The Vampire Count

The waiter said "Just a minute" and went back to the break room to get something. Wang Dali asked, "What if this guy runs away?"

"Don't worry, he wouldn't dare run. I know these cowardly types pretty well," said Huang Xiaotao with a smile, looking meaningfully at Wang Dali.

Noticing everyone had less-than-pleased expressions, Huang Xiaotao curiously asked, "What's with you guys? You look like you've seen a ghost. Did something happen just now?"

I recounted the autopsy results. Huang Xiaotao scoffed, "A bunch of grown men afraid of this?"

Wang Dali said, "Little Sister Xiaotao, it's easy for you to talk when you're not the one experiencing it. Why don't you go take a look and see if you don't vomit!"

"I'm not falling for that," Huang Xiaotao said coldly.

Soon after, the waiter came back with a very large USB drive, about the size of a wallet. Huang Xiaotao heavily snorted, "Quite the extensive collection!"

The waiter scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "They're all unedited raw footage. I have an abbreviated version if you want to watch that instead."

Huang Xiaotao's face immediately reddened and she scolded, "Scram, you vulgar lowlife! Who wants to watch your 'abbreviated version'?"

There were no computers in the hotel, but there was a wall-mounted TV with USB ports in the back. Huang Xiaotao told him to plug in the drive. After he did so, she started searching through it with the remote. There were well over a hundred files inside. I thought that if the police really wanted to prosecute him, this evidence would be enough to keep the guy at the police station for months.

Each video file had a room number and date underneath. Huang Xiaotao found the file for that room on the day of the incident and opened it.

Wang Dali suddenly hid behind me. I laughed, "What are you doing? It's not like Sadako is going to crawl out."

"No no, I'm worried there might be more graphic scenes. Better safe than sorry!" said Wang Dali.

I had to resist laughing. What was there to be careful about? It wasn't some cursed videotape that would kill you after watching. I never got scared of horror movies.

The video was six hours long. The room was pitch black in the beginning. Huang Xiaotao fast forwarded until a girl in a red halter dress carrying a small bag walked in, followed by a man.

There was a stark contrast between these two people's outfits. The man wore a black hoodie with a face mask and sunglasses.

Xiao Zhou exclaimed, "Just as Song Yang said, this is what he looked like!"

"But this is a top-down view. You can't see his face clearly at all!" Huang Xiaotao sighed.

"Be patient. Wait and see," I said.

In the video, the girl sat at the edge of the bed, chatting about something with the man in black. Since the camera didn't record audio, there was only video and no sound.

After chatting for five minutes, the girl lit a cigarette. Wang Dali anxiously said, "Why aren't they getting undressed yet?"

Under everyone's disdainful stares, Wang Dali hung his head in deep shame.

The man in black then disappeared from the frame for a period of time. The girl played on her phone. Huang Xiaotao made a note to trace her number later.

After a while, the girl finally started taking off her clothes until she was left in just a bra and underwear. The man in black reappeared on screen, but he was completely naked this time. Seeing his appearance, everyone couldn't help but gasp.

The man in black didn't have a single hair on his body. His skin was deathly pale like paper. His body was gaunt and skeletal.

Wang Dali said, "Damn, he really is a vampire!"

Xiao Zhou explained, "No, that skin color is likely from not being exposed to sunlight for a long time, resulting in melanin deficiency."

"I wish I had skin that fair," said Huang Xiaotao. Noticing everyone looking at her, she shrugged, "I'm just saying. Let's keep watching."

"Alright, they're getting it on!" Wang Dali said excitedly. I really regret admitting I know this guy.

The woman lay prone on the bed. The man in black took out two ribbons from somewhere, using one to tie the woman's feet together and the other to tie her hands above her head somewhere off camera.

Huang Xiaotao said, "Strange, the victim willingly consented to being bound. I thought it would've been forced."

"Maybe he paid extra for it? They were probably negotiating that earlier," I said. This poor girl had no idea she was falling into a death trap. I couldn't help but feel sad thinking the people on screen were about to die soon.

Right now, the man in black wasn't hammering nails into the wall like described. Perhaps he had prepared them beforehand?

The man then mounted the woman and started to do the deed. Most of us here were men, so despite investigating, we couldn't help but instinctively take an interest in this. Everyone's eyes lit up, except for Huang Xiaotao who kept her reddened face lowered with the remote control shoved into my hands.

"Fast forward, fast forward!"

"Oh!"

When I pressed fast forward, I thought I heard disappointed sighs all around. I felt like I had committed a great taboo.

I had to admit, this man in black had great stamina, going on steadily for fifteen minutes. Then he suddenly lowered himself and bit the girl's neck!

The girl trembled in pain, hands and feet struggling nonstop. But bound tightly and held down by the shoulders, her struggles were futile.

Although there was no sound, these images were exceptionally horrifying. Just as we were engrossed in watching, a hideous face suddenly appeared on screen. The face was black as the bottom of a pot, with bloodshot eyes and long fangs.

"Ahhh!!!"

Wang Dali shrieked. The face didn't startle me much, but his scream sure did give me a fright.

The face completely obscured the entire screen. I suddenly realized something and hit pause. "That's not a human face!"

"A v-vampire?" Xiao Zhou stammered.

I thought, you have a PhD from overseas, why do you keep bringing up vampires?

"It's a bat," the middle-aged man beside us calmly stated.

Only then did we realize it was indeed a bat's face. I hit play again. The bat wrapped its wings around itself, completely blocking the camera, much to our annoyance.

I kept fast forwarding a few hours until the bat disappeared. By then, the room was pitch black, meaning the killer had likely checked out already. Through the darkness, you could vaguely see the tidied and cleaned bed.

"That damn bat!" Huang Xiaotao cursed. "It blocked the critical moment. I didn't get to see the killer's face."

"It must have been a vampire! How else would a bat appear in a nice hotel?" Xiao Zhou fearfully said, "Have you heard the medieval European legends? When the vampire count appeared, he would transform into a swarm of bats..."

"Can you be more realistic and stop with the vampire talk?" said Huang Xiaotao.

"Vampires may actually exist. I read a book abroad that chronicled vampire history. They may be a rare race that retained animalistic instincts, fearing sunlight and subsisting on blood for ages. If they exist in the West, they could also exist in China," Xiao Zhou pontificated.

"Let me prove to you the other party is just a person pretending to be mystical, not an actual vampire!" I said. Pointing at Huang Xiaotao, I continued, "Little Taotao, rewind the video and see if anyone else entered the room before this couple. Dali, come with me to investigate the crime scene again."