Chapter VII

 

After a breakfast of sardines, some kind of cheese and bread of some sort, we set out. Matt had the map and the rest of us followed, not exactly believing that we would actually finish up anywhere mapworthy. I’ll admit that the nine of us were never meant to be anything closely resembling noble, nor were we ever meant to be silent as we hiked through an Eastern European forest that made up a country that didn’t exactly exist, looking for a legend that scared the hell out of the Russians, but nevertheless, noble and silent we were, hiking through the densest forest anyone had ever seen. Matt kept attempting to gain our enthusiasm by saying, "This way, I’m sure of it!" but we had long ago given up anything that slightly resembled enthusiasm.

 

We walked trough the woods for an entire day. I’m not being literary when I say that. We walked for an entire f*****g literal day. We started out from the inn and moved east. Matt directed us all along the way. We hiked for two days, making camp whenever it was becoming too dark to safely hike. On the third day, early in the morning, about an hour or so after we had began hiking that particular day, Matt assured us that we were getting close.

 

"What exactly are we getting close to?" Tiffany asked after he announced his observation. Apparently it was a question worthy of being ignored.

 

I believe that it was Josh who exclaimed back to Matt at that moment, "Hey, what the hell is this?"

Matt drug Tiffany by the arm to where Josh was standing, partly mad, partly determined to make a simple point. "Seriously," Josh said, "What the hell is this?"

 

Matt examined Tiffany much harsher than he examine the source of Josh’s inquiry. "Well, what the hell is it?" Matt demanded from no one in particular.

 

"It’s a cave," I replied.

 

"It’s a cave that has been sealed up," he demanded.

 

"Dude, it’s a cave," I conceded.

 

"It’s been sealed, you’ll give me that?"

 

"It’s a cave. I don’t know anything else but the obvious– It’s a cave."

 

"But you’ll admit that it’s been sealed."

 

" I admit that we have stumbled upon a cave, in the middle of nowhere ..."

 

"It’s sealed!" Matt asserted over and over, "It’s the lair of the Slairva."

 

"What the hell makes you believe that this is the lair of the Slairva?"

 

"How many sealed caves have you discovered in a region that is supposed to house a legend of a vampire?"

 

"Alright," Tiffany spoke, breaking a hair-raising tension that had developed between matt and myself, "if this is what you think it is, do you honestly think that we should mess with it?" I personally thought that it was a reasonable question. Matt, however, was adamant. He was convinced that he had found the ruins of a myth.

 

The cave was shut tight with lumber. Someone who knew what they were doing sealed up that cave. We tore at the lumber with a crowbar that Matt alone had had the foresight of bringing. We took turns tearing at the lumber for the better part of the day, every once in a while, someone would ask if we knew what we were getting ourselves into, all of us assuring whoever dared to raise sucha question that was so obviously framed with such doubts with a simple, "yeah, history!"

 

Slowly, we ate through the wooden seal. And since Matt had the crowbar most of the time, and since he appeared ready to use it on anyone who now dared to question him, none of us attempted to stop him. At about five in the afternoon, he broke through the wood in such way that the rest of us could tear at it and peel it away, sliver by sliver.

 

Behind the wood there was nothing. There only resided a painfully empty sort of darkness. Somewhere, behind that darkness, according to Matt, was a vampire, and not just any vampire, but the Slairva, someone who scared the hell out of the Soviets.

 

I’ll admit it, I was a bit curious. I don’t believe in myths, but one can never be too careful. I ripped off a piece of the wood, which I assumed was oak, and slid it into my backpack, just in case the rumored legends were true.