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Oskar Boderek had never believed in the typical Halloween stories, let alone the ones he was told as a child about vampires.
"If on October 31st at 23:59 you go alone to the depths of the Puszcza Białowieska forest, at some point you will start to hallucinate and a path will open up, which will lead you to an old mansion where a thirsty vampire will be waiting for you inside. If you refuse to follow the path, no matter what you do, you will never be able to escape from the forest again and you will wander until you lose your sanity and die of thirst".
Stories that usually frightened small children or aroused curiosity, but which Oskar never believed.
And this time for Halloween, Oskar remembered the story that aroused a certain curiosity in him. He didn't think anything of it before, but now, at 21 years old, single and with nothing to do, the young man wanted some adrenaline in his life. He needed to experience something new. He was a bit tired of his boring life, so the idea of going to a forest alone at 23:59 on the 31st of October seemed like the perfect idea.
He packed some food and drinks in a small backpack, stashed a couple of other things just in case and waited for nightfall before heading into the forest.
The street was decorated for Halloween and he could see a lot of people in costumes and children asking people for sweets. Everyone seemed to be having fun, and for some reason Oskar was a little frustrated, mainly because he was alone and didn't even have a girlfriend.
Without giving it a thought, he set off into the forest in the small hope of having a good time —at least a little. If it hadn't been for remembering that story, the young Pole would probably have stayed at home and drank himself into a drunken stupor.
Oskar had no idea which way to go once he reached the forest, so he opted to let himself go and wander aimlessly. If the story was true, which he doubted very much, then sooner or later something would happen.
There was nothing to be seen in the dark forest, but with the torch of his mobile phone he could survive. He kept walking, careful not to step on anything strange and feeling more and more adrenaline through his body due to the noises that could be heard in the forest.
''This sucks...'' He sighed as he realised that after more than half an hour nothing had happened and now he had absolutely no idea where he was. "How the fuck do I get home now?"' He thought to himself, unable to help but smile at the stupid idea that had crossed his mind at that moment.
His life was already so shit, so why not ruin it more. After all, Oskar didn't care what happened to him.
He decided to find a place under a tree, sit down and take out the bottle of vodka he had in his backpack. Nothing better than getting drunk alone at night in the middle of a forest and not knowing how to get home.
A slight headache woke Oskar, causing him to open his eyes and see that he was not where he remembered being. He sat up thinking that maybe it had all been a dream, but he was not even at home. He was in a grimy old room, in a creaky bed that seemed to be on the verge of breaking. The walls were full of cobwebs and insects crawling in and out of holes, and the light that illuminated the room flickered on and off, as if it would go out at any moment.
"This place sucks, holy shit" was the first thing that crossed his mind, deciding to get up and look for a way out. If this was a dream, it would probably be a pretty bad one.
But as soon as he walked through the door the first thing he noticed was that there was someone waiting next to it. A young man with light brown hair, green eyes and pale skin wearing a black cloak that covered most of his body was sitting, apparently waiting for him to come out. When he noticed Oskar, he turned his face and looked him in the eye.
In that instant the young Pole remembered perfectly why he had come to the forest. It was all starting to make sense, as far as it could, and without a second thought he wanted to confirm what he had in mind.
"Wait, are you a vampire?" He asked, frowning in confusion and watching as the other boy stood up —if Oskar had to be honest, that guy looked kinda dead with those dark circles under his eyes so noticeable on his white skin.
"Yeah..." The question caught the other young man by surprise, not expecting his new guest to be so calm.
They remained silent for a few more seconds. That vampire didn't seem very sociable in Oskar's eyes, and even now he was avoiding looking him in the eye. He looked like shit, but Oskar found him kinda cute.
"Okay, so... how do I get out of here?" Oskar decided to ask since the situation was a bit awkward.
"I can show you the way out." The vampire replied, with no ulterior motives and willing to let him go.
"That'd be nice." He finishes with a slight smile.
Easy, it had been too easy. Oskar had always imagined that, in a situation like this, escape would not be an option. It was still hard for him to assimilate that he had a vampire in front of his eyes, but he seemed harmless and somewhat lonely.
As he made his way towards the exit led by the other young man, he looked how large the mansion was and how empty and dirty it looked. It was as if it hadn't been cleaned in years, and as if the only person living there was that vampire.
"What's your name?" Oskar decided to break the ice with a typical question.
"Nemesis."
"What a weird name, don't you have a normal one?"
"I do, but I prefer Nemesis." Apparently the vampire was a man of few words. It wasn't easy to get a topic of conversation out of him.
"Okay... Neme," he decided to shorten the name, smiling slightly at how good it sounded and making Nemesis frown in confusion. "I'm Oskar" he introduced himself, omitting his surname —it wouldn't be necessary anyway. "By the way... how did I end up here?"
"You were sleeping in the middle of the forest and it was pretty cold out there, so I brought you here." He replied with such sincerity that it caught Oskar by surprise, who couldn't help but think how adorable that gesture was. "You can leave now." Nemesis stopped when they reached the front door, taking it for granted that the human would not hesitate for a second to leave.
Nemesis didn't need anyone anyway. He was used to being alone, it wans’t like this little chance to be visited by someone was something he was looking forward to. No way.
But deep down, he knew that he was just trying to fool himself into not feeling worse.
Oskar was about to leave the mansion with such ease. If he walked out the door, he would probably never see that vampire again. He would go back to his monotonous life, alone and bored with everything. Maybe it was time to make a better decision.
"I think I changed my mind," he applied resolutely, turning to look Nemesis in the eye and give him a faint smile. "I kinda wanna stay here for a bit."
"Aren't you scared?"
"Why would I?"
"Maybe because I'm a vampire?"
"Dude, vampires are not scary. Yeah, they suck your blood and can kill you and whatever, but that's not a big deal."
Nemesis definitely didn't expect the first human he'd seen in a long time to be so straightforward and stupid. Why would he want to stay in a place like that? Worse, why would he want to stay where a vampire could kill him at any moment?
"And what if I tell you that I'm gonna suck all your blood right now?" said the young man, moving closer and closer towards Oskar, who was looking at him with a mischievous grin.
"Well, it doesn't sound bad." He replied with glee and some curiosity as to how it would feel to have those fangs digging into some part of his body. "Do you wanna do it?"
"No... It was a joke." He quickly denied as he realised how unashamed Oskar was —if he was really going to stay, it would be a pain in the ass.
"Come on, go ahead. You can suck me off all you want..." He continued, showing Nemesis his neck and teasing him with his smug tone of voice and grin.
Nemesis rolled his eyes. Deep down he really wanted to suck him off. He hadn't tasted human blood in years, and now he had the chance to do so because a human had volunteered to let him suck his blood.
"Well... " The vampire agreed, cutting the distance between them and looking him in the eye. "Don't complain if it hurts later."
"Dude, what the fuck, it hurts," Oskar complained as he tried to cover the part of his neck that had been bitten with his shirt and that wouldn't stop bleeding. "I thought it'd feel good!"
"I told you." Nemesis replied with a sigh.
"Did I taste good at least?" asked Oskar, forgetting the pain for a few seconds to look at the vampire with a smile.
"Not really." Nemesis lied.
Deep down he had really enjoyed it. No way was he going to say "Yes, your blood tastes so fucking good, let me suck you off again".
"I see..." Oskar merely replied, not believing Nemesis’ words. "By the way... what is that shit?" He changed the subject, pointing to a pumpkin in the corner that seemed to be humming a song.
"It's Crownie."
"Is its name? Is the pumpkin alive?" Oskar frowned, beginning to question again whether it was all a dream or real.
"Yeah."
"Whatever... how about we start cleaning this dirty mansion?" Oskar asked, no longer worrying about his neck.
"I don't need to clean it if I'm gonna stay alone anyway."
"What if I wanna stay here with you?"
"You'll have to leave at some point."
"What if I don't wanna do that?"
Oskar's blue eyes and mischievous smile were beginning to become Nemesis' weakness. It was definitely going to be a headache, but, at least for now, the mansion didn't feel so empty.