Pulp Alley - Vampires: The Blood Runs Cold

From the hot and steamy jungles of Africa to the cold and damp climes of eastern Europe.  Poor old Lord Wishart has offended the Foreign Office and been sent to investigate the rumours that blood sucking fiends have risen again in Europe.  No not in Brussels that's not for another half century, so clearly Lord Wishart failed to nail the bastards here and now in the past.  Or is this another incarnation of another evil that has arisen?  Who knows, who cares!

The silent village of Spurtenpurgen

The above is the ominous and silent village of Spurtenpurgen.  Where are the villages?  Have they fallen prey to the menace of the vampire(s) rumoured to be preying in the area?  Are the villages just simple farm folk that have retired early to bed exhausted from a hard days work?  Or did the villagers go to the local festival 30 miles away to enjoy themselves on wine, women (or whatever fancy) and song, thereby escaping the vampires by pure chance!  Yes, you are correct, it was the last option, no one expects the lest obvious explanation for a deserted village... all good horror stories expect the peasants to be cowering behinds uselessly locked doors, waiting to be butchered...

So who are the dastardly villains this time around?

Vlad Senior

"Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely: and leave something of the happiness you bring." 
Dracula. Bram Stoker.
Vlad Senior
The master, the mover and shaker of this family of vampires.  Only a century out of date when it comes to knowledge of the coming and goings of the world he does not know about motor vehicles, aeroplanes and the telephone.  He was masterful at the turn of the 18th century, now come the 20th he's rather dated.  Well if all else fails, fall back on the old ways, terrorise and dominate, it always worked in the past!








"I learned to GIVE not because I have much but because I know exactly how it feels to have NOTHING." 
Dracula. Bram Stoker.
Vlad Junior
Vlad the younger or Junior as he is loathed being called last walked the earth when a mortal Bram Stoker took pen to paper and wrote a dreadful novel about him.  Vlad is driven to set the record straight and prove Stoker as the poor literary hack he was and publish his own autobiography.  He's out with his family feeding and building strength as Vlad Senior desires, secretly though he's searching for a Literary Agent to launch his career.  Good luck with that though, this is eastern Europe!







"If ever a look meant death - if looks could kill - we saw it at that moment." 
Dracula. Bram Stoker.
Vlad Elder
The Elder has been around for some time, he thinks since the 17th century but he's not to sure?  He's extremely emaciated and complains that he needs to sleep.  Actually complain is all he ever does, virgin blood doesn't taste like is used to, actually he complains a lot about the lack of virgins more than anything, something about the lack of moral integrity in today's young people and how in his day....  Needless to say the family keep him in his coffin and asleep as often as they can, releasing him only when he is required.  For when he is roused he is truly a demon from the pits of hell.






"How blessed are some people,whose lives have no fears, no dreads: to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams."  
Bram Stoker.
First Bride
Her name is long forgotten, her beauty marred by the evil which now mars her soul to the core.  She baths in the blood of those she slaughters in the name of her husband(s), she's truly forgotten if it's Elder, Senior or Junior so addled is her sanity.  It is soon to be a turning point were one of the Vlads will need to put her down as she drains her victims to the point of turning them into another vampire.  This infuriates the Vlad's who in turn have to destroy the creature, but have yet to destroy the bride.  Time will tell when the bell tolls for thee....





"To us forever are the gates of heaven shut; for who shall open them to us again? We go on for all time abhorred by all; a blot on the face of God's sunshine; an arrow in the side of him who died for man."
Dracula. Bram Stoker.
Second Bride
Drusilla is a schemer, she has been manipulating the First's blood lust and madness to a point were she will have to be destroyed for the safety of the family.  She knows that Senior will protect her, he knows she is his favourite, she just has to play her cards right and all will go as planned.

A Story...

The motor vehicle Niles had hired backfired noisely, shuddered, even threatened to stop all while bouncing and jumping along what the people in this part of Europe called a road.

"Do you think we're on the right road Batty?" enquired Niles as he peered through the gloom.  Why did they always arrive at such desolate places at dusk?  It was almost as if some script writer were actively seeking their demise, whatever happened to an early morning arrival for once.

"Well I think so Niles? We could have asked that convoy of villagers passing us not long ago, but.... no one speaks the lingo.  Should of thought of that before we came here.  Eberhard says that while he can speak most native languages he doesn't know a word of dago!"

Batty smiled to himself "I did like the tune they were singing.  Reminded me as if they were off to a football match." To which he then couldn't get out of his head the tune 'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go!

Onward the badly tuned and mechanically maintained motor vehicle spluttered, then just as the sun was about to set the village of Spurtenpurgen came into sight.  The village was virtually without lights, oh there were some lights in view, a light over a door way, from a crack in a curtain.  Yet there were no street lights, no public lighting of any sort.  It was ominously and frightfully quiet.

A wolf howled in the night and everyone's neck hairs rose...