The vampire stood there across the river, a shadow amid the darkness of the trees. Were it not for the red gleam of his eyes, I’d have missed him altogether, but once I saw those two ruby-like points, the rest of his outline was revealed to my sight. How silent and still stood that dead man.
It was mere moments before the dawn. Something had driven me from sleep, and a longing in my breasts had pulled me into the night, drawing me toward the tall evergreens of that lonely island.
The river parts around that little island, and its flowing waters keep him trapped. He calls out, like he called out to me that night, calling people to his lair.
But I saw his eyes and awoke to myself, saw his eyes and froze there in my tracks. Oh, but then the blessed dawn came and drove off the shadows and the fog from my mind. The light of day fell on me, and the spell was broken. As the sun crept over the mountain, the light fell upon the turning waters, the river’s frothing spill dancing like crystals in the air. Still, there was that dreadful figure in the darkness, his eyes all red.
Softly, the night receded, the shadow of the mountain passing over the waters and over the island as the light invaded the darkness.
The red eyes blinked and were gone.
Tale Told 