Enigma

~chapter one~

I looked at myself in the mirror as I had so many times with that feeling as if the person staring back at me was a complete stranger. It was a feeling that I had carried since childhood like a dark cloud that loomed overhead.

And there was Him.

The man with red eyes that haunted my dreams more and more frequently as of late. I had asked my mother, Mary, about it and she had acted very evasive of the question so I had let it go. She seemed strangely frail for the past few days but refused to go see a doctor.

I had only just turned twenty last month and ever since then the dreams had intensified. I work nights at the 24/7 grocery store down the street from our apartment which works out quite well since whenever I do manage to get any rest, I have nightmares and wake up not long after falling asleep in a cold sweat. Anything to keep me occupied.

My friends are concerned for me because dark, purplish circles have appeared beneath my eyes and look ghastly against the fairness of my skin.

As I stood behind the counter of the tiny grocery store, my shift almost over, I saw Him.

It was impossible and yet there he stood; his tall frame clad in all black stood out looking elegant amidst the Milky Ways and cheap porno mags that decorated the shelves around him. I suppose you could say that it was more of a grab and go store for cheap fucks in a hurry for a quick wank or a snack.

He looked like he didn't require either, as he had eyes only for me.

His irises were ringed with red rather than entirely covering the sclera as he usually looked in my dreams.

I closed my eyes and pinched myself trying to wake up as I must be dreaming. I had fallen asleep at the counter because it had been a slow night. That had to be it.

Right?

However, when I looked up I very nearly fell back on my arse as he was standing within touching distance with only the counter's width separating us.

"Oh my God..", I whispered.

His lip lifted slightly at that revealing a fang to me.

I started to back away but he stopped me, his hand moving to caress my cheek, brushing the hair back and I felt a light flush creeping up my neck. He leaned in close and everything in my body was telling me to move away from him but I couldn't. He inhaled my scent, his eyes closing, a gentle sigh escaping him.

"Mary..", he said, so quietly I wasn't sure that I had heard him correctly.

A light ding from the bell at the door indicating that someone had entered made me glance away from him for a moment.

When I looked back he had disappeared.

I walked through the front door of my apartment feeling strangely surreal.

"Mum?", I called.

There was no answer so I tiptoed back to her bedroom and saw that she was asleep sprawled across her bed, uncovered. I gently pulled the comforter up over her still form and tiptoed back out closing her door behind me.

Satisfied that she was safe I went back to my own tiny bedroom and locked the door. I trailed my fingers across the track pad of my laptop waking it up from sleep. I sat down and went to uncertain of what I was searching for. After a moment I typed 'vampire' but shook my head deleting it before I had even hit enter.

It wasn't like there was a website that specialized in real life vampire encounters or visions of a vampire. Maybe I was just losing my shit.

"Get it together, girl.", I said to myself, running my fingers through my hair in a nervous habit that left it sticking out in all directions.

Instead, I put my computer back to sleep and climbed into bed staring at the ceiling.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I began dreaming but this time it was so much more vivid.

I was in a large, darkened chamber that seemed to be underground and I had to feel my way along the wall just to continue forward. I had no idea where I was but I somehow knew exactly where I was going as I walked at a steady pace without slowing.

It was a sense of being guided along by some unseen force with an unmistakable aura of evil that overwhelmed my senses. Suddenly, a light rushed towards me so that I had to cover my eyes, blinded momentarily. When I lowered my arm I was standing in a smaller room draped in red fabric with a metal coffin in the center of it surrounded by candles.

I could sense that this was where the evil originated from and even though I wanted to stay pressed up against the wall as far away from it as possible my feet carried me forward until I was standing right in front of it. I reached out and caressed the lid gasping as a strange, warm feeling enveloped my entire body akin to taking a hot bath.

My eyes closed in pleasure and when I opened them again I saw that I was nude in a pool of blood that was warm and knee-deep. The bath was ornately carved with scenes of atrocities; women being fed upon by bat-like creatures, children being stolen away from their mothers, men being decapitated in their attempt to fight the demons and protect their families. I could continue but the closer I looked the more I no longer wanted to see what mysteries this place held.

The surface of the blood stirred in front of me and I covered myself just as He appeared from beneath the surface. Undoubtedly he had already seen me naked but I would preserve what little modesty I could. His skin was clean despite being fully submerged, his hair was dry and framed his face in a curtain of dark curls.

His eyes were blue and showed no traces of red this time even though evil still radiated off of him in waves this was somehow comforting to me. It made him seem less threatening somehow.

"Who are you?", I breathed.

He spoke and his voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "I have many names but I wonder; what is yours? You are so familiar to me."

"Surely you already know.", I blurted without thinking.

"As you know mine."

"No, I-"

"You are afraid of what you know. Afraid of me. You shouldn't fear me, Jenny.", he whispered, moving towards me, extending his hand.

I flinched away turning my head away from his touch. He took this as an invitation to brush the hair back from my throat, looking at the pale flesh hungrily.

He leaned into me pressing his lips against my pulse and I jerked at the sudden contact feeling so afraid amongst other things that made me shiver in desire and repulsion at the same time. What was worse with Him this close to me I could tell that he was also entirely nude and quite interested in me as well.

"I want to hear you say my name. Speak what you truly believe out loud.", he breathed against my skin.

"Dracula.", I said, not knowing why I said it, but I knew it to be true.

And then I awoke in a cold sweat. I ran into the bathroom and turned on the light leaning back against the wall and sliding down until I was sitting.

I stayed that way until morning without sleeping.

I couldn't avoid this any longer; I would have to confront my mother about what she knew. I was seeing Him everywhere now. I knew it was partially due to sleep deprivation but the rest was something else entirely. She had left to go to the museum a little while ago so I would go to see her there.

I would just walk there as it wasn't very far and I needed to try to wake myself up a little so I could focus better. I managed a weak smile at the security guard as I entered the building, determination in my every step. I would not go easy on her as I usually did just because she had looked so fragile lately. Something was going on that was affecting both of us and I had every right to know what that was especially when my mind and possibly even my life was in jeopardy.

"Mum?", I called out once I had reached her office. She wasn't here. Maybe Simon was around..?

"Simon?"

Still no answer.

I noticed that the vault door was open and crept inside, my eyes adjusting to the slightly darker atmosphere. I could hear voices ahead and moved silently as a cat until I was close enough to make out what was being said.

"..like this when I came in this morning. Jenny can feel it as well. She is having visions as I once did. "

My stomach flipped as I recognized my mother's voice.

"He burned for fuck's sake, Mary! He can't just come back from that!", Simon shouted.

"He is one of the most ancient forms of evil; we have no idea what he could be capable of. He has already reincarnated once and probably more than that."

I could hear Simon kick something over in his annoyance and I took my chance and moved further ahead so I could see what was happening.

I had to stifle a cry as I saw the coffin from my dreams laying on the floor apparently having been overturned from it's pedestal, somehow. Simon and my mum stood on either side of it looking troubled and angry. I felt that same aura pulsing with energy and I put a hand to my head trying to stifle it.

"Help me.", mum said, grabbing one end of the coffin.

Simon grabbed the other and they hefted it back up into it's original position both of them quickly stepping back after the task was done. They turned to leave and I quickly pressed myself into a crevice in the wall concealing myself.

Once they had passed I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, stepping back out and walking towards the coffin looking back over my shoulder ensuring that they weren't returning. I felt fear and exhilaration standing this close to it.

I wasn't dreaming anymore, this was really happening. I reached out touching the side just to confirm that this was really happening, the metal cold beneath my fingertips.

Was it made of silver?

Seemed like I remember hearing once that vampires hated silver. I noticed two crosses at the top of the lid grabbed one of them without thinking and I heard a soft click. I knew that this would open it but I couldn't stop myself.

A white mist seeped through a tiny crack in the lid as it began to ever-so-slowly rise and my heart rate sped up. I still couldn't control my actions and bring myself to close it.

I needed to stop this from happening.

"Jenny!"

Shit, the security guard must have told my mom that I was here. I slammed the lid down with a bang and raced up the stairs trying to escape the vault before Simon or my mom could come down here with me. I only just managed to slip away towards the restrooms and pretend that I had left to use the bathroom in my absence.

"I'm here!", I called back.

In that moment I realized that I couldn't face either one of them about any of this. At least, not yet.

I wanted to find out a little more on my own, first.

Later on that night after my mom had went to bed I decided that it was time for me to resort to reading her diary. I crept into her room and searched through her dresser drawers until I found it buried beneath her unmentionables to deter anyone from searching too thoroughly.

I sat back down at my desk with trembling fingers opening it up to the last entry which was dated only a few days ago.

Jan 22nd

I am so frightened. Dracula's tainted blood still flows strong within Jenny as it has been within me. She is having visions and I can't keep lying to her and saying that "they are just nightmares."

How do I tell my twenty year old daughter that an ancient vampire may be stirring in his slumber once more when all she should have to worry about at her age is boys and makeup? I feel awful with each passing day that I don't tell her the truth. What kind of person, no, what kind of mother does that make me? I have almost told her on several occasions but she looks so frightened already that she may crack.

I have been seeing him in my mind as well. He wants her for his own. He couldn't have me so he wants my daughter, instead. I keep seeing the same vision of Jenny opening his coffin and releasing him back into the world to do unspeakable evil once more.

God help us.

I leaned back feeling cold and dizzy flipping back to the first entry which she had written before I was born and I read until I had finished the whole gruesome story laid out in my mother's curving handwriting. My grandfather was hundreds of years old when he had been killed and was injecting himself with Dracula's blood to keep going until he found a way to kill Dracula for good.

He had been unsuccessful and instead had a daughter who had been the first born vampire, something that Dracula seemed to covet, and now that had been passed on to me.

That was why he wanted me now; mum had resisted him so he would start over with me.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Reviews please :) [also why are there practically no fics of Dracula 2000?]