Evil Lurks

Dibble and Woofster take shelter in an old tower. 300-word flash

Evil Lurks

“Woofster, I fear we should have turned back when the clouds started to gather. Now we need shelter,” Mr. Dibble said breathlessly to his faithful pooch. His dog put his nose to the ground and began to track.
Out of the wind, rain and mist, a crumbling tower appeared. Eagerly the pair ran to it for shelter. They took the crumbling stairs to the top.
Astonishingly, there was a room there with a warm fire and a hot meal. Mr. Dibble took off his wet outer wear and hung them by the roaring fire. He sat in the cozy armchair across from the fireplace. Woofster shook himself by the fire then lay at Dibble’s feet.
“Can you believe our luck, Woof?” The dog bristled and stood stiff-legged as if trying to defend his master. A shadow darkened the room beside Dibble.
When eyes appeared at the top of the shadow, glowing red, Woofster began barking madly. As for Dibble, he was speechless. Skirting the shadow, he grabbed his garments and his dog and ran for his life.
A sigh came from the shadow. It materialized into a vampire.
“I thought it would work! Provide comforts and friends would come to sit and chat with me, drink warmed blood tea and be company,” she said wistfully.
Although she never aged, the vampiress was 900 years old and weary of being alone in the tower, all that was left of her ancestral home. She glided over and took the chair that Dibble had so abruptly vacated and sat brooding into the fire. A rush of wings roused her, and she put out her wrist.
“Basil, my dear pet, was your hunt successful?” He dropped a sack in her lap. Inside was a dog collar and a deerstalker hat she recognized.