Finding Clare and (Sort of...) Fighting Vampires

This is Josefina. :-)

The good news is, we found Clare, and she's alive. She's currently in our house, taking a shower. This time we're a lot more wary that she might bolt, but there's no access to outside from the bathroom, so she'd have to walk past us. Not like we could probably stop her if she really wanted to go, but at least we'd know she was leaving.

The bad news is, it's becoming more and more obvious why Clare ran. Those human would-be vampire hunters? Not the only ones who want her blood. And I don't mean that in the harmless vampire fun way, I mean in the wanting her dead sense.

Here's the whole play-by-play of what happened:





A couple of hours ago - only Kaya, Bree, Molly, and I were home - we got a phone call. "Hi, this is Clare." She sounded breathless, in a hurry. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to get out of town and I don't have any money for the bus, and I wondered if I could borrow..."

Suddenly she gasped, and there was a clatter as the phone dropped. We heard a brief scuffle. Then someone picked up the phone and hung it up. The line went dead.

Obviously, at this point we were pretty worried. We did a reverse-lookup on the number she called from, and found out it was a pay phone near a park across town. Our guardian wasn't here, so we went next door to ask for help. Inna said she would drive us to pick up Clare... but we had to stay in the car until she was sure it was safe. So we all piled into her little hatchback station wagon and drove to the park. She was totally speeding like a maniac, which apparently is normal for her but under the circumstances we didn't care.

The park is big, and most of it is heavily wooded. We parked near the pay phone, and then Inna reminded us to wait while she looked. That lasted about five minutes, till we heard this terrified, high-pitched scream. Clare. We couldn't just leave her all alone, so we all jumped out of the car.

It was really disorienting, trying to figure out where the sound had come from. In a minute, we were totally lost. Suddenly, Kaya said, "This way!"

I was surprised. "Some kind of tracking? Like Girl Guides?"

Kaya shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that. I can... feel Clare's feelings, right now. It's coming from over there. Just have faith in me on this, okay?"

She was right, believe it or not. It didn't take long to find what had gotten Clare. There were four of them; two women and two men. They moved fast, gracefully, like predators. Clearly they were other vampires. Clare was on the ground, and they were kind of... toying with her. The best way I can describe it is like a cat playing with a mouse. They'd let her think she was getting away, then shove or yank her back. She looked bruised, and there were scratches on her face.

There wasn't really time to formulate a foolproof and comprehensive plan. We looked at each other, and our eyes said, We have to act!

Bree shouted "Hey!" and took off running into the woods in the opposite direction, making as much noise as possible. (She was a little embarrassed about the "hey" afterward; she said she was hoping to say something brilliantly sarcastic but couldn't think of anything.) Two of them followed her. That left Molly, Kaya, me - and two more. We were really worried about Bree, because we knew she was putting herself in danger... but she did astound everyone at the track team tryouts with her lightning speed, so we just had to trust her.

I thought about what to do. I'm not much of a fighter. I was wishing I knew how to do karate like our blog-friend Emily. Working on the school paper doesn't prepare you to battle evil vampires. Then I remembered when Fiona tried to teach me to move the pencil with my mind, and I set it on fire instead. I wondered if I could do that again, on purpose this time.

I concentrated really hard. And I found out... sort of. I didn't really know how to aim it. Still, a small fire starting behind one of the vampires definitely startled her.

Molly stared at me, rather agape, and I could tell what was going through her mind. Not shock, primarily. Not fear. She was wondering if she could do it too. She scrunched up her face - and there wasn't fire, but suddenly there was a fine layer of ice on the ground in front of the other vampire. He slipped, and it took a second for him to regain his balance.

It was enough time for Kaya to grab Clare and help her to her feet. Then we all ran back to the car - where we met Inna, and Bree who was circling back. We all jumped in and drove away quickly. The mean vampires were right behind us.

Wow, what a day! Clare is safe. We met the less-nice side of the vampire populace, although we still have no idea what they have against poor Clare. We'll need to ask her at some point. Also, we discovered some - let's just say interesting - things about ourselves and what we can do. What we did today was more powerful than we thought we could be.

On a side note, Inna seems to know an awful lot about vampires...

Love,
Josefina