Chapter 19

Anna struggled desperately to make Dracula drop her. She wouldn´t care about hitting the ground she just wanted to be free. The last week had been so wonderful. Even the Masquerade ball was enjoyable for her. Dancing with Dracula had been quite fun but now she wanted to escape this monster again.

Her dress made it difficult to move much but she didn´t want to give up.

"Even if your stubborn mind tells you otherwise I would just accept it if I were you", Dracula commended with his famous smirk placed on his face.

The princess tried to punch his face but he only caught her fist with one hand while his other stayed around her waist to protect her from falling. Anna tried to use her free hand to hit him but with a little spell he manipulated her arm so that she found it punching her own nose.

Dracula chuckled. His prisoner was only getting more enraged because of that. After three more tries that only lead to a bleeding nose of her own she gave up.

As she looked down she saw they were almost back at his castle. Rolling her eyes in frustration Anna let him place her back on the ground.

She ripped a light blue piece of fabric out of her gown and pressed it against her nose.

The vampire stepped closer to her, pulling the now blood stained fabric out of her hand and threw it aside. He than wrapped a strong arm around her back and pulled her close. With a powerful kiss that travelled up to her nose after a few seconds he healed the broken nose.

"So you tried to do right the thing you did to yourself? Dearest Anna, you should know better by now it´s impossible to trick me", Dracula paused for a moment and watched Anna´s face get red from anger.

Then he continued, chuckling: "I know that you enjoyed the kiss and that the bleeding nose was worth it. But let me give you another chance..."

With a clap of his hands large mirrors appeared out of nowhere. Anna couldn´t hide a gasp as she noticed Dracula´s reflection in all of the reflecting glasses, which had her circled now.

"What is that? You´re not to have a reflection!", she exclaimed, obviously feeling hopeless.

Dracula went to explain: "Correct, my love. I´m not to have A reflection but you see I´m to have MANY... Sorry, but I couldn´t resist this play of words." Anna rolled her eyes. "How amusing you´re today, Count!", she spat. Each word dribbing with sarcasm.

"I know", he replied. "Actually this is only an illusion. If you still want to punch me you only have to find the right mirror. I think out of this... twenty ones it shouldn´t be so difficult." Anna looked around, trying to make out the direction his voice was coming from but to no avail. It seemed to come from everywhere.

Finally she noticed that each Dracula looked different, if only by a strand of hair or something barely noticable.

Reading her mind, his voice spoke once more: "Very impressive. Show how well you know me and I´ll give you my permission to let me pay for anything you want."

She smiled at that. But it was a devilish one. Turning her gaze towards the first mirror she eyed the Dracula in it closely. It didn´t take her long to notice the green eyes. With her dancing shoes she kicked the the glass and shattered it. One done, nineteen to go.

So she continued with her examination. Some Draculas had the wrong length of hair, sometimes something with earrings was wrong or with his clothes.

After several minutes only three mirrors remained. Anna stepped closer to one of them and looked at it suspicously. The face was different, but what?

She placed her hands on her hips and stood now on her toes. And then it came to her: one of his eyebrows was smaller than the other. With another kick one more mirror was shattered into pieces.

Dracula watched her eying the last mirrors. He started to wonder why she knew everything about his looks and why she would notice a single hair in the wrong place. After some time she went to kick the last wrong mirror. He adored her strenth and braveness. Anna stepped through the last mirror and found herself in a garden. At least she expected it to be a garden. So much green and light was unusual for everything around Dracula´s fortress.

Anna realesed a cry of anger as she noticed what it really was: a maze!