"Fade to Black 9" by Tansy A. H. Pye

Scene 9
Evidence and Incriminations.

The vampire, waves her note at at her, then folds it and puts it into the book. “You rang?”

“Shhh! Mum hasn’t gone to bed yet.” Chris closes her door and leans on it.

“What do you want?” He whispers “Your note wasn’t very specific.”

“I’m in trouble.”

“You were in trouble yesterday, why contact me today?”

“The police are going to search the school for clues.”

“They won’t find anything there... Will they?” Christie sits down on her bed.

“Marcia’s trainer is in my locker.”

“What?... How?”

“I thought you put it there. When I thought you killed them.” The Vampire stands up and puts the book carefully back on the shelf, her note still inside it.

“But now you don’t.”

“I don’t know anymore, but I do know that if the police search my locker, I’m going to be blamed for the murders.” They pause. The vampire seems to ponder the situation, finally he says;

“It’s worse than you think.” Which is the last thing Christie expected.

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it. If it is not me committing these crimes then who is it? Who else knows the film and your substitutions?” Christie falls back and looks at her ceiling for clues, she has done all her crying, she is even too tired to be scared anymore. Somewhere deep inside she is surprised at how calm she is being. The she remembers what she is supposed to be thinking about and she begins quietly to panic again.

“Apart from you. Let me think. Um... My Dad, Danny now I guess, Me obviously... No one else.”

“What about your Mum?”

“No. We never talk about stuff like that.”

“Okay, who’s Danny and where’s your Dad?”

“My Dad works on an Oil rig. Danny is my... Boyfriend I guess, or at least he was.” Christie flushes a deep red. “But I don’t think he knew about everything till after the first murder. It couldn’t be him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Right we need to go get him. You can trust him. Probably more than you can trust me.” Christie frowns. “I’m sorry, but although I think I can be sure of my whereabouts during the murders and I have no recollection of having committed them. I am still potentially a figment of your imagination and certainly was only brought into existence by your desire to see these kids dead. I may have no control of my actions. At first, I did think - hope I suppose - that maybe, I was this actor and somehow I was also a vampire the whole time. But..” He reaches over, pulls the book he had been reading off the shelf and hands it to Christie. She looks at him. “Check the page I’ve marked.” She does so. The book had been marked at the page that gave the biography of the Vampire’s Actor. It was covered with pictures of the actor in previous movies, on the beach, hanging off a cliff, in a cowboy outfit. All of them in bright broad daylight. At the bottom of the page in bold print it said, ‘Currently making his new blockbuster movie ‘Saving The Dream’ next to it there is a picture of the actor grinning wearing some kind of uniform.

“Saving the Dream?” She mumbles. The vampire has his back to her, his head is lowered.

“It’s a baseball movie. I have to face it Christie, and so do you. I don’t exist. Not in any real sense of the word. And if I don’t exist, then one way or another, maybe it is you who is killing those kids, or it’s someone you know.” Tears well up in Christie's eyes, but she is too shocked by what the vampire has just revealed.

“Then you wont help me?” Her voice trembles.

“I didn’t say that.” The Vampire turns round to face her. “Who am I to judge you? What should it matter to me if you are a killer? I’m a vampire! But you need to be aware, you cannot trust me. I cannot trust myself. That’s why we need to get this Danny. We need someone neutral to bear witness to us. To watch us, we cannot be trusted to watch each other, we are too linked.”

“We can’t get Danny... He left. He doesn’t want anything to do with this.”

“All the more reason why he is an excellent witness. Do you know where he lives?” Christie shakes her head. “Okay well that information should be at the school in the records and we’re going there anyway.”

“We?” Chris looks at him. He smiles.

“Did you think I was going to do this alone. I don’t know your school, I don’t know where your locker is, besides, if there is going to be another murder tonight, I’d feel happier to know where you were and that you could see me.”

“Fine. Let me get my jacket, and locker keys, I’ll meet you outside.”

“And risk your Mum seeing you and asking where you are going? I think we’d be safer if we used the window again.” She grabs her jacket and keys, as an afterthought she empties the rubbish out of the bin in the corner and shoves it into her pocket.

Christie's second flight was no less terrifying than her first, but she had to admit, it saved awkward questions and was a lot faster than walking. The school looked strange and sinister in the dark. They landed in the playground and looked in the door closest to her locker. They talked in whispers.

“There’s bound to be an alarm, we’ll set it off.” Christie murmured.

“Then we’ll have to be fast.”

“We’ll never get Danny’s records in time.” Christie was feeling that all was lost again. Fear was turning into despair.

“Fair enough. Lets concentrate on one problem at a time shall we.” The vampire was examining the door closely. “Doesn’t look too difficult.” Watching the vampire examine the door, something was beginning to dawn on Christie.

“You have no idea what you are doing, do you.” She says at last.

“In case you have forgotten I have a rather limited knowledge of anything at all. But I’m getting better at admitting my shortcomings and having a go.” Christie felt ashamed of herself. Worrying about her own problems, she had forgotten the vampire’s predicament. He really had no better an idea of what to do than she did and really no reason to be here at all.

“I’m sorry.” She said finally. The vampire was still studying the door, checking it’s lock, it’s hinges, even the windows either side.. He looked over at her.

“For what?”

“For getting you into this, for bringing you here, for creating you at all. I don’t know. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry.” The vampire stopped looking at the door, walked over to her, took her by her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes.

“Firstly. If it wasn’t for you I would have no existence at all, just a stupid character in a bad movie. As difficult for me as all of this is, I wouldn’t give it up and go back to what I was. If indeed I had an existence at all before you. Secondly, You are not the first person who has ever really wanted someone dead or for someone to step out of the movies for that matter. You cannot be held accountable for this sort of extreme circumstances. We both have to play the hand that has been dealt us. Thirdly, we don’t have time for this, we have a job to do here.” He turns back to the door, Christie dries her tears on her sleeve and wanders over to see if she could help. “ This should do it.” He says as she reahes him. The vampire lands a hard kick on the doors they exploded inwards with an almost deafening crash, instantly setting off the alarm. Christie yelps, surprised.

“What did you do that for?” She yells over the din of the alarm.

“Couldn’t think of another way. Which one is your locker?” He shouts back. Christie runs over to her locker door, fumbles the key out of her pocket and into the lock. The trainer is still on the top shelf. The rest of the locker is devoted to the Vampire. Posters, magazines, books all devoted to that film. Christie gets the black plastic bag out of her pocket and empties everything except her workbooks into it. The vampire keeps watch.“Guards! Hurry!” He shouts and rushes out of the building. Christie slams the locker door closed, grabs her keys and the bag and dashes out of the doors right behind him.

As soon as she is clear of the building, the vampire lifts her up and they fly on to the roof. He holds her close as soon as they land and leans his head close to her neck. She can feel his chill breath on her throat. She stiffens, the hairs on her neck rising. Softly and directly into her ear so as to be heard over the alarm he speaks to her.“We still need Danny’s records. Where will they be?” He releases her so that she can turn and speak to him in the same way. She gasps. She had been holding her breath she realises. As she leans in close to him. She is for the first time truly aware that he is not alive. There is no warmth from him, no movement except when he wills it. No odour. None of the little signals and signs that you don't even notice in other people. She tries to speak, but her voice catches and she can only force a whisper. His ear blurs and changes subtly, becoming more pointed and curved like a bats in order to hear her.

“In the office.” She points in it’s direction, if he has noticed her change towards him, he gives no sign, they walk over the rooftops till they are over the office. The security staff below them have been joined by the police. As yet they have not thought to check the roofs. The office as luck would have it had a skylight which the vampire is able to rip open without making too much noise or setting of any further alarms that they can hear. He lowers Christie into the room and jumps down after her.

“You check the filing cabinets, he’s in the fifth year. I’ll look on the computer. Hurry.” Christie has regained enough composure at least to realise that they had better be quick and that the vampire would not know the first thing about the computer. She turns it on and curses how long it takes to start up. Meanwhile the vampire has broken open the filing cabinet. Suddenly they both hear keys jangling in the lock. The vampire grabs a handful of files in one hand and Christie in the other and leaps through the skylight. He throws all the papers into the black plastic bag and flies them off the roof. The added weight soon proves too much for even his supernatural flight however and he is forced to land near the swings.

“We’ll have to hide the black bag here somewhere. I’ll take you home then come back for it.” They look around for a suitable hiding place. Over the sound of the school alarm they are both startled by a loud rustling from the trees on the edge of the field. They both freeze. There is no obvious cause for the noise. The vampire motions her to stay by the swings and goes over to check it out. She soon loses sight of him in the dark as he walks into the tree line.The alarm in the school stops suddenly.

There is a moment of complete silence.

Christie shivers, she is alone in a cold dark field in the middle of the night with a bag of incriminating evidence by her feet. Waiting for a vampire. If she wasn’t so afraid, she thinks thiswould be absurd. She continues to watch the tree line.

Suddenly a large black dog bursts out of the trees it looks directly at Christie, the lights from the school path behind her making its eyes appear to glow eerily orange. Christie squeals and jumps, stepping backwards she trips over the black bag and falls to the floor. As she turns to get to her feet she notices something odd. It appears as though a glove has caught on the end of the slide and is flapping in the breeze. She sits up, still looking at the odd glove.

No. On closer inspection she realises. It’s not a glove. It’s a hand. And it’s not flapping it’s twitching.