Like This, for Ever

Back in the sitting-room, huddled close to the fire, he took out his own phone. No messages from his dad. Quickly he tapped out a text.
    Bit hectic here. Not sure when we’ll get to sleep. You OK on your own?
    Then he sat, waiting, bothered by the dirty mugs and discarded chocolate wrappers but not having the heart to do anything about them.
    Beep. His dad had replied.
    House is quiet without you. About to go to bed. Have fun.

32
    ‘NO! NO! GET off me! I won’t.’
    Dana sat up, struggling to understand why there was a frightened child in her house. Helen, always a good sleeper, didn’t stir. Of course. Huck and Mark were in the next room – Huck always liked to stay over when Helen was down. She heard Mark spring out of bed and cross the room.
    ‘It’s OK,’ she heard him say. ‘Just a nightmare. I’m here.’
    ‘He’s at the window. Dad, he’s trying to get in.’
    Dana got out of bed and left the room. She knocked gently on the door of the guest room and pushed it open.
    Mark, wearing nothing but checked pyjama bottoms, was sitting on Huck’s bed. He’d pulled his son’s small body on to his lap and his arms were tight around him. ‘There’s no one at the window,’ he was saying. ‘You had a bad dream, that’s all.’
    ‘Mark?’ asked Dana from the doorway. ‘Is Huck OK?’
    ‘He’s fine. Bad dream. Want to tell me about it, buddy?’
    Huck pressed his face against his father’s bare shoulder and shook his head.
    ‘Wouldn’t be vampires by any chance, would it?’
    The small head clamped against his father didn’t move. Mark looked up and caught Dana’s eye. Then Huck’s head was up, alert again. ‘There is something at the window! It’s a bat!’
    ‘Huck, it’ll be a pigeon.’ Dana crossed to the window and pulledback the curtain. ‘They nest on all the roofs round here. They’re a darned nuisance but we can’t seem to get rid of them. Look, there are three of them on the window ledge across the back. Want to see?’
    Huck shook his head, but he wasn’t clinging quite so tightly.
    ‘There are no bats in London,’ said Mark.
    Dana opened her mouth to correct him and thought better of it. After all, it was February, the bats that regularly flew around the trees in the gardens were all hibernating. She watched Huck raise his head and look at his dad. ‘They can get under doors,’ he said.
    ‘What? Vampires?’
    Huck nodded. ‘They turn into mist and sneak under doors. Some boys at school were talking and it’s on this Facebook page as well. They come into your room at night and drink your blood and after a few days you die because you’ve got no blood left, just like those boys Auntie Dana found, and if you’ve drunk the vampire’s blood, you become one of them and then you have to kill everyone in your family.’
    ‘I have never heard such bollocks in all my life,’ said Mark.
    ‘Actually, as a summary of the vampire legends, it’s pretty accurate,’ said Dana. ‘But Huck, they’re stories. They’re no more true than Harry Potter.’
    ‘And by the way, Huck, since when have you been going on Facebook? You’re not old enough.’
    Huck’s scared look became half defiant. ‘I use Mum’s page,’ he admitted.
    ‘I’ll be having a word with your mother.’
    ‘So, who is killing these boys then?’ Huck asked, deftly moving the conversation on.
    ‘A man,’ said his father. ‘Very bad, but otherwise very ordinary. And your godmother will catch him.’
    Downstairs, Dana put the kettle on and immediately wondered why she’d bothered. She didn’t want tea or coffee. In the cupboard by the fridge she found the single Highland malt that Helen had brought down.
    She’d been waiting ten minutes when Mark appeared. He’dpulled a sweatshirt on and she was glad. Normally, male nudity held no more interest for her than a well-executed painting, but just lately, it seemed, she never felt entirely comfortable close to Mark.
    ‘Is he asleep?’ she asked.
    He nodded. ‘You’ve got to get this guy soon, Dana,’ he said. ‘Kids are terrified. They think there’s a monster out there and he’s after little boys.’
    ‘Trouble is, they’re right.’
    ‘This frigging Facebook business is a menace. Can you not get this site they’re all obsessing with closed down?’
    Dana pulled a face. ‘Possibly. But we’ve been monitoring it quite closely. A lot of the contributors knew the victims.’
    ‘You think the killer could be using it?’
    ‘Quite likely he