“Vampires?” His voice echoed with some disbelief, there was no way he'd believe a word you said when you seemed haunted by your own thoughts. Don't get him wrong, he'd love to believe you, you saved his life when you made him run into the church, but honestly, it didn't make a lick of sense.

He was an author, he could believe in things outside the box, but vampires in Salem's Lot? Why here? He was looking for a quieter life and now he was being hunted by vampires? How nice! This could only be some drug taking effect on you.

“Well, you wanted to know what I do for a living, didn't you? Why didn't I let you into my house?” You stood up from the pew, standing in front of him with a notebook between your hands. Notes from, at least, five years of research on this creatures—you'd travel to Europe next month, exploring the curious villages that were said to contain mysteries never before revealed.

Fate had other plans for you when it brought your fascination right into the neighborhood. You didn't believe it until you saw it with your own eyes and... It was absurdly terrifying, but undeniably wonderful.

“This is what I do for a living, Ben. Every little thing, it sounds crazy, but you saw what I saw, what Mark saw, and what Father Callahan saw.” By God, you felt yourself getting more excited about this than you should have. These creatures were killing innocent people, though you still couldn't deny your fascination. “I can say that I can hunt these things!”

Okay, okay, he could believe that all this weird things was actually vampires, he saw the whole thing about the crosses and the holy ground and how that worked, but hunting...? Come on, you must have never even hunted a rabbit. “And have you ever hunted a vampire in your life?” He knew what the answer would be, he just wanted to be sure.

“No, but...” Before you could continue your probably terrible argument about how you—who have never hunted an animal—could hunt vampires who would certainly be more agile than you, he interrupted you.

“Right, no, so you can't hunt those things.” Ben simplified, running his hands through his hair in a nearly failed attempt to think of a plan that would work. “There must still be people out there who don't know about... all of this.”

You thought for a moment, maybe there were people out there, but that was a huge maybe. “Unlikely, they must all be dead and transformed by now.” Your words came out without you being able to filter them. You soon remembered that Mark's parents were still outside, especially after Ben poked you in the ribs. “Oh, I mean... Yeah, there's a chance there could be people alive... If they're trapped in a room with no windows, maybe.”

The last part you said more like in a whisper as your eyes returned to the man beside you. Ben had no idea what to do, he saw what happened to Susan and he didn't want to let it happen to others. “Is there any way to... Kill them? I don't know, holy water?”

He had no idea how to deal with vampires, were they different from Dracula? Or were they the same thing? It definitely couldn't be the same thing, he didn't imagine Dracula floating around with his eyes glowing yellow.