Tear the curtain
From Create Your Own Story
In a fit of inspiration you tug at the curtain. Vampires crumble in sunlight, right? Reluctantly, the curtain comes loose and tumbles to the floor. The afternoon sunlight streams into the room and falls on Walfreid. He throws his arms over his face and screeches. No crumbling though. Drat. Still, this buys you some time.
One end of your sheet rope is tied to the bed. You hope it's long enough. You throw the other end over the window. A glance back at Walfreid shows that he's stepped outside of the light beam. He has a rather sour look on his face. Stepping around the patch of sunlight, he saunters towards you. "I zink ve've played at zis game long enough. Now's time to end it. Step over here."
Your body jolts forward, but you catch yourself. You swallow hard. "You're right. It's time to end this. Goodbye." Clinging to your makeshift rope, you jump out the window. It holds. You lower yourself on it. It gets you most of the way but stops short of the ground. You let go of the rope and fall the remaining 15 feet. You look back up. No one at the window. You look around. You must be on the side of the castle. The sunlight is shining full on the stonework. The shadows are getting long. It won't be daylight much longer. Unfortunately, you left your lamp inside.
You round the side of the castle and come to the path. You trot quickly down it. You're racing the sun, and you know it. It's a long trail to walk. The light fades, and you don't know how far you've gone. Bats flit above your head in the semi-dark. Paranoid, you shift your grip on the stake. You round another corner and see the town spread out in front of you. You've made it!
You walk through the dark streets until you reach the inn. You knock on the door. Herr Gauman opens it a crack. When he sees it's you, he lets you in. He gives you a once-over, eyes lingering on the stake.
"I'm glad you're back" he says. "We were worried after you didn't come back with Hans."
You're not in the mood for talking. "Yeah. It's been a rough day." With that, you go up to your room. You're exhasuted, but you can only toss and turn. Some time around midnight, you hear a tapping at your window. You bolt upright. A huge bat is beating itself against the window. It tries for another minute to get in, then flaps away. That's it for sleeping. You spend the rest of the night awake, thinking.
In the morning, you visit Hans. He opens his door, obviously pleased to see you.
"I lost your cross." you start, "Sorry. Thank you for lending it to me. It helped."
"If you're okay, it's worth it." he leans in. "What did you see up there?"
"I don't want to talk about it, but I need to leave town."
You negotiate a rate for him to drive you to the nearest city. From 80 miles away, you feel much more secure. Your first purchase is a crucifix similar to the one you lost in castle von Furchstam. No bats bother you that night, and you feel considerably more secure. After all you've been through, all you want is to go home. You don't know how you'd explain your abandonment of the case to your boss, though.
