Light in the Darkest of Hearts
All characters belong to Universal Pictures
Vlad stood in the division of darkness and crimson. His dark eyes glinted against the waxen moon fading in the entanglement of encroaching clouds. A storm font was closing on at the ruins of his castle. Desolated walls of history turned to the rubble. Ashes of fallen soldiers still sunk into the earth as his boots crunched on the shards of bone gathered underneath disregarded helmets and tarnished armor. His legacy. He was a harvester of death. A murderous wraith stalking in the shadows of the mortal world and the supernatural. He was a condemned monster-alone to endure grief and his endless appetite. His body felt hollow. No heart beat-no pulse rippling through his molten veins. Just the constant tremor that controlled his blood thirst.
Poison. He felt it running through his system. Heavy torrents of savage hunger. His fangs grew numb as the taste, unbidden consumed him. Blood. Sour and pure.
Trudging further, passing the iron gates, his distant memories bought him to the graveyard. His deaden eyes scanned over the neglected headstones of his family. Feeling a mixture of emotions surging through the stale blood that clung to his bones, Vlad entered, the ends of his dark cloak dragged over the frozen ground as he advanced closer to the marble stoned cross. His eyes narrowed at the name engraved on the surface. His son. His blood heir and greatest treasure that he held so dear for the last three hundred years. He give the child life, keeping him safe from the demons of enslavement and the monsters he created by taking away their pulses with a single bite in the jugular. He left the mark of the vampire on their rotting corpses-never his son. Bowing his head, stands rakish shoulder length hair draped over his chiseled face. He gripped the stone, holding on to the memory.
"Forgive me..." A broken whisper emerged from his cold lips, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead on the cross. "You must have a good life out of the darkness." He lifted his head up, gazing intently at the darkened sky. "A life in the sunlight as your arms embraced your child." He was damn near to crying, but he felt nothing. Just the unrelenting bite of death suffocating him. "All I have ever wanted was to keep you safe. I did this for you...A father's price for the blood of his son."
Vlad pulled himself away, his vacant gaze wondered around the empty graveyard. "This is my kingdom...The land of dead. Here, I rule over hollow shells of innocence. I protect each body that rots in the ground." His gloved hand brushed over the rough surface of the grave. "I've protected you from the cradle to the grave." His full lips fastened into a painful grimace as his fangs began to pulse. His senses awoke as the intoxicating scent of fresh blood wafted in the frigid air. The urge to feed increased as he tried to resist the thirst.
Ramming his fist into the ground, his vision faded into the murky red haze. He scanned his fathomless stare across the shadows. Time froze as he caught a glimpse of a faint pulse. Gripping whatever amount of humanity he had allowed to fight against the curse; he rose to his full intimating height, and removed his hood, wolfish hair cascaded over his smooth jaw. The fever was rising and memories flashed before his eyes. Bodies impaled on the battle fields of his past. The sinister grins of the obscured winged monster looming over dried out skeletons, and ivory fangs piercing into soft flesh. Gasping, he locked his intense hazel eyes on the grave once last time, before he changed into the daunting nightmare of Transylvania. Dracula. "Forgive me..."
Breathing in the scent of mortality, Vlad followed the heart beat. He transformed into a bat, gliding against the air currents. His sharp wings sliced through the streams of moonlight. He reached the tower, changing into his human form instantly as a white silk billowed in the wind. In the distance church bells echoed, flinching from the light of grace, a vicious hiss erupted from his raw throat.
Covering his face, Vlad froze in mid-step and saw her. Heaven's light was pouring over golden ringlets, and caressing flawless skin. Her seawater colored eyes stared at him, burning with eternal love. She was a ghost. A figment of his endless torment. She was beautiful and forgiving. He felt her warmth enter through his stone cold body. Her body moved closer, unafraid. "Stay away from me!" he snarled, his face fracture into anguish. "I'm a monster."
She said nothing, just compressed her palm over his ragged cheek, fingertips stroking over his skin. "You are not forgotten," she whispered, inching closer as her unyielding ruby lips sealed a wet embrace against his lips. She kissed him, giving him back a piece of humanity. He closed his eyes, everything ached as his shaky fingers slipped through her long hair. He felt the softness and fullness, the taste. Her kiss gave him strength. She broke away. "We'll see each other again. In another life. A better life." Then, darkness took hold of him, and she vanished in the abyss of his merciless guilt.
His eyes fell shut and he poured all his emotions into the collapsing void.
Feeling one heart beat in his chest, Vlad fell to his knees and screamed out her name as the moonlight reflected over bat hanging upside down from the tower's archway, watching over him.