Speaker 1: There's nothing I love more than Christmas. It really is
the most wonderful time of the year. I love snowball fights,
I love ice skating, and you can't forget about Santa
Claus and my home. A little mountain town in Alaska
called Northern Pines looks exactly like the inside of a snowblow.
We've even got Reinier.
Speaker 2: Smooth.
Speaker 1: Please, I'm running away for work.
Speaker 3: Oh, don't have to be Rudeolph, that's what cares you,
an airplane engine.
Speaker 1: I'm a mom monster.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm a big dead monster. Walter, don't forget you agreed
to help me put up the Christmas decorations today, Walter,
be here there then, fines private to Sesina Skywagon November
for seven eighty six. If you're in range, can I
get you on the airstrip frequency?
Speaker 2: Warning? Abby, it's beautiful up here.
Speaker 1: Was that you flying over the road just now?
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am, I'm about a mile up from the airstrip.
Be on the ground in a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: And then you'll help me with this enormous inflatable Santa.
Speaker 2: If you insist.
Speaker 1: Great. Oh, and Walter, Uh, the wind's picked up out
of the south down here. Be careful on the landing.
Speaker 2: I'm always careful.
Speaker 1: I'm switching back to the main frequency. I'll see you soon.
Northern Pines Airstrip. This is Abby, Hey, Abby Trevor. Hey, Look,
if you're calling about the Christmas banquets.
Speaker 5: I'm not calling about that. It's about the other thing.
Can you talk?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Sure.
Speaker 1: Walter's in the air right now.
Speaker 5: Are you available to come in for another donation this week?
Speaker 1: You need more blood?
Speaker 5: Affright though?
Speaker 1: I was just in there last week.
Speaker 5: Tis the season, cold flu, lots of nasty bugs going around.
Speaker 1: You don't think anyone's stealing it? Do you?
Speaker 5: No one knows I have vampire blood at the clinic.
No one even knows vampires.
Speaker 1: Exist unless someone does. Are you sure this is a
good idea? If my blood gets into the wrong hands,
it's it's dangerous.
Speaker 5: It's also healing. We both know it works.
Speaker 1: Miracles when used correctly.
Speaker 2: Northern Pines Local Traffic.
Speaker 4: One Cessna skywagon number four seven six eight, coming in
for a south bound landing.
Speaker 5: What everything's going to be fun? Happy, You'll think.
Speaker 1: Hang on a second, Walter, The winds out of the south.
You need to do a northbound land Walter can you.
Speaker 2: Hear me this week in Phoenix?
Speaker 6: We've got a lot of sunshine and clear skies right
up until Christmas.
Speaker 7: Aren't you suppose to be on a blade in New York? Danny?
What's wrong? Are you okay?
Speaker 1: It's dead?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 7: Oh, let me guess. He called to say he's not
coming to Phoenix for Christmas again. I don't know why he.
Speaker 6: He's dead, Calvin. What some pilot friend of his called.
She was the one who found him after after he
crashed his plane. Oh, we need to go up there.
Speaker 7: Are they sure?
Speaker 6: What are you talking about?
Speaker 7: Are they sure he's dead? He said, Blane crashes before.
He's always fine. The man's got nine lives.
Speaker 6: They're sure.
Speaker 7: Sorry, that's a dumb question.
Speaker 6: It's just I know some part of me always believed
he was invincible.
Speaker 8: Yeah, too stubborn to die.
Speaker 9: Congratulations, mister Forrester. You're the healthiest dead man I've ever examined.
Speaker 4: I've never felt so alive. That old league in my
back gone.
Speaker 9: I believe that's one of the perks of becoming a vampire.
Speaker 4: Best thing I ever did.
Speaker 9: Well, it's a personal preference, I suppose. I understand. Abby
has explained this transition to you.
Speaker 4: Uh not really, she's pretty upset with me. How long
have you known about Abby?
Speaker 9: Three years? I caught her stealing blood from the clinic
and we came up with a mutually beneficial arrangement. What
about you. I just had a hunch, really a hunch.
Speaker 4: I've flown with her, spent hours working in the hangar together.
You pick up on things, yes.
Speaker 9: But you knew how to turn yourself into a vampire
how the way I understand it. Even if a human
dies after drinking vampire blood, there's no guarantee they'll come
back as a.
Speaker 4: Vampire, Like I said, a hunch.
Speaker 9: Well, it's a good thing that hunch turned out to
be right, because no one could have survived a wreck
like that.
Speaker 2: That was the goal, right.
Speaker 9: Well, I've stocked your fridge with several blood bags. It's
not a lot, but it's all we can spare at
the clinic.
Speaker 2: Thanks. Doc.
Speaker 9: Take care of yourself, mister Forster, I mean it, be careful.
Speaker 4: I'm old.
Speaker 9: I assume you heard all that.
Speaker 1: Yes, vampire hearing.
Speaker 9: Call me if you have any questions. But now that
he's undead, you'll know more about how to help him
than I do.
Speaker 1: Thanks Trevor, you're the buss.
Speaker 9: You can also call me if you want to talk,
you know, get dinner. My office still stands about the
Christmas banquet, Trevor, I just hear me out before you
start making excuses. I understand there's a lot going on,
but it's Christmas, your favorite time of the year. Don't
let it.
Speaker 7: Past you buy.
Speaker 1: I do love Christmas, So come to the Christmas banquet
with me doesn't have to mean anything.
Speaker 9: We can go as friends.
Speaker 1: Fine, okay, as friends, that is the date. You know
what I mean, It'll be fun.
Speaker 4: Well what do you know that boy finally got up
the nerve to ask you out?
Speaker 1: No, uh uh, we're not talking about me right now,
mister okay, I can't even look at you. Can you
just put away your fangs.
Speaker 4: I didn't have a choice.
Speaker 1: Yes you did. Let's recap here. You stole my blood
from Trevor's secret medical stash. You purposely crashed your plane,
and then you tricked me into turning you into a vampire.
I don't even remember telling you how to do that.
Who told you the internet?
Speaker 2: TikTok?
Speaker 1: I know for a fact that it's not on the internet.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how I know. Oh, what's done is done.
Speaker 1: But why Walter, this town thinks you're dead, Your kids
think you're dead.
Speaker 2: It was sick.
Speaker 4: Okay, what I was going blind? I found out during
my last aviation medical You should have told me, and
you should have told me you were a vampire.
Speaker 1: That's different.
Speaker 4: I'm a bush pilot, Abby, It's my purpose.
Speaker 2: That's why I get out of bed every morning.
Speaker 4: If I can't do that anymore, what's the point.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the answer of Walter.
Speaker 6: For me.
Speaker 1: It was, well, it's Christmas, and I'm not one to
hold a grudge.
Speaker 2: You'd be holding it a long time.
Speaker 1: And then I guess the only thing I left to
do is teach you how to do this whole vampire thing.
Speaker 2: About that?
Speaker 4: When do I get to bite someone?
Speaker 1: Let me think that would be the day after and
never what. The Northern Pines Clinic is now your new Starbucks.
Speaker 2: Now, hold on a second.
Speaker 1: There will be no biting in Northern Pines. Okay, Dracula
was a long time ago. Things are different now.
Speaker 4: I guess I can live with that.
Speaker 1: How about I tell you the rest over a glass
of oh positive eggnog.
Speaker 10: You've arrived at mile two two nine Evergreen Highway, Northern Pines, Alaska.
Speaker 7: Hey, Danny, I just pulled up to Dad's Kevin. Are
you in New York?
Speaker 11: Stuck at the airport in Chicago snowstorm? All flights are
canceled for the day. I risk the meeting in New York,
but that means I had to push back my flight
to Alaska. Are you okay with that?
Speaker 7: It's fine you focus on that meaning.
Speaker 11: How's the place look?
Speaker 7: I miss it the same.
Speaker 11: Bought much better cell reception, Yeah.
Speaker 7: It only took ten years.
Speaker 11: Any northern lights, not the night.
Speaker 7: I think the moon's too bright.
Speaker 11: I bet it looks beautiful shining down on that snowy airstrip.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I suppose it does if you ignore the moose
droppings in the driveway.
Speaker 6: Don't be such a grump. You had a lot of
good memories up there.
Speaker 7: That's odd. What I think someone's in here.
Speaker 11: It's probably one of Dad's thoughtful neighbors making sure the
pipes don't freeze.
Speaker 7: I'll call you back, Hello, who's in there? I know
someone's in there. I can see smoke from the chimney.
Speaker 1: Get in your car and go back to whatever hotel
you came from.
Speaker 7: Ma'am. Please put the gun down. This is all a
big misunderstanding.
Speaker 1: This is private property and we're right next to an
active airstrip. It's not safe for tourists to be hiking
in this area.
Speaker 7: I'm not a tourist. Okay, I used to live here.
Speaker 1: You lived here.
Speaker 12: A long time ago, Thomas, Thank you so much for
spending your Christmas with us, filled with laughter, love, and
a little bit of magic.
Speaker 13: We hope you enjoyed our Christmas Tale as much as
we love bringing it to life. For a special treat,
head over to January Daphne dot com to claim your
free bonus audio drama short. If you enjoyed this episode,
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