-4- My Life Went Down the Toilet So A Vampire Took Me -4- Strange Happenings

The day ended up not being as bad as I had expected it to.

After English, Lizzy sent me on my way to Spanish. I made it on time so I didn’t have to walk in front of the class embarrassed. I was placed in the back row, next to a window, which made me happy. The Spanish teacher, Señor Nicolás, was kind and, after assigning the class an activity in the Spanish book, came over to me and sat down, getting me caught up with where we were. I was surprised to find I was ahead with my Spanish than the class was. Finally, an easy class.

When the bell rang I was confident and happy. I looked at my schedule and noticed I had study hall. There was no room number next to it so I assumed I would just go to the library or something.

I was walking through the halls when I noticed Eddy, emerging from the boys’ bathroom.

“Hey, Eddy!” I called.

Eddy swiveled his head and when he saw me he broke out into a grin which was missing a few teeth. “Why, Miss Maddy, how is your first day going?” he asked.

I shrugged. “It’s going alright, I guess. English was a little tough at first but I already made a friend.” I smiled and gave a little thumb’s up.

Eddy chuckled. “Well, I’m glad to hear it. Say, aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”

I shrugged. “I have study and it doesn’t say go anywhere on my schedule so I was just hunting for the library.”

“Well allow me to lead the way.”

I smiled. “Thanks Eddy.”

The library wasn’t far at all. Once there, Eddy received a static command on his walkie-talkie and had to leave me. I stepped into the large room and immediately felt better.

All the walls were lined with books except a few places where windows with comfy chairs lived. Shelves were placed precisely throughout the heavenly room stocked full with books. To the right of the room was a space dedicated to computers and such. To the left was a wall dedicated to magazines, comic books, manga, graphic novels and other sorts of “picture books”.

“Looking for something?” I looked and saw a blonde girl with glasses looking at me.

“Sorry, I’m just in love with libraries,” I muttered.

The girl looked around. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I started to TA in the library after I started spending all my time here.”

“TA?” I asked.

“Teacher’s assistant. Pretty much I’m the student librarian. I’m Avery.”

“Maddy,” I said. “Do you need help with that?” I said, referring to the cart full of books.

Avery smiled. “Don’t worry about it.” She looked at the library desk. “Why don’t you go ask Mrs. Norman to set you up here? You’re gonna need a library card, student ID and computer access account. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Alright, thanks.” I then walked off to the checkout station where a fairly young woman sat reading a book.

“Can I help you?” she asked, barely glancing up from My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult.

“That was a good book. It was really sad at the end though,” I said, referring to the novel.

The woman looked up. “I thoroughly enjoy this book. This is the third time I’ve read it.”

I smiled. “Avery sent me for a library card, student ID and something about the computer.”

“A computer access account. No problem at all.” The woman stood up. “I’m Mrs. Norman, head librarian. And your name…”

“I’m Maddy Viper, new to Porter.”

Mrs. Norman smiled. “Well let’s get you set up.”


By the time I got to the chorus room (thankfully Avery was in chorus with me and we went together) I had a freshly laminated student ID, complete with a terrible picture of me, a library card and an account so I could get on any school computer.

“Hey, Maddy, over here!” I looked to see Lizzy waving me over. Avery and I sat fairly close to her.

“Yo, Mrs. Gibbs, we have a new student!” Avery called to the front of the room. I blushed, not liking attention.

Mrs. Gibbs, a woman who looked to be in her late 30’s, stood up from behind her desk. A pregnant belly plagued her midsection and she looked fairly far along. “Ah, you must be Madison Viper,” Mrs. Gibbs said, waddling over to me. “Welcome to chorus.” She held out a black folder. “This is your music portfolio. All the music we’re singing is in there. You can have one of your friends help you with it.”

I smiled and muttered thank you.

“Alright, everyone, stand up and go with your sections.” Mrs. Gibbs looked at me. “Are you a soprano or alto?”

“Soprano,” I replied. Mrs. Gibbs nodded and walked away.

“I’m a soprano too. You can stand next to me and I’ll help you,” Avery said. I smiled and walked with her to the set of risers that were against the wall of the chorus room. I noticed Lizzy going to the opposite side of the room with some other girls.

“Lizzy’s not standing with us?” I asked.

Avery looked at Lizzy. “Oh, no. She’s an alto.”

I was fairly surprised because of how light and airy her voice was but didn’t think anything of it.

In no time the chorus had been pulled into an interesting version of Let It Snow.


I emerged from the school fairly happy with my first day. Avery was in my lunch also and I sat with her and a group of her friends. I felt bad not sitting with Lizzy but she seemed fine about it. As long as she didn’t hold it against me in the future.

Avery ended up being in my science class and my math class. I was happy and relieved that I had either Avery or Lizzy in just about every class except for Spanish.

I walked on the sidewalks, careful not to let my foot hit and cracks, smiling to myself. I hadn’t seen Eddy for the rest of the day but it was alright. I would hopefully see him tomorrow.

While thinking this I wasn’t watching where I was going. I collided into something hard. My backpack fell and my things fell out of it.

“Sorry,” someone said. I looked up to see a man in his early twenties, bending down to help me pick up my stuff. He was attractive but in a scary way. He had pale skin and black hair but his eyes were such a sharp blue that it almost hurt to look at their color. I realized he was looking at me and I shook my head, trying to stop staring at the stranger.

“‘S ok,” I muttered, frightened of this man’s beauty.

“Here you go.” The man was holding out my backpack to me, now with everything back in it. I smiled faintly.

“Thank you.”

He smiled back and left. I looked at my watch and realized that my encounter with the stranger had made me late to pick Mikey up. I hurried to his pre-school.

I walked inside and looked around. The pre-school was pretty much a large room with toys strewn throughout. The children were currently resting on little cots in the back of the room out of the light and out of the noise of parents coming to pick their children up. A few of the cots were empty, probably children who had already gone home.

“Can I help you?” A woman came up to me, obviously an aid at the pre-school.

“Hi, I’m here to pick Michael Viper up.” The woman smiled at me and disappeared behind a desk.

“Your name please?”

“Madison Viper.”

“And your relation?”

“I’m his older sister.”

The woman nodded and typed something into the computer. Apparently that was the information she wanted. She pointed out a sheet of paper on the counter.

“I just need you to sign. And can I see some identification? Anything with your name on it is fine. It’s just procedure. We want to make sure the children are safe.”

I thought for a moment. I didn’t have a driver’s license yet. Then I remembered my school ID. I swung my backpack around and dug through it, looking for the laminated strip of paper. I couldn’t find it. In fact, my wallet was gone!

“Oh, no.” I muttered.

“Is everything alright, Miss?” the woman asked me.

I thought back through the school day. Had I left somewhere? Perhaps in the lunch line when I was buying lunch? No, I remember specifically taking it. Then I thought of the man on the street. I hadn’t been paying attention when he was putting my stuff back into my back pack. He must have stolen my wallet.

I slapped my head in annoyance. How stupid could I get? At least he’d find nothing in there except for $5, a slip of paper with our new home number on it and my student ID and library card.

“I’m sorry; there was a man on the street. He must have stolen it.” The woman looked at me skeptically.

“You don’t seem too upset about it.”

I shrugged. “There was nothing in there except my ID and a couple of bucks.”

“Well I need some sort of ID for you to pick up your brother.”

I thought for a second. “I have a class schedule,” I said, in hopes that she would accept that.

The woman thought for a moment and shrugged. “I supposed that’s alright. But next time, please bring real ID.”

I nodded and pulled out my schedule. I handed it over and the woman compared it with her computer. “Alright, you’re all set. You can go and pick Mikey up. Try not to disturb the other children. It’s alphabetical by last name so it should be easy enough to find him.”

I nodded and shoved my class schedule back into my backpack. True to her word, Mikey was on the second to last cot, easily spotted. I squatted down and rubbed his back.

“Hey, Mikester,” I whispered, using the nickname our father had given to Mikey.

Mikey turned over and rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Maddy?” he asked, slightly confused.

“Hey, buddy. It’s time to go home.” Mikey nodded and wrapped his arms around my neck. I lifted him up by his bottom. I guess I would be carrying my little brother home.

“Here you are.” The woman had appeared out of nowhere behind me, holding out Mikey’s Sesame Street backpack.

“Thanks,” I said grabbing it.

Sighing I lugged my 60 pound load home.


“How was school?” was the first thing Jordan said when he emerged through the bedroom door.

Nick, sitting at the table working on homework, grunted, picked up his stuff and disappeared into our room with a slam of the door.

“I take it not so good?” Jordan asked.

I shrugged, muting the TV. “He hasn’t said anything since he got home.”

Jordan shook his head. “He’s got to learn to understand what’s going on now.” He sighed. “Where’s Mikey?”

“In your bedroom sleeping.” Jordan nodded and thought for a second.

“I should probably go wake him up before he’s awake for the rest of the night.” Jordan disappeared into his room.

Everything was quiet in the apartment for a while except for the TV, quietly playing Gilmore Girls. Suddenly the apartment shook with a child’s scream and crying.

Frightened for my baby brother, I jumped out of my seat and ran to Mikey’s aid. Running there, I accidentally slid into Nick who was also terrified for our brother’s safety.

Once we looked into Mikey and Jordan’s room we saw Jordan cradling Mikey in his arms, hushing the poor toddler who had streams of tears cascading down his face. His cheeks had turned a red color from screaming and having a lack of breath and his mouth was open, a strand of saliva stretching from his top lip to his bottom.

“What happened?” I asked soothingly so not to upset the still whimpering Mikey.

Jordan looked at me. “Do you know where Bop-Bop is?” Jordan asked panicked.

Bop-Bop. I had totally forgotten Mikey’s favorite stuffed bear at the pre-school. I told Jordan this realization. Jordan looked at his alarm clock.

“It’s only 4:30. I don’t think they close the building until 5. Maybe I can run and get Bop-Bop. Maddy, watch Nick, would ya?”

Without an answer Jordan rushed out of the room with Mikey in his arms. I could hear Mikey’s wailing fade slowly into the distance.

“I do not need to be watched,” Nick huffed. “I’m old enough to take care of myself!”

I wasn’t listening to Nick. All I could think about was how stupid I had been this past day. My wallet got stolen and now this! What was wrong with me?

“Later, Maddy.” I looked up to see Nick heading out the front door with his backpack.

“Nick, where do you think you’re going?” I asked.

“I got invited to my friend Adam’s house for the night.”

“It’s a school night!” I cried.

“Yeah, so? You’re not the boss of me. No one’s the boss of me! Just leave me alone.” With that, Nick stormed out.

I stood alone in the apartment, goose bumps crawling up and down my arms.

Something didn’t feel right.


I sat in my room, going through Mom’s jewelry box. I took all the jewelry out, not paying attention to it one bit. I went to the bottom of the jewelry box where a secret compartment was hidden.

I lifted up the bottom of the jewelry box to reveal a locket. The locket was old and the gold was turning brown, but it was eloquent in its own way. I knew what I had to do.

I stood up with the locket in my hand, looking at the black box. This was it. I lifted the locket and-


Something jerked me awake. I’m not sure what, but the TV was still blaring and my back was stiff from falling asleep on the old couch. Although I could tell the sun had long since set, I felt alone in the apartment. Where was Jordan and Mikey?

“Hello?” I called out. There was no answer. Tentatively, I made my way to Jordan and Mikey’s bedroom.

The door was open and the room was bare of life. I flicked the light on but still my two brothers did not appear.

I was about to leave and call Jordan’s cell phone when I noticed something on the windowsill. It was my mother’s jewelry box. I instinctively remembered my dream and hesitantly I made my way towards it, not sure what to expect.

I gently lifted the lid and was greeted by the sight of my mothers expensive and beautiful necklaces, bracelets and earrings. I was gentle with lifting them out of the box, not wanting to ruin any of them. A small tube of my mother’s old perfume sat wedged in a corner. I picked it up and inhaled deeply the scent of my mother. The fragrance nearly brought me to tears.

When the box was empty I searched the bottom for any ridges or handles, something that could lead to a secret compartment. Sighing, I found none. So it was just a dream.

I began to replace the jewelry, the new fear of where Mikey and Jordan were setting in. In my haste of getting all the trinkets away, the jewelry box accidentally fell off the windowsill and crashed to the ground.

I bent down quickly to put all ornaments back in but stopped suddenly. The bottom of the box had come undone. A secret compartment. I opened it slowly and found a lone locket sitting, waiting for me, seemingly looking at me. My heart rose to my throat as I picked up the old golden beauty and fingered it slowly.

It was gold and was an oval shape. On the face of it was a family crest, our family crest. When I was a child I was frightened of our family crest. It was the regular shape with a dead bat in it. I remember seeing it with blood spilling from its chest. Wrapping around our family crest was a phrase in another language that I didn’t understand.

Or I should say, shouldn’t understand.

I had never before seen the strange symbols before yet when my eyes skimmed over them, I knew exactly what they meant.

Here Lies the Key

The Key. I knew instinctively what the Key was, too. I picked up the locket and looked at my brother’s closet. The locket felt warm against my skin, much like the box had. I walked towards the closet slowly, afraid of what might happen.

The box was difficult to get down, shoved behind countless boxes and old toys of Mikey’s. But finally, the strange cube was held in my hands. I looked to the locket and then the key slot. The locket would never fit in the slot. What was I thinking?

Something clicked in my mind, like I had done this before even though these actions were unfamiliar.

I opened to locket. Just as I knew, a little key’s outline was nestled in the gold. Using my nail, I flipped the key out of its bed. It went easily, as if this was done many times a day.

The key flipped out was the perfect shape to fit the lock. Very carefully, I inserted it in. It twisted easily; with a small clicking sound I knew it was open.

“That’s far enough.”

I whirled around to find the man from the street standing there, looking smug.

“End of the line, Sweety.”

His fist swung out and clipped the side of my head and although I knew I was in danger, the last thing that went through my mind was if I finished my homework for the next day.