Mortal Agent of a Vampire - Chapter 24

I sat in the car. It’s Halloween tonight, and the streets are filled with merry people, kids mostly, but also small couples wearing Venice masks. I see zombies from The Walking Dead, zombies from Zombies, Batman, Spider-Man, Frankenstein and some I can’t name.
A fat kid in a Hulk costume stopped by my car window and said something that I guessed was the Italian version of trick-or-treating.
“Go.” I waved.
He sprayed me with ribbons and ran off.
Normally, I wouldn’t act so obnoxious. How bad is it to bully a kid, it turns them into a sociopath. Today, though, I really wasn’t in the mood.
I stared across the street at the blackened arches of a stone building with a neon sign reading, ‘House of the Dead’. Hmmm, classic meets modern, nice décor. A quarter of an hour ago, Vince disappeared behind that archway.
The plan was to keep our phones connected so that I could hear what was going on inside while he was at his appointment and intervene in the event of a problem. Clichéd but practical, we also set a safety word: chutzpah.
But just now, I heard the voice of the goddess from inside, “Wie geht’s dir, mein Freund?Don’t worry, Vince will be fine, Angelo just wants to talk to him.”
Then, with a beep, the call was cut off.
I think it’s time for me to come on. “We just want to talk”, that’s what criminals say, and then you go to God.
I pushed open the car door and stepped out, wrapping my trench coat tightly around me, carrying a short-barreled shotgun and a .44 pistol inside.
In front of the archway, I took a deep breath and glanced up at the sign, the pink letters of death crackling and flickering with some poor contact.
“It must be fun in here.” Suddenly, a voice rang out beside me.
I was startled, it was a blonde teenager, and when I saw his eyes, I remembered – it was ‘Green Nails’.
“I’m not sure,” I said, “I think you’d better go home, it’s getting late.”
“It’s Halloween.”
“If your mom was okay with you coming out and partying, you wouldn’t still be wearing that.” I gestured to his baseball t-shirt and jeans. That’s usually okay, but tonight it’s lame.
He flattened his mouth unhappily, “I bet you’re afraid to go in there, you’re afraid of ghosts.”
He’s right, I hate haunted houses, growing up the only thing I did at carnivals was the merry-go-round, not very manly, huh? I wasn’t going to back down though, “You’re going to lose, I even know a vampire.” The second half was true.
Green Nails flashed a typical adolescent scornful grin, “I’m still a vampire.”
I didn’t want to tangle with him anymore, “Go home.” I said and stepped through the archway.
It was pitch black inside, and when my eyes adjusted, I noticed a low wattage fluorescent light with a glass shade overhead, illuminating a flight of steps downwards disappearing into the shadows.
This wasn’t going to lead to hell, was it? With a slight drumbeat in my stomach, I pulled out my cell phone and turned on the flashlight app. Luckily, around the corner the stairs ended. It was darker than up here, dead silent, the laughter in the streets barely audible, and I felt cold sweat dripping down my neck.
I raise my cell phone and the ghastly white light illuminates a wax statue of a witch, white hair tousled, huge hawkish nose slumped forward, evil written all over her face, and she’s holding a skull in her hands.
Needless to say, the wax figure was lifelike. I almost screamed. Settling down, I moved my phone and next to the witch was an entrance decorated as a cave.A row of bloody letters above it read, “Benvenuti!”
Welcome, how welcoming. But all I could feel was a chill coming over me. I walked in completely hard. On the bright side, this was finally starting to look like a ghost story.
One step, two steps, three steps, and a wax figure dressed as a magician appeared to my left, with a spotlight at his feet, illuminating him from the bottom up and casting chilling shadows. In one hand he held a tall bowler hat, and in the other he held a sign: ‘Only 6 euros!’ I threw all the change I had into the hat.
Presumably some sort of mechanism kicks in, and to the right, a row of candle-shaped floor lamps lights up, outlining a path. I realize now that there’s a reason it’s so dark here; the narrow path is flanked by dark, dreary pools of water, and without the floor lamps to guide you, you’re likely to walk straight ahead and fall in. Underneath the pool were wax figures full of intertwined human bodies, the horrified and desperate expressions of drowning victims visible on their faces. I’m incredibly glad I didn’t skip the ticket, it would have scared me to death.
I turned right and walked past the pool, the floor lights ended, and the surroundings fell into darkness once again. There was a faint sound of a harpsichord coming from somewhere and I listened carefully for a while, it was the Goldberg Variations.
Great, now it’s Hannibal time. Traveling alone at night in a haunted house was a scenario only found in my nightmares. Every cell in my body trembled, I wanted to cry, to run away, but then I thought about the hung up phone.
It was all fake, I told myself, the only thing that was real was that Vince was in danger. I took a deep breath, drew my gun, put it in my hand, and ran forward.
For the next stretch of road, I tried not to look either way.I passed, what looked like hanging whole human skins, chainsaw scares, disgruntled spirits plastered under little girls’ beds, medieval disemboweled criminals-who had watched their intestines being twisted out of his stomach, ……
and most deranged of all, they actually walked in the The walkway recreates a scene from Silent Hill where you have to pass between a group of scalpel-wielding nurses with disfigured faces.
Finally, there’s a section of road decorated as a prison cell. It’s lined with the hideous living dead, a corner of the grate is broken, and a couple of walkers crawl out, arms outstretched at you, opening their bloody mouths. I nearly fainted.
Who would have thought all this for six euros? That’s a bargain.
Luckily dawn was near and the ground lights reappeared, so friendly you wanted to cry. I passed quickly through and came to an old castle style archway with a brass plaque hanging next to it, I don’t know if it was old itself or purposely old, but it had a line engraved on it that translated to, “Exit, be careful not to get lost.”
How humorous, I ignored it and stepped away.
Just as I stepped through the door, a fence descended behind me, as if there would be tourists who couldn’t get enough of lingering here – too much to think about, I shook my head.
Then I realized I was thinking too simply. The hints on the brass plaque were coming true, and I walked into a maze of mirrors. The dim light was surrounded by my own reflection.
I didn’t know how many intersections there were in this place, or if it was even a dead end, I didn’t even know how I got in. I can’t believe there are humans as stupid as me, I read the hints and still ended up in a pit.
Time is running out, I can’t be stuck here. “Use your brain.” I told myself, stopping to look around as the millions of me in the mirror turned around together.
It’s actually quite simple, and after calming down it occurs to me that the distance between you and the false image is twice as long as the distance between you and the mirror, so all I have to do is follow the smallest false image. I ran again.
After hitting the wall a few times (I must have a bloody nose by now), I came to a place that looked like a resting place. There were a few coffins scattered around and, obviously, chairs for visitors to rest their feet. The ceiling and floor of the place were also mirrors. Again, bereft.
I stopped to get my bearings, and suddenly, I saw a coffin open, and next to it, the shadow of a woman standing there.
My heart raced, it was ‘Goddess Daphne’!
I pointed my gun at her and stood motionless, and so did she. She looked at me, a smile on her face, her arm pointing gracefully towards the coffin as if she wanted to invite me in to try.
“Where’s Vince?” I asked in a shaky voice.
There was no answer, and we were frozen for a long moment. Something was wrong somewhere.
I ventured over to her, and yes, her eyes didn’t move with my steps, she was just another fucking wax statue. I wanted to burn her.
At that moment, a shrill laugh drifted into my ears and my nerves tensed again.
“Who?” I turned around as a figure glided quickly across a thousand mirrors.
Then the laughter reached the back of my head again, and with a rush of creepiness, I turned as if I were on my guard.
“Who the hell is that?” I raised my voice, my heart seeming to jump out of my throat.
The shadow that slid across the mirror was fast as a ghost, and I didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. “Bang, bang, bang!” A series of mirrors shattered with a loud bang.
Suddenly, something hit my wrist and the gun flew out. Too late to react in any way, I was struck in the back and I fell, tripping over my feet and stumbling right into the coffin at the goddess’s feet.
“No!” I shouted. Looking back, I saw a pair of hands pushing up the lid of the coffin.
I was plunged into absolute darkness.
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