TRIBRID DIARIES

It was an ancient building made of thick red bricks. It looked majestic standing firmly on the solid ground. ‘My Uncle couldn’t have built this' I thought as I fixed my gaze on the huge doors of the building- What the fuck! Was this really where I was going to be living?

A slight tap on my shoulder brought me back to reality. I looked up at my uncle; a young man in his early thirties, he was so fair that you wouldn’t even believe he was Nigerian. He was tall, muscular and had smooth shaven beards. He was handsome, but still chose to remain single.

“Welcome to my humble abode!” he said out loud, it was very dark and there were only two other buildings on that street. And the fact that his house was right in front of the woods scared me a lot.

“Can we go in now, Edward” I grumbled as I picked my small bag from the ground. I thought my uncle was living in the good, civilized parts of the US because my parents had told me that he was really rich, but here I was, standing in front of a house that looked like as if it had been built in the 90’s. He walked ahead of me, but not towards the stone door; it looked more like a garage door.

Edward brought out a key and unlocked the lock on the garage door, he then pushed it open with no stress at all. The garage was large, there were two cars at a far end; a Porsche and a Range Rover Sport, both very dirty and dusty. There was another car against the wall probably serving as the lock a small door. He went towards the old dusty car and placed his hand underneath it, he lifted it up high and shifted it away from the small door thereby paving a way for us to go into the house. I starred at him in disbelief, he just lifted a car without even breaking a sweat. He turned to me and smiled.

I shook my head, I couldn’t believe what I just saw. I dropped my bag and went towards the car, I squatted and placed my hands underneath it just as Edward had done. I tried very hard to lift the car but it just wouldn’t bulge. Edward laughed loudly and I looked away trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Let’s go in, Philip” he mumbled. I picked my bag slowly and walked in behind him.

The house actually looked worse than I had imagined it to be, it was plain with no furniture at all. There was a big window at an edge of the wall with a wooded table beneath it. The house was poorly illuminated as only one yellow bulb stood at the center of the living room. The walls weren’t even painted and it had no color. There was in fact nothing good to see in it. I did a little more surveying of the house before turning back to my uncle.

He smiled again; “It’s a nice place. I know, you don’t have to tell me” he said as he walked towards the stairs. He obviously knows I hate this totally! Who was he kidding- Who wouldn’t?!. I followed him from behind as he went up the stairs. We reached a corridor with doors at the two opposite far ends, he turned left and I followed him closely until we reached the door.

Edward fumbled with the handle of the door and pushed it open, he ushered me into the room.

“Go to bed, you have school in the morning” he said and shut the door in my face. I looked around the room, it was not so bad at least it had a bed, a hanger and there was a desktop computer at the edge of the room. I dropped my bag beside the hanger and hopped on the bed. I was exhausted and tired.

I tried to sleep but it was pointless. I wasn’t comfortable or it was probably because wasn’t used to the whole place. I sat up and stood on the bed, I pushed the window open and sat there staring at the moon. It was sickle-shaped but still cast it’s glare of light on the earth.

Sleep wasn’t still coming as I sat there staring at the incomplete moon up there in the sky. I heard a loud bang- It was probably the garage door. 'Was Edward going out? Where the hell would he be going to by this time of the night?' I asked myself. Seconds later I saw the shadow of someone going into the woods.

'Why would Edward be going into the dark and scary woods by this time of the night?' I thought.

'Psst! Psst!' The sound that brought me back to reality- Who could that be? I looked down and saw a young boy waving at me from the front of the garage door. When he saw that he had gotten my attention, he beckoned me to come.

I jumped from the window of my room and landed on the garage roof , I walked across it and jumped again landing on the ground. I stood up and looked at the boy. He looked pretty much 16 to me cos I was sure I was older than him with at least a year. He had these green eyes and deep black full hair.

He walked towards me, he had a very see serious and concerned look on his face.

“Hi, I am Luke Chester” he said with a deep voice as he extended his hands towards me. “Philip” I replied as I shook his hands warmly.

“You got any idea of where your uncle just ran off to?” he asked me. The expression on his face showed that he might know something about where Edward had gone to or probably what he was up to.

I shrugged.

“Your uncle just strolled into the woods at…” he paused and brought out his phone to check the time; “12:55pm. Look when I see things I can’t explain I like to investigate and find out things for myself”.

“Is there anything wrong with that?” I asked timidly, maybe he knew something about my uncle that I didn’t know.

Luke shrugged, he started walking towards the woods. 'Why would he go into the dark woods ? Was he that curious to know what my uncle was up to?' I wanted to know too but I couldn’t risk going into the dark woods, who knows what could be lurking in the dark.

Luke turned back at me and said; “Yo! Are you coming or not, Philip”. Christ! He was damn serious about going in there. I walked up to him and we strolled into the woods together.

A cool breeze rustled in the branches and rippled through the grass. It was very dark; owls were hooting and a few bats circled around in the sky. The moonlight was what paved way for us to see the right steps to take as we kept on moving deeper into the woods.

Luke seemed to be so determined to find my uncle as he kept on moving faster with time. I tried to catch up with him, doubling my steps until I was right beside him.

“Dude. Why do you seem to care so much about my uncle” I asked as we bent beneath a protruding branch.

He sighed loudly; “Now listen, what would a man in his right senses be looking for in this dark woods by this hour” he retorted.

“You seem to be forgetting something though” I replied. “We are in here too! In the freaking dark woods!”.

“Look, this is nothing to joke about man. This town isn’t safe, strange things happen everyday” he said. He walked towards a tree and pointed at something. I went closer and saw what he was pointing at; there were four claw marks on the tree, deep and long. It looked like as if an animal had slashed the wall with it’s long claws. It had to be a wolf, but wolf claws were obviously too small to make marks that were so long and deep.

I was scared, there was certainly a deadly animal in this woods. And not just any normal one, a very big one. I gulped and turned to face Luke who now had a smile across his face. 'Why was he smiling now?' I said to myself.

“Shrug it off, I have seen worse than you can actually imagine” Luke said as he bent down to look at something else. I brought out my phone and put on the flashlight, I pointed the light down to the ground.

“They are footsteps” he said.

“Yeah. Obviously” I replied.

The footsteps were obviously that of Edward and I couldn’t see anything special about that. He was a fully grown man so I couldn’t think of any sensible reasons why we were tracing his steps in the first place.

A loud howl jolted me from my thoughts, our eyes met and for the first time in the few minutes I had been with, I saw fear in his eyes. He turned his head to the left like as if he had heard something. He looked back at me; “I hear footsteps, hide!” he yelled.

We rushed to a huge log and laid down on our flat backs behind it. I could almost hear Luke’s heartbeat, it seemed as if his heart was going to jump out of his chest. The footsteps got louder, something was coming closer and fast!

“Are you scared?” Luke whispered.

I wasn’t as scared as he was, that I knew for sure. I couldn’t speak so I shook my head signifying that I wasn’t.

Suddenly, a fast moving creature jumped high over us and landed. It was certainly human as it had both hands and legs. I fixed my gaze on the human figure- Could it be Edward? It turned around with slow heavy steps and came towards us. It was human, a tall fair man. He had bushy eyebrows and starred at us with a certain lust that I couldn’t explain.

“What are you boys doing out here, all alone in the dark!” he said slowly and smiled wickedly revealing his perfect set of white teeth. He had very sharp protruding canines. My heart skipped a beat- It was a real life Vampire!

“It’s a Vampire! Run!” Luke yelled.

We both stood up and started to run as fast as we possibly could, I hadn’t even taken up to ten steps before I tripped and fell to the ground in a heap of dead leaves.

Luke didn’t stop , he was still running when the Vampire went past me with speed. It was too fast and I knew it would get to Luke any second.

Seconds passed, I couldn’t still bring myself to get back until my feet. It wasn’t because I was tired or injured, but what if the vampire actually saw me.

Luke’s sharp cry tore through the woods, I was scared. What could be happening to him, even though I had just met him I knew I had to help him. I gathered up courage and stood up, I began to limp forward until I got to him. His eyes were shut but his pulse was ok, I shook him violently until his eyelids fluttered open.

“He bit- my shoul-der, fed me blo-od. He said it- was a- gift” he stammered and smiled. I did not understand what he meant, I didn’t even think it mattered but I pulled him unto his feet and flung his arm across my shoulder.

We made our way out of the woods and across the street. I took him to his doorway, he removed his arm from my shoulder and clutched his wounded shoulder. Luke looked at me, thanked me and entered into his home. I turned around and walked towards the brick house, the horrid face of the vampire was still flashing in my head. Luke was right, this town certainly wasn’t safe.

I climbed the ladder unto the garage roof and strolled towards the window, I climbed over it and landed on my bed. I shifted towards the edge and yanked off my slides. Another loud howl tore throughout the woods, I jumped on my bed and fearfully covered my head with the pillow as I drifted off into sleep.