“Found the damn flashlight,” Dum cried out. Light showed through the window on the first floor. “I’m on my way. Where are you Donnie?”
Loki saw her climb up the stairs, jumping two steps at a time. Before she reached the second floor, her flashlight spotted Big Bad, standing frozen atop the stairs.
“Here you are, baby,” Big Bad said.
Loki knew that if Axel was still here, he’d want to expose Big Bad for cheating on her.
“What coffin?” Donnie cried out.
“We‘re coming,” Dum said, panting next to Big Bad. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know but I see a faint light coming out of one of the rooms in the corridor,” Dee said. “Is that you guys?”
“What damn light?” Donnie asked. His sound was a bit muffled. Loki wondered where he was, too. Didn’t he just say he saw her?
“It’s our flashlight,” Big Bad said. “Where are you guys?”
“The coffin is empty,” Dee said.
“Of course it is—” Donnie shouted.
“Where are you guys?” Big Bad and Dum were furious.
Loki understood now that Dum and Big Bad thought Dee and Donnie were in the same room, while they apparently weren’t. Loki knew from their voices.
“—it’s after midnight. Why would she be in her coffin?” Donnie said with a trembling voice. “She is right in front of me. That’s what I’ve been trying to say from the beginning.”
“Where are you?” Big Bad pleaded for the last time.
“I’m in the cellar!” Donnie screamed in pain.
Big Bad and Dum hurried back down the stairs. Dee dashed out of the coffin room, which Loki saw was on the second floor now.
“Stay put,” Big Bad yelled. “We’re coming for you. I have my stake.”
“Don’t bother,” Donnie said. “You can’t save me.”
“Hang on,” Dum yelled.
“She is so beautiful…I don’t mind dying in her arms…” Donnie said and let out a final moan.
This last sentence made Loki curious. What did Donnie mean when he said he didn’t mind dying in her arms?
Loki rushed into the castle with his Alicorn in his hand. Inside, he bumped into the three of them in the hall.
“Who the heck are you?” Big Bad groaned at Loki with a stake in his hand. It was a plastic stake, meant for kids. Loki couldn’t believe his eyes; a light saber from Star Wars would have been better.
Big Bad decided that waiting for an answer might not be a good idea, so he raised his plastic stake to kill Loki.
“I’m not the vampire,” Loki screamed at him. “Do I look like Snow White to you?”
“You’re the boy from the parking lot, Loki Blackstar,” Big Bad growled in the dim light. “Guess what? My name is Big Bad, and I’m going to kick your ass!”
“Seriously?” Loki frowned. “You’re stealing my line now?”
Before they got into a fight, and before the girls finished climbing down the stairs, something white appeared out of the cellar as if floating in an aquarium.
It was her.
Snow White, the vampire princess, glided like a ghost in the air, her white dress swirling around her body, reminding Loki of his mother.
Bite me! Why does she have to remind me of my mother? Do I need more reasons to make killing her such an impossible task?
The Tweedle girls screamed, dropping their flashlights. Their squeaky voices confused Loki, and he dropped his flashlight, too. Listening to it crashing to pieces against the marble floor almost took his breath away. Loki remembered how Axel had said that flashlights conveniently stopped working just when needed in horror movies. The whole place faded to darkness, except for the pale princess’s skin and dress.
Dum’s flashlight still flickered infrequently on the floor. It had fallen on Big Bad’s tool bag, ending in an awkward position that sent its round beam toward the stairs.
Flash on. Flash off. As if they needed more scare factors in the situation.
The impact of the moment left Loki paralyzed, scared to go pick up the flashlight from the floor. The vampire princess levitated an inch or two above the third step of the staircase while the light blinked on and off at her.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Next to the blinking, the flashlight also acted as a ticking clock. Loki hoped it wasn’t counting down their death.
The vampire princess’s white dress was spattered with Donnie Cricketkiller’s blood—Loki wondered if he should’ve been thanking her for getting the world rid of bullies like him. She continued floating above the stairs like a marionette, swinging loosely on the invisible threads that controlled her. Loki thought she was examining them, her prey, having had an appetizer in the cellar.
The mixing shadows in the castle prevented Loki from seeing the vampire princess’s face. He hadn’t seen her face clear enough when he was outside, and he was dying to see it now. He wondered what the sixteen-year-old goddess of scare looked like up close and personal.