Here is the second and final part of the prologue.
One Month Later:
The sun was setting in the afternoon on a small Romanian town in the countryside and the people were rushing to get indoors and lock up their homes before dark. Some hung crucifixes, strings of garlic, or wolfsbane over their doors and windows. In one house, the father was working hastily to secure his doors and windows while his nervous wife huddled with their little frightened son and daughter. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief once he hung the last string of garlic over the last window.
"That should do it," the father said confidently. "Those unholy monsters won't get in this house tonight."
The mother let go of her kids and tightly hugged her husband. "Just a month ago we thought these creatures were just things in stories," she said, her voice barely hiding how frightened she was. "How could such horror return?! And why after all these years?!"
"I don't know, dear," her husband replied comforting her. "Only God knows what schemes this... evil has planned for the world."
Deep in the Carpathian Mountains, the once-abandoned castle was now inhabited. Not by people, but by the unholiest of creatures. Creatures that are only active during the night and feed off the blood of living humans, vampires. And the most powerful and most feared of all these undead monsters was their king, Count Dracula. It had been a month since his resurrection and the vampire count wasted no time in rebuilding his secret dark empire. He renewed the people's fear in him and took whatever he wanted from them, be it blood, wives, or servants. Now the count was gathering allies and making plans with the intention of using those allies for dark purposes.
In one of the castle halls, an elderly man with ghastly unnatural-looking bluish skin, white hair and facial hair, and wearing a reddish butler outfit approached a woman waiting for him in the hall.
"Mistress Zaleska," the ghastly butler addressed her. "The guests have all arrived."
"Thank you, Shandor," Zaleska replied. The witch's appearance changed during her time as the count's new second-in-command. Her skin was much paler, her lips were colored black, her fingernails were longer and pointier, and she wore a dark priestess style dress with long sleeves and open shoulders. "I will let our master know."
Inside a dark throne room, Dracula sat on his throne when he heard a knocking on the door.
"Enter," he commanded. The door opened to reveal Zaleska.
"My lord, Shandor has informed me the guests have all arrived," the witch informed him.
A delighted smile formed on the count's face at hearing this news. He rose from his throne and walked out of the room. As they walked down the dimly lit hallway together, Dracula and Zaleska were having a conversation about her contribution to his plans and terms of payment for those contribution.
"Your servant has been quite beneficial to our goals," the count commented.
"I took Shandor in when I found him as a small boy and taught him everything he knows," Zaleska explained proudly. "In return, he provides undying loyalty and shows great potential as a warlock. He will not let us down."
"And what does he get out of this?" Dracula asked.
"The chance to serve me is all that matters to him," Zaleska answered.
"But you on the other hand, wish to gain something from your service to me as I recall."
"Yes, my count. The chance to become a creature of the night like yourself," Zaleska said with passionate longing. "I have kept myself alive and beautiful for centuries with my magic by stealing the souls of mortals, but it's not enough. My magic is growing weaker and soon I won't be able to sustain myself with human souls. But if I could become a vampire like you, I would be able sustain myself with blood. Perhaps even have a place at your side when you rule the world."
Dracula smiled deviously at hearing the witch's ambitions. "Your soul stealing powers could be quite useful. Continue to serve me well, and I will see that you join the ranks of the undead."
"You are most gracious, my lord," Zaleska expressed her gratitude.
"Don't you two make a lovely couple," a gruff voice taunted and chuckled. Suddenly, a tall brute of a man wearing a long cloak stepped out from behind a corner and stood in front of the two. His face was obstructed by his hood and there was a little smoke rising from within the shadows. The count and the witch didn't even flinch at the sight of this beast of a man that stood before them.
"How are things holding up on your end, Dr. Jekyll?" Dracula asked.
"It's Mr. Hyde now," the man corrected pulling down his hood and revealing his face. After a week of being their prisoner, Jekyll had changed drastically both in appearance and personality. The slender mild-mannered scholarly gentleman was now a brutish beast of a man with grotesquely light greenish skin, big hairy arms and legs, black hair and sideburns, big sharp teeth and eyes filled with murderous intent. "Billy's great grand pappy, Henry, tried to get rid of me and when he couldn't he thought we would both go to the grave together and it would all be over. Too bad for his descendants, there's a little bit of Hyde in all of us," he chuckled maliciously while smoking a big cigar.
"Indeed," Dracula acknowledged almost uninterested. "Come now, we mustn't keep the others waiting."
The count led Hyde and Zaleska to a huge door where Shandor, Zaleska's servant, was waiting.
"My count, the guests are all inside," the creepy old butler informed.
The doors opened to reveal a lounge room that had another door on the opposite of the room and a balcony on the right side. There were two cloaked figures waiting in the room. One had hands, which had wrinkly dried-up rotting brownish flesh wrapped in bandages while the other wore a white mask with black tear lines painted on it under its hood.
"I was sure there was another guest waiting in this room as well," Dracula said. Then he raised a finger to signal everyone to stay quiet as he listened and looked around the room. He noticed a pair of sunglasses sitting on a table and a pile of clothes consisting of slippers, a robe, gloves and bandages lying on the floor next to it. Suddenly, he grabbed what appeared to be an invisible entity as the sound of a man choking was heard. "Dr. Griffin," the count said in a scolding tone to the invisible being he held in his grasp. "You should know that while your ancestor's invisibility formula proved quite troublesome for mortals back in his day, it is useless against my kind. I can smell and hear you enough to know exactly where you are." Then he released him from his grasp.
"I'll keep that in mind, count," the Invisible Man replied catching his breath. He began putting his clothes back on.
"Now then, it is time to get down to business," the vampiric count announced getting the attention of everyone in the room. Zaleska and Hyde both took seats among the other guests. "I have summoned all of you from different parts of the world for a purpose. 'What is that purpose?' you might ask. Well, when Madame Zaleska returned me to the mortal plain, I felt a shift in the balance of nature. I'm sure a few of you might have sensed it too. 'What could that mean?' you might ask next." There was a pause before the count continued. "It means the monsters that once ruled this world before mankind are awaking from their long slumber in the ice and are planning to establish their rule over this world once again. The Demons have returned!" There was a long silence as everyone in the room to a moment to register what the count said.
"You're sure about that?" Griffin asked in disbelief.
"Yes!" Dracula replied in absolution. "Even as we speak, I can feel their hatred, their bloodlust, their desire for war and chaos." For a moment, the count looked like he was having a feeling of nostalgia. "I'm not the only one, I'm sure a few of you in this room are also feeling it." A couple of the guests looked around suspiciously at one another.
"How can you sense their presence?" Hyde asked intrigued.
"It is simple really," Dracula replied. "Everything that I am, all my powers, I received them from the demons." This caused a few people, specifically Hyde and Griffin, to gasp in surprise. "Long ago, I was once an ordinary man with a thirst for blood and power. I led great armies and crushed all who stood against me. Perhaps that was what attracted the demons to me, for one of them tried to make my body its own. But a strange thing happened. The demon was successful in invading my body, but it could not take it over. Not only did I remain in control of my body, but I had gained access to many of the powers the demon processed." Surprise and disbelief were plastered on the faces of a few of the guests. "However, it was only until my first death that I truly made the demon's powers my own and became the first and most powerful of my kind. By trying to merge with humans, the demons inadvertently gave birth to the vampire race. Same can be said for witches," he said turning to Zaleska. "Powerful sorcerers who rose to power but are now long forgotten." He turned to one of the cloaked guests, who pulled his hood down to reveal a dried-up rotting face wrapped in old bandages, a mummy. "Mysterious beings who were once sad mortals with passionate interests but now haunt public buildings like theatres or opera houses." He motioned to the masked figure. "Mysterious creatures of unknown origin making their home in the Amazon and even werewolves," the count finished. As if on cue, everyone heard the sound of a wolf howling. It sounded as if it were coming somewhere in the castle. "Speaking of which, we were able to find a few more creatures with no place in society who, with the right form of 'persuasion', would be happy to assist us in our goals."
Then they heard the sound of a whip cracking followed by what sounded like a big man crying in pain and torment coming from behind the door on the other side of the room. Dracula had an annoyed look on his face. While he did enjoy the sound of torture, he was trying to explain his plans to his allies, and it was becoming distracting.
"Igor!" the count called.
The door on the other side of the room opened to reveal a short hideous-looking hunchbacked man with yellow eyes, rotten teeth, wearing raggedy clothes, and holding a whip.
"Yes, master?" the hunchback responded in a raspy voice.
"What did it do this time?" the vampiric count asked.
"It's how I keep myself entertained, master."
"Well find some other way to entertain yourself," Dracula ordered. "His brute strength is needed for when we travel to Japan, and I need him to believe we are the only ones in the entire world who can ever accept him. Since the full moon is out, try entertaining yourself with the other one. Make sure he is controllable in this state."
"Yes, master," the hunchback agreed with a sadistic grin and disappeared back through the door.
"So you got a werewolf. But what is the other one?" a curious Griffin asked. "Sounds like a man."
"Parts of a few men, actually," the count corrected him. "Back to the point, I've gathered you all here to assist me in stopping the demons' plans. Work with me, and I will share the world with you. You can have anything your hearts' desire. Immortality and eternal beauty." Zaleska smiled at those words. "The power you once had restored to you." A grin appeared on the Mummy's decrepit face. "The freedom to commit chaos wherever and whenever you please." Griffin and Hyde both chuckled wickedly after hearing that. "The power to make the greatest music ever heard. Powerful enough to bring even the dead back to life!" The masked figure lowered his head as if experiencing a sad and painful memory.
"What about you, count?" Hyde asked.
"Isn't it obvious, Edward?" Dracula replied. "To begin a new era where the creatures of the night rule over humanity and the world."
"No offense, count," Griffin said. "But how do you expect to accomplish that with just a handful of followers? You'll need an army for such an ambitious goal."
"You're quite right, Dr. Griffin," the count replied with a sinister grin showing his pointed teeth.
The vampiric lord then walked out onto the balcony and motioned his guests to come out and join him. Once they all joined him, they saw that the balcony they were all standing on was overlooking a huge courtyard filled with hundreds of vampires. The count's allies stared in awe at the large horde below.
"War and a new age are on the horizon!" Dracula addressed his vampiric army. "The former is inevitable, but it will be your duty to ensure the latter is made possible! Go forth, my children! Multiply and increase our numbers from hundreds to thousands!" The vampiric horde cheered and screeched with excitement.
"I'm in," Mr. Hyde said convinced.
"Me too," Griffin added. "So where do we go from here?"
"Japan," the count replied with sinister intent.
After his speech, Dracula entered through the door Igor had come through earlier and walked down a flight of stairs till he reached what looked to be a huge dungeon and torture chamber. He saw the hunchback standing at the edge of a big fish tank sitting in the middle of the room. The water in the tank was a grayish green color. The hunchback was holding a bucket of fish which he was throwing into the tank. The fish were getting gobbled up by a strange creature swimming around in the water. Inside the tank was a hideous green fishlike humanoid with scaly skin, pronounced lips hiding sharp teeth, two yellow fishlike eyes, scales all over his head, and gills on both sides of his neck.
"How is our friend from the Amazon?" the count asked.
"It took a while, but he has become quite docile, master," the hunchback replied.
"Good. I need him to know how to follow orders," Dracula said. "And the others?"
The hunchback led his dark master over to a couple of cells. Inside one was what looked like a man with dark brown hair wearing nothing but an iron collar and that was attached to the cell's back wall by a long chain. The floor of his cell was covered with patches of fur the same color as his hair. A look of pain and fear was written on the man's face as he looked up at his visitors.
"It took a while to tame this one," Igor explained. "Werewolves are difficult creatures to train. But while he may be less inclined to follow you as a man, he will obey your every command when the full moon brings out the beast within."
"Excellent," the count replied satisfied.
Then they walked over to the other cell. Inside was a big brutish-looking man with light greenish skin with stitches almost everywhere, black hair, yellow eyes, bolts on both sides of his neck, and an oddly shaped cranium that looked flat on top. He wore large black boots, black pants, and a black coat. His big arms were shacked and connected to the back wall by long chains. A look of pain and loneliness was plastered on his face.
"I'm still not so sure about this one, master," Igor said.
"No worries, I have promised him what he wants most in this world," Dracula confidently replied. "And he will follow my orders and endure much suffering to get it." Then he turned to the brutish man and gave him a wink with a sinister smile. "All the preparations are in order for my trip to Japan where demon activity is the strongest. Ready my coffin for departure while I have a little supper."
"Yes master."
As the hunchback left to carry out the command, Dracula walked over to a door on one side of the room. He pulled a key from his coat and unlocked the door. He opened it to reveal a small dark room and inside were three trembling preteen children, one boy and two girls. The terrified and defenseless children stared up at the tall dark man who stared down at them with eyes full of hunger and evil. The count stepped inside the room closing and locking the door behind him.
In a hospital room in Japan, a slender young man, around 16 years of age, with blonde hair and pale skin lay sleeping in a hospital bed. Suddenly, his eyes opened, they were blue, and he sat up in his bed breathing heavily as if he had just woken from a horrible nightmare. But he knew this wasn't a nightmare.
"Something terrible has been awakened!" he thought to himself as sweat dripped from his forehead. "And it's coming here! Akira, I need to talk to you tomorrow!"