BLOOD BUDDIES 


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1 

I am Harry Boone and I have a little story to tell. You might just find 
it downright scary - because you'll know now that something like this could happen to 
any old dude at any time. The events in this story happened just a couple of months 
ago. I was fresh out of High School and ready to do something worthwhile with my 
life. I worked in the local arcade called "Turbo". Now here is the entire story... for 
the most part - unabridged...

 


A crowd was building at the "Zombie Feast" arcade game. Usually, 
people who played it couldn't pass the first level, so I was curious. I squeezed in 
through the crowd to see what was going on. A pale kid - maybe a couple years 
older than me, wearing a long black coat was tapping the buttons furiously 

 
but he was really racking in the points. 

I watched the screen with my mouth gaping as his score shot through 
the roof. He wasn't missing ANY zombies. You see, the object of the game was to 
simply throw bombs at the zombies before they get the chance to eat you. The 
game's zombies were so fast that many players gave up after their first try. 

The pale boy smiled as the screen turned blood red and the high score 
list came up. He had beat the game! The ONLY score on the list was his. He 
slowly began to type his name on to the screen. The crowd still chattered in 
amazement. "I know I can beat the stupid game now," some kid said. 

Everyone stared at the screen as the winner typed his name in.

 It spelled 'C - O - U - N - T.' A hush fell over the crowd. 

2 

The boy, still smiling, turned to face them and explained, "Count..., you 
know, like, count the numbers in my high score! Funny, yes?" A couple people 


understood and laughed. The crown soon dissipated and the winner was left 
standing there, gazing at the screen as it began to show an animated zombie video. 
"Where did you learn to play so good? You're the first person to ever beat it 
here!" He laughed and answered, "First try too!" 

"Do you live around here?" I asked him. "Yes, I just moved in right 
down the road. Our family came from Transylvania." I stood in silence, because 
I was remembering all the times I had read about that place. "Dracula lived there 
didn't he?" I questioned him. "Yes, um, so I hear... listen, you like the games of 
videos?" I picked up on his bad English but I didn't laugh. 

"Yeah, I do, I play Playstation all the time." He sat down on a stool 
and told me about all the games he had. "I have some that were never released 
in the United States... really cool games like that one." He motioned to "Zombie

 Feast". "Would you like to come over and play them later tonight?" I didn't 
want to sound to excited, but I loved playing new games no one else had. "Oh,

 and you can meet my sister, she is about your age and she is lonely here. 

I was definitely in. "Yeah man, how about 7:00? I'll bring my 
multi-tap and some of my favorite games." We decided we would do that and he 
told me where his house was. "Oh, I forgot to ask," I began, "What's your name 
anyway? I'm Harry Boone." He sipped on a soft drink he had and stood up.

 "I am Viktor Golichi. Sorry, I have to be going. See you at 7 O'Clock, Harry." 
He left and then I realized it was time to close the arcade. I let a few stragglers 
finish their games and then I started emptying the machines of their coins. 

I shook my head, still in disbelief of the 1,600,000 score Viktor had 
reached. It was really amazing. I unplugged "Zombie Feast" and unlocked 
its coin box. I reached in to retrieve the coins and felt cold steel. I tapped the 
box and it echoed. There were NO COINS in it. 

3 

That night I went to Viktor's house after eating dinner. When I drove 
up, I was surprised that I had never even seen the place, as long as I had lived in 
this town. It was a hulking structure, but kind of creepy looking in the dark. An 
iron gate blocked the path in. I walked up and found an intercom on the gate. 

"Bzzzt - Viktor, this is Harry, could you open the gate? - Bzzzt!" I 
waited a minute and suddenly the gate began to creak open. I walked along a 
cracked concrete sidewalk and up onto his front porch. A cobweb hung over the 
doorbell, but before I could press it, the door swung open. 


"Hi there Harry!" I peered through darkness at what appeared to be 


Viktor's sister. "Oh Sorry," she held a candle up in front of her face. She handed 
me one. "We have been having power problems lately." I couldn't help but stare 
at her. She was perfect. She was like a goddess. She was clothed in a dark blue 
velvet dress leading down her long legs to high heels. It was almost as if she was 
dressed up to see me! 

I broke the silence finally with, "Hello, I'm sorry, Viktor didn't tell me 
your name." She closed the door behind me. "Oh, I'm Stephanie. Viktor told 
me you were coming." I looked down at the marble flooring and my eyes led to 
a swirling staircase up ahead. "Viktor actually had something he had to take 
care of, but he'll be back shortly." I had just noticed that her English was a lot 
better than Viktor's. "Why don't you come up to my room instead?" 

There was nothing I would rather do. "Sure," I answered. She reached 
out and took my hand and led me up the stairs. She had dark flowing hair that 
fell on her bare back gracefully. I could not believe this girl was really related to 
Viktor. We reached her room and she pulled me in. It was dark in there also. 
Candles flickered from all around. 

"So, here is my bookcase, my T.V., my bed. Why don't you have a seat 
on the bed?" I obediently took a seat. I picked up a book and started to read the 
title aloud. "Blood Raids: A tale of -" She grabbed the book and stuffed it under 
her mattress before I could finish. "Sorry, that's just a girly book. You understand." 

She sat down beside me and pulled my hand to her lap. She really had 
the hots for me! "I had no idea that Viktor knew such good-looking men." She 
smiled and rubbed my hand against her leg. She leaned forward and locked her lips 
around mine. 

I was in awe of her. Never did I expect to find a girl like her in Viktor's 
house! She didn't pull away, and I didn't either. Her tongue rolled through my 
mouth and I was on cloud nine. Then I felt a sharp pain in my mouth. "Ow!" She 
jumped back, "What is it Harry?" Blood ran down my chin and she stared deeply 
at it. Had Stephanie just BITTEN ME? 

4 

"Let me get that," Stephanie whispered. She quickly made the pain 
subside when she stroked her tongue down my lips and over my chin. "I'm sorry I 
cut you - I think I broke my tooth the other day," She explained. "That's fine 
Stephanie, you can bite me any day!" I put my arm around her shoulder and laid 
her down on the bed. She giggled as I kissed her once more. 


Right at that moment, Viktor's voice broke the silence. "Stephanie! 
Where are you?" I jumped off of Stephanie and allowed her to go to the door. 
"Up here you geek!" She turned to me and laughed. "We can finish this later, Harry." 
Stephanie skipped out of the room and disappeared around a corner. 

Viktor came running up the stairs. "Oh, Harry, I didn't know you were 
here dude!" I suppressed a smile as I replied, "Yeah, Stephanie was showing me... 
around." Viktor scoffed. "She's a real loser, you're best to stay as far away from her 
as you can." I sensed anger in his voice for some reason. 

"Anyway, lemme show you some of my stuff." I began to follow Viktor 
down the hall. He was walking with a limp I hadn't noticed earlier. Before I could 
ask him about it though, I noticed something hanging from his back pocket. It was a 
white rag, but it was covered in red spots that appeared to still be wet. Was it... no it 
couldn't be... BLOOD?? 

5 

"Viktor, uh, what the heck is on that rag?" Viktor quickly spun around 
and shoved a hand in his back pocket. "Oh, well, I was jogging home and tripped... 
landed right on my knee, I think the bleeding has stopped though." I struggled to 
believe him, but before I could wonder, we were at his door. "This is it. Go on in." 
I walked in to his room and noticed immediately his huge T.V. and stack of video 
games. 

"Wow! That's the biggest T.V. I've ever seen," I exclaimed. "We won 
that in a contest, but since my Dad already had one in the living room, I got to keep 
it." I walked up to the stack of games and began surveying them. The titles were 
new to me. I had never even heard of 'Demons of the West', 'Shotgun Madness', 
or 'Werewolf Forest', but they looked great! "We have got to play these Viktor!" 
Viktor nodded and promised, "We will soon, but first I have to show you another room, 
Harry." 

Viktor escorted me down the spiral staircase and then down another 
hallway to the left. I was beginning to think that Viktor's family was into the darkness 
thing. The hallway had lanterns spaced a couple feet apart along the moldy walls all 
the way through. Some dank paintings of Viktor's really old and equally pale relatives 
hung in between the torches. 

As if he had read my mind, Viktor interjected: "It is common where I am 
from to live amongst only natural, candle lighting... if you were wondering." "Yes, I 
was actually... Listen, Viktor, where are we going?" I was getting antsy. He laughed 


in a weird tone of voice and told me that it was a surprise. We finally reached a tall 
wooden door that looked to be completely handcrafted. "This is it." Victor proclaimed. 

"My family sleeps down here, Harry." Viktor let the door creak open into 
what appeared to be just a basement by my standards. I thoroughly looked around 
for any sign of beds or mattresses in the filthy room... it didn't look inhabitable at all. 
"Oh, we don't sleep in beds, like I suppose you would," Viktor broke the silence again 
with, "We actually sleep in these babies." Viktor moved to the side and tapped on the 
top of a wooden coffin. 

6 

I gulped loudly and began to shiver. I was extremely creeped out now. 
I had been so stupid. I put the pieces together in my head. The 'COUNT' name for 
Viktor's high score in "Zombie Feast", the dark, dark house, the bloody rag... 
Viktor's entire family was a homicidal hoard of blood-sucking vampires! 

The look of my face must have gave away the fact that I was about to 
ruin my pants. "What's the matter Harry? You look like you've seen a ghost..." 
I backed away from him, slowly, towards the door. "Viktor, are you a - a..." 
"Yes, I'm a vampire, of course." Viktor finished my sentence for me. 

"Are you going to bite me now? Because I know Ty-swan-dough and I'm 
not afraid to use it on you, you blood-sucker!" I was almost to the door now. "Harry, 
I didn't want to have to do this at first, I just wanted a new friend, but you know to 
much about US now. You know what... I was watching you with my Sister the whole 
time." 

I about lost my lunch a second time then. "I'm pretty nifty when it comes 
to techneology." Yeah, but not too good with English. "I have a hidden camera in 
her room. No one touches my Sister and gets away with it." I quickly swung around 
and grabbed the door knob. I should have known; locked from the outside. My heart 
sunk. 

I slowly began to turn my head back to face the freak. I wasn't fast enough. 
I felt his teeth sickeningly slosh through the tendons in my shoulder. The fangs jabbed 
right through my skin. 


7 

I couldn't even struggle with him. My legs quaked underneath me. To my 
surprise I heard a yell. It was Stephanie's voice! "Stop right now Viktor! Get your 
teeth out of him!" I felt his teeth tear back out of the fresh holes in my shoulder. I 
stumbled and the wall was the only thing holding me up. I looked up to see Stephanie's 
gorgeous vampire face a few feet in front of Viktor. 

"This is the last time you turn one of my friends into one of us, Viktor!" 
Viktor shuddered and was visibly frightened by Stephanie. My eyes came back into 
focus again and I now saw why Viktor was frightened. Stephanie held a wooden 
stake sharpened to a needle-point. She held it right in center with Viktor's pulsing 
heart. 

"Stephanie... you - you don't want to do this." Viktor didn't sound to 
confident in his words anymore. "You've always been a major geek. Nothing more 
to me." And with those words Stephanie impaled the stake as far as she could push 
it into Viktor's chest. Dark blood splattered her dress. 

Viktor screamed in pain, much like a girl, and immediately let his knees 
buckle beneath him as he fell to the ground. Stephanie ran over to me and hugged 
me. She was crying on my shoulder. "You realize this had to be done... don't you 
Harry?" 

Before I could even realize what the heck I had just seen, she continued. 
"Otherwise, we couldn't have lived forever - immortally together." I was once again 
bewildered by what she was saying to me. She clarified my thoughts by digging her 
fangs deep into my jugular vein. 

8 

Hey, don't feel sorry for me... being a vampire is great! I live forever or 
until stabbed with a wooden stake, I've got a major sunscreen commercial deal 
happening, and I've got one beauty of a girlfriend who shares the same interests as 
I do. Yeah, this is the life for me! 


THE END 


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WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY MATTHEW 
WATTS 



