Old Vampire

I have a story (a vampire story actually and a real one that is) that I heard from my grandfather or should I say, I am now and then hearing from my grandfather, because he is quite old now and really likes to tell over and over again the same story, which is this:

When he was young he used to travel to the neigboring villages to visit friends. He usually left his home (his mom's and dad's home) at noon and wasn't back untill next day. That is he used to sleep in his friends' houses rather than make his way home in the dead of the night. You see he is not only superstitious but a great coward too.

Well one afternoon he decided to pay a visit to a friend of his at a nearby village, about 4 km away from ours. He had to cross through the fields in order to get there (and remember no street lights, no electricity back then). As he was walking he saw in front of him, at some distance, a tall old man walking slowly. He couldn't make out who the person was. When he approached him the old man turned and greeted him. Now grandpa (who by the time he was not grandpa at all, just a young man in his twenties if I have not mentioned it already) greeted him back making at once the following thought: "Well I do not know who he is and I, of course, know everyone in the village. Aka he is a stranger. Aka better be careful." They continued their walk together.

The old man started talking and mumbling and saying he had paid a visit to his sister and now he was heading home. "What's the name of your sister"? grandpa asked and when he got his answer he thought that there was no lady at the village by that name. The guy continued mumbling and talking about persons he knew from the village and gossiping about their lives but grandpa KNEW NONE OF THEM. The old man even talked about houses and places that did not exist, at least there, then. He was tall, as I said before, looking old and kind of drained (now is this the word?) and very peculiar.

At some point grandpa started having a very bad feeling for the old man because he presumed that he may be a lunatic or something. A second thought was that the old man was just having a secret affair at the village and he was mumbling a whole lot of lies just in order to cover himself.

Anyway grandpa the brave decided that it was better to leave the old man behind somehow. It was already dark and he didn't want to take his chances about anything. He said to his fellow walker that he should step aside to answer nature's call. He entered some bushes near the road and then, well, he just made his way to another path.

But.. soon he got lost. He was wandering through the fields and could not find his way. An hour later he decided it was better for him to head back home instead of trying to going to his friends.. Yes, eventually, he failed again to find his way. As he was walking in the fields (peach fields) he saw a lamp in the distance. Getting closer he saw what appeared to be an oil lamp hanging from a remote tree almost covered by bushes. Ok, he thought there's a fellow villager working late on his field, I'll go there and ask directions. "Is anybody there"? he yelled and approached the tree. Nobody was there but then.. the old man's head appeared from behind the bushes, evil grin on his face and all, and he said: "My dear lad, where have you been? I've lost you"!!!

By now grandpa was shaking with fear, absolutely convinced that the old man was a vampire ("how else could he made his way so fast to where I was? Impossible! Not even the wind rides so fast!"). He turned and ran all the way looking back and (ha!) shouting profanities to the vampire and urging him not to follow. Which he didn't.

At last grandpa arrived to the village just before down and went home. His sister (still alive) remembers to this day how shaken he was. He could not say a word about what had happened to him.

Yeah ok, but did this really happened to him? or he was just having hallucinations imposed by fear? It's up to you to decide. Thanks for reading my grandpa's story!