THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

There was no light in the hallway, not even a faint blinking bulb. The spooky walk was endless. One minute became five, five became fifteen, and the blackness that surrounded Brin started playing with her vivid imagination.

As she tried to stay focused on Paul’s touch, she found herself thinking about, of all things, Splash Mountain at Disneyland. She thought about reaching the end of this tunnel to find an entrance to the famous log ride, albeit built underneath Bodie Ghost Town and only operational when Brin came to say hello. She would board in the front—of course—and rest her back and head against Paul’s chest. The first two dips would be minimal, but then, Paul would give Brin the most vivid glimpse of the Underground imaginable.

They would ride past singing vampires, all boasting about their most recent kill, all carrying small plastic cups filled to the brim with thick, juicy blood. The vampires would wave to Brin, creepy grins on their faces, so much red light shooting out of their eyes that the entire Underground would turn into a water ride complete with a thousand laser beams.

After passing the last of the singing vampires, the log would come to a complete stop, and then start to climb up the track so slowly that Brin would have to keep herself from screaming in anticipation. She would crush Paul’s hands with her own and try to keep from closing her eyes. As the log reached the top, Brin could see Bodie Ghost Town, the sun, the exit, her dad standing by his junky old Jeep waiting for a tender embrace.

But the track wouldn’t go all the way. Brin would reach her hand out, hoping to feel her dad’s touch, before the track veered left and approached the biggest drop of Brin’s life. She would lean back to hold onto Paul, but he wouldn’t be there. She’d turn around to see that he was gone.

As the log reached the final curve, she would hear a loud, malevolent laugh pierce her ears. Her heart would start pounding, and her palms would start sweating. The laugh, just as she approached the edge, would become a fierce, booming guffaw that echoed through the entire Underground.

Brin would scream as the log careened straight down into a black hole. The wind would blast against her face, her heart leaping into her throat, her eyes ready to burst from their sockets. Before passing out, the blackness below would disappear, and a bright, shining light would illuminate the giant, revolting face of a vampire. As big as Mount Everest that face would be, with Brin the size of an ant hurtling toward the vampire’s open, wanting mouth. One drop of blood would be the magnitude of a waterfall, and a fang would be as gargantuan and sharp as Titanic’s deadly iceberg.

Brin would scream, one last time, as she sped into the vampire’s mouth, passed through the blood, dipped down underneath the fang, roared forward toward the pulsating uvula, and fell all the way down into a pool of scolding hot lava. 

“You OK?” Paul said.

Brin broke out of her nightmare not at Paul’s question, but by tripping on a rock. She fell face first toward the ground but was yanked up at the last second.

“I’ve got you,” Paul said, slowly pulling Brin back up to her feet.

“I’m such a klutz,” she said. “But really… you don’t have to keep saving me.”

He didn’t hesitate with: “I think I do.”

She didn’t notice it until now, but she could now faintly see Paul’s face. “There’s… there’s light.”

“Yes. Turn around.”

She turned to her right and looked toward the ground. She stepped forward a few yards to find a giant cement wall. She tapped it with her hand. Then she got down on her knees to see the small space at the bottom; it was just big enough for a body to slip through.