Disclaimer: I don't own Castlevania or any of its characters.
Author's Note: I just watched Beauty and the Beast again, (and was repulsed by the songs…again), and this idea popped into my head. Please no flames. I really don't have much of a use for them. It's a oneshot that may develop into something more. Very short, but it's all that I came up with. Now, without further ado, I present to you:
EvanescenceBy Aurora M. Tepes
Oneshot
The bold lightning lit the silhouetted castle with an eerie blue glow. She had been wandering around for days, maybe weeks, or perhaps it had only been a few hours, she couldn't tell. Time had blurred together ever since she entered the castle. After she had said goodbye to Richter, to Annette, to everyone in the village, Maria had gone to search for Alucard. He whom she loved, he whom she feared to lose.
Her search had brought her to a castle far away from her small village. She had heard that Alucard kept in a crypt, a tomb, or something of the sort, but she'd heard rumors lately that a dark figure was haunting the countryside, leaving and returning to the formerly uninhabited castle. Hence, Maria took this as a lead. However, thus far she'd found no trace of life.
Maria sunk wearily down on the red-carpeted floor, leaning her back against the cool wall. She shut her deep blue-green eyes, trying to shut out the feelings of hopelessness and despair that seemed to attempt to flood her heart.
The rain beat heavily against the window and the wind blew harder than ever causing the windowpanes to rattle. The sea of forest below the precariously perched castle looked like a void ready to swallow up any unwelcome guests. Momentarily, Maria mused about why Dracula and all of his descendants enjoyed castles perched on mountaintops. Then again, she wasn't even sure that this was Alucard's castle, it was all a vague assumption.
The hallway was deathly silent, as always, allowing Maria to fall into her fears and musings. Sometimes, only when she became scared, she would make noise to assure herself that she still possessed the capacity to hear, and to keep herself slight company while she lived out her nightmares in this horrid place.
Not even the booming thunder or ceaseless rain gave so much as an echo of sound in the dark hall. Once in a while the windows would rattle, but not often and not long. Idly, Maria wondered if the wood, glass and mortar were somehow sound proof.
Slowly, gently, Maria found herself drifting off to sleep. It was an unwelcome sensation since she was afraid of the evils that might lurk in the gothic castle. However, her struggle for consciousness did not last long and she found herself in dreamland within minutes.
---
Alucard entered his forlorn castle once more. The sun was setting. Still, there was no sign of Maria.
After he left her standing with Richter on the mountain, he rethought his actions. Thus, he had hurried to her village a day later, only to find that she had left to search for him. So he returned to his castle, going out during the day to search for her, to bring her back. However, he had found no trace of her.
Upon entering the gothic structure, a peculiar scent wafted to him. Immediately he knew its source…blood. More specifically, Maria's blood.
Hope renewed, Alucard followed the scent. Through the first floor he went, halfway through the second and up the spiral stairs to the third. Nervousness, fear, exhilaration coursed through his half-shriveled veins. His perfectly sculpted form tensed as he entered the top hallway. The scent, the feeling, he knew she was there, she had to be there.
The windows rattled with the strong gusts of wind and were silent. Nothing, not even his own footsteps made a noise in this hall. It was sacred, it was enchanted. The only things that could be heard in this hall were voices, emotions.
He found her there, slumped against the dead wall, half-dead.
"Maria! Maria!" he cried, shaking her. She moaned. If there is a God, if there is a Lord of the universe as Mother said, please, hear me. Please save her! SAVE HER! he inwardly prayed. She barely had a pulse and her breaths came in shuddering gasps.
He could feel her heartbeat, barely. And her pulse was fading quickly. Her thin eyelids were closed. She was paler than he remembered, and there were shadows under her eyes. But she was still the beauty he remembered her to be.
Slowly, steadily, he lifted her in his strong arms. He leaned her head against his chest. If she were awake she would have heard its half-beats, struggling against the poison of vampirism that flowed naturally through his veins.
Alucard turned into the next room he came to. It had been his mother's. He hardly noticed this, though, as he placed his beloved on the perfectly made bed and drew the covers over her fast-freezing body. She sighed and turned toward him.
There he stood, an abomination, half-dead and yet completely alive, above beauty-incarnate, her life and soul fast-fleeting from her failing, fragile frame. He knelt beside the bed and leaned close over her pallid face, silent tears falling fast down his pale, marble-like cheeks and landing on the silken sheets that covered his love's body. His intense, unnaturally blue eyes stared intently at the young girl.
"Adrian…?" she whispered, almost inaudibly. But the name, the whisper, the tones, echoed like a symphony in his hearing. Alucard could not remember ever imparting his true name to her, but only accepted it as a fact that she somehow knew.
"I'm here…I'm here," he whispered, making sure to keep the sadness from his voice. "Maria…" Slowly, her eyes opened a slit, then a little more, a little more, then they were half-open, and then all the way open, revealing their blue-green beauty. She smiled weakly and reached out, brushing the back of her fingers gently along his cheek.
"I knew you'd come," she whispered. "You always came for me…"
"My lady, please don't speak," he whispered. She smiled and shook her head.
"My breath, my life is leaving me, Adrian." She took a deep breath. "I came looking for you. I wanted…I wanted to be with you…even if you don't feel the same…" Alucard stared down into her eyes, waiting. "And I knew that I had to find you…before it was too late…" Still silence on the part of the dhampire. "You shouldn't lock yourself away. You shouldn't… You aren't a monster… You're a hero…a hero…" With that, her eyes slowly closed. Her chest rose and fell…once…twice…three times… and she was gone, just like that.
"Maria?" Alucard whispered. No answer. Maria didn't move, didn't speak. "Maria!" Still nothing. "MARIA!" Alucard screamed, angry tears streaming down his face. He sobbed, only letting the tempest be his solace. He clutched Maria's hand in his.
He leaned over her pallid face, almost as an afterthought. His labored, grief-ridden breathing was hot on her soft, cold skin. A few locks of his long hair fell gracefully onto the pillow beside her head. He leaned in closer and softly, gently kissed her dead lips. It seemed like an eternity, showing the affection he wouldn't dare have shown her in life…perhaps if she had lived he would have, but she was dead now. When he pulled back and stared at her form again he noticed something… She was smiling. Smiling. He never knew that mortals could smile at death! Reverently, he looked up at the cross above the bed's headboard.
"You did save her, didn't you?" he whispered. "…Thank you." The tempest slowed, then stopped. The bright morning sun shown in from the eastern horizon, shedding its golden rays on the grief-ridden dhampire. Slowly, he pulled the long covers up over her dead face and looked to the rising sun. He would bring her back to her family. He would take responsibility for her death and he would wait to meet her in the afterlife.
For the first time in 300 years, Adrian Farenheights Tepes smiled.
---
Author's Note: Hope you liked it! No flames, please.