Silver Banned: Book 2 of the Saddleworth Vampire Series Page 2

  ‘No!’ cried Brenda.

  ‘Yes. This is all we think is left of the band. We had to hide out overnight in the bandroom. The next day we tried to make it out over towards Manchester but they had put a bus in the way and the drifts had made it impossible to get either side of it. We walked over to the viaduct. Guess what, they had done the same there. When we walked back to the centre of the village, Michael Thompson was standing there in broad daylight obviously not one of them. Git!’ Freddie shook his head. The thought was still very bitter to him.

  ‘I think he is infected like me.’ Liz said. ‘You see, he was the committee member that went with the ten-piece on Bonfire Night.’

  ‘He told us in no uncertain terms that they were going to kill us off that night, so we had a quick bite in the pub and decided to try and make it over here. We picked up some camping stuff, so to speak, and hiked up onto the tops. It was dark by then but luckily we had a bolt hole. We went into a little den that Bob uses and camped there for the night.’ Freddie took another sip of his tea.

  ‘A whole night and day in the Melden Triangle! We were protected though, I made sure of that.’ Wee Renee said, looking towards the heavens. Gary cleared his throat.

  ‘I will let you all into our secret now. Me and Wee Renee heard the wolves in the middle of the night.’ Gary said quietly. ‘I didn't want to tell you before in case we needed to spend another night there.’

  ‘So what's this about these wolves then?’ Asked Brenda. ‘What to do you know about them?’

  ‘Well between either them or the vampires they destroyed a whole flock of sheep at the farm on the tops, because the farmer heard the wolves howling from his bedroom at night. The next day, they were just bits and pieces of blood and wool. He had his head in his hands when we saw him in the pub. Devastated. The police won't do anything about it, because the two policemen are now vampires too! We needed to come here to find help. The last thing we thought was that we would be walking into more trouble.’ Gary laughed at the end. ‘Oh the irony.’

  Brenda held her cup in the same position still, her mouth open. She turned to Liz.

  ‘So you are in fact infected with vampire blood?’ She asked her.

  ‘Yes, I have been poorly but don't worry about me biting you or anything. It’s not like that. I feel slightly better each day. I have had to come most of the way here on the sledge,’ Liz answered. Brenda now turned her head to Freddie.

  ‘And Maurice and the Cooper’s and the rest of the band are vampires and are roaming around our village killing people?’ She asked Freddie.

  ‘Yes.’ he said. ‘I can’t be sure that Maurice is a killer though. But other people and loads of kids were. Which is very scary indeed, when you clap eyes on them.’

  ‘We don't know who is dead and who is alive. in the village. Or who is living on human blood, because some have been eating dog’s and cat’s as well.’ Wee Renee said.

  ‘I was really scared for my three kitty’s.’ Sue said, taking hold of Tony’s hand.

  Brenda put her cup down finally, placing both hands on her knees and looked around the group waiting to see what reaction she would get with her next question.

  ‘Tell me this doesn't mean, what I think it means. That my sister Doris, is a vampire lying in her bed upstairs?’

  ‘From what you have said,’ said Gary, ‘it sounds like she could be, I am sorry to say. Or something like it. As much as Liz is anyway. But we can't be sure until we hear her story and know all the facts. We need to know what happened at, and after the party she went to. Tell us about her.’

  ‘She’s fast asleep right now and I am glad that she is. Yes, she certainly has been unwell and does not want the curtains open.’ Brenda gave a half-shrug, ‘which I suppose is a bad sign. But definitely she has had no other visitors, only family. And we are all wandering around in the daytime, so none of the family can be one. Her windows are shut because it is so cold, so one of them hasn’t floated in and got to her. Or would that be a bat? Plus she hasn't tried to bite me, which is a good sign.’

  The others nodded as they ate and drank. For a while they sat in reflection of the past, and uncertainty of the future.

  Norman had asked Michael to attend to a couple of the vampire’s injuries from the previous night’s battle. Kate, Keith, Norman and a few of the other vampires looked on. After all, it was something to do of an evening.

  Colin wandered droopily up to him. He seemed very unhappy about the drumstick that was protruding out of his chest. None of the vampires would help him out by giving a yank.

  ‘Why can’t you do this yourself?’ Michael asked.

  ‘It burns me when I touch it!’

  ‘Hmm…..it burns but it hasn’t killed you! Very interesting.’ Michael grasped hold of it, giving it a gentle tug. The stick came out, with barely any resistance. It reminded Michael of taking the teaspoon out of a sugar bowl.

  ‘If you had jiggled yourself forward, this baby would have dropped out on its own!’ Michael looked at the stick. Three-quarters of it was a stained dark green now. He examined where the stick had been. He blew the residual powder off Colin’s chest and out of the hole, like blowing chalk off a snooker cue. ‘Looks clear now. You’re done,’ he advised him. ‘You were lucky Colin. If this hadn’t been cheap muck, you would be dead by now.’

  Colin didn’t seem that cheered by the notion. He got up and proceeded to meander round the room, trying to look in the hole that the stick had left.

  Next on Michael’s list was Vincent, who wasn’t feeling unwell but was looking very unsightly. A tuba mouthpiece had become firmly wedged in his eye socket and out of the wide end, a black fluid ran lazily out and down his face.

  ‘Does it hurt?’ Asked Michael, wrinkling his nose in obvious disgust.

  ‘No. But I don’t like the look of it. I want it out.’

  ‘Yeah, I get that. This reminds of when I stood on a plug. I fell backwards once and my mother had just unplugged the iron and it was on the floor. One of the prongs went straight in through one side and out the other. But you know I have very soft feet, Kate. Maybe if I had grown layers of hard skin, I would have been alright.’ The rest of the room said nothing, so he thought he might as well get on with it. He rolled his sleeves up, turning to The Master.

  ‘What tools have you got?’

  ‘Nothing!’

  ‘You must have something. A screwdriver, pliers, a block and tackle?’

  ‘I don’t have common tools here. I always pay someone to do my work.’

  ‘Great. What am I supposed to use then?’ Michael glanced over to Kate who was sitting on a table, swinging her legs. He raised his eyebrows at her. She sighed getting off the table to go and look for something useful.

  ‘Something metal.’ Michael shouted. He turned back to Vincent.

  ‘The problem is mate that since last night, it looks like the skin has puffed up around it. It’s become a bit absorbed into your face. I can hardly see any of the lip part anymore. It looks pretty deep set as well.’

  ‘I don’t like it.’

  ‘Yeah, you’ve said that before. What if I get it out and it is the only thing keeping your brain in. You won’t thank me then, will you.’

  Vincent said nothing and continued to sit there. Michael heard Kate’s footsteps getting closer and she appeared, holding something in her hands. She slapped the object into his hands, walked off and sat back on the table, to continue to watch the fun.

  Michael looked down at his operating tools. Kate had bought him a silver ladle, which was still in the house from Bonfire Night.

  ‘Are you serious?’ He asked.

  ‘It’s that or nothing.’ She replied flatly.

  He examined the ladle and decided that the flat handle would be better than the bowl end.

  ‘Brace yourself.’ He advised Vincent, who grasped hold of the arms of the wooden dining chair, firmly. Michael put the end of the ladle by the mouthpiece edge. He wiggled it under the soft white skin around Vinc
ent’s eye. It smelled like soil or mushrooms. Probably best not to bring that up, as they all smelled the same in that room, apart from him.

  ‘Alright, tell me if it hurts.’ He started to angle the handle so that it would prise out the mouthpiece. He increased the pressure and could feel the suction of Vincent’s eye socket resisting him. It seemed to like this mouthpiece in it. He decided to really go for it and pushed back even further. The waxy skin above the mouthpiece split, opening Vincent’s eyebrow a little. However, it did not bleed. Michael thought it looked infected or dead. He applied a little more pressure. Just when he thought it was coming, the ladle flipped back, away from the mouthpiece. Vincent’s eye socket seemed to gently suck it back in place. Michael looked at the ladle. The handle end was now firmly bent at the tip.

  ‘It’s not happening mate.’

  ‘What am I going to do? I don’t like it.’ Vincent said again. Michael stroked his chin weighing up his options.

  ‘You could wear black sunglasses. No one would be able to tell.’

  ‘Well what about the issue from it?’

  ‘Ah yes. That would run out from under the lens. You could shove a rubber bung in it.’

  ‘Do you have one?’

  ‘No…… Oooh, I know. Stuff a load of toilet paper in it and wear an eyepatch. Jobs a good ‘un. Next!’

  Stephen walked up and sat in the doctor’s chair.

  ‘You have been burnt Stephen.’ Michael said.

  ‘Tell me something I don’t know. How can you help?’

  ‘You know before you were turned, do you remember that?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Do you ever remember me being a Doctor or even a Vet?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘So why do you think I can do something about burns, especially on a vampire.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Stephen looked downhearted. ‘But you’ve helped the others.’

  ‘Not much,’ Michael said under his breath.

  He looked at him for a long time. Half his face was black dry and puckered. It looked like he must have closed his eye as he burned. It stared out at Michael. Red and sore out of an ashy, baked slit, that used to be an eyelid.

  ‘I don’t suppose you have any salve for burns, Master?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Butter?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well I am at a loss, what do you suggest.’

  ‘I think fresh blood, drunk and applied to the area.’ Norman said.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Michael said. ‘There. Rise, you are now healed.’

  ‘Just as I start to get women, this happens. Now they will never look at me long enough for me to hypnotise them.’

  ‘Maybe you could learn to do it with one eye, keep this side of you away from them. Anyway, The Master’s solution may work. Luckily you can only go out in the dark, so they won’t see much of you as it is. Next!’

  2 – May

  Excerpt from Anne’s Diary

  31st May

  I loved living in Lutry. Our beautiful Vineyard’s – feasting on migrant workers, whenever we liked. Tastes from all over the world. How many years have we had the perfect set-up? I cannot truly remember.

  Len says we have been rumbled and blames me for not cleaning up after my last meal. Why me? He doesn’t know for sure!

  He has a plan now to move to England and we will have to scorch this place before the locals find out what had really been going on.

  I liked Switzerland. Sleepy. Everything shut at night gave me plenty of space to roam. It was right that in the spirit of neutrality, everyone kept themselves to themselves, so we had no visitors disturbing us.

  For a place with such money the illegal migrant workforce was in abundance. All of them amazingly different in taste and texture! They were so eager to keep themselves off the official radar, which was right up our alley. We only had to hire two foremen to cover the work whilst we slept. Very economical!

  And now it’s going to be bloody England. What’s worse Manchester! Wet, wet and wet! All because Len likes to play on the canals, with his many boyfriends. I think I would rather go back to the peat bogs of Ireland. He has been coming to this northern area, on and off since the 1980’s. In fact that is where he found his three best friends. So I have a feeling they are behind all this. They want to get home. To watch over their kin. To be in their natural lands. Len is constantly waxing lyrical about the North of England. I don’t get it. Everyone tastes the same. Or they did when I was last there, about two hundred years ago. Boring!

  So much to do, so little time. Especially important is to find somewhere for my furry babies to stay, until it is safe for them to come live with me.

  3 – Owl

  It was at this time that Our Doris’s dog wandered in. After finishing his dinner, he looked like he had had a big drink of water, from the dripping fur around his mouth. He burped loudly and Brenda turned to him.

  ‘Here he is. The Lord and Master. This everyone is Haggis. He is a messy little hound, but he is the apple of Our Doris’s eye, so don’t moan about him.’

  ‘Come here lad,’ said Bob and rubbed his two hands together towards the dog. Haggis bounded towards him and Bob hugged him. ‘You are a good boy aren’t you.’ He rubbed him vigorously. Haggis burped again.

  ‘Better out than in.’ Gary remarked.

  ‘So it's about time I got you lot settled in,’ said Brenda. She thought for a moment then said ‘Our Doris is in one room. Me and Freddie will take the box room, if that's alright. That leaves the two other big bedrooms. One for the girls and one for the boys. If that is okay with everyone. That is probably the best we can do for the moment. Our Doris has plenty of pillows and blankets so we should all be sorted with that, at least.’

  Wee Renee and Pat offered to help. Sue and Laura automatically got up too. They followed Brenda upstairs and into one of the rooms. This was the box room where Brenda and Freddie would be staying. Inside the wardrobe were blankets, quilts and pillows. They were lovely and smelled fresh. The women shared them out equally between the two bedrooms for males and females. With the pillows that were already in the rooms, and the ones they added, there was at least one for everyone.

  Freddie was downstairs chatting with the other men. They could hear him through the floorboards. The voices were muffled, but they could hear the odd word through Our Doris’s plush carpet.

  ‘What did he say? A dido?’ Pat asked.

  ‘Probably,’ said Brenda.

  From the living room, there were sudden bursts of laughter, which was reassuring. After they had sorted out the bedrooms, the ladies went downstairs to get their bags.

  There would be five of them in the ladies’ room. Pat, Wee Renee, Laura, Liz and Sue. The bed was a king size and two or three of them could go in there if they went top to tail. Maybe all five could fit in one bed. Although, it was left unsaid, that none of the women would want to lie all night next to Pat’s feet. There were also a couple of quilts and pillows on the floor, for some that wanted extra room. In the boy's room, there would be Danny, Gary, Andy, Tony and Bob.

  Brenda went back downstairs, telling the men that the bedrooms were sorted. The ladies collected their bags saying they were going to unpack. After diving deep in the mounds of coats boots and backpacks, they returned upstairs each with their own bag.

  Wee Renee put her backpack on the chair in the girl's room and began to get everything out. She had packed everything very tightly and there were surprisingly, a lot of items coming out. Like rabbits out of a magician’s hat. As usual, with Wee Renee some very unusual items were being revealed.

  ‘I have got tons of stuff in my bag, you are welcome to any of it, ladies. I know we only called at a couple of houses.’ Wee Renee stated.

  Laura said that she hadn't got a nightdress and would need a change of clothes for the nighttime. Wee Renee winked, looked in her bag, and started to pull items out. She pulled out something that looked like a nightdress with patterned splodges on it.


  ‘This is for you then?’

  She shook it out towards Laura. Wee Renee looked at it then appeared crestfallen. Laura realized it wasn’t a nightdress as it had a totally open back.

  ‘What's that?’ Laura asked.

  ‘Damn it,’ Wee Renee laughed, ‘I thought it was a nightie but it is my wee painting smock. Just shows you how much of a rush we were in.’

  ‘What are you doing with a painting smock?’ Sue asked.

  ‘Well you know, I dabbled a bit. I must have picked it up by accident. I thought they were flowers. I was wondering where it had got to. It must have been folded up in my nightie and underwear drawer. I guess that means I don't have a nightie. But I do have some leggings, quite a few pairs, and T-shirts, Laura. So if you would like to wear some of those, because that's what I will be wearing too, it’s cold. I have one dinky nightie and pantie set, but I’m not wearing it tonight.’ Laura wondered when she had been planning to wear it. The mind boggled.

  Wee Renee turned to Pat. ‘I am going to wash some of my clothes through in the sink and put them on the radiator,’ she said, ‘I only bought one pair of pants, can you believe that? I am going to wash them through.’

  ‘I have only bought one pair too, never mind.’ Uttered Pat. ‘Maybe Our Doris has some fabric freshener. I might see if I can spruce them up a bit.’

  Liz’s, Laura’s and Sue’s eyes met. All were wide-eyed. Wee Renee never batted an eyelid however, still intent on taking out the contents of her backpack.

  ‘I would rinse them through just to be safe, Pat. We’ve been camping. There are lots of weird bugs flying about up there. And also I would rinse through the feet and crotch of your tights, especially rubbing hard at the reinforced toe, you know. I don't mind doing that for you if you like whilst I am doing mine,’ she said.

  ‘Thanks Rene. I’ll flip them off for you later.’ she said.

  ‘No problem Pat. I’ll ask Brenda if she has a wee bit of washing detergent going spare for us.’