The Night I met a Vampire

I met a vampire when I was in the second year of my college. It was around ten at night and I was returning home after six hours of play rehearsals. The stretch from the Metro station to my house was one with trees on both sides. The area which is bustling during the day with car mechanics and car audio shops was totally deserted at that time of the night and not a soul was in sight. It was a peaceful night with the full moon illuminating through the trees and forming sinister patterns on the road below. These shapes seem to contort themselves into strange forms because of the rustling tree leaves that swayed under the gentle breeze. This ambience accompanied with Lionel Richie singing ‘hello’ through my headphones was perfection personified.

I was jus about to enjoy it when I sensed footsteps behind me. Now I have always been pissed scared of ghosts. I am more scared of ghosts than people, rapists, robbers etc. My theory is, if a rapist or robber comes in front of you, you can always scream for help or better yet pick up a stone hit them and run away; but what can you possibly do to a ghost? You can’t possibly scream for help, you’re going to be too shocked at the moment to even utter a word. You can’t run away, they’ll jus conjure right in front of you! The fact that I was reminded of the story called ‘strange meeting’ from my class ten English short stories text book didn’t help either. The story that described two friends, who meet their dead friend two months after his death, let loose a string of horrid images in my mind. Abba started singing ‘Mamma Mia’ and calmed my racing heart. I told myself repeatedly that it’s nothing but my mind playing tricks on me. But I was proved wrong when suddenly in front of me stood a phantom in all its glory; unkempt hair, ragged clothes. My over-imaginative mind’s eye could almost see clearly the next morning’s headlines: “Girl Found Dead. No Visible Signs of Physical Violence. Vampire Attack Suspected.”

The vampire was taking in slow deliberative breaths and I think I even saw his fangs glisten in the moonlight! The moment was wrought with tension. My heart pounded in my ears more loudly than the sea beating against gigantic rocks. I stood frozen-not a muscle twitched in my body. The sweat beads rolling down from my forehead down my cheeks was washing away every ounce of nerve that I was trying so hard to muster and before I could figure what was happening, he made a quick pounce at me. He held on to my right arm and shook me up. I figured he was doing some sort of vampire ritual before drinking my body dry of every droplet of blood. But one good thing that the shaking did was it did bring me back to reality, and a little voice in my mind went “hey wait a minute. Vampire? Seriously? Are you freaking kidding me?! You’ve been reading too much of the Twilight series! And just look at him. He looks no way close to Robert Pattinson! You are getting robbed you dumbo!”

So I did what I had to do. I shut my eyes tight, took in a deep breath and let out the loudest scream I could manage; the loudest in the history of screams; the kind of scream that sends chills down your spine.

When I opened my eyes the vampire had vanished.

Gone!

Poof!

When I relate this incident to my friends, I call it the night I met a vampire and I like to think when he relates this incident to his friends he calls it the night he met a chhudail!