The Lady of Darkness

It was a warm, sunny day, and birdsong filled the air. Even the ruins don’t look so scary anymore, Tony thought. More like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. He couldn’t help but remember how Anna had once told him the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Her own version, anyway.

In Anna’s version, Sleeping Beauty was a handsome young prince who was brought back to life with the help of a vampire kiss from a vampire princess.

Did the ruins also have an old tower with a small door and a rusty key stuck in the lock? And would the door also spring open when Tony turned the key, and would he find a woman with a spindle spinning flax?

Doubtful! If he did meet a woman in the ruins, it would certainly be Aunt Dorothee or Hildegard the Thirsty. And they wouldn’t need a spindle to get his blood….

Tony shivered. Fortunately, it was broad daylight, and the vampires were asleep. They didn’t sleep for a hundred years like Sleeping Beauty, but they couldn’t pose a threat to Tony and his father until after dark. But the vampires were at risk of being discovered when they were asleep in their coffins. For example, by Tony’s father, who apparently couldn’t wait to get to the ruins.

“Why are you walking so fast?” grumbled Tony. His legs hurt with every step.

His father laughed. “The man in the store really made me curious with his stories about the ruins,” he said.

“What kind of stories?”

“Well, he said that the ruins were directly linked to the underworld.”

“To the underworld?”

“Yes. And that the spirits of darkness come up from the underworld at night to celebrate their abominable feasts in the ruins. He spoke of devils’ meetings, and of flickering lights, and of ghastly organ music that can sometimes be heard at night.”

“Oh, really?” said Tony, struggling to keep a straight face. Spirits of the darkness… that was a very apt description of the vampires! And it was also true that they came up at night—not from the underworld, but from their coffins. And he had heard the organ music himself.

“Anyone who dares to go anywhere near the ruins is taken with them to the underworld,” Tony’s father continued. “That’s what the man in the store said.”

“And has the man ever seen them, these spirits of darkness?” asked Tony.

“No. He said he would never set foot in Misery Valley. But he added that they wear black capes and have deathly pale faces.”

“Did he tell you anything else?”

“Yes. That the Lady of Darkness herself has come up from the underworld to the ruins, and that since then, more and more villagers have felt strangely weak and powerless.” He laughed. “Can you imagine that? The actual Lady of Darkness in these shabby ruin walls amidst spiders, toads, and bats?”

Tony smiled. “Maybe the lady likes bats!”

They had almost reached the other side of the valley. In front of them, on a hill, lay the ruins.

“We’d better turn back,” Tony mumbled, suddenly feeling strangely anxious.

“Turn back?” exclaimed his father with feigned indignation. “Are you afraid of the Lady of Darkness?”

“No,” Tony growled.

How could he explain to his father that he’d suddenly had a premonition, as if something would happen to them if they went into the ruins? “There might be some loose stones,” he said, “or a staircase could collapse.”

“They’re not that bad,” laughed his father, unconcerned. “And besides, we wanted adventure!”