"I reckon he really is a vampire," said Trev when they were discussing the incident behind the bike sheds. "If he is, it's not fair," complained Ben, "I know there's a shortage of teachers, but they can't go digging up vampires and sending them to teach kids!" Is the teacher really a vampire, or is it a misunderstanding?

The vampire teacher is not the only horror in the book. There's Van Gogh's ghost, a ghost bridegroom and Scrooge's fourth ghost, Rose Hall, Borely Rectory and a haunted well. There is also a series of stories about a different kind of monster—bullies. Variety is provided by some science fiction stories and some reworkings of traditional fairy tales, though even they have a touch of the macabre.