Chapter 1.
Two people, one man and one woman stood, overlooking a single figure in a bed. The room is sparse the walls are of stone but the room is warm, a single dresser sits next to the bed and a wardrobe stands in the corner, two windows are on either side of the bed, their drawn crimson curtains match the rug these two people now stand on. The figure in the bed is in a horrible way, his torso is wrapped heavily in gauze and bandage, an arm wrapped in hardened plaster, and small bandages adorn his arms legs and face. The form sleeps peacefully; no pain disturbs him as his body continues to heal.
"I'm surprised you decided to help him" the woman says, the man offers no reply "I have to ask, why?"
The man stands there overlooking the boy in the bed, no kindness or sympathy in his eyes.
"It would be best for the castle, a missing person case by the lowly human village could only cause trouble, and I'd like to remove any chance of them finding this place" he answers thoughtfully
"Well, what do you plan to do with him?" she asks
"As soon as he wakes up, I'll drop him back off in the forest and let him find his way back" he replies coldly
"You can't do that!" the woman exclaims "I may be a White Witch but his anatomy is human I have no idea what my medicines could do to his body, he needs time to heal, naturally, to drop him off in the forest in his condition would kill him, again!"
"Well what do you recommend I do!? He cannot stay here I forbid it, you know how dangerous they are, it's bad enough I let him crawl in as he did!" the man howled, anger distorting his calm demeanor.
"He's a single human; in no way could he pose a threat, look at him!" She starts "They are weak, they take days, weeks, to heal, he'll probably require months, place a watch over him you have plenty of Spectrals, restrict where he is allowed to go, however too much will only cause him to feel imprisoned and result in him struggling, allow him time to heal then when the time comes erase his memory and send him on his way"
"Why should I, what benefit could this possibly serve" He replies in a calculating tone
"What would Martha do?" the Witch replies calmly, solemnly
"Don't you dare use-"he begins to threaten
"She was my best friend! Look deep down and ask what she would do!" She cuts him off, her voice rising.
"What… what about Mavis…" he asks his head slumping
"Who knows, she's always had a wanderlust maybe seeing an actual human will cure her of it" she ponders
The man stands there wondering, his cold eyes never once leave the semi-lifeless body in front of him and finally…
"Claire!" He barks
Within a matter of seconds a form began to coalesce next to him, blue shimmering dots forming into one central mass, when it seemed solid enough the mass began to take shape, what now stood before him was a woman with short blond hair tied up in a pony tail, a dress flows out behind her, and a blouse cut underneath her collarbones, her entirety washed out in a pale blue.
"You are this man's guard, never let him out of your sight and should he do anything suspicious, call the guards immediately" he snapped
"Will do sir" She replied sheepishly
When he felt satisfied that his orders would be carried out he swiftly turned to leave, the woman following behind
"I'll be back in a few hours to check on him" the Witch said as she followed the man out of the room.
He was standing alone on the side of the road, a large hiking backpack next him on the asphalt, his thumb sticking out hoping a kind stranger would pick him up to take him to his destination. A blue Toyota pulled up next to him; a woman in the passenger's seat stuck her head out of the window and asked him where he was going.
"To the airport" He replied
"Sure, hop in, we're going right past there" She said, a smile on her face
He climbed into the back seat pulling his pack behind him; the woman that greeted him was watching him with a smile, a man sat at the driver's seat watching the road.
"What's your name?" the man asked, turning around and smiling warmly
"Jonathan, or John if you'd prefer" He said, he knew it was rude to ask a person's name as a hitchhiker, so he didn't in return.
"So, John what beings you out this way" the woman asked him, as the car started up and they were on their way
He told them that he was traveling world, trying to see everything he could, he told them he had been to Paris, New York, Hong Kong, he had seen the Pyramids, and Mayan temples, and that he was here to see one of his favorite Castles, the Castle Lubov. In turn he learned that they had gotten married a few weeks ago and were on their honeymoon, he worked as an architect and she was a professor, and they had met when he came to give a presentation at the school she taught.
"By the way, I don't think we ever introduced ourselves" She said turning around "I'm-"
He never heard her name; the sound was interrupted by two bright headlights in front of them.
He threw himself forward with a start, as soon as he opened his eyes the world began to spin and he let out a sharp yelp, and the wound in his stomach protested his violent movement. He was coated in sweat, and was shivering violently; he fell back into the bed with a groan.
"I wouldn't make such fast movements if I were you" A female voice said to him
"Yeah…" He replied clenching his teeth through the pain "Where am I, Who are you" He started
"Hang on, hang on" She interrupted "I'll answer your question, but first I need to take a look at you, could you take off your shirt?"
He obliged, struggling to get the shirt off over the cast he wore and for the first time he got a good look at himself. His body was covered in bruises and cuts, his left arm was wrapped from hand to elbow in a hard plaster cast, an ankle wrapped with thick bandage; a large bandage was wrapped around his lower torso, blood beginning to seep through.
"I have to change that" she said gesturing to the gauze "You many not want to watch"
However his eyes never left the sight of her working. She unwound the gauze and began to cut away the bits that had stuck, when she was done, the extent of his wound became apparent.
"I'm lucky to be alive, aren't I?" he said, almost mystified
"Yeah, yeah you are, the piece of metal had gone completely through you, if you had pulled it out you would have bled to death" she answered matter-of-factly "You tore some stitches, this may hurt a bit"
He grit his teeth as he expected the needle and thread she held to pierce into him, but instead it floated over to him and began to work away repairing the damage he had caused, Fear and mysticism over rode any though of pain he had.
"What's that!?" he asked panicked
"That'll come with answering your questions, please try not to freak out too much while I finish" she replied, trying not to break her concentration
He watched as the needle worked away, replacing the broken stitches dancing in and out of the hole that was unnaturally caused; he felt no pain as it tugged and removed the ripped thread and winced when the knot was finished.
"Please explain that, who? Where? What do..?" he began unable to form a coherent sentence
"There's no point in hiding it from you, I'm a witch of sorts and the place you currently reside is a home for, you would call them 'unnatural beings', they are safe here, no human has ever set foot here, until you." She started
"So, it's a hotel for monsters?" he stated dumbstruck
"Yeah, way to simplify it, but as you can expect, you are not exactly welcome here, there is a long and sorted history between humans and monsters"
"Then, why help me?" He gasped and realization hit him "You're not going to eat me are you?!" he panicked as he tried to scramble out of the bed, pushing himself sideways and off the bed, only for his head to collide with the stone floor and a sharp pain hit him in the side "Ow my head.." He moaned
"Stop that!" She scolded "You'll tear your stitched again! No we're not interesting in eating you… Well at least most of us aren't, now let me finish"
As he crawled back into the bed she explained that he was in a remote area of Transylvania, hidden by the forest he had since traversed through, he had managed to find this place by luck and the owner had had called her to heal him. She also explained that he had been asleep for several days and it would take several months for him to heal completely.
"So what's your name" She asked as she began to wrap his stomach
"John, or Jonathan" He replied, wincing in pain
"Well, you're free to look around, but know that you aren't welcome by some around here, and you are always being watched" She started as she finished up dressing his wound "I'd recommend not over exerting yourself I'd like to let you heal naturally" She paused "We found the crash, and found a backpack its laying in the closet… and the people you were with…didn't make it"
The words hit him in the chest, all he could remember was their smiling faces, and he never even learned their names, his head sank. She sensed his dismay and continued toward the door.
"Wait!" he stopped her "I never got your name"
"I'm Rebecca, the White Witch" She smiled while giving a over exaggerated curtsey
"You never answered my first question" He said "Why help me?"
"Let's just say, someone above is watching over you" She smiled as she turned to leave.
He had spent the next few days exploring the castle which he was now a resident of. It was huge there were hundreds of rooms all of them with individual numbers and little talking shrunken heads tied to the handles, some would mock him as he walked past, other would yell things like "Available" or "Do not Disturb". As he spent his days exploring he would find himself getting hopelessly lost in the corridors and tunnels, it was furnished as much as he had expected, but much of the light came from torchlight, many windows were covered, or had their curtains drawn and as such it was hard to get a grasp on what time of day it was. Many of the furnishings were old and rustic; long and large carpets covered much of the stone floor and paintings hung from the walls, many were old but they were well maintained. On one particular day he had found a huge library that contained thousands of books, some written in languages he didn't even recognize and in there he saw what looking like a large octopus putting away many of the books, before he could ask for help it had turned to him and ushered him out in an urgency. At first he had panicked when he saw some of the creatures living here, the first resident he met was a massive spider named Rufus who just the fact being a spider had nearly given him a heart attack, another day he met what seemed to be a cloud of fur moving toward him, but when it got closer he discovered it was actually a small army of werewolf cubs, who all had very wet tongues, he 'met' the invisible man, or Griffin as he said his name was. On another day he was challenged by the real Frankenstein in a screaming contest, which he easily lost and was buried in a sandstorm summoned by an old pharaoh as a result. On this day he was going about his regular day of wandering…
"So Claire, where am I going now" John asked as he took a left turn down a corridor he'd never been through before
"Errm, I think we're going to the main lobby" She said as she tried to concentrate, early on she had revealed herself to almost no surprise to the man she now floated next too.
After a while of walked sure enough they came to a huge lobby, three huge chandeliers hung from the ceiling and a massive fireplace sat to one side, several plush couches set around it a few occupied by skeletons reading or talking, one by a specific skeleton and his wife who he had a bad run in with before. A walk way was above him with a large staircase to his left that led up to it, the large doors that he had first entered stood far in the distance, all sort of creatures crossing in front of his view.
"Oh honey I'm fine, thank you for the help" a female voice said above him on the walkway, one he recognized from his run-in with the licking carpet, as Wanda
"Are you sure? You've been walking all day" Said another female voice, this one he didn't recognize
"Yes I'm sure, why don't you go help your father after all your big day coming up soon" Wanda said to the other figure
"Yeah I know, but it's just going to be the same as all the other years" the voice started "Not that I don't love them but-"
The figure leaned on one of the railings; he heard a loud creak and snap as the railing broke and she tumbled over the edge falling onto an already hurting Johnny who had dove underneath her to catch her fall, they collided, her into his arms, but his weakened frame couldn't take the shock as he fell onto the stone floor and her into him.
"Mavis! Are you ok?" a concerned Wanda shrieked as she looked over the edge, others beginning to look over.
"Yeah…Yeah I think so" she called up "Uh, thanks, thanks for catching me" she thanked her savior as she turned to him
"You're welcome" He groaned as he clutched his side
Within that space of time their eyes met, and before him sat one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever met, her hair was jet black and cut short around her neck, her face had a soft look to it and her eyes were a bright blue and they look deeply into his, and within in he felt something click, something about her.
"Uh, Hi I don't think I've met you before" He said, lost in her gaze
"I haven't seen you here before either, I'm Mavis" she said shyly, brushing her hair behind an ear
"John, Jonathan, or Johnny-stein" he stammered, trying to make a joke as he remembered where he was
"Johnny-stein?" She asked questioningly, letting out a small laugh "Holy Rabies, your bleeding!" She said shocked looking down at his stomach
He looked down at his hand covered with blood and sure enough his shirt was soaked through, he stood up and immediately the world spun and he fell to one knee, as he blinked black the blackness surrounding him.