Fear the Barfitron by M. D. Payne

candlestick.
    It was pitch-black and eerily quiet inside.
    “You first,” said Ben. I could hear the fear in his voice.
    I felt exactly the same way.
    We held our cell phones up as flashlights and headed in. Ben followed close behind me and Gordon. We slowly made our way down the hallway. With every step I took, I expected something to spring out at us.
    “Don’t they have any lights around here?” Ben asked.
    “I dunno,” I said.
    We flashed our cell phone lights along the wall. There didn’t seem to be any switches anywhere. The doors in the hall were all closed, and had small windows in them, like in a prison or a psych ward.
    Gordon flashed his light into the first one.
    “Dudes, you gotta see this,” he said.
    “I can’t look,” said Ben.
    I came over to look. It was hard to see through the glass, since a lot of light reflected off of it. But inside was a room without any furniture. It looked like a jungle inside—with trees and vines. It was moist, and the light that did get through appeared foggy.
    “What’s in there?” I asked, and we looked at one another.
    We could see a slight movement in the leaves, but couldn’t tell what it was.
    “Do you think that your lebensplasm is in there?” asked Ben.
    “I hope not,” I said. “Let’s keep looking.”
    We headed down the long dark hallway. Gordon and I peered into the next door. This room seemed normal, with a few pieces of furniture and a bed. There was something large on the bed. Something human? Perhaps not—it was hard to tell. We peered in as close as we could.
    “What is it?” asked Ben, and he pushed in between us to have a peek.
    I was about to turn away when the something jumped up and practically flew over to the window. In an instant, a huge grinning face with razor-sharp teeth—but skin where eyes should be—was in the window. Hot breath fogged the window up, as the creature let out a high-pitched growl-squeak.
    We yelled and jumped back, our sneakers squeakingon the cold linoleum floor.
    “Do you think it can get through the window?” Gordon whined.
    The blind monster lifted up a gnarled, slimy hand and pointed behind us.
    Ben covered his eyes.
    Gordon and I turned to see one of the old vampires. It was the vampire that had been licking his lips at me ever since I started at Raven Hill.
    “Chris?” Ben whimpered. “Can we go now?”
    In the pale light of our cell phones, I could see that the vampire was drooling a little. A wad of drool fell off of the left corner of his mouth and PLOPPED to the floor.
    The vampire was hungry.
    He backed up toward the main entrance to the hallway. The monster in the prison cell behind us giggled a high, piercing giggle. It didn’t sound human.
    We were cornered.

“I’ve had enough of this. Outta my way, old man!” Gordon yelled.
    He stomped toward the doorway and the light beyond. I grabbed Gordon before he got too close to the old vampire.
    “That’s not just any old man,” I said. “He’s a vampire.”
    “What?” Ben said, and finally looked up from his hands.
    As if on cue, the old vampire bared his teeth for us to see.
    They looked remarkably pearly white and healthy for a vampire of his age. And his incisors looked very, very sharp.
    “RUN!” I yelled.
    I grabbed Ben and Gordon by the belts of their karate uniforms, and turned down the dark hallway. I had no idea where it led, but I knew it led away from the vampire. That was good enough for me.
    We ran past another half dozen doors and the medical/hospital/bleach smell got even stronger. At the end of the hallway, there was a small room with beakers and vials—a laboratory. We ducked inside.
    “Look for a door on the other side!” I screamed.
    “He’s halfway down the hall,” Gordon yelled.
    Gordon sounded terrified.
    Ben slammed the door shut, but there was no lock. We scrambled around the room, looking for a door to anywhere but here. But there was no door, and there was no window. The old vampire would be here any