Chapter 13! Thankyou everyone for your generous reviews! They are mucho appriciated. ;] I am currently writing chapter 14 (I've been working on it for over a month so it better turn out good...). It looks like it will be a really really long chapter so I might have to split it in into 2 chapters...which would suck because I was counting on chapter 14 being the second to last chapter....oh well. Please read and enjoy!
Dark, thick clouds collected on the horizon and Amelia speed fearlessly towards them in an old 1950's Ford pickup she had bought from an old farmer and his wife. The rusty mechanical beast clunked and groaned as she coaxed it over sixty miles per hour. Her green eyes had dulled since she left her Aunt and Uncle – Though they were still an unusually bright shade of green, they were lacking in the glowing luster they had before. Her new eyes stared straight at the thousands of miles of road ahead of her. The landscape around her was featureless - The sheer flatness was maddening. Small farm houses and large fields of livestock and dead corn and wheat were all there was for miles. To the small, one-street towns she passed through, she was nobody; a stranger. No one questioned her coming, her purpose, where she was going, or who she was. She was virtually unnoticed – simply a ghost haunting the highways of the Great Plains.
Amelia pulled up to a pump at a small gas station off the highway. She paid for her gas at the counter and thanked the heavy-set old man in overalls at the register.
"No problem little lady." He beamed. "Where're ya off to?"
"Oh, no where in particular," Amelia replied. Her tone was light and nonchalant.
The old man smiled and nodded. Amelia noted how the skin around his wise blue eyes crinkled when he smiled. She even envied the deep folds of skin on his cheeks and neck – signs of age that she would never acquire. A strong gust of wind from outside caused the light bulb that hung from the ceiling by strands of copper wire to flicker. The old farmer grimaced.
"Looks like a storm's coming." He said gravely. "Better be getting' yourself someplace safe and warm there missy."
Amelia thanked the kind old man again before departing the store. Outside, her old truck's engine rumbled to life and with a full tank of gas, she headed East.
Amelia drove on and on through the night like a women possessed. She had no idea where she would go or what she would do when she got there but for now her goal was to drive to the coast, board a plane and travel as far east as she could. As she drove she thought of all the places she wanted to see as a child; the Eiffel Tower, Venice, the great Pyramids of Egypt, China's Great Wall, Moscow. A new destination popped into her mind; Transylvania – the perfect place for a monster like her. She wondered if Dracula was a real vampire and not just a famous urban legend.
Maybe he could help me… she thought. Her fantasies were slowly becoming a plan in her mind as she dwelled more and more on the magical land of Romania.
She arrived in New York at three in the morning. At the airport, she purchased a one-way ticket to Constanta, Romania. She had no idea how close Constanta was to Bran, but it was the only flight she could find that went to Romania. Her flight would leave at ten in the morning. Without anything better to do, she settled herself down in one of the many available seats in the waiting area near her Gate.
The streets of Houston, Texas were scarcely populated in the early hours of the morning. D left the stolen motorcycle in the bottom floor of Houston International Airport's immense multi-level parking garage. He had felt an odd sort of attachment to the black bike and was somewhat reluctant to leave it behind.
"What a shame." His left hand agreed with his thoughts as the inseparable beings entered an elevator that would take them to the actual airport. "That was a nice bike. Hey, maybe we could buy one like it in Europe and take it with us!"
D purchased a ticket for Rasnov, Romania; the biggest city near Bran. He realized that this was the first time he'd seen his home country in ages.
Have you even left home yet? The parasite's voice echoed in his head. At the same time, a female voice on a loud speaker announced the arrival of their flight. D and a small amount of people boarded the plane. It was still very early in the morning – scarcely three AM.
"No…" D answered his hand out loud, but in a tone too low for human ears to hear. He allowed a sorrowful expression surface on his beautiful, placid face as he recalled some memory of his childhood that was ironically taking place at this very time.
Oh…that's right. It would be hilarious if you ran into yourself when you got there…just imagine what the old man is gonna say! Ahhh this is going to be great!
While the parasite was excited, D was not. He was dreading this trip more than anything else in the world, but honestly, where else could he go? Leaning his forehead against the thick Plexiglas window of the airplane in a very human-like gesture, he watched the clouds and the passing landscape bellow.
It was dark.
Pitch black.
Even with her enhanced senses, Amelia could see nothing. Reaching out into the inky blackness that was almost tangible, her hand found the hard, rough surface of a wall. The coarse surface was interrupted by a patchwork of fissures.
The wall was made of bricks.
There was a pale light in the distance now. She was in a long stone hallway. It was dank and damp and puddles of water were scattered along the floor, some of which were quite large. There were many turns and other hallways branching off of the one she traveled. She was lost. Every turn she took only lead her to a dead end and she soon lost the main path.
It was a labyrinth.
Hysteria built inside her. She was running now through the twisting hallways.
She was losing her mind.
A door appeared.
A door at the end of the hallway.
She ran to it and frantically pulled at the handle. It wasn't locked. The door gave no resistance and flew open, and she, not anticipating it to give, fell head first into the room.
It was large and dimly lit.
In the center on a slight raise sat a coffin. Trimmed with silver around the edges, it was a glossy black. In the coffin, she stared at her horrifying reflection.
Her eyes were all black – even the whites of them gone. Her face was gaunt and pale as if she hadn't fed in weeks; blood or food. Her thick black hair was matted and hung around her face in tangles. Her clothes – all white – were stained with crimson smears; blood.
"Amy-" a disembodied voice croaked feebly.
"D!" Amelia tried to yell, seeing his broken, defeated form at the base of the coffin, but when she opened her dry lips, no words came out.
A white hand fell upon her shoulder. Amelia screamed. When she tried to turn, the hand tightened its iron grip. She couldn't move.
"Hello." A deep, seductive voice much like D's purred. It's tone was mocking and slightly amused. "Have you come to rescue my son?"
Manic laughter echoed off the high walls as Amelia stared, mouth agape, at D's corpse….
Amelia jerked awake. It was 9:30 and the terminal had become quite busy. She looked all around her – left and right and sighed with relief. It was only a dream. She checked her ticket. Her flight would arrive in half an hour. Stretching, Amelia rose from her seat and decided to walk around the airport to kill time. Her stomach growled. She was hungry for human food this time. Feeling a wave of relief, glad that it wasn't human blood she hungered for, she bought a muffin and coffee at one of the many food stands. She stood as she ate, watching the incoming flights on the arrival board, watching her plane bump lower and lower down the list of flights.
She felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach – nerves. She couldn't believe what she was doing. Was she actually pursuing Dracula – the most legendary vampire in history? She didn't know if he was even real. Her flight was only minutes away. Amelia moved to the customs section with the tide of human beings.
DUH! DUH! DUH!
uuuuuuuuuugh! Chapter 14 is being a slut. It's really really difficult to write...oh well. this one was too a little bit. It'll work out. cheers! =D