Outside of the haunted mansion, the people gathered together. They were talking about the research that was about to take place. It was the talk of the town. Families made up the majority of visitors because it was a family that would be the “guinea pigs” for the experiment.



    Running along the porch of the mansion, the blond haired, blue eyed, almost stereotypical little boy could hear his mother talking about him to the others.

    “He’s such a handful! With all that energy I can hardly keep up with him.”

    “Ahh,” the other mothers exclaimed, “that’s so cute.”



    It was getting dark; it was time for things to start. As the family entered the mansion, they were greeted by an old gentleman.

    “Go ahead and have a look around.” He said as he subtly maneuvered them to explore in different directions. Even he had disappeared, wandering off on his own.



    The little boy looked thoroughly around the mansion. Sometimes he would see his older sister playing around or he would see his mother enthralled with the beauty of the mansion. He never stopped to chat with them, but instead simply kept on exploring.



    Every now and again a ghost would appear. However, no one was able to see them or even notice that they were there. There were two types of ghosts. One was white and one was dark. The white ghost was a little girl. The dark ghost was also small, but undecipherable in its clarity as to what it was, perhaps monstrous looking. They would appear, but everyone around would simply walk right through them and not take notice of their existence.



    Eventually, the little boy came across the old gentleman. The man was sitting in a dining room at the head of the table. The little boy sat in the chair to the right of the man. Then, the man started to tell the little boy a story.

    “Once there was a man who wanted to find the fountain of youth. He eventually discovered that he could feel young again by surrounding himself with children. The more children that he surrounded himself with, the younger he would feel. Once he had surrounded himself with enough children for him to feel as young as he wanted to be, he would live a long, happy life.”



    At this point, the little boy was deeply interested in the story, and he was at the edge of his seat, eagerly hanging onto every word.

    “The man would then pass on his knowledge of youthful life through generations of his family. Each one would surround himself with children, feel young, and live a long, happy life until the last one, Dracula. Just like the others, Dracula would surround himself with children and feel young. The more children he surrounded himself with, the younger he felt, but he was insatiable. No amount of children was ever enough to make him feel as young as he wanted to feel. That is why he was the last, because he was never satisfied.”



    At that moment, the old man was no longer sitting at the table. He was at the little boy’s side, attacking from a pouncing position. The little boy yelled and ran out of the room. After the little boy turned the corner, he stopped, laughed to himself, and walked back into the room.

    “You’re good,” said the little boy as he sat back in his seat. “No wonder you’re a writer!”



    The old gentleman left the room and the little boy followed. As they were leaving, a white ghost appeared before them. As usual, they each walked through her, neither noticing nor acknowledging her existence. This time, after the little boy walked through her, she spoke,

    “He’s not your father!”

    The little boy replied, “I know.” Then he stopped dead in his tracks and turned around saying, “I just heard something!”



    The old man turned around and walked past the little boy. He then proceeded directly towards the ghostly little girl. His face changed to resemble the monstrous features of the dark ghosts. The little boy stood, shocked and scared as he witnessed the monstrous man kick at the ghostly little girl. She jumped and rolled away as he kicked.



    Seeing that, the little boy ran away. Soon he found himself face to face with another monstrosity, one resembling his older sister. Her face was strangely painted, almost like a clown. She had green on the lower left side of her lip. Her mouth looked too wide, and her right eye looked like it may have been swollen shut. At this sight, the little boy turned around and ran away again. This time he came face to face with a dark ghost. Turning once more, he fled in terror until he eventually found his mother. He clung onto her and told her of all the horrors that he had seen.



    His mother comforted him as his sister came into the room. Together, the mother and sister comforted that scared little boy explaining that his sister had found some makeup and had applied too much of it. When the boy looked up at her, he saw that she did indeed look normal accept that that she still had some of the green make up on her lip. To the right of his sister, he saw his sister again, but she had makeup on her eye. In all of the fear and confusion, the little boy never gave a second thought about having two versions of his sister there. Perhaps his vision was blurred from his crying. Strange that his mother seemed to acknowledge that there were two versions of her daughter there but was somehow not concerned about it.



    The group stayed together and gathered in a hallway. There were some chairs lined up against one side of the hallway. The little boy sat on a gold and red throne while his mother sat to his left and his sister sat to his right. There was only one sister present at this time and her face looked completely normal now. The family embraced in a group hug. The little boy had one arm around his mother and one arm around his sister.



    The mother checked around and asked if anyone was there. The little boy looked around as well. He saw his mother and his sister, but someone was missing. He tried to think of who it could be. He remembered that there was a man with them.

    “Who was it?” The little boy struggled to think harder as he saw his mother throwing frantic glances about the hallway for the missing person. “Was it the janitor? No, that’s silly, there was no janitor, what was I thinking?” The little boy never gave up his struggle to think, “Father!?”



    Then an image started to appear in the air in front of them. It seemed like some kind of communication was trying to be established. It was almost like a video screen for a telephone. As the image tried to clear up, the old gentleman could be seen walking towards the group from down the hallway.

“Good,” the mother said, relieved. “We are all here.”



    The little boy looked away from his mother and over to his right. He saw the old gentleman looking enviously at his chair. He then sat next to the little boy, and no one gave a second thought as to the whereabouts of his sister. They watched as a message came in explaining the next stage of the experiment.