I told you we should have used my car! - CH 1

All four in the car were tired, hot, dusty and very grouchy. What had started out as trip they had all been looking forward to, was rapidly developing into a disaster. Only an hour into the 4 hour drive, their car had developed a problem. It spluttered and coughed and they thought it was going to die on them. But it had kept going and not wanting to miss out on the concert they had been looking forward to for months, they carried on.1

However, they had now been driving for 2 hours and the car seemed worse. 2

'Is there a town near here?', asked Lauren, who was driving, ' We may be able to get someone to check it over'3

'Not according to the map', replied Graham, her boyfriend, 'We seem to be at least another hour from anywhere'4

'Bloody typical', moaned Rachael, 'I said we should have used my car'5

'Yeah well we didn't, so there's no point going on about it' said Graham.6

The forth member of the group, Tom, was as usual fast asleep at the back.7

They continued on in silence, when all of a sudden, Lauren sat upright in her seat and yelled out, 'What's that over there?'. She pointed to the left of the car.8

They all looked, even Tom, woke up and looked as well. 'It looks like a town', he said.9

'It’s not on the map', said Graham, 'I wonder what it is called'10

'I don't care, I'm heading there' said Lauren, as she made a right turn onto a narrow dusty track. The car bumped and jolted along the track, throwing up clouds of dust. After about 10 minutes, they saw a sign. 'Welcome to Black Falls. Population 2'. It had dozens of bullet holes all over it.11

'This looks promising', said Rachael, sarcastically. Everyone glared at her and they continued in silence. After another 5 minutes, they finally arrived at the outskirts of the town. Lauren drove down the main street, stopping at the far end12

‘Nobody at all, did you see anyone?’ exclaimed Rachael.13

Everyone agreed they had not seen anyone, in fact there had been no evidence of life at all, anywhere. The whole place looked totally deserted.14

‘If we are to get the car fixed we had better look around’, said Lauren as she turned the engine off. Before heading off they tried their phones, no one could get a signal.15

They got out and splitting into two pairs, started to explore. The town only consisted of the one main street, with about 8 buildings on each side, so they soon met up again at the far end.16

‘Well’, said Tom, ‘Did you find anything?’ Neither group had found anyone or anything. All buildings except 2 had been locked tight. They agreed that they should explore the buildings that were unlocked. Walking over to the nearest one, a small diner, they went in. Tom tried the lights and, surprised everyone when they worked. In fact everything seemed to be working. The lights were working, there was a fridge full of drinks, including some beer and the gas cookers worked. A cupboard was full of tinned food. There was very little dust around, so someone must have been there quite recently. There was not much to see, just the front eating area, the kitchens, toilets, a store room and a small staff area.17

They were about to go and look round the only other unlocked building when they noticed another door. Graham opened it, stretching down into darkness were some steps. They all looked at each other, wondering what they might find. Graham found a light switch and turned the light on. The gloom instantly disappeared, making the whole place, seem less scary. With Tom leading they all went down. Cautiously, he pushed open the door at the bottom. It was pitch black. He felt around for the light switch and turned the lights on. The others pushed forward and he almost fell into the cellar room. There was not much to see. A few empty crates, some old tools and some other equipment no one recognized. Rachael walked over to a particularly large crate, to look behind it. 18

Everyone jumped, as she gave out a loud scream. They all came running and stopped dead as they saw what had scared her. It was an open coffin. The lid was lying on the floor next to it. In the coffin was what looked like some earth and some grey dust of some kind. There was also a large wooden stake sticking out of it.19

After they got over the shock, everyone started to talk at once.20

‘It looks very old’21

‘Why is it here?’22

‘Why is there a stake in it?’23

‘What is the grey dust?’24

Still shaking Rachael suggested it may be a vampire’s coffin. The others looked at her as if she was barking mad. There’s no such thing as vampires, they said, making fun of her. But Rachael was not so sure. ‘How do you know for definite’, she said. ‘Most old tales are based on fact they just get exaggerated a bit over the years’. But, the others were having none of it and continued to tease her. 25

Graham went to pick up the stake. But Rachael’s, scream soon stopped him. ‘Don’t touch it’, she shouted, ‘If the stake is removed, a vampire can reform and come back. Although, Graham, still thought she was mad, he did leave it alone. Seeing that Rachael was still shaking, they decided to go back upstairs. As they left, Tom stumbled, falling against the crate. As he grabbed the crate for support, he kicked the coffin. After the others had made sure he was OK, they went back upstairs, unaware that the stumble had caused the stake to become dislodged and fall out of the coffin. As they turned the lights off and slammed the door, a slight breeze seemed to disturb the dust in the coffin, causing it to swirl around. As it settled, it appeared to take on a strange shape.26