Vlad sat in a darkened room. Windowless, it reminded him of being in the Mirror Room. Shadows cast themselves around him as if they were trying to gang up on him. The room smelt musty and damp but one smell overpowered his senses. Blood.
He couldn't see any but he could sense it. His mouth went dry and his eyes turned black as coal. He had to find it, but he was restrained to where he stood. He struggled to break free of his invisible bindings but it was useless. He had never felt his thirst so overpowering.
He heard a soft chuckle behind him. It sounded like the tinkling of a bell.
"Ingrid?" he called out. It was definitely a girl's laugh and when he smelt blood he had a feeling Ingrid must be around.
He tried to turn around but he was still completely paralysed. The figure soon emerged from the shadows, holding a bottle of crimson liquid to her equally crimson lips.
"Erin?" Vlad exclaimed, looking at her worriedly. She was...different. Her skin glowed eerily pale in the dark room, her eyes looked gaunt with heavy darkened eyelids. She had donned a small leather jacket, a black chiffon high waist skirt, black tights and black knee high laced up boots.
"Erin, what are you doing?" Vlad stammered as his gaze moved swiftly from Erin's new features to the bottle she hadn't stopped drinking out of since she arrived.
She finally took the bottle away from her lips with a smirk of satisfaction. She grinned at Vlad.
"What does it look like I'm doing Vladdy?" she smirked showing off two gleaming fangs that weren't there before.
Vlad clenched his fists. How? Erin, a vampire? Who could have...? His worst nightmare had come true. The one person who believed in his plans for vampires and breathers to live together had been turned.
He held back angry tears as he watched Erin take another gulp from her bottle. He recognised it as one of the vintage bloods kept under lock and key in the blood cellar. The Count would be furious, but not as mad as Vlad was now.
"Erin," he spoke quietly, his voice slightly shaking. "Who did this to you?"
She gave another soft chuckle, the one he mistook it for being Ingrid. She took a step closer to him so they were only a step apart from each other.
"You did Vladdy," she smirked again. "Sit," she ordered.
Vlad felt himself pushed down onto a wooden chair that wasn't there before. Erin turned her back to him, waiting for his response.
"I would never turn you into one of us," he stammered, his eyes on the floor. "Erin, just, please tell me what happened."
She turned back around, looking down on him now. She continued to grin down at him, her fangs standing out from her small pixie shaped face. They completely transformed her from the sweet, caring breather Vlad knew, to a completely different doppelganger.
"It was you, Vlad. When you came out of the mirror, you went on a rampage. I was the first breather," she spat the word, "that you saw. Before I knew it you had bitten me and not long after, I transformed," she grinned again, caressing Vlad's cheek.
He moved his face away from her hand.
"I wouldn't do that to you," he said to the floor. Erin grabbed his face roughly.
"You did Vlad! You're a vampire! Vampires bite breathers and that's how it works! Stop acting like some little child with fairy tale dreams and become what you truly are. The real Vlad is the one in control, the powerful one, the one who had the guts to bite me!" she yelled, fangs bore.
"That Vlad, is never coming back. I'm never letting him hurt anyone ever again. I'm in charge now," he retorted angrily.
Erin scoffed. "You're too weak."
With that another figure emerged from the shadows.
"Hello Vlad," Vlad's evil reflection smirked, taking his place beside Erin.
"Leave, now," the real Vlad shouted from his chair, still unable to move. He glared at his reflection with such hatred but the evil Vlad took no notice. He was too busy staring at Erin.
"See Vlad, I think we've been through this before. I'm the powerful one. You're so weak. Look at yourself. Your little heart's breaking over the fact your girlfriends been given a gift. I think she looks much better in black than those stupid breather clothes you used to fawn over," he smirked, stroking Erin's leather jacket.
"I am not weak!" the real Vlad continued to shout but it was no use. It only encouraged the two vampire's laughter.
"Face it Vlad. If you weren't so weak Erin would be a useless little breather like before. Technically, you could say it's your fault she's a vampire since you couldn't stop me," bad Vlad pondered smirking back at his good reflection.
The two began to laugh even harder as the real Vlad struggled to come up with a response. He was weak. He should have been able to stop this. Now, because of his weakness, Erin had become a blood sucking parasite.
"Don't lose sleep over this Vlad," the evil Vlad grinned menacingly. "I won't give you all the credit for my good work," he smiled fondling stroking the bite mark on Erin's neck. "You missed out on this one though. She was quite enjoyable to bite."
Vlad tried to surge towards his reflection but it was useless. The two retreated into the shadows where they had come from, their laughs ringing out in his head. He squeezed his eyes tightly trying to block out their laughs but he couldn't.
Vlad woke suddenly, thumping his head off the roof of his coffin. He still hadn't gotten used to that. He could still hear the evil Vlad and Erin's laughing in his head, even though he woke up.
He could hear birds chirping beside his heavily curtained window but the sun hadn't fully risen.
He decided not to go back to sleep, fearful of the dreams his mind would muster up. Instead he headed down the corridor to Erin's room. Half fearful she had become a vampire; he shook his head clear of all thoughts about his dream and opened her bedroom door quietly.
She lay curled up in her coffin, her arms around her legs. She smelt faintly of breather, to Vlad's relief. He grabbed her spray she kept hidden under her floorboard and sprayed it on her neck, trying not to wake her. Luckily she must have been a heavy sleeper for she merely tossed in her sleep.
She was beautiful when she slept.