Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2017
Middle School Winners

Third Place

A Pleasant Surprise

by
Olivia Hoge

Hello there. My name is Miles. I'm about 300 years old and I'm a vampire. Other than the fact that I drink blood and never physically age, I am a pretty normal guy.I have curly brown hair, dark brown eyes, and I am average height. I am very skinny due to the fact that only drink blood. I also have some heightened senses. I can run faster and I can see better than your typical human being. One of my favorite things about being a vampire is definitely my ability to mind trick people and animals. I know this makes me sound like a terrible person but, trust me I do not do it a lot. In fact, I rarely ever see people. I can’t go outside during the day and I never really go anywhere at night in less I have to. I spend most of my time inside reading and listening to music. More on that later. You are probably wondering what my life was like before I became a vampire. I'll tell you. I was born in 1702. I was sixteen when I was turned into a vampire I lived in a small town where most everyone knew each other and almost everyone was poor. One afternoon I was taking a hike in the woods like I so often did. Before I knew it the trees were so thick I could not see the sun anymore. This was nothing new to me so I did not think much of it. I came to a clearing and out of nowhere, I see this girl who looked to be about my age running at me. She punched me in the gut and I doubled over. She pushed me down all the way and then pinned my arms behind my head. She looked at me with a sly grin and said

“I finally got you” I was so confused but too scared to think straight. I had a million questions running through my mind. I had never seen this girl before and that was what had scared me the most. I knew everyone in this town! She moved her left hand off my arm and pushed my head so my neck was exposed. She opened her mouth and licked her lips. That is when I saw her fangs. I looked into her dark blue eyes. She looked back at my eyes with a glare that made my blood run cold. She suddenly lunged down towards my neck and she bit. I must have passed out because that was the last thing I remembered. I woke up with a pain in my neck and a headache. It took me a while to remember what I was doing on the cold, muddy ground of the forest. While I was out it must have rained. I was covered in mud and water and my hair and clothes were damp. I sat up and ran the events that had happened through my mind. It all came back at once. The girl with the dark blue eyes. The way she punched my gut. The way she snarled the words “I finally got you”. I stood up and ran back towards my house. I was so blinded by my fear that I did not notice how fast I was running. Luckily, it was nighttime so I did not get burned by the sun. I ran into my house and ran into my room. My brothers who I shared the room with, looked up in surprise. My younger brother had jumped up and ran over to me. I hugged him tightly. My older brother who was reading a book had stood up and closed the book. He walked over to me and gave me hug. It was a brief hug but a hug nonetheless. He faintly whispered

“Thank god you're okay.”

All I could do was nod my head. At that moment my mother walked in. She dropped her cleaning rag and rushed over. Well, I'm gonna end that part of this story here. The rest of when on isn't really important.  This is where the real story begins. One day while I was sitting inside reading and listening to music like I always do, I heard a knock on my door. I was used to hearing people knock on my door but today it was raining so hard I figured there would be no sunshine out. I stopped my music, put a bookmark in my book, and went to the door. I was not scared of what would be at the door, but I was not expecting it to be one of them. The second the door opened she lunged at me with a silver knife. She had caught me off guard so she ended up stabbing my arm. I silently cursed her in my mind. What was a vampire hunter doing here? I have never done anything to upset them. This girl looked to be a year or so younger than I appeared to be. She had long, curly, brown hair that was in a ponytail. Her bright green eyes had the most hateful look I had ever seen. She rushed past me into my house and continued to fight me. She was kind of short so that gave her a slight disadvantage. Like an idiot I said

“What are you doing here?” She shot me a glare and said

“What does it look like? I’m trying to kill you!”  I was expecting that answer so I decided to ask her a different question. I wanted to know what exactly I did to her.

“Why?” I shouted. We were still fighting each other. I guessed she hadn't had much experience with hunting vampires. She was not exactly good at fighting.  She looked at me for a second then started to laugh.

“Why?” she repeated

“Is that a joke? You. Are. A. Vampire! You are evil. Every single one of you!” Now she had this wild but pained look in her eye. Her fighting eased up. She finally stopped fighting and staggered over to my big, fluffy, chair that I had in my living room and collapsed into it. Her breathing labored and she was holding back tears. She pulled out her ponytail and let her wild yet elegant hair hang down around her. She put her face in her hands and started crying. Now I just felt bad for her. I went down to my knees next to her.

“Hey” I whispered.

“What happened?”

“What do you care?” she said in a helpless voice. She pulled her hair to one side and moved her head.

“Just do it. I know you want to”

I looked back at her in surprise. I have never in my entire existence bit another person. I know that it can ruin someone's entire life. It is not fair to not have a choice in the mater.

“Let me tell you something,” I said in a calm voice.

“I've never bit anyone. Ever. I do not think anyone should have to unwillingly have to become a vampire.” She looked up at me. I decided to ask her what happened again.

“One of you broke into my house about three months ago and bit everyone in my family but me. They all died. Whoever it was drank all their blood. I somehow managed to get away” She said all of this with a numb voice. She also added

“I've made it my life goal to hunt you guys and kill as many of you as I can.” I sat there for a second thinking about how awful she must feel. Out of pure emotion, I gathered her into my arms and hugged her. This made her sob harder and she hugged me tighter. I didn't say this out loud but I vowed to help this girl out.  She soon realized what she was doing and let go of me. She looked at me and said

“I should probably go” and she wiped her nose on her sleeve. She didn't make any effort to get up. I asked her

“Where do you live now?” She looked at me and sighed.

“I live with this other group of vampire hunters. We move around a lot so it's always different.” I wondered if they ever left people behind. I wondered tons of things about this girl. I did not know why, but this girl was intriguing. There was one thing on my mind that was kind of bothering me.

“How did you know that I lived here?” She looked at me and hesitantly said

“I've been watching you for a while now” I was kind of expecting this but not the way she said it. She let a flicker of amusement flash through her eyes. She hastily stood up and walked to the door. She turned around, bid me good night, and stepped out of the door.  I stood in the darkness for a while after she left. A loud clap of thunder shook me from my thoughts. I walked into my bathroom to clean off my stab wound. I poured some rubbing alcohol on cut and wiped up the blood. The sight of the warm, red liquid made my stomach growl and my fangs pop out of my mouth. I wrapped my arm in a bandage walked back to my library. I unpaused my music and tried to read my book. I could not focus no matter how hard I tried. My book that I was reading no longer felt amusing. I was reading a vampire novel. Those are my favorites. It is very entertaining and interesting at the same time. Seeing what mortals think of us vampires is kind of laughable. I guess something like me is hard to believe when you have not seen us first hand. Anyway, I set the book down and picked up my phone. I looked at the time. It was 6:23 pm. The rain had lightened up and I could now see the sky. The sun was setting. For the first time in a while, I was excited for nightfall to come. Tonight, I was going to take a hike through the woods for the first time since I first got bit.