13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days

Vampire Weekend

8 min readJun 24, 2021

He was dressed as a farm animal and had invited them all to spend Halloween at his lake house as part of an elaborate scheme to win back his Long Lost Love, so they called him Goatsby. He embraced the nickname. There is not much else worth telling about Goatsby, because this story is not about him.

This story is about Vlad, who sat flicking an old Zippo lighter on a picnic blanket, trying to remember the name of the girl he’d brought to Goatsby’s party. It wasn’t a new relationship. Names and faces just ran together for Vlad. She sat beside him on the blanket, dressed as a witch, drinking a White Claw and bopping her head to the music. He was a vampire. He wrapped his cape around her and she smiled. He surveyed the other party guests. He’d seen most before. Acquaintances of Old Goatsby, assembled over the years to make the parties he threw to win back his Long Lost Love look more impressive.

Big Ray, one of Goatsby’s college buddies, arrived with his girlfriend, Anastasia. Anastasia was dressed like Vlad, even wearing the sunglasses that a vampire would need in order to attend a haunted picnic in the afternoon sun.

“Well this is embarrassing,” Anastasia said, pointing to Vlad’s vampire cape.

“Don’t worry, I’m actually Batman,” Vlad said.

Anastasia introduced herself to Vlad’s date. The date said her name was Sarah. He had to admit, it did sound familiar.

When the sun set, they went inside for a pre-Halloween party. Goatsby turned the music up, in hopes it would be loud enough to reach his Long Lost Love’s hunting cabin across the lake.

Vlad stood in the back of the main room, flicking his lighter in front of an antique mirror. Goatsby’s parties were legendary, but to Vlad they all felt the same. He had been to so many parties. Sarah — he remembered her name this time — was on the couch, consoling one of Goatsby’s prettier party guests, who was crying about a broken heart.

“Thought a girl like that would be too pretty for a broken heart,” said a voice beside him.

Vlad turned around. It was Anastasia.

“Play the string out long enough and everything ends in heartbreak,” he said, solemnly.

She nodded. They stood there for a while and watched the girl sob messily.

“I’m gonna turn around,” Anastasia said. “Emotions make me uneasy.”

“Same,” Vlad said.

They turned toward the antique mirror. He noticed first. The sight of it lit something deep inside of him, a feeling he thought had died centuries before. He nudged her. Anastasia raised her eyes and saw what he saw. Or rather, what he did not see. The mirror was empty. They each had no reflection.

“That’s unexpected-” Vlad said.

“So you’re actually a-” she said.

“Sanguisuge,” he said. “Halfling. Devil’s Reject. Yeah.”

Anastasia looked at him cross eyed.

“I usually just say vampire,” she said.

“That too,” he said.

They sat and watched the party through the mirror for a few minutes.

“When’s the last time you’ve met someone like us?” he asked.

“Long time,” she said. “You?”

“Never,” he said.

He turned away from the mirror and looked at her. They’d met before. They were both regulars at Goatsby’s parties. But he’d learned over the centuries to take time to appreciate the first time you really saw someone. She looked back at him. He thought how nice it was to be dressed as his true self, with another person just like him, out in the open, not worried about judgment or vampire hunters. He remembered why he always liked Halloween.

“Isn’t it great to just be yourself for one weekend and not worry about judgment?” Anastasia asked. “Or vampire hunters? Don’t you just love Halloween?”

He smiled at her, showing the bottom of his fangs.

“I’m not human so I know you didn’t just read my mind,” he said. “But you just completely read my mind.”

They stood in silence for a few more moments, smiling dumbly, as if they didn’t have eternity weighing upon both of their souls.

The moment passed. Big Ray called her over to the beer pong table. He was about to win and wanted Anastasia to see.

“It seems my dear paramour is about to achieve immortality,” she said.

“Oh,” Vlad said. “Right.”

She turned back.

“I’m glad I know this,” she said.

The plan was to have a giant pregame that would lure Goatsby’s Long Lost Love over on the first night. If that didn’t work, they’d spend the next day resting up for an even bigger party, with even louder music. If all else failed, Goatsby would walk into the lake with a pocket full of stones and drown himself prove he never stopped loving her. When a reveller pointed out that he was confusing his American literature, he waved them away.

The first party lasted deep into the night. Vlad’s date fell asleep on the couch. He sat next to her and tried unsuccessfully to think of anything but Anastasia. At one point he caught her glance from across the room. She smiled and showed her fangs. He returned the gesture.

At dawn, everyone went to bed. Anastasia appeared behind him.

“Nice when things work out the way they’re supposed to,” she said, motioning to the rising sun.

It was mid-morning. The shades were all drawn. The house was sleeping to rest up for Goatsby’s big party. He roamed the halls. He found her sitting at the table, an empty coffee cup in front of her.

“Can’t sleep?” Anastasia asked.

“Haven’t slept in years,” Vlad replied.

“Me either.”

She motioned for him to take a seat.

“I guess I should have known,” she said. “I mean, your name is Vlad.”

“It was my father’s name,” she said. “He was from The Old Country.”

“Is that where they turned you?” she asked.

He shrugged.

“I’ve always been this way.”

She traced a finger along the top of her coffee mug.

“Me too,” she said.

He looked down at the empty mug.

“All out of blood?” he asked.

She laughed.

“I don’t drink blood anymore.” She laughed again. “What am I in college?”

He laughed, too. He’d been an old washed up vampire for so long that he forgot what it was like to feel connected to anything.

“I just like to have a coffee mug out,” she said. “Makes me feel normal.”

He pulled out his cigarette lighter.

“That’s why I flick this,” he said.

She stepped back a little.

“Not afraid of fire?” she asked.

“Not anymore.”

They sat in silence for a little. Her phone vibrated. She looked down. Big Ray.

“You ever get tired of never really loving anyone because they’re always going to die and you can’t?” she asked.

He nodded. She got up to leave.

“It’s nice to feel connected to someone,” she said.

At the start of the big party, Goatsby, wearing his goat mask and a shiny green shirt, gathered them all around to tell the story of how he met his Long Lost Love.

“It was a magical St. Patrick’s Day,” he said. “We were riding the Erin Express. All you can drink green beers. She was looking for something to kill and I had just thrown up in a bucket. She complimented this very shirt and I fell in love.”

Vlad saddled up next to Anastasia.

“Do you think we should turn Old Goatsby so he learns what it’s like to really lose someone forever?” he asked.

Anastasia laughed.

“He’d go mad the first decade,” she said. “He’d step right into the sunrise.”

Vlad nodded.

“I feel like I’m seeing the sunrise for the first time,” he said.

“That would be nice,” she said.

The party was going well. Goatsby always played the best music. It really seemed like his Long Lost Love might arrive. Anastasia and Vlad stood talking in the back, while their dates teamed up for a flip cup tournament.

“So what’s the thing you wish you could tell these kids about, but they can’t know how old you really are?” Anastasia asked.

“I was on the Titanic,” he said. “Well, almost. I’m the guy who lost his seat on the Titanic in a poker game to Leonardo DiCaprio. What about you?”

She smiled.

“I fed on Hendrix at Woodstock,” she said. “Just a little. I know, I’m a cliché.”

“I did that too,” he said.

The music stopped. Everyone in the party turned in slow motion toward the door. Goatsby’s Long Lost Love had arrived.

She was dressed in a long trench coat and had a hat pulled low. Crucifixes covered her body. In her hand was a wooden stake.

“I have beaten on, a goat against the current, for so long,” Goatsby announced. “But my plan has succeeded. My Long Lost Love has at last arrived at my party.”

He rushed forward and hugged her.

“Cool shirt,” she said. Then she pulled away and walked into the party.

Everyone wanted to shake her hand. Vlad slipped into the crowd. “Great costume,” he heard Big Ray say. Vlad looked to Anastasia. He saw in her eyes that she was thinking the same as him. He pulled her aside.

“I was going to ask you if you wanted to run away together-” he started.

“Me too-” she said.

“Eventually-” he said.

“Right-”

“Figured we had eternity-”

“But seeing as that’s pretty clearly a real vampire hunter-” she said.

“And not a costume-” he said.

“The timeline has changed-”

“Let’s get out of here-”

“Together,” she said.

They looked over at Big Ray, who was pouring shots to celebrate the arrival of Goatsby’s Long Lost Love.

“Do you want to say goodbye to Big Ray?” Vlad asked.

Big Ray had his arm around Sarah, Vlad’s date. Vlad scratched his head.

“When did that happen?” he asked.

Anastasia didn’t blush, because she was a vampire.

“I may have hypnotized them a bit,” she said. “Everyone deserves a happy ending.”

He took her by the hand and they slipped out the back door and into the night.

They did not return to the lake house, and never saw anyone again, so they missed the part when Goatsby’s Long Lost Love told him she never cared about him, and had only come to his party to arrest him for harboring fugitive vampires. And they never heard about how old Goatsby walked out into the lake to drown himself with a pocket full of rocks, but found it too shallow for such a dramatic gesture.

The only rule of 13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days is I must post the story the day I finish writing it.

13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days

Vampire Weekend

Written by Mark Macyk