It was cold. It was dark. It was rainy. All in all, a miserable night. A young woman wearing soaking jeans and a turtleneck was hammering at the door of an intimidating castle. The door creaked open. The girl raised her eyebrows, shivered, and hurriedly walked inside. She looked around.

"Is anyone here?" she called out. After a few moments, a servant hobbled down the steps.

"And you are?" he said in a voice that would have refused to see the queen of England.

"A traveler. There were bandits on the road, and my things were stolen. The storm came up and this is the only place for miles. I need a place to stay, and I was hoping to ask the owner of the house."

The servant looked outside, where it was raining to the point of blurring, and sighed. "I'll go ask the master." He said and started to hobble away.

"Wait!" the girl called.

The servant turned around. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

The servant's face fell. "Don't thank me. You'll regret it." He speedily left the room before she could say anything else. A few minues later, he came back. "Follow me," he said. She got up and stretched. She looked up and nearly missed him turning a corner. She ran up to him.

"Wait-up!" she panted.

He immediately slowed down. "As you wish."

Up stairs, down stairs, through twisting corridors-she would have sworn he was trying to lose her or get her absolutely lost. All of the corridors were dark. No color was apparent in the house other than black, dark, dark blue and dark, dark purple. Finally, he opened a door into a room. He handed her a box of matches. "The lamps are in the corners of the room," he said, and left. Before she had the chance to actually do anything, he reentered. "I told the master of your-condition," he said, "and he told me you are to wear some of his late daughter's clothing." He gestured towards a dark shape in the corner. "They are in there. Have a nice night." He attempted to smile, then left. She shook her head as she walked over to the nearest lamp.

She lit the lamp and gasped. Even if the rest of the castle had been hot pink, it wouldn't have come near to this room. Wherever there could be colors, there were. It was an explosion compared to the rest of the house. She lit the rest of the lamps and headed to the wardrobe. She opened it, surveyed the contents, and shook her head. "Odd. If this is the only things this girl had, then she had bad taste."

She rummaged around. Every article of clothing in the closet was a low cut, frilly, and lacy dress. "Bless my growth spurt," she murmured, "otherwise I wouldn't have been able to fit in any of these clothes." She chose the least offensive nightgown and pulled it on. she shivered again. She shoved dresses aside to see if there was a world behind all of the clothes. Unfortunately, there wasn't. Just a row of very impractical shoes. She sifted through them, frowning. She lifted a pair of white narrow high heels that had odd stains on them, and something clicked. A panel slid out from underneath where the shoes had been. Lying in it was a sheet of paper. The girl picked it up and read:

Dear Unfortunate,

You are in grave danger. I do not have much time to write, for the master of this house is coming for me. I will not survive, and neither will you if you stay. Run, run while you can! But avenge me. Avenge the deaths of hundreds of people. Avenge me to this monster. My father. He is a vampire. If you do not believe, put this back for those who do, and need to stand a chance. If you do not kill him, he will find you. If you only wound him, he will find you. If he is not dead and cannot return, he will find you. The only chance of survival is to kill him. He will invite you to stay a few days. Accept, but kill him the first time you see him.

Be safe.. Avenge me.

How do you kill a vampire? The thought rapped on the girl's head, and let itself in. It marched around, then settled down in the front of her mind. The girl didn't doubt the writer of the letter-it all made sense. Horrible sense. The only thought that she remembered about vampires was her crazy grandfather telling her that the only thing that worked on vampires of any type was a stake through the heart, burning the body, and separating the ashes. She walked around the room and noticed a door to a balcony which was open. She ran over to it, and slammed the door. She shut the shutters to all of the windows, and barricaded both doors. She checked to see if there were any other windows. There weren't. Now, what could be used as a stake? Her gaze fell on the wardrobe, and a pair of brown stilettos caught her eye…

A breeze swept into the caste as the first light of dawn hit the castle. It swept up the staircases and into a room. A few moments later, a tall, thin man, dressed impeccably, stepped out. He said, "Jonathan?"

The only servant of the household stepped out of the shadows. "Yes, master?" the man quite noticeably did not have a lisp or anything wrong with his speech, as most mysterious castle servants did. He simply wouldn't put up with it.

The man smoothed his coat. "Is the girl actually here? I couldn't get into the guest room. Someone had closed the door and I couldn't get through anywhere. I couldn't even see if there was anyone!"

The servant said, "Yes, master, she arrived last night. Do you wish to see her at dinner tonight?"

"Yes. Bring her at, oh, 7:00 and lay silverware out for two. I have a good feeling about this one."

"And? If she isn't the one?"

"Then I'll do the same thing I do whenever I get disappointed or annoyed. I'll kill her." The man turned abruptly and left, leaving the servant shaking his head quietly.

The girl came tottering down the main steps, wearing a dark blue dress and brown shoes. Her eyes glittered as she walked into the dining room, and a small bead of sweat rolled from her forehead. She irritably wiped it off. A pale man with dark brown hair sat on the other side of the room, at a small table. "Come, sit." He called. She walked over to him.

"Thank you for letting me spend the night," she said, "it was very kind of you."

"No trouble at all, my dear," he said with a friendly smile. She sat in the seat across from him. Luckily, the tablecloth masked her feet. She slipped the heels off, oh so slowly. She had spent the night getting closely acquainted with the shoes, mainly to sharpen the heel. To cover the small noise, she said, "So. What happened to your daughter?"

His face became a mask of sadness. "She died a long time ago. She disobeyed me."

"Disobeyed you?" the girl was now curious. "In what way?"

"She wouldn't kill people, I'm afraid. She was nauseatingly kind, so it really was a favor to kill her."

"Oh?" she squeaked.

"Its rather strange. You look startlingly like her…" he mused.

"Really? Do I? how strange!" she said, barely controlling herself. She could feel the terror creeping slowly down her spine. I must keep in control, she thought to herself. Otherwise this-this monster will kill me!

"You are taking this marvelously, you know," he said. "The last person I told tried to run. A foolish thing, really."

"Hmm. Funny story, you know," she said, shifting her other heel off her foot. "Because, you would never guess what I found in your daughters room last evening. It was the strangest thing. It was a letter saying that you had her killed. It said some other things, but I'm not going to talk about that already, because you probably already know, don't you? But it does seem a bit rude, you know."

The mans face became confused. "What? But you slept in the room of my other daughter. She ran away around 20 years ago!" the vampire looked at her. "How old are you? 19? And your mother? How is she?"

"What? Why does it matter?"

"I had been prepared to kill you, but that doesn't apply anymore, because of your-"

She launched across the table and shoved the stilettos into either sides of his chest, because she couldn't remember which side the heart was on, and another stake couldn't hurt, anyway.Right? With a groan, he toppled over, the look of surprise evident on his face. She looked around and shoved him into the fire. The servant entered, looking startled. He saw the blood on her face and hands, and a small smile escaped his lips before he ran off.

The girl paced. She was in shock, she knew, and wanted something to distract herself that she had just killed something. She said out loud, "Ok. What do I do? He knew something about Mom. I know he did!" she ran back to the doors of the castle and bolted them.

It was two hours later. The girl, panting heavily, put a box on the table. Opening it, she pulled out a letter and two pictures. They both looked like ones in her photo album at home, one of her and one of her mother. She was shocked, but pushed them aside as she read the letter.

Father,

I'm not going to tell you where I am, but I will tell you this. i have a daughter. She is young and beautiful, but she will stay human. Even if I die, nothing will happen to her. Do you understand? There is no way that you will interfere with her! She has a human father who is my husband. You stay away from both of them. Do not kill more of your family. Was my sister not enough? My daughter is more human that vampire, and she will remain so. I have arranged that when I die, the news will be brought to you. Please, for my sake, stay away from her.

Love,

Your daughter.

It was in the same handwriting as the other letter had been. Her mothers handwriting, spiky and barely legible. The girl wondered why she had not recognized it before. She tossed it aside, having already memorized the words. There were pictures of people that looked somewhat like her, but weren't. She tossed them aside as the small little burn of anger inside roared into the fire of rage as she saw a cell phone, a fantasy book, a passport, and a backpack carrying the various articles of clothing including a warm coat. In other words, the things that had been stolen from her were at the bottom of the box. She grabbed her backpack, pulled her cell phone out, and dialed her mother's number.

"Hello?" a pleasant voice rang out.

"Mom, have you got some explaining to do."

THE END