It´s not easy being a vampire

Written by P. Wrzecz

Chapter one

BREAKFAST AT MIDNIGHT

These days, Danny is just like any other boy, but not so long ago he and his family were… vampires!

Vampires are strange creatures, they sleep all day and come out at night! The light of the sun is said to kill them … at least that´s what Danny´s parents had told him.

So poor Danny didn´t have any friends and felt very lonely. All he wanted to do was meet other children.

One evening he decided to talk to his parents about his problem.

He said, I´m fed up being on my own all the time. I want to play, mess about and have some fun.”

“Don´t like silly, Danny,” replied Mr. Drack. “It´s time for breakfast. It´s nearly midnight!”

But Danny insisted. ” I want to go to school! I want to make friends with other children!”

His mother got cross with him. “Don´t be silly! Vampire children don´t go to school!

And whoever heard of vampires and ordinary people being friends?”

Danny went into a sulk.

Mrs Drake brought him a big bowl of yummy blood –which is what vampires like to eat!

Danny made a face.” Yuck! I can´t stand blood!”

“You never like anything, Danny!” said Mrs Drack. “When you were a baby, everything you ate made you sick. I tried all sorts of things –snails´ tails with lentils, braised bats´ wings, worms on toast… Now all you eat is those grilled toads´ eyes I brought home the other day.

Well, I´m afraid there aren´t any left today.” “I´m not hungry!” said Danny.

The thing was that one night, Mrs. Drack had brought home a packet of cornflakes by mistake. She thought they were grilled toads´ eyes! Danny had gobbled them all up.

He wished he could eat cornflakes every day.

By the time midnight came around, Danny still hadn´t had anything to eat.

Mr Drack got annoyed. “A vampire simply has to drink blood if he wants to look terrifying!”

As he spoke, Mr Drack´s sharp, pointed teeth flashed in the dark. But Danny wasn’t a tiny bit interested in frightening people. In fact, every day he hid from his parents to file down his own pointed teeth.

He said. “It´s no fun being all pale and skinny. I want to be big and strong with pink cheeks, just like normal boys.

Mr Drack swallowed his curdled blood in three big gulps.” Drink up quickly, Danny,” he ordered. “It´s time to go out and start getting busy. Ha! Ha!”

In the end, Mr and Mrs Drack went out.

They left Danny alone in the gloomy old house which was falling to bits. Tiles were slipping off the roof, the doors creaked on their hinges and there was dust and cobwebs everywhere.

Danny hurried up to his room to play with his pet bats, Zig-Zag and Snap. They were the only friends he had. But he was so bored that he soon fell fast asleep.

Danny had never fallen asleep in the middle of the night before. This was the first time it had ever happened.

Chapter two

A DAZZLING SIGHT

The sun was shining through Danny´s window when he woke up. He knew immediately that he was in great danger. Daylight is a vampire´s worst enemy. It will kill him in three seconds flat! Danny shut his eyes tightly and tried to go back to sleep.

It was impossible – he just wasn´t sleepy.

Danny lay thinking for a few minutes. Then he got out of bed and slowly went over to the window. He was shaking from head to foot. He said to himself softly, “I hope I´m not going to turn into a pile of dust or a pool of green slime!”

He lifted the curtain carefully and looked out…nothing happened!

He looked at his hands, he touched his clothes, he felt his hair –everything was exactly the same as before.

Danny gazed out over the garden and was dazzled by the bright sunlight. Up to now, he had only ever seen things by the light of the moon. The huge ball of fire that hung high up in the sky was a thousand times brighter!

Danny tiptoed down the steps that led to the garden. His heart was beating very fast. He knew he was making a big mistake…

As he reached the gate, Danny heard voices in the street. He opened the gate. Three children were playing leapfrog in the square opposite the house.

Danny had never heard anyone laughing so loudly before. They were all wearing brightly coloured shirts and Danny wished he could swop his ugly black cape for one of them.

Suddenly Danny spun round. A young boy was standing right next to him. It was the first time he had seem a human being so close!

The boy spoke to him. “Hallo! How long have you been living here? I didn´t think anyone lived in this old ruin.”

“Ehmm… I haven´t been living here long,” stammered Danny.

The boy replied with a little smile. “I hope your dad knows a bit about D.I.Y. It can´t be much fun fixing up an old place like that.

People say it´s haunted, you know.” “It´s not haunted,” said Danny.

“There are only vampires.”

The boy started to laugh. “You are funny! What´s your name? Mine´s Tony.”

Danny was glad that someone seemed to be interested in him. “I´m Danny,” he replied. He couldn´t help asking, “Do you go to school? “ “Of course I do!” said Tony. He looked at Danny with surprise. “But it´s the holidays now… No school, yippee!” Tony laughed again, “Where´ve you been hiding, then?”

Danny didn´t know what to say. He felt more lonely than ever. “Oh! And… and … I suppose you´ve got lots of friends?” he said.

“Of course I have,” said Tony. “We all live around here. Come and play with us.

It can´t be much fun being on your own.”

Danny couldn´t believe his ears.

Then Tony looked at his watch. ”Help!” he said. “It´s nearly lunch time and my mum will be waiting for me. I´ll be back later on this afternoon. You can meet my friends then. See you!” And off he ran.

Chapter Three

A DAY IN THE PARK

Danny went home. His parents were still fast asleep. He played in his room for a while. Then he went back outside.

Should he tell Tony that he was a vampire? Would his new friend believe him or not?

Worse still, would he be scared and run away? Suddenly there was a knock on the gate. It was Tony.

Danny ran out to meet him. He was ready to follow his new friend anywhere. Tony took Danny to the park where there were lots of other children.

Danny joined in with them –messing about in the sandpit, climbing trees and chasing each other. He couldn´t believe how much fun this was… much better than being a boring old vampire and only coming out at night!

The day passed very quickly and it was eight o´clock in the evening before Danny got back home. He slipped into his bed without making any noise.

Then, just two hours later, his mum came in to wake him up! He had to get up and go out with his parents for the rest of the night.

The next morning, as soon as his mum and dad were safely tucked up in the bed, Danny rushed off to join Tony and the other children.

Things carried on like this for three weeks. Danny was hardly getting any sleep.

Mrs Drack started getting worried. “Are you feeling ill, Danny? I can never seem to wake you at night. I´m sending for Doctor Fangs.”

Doctor Fangs was the family doctor.

When he arrived, Danny was fast asleep. Mrs Drake said, “I hope you can find out what the matter is, Doctor. Danny looks awful … his cheeks are pink and he has a healthy glow!”

Doctor Fangs examined Danny from head to toe and announced that the only reason the little vampire was tired was because he was still growing. Danny didn´t argue with him.

Doctor Fangs left some pills made from red meat- Eeuh!-and some extra-specially thick blood syrup-Yuck!

The doctor also ordered Danny to stay in bed for a whole week. What good luck! For a whole week Danny would be able to sleep at night!

The very next morning he got out of bed without his parents knowing…

Chapter Four

THE SECRET

One morning, Danny was sleeping soundly when he woke up with a jump. Someone was shouting outside in the corridor.

It was Danny´s friend Tony, staggering backwards out of the Dracks´ bedroom.

His eyes were fixed on Danny´s parents who were fast asleep in their coffins.

Tony was trembling all over. “Wh… What on earth is that?” He spluttered.

“That´s my mum and dad,” replied Danny.

“They´re sleeping.” Tony gave Danny a strange look.” In coffins? In the middle of the afternoon?”

Danny felt embarrassed. How was he going to convince Tony that everything was normal? “Come into my room and I´ll explain,” he said.

Once the two boys were in Danny´s room, Tony looked carefully in every corner.

“So you don´t sleep in a coffin then?” he asked his friend.

Danny felt very uncomfortable. “You know, my mum and dad are a bit unusual. They think sleeping in a coffin is a bit of a laugh…

But I´m not like them. I wouldn´t want to sleep in a coffin! I like a normal bed.”

At that moment Zig-Zag and Snap, Danny´s pet bats, swooped down from the top of the cupboard.

Tony screamed. Then he turned serious. “Listen Danny, if we´re going to be friends, you´re going to have to tell me exactly what´s going on here!”

Danny took a deep breath and finally admitted to Tony that both he and his parents were vampires…

“That´s brilliant!” said Tony. “I´d love to be a vampire!”

Danny shrugged his shoulders. “It´s not easy being a vampire, you know,” he sighed.

“You´re always on your own, you don´t go to school and you never have ice-cream, or chocolate cake.”

Tony nodded. “Yes, I suppose it can´t be much fun. Well you can count on me if you need anything-and don´t worry, I know how to keep a secret!”

Chapter Five

PANIC IN THE HOUSE

From that day on, Danny and Tony were the best of friends. Every day they went to the park and played football with their friends.

Danny often felt a bit tired. But he didn´t care, he was having too much fun. He really loved his new life!

Then one night, Danny´s mum went into his room to tidy up. She picked up a pair of trousers that he´d thrown on the floor.

A rubber, some marbles and half a lollipop fell out of his pockets.

Mrs Drack stood quite still in the middle of the room. “What´s all this? Where did you get these things?”

Danny jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom to hide.

Mrs Drack called out to her husband.” Henry, come quickly. Our son´s gone quite mad!”

Mr Drack hurried upstairs grumbling. When his wife told him what had happened he knocked on the bathroom door. “Danny! Come out of there and explain yourself.”

“NO!” shouted Danny.

“What do you mean, no?” roared Mr Drack. Danny´s mum and dad were shocked.

Their son had never answered back before. Mrs Drack called out in a gentle voice, “Danny, what´s been going on? Come out of the bathroom. We won´t eat you?”

But Danny had made up his mind. He wasn´t going to come out and nothing was going to change that.

An hour later, Danny heard Doctor Fang´s voice outside the door.” Your parents have gone downstairs. You can tell me everything. Don´t be frightened.”

Danny felt safe with the doctor. He explained that he preferred cornflakes to curdled blood.

He told him about his new friend Tony and how they spent all day playing football…

Doctor Fang was speechless.

Finally the doctor pulled himself together. He spluttered, “I´d b-b-b-better g-g-g-go and talk to your parents. Don´t move an inch!”

The doctor went downstairs and Danny could hear him whispering.

Suddenly there was a scream, followed by a crash that made Danny jump. It was his mother, she had fainted.

Danny heard the doctor calling, “Come on, Henry, help your wife up!”

The three of them started whispering again and after about a quarter of an hour the doctor came back upstairs.

He said, “I´ve spoken to your parents, Danny. They´re very, very shocked, but they won´t punish you if you promise to behave.”

That´s when Danny lost it. “I´m fed up being a vampire!” he shouted. “I want to live like my friend Tony and I won´t come out until I can. So there!”

Doctor Fang shook his head and returned to the Dracks. “I think it would be better to leave him alone until he calms down. Don´t worry, he´ll come out soon enough.”

Chapter six

THE BIG CHANGE

Danny spent the next six nights sleeping in the bathroom. He came out of hiding each morning while his parents were asleep and went out to play with Tony. Each evening he returned to his hiding place with a box of cornflakes to munch on.

Danny´s parents became more and more anxious as time went by. They hadn´t seen their son for almost a week! It was time to call out Doctor Fang again.

This time the doctor brought a famous vampire specialist with him. The specialist turned to Mr and Mrs Drack and said, “Doctor Fang has explained the case to me and I´m afraid I can´t cure your son. It´s far too late for that now… There may have been a chance when he was a baby, but not now…”

There was a long silence. Then the vampire specialist added, “There is only one solution…Both of you must change how you live too!

Believe me, being a vampire is nothing like as popular as it used to be!”

Mr and Mrs Drack were in a state of shock at this terrible news.

The famous specialist wrote out a long list of pills and medicines. He explained that if they followed his advice they would be normal human beings in just a few weeks.

When he heard the news, Danny jumped for joy and came out of the bathroom.

Things were difficult to start with Mr Drack was quite miserable and he wouldn´t take his pills unless they were covered with tomato ketchup.

At last, the medicines started to work. Danny persuaded his dad to grow a moustache so that his pointed teeth wouldn´t show so much.

Mrs Drake cleaned the house from top to bottom. She moved Zig-Zag and Snap to the attic- which suited them very well.

Soon, the Drack´s house was one of the nicest in the area. Danny´s mother spent most of her day in the garden. The sun was still a bit bright for her eyes thought, so she always wore dark glasses!

One night, Danny´s mum and dad invited Tony´s mum and dad round for a dinner party.

Danny´s father did the cooking. The meat was a bit raw, but that didn´t stop Tony and Danny´s parents from becoming good friends.

As for Danny, he started going to school.

It wasn´t as much fun as he´d imagined, but at least he was in the same class as Tony!

The End