Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

A Debut

The opening scene jolted Mezrielda from her self-loathing. The projector showed a three-dimensional image, as if they were watching a play. It was at least somewhat impressive, Mezrielda admitted angrily to herself.

A man was walking through a graveyard, and Mezrielda was already rolling her eyes. He seemed scared, checking over his shoulders. As much as Mezrielda wanted to hate every aspect of the show she had to admit that, so far, it looked decent. The acting was believable.

Then a tall figure swooped down and landed in front of the man. He was shrouded in shadows. Though no light source was pointed at him his teeth glowed, showing off many fangs that were, to Mezrielda, comically long. The other students jumped back in horror. Apparently, they were foolish enough to be convinced by such shoddy costumes. Mezrielda wasn't surprised.

'Glow in the dark teeth?' Mezrielda muttered to herself. 'Ridiculous.'

The opening had the vampire trick the poor man into revealing his neck, before it was implied that he brutally killed him. Then, suddenly and quite jarringly, the scene changed from a graveyard to an ornate living room. Bagsy – Rose – was pacing the space looking focussed. Mezrielda was taken aback by how in character and confident Bagsy looked. Even her mannerisms were different. A frown settled on Mezrielda's face as she watched.

Rose – no, Bagsy – Mezrielda was finding it difficult to see the character and not her best and only friend – was flicking through some newspapers as a cat meowed at her.

'Three incidents within the past few months,' Rose murmured ominously. 'There's definitely a vampire in town. Better go deal with it, huh, mittens?'

Mezrielda rolled her eyes again. 'Mittens,' she practically spat. 'Of course.'

The first episode had Rose tracking the vampire in question with her close friend, Yasmin.

'Don't touch her,' Mezrielda wanted to say whenever Yasmin threw her arms around Rose, but instead tried to ignore the colouring of her face at the realisation that such a thought even crossed her mind. Bagsy could hug whoever she wanted.

Yasmin had told Rose that she'd found her soulmate – a weird contrivance in the world of Vampire Affairs where everyone had one person they are destined to be with – before she, too, was brutally killed by a vampire. Only, this was a different vampire from the opening. As this vampire was about to kill Rose, the vampire with the florescent teeth appeared and defended her, pulling the other vampire in half. Mezrielda clenched her fists. Despite common belief, vampires didn't have superior strength or speed, weren't mindless blood-thirsty murderers, and certainly didn't have glowing teeth.

At the climax, Rose and the vampire had a fight, during which they realised, to both of their horrors, they were soulmates. A vampire hunter and a vampire being soulmates was unheard of. To top it off, the vampire who'd killed Rose's friend came back to life because, quote, 'we didn't stake his heart'. Mezrielda wanted to put her face in her hands she was so frustrated. None of this information was accurate. A vampire torn in half was a dead vampire. It was as simple as that.

But the show wasn't done being ridiculous. At the close it was revealed that this second vampire was also Rose's soulmate, making her the first person in all of history to ever have two soulmates. The petrified look on Rose's face as she realised the mess she was in was hilarious given the sheer stupidity of the show's premise, yet it was so well acted that even Mezrielda found herself at least a little on board with Rose's troubles.

And that was what finally made Mezrielda truly horrified. Bagsy's acting had been so well delivered, not making a single mistake despite it being broadcast live, that somewhere in the episode Mezrielda had forgotten it was Bagsy.