Chapter 2: Danger
Anna was walking in the snow.
Her feet were bare and she was in the thin cotton nightdress, but she wasn't cold. She looked around and wondered where she was. She didn't recognize the place.
It was very cloudy and ost of her vision was blurred by snowflakes, but she could see a huge black castle looming in the distance, the only thing in sight.
She went in.
I'm dreaming, she registered. And what a strange dream, too.
She was in a hallway, a gargantuan corridor lit by huge bowls of fire. Her bare feet made no sound as she wandered aimlessly throughout, almost like she was floating. She looked out the large window at the end of the hall, staring at the snowy mountain range before her. It was lovely. What was this place her sleeping mind had brought her to?
"Welcome."
The voice was deep, accented, and all too familiar.
Anna spun around, too slowly it seemed, as it always did in nightmares.
Dracula was standing at the other end of the hall, by the big door she had entered through. The flames shadowed and lit his figure strangely, making him look like the devil himself. She blinked, and the next instant he was right in front of her, smiling pleasantly.
She tried to scream, but all that came out was a small squeal. Now would be a good time to wake up, she thought furiously.
"Come, now, Anna, surely you did not think I would let you go so easily?"
She simply stared at him. He continued, pacing in front of her, "I'm so glad you could come see your future home. After your somewhat rushed departure this evening, I feared I would have to come get you myself, but...you have come willingly. How convenient." He looked at her in amusement. Wake up, wake up! Anna told herself. It was no use. This dream, or nightmare, would not go away, and this...incarnation...of her feared enemy was still standing right before her.
She stopped and thought determinedly, This is not real. He is not real. I am in my bed, asleep, and this is just a dream. Very well then. She would play along with whatever curves her mind chose to throw at her. If she could not conquer her fears in a dream, how would she ever do it in the real world?
"Yes," she said lightly, "I had to leave so soon...how rude of me."
Dracula raised one eyebrow, looking more amused than ever, and reached for her hand. Involuntarily she shrank away. "You cannot control me," she said forcefully, half to reassure herself. "This is only a dream."
His bemused expression did not change as he echoed, "Of course. Only a dream."
She looked at this creation of her subconsciousness a little strangely, but warily laid her hand in his.
The next thing she knew, she was staring down at the entryway where they had just been standing, two hundred feet in the air...on the ceiling. She was hanging upside down on the ceiling.
She almost laughed at the ridiculousness of this dream. Looking to her right, she saw the dream Dracula, standing a few feet away with his hands behind his back, just looking at her with that infuriating half-smile on his face.
It was strange, really, that in her dream he didn't seem quite as threatening, quite as...evil. She laughed inwardly at that too. After all, she had just survived the most frightening experience of her life in the real world, and this—man—was the cause of all her pain and suffering. Ha. The ridiculousness of it.
"How is this possible?" she asked him, gesturing to the ground below.
He walked over to her, and she stiffened in remembered fear as he put his hands around her waist and drew her tightly to him, crushing their chests together with only one heartbeat between them. She looked up at him, into those cold dark eyes.
"Anything is possible," he said softly.
He spun her around and dipped her, still on the ceiling. Anna thought distantly that his skin was not so cold here, in his own lair, and his complexion perhaps a little less pale.
"I have been watching you since you were a child, you know," he said suddenly. When she did not reply, he said, "I have always had plans for you, always knew you would be the last of the Valerious...I did not know until recently, you see however, that you would also become the last of my brides."
She opened her mouth to make some angry retort, but she put a single finger to her lips, hushing her. "Do you know what it means, what it is like, to be the creature known as a vampire?" They were both standing now, upside down, face to face. "No? Well of course you wouldn't. You are human. You are a Valerious. To be a vampire means you are hated, feared, hunted by all. You know this." He waited for some confirmation, and when none came he simply went on. "But it means something else, too."
Unable to contain herself, Anna said, "Yes, it means you are damned, the spawn of Satan himself!"
Dracula's eyes glinted for a moment, but he smiled and merely replied, "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Do any of us really know? What it truly means is that you have power and freedom the likes of which you have never dreamed. And it means you are immortal, unable to die."
Anna snorted. "A curse."
He shrugged. "Again, perhaps. Sometimes I do think so. But others—ah, Anna, you cannot imagine."
"Let go," he said to her, then, abruptly. She did, and fell the long way to the stone floor, unafraid. Why should she be? It was almost like flying, really. Landing squarely on her feet, she saw Dracula do the same next to her, and watched him go over to the windowsill and pick up two glasses of a think red liquid. Anna shuddered.
He held one out to her, almost like a challenge. She took it roughly, stared at it. "Drink, a toast," he said. To what, she wondered? And what did dream blood taste like? She took a tiny sip, grimaced, and spit it out in disgust. Apparently just like real blood.
Dracula, who had drained his glass, watched her reaction and shrugged. "I know," he said. "It gets cold so quickly. You'll get used to it."
"What do you mean?" she couldn't help asking. "I would never be your bride, not even in a dream."
"It is so easy, Anna. In a few moments, it will be done. We will be together. Forever."
He walked over to her, pulling her close. She struggled a little, but he held her tight. Dracula brought her chin up so their eyes met and said quietly, "It would not be so bad, my princess. You would have a new life. There would be no more suffering. No pain. In time, you would forget. I would make you forget..."
He caressed her shoulders, then her neck, as he leaned in to kiss her. As it became deeper he moved away from her lips, and down to her neck...
He pulled the nightgown away so her entire shoulder and neck was exposed, and for the second time that night Anna watched in a morbid, dreamlike fascination as he made his teeth into fangs and bit into her neck.
It's just a dream she told herself, Only a dream...
A/N: Wow, heavy chapter, lol...Unrealistic? Maybe. Out of character? Possibly a little. Interesting? I hope so!