" I jumped off of Stephanie and allowed her to go to the door. "Up here you geek!" She turned to me and laughed. "We can finish this later, Harry." Stephanie skipped out of the room and disappeared around a corner. Viktor came running up the stairs. "Oh, Harry, I didn't know you were here dude!" I suppressed a smile as I replied, "Yeah, Stephanie was showing me... around." Viktor scoffed. "She's a real loser, you're best to stay as far away from her as you can." I sensed anger in his voice for some reason. "Anyway, lemme show you some of my stuff." I began to follow Viktor down the hall. He was walking with a limp I hadn't noticed earlier. Before I could ask him about it though, I noticed something hanging from his back pocket. It was a white rag, but it was covered in red spots that appeared to still be wet. Was it... no it couldn't be... BLOOD??

5 "Viktor, uh, what the heck is on that rag?" Viktor quickly spun around and shoved a hand in his back pocket. "Oh, well, I was jogging home and tripped... landed right on my knee, I think the bleeding has stopped though." I struggled to believe him, but before I could wonder, we were at his door. "This is it. Go on in." I walked in to his room and noticed immediately his huge T.V. and stack of video games. "Wow! That's the biggest T.V. I've ever seen," I exclaimed. "We won that in a contest, but since my Dad already had one in the living room, I got to keep it." I walked up to the stack of games and began surveying them. The titles were new to me. I had never even heard of 'Demons of the West', 'Shotgun Madness', or 'Werewolf Forest', but they looked great! "We have got to play these Viktor!" Viktor nodded and promised, "We will soon, but first I have to show you another room, Harry." Viktor escorted me down the spiral staircase and then down another hallway to the left. I was beginning to think that Viktor's family was into the darkness thing. The hallway had lanterns spaced a couple feet apart along the moldy walls all the way through. Some dank paintings of Viktor's really old and equally pale relatives hung in between the torches. As if he had read my mind, Viktor interjected: "It is common where I am from to live amongst only natural, candle lighting... if you were wondering." "Yes, I was actually... Listen, Viktor, where are we going?" I was getting antsy. He laughed

in a weird tone of voice and told me that it was a surprise. We finally reached a tall wooden door that looked to be completely handcrafted. "This is it." Victor proclaimed. "My family sleeps down here, Harry." Viktor let the door creak open into what appeared to be just a basement by my standards. I thoroughly looked around for any sign of beds or mattresses in the filthy room... it didn't look inhabitable at all. "Oh, we don't sleep in beds, like I suppose you would," Viktor broke the silence again with, "We actually sleep in these babies." Viktor moved to the side and tapped on the top of a wooden coffin.

6 I gulped loudly and began to shiver. I was extremely creeped out now. I had been so stupid. I put the pieces together in my head. The 'COUNT' name for Viktor's high score in "Zombie Feast", the dark, dark house, the bloody rag... Viktor's entire family was a homicidal hoard of blood-sucking vampires! The look of my face must have gave away the fact that I was about to ruin my pants. "What's the matter Harry? You look like you've seen a ghost..." I backed away from him, slowly, towards the door. "Viktor, are you a - a..." "Yes, I'm a vampire, of course." Viktor finished my sentence for me. "Are you going to bite me now? Because I know Ty-swan-dough and I'm not afraid to use it on you, you blood-sucker!" I was almost to the door now. "Harry, I didn't want to have to do this at first, I just wanted a new friend, but you know to much about US now. You know what... I was watching you with my Sister the whole time." I about lost my lunch a second time then. "I'm pretty nifty when it comes to techneology." Yeah, but not too good with English. "I have a hidden camera in her room. No one touches my Sister and gets away with it." I quickly swung around and grabbed the door knob. I should have known; locked from the outside. My heart sunk. I slowly began to turn my head back to face the freak. I wasn't fast enough. I felt his teeth sickeningly slosh through the tendons in my shoulder. The fangs jabbed right through my skin.

7 I couldn't even struggle with him. My legs quaked underneath me. To my surprise I heard a yell. It was Stephanie's voice! "Stop right now Viktor! Get your teeth out of him!" I felt his teeth tear back out of the fresh holes in my shoulder. I stumbled and the wall was the only thing holding me up. I looked up to see Stephanie's gorgeous vampire face a few feet in front of Viktor. "This is the last time you turn one of my friends into one of us, Viktor!" Viktor shuddered and was visibly frightened by Stephanie. My eyes came back into focus again and I now saw why Viktor was frightened. Stephanie held a wooden stake sharpened to a needle-point. She held it right in center with Viktor's pulsing heart. "Stephanie... you - you don't want to do this." Viktor didn't sound to confident in his words anymore. "You've always been a major geek. Nothing more to me." And with those words Stephanie impaled the stake as far as she could push it into Viktor's chest. Dark blood splattered her dress. Viktor screamed in pain, much like a girl, and immediately let his knees buckle beneath him as he fell to the ground. Stephanie ran over to me and hugged me. She was crying on my shoulder. "You realize this had to be done... don't you Harry?" Before I could even realize what the heck I had just seen, she continued. "Otherwise, we couldn't have lived forever - immortally together." I was once again bewildered by what she was saying to me. She clarified my thoughts by digging her fangs deep into my jugular vein.

8 Hey, don't feel sorry for me... being a vampire is great! I live forever or until stabbed with a wooden stake, I've got a major sunscreen commercial deal happening, and I've got one beauty of a girlfriend who shares the same interests as I do. Yeah, this is the life for me!

THE END Visit the official FEAR E-BOOKS WEBSITE @ http://www.fearbooks.com WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY MATTHEW WATTS