Alive? Wouldn’t That Be Nice!

Tony reluctantly removed the top. He had prepared himself for the fact that he was about to smell something horrible. So he was surprised when a heavy, sweet scent wafted from the bottle.

“Do you like Mufti of Eternal Love?” Anna whispered.

“Yes,” Tony said, amazed. “It—it smells like roses!”

Anna giggled. “It is roses—cemetery roses. I only collected the petals of red roses because red is the color of love!”

“The color of love?” Tony repeated in disbelief. For Rudolph, red had a completely different meaning, namely blood! He shuddered.

Once again, Anna seemed to have guessed his thoughts. “You’re convinced we only think of one thing when it comes to the color red!” she snapped. “But that’s not true. We’re not all the same, just like humans aren’t all the same. And just so you know, I don’t even want to be a vampire anymore!”

“You don’t? But—your vampire fangs have started to grow in!”

“Oh, really?”

With a triumphant laugh, she bared her immaculate white teeth, and to his utter amazement, Tony saw that Anna’s canines were still quite short and blunt.

“But—but I thought…?” he marveled. “You said that you would get vampire fangs. And that you have to use a pacifier so your fangs would grow long and pointed.”

“Don’t remind me of that pacifier!” she replied dramatically. “I threw it away. Since I don’t want to become a real vampire, I don’t need vampire fangs! And I’m trying to drink milk again,” she added, “but diluted.”

“Is it working?”

Anna lifted her chin and made a very determined face. “You just have to want it badly enough!”

Tony stared at her, speechless.

Then her expression changed, and, smiling lovingly at Tony, she said, “And above all, you have to know who you’re doing it for!”

Tony was so confused that he couldn’t think of a thing to say.

“I’ve thought everything through,” Anna continued. “If you don’t want to be a vampire, then I don’t want to be a vampire either—at least not a real one!”

She said this completely naturally and casually, as if she were talking about the simplest thing in the world.

Tony, on the other hand, had already turned red as he listened. In his embarrassment, he took a few drops of Mufti of Eternal Love and rubbed them into the back of his hand.

“Oh, me too!” cried Anna eagerly. “I want to smell just like you!”

Tony handed her the bottle, and she drizzled perfume on her cape and her strange round hat. An almost unbearably strong scent of roses spread through the room.

“What are the other vampires saying about this?” asked Tony, shocked.

“Oh, they’ll think it smells horrible,” Anna answered, laughing. “And to be honest, it’s also a bit unusual for my liking!”

“I don’t mean the perfume,” Tony answered. “I mean about the vampire teeth and the pacifier.”

Anna looked at him with a mischievous smile. “They would be beside themselves if they knew! But I’m clever enough not to let them notice. Rudolph, for example, thinks I’m clumsy and useless at—ahem—hunting, so he won’t notice anything. What he doesn’t know is that I don’t want to catch anything.”

“And Aunt Dorothee?” asked Tony anxiously. “Has she noticed anything?”

“She wanted to give me lessons, like she did with Olga.” Anna giggled. “But I said I wanted to do it on my own, without any help. And I am. It’s just that Aunt Dorothee and the others don’t know what it is I want to learn!”

“But what’s keeping you, uh, alive?” asked Tony, feeling his heart beat faster. Anna looked so delicate and fragile, and her face seemed to have grown even thinner and paler.

“Alive?” She giggled. “Wouldn’t that be nice….”

“I mean, what are you eating?” Tony hastily corrected himself.

“Oh, a lot of things,” she answered vaguely. “Why? Are you worried about me?”

Tony swallowed. “I was wondering if maybe I could help you somehow.”

“You can help me by really believing that I can do it.”

“I do already!”

“And by visiting me more often, as now I don’t have as much energy as I used to.”

“But I don’t have the vampire cape anymore,” Tony objected. “Rudolph took it back from me.”

“I know,” said Anna. “But when the inventory is over, he’ll bring it back to you.”

“When is the inventory?”

“On December 31.”

“New Year’s Eve?”

“No vampire is allowed to leave the crypt on New Year’s Eve.”

“They aren’t? But then how can you see the fireworks?”

“Fireworks?” exclaimed Anna shrilly, her eyes flashing with anger. “Do you mean those horrible things that scream and bang? One of those rockets is responsible for Greta the Good’s miserable end! It hit her while she was in the air, her cape caught fire, she fell, and”—Anna sobbed—“burned up. Poor Greta!”

“She burned up?” asked Tony, alarmed. For him, the New Year’s Eve fireworks had always been a lot of fun. It had never occurred to him that they could be dangerous for vampires.

“Things are hard for all of you,” he said sympathetically. “You can’t even celebrate New Year’s Eve!”

But Anna didn’t seem that upset. “It depends on how you look at it,” she answered. “In any case, I would never have met you if I weren’t—” She left the sentence unfinished, but Tony had understood what she meant.

He got goose bumps. Anna’s words had reminded him that she had become a vampire over a hundred years ago. He would rather not think about that!

“Guess what? I’m coming to Misery Valley during the spring break!” he said quickly, changing the topic of conversation.

“You’re coming to Misery Valley?” she asked happily.

“Yes, with my parents. To go camping.”

“Camping? Will you be sleeping in one of those fabric shelters that look so cozy?”

Tony nodded. “My parents want to go on an adventure vacation,” he explained. “And I got to choose where we’re going.”

“An adventure vacation? What’s that?”

“You do things that are adventurous, build fires, cook your own food, explore the region and so on….”

“That sounds great!” said Anna. “And you can be adventurous when it gets dark and go on a treasure hunt with me.”

“On a treasure hunt?”

“Yes! I’ll hide, and you have to find me, your treasure!” She giggled.

Tony turned away in embarrassment. Why did Anna always have to be so direct?

“There are other treasures too,” she added. “These boots, stockings, and hat, for example. I found them in a huge cupboard in the basement of the ruins. There are things in there you might like too!” She slipped off her ankle boots and tucked them under her cape. As she stood there in front of Tony in her stocking feet, she seemed even more fragile and delicate to him.

“The shoes used to belong to a damsel from the castle,” she explained. “Unfortunately, they’re a bit too big for me, especially for flying.” She climbed daintily up onto the windowsill.

“You’re leaving already?” Tony asked in dismay.

“Leaving?” She smiled and gracefully stroked her old, tattered cape. “Why? Do you want me to stay?”

“Yes—”

“That’s nice of you! But I’ve been here too long. Just tell me when you’re coming to Misery Valley.”

“When? Wait, I’ll have to check,” Tony said, embarrassed. He rummaged through his notebooks and papers. After a short search, he found the school calendar with the vacation dates on it.

“Here!” he said. “The first day of vacation is April 20.”

“April 20?” Anna giggled. “April 21 is Aunt Dorothee’s vampire day!”

“Oh dear…” exclaimed Tony, horrified. Aunt Dorothee’s vampire day was the day she became a vampire.

But Anna reassured him. “You don’t have to worry,” she said. “Aunt Dorothee is completely harmless on her vampire day. She puts on her wedding dress, which is over one hundred fifty years old, puts her gold necklaces around her neck, and lies down in her coffin. She spends the whole night thinking about and talking to Uncle Theodore.”

“She talks to Uncle Theodore? But he’s long, uh, gone….” Tony shied away from saying the word “dead.” Besides, it wasn’t really appropriate to mention Uncle Theodore’s tragic end. Ravenhood, the cemetery keeper, had pierced his heart with a wooden stake—ugh!

“She’s not really talking to Uncle Theodore,” Anna explained. “She’s just talking at Uncle Theodore.” She looked at Tony with wide, shining eyes, and added, “True love never dies—never!”

Tony felt himself go red again. He quickly turned away.

“Farewell, Tony,” Anna said. “See you soon.”

“Wait!” he cried. “When will we see each other again—and where?”

“Come to the ruins on April 21,” she answered. “We’ll meet in the old, overgrown garden by the hazel bushes—where Aunt Dorothee hid during the vampire ball.”

Anna was already spreading her arms under her cape, when she remembered something else.

“How long is your vacation? Until the beginning of summer?”

“No, only two weeks.”

“Only two weeks?” For a moment, she seemed disappointed. But then she smiled again.

“Two weeks can be very nice!” she said firmly. “It’s just a matter of how we spend them!”

And with one last long look at Tony, she flew away.

How we spend them? Tony thought. Anna seemed to have forgotten that his parents would be with him….