THE DEAD GAME -- DAY 103

Chapter 18
Early next morning, Linda heard loud shouts coming from outside her apartment that sounded like they were originating from the beach near End House. I hope Todd is still home.
She couldn’t find Todd anywhere so she dressed quickly, with her cats peeking out at her from under the bed, and raced out to the beach. There was a loud commotion of people standing at the edge of the beach—right below End House. She was shocked to see that David was the one doing all the shouting and shrieking. He was standing beside a blanket with his hands waving in the air, his voice becoming higher and higher pitched.
She moved closer and noticed a red shoe sticking out from under a blanket that was draped over a form lying flat on the beach. David ran over. “I found the body when I was taking a walk on the beach by myself. All I was able to see was a red shoe. When I got closer, I realized that the shoe was on a dead body of a young girl. She was totally white—like all her blood had been drained from her body. Are there such things as vampires? I don’t know what to believe anymore. How many bad things could possibly happen in one town?”
Linda scanned the tight cluster of bystanders and spotted Todd talking with the sheriff and his deputy off to the side. She took David’s arm—which quieted him down somewhat—and guided him over to where they were standing. Todd walked over to David and said, “If you hadn’t found her, someone else would have.”
Sheriff Sam said, “She looks like the young photographer who’d been nosing around town this last month. She’d been asking a lot of questions about a girl who’d disappeared last year from the Oasis Hotel.”
“Maybe she’d discovered some information that had gotten her killed,” said Linda. She was concerned about the number of deaths piling up in town.
“We’ll never find out, since that girl has never been found. And the newspaper that this photographer was supposed to have been working for doesn’t even exist,” further explained Sam.
“Let me look into this. She could have been posing as a photographer, but been hired by someone else to dig deeper for answers,” said Todd. He turned to Linda. “Please take David home with you and remain in your house until I can join you. I don’t want you wandering around town without me. From now on, I’ll accompany you to and from work. Since we don’t know who we are up against, we must be extra careful.”
“I’m fine on my own. What about all the blood that had been drained from her body? Who could have done that? Have people been posing as vampires?”
“I’ll get to the bottom of this with the sheriff. Just be careful. Promise me that you’ll listen to me or else I’ll come home with you right now and never again leave your side.”
“All right, I’ll listen to you this time.”
“I think you should always listen to me…you’ll be much safer and happier that way.”