The Vampyre part one - 5 uses of keep

Darren Hello I’m Darren. Today’s story involves love, death and a blood-sucking vampire. It was written a long time ago but is just as good to hear today.

We start with a young English man called Aubrey who’s travelling with an older man called Lord Ruthven to the beautiful city of Rome. However, somebody has told Aubrey to watch out for Ruthven as he’s not a very nice person and can’t be trusted. What can they mean? In Rome, they meet a woman who Ruthven takes an interest in but Aubrey warns her to keep away from him because he’s not to be trusted.

Aubrey isn’t happy about Ruthven’s behaviour and decides to keep travelling but on his own. He ends up in Greece and it’s here he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Ianthe. She keeps him company and tells him tales of local legends about a vampire. Then after a while, Ruthven turns up and shortly after Ianthe is killed by a vampire - hmm, a strange coincidence don’t you think? But Ruthven just tells Aubrey to keep his eyes open for anyone acting suspiciously.

The two men continue their travels, but the men are attacked by robbers and Ruthven is killed, but before he dies he makes Aubrey promise to keep his death a secret ‘for a year and a day’. His body is left on a rock but it disappears overnight - somebody has stolen it.

What a gruesome story, but it’s not over yet. Join me again in part two when I’ll tell you what happens next. Bye for now.