The Horror of the 7th Grade Sleepover is Over

The traditional 7th grade sleepover was last night. It was rained out 2 weeks ago and last night it went ahead even though it was pouring rain most of the night. My activity, which was originally to take the kids on a hike to a dark spot on the neighboring golf course and identify constellations was (naturally) changed. The constellation activity usually involved some scary story telling after we went through the adventures associated with the constellation Perseus and his acquaintances  (Andromeda, her mom and dad Cassiopea and Cepheus, and Cetus, the sea monster that Andromeda was being sacrificed to when Perseus saved her). This year's rain modified event was scary story telling while the kids cut-up used construction paper followed by them making new paper with their initials on it from the cut, soaked, and blended paper they were cutting. The scary story telling went well and I took the kids through different levels of scary stories - the silly scary  story (The Big Hairy Toe), the supposedly real story from a different place and time (The Hook), and the imminent danger story (Freddy Krueger type homicidal maniac seen recently in the neighborhood).  This pretty much exhausted my scary story  repertoire. Then it was campfire time and they all wanted another story. With nothing in mind I launched into a story about the voodoo queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. The story was beginning to ramble when a little shiver passed over me. My greatgrandmother's face passed through my consciousness and led me to the cemetery where Marie Laveau is buried. My great grandmother wandered through the cemetery in search of the wailing moans of the long dead Marie Laveau. In my mind a cloud of smoke with the embedded head of Marie Laveau appeared above a mausoleum. The head shrieked out a curse upon my great grandmother that would be visited upon her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I stared into the eyes of each 7th graders and in a low growl uttered the realization that this curse was upon me, and in a hoarse bellow cried out ---- "I NEED BLOOD!!!!!"
I suppose that was how Cetus was feeling before Perseus chopped off his head.