The Scream

In front of him, surrounded by purple velvet, lay a small woman with snow-white hair pinned up in an old-fashioned bun. Her skin was covered with lines and wrinkles, and her gray eyes stared straight ahead eerily. She looked completely lifeless. Her mouth, with its very white, pointed vampire fangs, smiled in her sleep.

That had to be Sabine the Terrible, Anna, Rudolph, and Gregory’s grandmother. According to Rudolph, she had been the first of the Sackville-Bagg family vampires.

A cane, a black beaded bag, black gloves, black velvet slippers, and a gold book lay with her in the coffin. Tony bent down to read the letters on the worn gold binding.

“ ‘Sackville-Bagg… Family… Chronicles,’ ” he slowly deciphered. “Chronicles”—wasn’t that a kind of diary? If that were true, then the book would contain incredible revelations about the vampire clan! Tony was about to take the book out of the coffin, when suddenly there was a series of long-drawn-out, horrible howls. Tony was paralyzed with fright.

It took a moment for him to realize that what he’d heard was only the organ. Apparently, his father had managed to get it going.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Now he even found the horrible, distorted-sounding organ music quite pleasing: as long as he could hear it, he didn’t have to worry that his father would surprise him down here!

He summoned up all his courage again and carefully lifted the golden book out of the coffin.

After making sure that Sabine the Terrible was still lifeless, he opened the first page, fingers trembling with excitement. Tony saw thin, yellowish paper, with small writing in black ink. But he was deeply disappointed when he couldn’t understand a word, not even a letter! It was either a cipher or an old, long-forgotten script!

Eventually, Tony had to put the golden book back into the coffin without having learned anything of its mysterious contents. But at least he knew that the family chronicles existed. When he met Anna that night, he would ask her to bring the book next time and read it to him.

He put the flashlight back on the small coffin and closed the lid over Sabine the Terrible. Then he stepped up to the next large coffin.

When he had pushed the lid aside a little and shined the flashlight into the interior of the coffin, he saw a tall, gaunt woman with wide-open blue eyes staring into space.

This must be Hildegard the Thirsty. And she really did look thirsty, with her wide mouth and protruding fangs that flashed terrifyingly in the beam of the flashlight. She had a long, curved nose and sharp features that made her look like a bird of prey. Her hands, with their extra-long, blood-red nails, seemed to Tony like claws ready to grab him! She was Anna, Rudolph, and Gregory’s mother.

Brrr! Tony shivered as he imagined having such a scary-looking parent.

He tried to pull the heavy lid quickly back over the coffin, forgetting that he still had the flashlight in his hand. It slipped out of his hand, dropped on the ground, and went out, plunging Tony into complete darkness!

It was so dark in there that he couldn’t see anything. Nothing at all. And the musty smells, exacerbated by the darkness, almost made him choke. And then there were the horrible organ sounds. Tony started to feel like he was about to pass out. His ears were ringing, and he felt dizzy. But he had to fight it! If he fainted now, the vampires would discover him as soon as they woke up, and not even Rudolph or Anna would be able to save him.

Tony pinched his arm until he cried out in pain. The pain made him think a little more clearly. He bent down and fumbled for the flashlight. At least there was still hope that it hadn’t broken for good. Maybe it was just that the batteries had shifted.

When his fingers touched the cold, slippery ground, he flinched in horror. But he gritted his teeth and continued searching. It seemed like an eternity before his fingertips hit the metal housing of the flashlight. He picked it up and shook it a few times, and miraculously, it lit up again! Tony was so relieved that he stared at the bright light for a moment, incredulous and stunned.

Then he rushed to the door and pulled down on the handle with his left hand while he tightly clutched his most precious possession down there, the flashlight, in his right hand.

Slowly, the heavy door opened. Tony ran into the low passage. He didn’t stop until he had reached the higher, wider cellar passage. His heart was pounding, and he still felt dizzy. But he couldn’t just keep running. He had to put the stones back in front of the opening first.

He placed the flashlight on the ground very carefully and began to stack the stones on top of each other. They seemed even heavier as he lifted them one at a time. When he had finished, he realized with horror that he hadn’t closed Hildegard the Thirsty’s coffin lid properly.

The thought of having to return to the dark vault made his hair stand on end.

But if he didn’t close the coffin lid properly, the vampires would surely become suspicious. Though it could also be that Hildegard the Thirsty had reared up in her sleep and moved the lid herself, Tony thought, trying to convince himself. While he hesitated, the organ music suddenly stopped. Through the silence that ensued, he heard a loud, painful scream. “Ow!”

And then again: “Ow!”

It was his father’s voice!

Wondering what was the matter, Tony ran down the damp, slippery corridor and up the stone steps to the ballroom.