One day, a girl was walking to a nearby town to buy a book. Her town had no bookstores. On the way, she met her best friend, Jackie.

‘Hey, Lyna, where are you going?’

‘To the bookstore in the next town’.

Jackie froze, ‘Wha…why?’

‘To buy a book, of course! Come with me it’ll be fun!’

‘Whoa! You don’t get it!’ Jackie said, ‘The town’s haunted.’

‘(Pfft) Don’t be silly!… You aren’t scared, are you?’ Lyna added.

‘No way!’

‘Good! Then come on!’

The girls set off. By the time they reached the town, it was late afternoon. A sign above the gate read ‘Cuidad Muerta’. The girls opened the gate and went in. As they stepped through, they saw that most of the houses were run down. A few which were still in one piece had been left to rot over time. The moon was shining from somewhere behind the clouds. The girls didn’t have to go far, the bookstore, which was literally the only place open, was near the gate.

‘Wasn’t it late afternoon when we arrived?’ Lyna asked, confused.

‘Yeah, I’m sure it was,’ Jackie said, ‘We should go back,’ she said with a rising feeling of something about to go wrong.

‘Oh, come on!’ Lyna said exasperatedly.

They went into the bookstore. It was cozy inside. Almost too cozy. Through the back window, the girls could see the sun rising. A man in his thirties came out from behind a counter. There was something odd about him, but neither of them could put a finger on it. He came nearer and nearer until he was standing only a few inches from them. That was only when they realized that he had moved, and they backed away a few steps. Suddenly, Jackie knew what was odd.

‘He looks like that children-eating Dracula in the fiction story we were we were reading about last week in school.’ She whispered to Lyna.

‘I don’t just look like him… I am him,’ the Dracula spoke in an emotionless voice, neither male nor female.

Lyna and Jackie’s blood froze and they hardly breathed. Jackie was first to recover. She kicked the Dracula in the stomach, making him reel back in pain, threw open the door and Lyna out with her. The was sun shining when they came out.

‘What is this freaky place!’ Lyna shouted, beside herself with fear.

‘Told you it was haunted,’ Jackie said, panting.

By this time they had reached the gates. They pushed and pulled but it won’t budge. They sat down, scared of what might become of them. That’s when Lyna, throwing her head back and staring at the sky, saw a sign above the gate. The girls hadn’t seen it when they had arrived.

‘”Cuidad Muerta”‘, Lyna read aloud, having no idea what it meant.

Jackie became alert, ‘What?!’

‘”Cuidad Muerta”‘, Lyna repeated, ‘What does it mean anyway?’

‘It’s Spanish for “Ghost Town”‘, Jackie told, frantically.

‘Yessss, it issss!’ was the reply Jackie got, followed by high-pitched hissing.

The girls jumped up and looked around and saw a giant mutant snake and a beautiful, pale-skinned vampire with crimson-red lips, amber-yellow eyes, jet-black fly-away hair, and pointed fangs. The snake slithered forward with surprising speed and twisted around Lyna and then Jackie. The girls couldn’t escape. Then the vampire started to advance towards them, slowly. By the time she reached them, it was midnight, and monsters like Frankenstein, the gingerbread witch, banshee, basilisk, yeti, etc, had appeared out of nowhere and gathered around. It was surprising how all of them could possibly fit into a small town. Then the vampire striked. She sank her fangs into, first, Lyna’s neck, killing her, then as she was about to kill Jackie, a bright, white ball of light suddenly shown from above. The ball of light took hold of Jackie, pulling her out of the snake’s grip with remarkable strength, and took her to a fluffy, white cloud. There it set her down, and transformed into a beautiful fairy. She had pale skin, light blonde hair, electric blue eyes, and crimson-red lips.

When she spoke she had a kind and gentle voice.

‘Jackie, dear, I’m sorry for what happened, but my sister turned your cousin into a vampire.’

‘M-my cousin? She’s my best friend.’

‘That may be, but she’s also your distant cousin. You see, my father was a Dracula and my mother was an angle. I and my sister are twins. She is a vampire and I am an angel. You’re cousin is my sister’s descendant and you are mine. I am your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother,’ She stated it as if all of it was obvious.

‘O…K… sooo will my fr-cousin be normal again?’

‘No…’, Jackie felt heart-broken, ‘Not unless someone, whom she listens to brings her back to her senses. She will be good then and never kill anyone, but, she’ll always look like a vampire from now on,’ when the angel finished, Jackie looked cheerful and felt more hopeful inside.

‘From now on, you’ll live here, with me.’

‘Sure, alright,’ she liked the idea of skipping school. She was a bright student, but she was definitely not an early bird.

‘Now go off to bed. It’s nearly 2 am.’

‘Only two questions. One: What’s your name? Second: Why was it late afternoon outside the town, night inside it, and dawn in the bookstore?’

‘First answer: My name is Aileen and my sister’s name is Leila; Second answer: In the “Cuidad Muerta”, the time sometimes goes fast and sometimes slow, in a crazy way.’

*********

That night Jackie lay in bed thinking all about what Aileen had said, Not unless someone, whom she listens to, brings her back to her senses.

That someone is me, Jackie thought.

She, Jackie, will bring Lyna back, if that’s the last thing she did.

With that she drifted off to sleep.