Stake My Breath Away 🦇🐺

Moving one catch and then the other, Simon wrestled open the shed door as quietly as someone at 4.30am could manage. Once inside he began to move paint pots, ladders and soil out of the way so he could reach the main event.

Covered in dust and dried paint, Simon felt a wave of regret knowing he should have done this years ago. With all of the items off to one side Simon grabbed one end of his late Grandad Abraham’s old chest and dragged it into the main part of the shed. Flipping the main catch on the front of the chest, Simon grabbed the dusty lid and was immediately hit with the smell of old papers from the contents.

Switching on his torch and shining it inside the chest Simon began to look at all of the things his Grandad had left him. It wasn’t that he had been too busy to go through them previously, more that it hurt too much. But it’s amazing how a series of monster attacks can help you reassess your priorities and face your fears. Knowing she may not be of any use for a while, Simon’s loyal dog Annie curled up into a ball on the floor and had a little snooze, although her ears were on guard in case of any intruders.

At first Simon wasn’t sure what he was looking for as he rustled through the endless piles of papers but soon enough he saw something interesting. Nestled in the corner of the trunk was a black leather notebook with an odd emblem on the front in the shape of a cross.

Opening the notebook, unsure what the emblem meant, on the first page Simon was greeted with the following note “If your name is not Abraham I suggest you close this notebook immediately and return it to where you found it. However, if anything has happened to him be warned – once you’ve read this guide you will never see the world around you in the same way again!”

Simon knew it – he read one page after another, every page an eye-opener. The guide detailed, not just the creatures Simon had seen tonight, but every encounter his Grandad had during his entire life. And these monsters were everywhere, at school, on holiday and beyond. Simon had to do something about it and uphold his family name. Closing his eyes Simon tried to imagine what it was like to be his Grandad Abraham Ving.

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Abraham knew all of his victories and defeats had led to this moment, this final battle to end them all. Armed with his trusty blade of destiny and his cross of a thousand souls he walked onto the battlefield. Opposite him on the other end of the field was a single person in a long leather jacket, slicked back hair and the complexion of a bag of plain flour. 

“Good to see you've joined me, Abraham,” shouted the mysterious figure to his adversary.

“I always like to be punctual, Vlad,” Abraham smiled back at his monstrous acquaintance.

“Well what’s stopping you?” goaded Vlad to his opponent.

Abraham got ready to run towards the fight when out of nowhere came ten monsters of various types speeding towards him. Vlad began to snigger.

“Oh did I forget to say we have company?” he said, shrugging his shoulders at Abraham, hoping it was the last thing he ever heard.

Abraham took cover and leapt through the air spinning, with his blade ready to slice them up into tiny little pieces. These huge winged werewolves landed in a heap of evenly cut pieces onto the floor before disappearing in a puff of blue smoke to back where they came.

More huge creatures, part snake and part bat flew into view and Abraham ducked underneath their long slithery bodies and cut them length ways, seeing them flop into two halves before becoming slithery dust balls.

Flailing apes with bat wings charged into the side of Abraham, sending him sprawling to the floor. Picking himself up quickly he rolled out of the way just in time, avoiding a second wave of punches and kicks. Flipping back on his feet, Abraham pulled his sword out of the ground and threw it at the ape like a javelin, ran alongside and overtook the blade, flipped over the top of the ape bat, landing on the ground behind it. The ape bat was too busy watching Abraham flipping over the top of its head, so it ignored the sword of destiny flying towards it until it was already halfway through its face, spraying Abe in bright green flood. Abraham dislodged the blade from the ape bat corpse and strolled towards Vlad for the main event.

Vlad was slow clapping his enemy’s performance with a big smile on his face

“Congratulations Mr Ving! Such a shame we have to end your winning streak right now!!” On the word “now” Vlad’s form changed as he grew from being six foot tall to 30 feet tall. His wings grew, as did the rest of him, until he was now in the shape of the most gruesome and frightening vampire monster anyone had ever seen. Abraham held up the cross of destiny at his opponent, who saw it and started to laugh

“You fool, I am too powerful for that now,” mocked the terrifying, more fierce version of Vlad at his stupid adversary. 

Abraham unscrewed the top of the cross and a blue light shot out of the end as a huge beam poured out towards Vlad. 

“Yes you are too powerful for the cross but not the contents,” said Abraham, with a brave smile on his face.

The beam of light became one person and then a hundred, and finally a thousand souls, all encapsulated in this blue light, covered Vlad causing him to scream in pain. The souls grabbed Vlad and dragged him slowly into the cross. This huge vampire piece by piece soon disappeared restoring Vlad to his human form but this weak, defenceless and powerless version of Vlad cried out for a chance to repent. Abraham had to stand firm because he knew from tragic experience it was always an act. Vlad was never going to change. The thousand souls were almost inside the cross once more with Vlad in tow. A final cry from the monstrous fiend cried out and then a sudden silence as Abraham closed up the cross, trapping all of the souls - plus Vlad - once more.

Abraham breathed a sigh of relief, he still had the strength to defend the world but he knew that soon the time would come to find the next monster hunter. Those decisions can wait for now as he had some celebrating to do...

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Putting the book down Simon began to rifle through the chest with a sense of urgency. Planted to the base of the damp chest was a brown sack full of something heavy. Picking it up Simon opened the sack to peek inside. Pulling out one of the items, Simon was greeted with a very sharp silver stake.

Opening up the notebook again to the pages showing a sketch of a werewolf with bat wings, or “wolf bat” as his Grandad referred to it, Simon looked at the sub-heading “weaknesses”.

1) Holy water 

2) Piercing the heart or severing the head from the body

3) Silver through the skin causes severe injuries, instant death if through the heart 

4) Sunlight 

Simon knew he needed reinforcements if he was going to defend himself and the world from these things. With it still being pitch black outside and sunrise a couple of hours away, he looked around for ways to use the holy water. On the far end of the shed was a plastic box full of summer fun items. Bubble machine, pieces of a swingball and a Mega soaker water gun. Simon smiled, grabbed the water gun and began to close the chest. He knew he needed days to get through everything in there, but he had enough knowledge now and understanding of what his late Grandad Abraham was really training him for all those years.

Armed with a water gun, some silver stakes and a trusty dog was probably not enough to win this fight but he had to try. Thinking through all the places the rest of these creatures could be, Simon was about to wake up Annie when a buzz came from the pocket of his leather jacket. Pulling out his mobile phone he looked at the screen, the mysterious text from an unknown caller read “Meet at the Abbey. Ceremony starts in 20 minutes…”