From "The Falstaff Vampire Files" by Lynne Murray

I knew I could be arrested and lose my license if the old lady called Hal or the cops. But I needed to get my property back and I was still enraged that Hal had taken it. I walked into the darkened foyer. It was paved in dark red stone. It was late afternoon but very little daylight filtered in and the lights mounted on the wall glowed already in their twisted copper fittings. The veins in the alabaster seemed to pulse like reptilian eggs.

Hal had told me on my first visit that his aunt lived in the ground floor flat on the right. "The corridor on the left leads to the back door. I keep my coffin in a shed out there. Did I tell you I was a vampire?"

Strange how I forgot those words until I stood on the red stone floor again. I started up the chilly staircase, also red stone.

A scrabbling sound nearby made me freeze in my tracks. I stopped to listen. The house seemed to shudder like a ship in the wind. The scratching sound was outside. The wind drove branches whipping against the walls. I went up to the landing.