Author's Note: Come now, did you really think
Dracula would be a kind fellow? I made him out to be a crafter of
flesh and bone, as the Tzimisce clan, but he belongs to no clan.
Dracula, in my story, is simply an ancient vampire of unknown
origin. Naturally, the reason nobody knows much about him is the
way he treats his visitors...as you shall see here. A place of
total darkness...frightening, even for a creature of the night, and
home to unknown horrors. Journey now with Murdok into the depths
of despair...
The Dark
It was a long time before I found the strength to get up. Observing that there was no light here, I was thankful that I had taken the time to learn to see in such places. I was perplexed, but at least I could see. The cave ran in both directions from where I had been placed, and each looked the same. The walls were smooth for the most part, covered in places by vegetation I had never seen before. There were odd looking plants, the leaves of which were a sickly white. A mold or fungus of sorts grew in patches here and there, shiny with some sort of liquid and pigmented a horrid shade of yellow. I reached out to feel some of this strange fungus, and it receded into the wall when my finger touched it, leaving behind a residue of the same color as itself. Where on earth was I? What sort of creatures lived down here, I wondered. Dracula had said it would be most unpleasant here, and I felt that he knew what he was talking about. After all, had he not sent numerous others here as well? At any rate, I knew I needed to find some sort of thing to feed on…the weird thing was, I didn't feel hungry, even though I had not fed for at least three nights.
I chose my direction at random, since one looked just like the other, and began walking. The tunnel grew larger in some places, and after a little while I began to come across small puddles of liquid, which I would have thought to be water if it hadn't tried to take my foot from me. I broke its hold easily, but I was severely discomforted by such happenings. My earlier question recurred to me: where on earth was I? Perhaps I was asking the wrong question altogether. Maybe the real question was something much more disturbing. Where was I at all? Had he sent me to another planet, perhaps? I would not be surprised, but then, what would I do to get back?
As I pondered these things, I began to notice that, dotted here and there along the passage, there were small crystals of a green color, and they were emitting a very dim light. Something about it disgusted me, but I was fascinated, to be sure. I chipped one out of the wall easily, but it crumbled as soon as it was detached, leaving behind something that appeared to be ash. Nothing here was as I expected at all. I decided that perhaps it would be best to leave things alone until I found out where I was. I continued my walk, and though I knew it had been a great while, I did not feel like resting. It was a long time before I ran into any alternate routes, but I chose to remain on the one I had been using, because with my abilities I could see that it would open up into a larger cavern soon. There were life forms here, though I had no idea what they were. They moved from time to time, but it didn't appear that they were standing guard. As I came closer to the room, I could hear strange gibbering noises echoing through the cave, and when I got to the edge I peeked out cautiously, using my camouflaging skills. There were five creatures here that I could see, and they were like nothing I had ever even heard of before.
They were average size, about the height of a man, but they were hunched over and apparently conversing with each other with their own language, which I could by no means understand. They had no eyes that I could observe, but simply had two small holes, which I assumed to be nostrils, and a mouth, appearing to be ringed with many teeth. Their ears were large, shaped like those of bats, and they seemed to be moving about in regular patterns, assumedly scanning for any sounds they could pick up. Their hands had but three fingers and no opposable thumb, and their feet had three toes, two in the front and one jutting out of the back, each tipped with short claws on hands and feet alike. Their skin was the blackest of black, and did not shine even the slightest bit, even though the green crystals were numerous here.
There were also two small structures here, constructed of what I assumed to be stone. They were domed, and shaped vaguely like the igloos I had seen in pictures. Presently, the creatures began walking off, heading into a passage nearby. There were four possible routes, including the one I had come through. Two of them appeared to go on for a long time, while the one the creatures went through led to another room before dead-ending. The fourth led upward, slanting at a fairly steep angle, and this is the path I chose to take. Before long, I would find that it had been a mistake.
Nightmare
I walked up this cave for hours, still not tired as I usually became. The green crystals were becoming much less frequent, and I had some trouble seeing, even with my sight focused. The darkness here was almost tangible, and though I was a creature of the night, it frightened me. The vegetation, such as it was, began to thin out, and soon there was none at all, save for one patch of fungus that had grown and turned utterly black with some unknown ailment. I began to be glad I didn't breathe. There was no telling what sort of things were floating around in the air down here, or if it was breathable at all. All the while, the darkness grew thicker still, until I could scarcely see.
I kept walking, now navigating solely by my power to see the layout of the caves, for the darkness had become complete. The cavern was getting slightly larger, and began to level out. This bothered me, but what choice did I have? There were no branches here. I saw only more straight progress ahead. Another few minutes of walking, and then I heard laughter in the distance. It was low and resounding, and sounded quite sinister. I couldn't tell if it was ahead or behind me, and my sight showed no signs of anything living in my proximity. I kept going, having no idea what I was about to encounter. From what I could tell, the cave was about to open up so much that I couldn't tell where the bottom or top of the room would be, and that meant it had to be several hundred yards from top to bottom, at the least, and as I got closer, I became more and more cautious, for a feeling of dread had come over me, even more prominent than my fear at my run-in with the werewolf had been. I approached the edge of the opening, and a booming laughter greeted me, at which point I was sucked out of my hiding spot and into the unknown depths.
I fell only a few feet, then caught myself and hovered there, looking about vainly, for the darkness was seemingly as thick as tar, and it felt like it was pressing against me. In a swift motion, I was snatched from the air by what felt like an enormous hand, then the darkness receded in tendrils in front of me, and I wished it had not, for the creature that had me in its clutches was maddeningly terrifying.
Its shape was not definite, but seemed to shift constantly, though I recognized some of the forms it took. One was the werewolf, and it roared at me, biting and snarling. Its eyes glowed red for a moment, and then the creature was formless again, melting into shadow. Next it took the shape of something I didn't recognize consciously, but I felt a nameless fear for it. The likes of this thing I cannot even begin to describe. Then it shifted into the shape of a dragon, breathing shadowy fire at me, causing me to squirm in mindless fright for a few moments before I came back to my senses. It morphed once more, this time taking the form of the legendary vampire Dracula, whom I had only just met, but was still deathly afraid of. It laughed hideously, in that same voice of many voices which the elder himself had. The next form it took was that of my old master, Reinhardt, and his eyes burned with unholy fire.
My fears for this man were deeply set, though I thought I had forgotten them, and I fell unconscious from fright. When I awoke, I was still within the hand of the creature, though it now once again held no form, having some semblance of a face that grinned menacingly at me. Then, it spoke in a voice so loud and terrible that I shall never forget it.
"Foolish vampire! Did you honestly think you could find your way out of Lord Dracula's trap? Nobody has ever escaped! There are men and other creatures that have been here for countless millennia, and you will share their fate. You are not on another planet, as I see that your mind has formulated. You are in a dimension of labyrinths and darkness, made by the Dark Lord himself in all of his endless time alone. It grows and changes constantly, and you look now upon the guardian he has set for it, should anyone actually come close to escaping, which, to your credit, you have. There was no way you could have known which direction to go, you just got lucky, my little friend, but your luck has indeed run out. I will keep you here for eternity, in which time you will view the portal which would lead to your freedom, but may never reach it! Welcome to the Master's hell, weakling!"
The thing tossed me downward at an incredible speed, and try as I might, my wings were useless to me. I fell like what I was: a stone. Down, down, down I went, plummeting toward a floor that I couldn't see, through an abyss I couldn't measure, and all the while the creature's laughter followed me, echoing throughout the monstrous cave, mocking my inability to move. At long last, I beheld the bottom, coming toward me at a horrifying rate, and I braced myself, for there were sharp outcroppings of rock everywhere. Just as I was about to hit, I close my eyes…and stopped falling. When I realized I had not been skewered by one of the rock spires, or splattered on the flat surfaces like an insect, I opened them, and I was floating but a few feet above the floor, held by an unseen force. Suddenly, I was dropped, landing between several outcroppings, and I looked up to see nothing but the blackness of the abyss above me, and that maniacal laughter still filled the cavern.
The Shadow Vault
My abilities showed me no exits from this room, and I felt incredibly helpless. My wings would no longer carry me here, which I'm sure was due to something the entity above me had done. Even if I could still fly, I would only reach that…thing again, and it would not allow me to go any further. I sat down and simply pondered my situation, and that only made things worse. After few minutes of this, I became quite sure I would spend eternity here, and then something happened that further disheartened me: I lost all ability to move. My eyes were stopped in their sockets, staring at the wall in front of me, upon which presently appeared a sort of window, which opened on lands I had seen throughout my travels. I longed to reach it, but alas, I could do nothing but stare.
"You shall stay here forever and stare at that which would bring you freedom, vampire," the booming voice said. "You believe yourself to be quite powerful, but in truth, you are weak! Why, you can't even do anything against me, and I am but a lackey of my great Master. He is the most powerful of all creatures, and you will beg for his mercy very soon. You will find, however, that he has no use for such a thing, and no use for you, either. If you think that he does this for entertainment, you are quite wrong. He has already forgotten you, and you will be here long enough so that it is as if you never even existed in the world! Far longer, I am sure, for nobody has ever been released. Death will not come, but oh, you will wish for it…oh yes you will indeed."
It laughed at me then, after which I heard no more from the sinister shadow-beast from another dimension. All was silent there in my prison, and it was an immeasurable time before anything at all happened.
