Chapter Five
Poison found herself lying under woollen blankets on a bed in a room unknown to her. The first thought that entered her mind was 'is this hell?' Poison leaped out of the covers and stood on the cold stone floor by the bed. A horrible shiver ran down her spine. It was so cold Poison could see her breath. She found a pair of shoes near the bed; they looked like gold ballet slippers with a small stiletto heel. She quickly put them on to get her feet off of the cold floor. 'Isn't hell supposed to be hot?' She studied the room; it looked nothing like what she had been taught Hell would be like. Hell was supposed to hot, with fires burning all around. This place had a cold look and feel to it. The room seemed to be abandoned and Hell was supposed to be full of Damned souls. Also there was a closed door on one of the walls. 'Hell wouldn't have door would it?'
Poison was having a difficult time breathing, something seemed to be cramping around her stomach when she breathed out. She looked down, noticing she was in the outfit she had been wearing in her vision with Dracula. The top half consisted of an extremely tight corset, the top of her corset ended just under her breasts, but succeeded in pushing them up so much, Poison thought they might fall out of the top of the outfit. Above the corset, cool silk covered Poison's chest. Poison put her hand down her top and tried to push her breasts back down, she succeeded, but was then unable to pull her hand out of her top without taking her breast with her. Poison breathed in deeply and pulled her hand free, tucking her now visible nipple back into her top. Poison's sleeves stopped halfway down her arm and draped off into a single piece of material that hung by the long train her skirt made. Poison found it odd that she was wearing a silk dress; it didn't seem to fit in with the surroundings. And silk was not a very warm material so it was not very functional.
Poison began shivering violently from the cold. The cold stung her skin like knives. She pulled the blankets off of the bed and wrapped them around her body. Her body ached more when she shivered, as the dress she was wearing would not allow such movement. With each shiver her ribs contracted tightly making Poison feel uneasy and light headed.
Desperate to find out where she was, and hopefully find something else to wear that was more comfortable and warmer, Poison left the room.
Each of her footsteps echoed in the room. She seemed to be in some sort of huge castle. The roof was extremely high and the room had columns and candles lining the walls. There were two huge double sets of doors at either end of the room. It was magnificent, although from the look of the cobwebs and dust, it had long been abandoned. Poison heard noises that made her believe otherwise. Footsteps and quiet voices could be heard and they seemed to be getting louder. Poison raced and hid behind a large column.
The large doors to the room opened. Poison could feel that her teeth were about to start chattering from the cold. She pulled the blankets tighter around her and closed her eyes. She tried to concentrate on something warm, but it was no help. The cold still stung her bare face.
Poison slumped down to the floor, rocking back and foreword to try and keep warm. She was so deep in concentration; she did not hear the conversation going on only metres from where she sat.
"My Lord. I do not understand why you didn't just leave her to die."
"She can't die. She has been cursed with life, only by becoming one of us can she be freed."
Poison's chattering became so loud the others in the room heard her. Poison opened her eyes only to see Dracula and Aleera looking down at her. Aleera's red curly hair hung neatly around her face, as her eyes changed from brown to violet.
"Stupid child," laughed Aleera.
"Leave us," Dracula screeched at her.
Aleera disappeared quickly at the sound of her master's angry voice.
Dracula knelt down and looked at Poison. Her face deathly pale, her lips bright blue, her breathing was heavy and she closed her eyes in pain with each breath.
"I'm sorry Poison. We don't feel the cold like you do."
Dracula placed a hand on Poison's cheek, in a means to comfort her, his hands as cold as the surroundings stung Poison's face. She pulled away sharply.
Dracula stood up. "I shall find you something to keep you warm for the time being. Do not move I will be back."
He moved from Poison's view. She heard his boots echo throughout the room as he left then suddenly there was silence. She was in Dracula's castle. Confused on why she wasn't dead, she looked down to her wrists to examine the cuts. Poison was shocked to find nothing there. Not even a scratch. She became confused and that just added to the pain she felt from the cold. She closed her eyes feeling her limbs stiffen from sitting in the one spot for too long. Poison could no longer move, frozen to the spot, she was sure the cold would soon kill her.
Poison was delirious by the time Dracula returned. Her vision blurred, and her mind played tricks on her. Dracula knelt down sliding one arm under her shoulders and the other under her bottom. He lifted her up and held her close to him, carrying her into another room. There was a fireplace in this room, although it was not working, but with one swift hand movement from Dracula a blaze began to roar. Dracula lay Poison down on a rug, which had been laid out in front of the fireplace.
The fire instantly began to warm Poison. She felt her energy come back and was soon able to move her limbs. She was able to sit up. She still kept the blankets wrapped around her for warmth, but mainly to hide her self from him. Worrying that if one breath she took was too strong for the outfit that her breasts might fall out of her top. Poison would rather die than expose herself to Dracula.
A horrible thought entered her head. 'What if it was he who put her into this outfit.' Poison felt sick to the stomach and it must have showed because Dracula gave her an odd look.
"What is the matter?"
Poison looked at him oddly. He seemed genuinely concerned. Yet Poison knew Dracula could not feel emotions. She could feel it. She convinced herself he must want her for something horrible and was trying to calm her before he attacked.
"Why am I here?" Poison shouted to no one in particular. "I'm supposed to be dead."
Dracula laughed at her. "You are not the only one."
"You are dead," she snapped back. "I can feel it. There is nothing inside of you. You're completely empty. And you brought that upon yourself."
"Yes you are right. Although I am sure you would have done the same if you were in my position."
"Well I hope it never comes to that."
Dracula sighed, still standing in front of her. Poison wanted to stand up, as she felt so inferior sitting on the floor before him, but she did not want to leave the warmth of the fire.
"So what do you want from me?"
"I don't want anything from you." He laughed, "It is you who needs me."
"What?" Poison shouted standing up. She wanted to look Dracula directly in the face. She wanted nothing from him. She wished him dead every night since he killed her father and now he tells her she needs him. She almost laughed at the thought.
"You say you can feel that I am hollow. What do you feel when you search inside yourself?"
Poison sat back down. She knew what he meant. Inside her she felt evil, purer than she could ever imagine. It had only surfaced after she turned twenty years old, she never understood what had changed to bring this upon herself, but Poison suffered every day for it. It was becoming too strong and she could almost feel herself turning into some sort of monster. She had planned to kill herself to save everyone around her from the damage she knew she would do.
"What am I?" she asked.
"Cursed like me. But I can free you. Let you live the life you were destined for."
"Huh?"
Dracula grabbed Poison up from off the floor, in such a rush that Poison dropped her blankets. He put his hands on her back and pulled her close to him and studied her, looking her up and down. His deep brown eyes slowly studying every detail of her body, he studied her face for the longest, mostly staring into her eyes, Poison couldn't help but stare back. There was something about his eyes that got her every time, she thought it was that she could see the sadness in his eyes and felt sorry for him, now she knew it wasn't that. She felt and odd sort of warmth when she looked into his eyes. A feeling of embarrassment filled Poison, she felt naked in this dress as she was accustomed to wearing pants in public, or less revealing dresses. Dracula seemed to sense her embarrassment.
"Don't be embarrassed. You are beautiful."
Dracula placed his hand on Poison's neck. He slowly moved it down to her breasts, moving his hand down to her stomach with on finger lingering through the middle of her breasts. Poison shivered, although it was not just from the cold.
Poison moved her hands down to her stomach, trying to rearrange the outfit so she could breathe better.
"I can't breathe in this." She sighed in between sharp breaths.
"Soon you won't have too."
Poison watched Dracula, as his canines became elongated fangs. He pulled her in closer to him. "One brief moment of pain." He whispered into her ears before digging his fangs into her neck.
Her knees buckled from the pain. Dracula had to support her weight or she would have collapsed. She gasped and tried to claw at his neck in an effort to get him off of her. In what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few seconds Dracula pulled his teeth out of Poison's neck. He let her drop to her knees before him. He pulled up his sleeve enough to expose his wrist. With he moved his wrist up to his mouth and cut it with his own teeth. Blood began instantly leaking from the cut.
He put his wrist to Poison's face. She looked up at him then down at his wrist again. She took his hand in hers and pulled his wrist to her mouth. The second the blood touched her lips she knew she had to have more. She continued to suck blood slowly from Dracula's wrist. Not knowing what this new life would hold for her.
