Chapter 75: 61. Silent Movie

"I'm worried about Cerys," Melanie stated quietly as the five of us made our way towards the park. "She's depressed or anxious or something, and I can't convince her to talk to anyone about it. She won't see the school's guidance counsellor and she doesn't want to talk to a therapist. Not that we could afford to send her to one anyways."

Brooke looked sad as she responded, "She's been through a lot, and it hasn't been that long. It's going to take her time to process. I'm sure she'll talk when she's ready."

The wolfgirl sighed, "Maybe. There's uh, there's something else too."

She hesitated, like she was reluctant or unsure about sharing it. Then with another sigh she quietly added, "She asked me to turn her. She said she wanted me to make her a werewolf."

That was a bit of a shock, but on reflection it maybe wasn't a big surprise. From what I knew of Cerys she wasn't the sort of person to do things halfway. She went all-in with the witchy stuff, so it maybe wasn't that unexpected she'd want to go all-in on something else.

"What?" Kaylee gasped. "You didn't though, right?"

Melanie gave her a bit of a look before answering, "Of course not. I've said all along I never want to do that to anyone. She seems pretty serious about it though."

"Do you know how things are with her parents?" Paige asked. "That's probably got something to do with why she's asking you to turn her."

"Well obviously it's because of her parents," the wolfgirl frowned. "She found out last week that her mom put up the bail money to get her dad out of jail. He's still facing a bunch of charges and he's probably going to end up behind bars again by the time all that gets sorted out, but in the meantime he's back at home. And Cerys is angry at her mom, but she's also worried about her too."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" I asked. "Should we try and talk to her more?"

Melanie shook her head, "I don't know if talking will help? Maybe just be there for her. Let her know you're available, that kind of thing?"

"I'm glad Nina offered to stay with her while we're out here," she added. "I didn't want to leave her alone while we were doing this stuff."

Paige commented, "I've noticed Nina's been spending a lot of time with you and Cerys at school. I guess the three of you are getting along ok?"

"Yeah," Melanie nodded. "She seems a bit overwhelmed sometimes, being in school with all the teachers and assignments and stuff? So me and Cerys are helping her adjust I guess. And I'm sure she's helping Cerys stay cool too. Like Nina probably knows better than the rest of us what she's been going through."

We were all quiet after that, then after a few moments we started talking about school instead, until we reached the park a few minutes later. It was dark out but there were a few lights by the entrance that were more than enough to see by.

Our wolfgirl took the lead, she started walking along the path as she glanced left and right. It didn't look like she was doing anything special, but I knew she was mostly paying attention to the scents in the air. And it wasn't long before she turned and started heading away from the path, at an angle towards where the creek entered the park in the far corner.

The spot was secluded and dark, surrounded by trees and bushes on two sides while the creek was a bit of a border on a third side. It seemed an ideal location to do stuff where the public wouldn't see.

"Pretty sure this is the place," the wolfgirl stated. "The scent is faded, but it's pooled here. I can smell something in the air, like death but not decay? And I can smell blood too. And something else, not sure what. Incense maybe?"

She added, "I can't quite pin down the 'dead' smell, but I assume that's the vampire? Maybe that's what they smell like, their kind of undead or whatever. I'll know it if I come across it again, and maybe if it wasn't so old I'd get a better handle on it now."

"Thanks Melanie," Brooke responded. Then she turned to my ex-girlfriend and asked, "You said it happened Tuesday night? Can you narrow that down at all?"

Kaylee thought back, "Dad's shift ended at midnight, and I'm pretty sure he said it was his last call? It was definitely late. I'd say it was probably somewhere between ten PM and midnight on Tuesday."

"Is that close enough for your spell?" Paige asked her girlfriend.

The tall blonde nodded, "A two hour window is better than an eight hour window. The more accurate the better, but I think two hours should be close enough."

I asked, "How does this new spell work? And is there anything we can do to help?"

"Best way everyone can help is to stay behind me," Brooke replied. "The way the spell works is by sort of pinging the environment, to get it to show me a replay of events that happened here. The bigger the window, and the further back in time it happened, the more power it takes. Ten to midnight on Tuesday was almost seventy hours ago, so that's not so bad. The two hour window is a bit more challenging, but should be doable."

"What will we see?" Kaylee asked.

Paige added, "And is this safe?"

Brooke nodded, "Should be safe. I've tried it at home a few times while I was learning it. And the rest of you probably won't see anything? That's why I need a clear view of the area, so I don't miss anything. Then afterwards I can tell you all what I saw."

No-one else had any questions, so we all moved off to the side out of our former leader's way. And we all watched quietly as she focused then began to whisper the Words and raise the Will and all that stuff May taught us.

After a minute or two I saw a faint purple glow of magic, sort of like a mist. It originated from Brooke, and spread out over the area in front of us then settled on the ground and the grass and the plants and trees. Soon everything was coated in a fine layer of glowing purple, like someone had dusted the area with some glowing spray paint or something.

I was a little surprised at how much magic she used. Like even though it was faint it spread out over a big area and that all added up.

Then the glowing purple plants and things started to move, independently of the real plants. At first the movements seemed fast and chaotic, like someone was violently shaking the bushes and the grass was repeatedly trampled then sprang up again. That lasted for another minute or so, before three figures suddenly appeared. Then the movement slowed to normal speed, and I realized it had been on fast-forward up till the people showed up.

They were like three ghostly purple outlines, but I could clearly see two men and a woman. I could even make out their features. The only thing missing was colour, since everything was in shades of purple. Sort of like watching an old black and white silent movie, only it was three-dimensional and purple.

All three people looked around college-aged. I'd guess one of the men was in his mid twenties, the woman just a bit younger, and the other man was maybe only twenty or twenty-one. The men were both average height, they appeared to be dressed casual in jeans and t-shirts. One had what looked like a loose leather jacket, the other was in a hoodie, and they both had boots on their feet. The woman was a bit shorter, and wearing a skirt or dress with a jacket overtop.

The only thing missing was I couldn't hear what any of them were saying. I saw their lips moving now and then, but the whole thing played out in complete silence, which reinforced the whole 'silent movie' feel to it.

I could tell the woman wasn't being forced or anything, and she didn't seem scared either. If anything she seemed eager and excited to be sneaking into this dark secluded spot with the two men. She might have even been drunk or drugged, like Kaylee's dad suggested.

The woman was smiling and as far as I could see she was acting giddy and flirty. The older man was smiling too, he looked eager. The younger one was calm and his movements were more deliberate. And the way he was focused on the woman made me think of a predator stalking its prey, which turned out to be exactly what was happening.

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As I watched, the woman let the younger man pull her into a hug. He kissed her for a bit, then she didn't resist at all as he turned her head to the side and shifted his attention to the side of her neck. I spotted the elongated fangs just before he bit her, then he drank a few gulps as he held her tightly.

The second man was waiting nearby, he licked his lips as he watched. And when the young one pulled back the older one was in there so fast I almost thought Brooke sped up the spell or something. The second man got a few gulps as well, and by that time the woman's body had gone limp.

She was still breathing, still conscious even, but obviously weak. And she was still smiling and giddy too, from the look of it.

The men lowered her gently to the ground, then they slipped an arm around each other and shared a kiss. They kept their arms around each other as the younger one pulled something out of his pocket and brought it to his lips. There was a puff of smoke, then the other one took it and puffed on it too. For a moment I thought it was a cigarette, but I hadn't seen them light it. Then when it went back in the first guy's pocket I realized it had to be a vape pen.

Finally the two men turned and walked away, still smiling and hugging as they left. Their ghostly purple forms vanished as they moved past Brooke and out of range of the spell.

The rest of the purple glow vanished a moment later, as Brooke let out a very deep and weary-sounding sigh.

"It's definitely vampires," she said in a weak voice. "Two of them, and -"

The tall blonde's legs gave out, but Melanie leaped forward and caught her before Brooke hit the ground. The wolfgirl gently lowered her down while Paige hurried to kneel at her side.

"You overdid it!" she scolded her girlfriend. "Are you going to be ok?"

Brooke winced but nodded, "I'll be fine... In a bit."

While we were waiting for her to recover I asked, "Did anyone else see all that? Or just me and Brooke?"

From the blank looks on their faces I could tell no-one else saw anything. And my ex-girlfriend confirmed it a moment later as she asked, "What did you see?"

"Probably the same thing Brooke saw?" I replied with a shrug. "It can wait till she's ready to talk though. It was her spell, she should be the one to share the results."

It took another five minutes or so before the tall blonde was ready to function again. Instead of describing the scene she asked, "Can we all get back to Melanie's place? I need to drink something, and maybe get a bit of food in me again."

She was still a bit light-headed once she was standing up, so Paige and Melanie moved to either side so she could lean on the pair of them and they'd help keep her upright incase she got dizzy or her legs gave out again.

That meant the walk back to the wolfgirl's place took a bit longer, it was more like fifteen or twenty minutes before we got there. Then while the others helped Brooke downstairs Melanie and I stayed in the kitchen to get our former leader a drink and some food.

The wolfgirl heated up one of the left-over burgers in the microwave while I got out a bun, then grabbed a bottle of juice from the fridge. When the burger was ready we took the food downstairs, where we found Brooke sitting on one of the sofas with Paige and Kaylee. They were filling in Nina and Cerys on what happened at the park.

Brooke thanked us for the burger, then the rest of us waited while she ate that and finished her juice. That took a few more minutes, before she was finally ready to tell everyone what her spell revealed.

I stayed quiet and listened, and discovered that she'd actually got more information from it than I did. Where all I saw was the faint glowing purple outlines, Brooke saw it in faint colour. And she got audio as well, which I didn't. It made sense though, it was her spell and she said up front nobody else would see anything. The fact that I got a sort of after-effect or something was a bonus.

Thanks to Brooke we got descriptions of the two vamps, as well as a couple names. The younger one who seemed to be in charge was named Mitch, he had short blond hair and wore blue jeans, black boots, a black leather jacket, and a green t-shirt. The older one one was James, he had dark hair and dark eyes, and wore a navy blue hoodie, blue jeans, and beige work boots.

"They seemed to be a couple," Brooke added as she got to the end of the story. "After they were done with the woman they gently set her down on the ground, then they hugged and kissed each other before sharing a vape. And they walked off with their arms around each other. They looked like any young gay couple going out on a date or something."

When our former leader was finished her story, Kaylee looked to me and asked "Did you see all that too?"

"Sort of?" I replied. "I didn't hear them talk, and all I saw was faint purple outlines. What I saw matched what Brooke said though. I guess the only thing I'd add is the guys might be bi? They seemed pretty into the woman, except maybe that was just because she was a good meal? And the other thing is I think their fangs must retract, because when the younger one bit the woman that was the only time I actually saw fangs."

Brooke nodded, "Cass is right. These guys looked like normal people. It was just when Mitch bit the victim that there was any sign of fangs."

"They might look normal but I'm positive they smell dead," Melanie stated. "The scent of death was still there three days later right? I have a feeling if they're hanging around town it won't be long before I start picking up their scent wherever they've been."

Kaylee suggested, "So odds are they're not local. This is the first vampire attack that we know of, and Melanie hasn't picked up their scent before. So either they're just passing through, in which case they might already be long gone, or they've just moved into town and we might start seeing more victims."

"How often do vampires feed?" I asked. "Does anyone know?"

My ex adjusted her glasses as she made a face, "It's the same situation we had with fae, only worse. There's just so much stuff out there about vampires, it's impossible to know what's real and what's fiction. Without someone like Miss Hawthorne to provide accurate information, I don't know if there's any way to learn the truth about them."

A few of the others looked at me, so I shrugged "I guess I can ask my parents. At this rate we might end up making them honorary club members or something though."

That made Nina smile, she seemed to like the idea of mom and mum getting involved. I wasn't so enthusiastic about it, I didn't want our folks to start hanging out with us when we were with our friends.

"Thanks Cass," Paige replied. "Personally what I'm worried about most right now is whether or not that victim will be ok, or if she's going to turn into a vampire herself. I have no idea how that process really works."

Kaylee agreed, "That's what I'm worried about too. Although according to my dad she was fine after she got a transfusion and more fluids into her? Which makes me think she probably didn't lose that much blood to begin with."

"They only took a few mouthfuls each," Brooke added. "If I had to guess at a volume, I'd say... No more than a small bottle of water each. So maybe five hundred mils in total? Probably more than you'd lose donating at a blood drive, but not enough to pose a serious threat."

Paige nodded, "Good to know."

After a brief pause she added, "And I think that's it for our meeting? For now the best we can do is keep our eyes and ears open. If anyone sees or hears anything vampire related, let the rest of us know. And as always, don't approach them yourselves if you happen to spot them. We have to assume they're dangerous."

Nobody had a problem with that, and with the official meeting stuff over we all kind of relaxed and got on with the fun. Melanie started another video tournament, where she and Nina took turns battling everybody else. And the rest of us all lost, though Cerys came pretty close to victory a few times.