The Blind Vampire Hunter (12 page)

“She’s out shopping. Left to get the bus
about an hour ago.”

“OK, get the baby and get out. Go next door
and call the fire department. NOW.”

“Jack, Isabella?”

“Do as I said. I’ll see to Isabella.” Diana
started moving, and I turned and rushed to Isabella’s door, I
started banging and yelling, “Isabella, the house is on fire.
Isabella the house is on fire. Nothing. But then again, I was
standing almost right under the smoke detector, so how could I
possibly hear past her door. But how could Isabella not hear the
alarm going off right outside her room. Sleeping like the dead is
one thing, but this is ridiculous.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Getting no response, I was beginning to
wonder if Diana could be wrong about Isabella being home. Could I
be risking my life for someone who may not even be home? It would
explain no response to the overpowering alarm.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Trying the door knob, I found the door
locked. The smoke was starting to get to the hallway; the smoke was
starting to get to me.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Remembering that it’s not the flames, but
the smoke that gets to you first, I was starting to get scared for
my life. I could not leave not knowing if Isabella might be
sleeping to her fiery death beyond the locked door. I could not
leave without getting this door open to see what was or was not
behind it.

I backed up a step and kicked the door, but
it held. Coughing from the smoke in the hallway, I kicked again out
of desperation, and I smashed in the door.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

I rushed into the room and there on the bed
looking very peaceful in sleep was the angelic Isabella. The bed
was covered in dark satin sheets with Isabella resting on top of
the sheets. In contrast to the sheets was her long, flowing blonde
hair on matching dark satin pillow and her angelic pale skin face
that looked too pale. Could she have already succumbed to the
smoke? Worried for her life, I rushed to her side and discovered
her breathing very lightly. She looked so beautiful in her satiny
red gown that left her lightly curved shoulders bare, as well as
her creamy white arms. She had such a light feminine figure with
pleasant little perky breasts.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

My eyes were starting to water from the
smoke that was now following me into the room. It was getting
tougher to breath from this smoke invasion into the room.

And she continued to sleep on. The room was
starting to get thick with smoke and smoke detector was blaring
loud enough to wake the dead and Isabella just kept sleeping
on.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

It seemed too late to even try to wake her,
especially if all that racket from the smoke detector had not
already awakened her.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

So I just grabbed her up and threw her light
feminine body over my shoulder using the “fireman’s carry,” just as
I was taught in Boy Scouts. When I turned to leave the room, I
discovered the smoke had gotten blindingly thick.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

I blindly felt my way out of the bedroom and
into the hallway. That placed me right under that godforsaken smoke
detector again.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

Getting that damn smoke detector behind me,
I moved momentarily into the dining room.

Through the smoke it was easy to see that
the kitchen was fully in flame. Both through the doorway and
through the serving square, I could see the fire angrily eating
everything that used to be our kitchen. It would most likely be
only seconds before the hunger of the fire would break out into the
living room and dining room. It would be a real good idea if I was
not here when that happened.

Whoop, whoop, whoop.

With the smoke detector blaring to beat the
band, I turned and felt my way past the living room wall, past the
stairway up to the bedrooms, and continued out through the front
door and into the clean, fresh air.

It was so bright outside that I was
momentarily white blind from the sunny day. [White blind: Opposite
of night blindness; one’s eyesight is overwhelmed by brightness of
light. One might experience it in the form of snow blindness.]
Putting Isabella down onto her bare feet, I was shocked as she
finally woke up, screaming in horrific pain as she suddenly and
totally ignited in flame.

I heard a fireman yell, “We have a human
torch here. Get that hose on her.” Looking past her, I could see
the firemen already had hoses attached to the fire hydrant in front
of the next door neighbor’s place. I saw the fireman turn the hose
from the house onto Isabella.

The spray was so hard that it forcibly
shoved her right into me, while the spray was putting her flame
out.

Isabella burned until she became a black
skull face, wearing the burned rags of her once beautiful satiny
gown. She croaked, “You did this to me! You brought me out into the
sunlight to burn. You did this to me!”

Totally stunned into motionlessness, I just
stood there as a burned, blackened, monsteress Isabella croaked
out, “You die.” Her white teeth stood out in contrast to the
blackened skull that made up her face and head. Those whitened
teeth were now growing out fangs, a long, sharp pair of life
sucking fangs.

All I could do was watch, frozen in place,
frozen in fear as those pure white dealers in death, those fanged
teeth moved in toward me. I could not move, as those fangs got so
close as to disappear, until I felt two sharp intrusions into my
neck. I could see Di playing with baby Elaine, not caring that her
husband was about to die, that her husband was about to be drained
of his life fluids.

I was watching Diana playing with baby
Elaine as if she didn’t have a care in the world. I could feel my
life draining from me. I could feel ...
a stiffness in my neck
from falling asleep in my lounge chair with the news on. While the
TV droned, “And the death toll continues to rise as three more men
were found dead in North East, D.C. all within a three-block
radius. ...”

My mind reeled with the memories of seeing
perfectly within the dream, then my mind literally screamed the
thought...
VAMPIRE. Could Isabella be a Vampire? Can our boarder
be some sort of vampire?

I need to talk with Eric. Who knows more
about vampires than me? My old buddy Eric.

Chapter
Nine

A Vampire Hunter is Born

“Eric, Jack’s here to see you. We’re leaving
now. Don’t you boys destroy this house while we’re away.” Why
Eric’s wife always feels
she has to guide me into Eric’s home
office, I will never understand. By now I know how to get to Eric’s
home office like I know my way to my own bedroom. For that matter,
we have never damaged the house when she was away ... well, not
much anyway.

“Hey, Jack, come on in.” Actually I already
was walking in and finding my usual seat. I’d been in Eric’s home
office so often visiting with my best bud, that I needed no
assistance finding my seat. I was as comfortable in Eric’s office
as I would be in my own home,

“Leaving?” I asked, casually pointing in the
direction of the departing wife.

“They’re”—referring to his wife and
son—“visiting her mother. You know how her mother just loves me.”
Eric had once told me that his mother-in-law was a real bitch to
him. He was the man who took her only loving daughter away from her
(in marriage) and left her to be all alone (as her husband had run
off with his under competent/oversexed secretary). Now, anytime his
wife went to visit her mother, Eric stayed home out of the war
zone.

Interrupting my musings, Eric asked, “Jack,
you look like you have something heavy on her mind. What’s up?”

“Let’s play ‘what if’.”

“OK, shoot,” Eric answered. I could tell from
his tone that he was getting serious as a reaction to my
seriousness in this visit. This was not going to be one of our
famous Laurel and Hardy visits.

“Say I know a person who only goes out at
night. When this person walks into the room, the temperature drops
noticeably, but goes back to what it was when this person leaves
the room...

“Sounds like a member of the walking dead.
Someone very allergic to sunlight. Someone who is so deathly cold
that the living can feel the room temperature change in their
presence,” Eric interrupted.

“There’s more. This person has a voice that
is painful to listen to even though everyone else raves at how
beautiful her voice is. Everyone sighted, that is. When we met, she
freaked at the realization that I was blind. Since then, with the
help of someone else, she has been successful in evading me. I
honestly don’t think that this someone has any idea of the help she
is rendering to ... this deadly cold creature.”

At first, it sounded like you were describing
a vampire, from a blind man’s view, but then your description
changed to that of a siren.”

“And what, pray tell, is a siren?” I
asked.

“I know you read
Odyssey
. Remember
that Ulysses was warned about the ‘song of the sirens’ so he had
all his men put beeswax in their ears so they could not be driven
crazy by the songs of the sirens. In Greek lore, a siren is a bird
woman whose song is so beautiful that it drives men to crash their
ships and kill themselves. Other cultures have sirens as mermaids
that again drive men crazy with their songs and their beauty. Some
tales have these mermaid sirens coming up to ships and pulling men
deep into the sea, to be consumed as food.”

“So have you ever heard of a bloodsucking
siren?” I asked.

After a thoughtful pause, Eric replied,
“Nooo. Possibly a vampire with some magical ability to enthrall all
those around her to see her as extremely beautiful, to have
everyone bend to her will. OK, Jack, Give. Are we talking about
someone ... for real?”

“Would you believe our boarder, Isabella
Báthory?” I answered as seriously as possible.

Eric laughed as if I had told him the
funniest joke he had ever heard.

“Eric,” I called over his joviality, “Eric. I
am serious.”

Eric got himself under control and after a
moment’s introspection, he continued, “Jack, you are serious. You
really believe that sweet beautiful Isabella Báthory could be a ...
Vampire or a siren?”

“Eric, Di took her in while I was away at the
NFB convention, right?”

“Right.”

Every time I called home all I heard about
was how beautiful the new boarder was and how lovely her voice was.
When I got home, I met our new boarder. When she walked into the
room, it got colder and when she said “hello” it almost made my
ears bleed. I’m telling you, to me, her voice sounded like
fingernails on a chalkboard. Di keeps going on about how she’d love
to get Isabella in church, singing in our church choir. Oh yes,
Eric, Di never mentioned to our new boarder that she had a blind
husband. When we met, my blindness was a total shocking discovery
to her.”

“Shocking, you say?” Eric interrupted.

“Yeah, sounded to me like she totally freaked
when she discovered I was totally blind. Di assumes that she just
had never met a blind man before and did not know how to act around
one. Eric, I haven’t seen our boarder Isabella Báthory since. She
comes and goes without my seeing her at all, ever, and I swear
she’s done it with Di’s help. I really believe that Di does not
even realize that she’s helping our boarder.”

“It’s a shame you can’t see if she has a
reflection in a mirror,” Eric interjected.

“Interesting you should say that. I just
happen to have an extra watch here.” As I spoke, I handed out my
old low vision watch that I used to wear on a wide leather band.
The band had two shiny gold colored shields on either side of the
band that acted like mirrors. “Eric, put this on, and the next time
you see Isabella Báthory, sneak a peek at the shields, and see if
she appears in the shield’s reflection.

Eric took the watch from me said, “You do
realize that if she is a vampire using some magic to enthrall
people around her, that maybe that magic takes care of the
invisibility to mirrors as well?”

“I would really doubt that. Enthralling
people is one thing, but enthralling inanimate objects is
another.”

“You have a point ... wait a minute, come on,
Jack. Now you have me talking like you have a real live vampire in
your home. Vampires are fictitious. They don’t exist.” Eric
announced with strong feeling.

“So everything I have told you is my
imagination. The room temperature changing as she enters and exits
a room, her horrid voice which only I can hear, and her ability to
control my wife to avoid seeing me again is all my imagination,
right?” I demanded.

“OK, OK. I just got an idea. Isabella should
be leaving for work soon. I’ll just happen to be outside ‘getting
some fresh air’ and just being neighborly I’ll greet her, and as
she walks away I’ll see if she appears within your watch shields.
OK?”

“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll just cool my
jets here and wait until you return.” For emphasis I made a point
of sitting back, enjoying the nice, cushy seat.

“Fine, see you in a bit.” With that Jack
rushed out past me. The room got very quiet. A minute later, I
heard the front door open and close. The quiet became entombing and
then became seemingly endless. Worse, the doubt gremlins came into
my mind with statements not to be ignored like, “Really. A real
live Vampire? And in your home? Why not Trolls or little fairies?
Vampires are creatures of fiction and you believe you have one in
your house? Come on, man are you cracking up or something? Maybe
Johns Hopkins failed to mention “delusions” and “going crazy” on
the list of side effects of RP. I was starting to think maybe I
should grab up my white cane and just slink out of there and forget
I even mentioned anything to Eric, especially about Vampires.