Title: Vampire on the Lose
Author: Rikke95
Type: original fantasy story
Reason: writing contest entry
Note: I have a writing contests up and first place winners get their story featured in this book, so here's the winner for the vampire prompt.

There was no one in the park but a man who appeared to be reading a newspaper. The girl stopped on her tracks and glanced at her, the greenery was already charcoal and two dimensional and the grey path was melting into the night.

The girl then went on walking but she couldn't help but think that there was something wrong with that man and then it hit her. There were no lights near that bench so how did he even see the print?

She resolved though to walk quickly but her eyes repeatedly flicked to the man and eventually turned around and walked closer to him only to find out that the man was gone.
The girl, a young woman of around twenty-five years with long and ginger hair looked around for a while but the man seemed to be nowhere to be seen.

Thinking that she had just imagined his presence, she decided it was better to keep walking. She had a party to attend if she didn't want to be fired from the journal she worked for.

And that was when she saw him again.
The man was right in front of her, at the light of the lamppost he looked even more paler and it seemed that his eyes were glistering of a bright yellow. His black hair looked ruffled and few locks fell over his forehead, gently shifted by the light breeze and when he grinned a canine appeared through his perfect teeth.
He grabbed the girl by her waist and started to lean closer.

A month earlier

Wednesday, 5th October
9.27AM

It was a typical November morning in Hampstead, the rich village situated at north of London, the freezing fog wrapped around the still sleeping town like a blanket, swooping in and suffocating every building and every tree at their base, swallowing every distant object and vanishing around every corner.

The entire town looked so grey and dull it almost seemed as if it belonged to a black and white movie or an old fashioned comic strip.
It crept round St. John's church, its silent footsteps tiptoeing around each gravestone in the churchyard, passing them one by one, before finally coming to rest at the foot of a man around his thirties.

He was wearing a long coat of an anonymous dove gray colour which he kept wrapped around himself to protect – or at least to try and protect – himself from the cold, a hat covering his jet black hair and half his face.

"Same modus operandi?" He asked, his voice hoarse and deep, his gaze casted down on the corpse of a young woman laying on the cold ground, lifeless, her auburn hair scattered in multiple places, her emerald green eyes wide open and dull, staring the grey clouds in the sky without though seeing them. Her skin looked deadly pale and her lips of a dark hue of blue, probably due to the cold of the night.

"Oh good day, Inspector Preston. Well, the victim looks like the previous one, same auburn hair, same green eyes, same pale complexion... a typical English beauty indeed." It was an old man with scruffy white hair who replied, he was crouching near the corpse, a pencil in his gloved hands which he was using to point the elements he was talking about. "Plus the victim has the same signs on her neck." The man added as he moved his pencil to indicate the bruise on the girl's neck. It looked like a injection except that there were four sign of puncture instead of one. "I will have to make more tests to very this in my laboratory but I'm quite sure the killer is the same who killed the other two girls." He concluded.

"Thanks Doctor Whaler." The man in the coat, the Police Inspector, replied before he turned around and called one of his officers, "Jones!" He made him sign to the young man to come closer with his index and middle finger and the officer hopped closer to him after he politely dismissed the middle-aged man he was talking to.

"Yes, Inspector?" He asked, a pen and a notebook in his hand.

"Was that the man who found the corpse?" The inspector asked.

"Yes. He's the caretaker."

"And did he say something useful? Did he notice something?"

Officer Jones quickly read the notes he scribbled over his book, "just that he found the body this morning during his usual round. He check the graveyard every night before going to bed and every morning after he wakes up."
"And yesterday night he didn't see anything?"
Jones shook his head, "no sir, he said everything was normal yesterday and he said he slept like a stone all night."

The inspector nodded his head and mumbled something and the officer understood that he had just been dismissed.

---
Wednesday, 5th October
10.49AM

"Mister Preston!" The chief of the police stopped the inspector as soon as he entered the police station.

"Mister Cooper?" the inspector questioned as the other man placed himself in front of him, appearing almost out the blue.

"I want you to come to my office. Now." The fifty years-old man announced and disappeared as quickly as he appeared and the inspector Preston had to hop after him.

"Close the door please." Mister Cooper told inspector Preston and the man did as he was told. Then the chief gestured to the seat in front of him, "Please, take a seat," he added.

"What happened?" Preston asked.

"I know you've been on the scene of another murder. The killer struck again, didn't he?"

"The doctor didn't give us the final results yet but it's quite possible." Preston confirmed.

"Oh dear... Well Mister Preston, it is useless to say that I want you try and close this case as soon as possible. You know how the journalists like stories like this."

"I know, I will do what I can."

"Great , you may now leave Mister Preston."

---
Wednesday, 5th October
11.32AM

"They told me journalists had a sixth sense for juicy stories but I didn't know they also were this fast." The inspector commented entering his office.

On his desk there was a young woman wearing a tight knee-length black skit and a white blouse, her hair gathered up in a tight bun. She was sitting cross-legged and she was tapping her fingers on the mahogany desk of the inspector.

"Well you should know that by now. Plus, you promised me an exclusive on the case of this serial killer..." she jumped down the desk and inched closer to the man. "You didn't forget that, didn't you?"

"Of course not. What do you want to know?"

"How about- everything?"

---
Thursday, 13th October
10.11AM

"What is this?!" Chief Cooper burst into the inspector's office, a newspaper in his hand which he slammed over the desk.

"A- a newspaper?" Mister Preston replied matter-of-factly.

"I know it's a newspaper! I'm referring to what's written in the newspaper!"

The inspector picked up the paper and glanced over at it. He didn't need to read further than the title to realize what was the problem, the article was talking about the serial killer.
"The mayor just called me, he wanted to know if it was true that there a vampire on the loose in our town, killing young woman every month!?"

"And what did you say?"

"That it was an invention of course, a crazy idea invented by a journalist to sell copies. I told you journalists would do everything to sell even just one more copy!" the chief exclaimed.

"Yeah, how could people believe that vampires are real?" Preston agreed though for just a brief moment he let a grin escape his lips. Hopefully for him the other man didn't seem to notice that. "Anyway, what should I do?" Preston then asked, he knew pretty well that if his chief went there it wasn't just to complain about an article...

"Yeah, this is the reason why I'm here. The mayor also asked me to do our best to stop that – whatever it is – from killing again. The case is yours so I'm here to ask you how are things going."

"Well actually we have a suspect. We're waiting to have the last details but tomorrow or in two days at least we can make our arrest. You can assure the mayor and him he doesn't have to worry about anything." Preston replied with a smug grin.

"This is a great news! I'm going to tell him straight away." The enthusiasm was evident in the chief's voice. "And may I know who this killer is."

"The caretaker of the graveyard. He doesn't have an alibi for the murders and right now the other police officers are searching his house hoping to f-" the inspector was interrupted by the phone that started to ring. He raised his finger to tell mister Cooper to wait a moment as he answered the phone, "yeah, uh uh, yes, that's great bring him here. Thanks,"

"What is it?" Cooper asked impatiently.

"It was Jones, they just finished searching the caretaker's house and they found several books about vampires. It's still not much but enough to interrogate him for the murder."

"Great, make him confess. I count on you."

"Don't worry, I won't let you down."

---
Tuesday, 18th October
7.03AM

The Vampire has been caught!
The killer who scared people for three months, killing in total three young women, has finally been sent to jail.

We're talking about Ronald Johnson, the caretaker of the graveyard where the last victim was found dead. The man recently started to be obsessed with vampires stories and in her personal library many books about these folk legends were found.

It seemed that at some point reading wasn't enough and mister Johnson started killing innocent girl to know how it feel when a vampire does the same.

Sadly we can't know more about his reasons as the man, after the arrest, killed himself while in his cell, finally confirming for good that he was the responsible for the three killings.

---
Tuesday, 18th October
7.45PM

"Congratulation my love, I read in the papers that you caught your killer."

"I wouldn't have never caught him if it was for your help, Virginia." Preston replied as he pulled the woman into his arms.

"Please, writing that article and putting those books in that man's house was a piece of cake."

"Yeah maybe but killing him and making it look like it was an accident wasn't this easy." Preston pointed out before he kissed her.

"Have I ever told you that you are my favourite journalist ever."

"No, but that better be true." She smirked before she went on kissing him again.

---
Monday, 5th November
9.58PM

There was no one in the park but a man who appeared to be reading a newspaper and a girl who was taking a stroll along the path.
Virginia was carefully hiding behind a tree, there was no way Preston's and hers plan would go wrong.

She saw the girl stop on her tracks and glanced at the man on the bench, the greenery was already charcoal and two dimensional and the grey path was melting into the night.

The girl then went on walking and Virginia was ready to intervene but it seemed that girl couldn't help her curiosity. After all there were no lights near that bench so how did he even see the print?

The girl eventually turned around to Virginia's relief and walked closer to him only to find out that the man was gone.

Perfect.

The girl, a young woman of around twenty-five years with long and ginger hair looked around for a while but the man seemed to be nowhere to be seen. Therefore she decided to leave but that was when she saw him again.

Preston was right in front of the young girl and Virginia quickly rushed behind her so there was no way she could escape. The girl tried to, she backed away some steps but she ended up bumping into Virginia that wrapped her hands around her arms and blocked her .

Preston then grabbed the girl by her waist and started to lean closer until his teeth penetrated her skin and the blood started to run out of her veins.

The girl was quickly becoming weaker and weaker until at some point Preston let go of her and the woman fell on the ground.

Preston cleaned his mouth, "That was what I needed. Come on love, let's go back home. Now that I'm back in force we will spend an amazing night."

And they indeed spent an amazing night but there was something they didn't know.

It was only few hours later that the girl they thought they killed started to stir. She slowly looked around and stood back up and on her feet she walked to the party she was supposed to attend.