The Nosferatu Adventures
page 270, chapter 270
Out of Time
The Van Helsing Boys...
Seward was the youngest of the three cousins. He had a wiry frame and a mass of dark curls piled on top of his crown. Which is why he wore his grandmother's lace scarf around his head as a hair band. He'd once auditioned for a local boy band, but just didn't have the right look for it. In the end, he'd been stuck working for their grandfather at the family book store. It had been almost a year since the three cousins had been together. Both Ruthven and Landin had gone to the same college, studying anything that would get them away from the family store. For Ruthven, that had meant a job as an assistant for a travel magazine, and for Landin that ended up being butchery. He hadn't planned on it becoming his future, just something to help pay the bills during his last year at college. Somehow, he'd ended up inheriting the small deli from his former boss when he retired.
With their Grandfather's death, the three found themselves thrust back into the weirdness they'd all tried to escape.
"Something in this town is just not right." Seward commented as he watched Ruthven packing a large cardboard box.
"Oh not again." Ruthven rolled his eyes as he crossed the room to empty out the next drawer in their grandfather's dresser. Carrying the stack of shirts back to the bed, he began sorting them for packing.
"You can't tell me that you don't find it just a little bit suspicious that he sent us his journals like less than a week before he died?" Seward replied.
"No. He knew his health was done for, so he started taking care of ..."
"What? Taking care of what?" the younger male asked raising his chin.
"Stuff." Ruthven shook his head getting another stack of clothes from the next drawer. Something fell on his foot as he turned from the dresser. The two stood there neither wanting to look at it. Still holding the pile of clothes, Ruthven closed his eyes letting out a deep sigh. "Please tell me that is a sex toy and not..."
"A wooden stake." Seward answered as he tapped it with the toe of his shoe. "Just like in the movies." he bent low on his heels reaching for the chunk of wood. "Eww." he crunched up his nose. "Is that teeth marks?"
"Great. Just great." the older male tossed the pile of clothes on the bed, one hand at his hip, the other pinching the bridge of his nose. "This going to be like the time in Wawa? Huh? Are we going to have the police telling us some horrible story about how Grandpa attacked some innocent person because he thought they were vampires?"
"That was different. It ended up being a group of actors doing a horror movie." Seward nodded as he stood back up, the wooden stake in hand.
"What's different?" Landin asked from the doorway as he brought them each a coffee. Seward held up the wooden stake tossing it back and forth. "Another one? I just found three in the den." he gestured towards what used to be a medium sized tree branch.
"This blood?" Seward replied handing it to him. Sniffing it, Landin smirked, enjoying the look of disgust on his younger cousin's face.
"It's not human blood. You spend as much time cleaving chops like I do, and you can tell the difference. That's pig blood. I think that might have been the bait stake."
"Bait stake?" both Seward and Ruthven asked at the same time.
"Yeah. He talked about it in the journals." the bleached blonde shrugged as he took a sip of his coffee. "Same idea as baiting a fishing hook. Dip the end in some blood, and see what it brings you. What?"
"You're talking like him. Like it's normal or something. I loved him, but he was bat crap crazy." Ruthven said pointing to his temple.
"I don't know." Landin said tilting his head to the side letting out a sigh. "His journal entries seem sane enough."
"So you just want us to sit here and agree with the idea that there are vampires out there? Real life vampires?" Ruthven threw his hand up as he moved across the room heading for the door, placing his coffee cup on the bedside table as he did. "You two are as crazy as he was. I'm going to the store I need some air." They watched him walk out of the house, slamming the door as he did.
"I don't know how much air he'll get at the store. I mean, it's all dusty and stale." Seward remarked as he scratched at the back of his knee.
"When exactly did you move here?" Landin asked still nursing his coffee.
"Only about a month ago. Why?" the younger male answered turning towards the closet, letting his shoulders drop as he opened it. "Want to see what I found the other night?" he began rummaging through the hangers, pushing the suits to the side."Why did he keep Grandma's mink?" Seward asked as he tossed the little fur shawl at the other male. Knocking on the back panel of the wall, it sprang open. Gesturing towards his older cousin, Seward took a step into the hidden room.
"Okay, seriously if you're about to tell me Grandpa was into some sort of S/M thing, I really don't want to know...whoa." Landin's blue eyes lit up as Seward hit a light switch, flooding the small space with a brazen orange glow. "Is that a coffin?"
"Yeah. Not only that, it's like hundreds of years old from what I can tell." the dark haired male nearly skipped towards it, placing his palms gently on the lid. "It's humming." he reached his right hand out grabbing at his cousin. "Touch it. Dude you've got to feel it." his voice became a sing song.
"Yeah. I'm good." Landin moved his own hands out of reach, locking his fingers behind his neck. "I'll take your word for it." He continued to move around the hidden room, reading labeled jars, flipping through files, tapping a fingertip against a glass box that held jeweled daggers. "So this is where all his money went then?" he picked up a small metal cube that looked like it came out of one of his favourite horror films.
"Seems so. But huh, can we not tell Ruthven just yet. I'd kinda like to keep some of it you know. And he'll have it sold in a heartbeat." Seward pressed his forehead to the coffin's lid, closing his eyes before taking a half step back spinning on one foot making a grunting sound.
"Yeah, we can divide it after...this is interesting." the bleached blonde whispered as he picked up a large book. "I'm surprised he didn't have this on display at the shop." he held it in his hands, the weight of it surprising. The book was bound in what looked like a tanned leather, a small oval in the middle of the front cover. Landin licked his lips as he gently flipped the whole thing over in his hands, his fingertips delicately trailing over it. He figured from the shape and size, the discolouration must have been from some sort of family crest or amulet. Opening it, he had to tilt the book towards the light, the print faded in places. "How's your German?" he asked over his shoulder. Seward's breath hit his ear in a hot rasp.
"That's not German. It looks more Welsh or something. Gaelic I'm guessing." the younger cousin nodded towards the book still in Landin's hands. "Dude, really?" he pointed to the mink that was now wrapped around Landin's shoulders.
Tune in again for another installment of the Nosferatu Adventures starring your heroine...me(straight up story. What or who is in the coffin?)
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