Why do you think he only came out at night? A shadow on the wall. A rustle on the sill.
The same reason, of course, why he never grew older—and it had nothing to do with fairy dust. He turned all his lost boys, and he would have made Wendy their vampire queen. Had it not been for the hero.
The vampire slayer braved storm-wracked seas, fought a terrible serpent, resisted the allure of sirens from the deeps, finally to come to the boy bloodsucker’s haunted island.
It was an epic battle—the eternal boy-king and his Lost Boys leaping, slashing, taking to the air like prepubescent bats. The battle lasted through the night, almost to the dawn, until Pan, afraid of the imminent sunrise the way some boys are afraid of the dark, turned to flee.
That is when the Captain drove his weapon deep into the vampire lad’s chest.
And his hook was made of wood.
–
©2009 Nicholas Ozment
A bit about the author, who is also in the habit of writing about himself in the third person: Nicholas Ozment’s fiction, poetry, essays, book and film reviews have appeared in dozens of publications in print and online, including Weird Tales, Mythic Delirium, and (podcast) Pseudopod. His flash fiction has appeared at Every Day Fiction and Everyday Weirdness and has been anthologized in Best of Every Day Fiction 2008. One of his flash stories is the most-read EDF has published, with over 33,000 hits. He co-edits Every Day Poets and, for a living, teaches college English.
Tags: Nicholas Ozment
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Congrats to Nicholas for submitting our 100th story! Thanks! And, thanks to everyone else who supports the site!
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Very good tale, Nicholas–great spin.
–dj
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Thanks, dj!
April 9th, 2009 at 3:39 am
nice!
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Thanks, susie!