Dark Season: The Complete Box Set Read Online Free PDF Page A

lucky. This is probably all a wild goose chase, but it's still better than nothing. Seriously, this is the most excitement I've had for years, which tells you something about my dull life.
    Room A3 is filled with boxes. Absolutely filled with them, from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The ones by the door seem to be stacked randomly and unsafely, but the ones further back in the gloom are arranged neatly. Fortunately, I know exactly what I'm looking for: all issues of the Dedston Gazette from September 1959. After a little poking about, I find what I think is the right box, so I take it over to a small table in the corner. Inside the box, I find a big pile of very old, faded newspapers, but the top one looks promising: it's dated September 1st 1959. After a quick check, I realize I've found the whole archive for September 1959. That'll be thirty newspapers, then. This could take a while.
    As I work, I can't help but notice a couple of spiders crawling across the table. I guess this dusty old room is full of the damn things.
    By the time I get to the last few days of September, I'm both excited and bored. Excited because there's a chance I'm about to find something interesting, but bored because I can't help thinking this whole fairytale is about to come crashing down. Am I about to find out that I've wasted a whole afternoon sitting in a dusty basement, only to come away empty-handed? Then again, did I have anything better to do? Finally, when I have just one paper left to look through, dated September 30th 1959, I'm nervous.
    Just as I'm starting to think this was a total waste, however, I find what I'm looking for. September 30th 1959, page seven. The first thing I notice is a grainy, low quality photo of a pretty-looking girl in her early 20's. Underneath the photo there's a single line:
     
    SLAUGHTERED Jessica Harper.
     
    I look at the headline:
     
    Girl murdered, another missing in Hoover Street slaying.
     
    I look back at the photo of Jessica. From more than half a century ago, she stares out at me with her newsprint eyes and I feel like she wants to tell me something. I start reading the news report:
     
    One girl is dead and another missing after a slaying at a house on Hoover Street Thursday morning. Police say they're hunting a killer who may have struck on two other occasions in the country earlier this year.
     
    The dead girl is Jessica Harper, 20, of Bloomville town. She was found entirely drained of blood in an upstairs bedroom of the house at 517 Hoover Street. The only wound on her body was a pair of small holes on one side of her neck. There was no sign of a struggle, nor of the girl's blood.
     
    Jessica Harper's friend Rose Tisser, who was with her the last time she was seen, has not been home in almost five days and fears are growing for her safety.
     
    That's all. Not a long story, then. I look at the photo of Jessica once again. One girl dead, another missing, and all the hallmarks of a vampire attack. Of course the authorities will have dismissed that as just a coincidence, an amusing part of the case and something to tie the supernatural buffs up in knots, but now that I've met Patrick and Vincent I can't help wondering. I mean, vampires clearly aren't real, but pieces of this whole story are starting to come together. I guess I did meet Patrick last night, and the whole thing wasn't a dream after all. I guess Vincent must be some kind of aging vampire nut. Is it possible that, all those years ago, he killed those two girls? Have I just, accidentally, solved a cold murder case?

Sophie
     
    "He's a vampire," says Shelley later that evening, nudging me in the ribs. "And he's fucking hot! Hey, where'd you get that black eye?"
    She keeps talking, but I just nod, not really paying attention. It's gone midnight and Shelley has brought me to this party, and now she's introducing me to this guy she's met, his name is... something... and he's dressed all in black, with dyed black hair and black