The School of the Undead

Mary to fall into a deep enough sleep, he began. He straightened his long black raincoat, which he only wore as he deemed that it was fit attire for his activities rather than the weather, and quickly strode across the road and down the driveway until he came to the Mary’s door. From what he had learned from his surveillance, he was confident that he had no need to fear that anyone was watching him, and consequently proceeded to tackle the problem of breaking into number 56 without making the sort of noise that could disturb and alert those inside.

After wiping his boots on the worn, brown welcome mat outside, with careful tread - and a smile on his lips brought about by the excitement of breaking in without being discovered - the figure ventured into the house. Always the sort to get rid of the most difficult tasks first, he headed straight for the stairs.

Each footstep he took up the flowery, patterned carpeted steps was an act of great concentration and care. It was not just that he was concerned that he might bring attention to himself if he created too much noise, it was also a matter of being able to continue the game of invading the privacy of the O’Hare household, one he was thoroughly enjoying. Indeed, as he finally made it to the landing at the top of the stairs, he even took a few moments to enjoy the sense of satisfaction brought about by his success so far. As he stood there, he took a long and slow deep breath, reminded himself not to become too over confident and destroy his chance to fulfil his main goal, then made his way over to the room at the front of the house, which he assumed was the main bedroom.

With great caution, he slowly turned the brass handle and gently opened the door. Though the only illumination in the room came from the streetlamp outside, the invader found that there was still sufficient light to determine that all was as he expected in the bedroom. For a couple of minutes, he listened to the faint sound of breathing that constituted almost the only noise in the room. Though there was a slight thrill in this, it also had a practical purpose: he needed to ensure that the slight disturbance he had caused when opening the door had not roused anyone from their sleep. Eventually, he became content that Mary was still oblivious to his presence and then, with a fair degree of concentration to ensure that he did not mistakenly let go of the handle, he closed the door.

With a speed that was relatively swift in comparison to the time he had taken to inspect the bedroom, the man investigated the other couple of rooms on the upper floor with the aid of his pocket torch. It came as no surprise to him that he did not find what he was looking for. Instead, all he came across were boxes filled with old copies of the Radio Times, a selection of DIY guides, a large pile of completed crossword puzzle books, several pieces of outdated or broken furniture and the upstairs toilet. What a waste of so many decades, he thought.

Slowly, the invader made his way back down to the ground floor and began his real search. He only gave the kitchen a cursory glance as he not only knew that Mary had received Johann Milch in the room on more than one occasion, it was also all too visible from the garden outside. Surely she would not be so foolish as to hide what he was looking for in there. The living room, he thought, was also a dead end: far too risky. It was one of the most likely places to receive unwanted visitors. Nevertheless, he prided himself on conscientiousness, so he took his time to check the walls of the room and under the three-piece suite as best he could, finding no evidence of what he was looking for.

Sadly, he told himself, the game was coming to an end. The individual who had tasked him with the mission he was undertaking would be most displeased with the way he was carrying it out, as the invader had left the most obvious places for what he was searching for till last. This caused the man no degree of concern as he was quite confident that he would get the task done, and he saw no reason why he should not have a little enjoyment in the performance of his duty; especially as such tasks had become so much more infrequent in the recent past. So, with a slightly heavy heart, he made his way to the first of the two most likely locations of his target: underneath the stairs. Once again, he had to take care while opening the panel to the hidden space for fear that a pile of unseen loose items might come tumbling out. However, he found the space to be well ordered and, after a thorough inspection, nothing more interesting than Mary’s cleaning closet.

The last location was the ground floor bathroom, which was situated at the back of the house behind the kitchen. For the first time, the man determined that it would be safe enough to use the room’s light and, after locking the door behind him, turned it on to reveal walls of pale green and yellow tiles, and a slightly worn pale brown carpet. What sort of vampire could be content to persist to exist in a place such as this? he thought. He first inspected the black wooden bath panel but considered that it did not seem likely that anything was hiding behind it. Consequently, he turned his attention to the carpet and was not surprised to find that it easily came away from the tack strips laid around the edge of the floor. And there, before him, was what