Escaped the Night (3 page)

The
triangle
began moving
.
It
steadily spelled
out
V-A-M-P-I-R-E.

Another
shiver
shot
down my spine
. “Vampire?
”
M
y voice
squeaked
. I cleared my throat
and continued, “
Vampire?
Uh,
do you think
this is a
horror movie or something?”

I
felt
involuntarily spooked
,
but at the same time
,
this was just
ridiculous.
Vampire. L
ike
vampire
s
w
ere
real
— c
reat
ure
s
of the night
with the ability
to
sed
uce you
and
make
you powerless
,
so they
could
drink
your blood. Come on!
I
’d
had about enough
and
contemplated taking my hands
off
when
t
he triangle started
moving
. This time it spelled
out I-AM
-HERE.

A breeze filled Ginata’s room.
The
candles flicker
ed
as if someone
was
breathing
or blowing
them
gently
. We both looked arou
nd mystified
. Was someone with us?
What
felt
like
a
hand
brushed
across my shoulder
.

“Oh
!
Did you do
that
?” I snapp
ed
at Ginata, squirming in my seat.
“This isn’t funny. Y
ou’re
totally
freaking me out
!
”

Ginata looked
at
me and
I
saw the fear
it in
her eyes
. “Do what?
”
she said,
shaking
her head
.
“I didn’t do anything
.”

The triangle
moved
again. GOIN
G-TO-FIND-YOU- SOON
-MY-SWEETS.

I looked up at Ginata
completely horrified.
I felt the
triangle
move and lowered my eyes
to
focus
on
what
it
was spelling
.
I-HAVE-NEVER-STO
PPED-SEARCHING-FOR-YOU
.

All of a sudden
I felt like
crying
. This
conversation
brought
up all kinds o
f emotions
in me
. I
was afraid and
sad
,
only
I
didn’t
understand
why.
Maybe I was getting too wrapped up in this
,
but
it
seem
ed like he was talking to me.

WE-WILL-BE-TOGETHER-
AGAIN-SOON
. Then in an ab
rupt movement the triangle shot
to the bottom of the board
and landed
on good
-
bye.
Just as this happened
,
t
he candles
stopped flickering.

Ginata
asked the board
, “
Daray, are you still with us?”

Nothing happened.
T
here was no
more
movement
.

I lifted
my hands off
the triangle,
wiping them
on
my pants as if
removing
bad
vibes
.
I was done with that creepy thing
.
Right
then
,
I swore to myself that I would never
, EVER touch one of those boards
again.

Ginata and I
sat
silently
across from each other
in her
dark room
,
for
what felt like
a
very
long and
awkward
time. I assumed she was doing the same thing
I was; r
unning
over
what
occurred and
t
rying to
find some way to
make sense
of
what
had
just happened
.

How could we
even justify what we’
d just
seen
? Vampire. T
hat was the most bizarre thing
that had ever happened
.
T
he breeze that
blew the candles, it was unexplainable. H
er window had been
closed
,
so
why did the flame
s
flicker
?
And the feeling of someone touching me, it was…ugh. This was all wrong.

A
naggi
ng voice in the back of my head said,
i
f the thought
is so
absurd
,
then why is it bothering you so much?
Maybe, n
ot everyth
ing’s
like
it seems.

I
turned th
e lights
back
on
,
walked over and blew out the candles. I left the
incense
going because in t
ruth
,
I
found the musky
smell somewhat comforting.
I went
back
over and sat with Ginata on her bed
,
s
till ponder
ing
what
had
happened.

Ginata shifted her body
slightly
and
looked
at me. “Are you sure
y
ou weren’t pushing it?”

“No
,
” I snapped
,
a bit harsher tha
n
necessary
. “
I’
d
never d
o
anything like that. I thought you were be
ing a jerk because you kno
w
I
don’t like doing that
. I though
t
…
you were
just
trying to freak me out.”

We
both shivered
. I
t was clear that ne
ither of us was
going to a
dmit
to pushing the triangle
. P
erhaps
it was because
neither of us
did. What if
we really were
contacted?
Who was Daray
and
w
ho
exactly
was he
searching for?

I couldn’t shake the
feeling
that
he was referring to me
.
Ther
e was something about his name. That
unknown feeling
left me with the
urge to
remember.

“How about a movie?” I said
,
trying to get
on
a more positive note. “En
ough witchcraft for one evening?”
I let out a
nervous
giggle
.
I needed a change.
I had to get this out of my head.

“E
nough
!
” she agreed
.

We
made our way
downstairs
with
our
pillows
and made a direct bee
line to the kitchen.
We
g
rabbed
cans
of
soda
, some chips out of the pantry and
Ginata opened up a cupboard beside the sink
and pulled
out two candy bars.

“Chips, p
op and chocolate…
yum
.
Can’t get any better than this
!
W
e’
re set
!
” she exclaimed
,
walking
ahead
with overflowing arms.

We
headed into the living room,
plopped
our
treats
down
on the coffee
table
and t
hen
tossed ou
r
pillows to our designated end
s
of the couch
.
We
h
eaded over to the
overstocked
DVD rack
.

“
Comedy
or romance?” I said
.
“
I think I
’ve
had
enough frights for one
night
.
”
“Sounds good to me
.
”
Ginata
stood up on her tiptoes
and grabbed
a movie off the
top
shelf. She took it out of its case
and placed it in the DVD player
I headed over towards the couch
.

S
he
turned
around
to join
me
when o
ut
of nowhere
Berkley
charged
through
the
living
room
growling and bearing his teeth. He
defensively
headed
over to
wards
the window
, his
protective
barks echoing
throu
ghou
t the house
.

We both
screamed
out
.
We looked over at each other and then
Ginata and I
moved
uneasily
t
o
wards
the window.
Berkley
cont
in
u
ed
barking until G
inata
gently placed her hand
upon him.
Then it was silent, almost t
oo quiet
. I could hear my
own
heart pounding in my chest.

We
simultaneously
pulled
back the curtains
and looked
out into the darkness—
o
ur eyes
scanning
high and low.

“Did you see that?”
I
thought I
saw a flash o
f red streak by
. Suddenly
, I felt strange. Chills ran
through my body.

“See what?”

“That red streak. S
omething
’s
out there.”
I backed away.

Ginata
pulled me back over to
wards
the
window.
“Where?
Show me.
”

I
hesitantly looked out. I scanned
everywhere
, but
n
othing moved.

“
I
must’ve imagined it.
A
n
d
Berkley
…
come on;
talk about
perfect
timing
, s
illy dog
. Y
ou
seriously
scared me,
”
I said
patting his head
as
I
backed
away from the window.
“I thought it was a vampire.” I forced a laugh.

“
Vampire
, that’
s
pretty funny
.” She chuckled.

“I know. M
y imagination
is totally
on overload.”

“
No kidding
. To be honest though,
he
scared the crap out of me
too
.” Ginata
shook her head trying to get herself back in order. “
W
ow…
movie…
right! That’s what we were doing.
Let’s do this
, I
need
some
laugh
s
, my nerves are shot.
”

We
ar
ranged ourselves
on the
p
uffy
sectional
with
ou
r heads
near each other. The Ouija board dealings
and
Berkley
’s strange behavior
clearly affected us more than we
’d
thought.
After a few seconds of shuffling around
with
blankets, we
snuggled
our
selves in for the next
hou
r and a half.