The surname Fisher, - this is how Captain Fisher began his story, - may at first glance seem rather plebeian, but this family has a very ancient origin and for many centuries has owned a very curious mansion in Kamlerland with a strange name "Croglin Grange". A distinctive feature of the mansion is that it has never exceeded one floor in its very long history; but in front of it there is a terrace with a wonderful view into the distance and a wide area extending to the church in the hollow.
When over the years the Fisher family grew and enriched themselves to such an extent that "Kroglin-Grange" seemed small to them, they had enough common sense not to add another floor and thus preserve the age-old uniqueness of the mansion. They drove south and settled in Thorncombe, near Guildford, and the Croglin Grange was allowed in.
They were very lucky with guests: two brothers and a sister. In the district they could not be praised enough. The victorious neighbors saw in them the very embodiment of kindness and benefactor; those who stood at a higher social level spoke of them as worthy additions to the small local community. As for the residents themselves, they were delighted with their new place of residence. The layout of the mansion could despair anyone, but not them. In general, "Kroglin-Grange" suited them in all respects.
The new residents of "Kroglin-Grange" spent the winter with maximum pleasure: they enjoyed the love of the residents of the area, and they were glad to see them at all parties.
Summer has come. One of the days turned out to be unbearably, deadly hot. Because of the scorching heat, there was no opportunity to be actively engaged, and the brothers spent the day reading books lying in the shade of the trees, while their sister sat on the veranda, languishing with idleness. After dinner early, everyone gathered on the veranda and sat there motionless until late in the evening, enjoying the evening coolness and admiring the surrounding nature. The sun disappeared, and the moon appeared over the forest belt that separated their area from the churchyard. Climbing high into the sky, she flooded the entire lawn with silvery light, revived and threw out the long shadows of the trees.
After wishing each other good night, the young people went to their rooms. Once in her room, the girl latched the window, but did not lock the shutters - in this quiet place there was nothing to fear. She went to bed, but because of the strong stuffiness, she could not sleep in any way, then she tucked the pillows higher and began to admire the delightful, enchanting beauty of the summer night. After a while, her attention was attracted by two lights that flickered among the trees.
Looking closely, the girl saw that the lights were part of something dark and undoubtedly vile, sometimes disappearing in the shade of the trees, then appearing again, but already larger, more distinct. It approached without stopping for a second. She was seized with panic. She wanted unbearably to run out of the room, but the door was close to the window and was locked from the inside with a key - while you opened it, the creature would come even closer.
The girl wanted to scream, but her voice did not listen to her - her tongue seemed to stick to her throat.
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Suddenly - afterwards she could not explain why - it seemed to her that the terrible creature turned aside, began to go around the house and did not approach her anymore. Immediately jumping out of bed and running to the door, she wanted to open it, but then she heard an insistent scratching on the glass. She was somewhat reassured by the fact that the window was securely closed. But suddenly the scratching stopped, and a pounding sound was heard.
And then the girl realized with horror that the creature was trying to peel back the lead tape and push the piece of glass inside! The noise did not stop until a diamond-shaped piece of glass spilled into the room. A long, bony finger appeared in the hole - the bolt was open, and the window swung open. The creature climbed through the window and walked through the room to the bed, where, seized with terror, the girl huddled silently. Grabbing the girl with its long, bony fingers by the hair and pulling her head to the edge of the bed, the creature … gripped its throat with its teeth.
The voice returned to her from the bite, and she uttered a heart-rending cry. The brothers rushed out of their rooms, poked at her door, but she was locked from the inside. They had to run for a poker to break down the door. When they finally burst into the room, the creature had already managed to sneak out through the window, and the sister was lying unconscious on the edge of the bed, and blood was flowing profusely from the wound on her neck. One of the brothers rushed in pursuit of the monster, but to no avail: it rushed away from home with giant leaps, and finally, as it seemed to the young man, disappeared behind the wall of the churchyard.
Then he returned to his sister's room. The girl was terribly tormented - the wound was very serious - but strong in spirit and not prone to any fantasies or superstitions, she barely regained consciousness and said to her brothers sitting by her bed: “I suffered a lot. What happened is completely incredible, and at first glance has no explanation, but there is an explanation. And so let's wait. In the end, it turns out that some madman ran away from the insane asylum and came across our house. After a while, the wound healed and the girl began to feel better.
But the doctor who came at the request of the brothers did not want to believe that she could so easily endure such a terrible shock, and therefore insisted on a change in the situation to restore her moral and physical strength. And then the brothers decided to take their sister to Switzerland.
Being inquisitive by nature, the girl, once in a new country, immediately began to study it. She compiled herbariums, made sketches, and went to the mountains. But when autumn came, it was she who began to insist on returning to Croglin Grange. “We rented a house,” she said, “for seven years, and we lived there for only one year. Finding other tenants in a one-story building will be difficult, so let's better go back there - after all, crazy people don't run away every day, do they."
The girl insisted, but the brothers did not mind, and the family returned to Cumberland. It was impossible to accommodate in the house in a completely different way because of the layout. The girl was left with the same room, and needless to say that she always closed the shutters, which, however, like in many other old houses, left the upper part of the window open. The brothers sat together in a room directly opposite their sister's room, and always kept loaded pistols at the ready.
They spent the winter peacefully and happily. Spring has come. One night in March, the girl was awakened by a sound she remembered well - the persistent scratching on the glass - and, looking up, she saw that the same hideous, brownish, wrinkled face with glittering fierce eyes was looking at her through the top of the window.
Then she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her brothers ran out of their room, pistols in hand, and rushed to the front door. Opening it, they saw that the creature was already rushing at full speed across the lawn away from the house. One of the brothers shot and wounded him in the leg. But even the wounded creature managed to run to the wall, climb over it to the churchyard and, as it seemed to them, to hide in a crypt that belonged to a long-disappeared family.
The next day, the brothers called all the residents of the area and in their presence they opened the crypt. A terrifying picture was presented to their eyes. The crypt was full of opened coffins, and their contents were randomly strewn across the floor. Only one coffin stood intact. The lid on it was just moved.
Lifting it up, they saw the same hideous creature - brown, wrinkled, mummy-like, but perfectly intact - peering into the Croglin Grange windows. He had a fresh wound from a pistol bullet on his leg. And they did the only thing that can destroy a vampire - they burned him.
A. Hare