SO LONG A NIGHT
She stands with her arms resting on the window rail in the middle of the pitch-black room, the only light coming from the streetlight outside her window. It is after two in the morning. Nothing seems wrong!
The owl’s hooting and the nighttime birds’ shrieks abruptly stopped, signaling the end of street life. Her instincts on high alert, she carefully listens while casting a second glance at the farthest and darkest corner of her room
Her imagination is out of control (Is there someone or something?). Her heart is pounding, she murmurs under her breath, and the loud tickling of the clock feels as foreboding as the night.
She gathers her confidence and turns to the window. Her eyes darted out into the deserted street. Her body relaxes, and she start to comprehend the absurdity of the circumstance.
She shuts her eyes after giving the shadowy nook one last look, pleased that everything is okay. She is only half asleep as she rests her head on the windows railings and walks with a regular breath pattern.
Then, with a fleetness invisible to the human eye, a faint rustle is followed by a shadow that emerges from the darkness like a whisper and hovers around her, lithe and hooded.
Other than a brief flash of alabaster skin as it skillfully brushes away the hair covering her neck, there isn’t much more that can be identified. As the vein in her neck expands, she hears a deep inhale, his fangs close-up on her throbbing vein, she dashes off screeching loudly “Mother help me!” as she narrowly avoids being crushed and runs up the stairs.
She flees into the kitchen while it lunges after her at the speed of light. She used everything at her disposal to create a distraction and foil the pursuit. She get to the door and struggles to shut it, slamming it behind her as she does so covered in bruises and with her foot twisted from previous fall.
She whimpers while trying to control her breathing to prevent her from having a panic attack. She listens intently for any sounds and is relieved when they are none.
Shortly after, following a little faint footstep, a loud thud and ultimately the ripping of something, she is embalmed as it enters with a corpse in it grasp, the door from it hinges and her face whitens in astonishment and terror.
Her mother, she thought as she scrambles to flee while yelling loudly, she knocks over a salt jar.
Instinctively, she raises a salt shaker and throws it at him as her final line of defense as he towers over her and prepares to strike. She was covered in it and lying at the end of zero escape.
She was startled by a deep, piercing scream and washed with fear. Horrified, she gaped in horror at the raging, malevolent beast, which was trying to extinguish her life by stretching out it’s hand and screaming in horror while bits of blood were dripping from it, it vanishes…
Abandoning her, she was left crying inconsolably at the horrific scene. “Eleanor!” her mother called, pulling at her trembling body to get up as she wakes.
“You will be running behind schedule for class, get up!”. She looked swiftly, startled, at the far corner of the chamber, where light had entered. Nothing foreboding was present.
Holding herself close, she lets her teacher’s words – that vampires are just as horrible as the devil – infiltrate her thoughts. Eleanor stop it! More to herself than to anybody else, she declared that everything was only a dream.
When she told her mother about it later that night, her mother said, “Good for you “.This alone will persuade you to drop vampire talks with your teacher.
It is been a few days, and her thoughts are conflicted.
She decided later to read more on vampires and found out that aside from the traditional vampires which are annihilated by a stake though the heart, they are lots.
To her amazement she found out that not all are blood suckers. While the majorities do possess basic characteristics such as bloodlust, a combination of varying powers and certain weaknesses inherited from the vampires of lore and early literature and film.
Each vampire, as do humans, has its own to bear and it’s own method of madness.
There was the erotic and exotic blood sucker, lesbian vampires, undead and unbled and many others
Extracting an excerpt from a book she read in the library titled “The Everything vampire book, 2003. The word “VAMPIRE” itself appeared in English word in the late 1600s. The actual term “VAMPIRE” is rarely used in historical lore. Instead, most creatures, vampiric or otherwise, are commonly thoughts of as “Revenants”.
Revenants, which defines an individual from the dead and who is further termed “Undead”. For superstitious communities and entire population, especially those whose social behavior’s are dictated by all measure of religious virtue and /or traditions or any number of reasons, vampires are often associated with the devil( As her teacher had informed her), a concept that in many ways, was born with stoker’s Dracula.
In that understanding, a vampire is a creature to be reviled and ultimately destroyed lest they cause an entire population to miss their mortal souls. As the churches in England practiced the cleansing of vampires from their land though the cross, a crucifix ( Known to be stronger than a cross, depending on the person carrying it and his will believing in it), holy water and perchance a stake.
They were also vampire hunters who were involved in the slaying and eradication of vampires. Examples included infamous Abraham Van Helsing in Stock’s Dracula and many others. Also, you are likely to go d a whole lot in a vampire hunter’s kit .
Early vampire hunter’s made use of shovel, hard-carved wooden stakes a mallet, as well as an axe.
Modern vampire hunter’s kit now include; wooden boxes ( preferably made of ash or hathworn wood carved into the lid so as to dissuade inquisitive vampires from snooping inside), stakes ( just about any stake or sharp objects should suffice), crosses or crucifix (keeping in lie with your wooden box stakes and carrying lots of it as most vampire hunter’s have always lost their crucifixes at the most importune moment’s, holy water (carrying it in spray bottles for mobile movement, early vampire hunter’s carried it in flask and was difficult to move around easily and sprayed),fire( traditional vampire hunter’s relied on matches but a few butane lighters and a small blow-touch would be best), mirrors (As vampires would never stare at a mirror, it’s one great repellant), garlic (The age long repellant of vampires), the bible, poppy or mustard seeds as a basic kit.
Later she learned that salt kept vampires at bay. Salt symbolizes purity and a means which one can repel evil. The undead cannot cross a line of salt, in which cases, windows, doors and other’s were surrounded with an unbroken line of salt if vampires were thought to be on the prowl.
She had been delivered from the clutches of death by that white-looking material, she thought..
“Such a long night” she muttered, drawing the covers and easing off to sleep.
Unfounded Illusions-A Poem by Favour Oluebube Obi
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