• Katie Helderbrand
    October 20, 2008
    English 8 Period 6 Mrs. Morris
    A Prom to Die For
    “Ben save me!” an exhausted voice bellowed towards the lifeless boy on the cold, steel floor of Castle Oblivion.
    All the discord and chaos leading up to this peril-filled night began May 3rd, 2012. Seventeen year old Katie Helderbrand, a junior at New Castle Chrysler High School, had just made prom court. Her boyfriend of three years Chris was ecstatic as he paraded her across the halls. They came to her locker and saw a strange boy. Katie gently tapped his shoulder and said, “Ummm, can I help you?”
    The boy slowly turned and stared at the 5’ 7” blonde hair, gray tinted-eyed girl eyeing her up and down, “Well, yes, you see I’m new here, Vladimir Cain, call me Vlad though.” He paused momentarily, inhaled slowly and continued, “I’m looking for the junior class president, Ka-“
    “Oh! That’s me!” She smiled gently up at the tall, dark hair boy. She had an intrigued look resting on her face, however, for he resembled an albino child with white flesh, pale as the moon, and deep blue eyes that resembled the tide at sea on a warm summer evening.
    “Oh, really?” He chuckled smiling gently, he glanced towards the floor and saw the boy she was with clenched her hand protectively, “And you are…?”
    “Vonderheide, Ben, Katie’s boyfriend.” He emphasized the last word with a grin on his face glancing over at her.
    Katie nudged him gently and gave Vlad a sympathy hug, “Sorry, my boyfriend can be a jerk sometimes,” she glared at Ben from the corner of her grey eyes; he just looked at the ground, knowing that he had disappointed her with his actions.
    Vlad inhaled with a laugh and smiled even more at the girl, “I don’t blame him, if my girlfriend were as gorgeous as you, and I’d sure be a jerk to others too.” Vlad quickly glanced away seeming embarrassed at the remark he had just made.
    “Aww, that’s really sweet, well kind of,” said Katie blushing and giggling like a little school girl. She re-gripped Ben’s hand and linked elbows with Vlad, as the bell, which signified the end of torture sounded. Katie glanced at the boys and said, “How about we go to Starbucks and get to know each other better?”
    “And, with that, ends my story about my life in Romania.” Vlad finished his story with a slight exaggeration of those words, smiling at the couple from across the table as he took a long sip of his ice cold vanilla frappacino.
    “Wow, I wish my life was that interesting,” Katie sighed in disbelief as she stared, obviously envious of the boy’s past. “The only exciting thing about me is my varsity softball status…oh! I just made Prom court too!” She clapped her hands together, grinning at the remembrance.
    “Very nice, do you have a date to said Prom..?” Vlad smiled.
    Katie almost chocked on her chai tea and shook her head in disdain. “Well, no one has asked me yet, but I’m hoping for one guy in particular to…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Ben, she was his Prom date last year, so surely he would ask her once more.
    “I’m sure you’ll get the date of your dreams, dear,” said Vlad, silencing what Ben was about to say, he glared over at Ben and grinned with razor-sharp teeth.
    The room grew cold with silence; the couple exchanged frightened glances and peered at the new student. “Well, Katie and I really need to get going; we have to go…wash her dad’s car!” Ben said desperately trying to think of a common excuse, with enough reason. Vlad looked as though Ben had crushed all of his pathetic hope that then turned to aggression as the boy seemed very angered.
    Katie blinked for a while then said, “We will see you tomorrow at school?” she said smiling fearfully, trying with her whole little heart to make the situation better.
    “Count on it,” Vlad said with an evil grin. The group of friends stood, and left. As Ben and Katie took off in a car, Vlad disappeared around the side of a building, a few moments later a bat came fluttering along side the car, appearing to stalk it. Ben and Katie, however, had no clue what they were in for.
    At school the next morning, Vlad was standing in front of Katie’s locker; a maroon rose was clenched between his hands, a huge grin upon his pale face. He extended the rose to Katie, who accepted it, twirled it between her soft palms for milliseconds, the rejected it, giving it back to the boy.
    “Look, I have a boyfriend, so all you’re getting is a tour of the school,” she said in a ferocious tone, “got it?!”
    The boy’s head drug as he nodded sullenly, Katie swiftly showed the student the halls and essentials of the school building as a firm grip took hold of her arm, “You will be mine,” he whispered heavily in her ear.
    She was trying to break away from him as Ben walked up and showed him into the lockers, placing a hand around his neck, “Stay away from my girlfriend, punk.” He finally shoved Vlad back, took Katie’s hand, and the couple left the scene briskly as if nothing had even happened.
    Vlad strayed away from the couple the next day, which happened to be Wednesday, May 5th. To celebrate what they believed to be the end of the freakish happenings, they hit up the Castle for a movie.
    Sitting down Katie sighed softly, the Prom was Saturday, and Ben had still not asked to escort her. She worried that he wouldn’t want to go, but she quickly shook that thought from her mind, seeing Ben holding three dozen roses and a tiara.
    “My queen, will you do the honor of being my female partner to Prom?” he smiled happily at her, beaming with anticipation.
    “No!” Katie laughed and shook her head in fake disgust. “Just kidding! Of course I’ll go to the Prom with you!”
    The couple sat through the rest of the movie, although they were oblivious to whom or should I say what was lurking in the shadows.
    Ben suddenly fell ill. He was absent from school on both Thursday and Friday. Little did he know the sickness was not accidental, which is what most people presumed, it was very intentional, and Katie found out.
    There he was, standing at her locker, she waltzed on up to him, and screamed directly into his pale flesh, “What did you do to Ben, Vladimir Cain!”
    The boy looked up and grinned at the girl; “Just a little Cyanide, nothing major, shush your jaw about it though…” his voice trailed off as a school counselor strolled past.
    “You, you!” She combusted into tears as she slapped him square across the face with as much disgust as she could possibly muster.
    He quickly drew a knife and grazed it along her neck, then held it tight against her throat. “You don’t want to do that to a vampire, do you little girl?”
    The words sent chills coursing down her already trembling body. “Va-Va-Vampire?” The words couldn’t even escape her lips as she tried to break the bonds from his hand. The grip then released and Katie sprinted from the scene.
    “You will be mine, Katie Helderbrand, you will!” He bellowed after her, but she was already long gone.
    The next day, Katie was over at Ben’s, attempting to recover. It was May 8th, Prom day. “Katie, it’s okay,” Ben was attempting to soothe his beloved girlfriend. It was nine in the morning on the day of Prom, it would commence in twelve hours. “You need to go to your appointments, for your hair and nails, so you can just relax and not think about it all.”
    The girl said nothing as she rose from his side. She glanced at him, still horrified, hugged him, and turned to go. She left his house; eyes filled with moisture, and drove to Colourz. She realized after having her hair done in a messy bun with beautiful pearl pins, and her nails in a deep, lush violet shade, that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. But, she had no clue what her other half was going through at the time.
    Elsewhere, Vlad had met up with Ben, “Stop terrifying Katie!” Ben screeched as he shoved Vlad to the ground. Vlad unexpectedly pulled a gun from his large trench coat pockets, and pointed it at the boy.
    “Stop being so stupid, naïve mortal!” Vlad retorted back at him.
    Pre-Prom began at seven o’ clock, it was being held in Katie’s spacious backyard. Ben stood inside, however, waiting for his date. He was in the foyer at the bottom of the large wooden stairs. Upon him was a black tuxedo with a violet undershirt and tie, of course, he only wore this to compliment the dress which Katie was to wear.
    “Hey…” Katie suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs, she began her way down in a violet dress, with black bodice lacing, black and violet gloves clothed her from her fingertips to elbows and her black stilettos were laced with sparkling cubic zirconium.
    Ben stared at her in disbelief, “You look... wow.” He said, smiling, obviously dumb-founded by her appearance. They sat the corsage and boutonniere with great ease, and headed outside for pictures, and to climb into their limo they had rented for the night. But, as they loaded the car with several friends, they saw a bat, a rather large one, watching then very closely.
    Next, it was Prom time. The dance began and progressed with no complications for the couple. They danced, socialized, and laughed the night away. It was soon, what seemed very soon 11:30. They were about to announce the King and Queen.
    Then, the couple and the rest of the candidates, met. They got ready to take the stage, found out who would escort who, and what they were to do if they were selected.
    “Here is your 2012 Prom Court!” exclaimed student council vice-president, Allie Bimber. Ben, Katie, and three other couples took the stage arm and arm anxiously waiting to hear the
    names of the chosen couple.
    “Our 2012 Prom King is…!” Allie drew the words out to add suspense, “Benjamin Vonderheide!” The students in the crowd combusted into a thunderous applause, as he took center stage, his large, black and blonde hair flowing as he moved, he accepted the staff, crown, and sash and took a seat upon his throne.
    The remaining boys backed away as the four possible queens joined hands to comfort one another for the results. “The 2012 Prom Queen of New Castle Chrysler High School is…” Allie stared at the audience while she read this, a smirk across her face, “Katie Helderbrand!” If the candidates thought that the last round of applause was fierce, they were sure shocked by the applause for the queen.
    Katie sashayed to center stage, accepted a bouquet of green a white carnations, the school colors of course, and placed the sash around her shoulders. She was crying for absolute excitement as she bent a little so the principal could place the glimmering tiara upon her golden locks. She took her seat beside Ben, then the most unexplainable, and unimaginable thing happened.
    The lights slammed off. High-pitched screaming was heard, along with a couple gun shots. When the lights came back on, there was a small pool of deep red blood, and the King and Queen were gone.
    The next thing that happened when Katie’s grey eyes opened was the most tragic thing to happen in her young life. She was handcuffed and shackled, she was facing towards the other wall, looking at the ground to see Ben trying to get up, then, and Vlad crept up behind him. There was a slight gleam, and the next thing that Katie saw was a strong metal knife impaling her loyal boyfriend in the pit of his stomach.
    Ben cried out as his body fell into a heap. Vlad turned to Katie, his eyes had turned red with blood-lust. He chuckled diabolically as he neared her, intensely crying, “You will be mine now!”
    “No, no, no,” tears streamed down the young girl’s face. She wasn’t concerned with her fate as much as she was with her boyfriend’s valuable life. She saw a slight twitching motion emerging from Ben’s small, frail body.
    “Yes, yes, yes” laughed Vlad, “so you better be ready for eternity” he beamed with pride as he stared around the corridor, “This is Castle Oblivion, home of I, the all important Lord Vladimir Cain! You will be the wife of me!” he opened his mouth to reveal fangs, sharp as a needle, and tinted with a red stain. He turned the girl’s neck to the side, and started bending over her.
    “Ben! Wake up! Help me, or at least yourself!” she bellowed exhaustedly at the boy lying lifeless on the cold, steel floor of Castle Oblivion. That was the last cry to ever escape that body, and the last movement to leave the body of the young boy, was a tear, along with the words, “I love you, Ka-“
    Police had investigated the situation of the disappearances of the 2012 Prom King and Queen, Ben and Katie. The community was devastated, but no trace of the couple emerged at all. The only thing that they could conclude was that they eloped, but they didn’t notice the student registry had lost one student the day after. The name Vladimir Cain, no longer showed on the registry, no longer showed in life.