They say, « We fear the unknown”. Well in my situation, I’m not so sure. Maybe I liked it better when I didn’t know what was happening, at least there was room for speculation. Now that I know, I can’t escape the reality of my situation, and it may be more terrifying. Let’s rewind a few hours…
After accepting the mom’s request to babysit Claire again tonight, I decided to do some digging on this family online, see if I could find anything suspicious about them. All I found was the parent’s Facebook and the mother’s LinkedIn, and everything was so clean. They looked perfectly normal. The father was working for some sort of computer company, and the mother worked as a museum curator. No real trace of Claire, except one photo on the dad’s Facebook and her name registered in a website about some school running race where she apparently finished in second place.
Later, I got on my way to the house. The walk was incredibly hard for me, everyone smelled so, “delicious” I guess. I took a few detours to avoid crowded streets but eventually, I got there. I knocked and the mother opened to me. She thanked me to be so fast to answer and told me all the basic things. Then, Claire came down the stairs. She was nothing like the last time I saw her. She looked shy again, embarrassed even, and a little scared. I almost felt compassion for her, when the image of her bloody mouth flashed in my head and put me back on my guard. The parents kissed her goodbye and left.
There was an awkward silence again as we were standing in the hallway, just like the previous night, but I was really not in the mood.
“Why don’t we go to the living room?” I said, with the most serious and bossy tone I could.
“Huh, yes” She answered, her voice sounded a bit sad, and afraid. I decided to stay serious, but not aggressive, she seemed more scared than I was, she wasn’t even making eye contact.
We walked to the living room when I felt some sort of vertigo taking over me. My legs felt weak all of sudden and I violently fell on the floor. My vision was switching from blurry to clear every second and I felt chills in all my body. I couldn’t get up, it was terrifying, my body was just not responding to me anymore. I saw Claire slowly approaching me, she looked concerned, but my instinct made me scream to her to stay away from me. She ran and left my view for a moment, I can’t remember how long, but I was feeling worse and worse with each second.
Eventually, I smelled the same kind of scent that had the delivery guy earlier that day. I couldn’t see shit but I felt some sort of straw touching my lips. My body reacted faster than my brain could think, and I started to suck whatever was in what was touching my lips (go ahead and laugh, I know how it sounds). As I was drinking and ingesting it, I started feeling better, my eyes were working again, and my muscles started responding. When my vision was back to perfect, I saw Claire sitting on the floor next to me, holding a blood bag like you see in hospitals in one hand, and the tube I had between my lips in the other. I wish I could say that I was surprised, horrified and that I stopped drinking immediately, but that didn’t happen. Deep down, I knew from the start what I was ingesting before I could see it, and even though a part of me was absolutely disgusted by it, I couldn’t stop, it was just too good. With every sip, I felt better.
After maybe two minutes, the bag was empty, and I was back on my feet. There was another awkward silence, but this time, I was the one embarrassed. We walked to the living room, and both sat on the opposites sides the sofa. She was looking at me, but this time, I was the one that couldn’t make eye contacts.
After some time, I started the conversation, trying to ignore what just happened.
“Do you remember what happened last night Claire?” I asked, calmly.
“I’m sorry, … No, nothing.” She said. She did seem sorry.
“How is that possible? We talked, you were there! And if you don’t remember, what are you sorry about?!” I was already getting angrier, which seemed to scare her.
“It wasn’t me, you have to believe me, please! I only remember eating lasagna, and then, I was in my bed” Her eyes were filled with tears, so I forced myself to go easier.
“Ok, Claire, I believe you, but then who was it?”
“It was the mean man, not me.”
“Who is the mean man? What did he do to me?” I was trying my best to stay calm.
“I don’t know who he is exactly, he won’t tell me.” She stayed silent for a few seconds. “From what I’m seeing, she did to you the same thing she did to me.”
“What do you see? What did he do to you? Do you think you could explain everything to me Claire, I need to understand?”
She stayed silent for a moment.
“You want me to tell you everything that happened to me?” She asked.
“Yes, please, I need to understand, okay? Maybe I can even help you, you know?”
“Okay, I can tell you. But promise me you won’t be mad, or scared.”
“I promise”
She had a moment of reflection. Then she explained it to me. I’ll write you this as if she was the one writing, it’s easier. Here’s her story, narrated from her point of view…
Okay, so, it started 2 years ago. I was at my mom’s history museum because I didn’t have school that day. While she was doing paperwork, she told me to go take a walk around so she could focus. I wandered for an hour or so, there was almost nobody and it was pretty boring. Then I arrived at a dark hall full of old paintings and statues of some dead people, I didn’t know who they were, I don’t read the description. I was half into the hall when I heard something moving behind me. I turned around and saw a young man sitting on the floor. He was looking at me and smiling.
“Well, hi there” he said.
“Hello” I answered, a bit creeped out. He wasn’t there when I passed.
“What are you doing wandering around on your own? Where are your parents?”
“My mom is working in her office, so she told me to take a walk.”
“And how do you like it so far little lady?” He was very formal but also nice, so I was getting a bit more comfortable.
“It’s a bit boring.” I answered honestly.
“Is that so? Well, I guess I agree, all these guys are indeed, pretty boring.” He said, with a little laugh.
“You know all of them?” I asked.
“Well, yes, some even personally, and they weren’t less boring alive, let me tell you that” He laughed, and I did too.
“What do you mean personally? They’re medieval kings.” I asked this like some sort of joke.
“Yes, well let’s just say I’ve been around for a little while.”
“How long?” I asked this playfully, thinking he was making things on the spot.
“584 years.” He answered immediately.
“That’s long. Are you a dead ghost?”
He laughed.
“Isn’t the whole point of a ghost to be dead little lady?” He said with a little smile.
“Right, are you a ghost then?”
“Sure, I’m a ghost”
“So that’s why you’re here? You’re haunting this place because it’s where your statue is or something, and you can’t leave?” At that moment, I thought I was playing a game.
“Well, I didn’t know I was dealing with a specialist!” He said.
“I’m not a specialist, ha ha, I just watch a lot of cartoons about ghosts.”
“Well, whatever cartoons are, you know your stuff, I’m impressed little lady.”
“But if you’re haunting this museum, why are you not on any of the paintings or statues?” I was trying to beat who I thought was a visitor, and to make him admit that he was not a ghost by proving that his story didn’t make sense.
“Well, you know, people tend to forget me, probably because I was never that much of an attention seeker, not as much as all these other guys for sure. But someone must have remembered me because I am mentioned briefly in one small book in the private reserve of the museum. I never got to thank the person that included me in this book, without them, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Okay, then what’s your name? Maybe I know you, from history class.” I asked him.
“You won’t know me, but I didn’t introduce myself, my name is Vesel, and you are?”
“I’m Claire.”
“Very glad to meet you, Claire.”
“Okay, then, if you’re a ghost, why aren’t all the people in the paintings haunting this place too?” I was sure that I won, that he will admit he wasn’t a ghost.
“Well, I’m a little different you see.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Why don’t I show you Claire?”
“Show me what?”
“What’s special about me.”
“How?”
“I won’t ruin the surprise, come to me.”
I walked towards where he was.
“Now sit in front of me Claire.” He asked politely.
I sat down.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now Claire, give me your hands, and close your eyes, will you?”
I did it, I gave him my hands, and closed my eyes, just like he said.
There was a silence.
“What do I do now?” I asked.
Then, my hand started hurting me very hard, it was so painful, I screamed. I opened my eyes and saw him, biting my left hand. He was holding it very tightly and was sucking all the blood that was coming out of it, it was terrifying. I screamed for help while desperately trying to get away from him. After some very long seconds, he stopped and let go of my hand. I wanted to run away from him, but my whole body was hurting, and I couldn’t even scream, I was lying on the floor, helpless. He stood up and looked at me.
“I understand you more now little lady. You are more interesting than I thought. Ignored by your parents that didn’t want you, ashamed of not being good enough compared to their friend’s children, no friends because girls think you’re too manly and boys think you’re weird. So much despair at such a young age, I can only dream of what I could do with you. I’m going to keep you Claire, but don’t worry, I’ll help you to start, I know you’re still young. I’ll see you soon little lady”.
After that he walked away. A few seconds later, I was not feeling any pain anymore, and the bite was almost completely invisible.
A colleague of my mom arrived, alerted by my screams, and saw me on the floor. He gave me some water and asked me what happened. I explained everything to him, but he didn’t believe me. When my mom joined us, I was crying, and she took me back to her office. I tried to explain what happened to her too, but she told me that she had to work, and that this was a museum, not a place to play games, especially if it included disturbing workers and embarrassing her. She made me sit in her office in silence for the rest of the day.
When we got back home, I ate the meal, then went straight to bed, my mom didn’t want me around after “what I did”.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. Not only because I was terrified of what happened earlier, but also simply because I was not tired one bit. I was constantly moving in my bed trying to find a position in which I could sleep. Then, around midnight, I saw him. Vesel was in my mirror.
“Well, hi there, I was wondering when you would see me. Before you do anything stupid little lady, just know that your parents can’t see me, so I would advise you not to call them, unless you want them to be even more upset with you.” He had the same formal yet nice tone as earlier.
“What are you doing here? Don’t approach me!” I said, trying to be intimidating.
“Ha ha, don’t worry Claire, there’s a reason why I’m in your mirror. You were right, I can’t really leave the museum on my own. I can only manifest myself to you, I couldn’t harm you directly, and I have no intention to do so.”
“Why are you here?” I asked, petrified.
“Just checking on you little lady. By now you should start to feel hungry, don’t you? Yes, I can feel it. Did you drink anything already?”
“What do you mean drink?”
“You did not? It’s normal after all, it’s only been a few hours.” He said.
“What did you do to me? Why do I feel like this?”
“You feel “thirsty” little lady, it’s only normal. You see Claire, all I did was make you as special as I am. Now, usually, when I do this, I let the person ruin their own life themselves, they always do, and then, I take pleasure in seeing them suffer through centuries of remorse. But I thought about it, and with you I will make an exception. Your life isn’t as long and special as the people I usually target already, I just thought that the prospect of trapping you in such a young body would be interesting, but ruining your everyday life now wouldn’t have a big enough impact. SO, here’s what I’m going to do: for everything related to your thirst, I will handle it for you, so you don’t get caught, and during that time, I will think about what I could do with you. Do you understand?”
“Am I a vampire?” I asked, feeling a bit stupid.
He sighed.
“That word isn’t really appropriate, there are so many things associated to this definition that aren’t true, you think I fear a stupid cross, or even garlic. Or that I die in the sun? If it makes it easier for you, sure, you’re a “vampire” but don’t trust everything they say about it.” For the first time, he seemed a bit upset.
“How are you going to handle my thirst?” I asked.
“Easy, I can just possess you. So, I’ll do that, make you drink, maybe have a little fun, and then give you your body back. Anyway, I can’t stay here all night, see you soon little lady.”
And he disappeared.
It’s been two years since this happened. Now, my life is the same as before, except for a few things: I don’t sleep, I don’t age anymore, I’m constantly repressing my thirst, and sometimes, he possesses my body.
That’s basically what she told me. I was shocked. At first, my instinct didn’t believe her, but when I thought about everything that happened so far, this didn’t seem so unbelievable. I still had way more questions though.
“Okay… Claire, I’m going to need more information now, can you answer my questions honestly?” I asked her gently.
“Yes, I promise!” She answered.
“If what you told me happened 2 years ago, how old are you now?”
“I’m 11.” She whispered.
“Why did your parents tell me you were 9?”
“They say that to the people that we don’t know well, they are ashamed of how young I look.” She said with a sad look. The more I learned about her parents, the less they seemed like the loving parents I originally thought they were.
“The man you told me about, is that him that possessed you yesterday when I was bit?”
“Yes”
“How could he know about my secrets?”
“I don’t know, I think he can read into our minds when he bit us, he did the same thing when he bit me.”
“Claire, do you know my secrets too?” I asked her, not knowing what I was expecting.
She stayed silent for a moment.
“Yes, I do.”
“You know about Martin? Don’t you feel like I did something really bad, like I am a coward and cruel for never telling anyone about it, letting his parents hoping for so long, paying private detective to find him? Doesn’t that make you mad at me a little bit?”
“No, I don’t think so.” She said, looking down.
I had a thought.
“Claire, did you bit someone yourself?”
She didn’t say anything.
“I won’t be mad, but you promised to be honest.”
“Yes, I did, I’m sorry.” She said.
“What happened?”
“The man didn’t possess me for longer than usual. I was playing in the park with some teenage girl, and my mom asked me to wait with her while she was going to get us something to eat at a nearby shop. When she was away, I couldn’t contain myself and I bit her. I drank a lot of her, when he finally possessed me in the middle of it. When I came back to myself, I was walking home with my mom. Later that day, Vesel came in my mirror to tell me that he had to fix everything so that nobody knew about me. Since then, when he possesses me, he fills me some blood bag “for emergencies”, and he hides them in the garden.”
“Is that where you got what you made me drink?”
She nodded.
“Tell me, when he possesses you, do you just black out?”
“Not really. I am in some empty dark space, and all I hear are screams, people that scream at me horrible things, it’s terrible.”
I had a lot of answers now, but they weren’t really helping me. I had no idea how I could get myself out of this shitty situation. There was however, one thing that I couldn’t understand. This thing, knew about Martin’s story, because it could see it in my mind, sure, but how did it know what happened to him after. That’s what it claimed the previous night. “I also know what happened after, that YOU don’t know. But I’ll keep that story for later.”, that’s what it said. I truly didn’t understand that. It could have been a lie, but from everything this “man” had said before, whether to me or to Claire, he didn’t seem to have lied. Plus, I don’t really understand why he would lie about it. Deep down, something told me that I would find answers there. I had to go back to where it happened, where I pushed him in the river. I stood up.
“I’m sorry Claire, I have to go.”
“What? Where?”
“I have to understand how to get rid of this.”
“But you can’t leave me alone!” She started to cry.
“Listen, I have to find a way to get out of this? I can’t stay here, I’m a danger to everyone around me, you think he’s going to get me little blood bags too?”
“And you think he’s going to do that forever for me? It’s just until he finds a way to ruin everything around me. If I’m with you, I’m not alone, and you’re not either.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, take me with you! I could help you, and none of us would be alone!” She said this with so much confidence.
“I can’t, Claire, you have parents, it’s not okay…”
“You said you would help me! You promised!”
There was a silence. I looked at her. She was so confident.
“Fuck it, fine, come with me.” I said.
A big smile formed on her face.
“Where are we going?”
“Where I pushed Martin, first, then, we’ll figure it out.”
“Okay”
“Do you want to leave a note for your parents, I don’t know what could happen to us you know.”
“Do you think they care? They never care about me, so I think they’ll be fine.”
“Do you know where your parents are hiding their car keys?”
“Sure”
“Perfect, now go take them, also take as many blood bags as you can, whatever you could need in your room and join me at the car.”
Ten minutes later, we had pack everything into the car and we were on our way. Claire and I both decided to tie her up so that we’ll be safe in case the man possessed her in the car. While we were driving silently, I could see that she was smiling.
“Are you my friend?” She asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean do you consider me as your friend?”
That was a weird question. My first answer would have been no, but thinking about it, I realized that at this exact moment, I felt better than when I’m with my actual friends, and I knew why: Claire knew my worst secret, and she didn’t care, because she did something terrible too. I also noticed how easy I had been to accept that she come with me on this journey. Usually, I don’t like being around people, and even worst, kids, but now that she was there, I was glad to have her. So, maybe we were friends.
“Yes, I think I do.” I answered.
“Nice. You’re my first real friend. This is cool.”
We both smiled. I had a moment of internal peace like I never had before.
After like 2 hours, we were on a lonely road, she had a gasp, and I knew what was happening right when she talked.
“Mark? What are you doing? Why is Claire with you?”
“Hello, I guess you’re the Vesel she told me about?” I answered.
“Did you kidnap her?” He said, laughing. “Ho no, that’s smart, you tied her up so that I couldn’t do anything…”
I didn’t answer him.
“Tell me Mark, there’s something I don’t get. You see, I’ve been trying to possess you since last night, and your doors are closed, I can’t get to you for some reason. That’s a bit frustrating… Ho you don’t want to answer me? Fine, you know I have all the time in the world to figure out how to get to you.”
There was a silence.
“So, if I don’t answer you, and that you can’t even move, maybe you can leave her alone, apparently it’s not so fun for her when you’re there.”
“Ha ha, I can stay in her as long as I want, it’s not like she can do anything about it you know. And if you think that I can’t do anything just because you tied her up, you’re underestimating me. Let me show you.”
Right after he said that, the car started to move to the sides, I had no control over it anymore. That’s when I saw that we were heading right into two people that were walking alongside the road. I didn’t have the time to press the horn that we hit them violently. I got the controls of the car again and stopped it immediately. I ran out of the car went to see if the people were still alive, and I had my answer pretty quickly. They were lying on the ground and there was blood all over the place, but they were alive, breathing loudly. I heard “Claire” laughing like a maniac.
“Can you smell that, Mark?” The man possessing her shouted from the car. “Go ahead, take a sip. Drink!” He was laughing so hard, but I had trouble focusing, because I could indeed smell all the blood that was coming from these two people. “Eat them Mark, it will be so good, you’ll see!”
His laugh wouldn’t stop, and I was just standing there, looking at all this blood. He kept on telling me to eat it between laughs. When suddenly, HE had a gasp. The laughs stopped and I heard Claire shouting at me.
“MARK, TAKE A BLOOD BAG, DON’T EAT THEM”
Hearing her tone again took me out of my thoughts and I ran back to the car, took out a blood bag, drank half of it, and gave her the rest, since she had smelled the blood too. I called an ambulance for the 2 people, and we left immediately after.
I explained her what happened while she was away, and then she explained to me what happened for her: She was in the same dark empty space as usual, hearing all these voices screaming at her, when she heard a calmer voice telling her to come, it was my voice. She followed it and eventually saw one hand that was coming out of the shadows and took it, and it brought her back. I don’t know what that means yet but we now know that she can actually do something about being possessed.
After that, I was a bit shocked by everything, so we stopped to a cheap motel on the road, we obviously didn’t really need to sleep, but I had to rest my brain at least.
We both took a shower, and I took my phone to write what you’re just reading. She said she was going to “fake-sleep” because it helps her apparently.
We will continue our trip tomorrow morning, for now, I’m open to answer questions. Any tips are welcome.