Chapter 1           

   
The October wind whistled through my hair. Where I stepped, fresh, crisp
leaves broke and decayed. The smell of cinnamon was in the air on this magical day. Tonight would be All Hallow's Eve, known to the humans as Halloween, a time they wore costumes and rejoiced to warn off bad spirits. I sighed as my throat burned with the unbearable thirst. I would satisfy that tonight, given the time. As far as human kids knew, I was one of them, just an outsider. That was about as far from the truth as it could be. Y'see, I'm not human. I am of a higher and more powerful race. Someday, this hunk of rock floating in space would be ours. Soon, I was told. I walked past rows of bright, white houses, all with pumpkins, fake gravestones, and neon lights on the outside. Definitely not my style. I turned at a corner and the 'perfect'  houses melted off into the distance. I now stood on a shabby street that was easily overlooked, unless you knew what to look for. A single house stood in front of me. Silence filled the air. Even the crows and ravens have didn't come here out of fear. Shutters hang down from shattered windows. This place spelled fear, doom and destruction for all foolish enough to go in it, my kind being the exception.
The leaves on the path ahead of me were already decaying, so I wasn't
the first one here. I glided forward to the front porch of the mansion. Inside, I could hear voices murmuring. I pushed the ancient doorbell and it let out the sound of many gongs ringing. The door opened with a creak. I stepped inside as the door closed behind me. A dusty, old organ stood in a far corner, looking dark and foreboding. As I watched, a figure in black stepped over to it. It's chilling music filled the room. I stood and waited until the piece was over, then withdrew my hands from my black cloak and slowly clapped. The organist turned to me and bowed.
“Greetings, Lord Baron. The party awaits you in the dining hall upstairs,” he
spoke in a deep, rumbling voice.
“Thank you, Karlof,” I replied to the butler, who bowed again and vanished
into the shadows. A wooden staircase going up was off to my left. I glided over and climbed the stairs, careful not to trip on my cloak. At the top, I turned right and entered a chamber lit with glowing candles that gave a ghostly light to the room. Golden goblets full of a red liquid stood on the left side of each of 8 plates on a table clearly set for dinner. The table had a runner made out of cobwebs upon it. My family crest, two bloody swords pointed downwards, was imprinted into each plate and glass, as well as hung up on the black wall.