Jillian Chantal

This week’s Tuesday Tales is a picture prompt that fits marvelously with the story I’m writing now, A Brush with Death about a pre-WWII vampire hunter.  Where we are in the story is he has a tip about a meeting and he’s on his way to scope it out with a co-hunter, Allison. Allison has a twin sister and Declan is fond of one sister and not the other. He’s already had a run in with the other sister, Annette earlier in the day when she arrived to tell him his mother sent her to assist him.

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Allison reached over and squeezed Declan’s hand. “I’m glad to see you. I was a bit daunted to be going out there on my own.”

Declan wondered for a moment why his mother Siobhan didn’t send Allison instead of Annette but then realized exactly why and tamped that thought down.

“I’m glad to have you onboard as well.” He laughed. “Literally, I guess since we’re on a train.”

“Not for long. Here’s our stop.” Allison stood.

Declan was glad to see she was dressed for action as opposed to the fancy duds her sister sported earlier in the day. She wore a pair of black loose-fitting slacks and a black blouse. A black cap was in her hand and carried a bag similar to his.

“Let’s see what we find then, shall we?” Declan asked.

On the platform, the only two humans in the area, Declan looked up at the sky. “Great. What could be better? Fog and a full moon. Are you sure we aren’t in some film noir?”

At that moment, some animal howled in the distance. Allison nodded her head. “Yes, we are. That was all that was lacking. Come on.”

Wondering what exactly they were going to find, Declan led the way across the concrete platform and out into the darkness.

They walked for a long while and eventually entered a forest full of pines and other coniferous trees. If possible, it was even darker except in the areas where the moonlight shone through the treetops and fog.

The howling they’d heard intermittently seemed to stop for a few minutes but then started again briefly until it was cut off by a guttural squeal.

“Feeding time?” Allison said.

Declan nodded grimly.