A Story About a Vampire

Chapter 1: Home Invasion

Author's note: I wrote this story linearly over the course of a few years, writing a chapter or two in a day before leaving it untouched for months. I feel I improved as a writer significantly over this time and so I'm really only proud of the last few chapters, but I just had to get this story out of my head so here it is.

He heard the front door creek open from all the way at the peak of his tower, he was actually rather surprised by the noise not having heard it for many years. He had begun to lose count of the years since the last 'brave soul' came to his door seeking the famous monster's head for his 'crimes'. He wasn't exactly looking forward to an encounter with someone who was no doubt bedecked in shining armour and seeking justice, he had grown tired of that song and dance some time ago, but he was curious; since it had been at least a century or two since the last knock at the door. He worked his magic to make his way to the entrance hall and stand ominously atop the staircase wreathed in shadow, as was standard procedure for an unwanted invader. To his surprise, the invader was not a knight in shining armour but a young girl. Whilst this development caused him to somewhat lose his composure, it was for but a moment as he straightened his posture to cast an imposing silhouette before the stained-glass window and began to introduce himself. "Greetings traveller, you have entered the castle of Lord Vallentin Adolich. Turn back unless you wish for a gruesome death." He was very proud of that introduction, it was one of only a few where he had avoided any stuttering, not that this poor child would know that. Speaking of the child, they screamed loudly in response and hid very badly behind one of the pillars of the hallway. Vallentin was baffled, usually those who were too afraid to continue ran out of the door rather than behind something; he even told them fairly that they could avoid death by leaving. This is the first time he'd been in a situation like this, it was always either a swift retreat or a fight to the death before this time. He was far too awkward with the situation to even begin to consider his next course of action, he was starting to get sweaty palms and really wanted to go back up to his roost; this was no way for a vampire lord to behave in response to a home invasion. The situation got even worse when the child decided to poke their head around the pillar to look at the internally panicked vampire lord and saw his slouched posture and barely hidden despair. "Child you do know that I can see you, do you not?" Vallentin said in the most competent voice he could muster considering his ongoing internal monologue in which he was contemplating all of the mistakes in his life that had led to this very moment. Apparently, his tone was commanding enough, as it elicited a squeak of fright from the girl and she returned to her little safe place behind the pillar. This was getting even more unconceivably messy for Vallentin to deal with and his internal monologue was becoming even more dire in response, it was beginning to turn to existentialism and how he would be remembered as the pathetic vampire that couldn't even deal with a teenage girl who probably just came in here by accident. At that thought he actually began to speak aloud, "Wait did you just come in here by accident or did you plan on fighting me?" Vallentin was sure that he had stuttered, or his voice had broken whilst speaking and his monologue faded to internal screaming. His thousand-yard stare is broken by the small voice responding from behind the pillar "U-um, neither I guess?" By the gods this child hadn't really been sent in here as a form of psychological warfare, it's a miracle! Unless of course she's lying, that's a whole other argument that Vallentin decided to temporarily ignore in favour of believing that maybe his luck wasn't completely abysmal. At least for now Vallentin had found himself back in the driver's seat of the situation, he steadied himself and righted his posture in preparation to take back all control of this conversation and get this kid out of his house. With his posture righted and his voice steadied, Vallentin descended the staircase and began to speak, "Then why did you enter the home of a vampire lord, child. Surely even someone so young would know that I eat people." It was at this point that his polished boots silently reached the main floor of the hallway, and he began to step towards the pillar. The girl seemed to pluck up a little more courage and poked her head from behind the pillar to speak once more, "W-well I heard that you've not had any visitors for o-over five hundred years. I thought you might be... lonely?""It's been five hundred years already has it, I was sure it was only two.""Well that's just what the stories say... um, sir.""And what else do the stories say about me, young one. Do they tell of the countless lives I feasted upon, and if they do why did you come?""The stories about you say that you've stayed locked in here for so long, I figured maybe you didn't really wanna kill any more people, but now I'm here you're really scary and I think you might eat me. A-are you going to eat me?""That's up in the air for the moment young one, first I want you to tell me your name. I already gave you mine so it would only be polite.""Oh, um sorry sir, my name is Sophia Redgrave. Um it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance?""The pleasure's all mine Ms. Redgrave. Now that's out of the way, why don't you get comfortable."Vallentin snapped his fingers before Sophia could question what that entailed, the candles flickered and when they returned to their dim light, the pair found themselves in a comfortable, plush seating area. Vallentin gestured for Sophia to sit, which she did immediately as if refusing would cost her life, because for all she knew it would. Vallentin turned on his heel before looking back over his shoulder towards his curious visitor "I will only be gone but a moment, I'll fetch some tea." With another snap and a flicker of candlelight Vallentin was gone, leaving Sophia alone in homely yet somehow ominous room.Vallentin arrived in his kitchen feeling relieved to be out of the sitting room and exceedingly proud of his continuous performance throughout the whole conversation they'd had. The facade of the immortal and irreverent killer hadn't slipped since he stepped down the stairs, and now he had a few minutes to compose himself once more whilst he made the tea. As the kettle began to boil over the fire, Vallentin found his mind wandering a great deal, mostly looping back to the question, why the fuck did he let this random girl in his goddamn castle? It was possible in his mind that maybe he really was lonely, or maybe he was just so caught up in the persona that he just wanted to be imposing and creepy. Either way he was now stuck with this girl in his home and he knew at this point that he had to get her out as quickly as possible, but he still needs to be threatening so she never wants to come back. First things first he had to get through a conversation over tea with some teenage girl but in trying to focus on what comes next, he had the realisation that it had been over five hundred years since he'd seen anyone. How could he possibly hold a conversation, he doesn't even know what the norms of society are anymore, let alone how to speak to the enigmas known as 'teenagers'. Throughout this internal panic, Vallentin had been idly preparing the tea and was just about finished. He then spent at least a few minutes making sure the tea was perfectly prepared and presented on the tray, debating which tea set to use and the like, but in the end he changed nothing from his initial choice and then began to panic at how long he had left Sophia alone in the sitting room, and so with yet another flicker of candles he returned to his guest with his tray of tea.Sophia jumped in her seat and let out a squeak of fright at the flicker which heralded Vallentin's return to the room, looking as imposing as ever from poor Sophia's perspective though internally he was still in as much of a panic as his guest, if not more. The tall and handsome vampire set down his tray of tea on the table and elegantly slid into the seat opposite Sophia, resting his chin on a hand and crossing his legs in an attempt to appear far more in control of the situation than he truly was. After a few moments of awkward staring, Vallentin poured the tea into the two cups he had brought and gestured for Sophia to take one, as he sipped from the other and returned to his relaxed position. Sophia of course picked up the tea and took a sip instantly, quite clearly still full of fear, and flinched away from the cup with a burnt tongue. Vallentin took this moment to get the conversation rolling, "You don't have to drink it now Sophia, it should be cool enough in a few minutes." Sophia nodded in response, still wincing, and returned the cup to the tray. Vallentin became slightly alarmed at the lack of verbal response since he was so bad at starting conversations and this attempt had fallen completely flat, he supposed that he'd better take another crack at it before the silence became any more uncomfortable; "Um, so Sophia what drove you to come into a vampires castle seeking friends? It hardly seems like a good idea to me." This might have turned out worse than just an awkward silence, a vampire lord can't be saying 'um' like a shy schoolboy! Fortunately, Sophia snapped him out of his stupor before his panic reached his face, "Well um, I guess I just wanted s-someone to talk to and I've just about run out of other people to talk to... I thought maybe you'd get it, being alone for so long," Vallentin was speechless, his persona crumbled around him as he finally met Sophia's gaze and her sad eyes stared into his own sunken sockets, for a brief moment he thought that looking into her eyes was like looking into a mirror. "I thought, j-just maybe you could show me how to not care about being lonely or at least maybe how to act more c-confident in front of people." Vallentin finally slumped in his chair and tore his eyes away from Sophia's pleading gaze, "Not even immortality can save you from loneliness, or from that pit in your stomach when you think about talking to someone, or even the voices in your head that tell you everything you're doing is wrong. You should go and make some friends your own age before it's far too late for you, and don't even think about visiting this old fool again." Now that the façade was gone, Vallentin, for all his wealthy clothing and opulent furniture, was a rather sorry sight; crumpled in his chair with dead eyes staring into the middle distance. "Mr Vallentin?" Sophia called out from her seat as she leaned forward towards the distraught vampire, "Your tea's going to get cold." Sophia then sipped from her own cup in an attempt to bring some normalcy to a situation which had thus far been completely bereft of it. "Are you not nervous, Sophia?" Vallentin mumbled as he continued to avoid her gaze and leant forward to pick up his tea. Sophia sipped from her cup daintily, in her best impression of the kind of fancy lady she imagined having tea with Vallentin many years ago, "Well yes, of course I am... but I guess I had just enough courage left for a leap of faith when I walked in here and now I'm kind of committed, if that make any sense at all." Vallentin chuckled for a moment before finishing his tea, and finally meeting Sophia's gaze again, "You're telling me you stayed here on a whim even when I threatened your life?""Y-yeah that's exactly it but when you say it aloud it just sounds stupid.""Sometimes the stupidest things you do lead to the best moments in your life.""O-oh yeah? Like what?""I think that might have to be a story for when you're older, or at least just when I'm more used to talking to people.""Whatever happened to me never coming back huh? And I'll have you know I'm fifteen, that's a perfectly acceptable age to hear about sex stories.""Apologies but I've decided I would like to speak to you again, but I'm not quite sure whether that's made this situation better or worse, and I'm sure that if you pester me enough, I'll tell you that story one day."Vallentin started staring into his empty cup as he finished speaking, with a faint smile on his face. He was still afraid of saying something else ridiculous, but he was realising that chatting to someone like this was... nice in a way, but somehow still nerve-wracking. His thought on this complex matter were interrupted by Sophia gently wiping away a tear he didn't realise was about to drip from his face with her sleeve. This simple action caused Vallentin to be temporarily paralyzed and wondering if he was about to have a heart attack, though he realised about five seconds into this episode that his heart didn't beat so that wouldn't be physically possible. Oh god what if his heart started beating?! It didn't, he just looked up at Sophia, who was significantly closer than he remembered, in mild panic (which was quickly becoming the theme of his day). Sophia was kneeling on the table and leaning towards him, but as he looked up, she seemed to realise what she was doing, scurry back to her own seat and hug her knees to her chest. Vallentin didn't really know where this was going, but he was very sure that it made him uncomfortable, but not knowing how to bail out of the situation outside of teleporting (which he'd been told was quite rude) he simply sat there and watched his guest slowly bury her face in her knees, as if she'd decided that her kneecaps were the perfect tool to gauge her own eyes out. It was several minutes of awkward silence before Vallentin spoke again, "Well, whilst you're here Sophia would you like a tour of my castle". Sophia was relieved to be freed from the awkward silence she'd trapped herself in and hopped to her feet, "Yes, I'd love to have a tour!". Vallentin suspected that the tour was far less important to her than getting out of this awkward mess of a conversation, but then again that was his primary objective too. The pair walked quickly to the door as if getting out of the room would somehow cure their chronic awkwardness and stepped through to begin the tour of the castle.