The Windy Night's Bellow
By: Jeff Pilgram
It was a dark and stormy night, and the remnants of Lord Vayne's castle were scattered about, seemingly untouched by time. His bottles could be found on the floor far away from the shelves which they were stored. Lord Vayne lived a luxurious and pampered life, before mysteriously one by one his servants died off, almost in a domino action, as one died, one got ill the next day, and died the same amount of time later that the last had, and this had happened all the way to his very last servant, Isaac, who died two nights before Lord Vayne's burning on April 25, 1885.
It has been one hundred and twenty years since the burning of Lord Vayne, and still the castle is as intimidating as it was the first death of a citizen of the nearby village of Lolooka. The clock tower in the village struck ten times. A man stood in the darkness beneath a tree. In one hand, he held an umbrella to keep him dry from the constant rain, and in the other, he held a little black bible. He took one last look at his pocket watch before finally walking towards the gloomy and gargantuan castle. "Four hours late and still no sign of that Protestant fool," replied the priest. "Father Mackleroe is most likely drinking in the pub like always, once again another reason why this case should be under Catholic control only, the foolish Protestants always keep us waiting." Father Mephietus continued walking towards the front gate before finally proceeding through. He made his way to the grand staircase which he began to climb up, but tripped back down to the floor. He got up, shakes off the dirt, and began walking back up the stairs with much more patience and cleverness, easily passing the broken stairs and making his way to the top. He proceeded down the hallway to where the resting quarters of Lord Vayne laid. As the priest walked, he began reading from his bible, blessing everything he could possibly see down the hallway as being demonic or anti-Christ to hopefully make Lord Vayne weaker as he drew closer. Finally, the Catholic priest reached the doorway and proceeded slowly. He calmly put his hand on the door knob, turned it, and pushed the door opened. As the priest stepped in the room, he dropped his bible and stood in utter shock at the sight before him. Above the room, hanging from what looked to be a metal pentagram hanging ten feet above the floor. Hanging from that, from a noose, was a man, dressed in the Holy robes of a priest, with a sullen expression and the blood sucked dry from his bones. His clothes were ragged; his glasses still perched on his nose, and his hands hanging loosely as if he was a rag doll. Father Mephietus stood completely still, in utter shock at the loss of a fellow priest, and slowly turned around to leave the castle. As the priest turned, a dark and gloomy figure, as tall as a statue, as fearsome as a devil, was standing down the even more intimidating hallway, blood trickling down his mouth, his eyes as red as blood running on a cold winter's night, a look to kill. Before the priest could utter a small prayer, the beast jumped in the air, striking him down in cold blood.
The Protestant and Catholic Church held a meeting the very next day, aware of the disappearance of Father Mephietus and Father Mackleroe. The head of the Protestant Church stood before the combined councils of the Church and declared to the council, "We must attack Drakanath Castle at once! More and more of our men are dying from only sending a few for scouting missions, but if we use an all out assault, we may have a chance of beating this anti-Christ freak!" The Catholic leader retorted, "Are you bloody mad? And all out assault is massive suicide on parts for both Protestants and Catholics, and even the town itself! If we all die out, the people will know of our cover ups and discover that Lord Vayne is indeed alive, which would bring massive panic to the public and even kill them off faster! Sending our men in that cursed castle is merely sending that freak a feast!" "Then what do you suggest Father Macalnay?" replied the Protestant leader. "I suggest Father Lorbin," replied Father Macalnay, "that we immediately evacuate the village and head for London, seeing as it being the only safe place left." The entire council exploded in an uproar of "My family lives here!" and "We love out home too much!" "ENOUGH!" shouted Father Lorbin. "This fight anyway we take it is too far out of our own hands. We have no other choice than to release the Sons…" "Don't you dare even mention those freaks' names, nor their father. Those freak shows have plaque this city for ages before this new vampire Vayne came, and releasing them would spell the end to us all!" "We have no other choice, and since this is a democracy in this city, we shall vote, all thee in favor of my plan raise thy hand, all thee opposed stay as you are." The entire council raised their hands, all except of course, for Father Macalnay. "Then it is decided, we shall release Alucard and Hector, the Sons of Dracula."
"It has been merely one hundred and seventy years since the end of our tyrannical reign, and now you have the guts to come down here Father Lorbin. Believe me, my brother and I both admire your bravery, but don't think we'll take lightly to what your kind has done to us this last century," the first born son of Dracula, Alucard, was pacing in his cell, pale as the moonlight peaking through the stain glassed windows of the church, eyes as red as blood rushing on a cold winter's night, teeth as sharp as any sword, a physical physique as if carved out of stone, his brother, Hector, lying in the corner, almost a mere image of Alucard, the only visible difference was their color of hair. Alucard had silvery white hair, while his brother Hector, had obsidian black hair. Father Lorbin replied, "I know what we have done to you and your brother in the past century, and the death of your father was grieving to both of you, but this fight is way out of our hands and we desperately need the both of you." "What's in it for us?" asked Hector, the first words he had spoken since coming into the cell one hundred and seventy years. "Firstly, we shall let you free and allow you your old castle on the condition of you helping us and leave this village be, and secondly, revenge." The ears on both Alucard and Hector pricked up on the thought of revenge, but it seemed too good to be true. "Revenge on whom?" asked Alucard, precarious on who he would be allowed to kill. Father Lorbin merely chuckled and replied, "Why, revenge on the man who killed your father, two hundred and fifty years ago. Revenge on Lord Vayne." Alucard's head almost snapped right at Father Lorbin at the mention of that name. He ran up to the bars, gripping them, eyes even redder at the bare mention of the man who had killed their father, even his brother Hector got up and gripped the bars next to him. The bars were blessed in holy water, so the flesh on both of the brothers hands were being burnt away, but they did not care. "What do you need done?" asked the brothers in perfect unison.
Father Lorbin led both Alucard and Hector down the hallway into the weapons vault, both handcuffed and a vest of garlic lay over their shoulders. "I do apologize for this, but Father Macalnay had insisted you at least be weakened so as not to kill us all." replied Father Lorbin at the sight of Alucard and Hector's discomfort. "As long as we are allowed to walk the night once again, this is absolutely nothing compared to what we shall do to him." responded Alucard. Once they finally reached the vault, the guards opened the door and allowed Father Lorbin and the vampires into the vault. An evil looking smile appeared on both brothers faces at the sight of this room; guns laid about with enough ammunition to arm an entire village, swords so sharp and so clean you could see your reflection in any side of the sword, anything to do with an army's protection was in this room, and the brothers felt at home again. "I shall give you twenty minutes to suit up and then we shall have a mission brief until the sun goes down and you two go about your mission." said Father Lorbin. As soon as the Father left and the door shut, the brothers turned to each other, smiled and slapped each others hands. For once in almost two hundred years, they felt at home.
Father Lorbin came back to the vault and ordered the guards to open it up. Once the door was open, both vampires stepped out looking like gods standing before men. Alucard was wearing a blood red vest with a tuxedo like shirt underneath it with two 35mm handguns in their holsters, one white and one black, with a broad sword mounted on his back, while his brother Hector, was wearing a deep blue vest with a white collar shirt underneath, wielding an ancient Japanese katana and one 25mm revolver. They stepped out of the doorway and allowed the guards to shut the door again before greeting the priest. "Well, liking the new looks, lets go to the mission briefing shall we?" said Father Lorbin. He led them down the hall and into another room, this one dimly lit with a huge round table in the middle. Father Lorbin allowed the brothers in and set them down in the chairs surrounding him. Once the other council members arrived, not a single one wanted to take a seat around the table, afraid that a single look from the vampires would spell their deaths. "Please, be seated. The Sons of Dracula will do you no harm here, they are here to help us." The council members slowly took their seats, with Father Macalnay seating on the far side opposite of Father Lorbin. "What are these freaks doing here Father Lorbin?" asked Father Macalnay after a long silence. Alucard and Hector both raised their pistols at the face of Father Macalnay and complete and utter silence filled the room. "Please, gentlemen, please be seated and lay down your arms," asked Father Lorbin to the brothers. Alucard and Hector both returned their guns to their holsters and sat with arms crossed over staring down Father Macalnay. "Now then, to get down to business," Father Lorbin stated with a more serious look on his face. The priest pressed a red button under the table and a hologram of Drakath Castle projected out of the table, and both brothers jumped at the sight of the hologram, not knowing what it was, with guns at the ready. Father Lorbin looked very displeased at the sight but remembered they were shunned from civilization for almost two hundred years without any sight of technology. Calmly, the priest said, "Gentlemen, I promise you, there is nothing to worry about in this building. Everything you see is our doing, this is a new technology that allows us to see inside the castle without going in it, so please, be seated." The brothers looked at each other and slowly took their seats, waiting for instructions. "Now then," said Father Lorbin, "Let us begin the briefing." The lights slowly dimmed and the hologram came into a much clearer view. "Now then," Father Lorbin stood, "the main target of course is Lord Vayne. We shall assault the castle from the front gate and head through towards the living courters of Lord Vayne. The troops will be ordered to shoot anything that moves within the castle, this time, Lord Vayne will not escape us." The room bustled in a fit of rambling, discussing what their squadron would do to exterminate the vampire. Finally, one of the priests got up and asked, "If we all assault this building head on, won't there be a chance of booby traps laid through out the castle?" Father Lorbin merely replied, "That was going to be the next subject I brought up. More than likely this castle will be heavily guarded and we must proceed with caution. Many of you will not walk away from this fight alive; many of you will lose friends, sons, or other loved ones. So that is why we shall take three days in preparation for the assault. Use this time wisely and go home to your loved ones and say your last prayers, we're going to need all of them to make it through this night."
Three days passed, all the preparations had been set, the brothers working hard on mastering their newly acquired weapons, and the troop's busy making the ammunition for their guns. Finally, on the night of November 5th, the Catholic and Protestant armies made their way slowly through the forest towards the castle. Silently they crept, along the limb covered road, dead trees were the only sight to them as the night was covered by a thick cloud of fog. The night was still and silent, the only sound being of the marching of the soldiers' boots, and the brothers jumping through the trees to scout ahead for any signs of traps along the way. Suddenly, a scream in the night, the entire army looked ahead as one of their own was torn to shreds by almost invisible wires. Were it not for the moonlight shining through at that very moment, they would have never seen the small wires cut their comrade into shreds before their very eyes. The troops stood still for what seemed like an hour before finally pushing on towards the castle.
Once the armies found their way to the castle, they stopped for a brief instruction from Father Lorbin and Macalnay. "Listen up troops, this is it, we've already lost one of our men in the forest, and more than likely we'll lose just about everyone of you here, unless, of course, you follow every demand of Alucard and Hector here, they know the castle far better than any of us. Follow them, keep on your toes, and keep a sharp eye out, and you just might make it through this castle alive. Now everyone of course has radio frequencies so they can all stay in touch. If anything happens, you are to immediately report it to you commanding officer. Understood?" The troops let out a final "Sir Yes sir!" before filing into the castle in their squadrons.
Alucard and Hector both took the front way corridor and hallway straight into the main courtyard. As they walked across, they remembered when they were little and always played throughout this very courtyard, watching as their father tried to teach them to transfigurate into bats or to learn how to sleep upside down, or even the small play fights that they had around the main walkway of the courtyard. "Stay on the walkway and you'll be just fine," said Alucard as he noticed the troop's unsteadiness as they walked through the courtyard. It is quite, too quite, thought Hector as he noticed a red laser low to the ground right in front of a soldiers moving foot. "Don't move!" shouted Hector, but it was too late. The second the soldier walked across the laser, thousands of arrows flew high in the air and began to rain down on the troops. Alucard and Hector were quick and began shooting every arrow that came at them off course and flying in another direction. Once the arrows stopped coming, the brothers looked around to see the damage. It was a bloody sight. Every soldier was impaled in numerous places, all were impaled in the head, the heart, and the right leg and the rest were in various places. Both brothers stood in shock as one tiny trap had decimated their entire squadron. Alucard finally grabbed his intercom and responded back to Father Lorbin. "Sir, the entire squadron is killed, no survivors, this place is more booby trapped than me and my brother remember. Lord Vayne must have changed everything; I think he knew we were coming. Me and Hector are going to keep pushing through, over?" There was complete silence on the other end of the line. "Father, do you copy? Over." No reply. "Father come in, over" Suddenly there were loud screams all throughout the castle. Every squadron was calling in about traps, casualties, sightings, and no survivors all seemingly at once. Finally, after a huge fuss over the intercom, the line went blank as static filled both brother's ears. "We're the only survivors," said Hector in an uneasy tone. "No," replied Alucard, "there are NO survivors."
The brothers stood in complete silence for an hour, wondering what to do. The plan had failed; they were the only ones left, and no survivors. Finally, Alucard got up and began walking towards the other end of the courtyard. "What are you doing brother?" asked Hector with a quizzical look on his face. "I am going to finish off Lord Vayne," replied Alucard with a glaring look over his shoulder. "But what about the plan?" asked Hector. "To hell with the plan, our plan is to go and kill that freak Lord Vayne; it is high time that he got what was coming to him. We were the ones they came to get. They knew this was way out of their hands, and those idiots found out the hard way. It's our time to stop this freak, and pay him back for killing father, now are you with me?" Hector looked at the ground, lost for words, trying to figure out what he was to do. "Are you with me?" asked Alucard a second time. Finally, Hector got up, adjusted his katana on his side, looked at his brother in the eyes and said, "Let's go get this freak."
The brothers made their way down the hallway and towards the door that led to Lord Vayne's resting courters, their father's resting place. The brothers stood at the ready, expecting the worst, waiting for even the slightest movement in the hallway. Alucard moved ahead of his brother and slowly opened the door. Once the brothers opened the door, a wave of memories flooded their minds as they remembered when they were young and always played around the castle and run in their father's room asking about the secrets of their breed. Once they came to their senses, they could see Lord Vayne, happily sitting in their father's grand chair, blood trickling from his mouth. "Well hello boys, it's been so long, please, have a seat and enjoy the night," said Lord Vayne with an honest expression of expressing happiness, but the brothers would have none of that. Hector and Alucard both drew their swords, both aiming them at the neck of Lord Vayne. "We've had enough of your tyranny Vayne, ever since the night you took our father from us and self proclaimed yourself a vampire we have wanted to kill you more and more. So you enjoy the night, because tonight will be your last," said Alucard with an expression to kill sketched all over his face. Lord Vayne merely threw back his head, laughing, "You boys can not be serious. You expect to kill me? The one who killed your father! You are nothing compared to me then, and you are definitely nothing compared to me now." With one swift motion Lord Vayne kicked the chair up from underneath him, sending it flying at Hector, who stumbled and fell as he moved out of the way, while Alucard dove after Vayne, thrusting his sword towards his head. The sword impaled Lord Vayne straight through the skull, blood dripping down his face like rain drops on an April morning, but Vayne merely laughed. He walked forward more and more towards Alucard until his forehead was resting on the hilt of the blade, pushing with all his might until his face split in half around the sword. Even Alucard and Hector thought that the battle was won, but Lord Vayne merely regenerated his head and was back to normal. With a crack of his neck, he looked at the brothers and smiled. "It's going to take a lot more than that to kill me," laughed Vayne at the brothers open mouthed expressions. Hector finally snapped back to reality and dove at Vayne, sword in hand, and drove it deep into the heart of the vampire who had killed his father. Vayne decided he had had enough and through Hector away from him, sending him crashing into Alucard. With one arm Vayne grasped the giant metal cross that hung above the ceiling and threw it at Alucard. "No!" shouted Hector as he dove to stop the cross from impaling his brother. Alucard dove out of the way, but Hector was hit straight on and was impaled into the solid wall behind him. With blood gushing out of him like water through a cracked dam, Hector's vision began to fade, knowing his next breath is most likely his last. Alucard, tear streaked and shaken, ran to his brother's side, holding his head in his hands. "Hector, it can not be, you can not die on me, not here, and not after all we have been through. No, please, do not die on me." Alucard was grasping his brother's head in both hands, aware he was going to die. "Brother," Hector said, weakly, "It is up to you now, save this world, save us all, from that," Hector paused to cough up blood, "vile, retched, freak that killed, father…" Hector's head went limp and his heart stopped beating. He was dead. Lord Vayne jumped through the window and out into the courtyard, running towards the exit. "I swear," stated Alucard, "I will avenge you brother. I will AVENGE YOU!" Alucard got up and blasted his way through the wall and ran at Lord Vayne as fast as he possibly could.
Alucard pulled out his guns and started shooting at Lord Vayne. Bullets were dancing all around Vayne until finally one hit him straight in the Achilles tendon and Vayne went down with a thud. Alucard stood over him, the white and black guns in his hands, staring over Lord Vayne. "Your reign of tyranny stops here Lord Vayne. I am the son of Dracula, the heir to the throne of the vampire bloodline, and there is no way I will let you leave this palace alive!" shouted Alucard as he kicked Vayne's head deeper into the earth. Lord Vayne summoned all his powers and used them to shove Alucard off him and ran towards the oak tree that stood in the middle of the court yard. "I am greater than Lord Dracula!" shouted Vayne, "And I will prove it here!" With one mighty fist, Lord Vayne punched into the oak tree and twisted his hand inside it. The earth shook beneath Alucard's feet as the ground was torn apart and a great demon exploded from the deepest depths of hell. "Great beast! Obey me at once!" shouted Lord Vayne as the beast stood before them. The beast merely looked in the eyes of Lord Vayne and said with great disgust, "Your blood reeks of the high heavens, you do not command me!" With one swift movement, the beast grasped Lord Vayne in his mighty hand and swallowed him whole. Alucard, unable to move, now understood why his father disliked him and his brother from playing around the tree. This demon was imprisoned by the vampire bloodline when it threatened their very existence. Alucard, unable to control his rage, drew his sword and plunged it deep into the chest of the demon. The demon screamed in agony, as the gate to hell opened up, allowing him to leave this world and enter back to his domain. The beast slashed and shredded Alucard's back up, leaving him blood bathed and holding onto nothing but the sword, as the demon lowered them into hell, Alucard's vision faded away, until finally, the demon was vanquished forever, and Alucard could visit his family, in peace.