"They live amongst us"

It is 11:30 pm and the party on Mulberry Drive has just started to take shape now

Picture this, about 35 guests and 1 host come together in the living area.

The host welcomed everyone to his humble abode and said "this is not just a party; this will be an adventure for each and every person in this room."

HE said, "I invited each of you for a different reason. Thirty-five individuals will have 35 different plots to challenge.

First! Let's party!

The music started and the bubbly was flowing, everyone started to dancing and frolicking all over the room.

Introductions are in order, the host of this party is a wealthy man named Charles Dubois. He has guests only once, every three years and this ticket is one that people would die for. Why, you ask? Because every guest that is invited is paid one-million dollars to show, and five million to survive the night.

Who, me? I am Eugene Elijah Evans under cover reporter invited guest and skeptic. I am one who has paid special attention to the happenings of every three years in this place.

People are going in but not coming out... at all!

Until this year, I have been watching from afar but documenting every three years as to how many go in, and how many comes out.

I have wheeled and dealt for the last two and a half years to get this ticket, and I can't even divulge the things I have done to get my hands on the golden ticket.

What's My Plan? Collect one million dollars; find out why people have not been coming through those doors after spending the night here, and getting out alive!

The plan seems easy but I know that I am risking my life to get this story.

I don't want to mistakenly lead you to think I am working for a specific person because I am not; I just need this story to validate my existence as a good reporter.

And if I pull this off, I will be a rich man, and not have a need to write for a company that don't even know I‘m alive.

The editor calls me "hey."

What am I thinking? Okay here it is I think Dubois is a Modern Day Vampire...

If you are like my Editor, your mouth is agape, and you think I have lost my mind but just give me the chance to explain...

I have sat on a mountainside adjacent to this home, jealous of the occupants that got a chance to get in. So I watched through precision equipment at the proceedings.

What I saw chilled me to the bone. At the strike of twelve I heard a bell, I looked up to the top of the house and saw the bell tower then looked back down to the windows and people were running wildly around the room, and there were people chasing them. I saw a vicious attack on a young lady by another lady who was tearing at her neck with her mouth!

The young lady being attacked seemed to not even fight, she just stared into nothingness. I saw blood everywhere. It was all over the window I was looking through, and all over the floors and walls. I noticed in the right corner of the window a figure standing there and he seemed to be able to see me as clear as I could see him, but he had no equipment!

I panicked, ran and jumped into my vehicle and skidded off down the mountainside. About ten minutes into me driving like a maniac I started to see things in my headlights, flying things that were larger than bats, much larger than anything I had seen before. I looked up into the top of my dashboard window and all I could see was huge flying figures that seem to be just trying to identify me, but not harm me.

I swerved a few times trying to see what they were, but I never got a good look at them. They disappeared just as fast as they came. When I reached the bottom of that mountain I pulled over into a gas station/mini-mart and called my Editor to tell him that I had a story that would not only blow his mind, but this story would solve many of the missing person's cases also. He gave me that whatever what do you have reply.

I told him what I had seen and what happened on the way down, and he stopped me and said "dude sleep it off" and hung up on me. That's when I decided to go it alone, and bring back the story of a lifetime.

{Present day} Now here I am one of the Invited guest to this party and the time is 11:45, 15 minutes till the stroke of twelve, and I know what to expect when that happens. I have in my case everything known to man that can fend off and kill vampires but what I need more than anything else is allies. But I know if I start going around telling people what I know someone is going to spill the beans.

A gentleman walked up behind me and touched me on the shoulder, I spun around quickly be cause he startled me and said "I'm sorry you scared me, what can I do for you." He asked me for my Invitation so I went to my inside pocket of my dress coat and handed it to him. He looked at it for a second, looked back at me, and then said, "So you are Dr. Franklin? I said yes I am Dr. Franklin. He smiled a smile that told me he knew I was in fact not Dr. Franklin, and he knew exactly who I was.

"Enjoy your stay, and may you survive the night" he said, then turned and walked back into the crowd. I watched him as he whispered something to Dubois, and watched Dubois as he turned and looked at me with a smile and nodded.

Just as before, everyone had congregated in the main room of the house and it was 11:50... Mr. Dubois stepped up to the high stair case and welcomed everyone to the party, told them what to expect and what the outcome would pay, and for whom it would pay, all the time looking at me with a sly smile.

Then he said enough talk! Let the party begin! The lights went down and the music blared from all directions in the house. People started to dance and frolic around, all except me, I went to the corner of the big room and started taking pictures of the guest. No one knew that the pictures I was taking were being uploaded to the newspaper printer back at the Company. I figured in case something happened to me at least someone would see the proof that I was there.

I snapped maybe 100 pictures in a three-minute span then decided to look at some on my camera to make sure they were all right, and that's when I noticed that many of the people I had shot were not on the picture. That told me one thing and one thing only, that some of the people that he invited were Vampires from years past.

And they came back to feast. So of the thirty- five guests, only fifteen were not vampires or fourteen and me.

The clock struck twelve and the bell rang in the bell tower just like before, it was so loud it drowned out the music that was blaring in the house. The 14 others grabbed at their ears and were looking up to see what it was when the first attack happened.

A man was taken off his feet and lifted up to the top of the stairs before anyone even noticed, but I did!

I dropped to my knees, opened my case, and marked a holy line around the corner in which I stood, and then threw garlic all around the area. I placed crosses along the holy line I had drawn, and took out my high-powered squirt guns with holy water inside. I stood there against that wall and watched as theses vamps tore at the guests as they ran around in circles screaming at the top of their voices for help.

I had to push away some of them that ran at me for help because there was only room for me in the arc. I kept taking pictures and the flash seemed to help keep them away also. I looked up and saw a woman sitting at the top of the staircase on the arm bar holding a woman by her hands as the woman dangled over the bar in the air. The vamp would pull her up and suck at her neck then let her hang while she looked over the place.

Three other ladies that came with him to the party were devouring one guy.

That told me that they live amongst us in our everyday lives somehow. And I also understood that Mr. Dubois sent out recruits to bring back people every three years with the offer of millions.

I thought to myself that people would do anything for the possibility of being rich, and it helps if they don't believe in vampires.

The carnage was ending and the whole bloody party turned to me.

They were shielding their eyes and growling at me but not coming too close.

I looked up and noticed one crawling along the ceiling above me and coming directly down at me to avoid what I had put around me but I had thought of that also and reached for my hat that was dampened with holy water and tiny crosses all over the top. The light from the shiny crosses caused it to fly away in pain.

They all came together around me, some reaching but pulling their hands away in pain. The noise was deafening from these creatures but I was determined to look them all in the eyes and stand my ground till the light of the sun came shining through those windows and they went back to rest for the next three years.

Then the crowd started to split right down the middle and there he was Mr. Dubois,

He walked right up to the front of the crowd of vamps and started to clap his hands together, then looked back at the rest of the vamps and said "Come On! Give this man a hand! They all then started to clap. Then he shut it off with a whisk of his hands in the air.

HE said "Mr. Eugene Elijah Evans congrats! You have done the unthinkable"

I knew you were not Dr. Franklin, and I knew you were the person three years ago that sit right across there with your high-powered scopes and looked in on our little feast. I also know that you know it was me that was looking at you. SO Mr. Evans, what do you intend to do with all this?

Holding my cross to my chest and shaking a bit I said " I don't really know what as of yet, but I know that I have to walk away from this house before making any decisions about my future. Was the money just a farce? He smiled and said "No the money is real, and the money will be deposited in your account the day you walk away from here, but Mr. Evans let's not get ahead of our selves, you haven't gotten anywhere except that corner right now.

I said "And here I'll stay until the crack of day" Dubois said" you can stand in that spot without falling or going to sleep for lets say another 6 or 7 hours?" We are betting you can't Mr. Evans. I looked them all over and said, "Watch me"

Mr. Dubois started to laugh and said "Watch you we will Mr. Evans, Watch you we will!

They all stood quietly and waited for a mistake on my part, but I wasn't intending to make one, even though after about two hours my legs were putty.

I looked at my watch and noticed it was 3:30 in the morning and I knew I had at least three more hours to go before the break of day and I underestimated standing in a corner for hours with hungry vampires just waiting for me.

They tried putting me in trances but I looked away and thought about the 6 million dollars that would be in my account upon leaving this hell house.

I felt a heaviness come upon me at about 4:20 that felt like I had bar bells hanging from my neck but I straightened myself because that was better than teeth in my neck. At one time, I opened my eyes and realized that I had dozed but never moved.

I glanced down at my watch and though it was blurred by my exhaustion, I could see it was at little after 6 am and I knew I was in the home stretch.

I noticed some of the vamps leaving and retiring to their caskets while others closed in where they were standing before. Then it happened I looked and saw the first sign of the new day. More of the vamps started to leave and retire but others kept coming to the forefront.

I watched as more and more of them started to go away until there were just five.

These were the elders and they stood there hand in hand until the first ray of sunlight came through the huge window. As the sun blasted through it engulfed the elder vampires and they burned right there in front of me until they were no more.

I looked down at the remains and lost my footing, fell down into the charred bodies and hurried to my feet. I was standing in full sunlight! I ran to the front door and pulled at it but it was locked, I nervously pulled at the cross latch that locked the huge door but could not budge it.

Then I felt and touch on my shoulder and quickly spun around to see the same guy that checked my invitation the night before. I said how can you... He said, "I am not of the undead" He unlocked the door with ease and said "Be on your way Mr. Evans, you are free...

I ran out of the open door and down the winding drive to the exit and a car was waiting there with a driver. He rolled down the window and said," I am your ride"

I stood in hesitation for a minute then opened the door and got in back.

He looked through the rearview mirror and said "where to"

I looked back at him and said "just away from here"

The car started down the mountainside with a snails pace and I didn't care at all, I had the rest of my life to tell this story to all who would listen and live the life of riley.

Oh, by the way, the Newspaper offered me the Editors job but it didn't pay enough.

{The End}