Nightwing Towers (3 page)

Charlie’s eyes widened,
“Change?”
he said.

Despite the warmth of the summer day he began to shiver.

“Mr Kube has hidden them somewhere until he is ready to command them to do his bidding. That is what Master Vampires like Dracula and Mr Kube do. The spell can only be broken by the death of the Master Vampire,” said Freya. “Only then will they return to their normal state.”

Suddenly, it hit Charlie.

“But, my aunt has changed, she wears dark glasses, and she’s become pale and thin…”

“Exactly!” said Freya. “She is the last person living on the second floor. Why do you think I’ve been collecting these cards in the Dracula’s Delight series? I need to find out what to do before it’s too late!”

Charlie gulped and turned away. He moved along from Freya and glanced in the window of the next door flat. At first he could not believe his eyes and moved his face nearer the window.

In a neat row was a line of six coffins. Five were occupied with figures in deep, deep sleep, and one, lined with purple satin, was empty.

“Look!” he said.

Freya rushed to his side.

“So that’s where the previous tenants went! This must be where he hides his victims until he is ready. Do you see that empty coffin?” asked Freya.

Charlie nodded.

“I bet that’s for your aunt,” she said. “I wish I knew what to do. There’s one more card in the Dracula’s Delight series – that’s the one that explains how to get rid of vampires.”

Charlie remembered the crisp twenty-pound note his mother had given him and had an idea.

When he got back from the newsagent’s, Great-aunt Sybil was still in her room. Freya was sitting on the balcony. Charlie gave her the big cardboard box he was carrying.

“I’ve bought every choc-ice in the shop,” he said. “The last card must be here.”

An hour later Charlie and Freya sat together at the end of the balcony surrounded by a pile of Dracula’s Delight ice-cream wrappers. They had still not found the final card.

That night Charlie dreamt of old castles, set on misty mountains. Of towers with tiny windows like eyes, into which bats silently flew. In his dream he flew towards one of the windows, and as he got nearer and nearer, the castle dissolved and reappeared as Nightwing Towers. His heart beat like a hammer. Thud! Thud! Thud!

Charlie cried out with a start, and glanced at his bedside clock, it was past midnight. Someone was banging on the front door.

Charlie rushed out of his bedroom and stumbled down the passage-way. Through the frosted glass he saw Freya’s outline urgently beating at the door. He opened the door wide. She stood trembling in the moonlight.

“Look behind you!” she pointed past him. “I’ve been keeping watch. He flew in through the window!”

Charlie turned on his heels. Great-aunt Sybil’s door was ajar. From the room came the sound of horrible menacing laughter. Mr Kube pushed open the door. A long black cape billowed behind him. His face was shining milky-white in the moonlight,
bigger and brighter than before. But most frightening of all, his eyes were intense and fierce.

Mr Kube’s mouth yawned wide. He hissed, displaying a pair of white pointed teeth.

Freya stared desperately about her. Then her eyes fell on the old photograph of Great-aunt Sybil which hung on the wall. The two yellow choc-ice cards were still fixed in the frame.

“Charlie!” she cried. “That’s the one!”

She rushed to the picture and read the back of one of the cards. For a moment she hesitated, then dived into the kitchen.

Great-aunt Sybil stood beside Mr Kube as if she were in a trance. A shaft of silver moonlight beamed through the front doorway. She no longer wore sunglasses, and her eyes were points of fire, just like his. Two puncture marks showed on her neck, the scarf had gone. She was almost transformed.

Charlie raised his hands in horror.

“She is mine!” said Mr Kube. He spat the words like snake venom. “I’ve come to collect.”

Then suddenly, from out of the kitchen came Freya. For a moment Charlie couldn’t believe his eyes. She held a toaster in her hands. With a cry of victory she ran at Mr Kube and held the toaster up to his face!

Mr Kube stared at the toaster, his jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide Lin disbelief.

A wail, long and dreadful, rushed around the room before disappearing into the floor below. Mr Kube crumpled like a rag, and collapsed into a heap of empty clothes.

Charlie rushed forward and kicked the cloak with his foot. There was nothing left, but a pile of grey cinders, and a twirling cloud of steam.

Charlie and Freya sat quietly with Great-aunt Sybil, each had an ice-cream. Several bars of semi-melted Dracula’s Delight lay on the table.

“There was a whole list of ways to kill vampires: wooden stakes, cloves of garlic and so on, but I chose the first method,” explained Freya.

Charlie read the card again, hardly believing that he’d had the solution to the problem all along:

“How clever,” said Great-aunt Sybil with a smile.

Freya grinned at her own reflection in the bright mirror-chrome of Great-aunt Sybil’s toaster.

Meanwhile, outside in the darkness, the black shapes which had been circling the roof of Nightwing Towers flew away into the night.