In the House of the Sickly Lady

MORNING OF AUGUST 26, 2008

I was driving in the middle of the night on a fairly desolate, winding road. I had a video camera in the car, and I was vaguely aware of being on assignment for my job to go get some footage of something.

I came up to a small, solitary church at the top of a hill. I got out of my car and looked around. I specifically remember staring at the moon, which was extremely bright in its fullness. It was a beautiful, clear night, but eerie in it's emptiness.

There was a garage on the side of the church, and it was obvious there was some life in there, so I knocked on the door. A crotchety older man in dirty mechanic's coveralls answered me. I told him I was here to get some footage. He was reluctant to give me entrance, but he let me step in the doorway and told me to wait while he "went and checked on something". He disappeared through a door in the back of the room.

Moments later, a woman emerged from the door. She looked to be about 40, and she was alarmingly frail and sickly in appearance. Her complexion was pale to the point of looking gray, her shortish hair was stringy and limp, and her eyes had dark, sad bags beneath them. She wore an old tank top and flannel sleep pants. There was a trace about her of someone who was once pretty, before whatever happened to bring her to her current state.

The woman led me into her home, which was located behind the mechanic's garage I had first entered through. It looked very old, with wood panel walls and shag carpets being among the decor. The place was a general mess.

The woman's demeanor was as depressing as her appearance, and she just kept telling me she was glad I had come. She didn't get visitors. Not since..."the sickness", whatever it was. Everything about the situation I now found myself in seemed wrong. I knew I needed to get out of there at once.

I began making excuses as to why I needed to leave, but the lady told me I could not, or at least not so soon. I protested as politely as I could, but she wouldn't hear it. She implored me to at least meet her dog first. She opened her back door and a large black lab bounded in. It happily jumped up on me, tail wagging and tongue licking wildly. The dog's gentle and friendly nature did much to ease my nerves, but I still didn't want to be in the place.

The lady excused herself for a moment and left me with the dog. I thought this was my chance to escape, so I made for the back door. The dog blocked my way. No matter how I tried to reach the door, the dog always positioned itself to block me...though its tell kept wagging and it seemed to still be happy. I didn't want to make for the door too forcefully for fear of arousing aggression in the animal.

Suddenly the TV set (an older model) clicked on behind me. I turned to see the woman on the screen. She began reminding me that she told me I couldn't leave. As she spoke, the dog growled lowly beside me. I can't remember all of the woman's speech, but she just kept going on an on, with increasing frustration, about all her reasons why I had to stay.

Suddenly, her eyes went totally black, and her jaws seemed to unhinge as her mouth flung open into an impossibly wide scream. The dog began viciously barking. In my state of abject horror I saw that the woman's canine teeth were long fangs. A vampire.

I immediately woke up with my heart pounding so hard I thought I could feel every vein in my body.

Later, after going back to sleep, I remember a brief dream of being in a grocery store with Richard. I saw a magazine on the rack and the vampire woman (in her normal, sickly state) was on the cover. I thought for a moment, "I thought that was just a dream..." but for some reason her appearance here didn't really alarm me.