"DUDE, WHERE were you?" started Matt after Jake entered the hall.
There were other students seated all across the large hall which was designed to serve the purpose of a theater and Jake faltered a little when his eyes met Nicole's, who was sitting two rows behind where he was.
She smiled slightly, causing Jake to react by quickly turning his head down and then back to Matt all the while feeling his face flush.
"Oh, I just had to pass through the library."
"Well, you're just in time for the play," came Gabriel, who happened to be writing something.
Jake sat next to Matt with Gabriel on the other side as Mrs. Fenway, the music and drama teacher walked in and ordered all students to be quiet.
"Now, today we're going to venture into the world of fantasy..."
"What is this, Hogwarts?" joked Cole from the middle row as a low clatter of laughter followed.
"I'm sure everyone in this hall has come across the word, Dracula," Mrs. Fenway went on.
Great, more Halloween nonsense!
Jake found himself saying in his head.
There was a wave of excitement from the students.
"Oooh, like the movie?" asked a student.
"No, not exactly, but close. So, I have here a group of professionals who will assist us in understanding what being a vampire exactly means. You all know what a vampire is, right?"
To the students dismay, she went on to explain even after they had affirmed.
A moment later, the lights in the hall suddenly went off and the entire place was plunged into darkness.
Oh no, not the dark!
If there was one thing that Jake disliked, it was being in the dark. The fact of not being able to see really freaked him out and he wasn't even alone here! There were like two dozen students and a teacher with him!
More excitement came when the lights came back on at a lower intensity, making the hall look dim.
Jake watched on as three figures stood before them at the platform. He was surprised to notice that their teacher was nowhere to be seen.
The three figures stood transfixed, barely making any movement until the one in the middle, who seemed quite taller than the rest, raised his head.
"I can feel your blood boiling..."
He spoke very slowly in the most cold and creepy voice Jake had ever heard.
"...Boiling...aching to be let out. To be freed from its prison of flesh..."
Jake assumed he was Dracula, given his appearance toned with quite prominent features, though he could not quite make out his face from the dim light but at one point, Dracula's eyes settled on him and for a moment, he felt like he was probing him as he moved closer towards the students.
The other two actors who turned out to be a female also began to advance slowly behind their master.
Dracula stopped in front of a girl seated at the front row, his eyes still on Jake.
He slowly slid his hand down to the girl's chin and raised her head. His eyes left Jake this time as he glowered down at the girl.
"It is time for the creatures of the night to feast..."
Dracula slowly opened his mouth, revealing two long canines and was bringing them down onto the girl's neck who was more than thrilled by what was happening as she turned her head to one side, completely exposing her neck.
Jake noticed the other two characters go on to caress male students at the front seat, making it look like some dark seduction—much to the students'...joy!
Dracula's fangs were just about to pierce the girl's skin when the lights suddenly came back on to full power, making Jake to squint.
Upon having adjusted to the light, Jake saw to his amazement that there was no person with fangs to be seen and the girl's neck was not dripping blood. The 'vampires' had vanished.
"And that is it for today!" came Mrs. Fenway who happened to have been seating somewhere at the front row during the entire show.
The students applauded and Jake found himself doing the same too.
"How do you suppose they did that?" asked Matt as he applauded.
"I'm pretty sure they're still standing there," replied Gabriel.
"What?" responded both Jake and Matt.
"It's simple. I'm guessing they used tech probably hidden somewhere in this hall which activated when the lights went dim, giving an optical illusion of them being invisible when in real sense, they're just standing there at the platform grinning at us."
"Right..." was all Matt could say.
Jake shook his head and found himself turning slightly to look at Nicole. As usual, he cowered and turned his head back before she could catch him eyeing her.
After class, Jake was stashing some books into his locker when one of them fell and hit the ground in a way that it flew open, with its pages fluttering. It was the History book which had fallen twice that week.
Stooping to pick it up, Jake's eyes landed on a subtitle that happened to be displayed in the open page.
The weird thing was that Jake did not recall ever seeing such text in his book and he knew his History well.
The subtitle appeared to be inked in some creepy gothic font: Submitting to the Dar
'Submitting to the dark?'
He could not make out the subtitle with the last word appearing to be scribbled off somehow, as if some letters were missing.
His eyes then moved down to the text that he was unable to read and appeared to be some kind of symbolic language.
He was able to recognize some symbols like the eye of Horus , the ancient Egyptian god of air, making him assume that the text was Egyptian thus pegging the question; What the hell was Egyptian text doing in his History book?
Yes. There were other books for that; like an ancient Egyptian book! But not his History book.
Things started to get weirder as he moved down the text with his eyes. The symbols began to...move? They swayed on the page like a pane of water and Jake began to feel a dizziness in his eyes.
He still moved down the page until he stopped to a picture. A sketch of some kind, displaying what looked like a person. A woman. Jake winced, trying to make out the details and noticed a dark background and that the woman's hands appeared to be clawed. The sketch showed only her upper body which was darkened with no finer details.
Jake began to feel an eerie compulsion as his entire body froze with his eyes moving up the sketch to find the woman's eyes which to his surprise, had not been that visible about four seconds ago.
Her head was slightly bent downwards, giving her eyes a darker appearance as Jake watched them slowly begin to glow in a pale orange color.
He thought he heard voices. Soft whispers, drawing him closer and closer to the page as he found himself unable to withdraw from the woman's glare...
"Hey! You're going to the party, right?"
Jake felt his senses suddenly rush back into him as he snapped out of the trance before turning to his friends.
"What...?"
"The party. Pumpkin People!" Matt rephrased, referring to the Saturday event ahead of Halloween.
"I don't think so."
"Dude, c'mon!" Gabriel intervened, "we know you hate Halloween but that's a whole week away!"
"Plus there won't be costume shit in this one!" Matt added.
"No, guys. I'm not going..."
"Well, that's too bad," Matt added again, slyly, "because I heard a certain Nicole will be there..."
Jake's eyes lit up for a moment before he quickly concealed his excitement.
"You're making this up."
"So, that means you're going if she's there, then!"
"I..." Jake turned from Matt to Gabriel, "fine, I'll go."
After his friends had left, Jake turned back to his still open History book and much to his shock, there was no gothic subtitle or Egyptian text or a creepy woman except for an Abraham Lincoln article.