Chapter 15
Henry sat at the top of the steps in the main hall of the villa. His hands supported his chin as he looked down the long carpeted steps in monotony. He was so bored... Ever since his parents had moved into the new mansion, everything had been strange. His father, Lord Oldrey, seemed to like the villa, so Henry didn't complain. His father always wanted to live near a castle, so the landlord had built him a home here. Henry didn't like the landlord either...he had paleish skin and dressed like some sort of gothic butler. Every time Henry looked at him, the landlord had a strange hungry-like gleam in his eye. Like he wanted to hurt them... Henry couldn't stand him. He had always frightened him from the beginning... This whole place seemed cursed...
A pair of hands clamped onto the back of the boy's shoulders. Henry looked up, and saw his father grinning back at him.
"You look grim, son. Is there anything wrong?"
Henry swallowed and shook his head vigorously.
"No? Ah, well...What say, would you like to help me build graves?"
"Uh...graves for who, father...?" Henry asked nervously.
Lord Oldrey grinned wider, as though it were obvious. His grip on his son's shoulders tightened. Henry winced.
"For visitors, of course! Ow!!"
He was just slapped across the head by his wife, Mary.
"Leave that boy alone!"
Oldrey let Henry's shoulders go and massaged his own head. "What was that for? I was just asking the lad--"
"No, he does not want to help you build graves!" Mary said sternly. "Go and do that on your own, you...you!"
Oldrey frowned with disagreement. "Well alright, have it your way, Mary." He picked up his shovel and left without another glance.
"Are you alright, Henry?" Mary asked.
"Yes, Mama."
"Good." She hugged her son briefly. "Be careful of your father for now."
"What's wrong with him, Mama?"
Mary sighed and shook her head. "Don't worry, just be careful."
Henry watched his mother leave. Something was wrong. This place must be cursed... He walked down the main hall steps and went outside. Ortega and Ada were walking through the courtyard gate. Ada had sensed that something was amiss and decided to follow Ortega quietly. She knew that her brother was close by and here to rescue her. With hidden comfort, she continued to follow Ortega obediently.
Henry blocked the doorway. "Who are you?"
"None of your business, mutt." Ortega growled. "Move out of our way."
"This is private property, don't you know?" Henry shot back.
"I do; I get my orders from Count Dracula."
Henry's face drained, and so had his courage.
"I see you've met him before." Ortega said. "Now move out of my way!"
Henry bit his lip and moved out of the way reluctantly. Ortega opened the villa doors and strode on towards its hedge maze.
Ada stopped and gave Henry a look of apology, for Ortega's manners. Henry smiled and bowed respectively.
"Ada, what are you still back there for? Come!"
Ada sprinted off after Ortega.
Henry came back inside as well. Even in the morning, looking at the villa and thinking of Dracula sent chills through his body. He had met him just recently... Henry involuntarily touched the wound on his left shoulder and winced. He started shaking again at the thought of it. That was enough.
Mary came hurrying down the main hall steps.
"Henry!" She hugged the boy tightly. "I need you to do something for me."
His mother's voice was urgent but precise. "I want you to run away. Run as far as you can away from here. The castle we live in is truly a curse... Go through the back gate and take the route before the garden. Hurry, my child!"
Henry didn't ask questions. He hurried through the back door that led to the maze garden. Once he reached the gate that led away from the villa and the castle, he stopped. It would seem like a simple answer to run safely from danger, but what about his parents? What about the villa? Henry turned back and looked at the large mansion, its upper levels visible over the maze hedges. He didn't want to leave his mother and father...especially with that cruel vampire, Dracula, and the evil landlord. Whatever danger was happening, Henry would wait inside the hedge maze until it subsided. Then his family could leave together...
Though there was a big problem...Henry hated the maze. Even more, Henry was frightened of it. He often wondered why the landlord even built such a complex and horrible thing. If the house were cursed, then the hedge garden was unmistakenably the worse of the two. Not only because that was where he met Count Dracula, but for the other things that were in there. Henry took a deep breath, and turned away from the gate and towards the maze entrance door next to it. With shaking hands, he pushed the wooden door open and looked through. No demons. No Dracula. No strange landlord. Nothing, but a normal, neat-trimmed hedge maze entrance...for now at least. He knew that by going through the maze garden, he was taking a chance of life or death.
By early noon, Cornell had got past the gates and now headed through the seemingly deserted villa. He came up the main stairs, through a rose garden and into another division of the villa. Now he came into a room where a man stood beating at the room's second door and talking to someone from the other side.
"Mary, I need a drink! I'm so thirsty..."
"No! Stay away from me!"
"Why do you talk to me that way, Mary?" Oldrey turned around and saw Cornell. "Oh, I didn't see you standing there. The wife and I have a domestic problem we're trying to work out now. I don't know what you want, but could you come back another time?"
Cornell looked strangely at the pale man for a moment.
"I'm looking for a girl by the name of Ada."
"Ada? I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name."
Cornell sniffed the air, double-checking his senses. "She had to have been brought here. I can still smell her."
Oldrey sighed wearily and began to look a sickly pale.
"I said I don't know her and I mean it. Anyway, I am thirsty now, so..." His voice trailed off. He looked directly at Cornell and squinted an eye.
"Wait a minute...! You will do just nicely!"
"What?"
Oldrey's eyes glowed a hungry red and his grin showed off a pair of fangs. "Why your warm blood of course, with which to wet my whistle!"
The vampire charged at him. Cornell dodged and slashed back with his full-grown claws. Oldrey yelled and launched himself at Cornell again. The man-wolf returned his claw attack, this time in a swift combo. First a slash, then a tough uppercut punch. Oldrey doubled over and fell. His form shifted into a bat and flapped away, escaping the fight.
Cornell came to the door where Oldrey had been. He turned the knob, and to his surprise the door opened. Mary stood inside.
"Oh, thank you, young man! Has he left?"
Cornell nodded.
"I am Mary," she said. "I'm the wife of that...that vampire! There is a man named Gilles de Rais and a woman, Actrise. They sold this mansion to us...they made him what he is now... My husband used to be such a good man...after he became a vampire, my husband started coming after me, and even our son, Henry." Mary shook her head. "How could I let Henry stay here? He should be gone now, but... I'm afraid he might have gone back into the hedge maze. That would have been the worst thing... Can I ask a favor of you, ...?"
"My name's Cornell. If you want me to go and look for your son in the hedge maze, I don't mind. I'm looking for someone, myself."
Mary smiled. "I can't thank you enough, Cornell! The main garden entrance is down the right hall and to the bottom level. Please, if you see him take him to the east gate, out of the villa. Through there, both of you can escape."
Cornell did as he was told. As he traversed down the hallway, he took note of the villa's layout. He had never been inside a mansion before, and had never seen anything like it. Even though it wasn't extraordinarily large and was quite modest, he still found it interesting. After all, he was used to a wild country outcast living. Among the things that caught his eye were the crystal chandeliers, polished oak doors, and the fancy-looking burgundy carpets. All together with the polished wood floors and moderate decorative wallpaper, the villa was a homey place to be. Though the thought of living in a mansion inside Dracula's castle was eerie to him. Surely no one in their right minds, would live on such property. By their accents, he could tell that they were English. By the looks of it, some shifty person sold them a one-way ticket to misery. Unbeknownst to the Oldrey family that this was the legendary castle of Count Dracula, they had a house built here. That might have been what started it all...
The incident made Cornell's blood rage. Why did someone innocent have to fall for such cruel deceit?
Once he had made it to the hedge garden entrance, Cornell spotted a piece of rolled parchment on the floor. He picked up the parchment and took a look at it. The writing looked to be in a foreign language. That's odd... Cornell had never seen such a dialect before...
"Pray excuse me, but have you seen a scroll hereabouts?"
Cornell turned around, and standing on the bottom of the steps was a man. By his looks, Cornell guessed that he was a businessman of sorts. He wore an emerald green suit and bowler hat, round tinted shades, and held a briefcase in his right hand. But the strangest thing about him that Cornell noticed was that he had a pointed black tail...
"Ah, there it is!" The man strode down the steps and retrieved the scroll from the man-wolf. "I thank you dearly! This scroll is important to my business."
The man tipped his hat. "Forgive my rudeness; My name is Renon. I am what you would call a demon."
Cornell automatically prepared to attack. From his experience in this castle, everything with the word "demon" was against him. Renon was aware of that too. He raised his hand to stop Cornell before attacking.
"Wait, wait! I'm not an enemy! My role is to provide useful items for adventurers to the Dark Castle."
Cornell raised an eyebrow. "And why are you helping me?"
Renon adjusted his shades and sighed. "Dracula hired me for this job. How can I turn an offer down? Especially his... No need to worry, his allowance is not the least bit from generosity. Though I can assure you, my items are one-hundred percent uncontaminated. As it is my job, I can help you with any provisions you need if you would like."
Cornell chuckled defiantly to himself. Renon gave him a questioning look.
"So says every businessman..." Cornell opened the double-door to the maze garden. "At least that's what my father taught me... Sorry, I don't think I'll need any of your items."
He looked in the corner of the room at a knight armor holding a battle axe. The man-wolf stepped over to it and cautiously took the battle axe from it. Since the knight didn't seem to budge to attack, he relaxed a bit and twirled the axe by the shaft expertly.
"If the Count doesn't mind, I think I'll borrow this nifty weapon here though..."
Cornell continued out into the garden and began his search for Ada and Henry.
"Ada...? Henry...?"
No one answered. He continued out the garden's gate and into the main hedge maze. Once again, Cornell was intrigued. Who could take such time and genius to grow large bushes and shear them neatly in the form of a maze? Even the grass on the ground looked manicured! He was quickly reminded of where he was as a snake slithered out one of the bushes and attempted to bite him. Cornell took a step away from it. Still, the reptile was insistent on harming him. Its fangs were exposed just for a moment before it slithered forward and launched at the man-wolf again. He backed away again. Two more snakes crawled out of the bushes, ready to kill Cornell. He was left to no choice; With a few swipes of his battle axe, he dispatched the possessed snakes.
It was time that the man-wolf put his senses to work again. Aside from Ada's scent, he concentrated on any other.
"...I smell a child...a human child."
Not too sooner than he'd declared it, Henry came running around a hedge corner, towards Cornell. Though what was he running from?
Henry came to a halt before running into the stranger. He began to catch his breath and looked up at the man-wolf curiously. A fierce, yet gentle figure. Was that possible?
"Are you Henry?" Cornell asked.
Henry nodded. "My father, h-he went mad, and mama is...she told me to run away..." He swallowed and looked to the ground. "I don't know what to do..."
Cornell sympathized with Henry. He stooped down and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"My name is Cornell. Your mother asked me to help you escape from here."
Henry looked up at him. "You talked to Mama?"
Cornell nodded. "Yeah. Come on, let's go."
He got up and started towards the heart of the hedge maze, while Henry followed.
"Though I should warn you," Henry said. "Watch out for the gardener. He's changed alot and now he frightens me."
"That's alright, I'll protect you." Cornell said.
He turned down the part of the hedge maze that Henry had come from. The man-wolf was faced with a juggernaut-sized Frankenstein gardener with a murderous look on his face, and a chainsaw that looked to be used for more than just hedge trimming.
Cornell raised an eyebrow in awe. "I see what you mean, Henry!"
The two fled quickly through the maze with the gardener hot on their heels. The intimidating sound of his chainsaw starting up told them when the gardener was very close. There were a few times where Henry would trip and fall, causing Cornell to double back and rescue the boy. Cornell was of course very much faster than Henry was, but he kept at the boy's running pace, fighting off the chainsaw-wielding gardener when the need arose. Henry marveled at Cornell's strength and patience. There were times where the man-wolf would risk stopping and taking a look and sniff around carefully. Then he would know whether they had already passed that way or not, or if it was a dead end. Sometimes the gardener would catch up with them, but Cornell would slash and smite the juggernaut until it collapsed momentarily. Then he would continue leading Henry, calm as though the incident hadn't happened. Henry felt safe by staying close to Cornell. The man-wolf was a formidable warrior.
At last, Cornell had led Henry out of the maze to the forest gate on the other side. Henry would have left through the gate in the first place, but the fear of loosing his family drove him into the maze. Now he would have to face the dilemma... Cornell opened the gate.
"You will be okay from here. Leave this way through the forest. Here..." He took out the pendant that he treasured fondly; Though it would now be of great use to another if not his sister. "As long as you wear this pendant, the wolves of the forest will watch out for you."
Henry took the pendant and nodded gratefully. "What will become of Mama?"
Cornell could have guessed the answer, but it wasn't one that the boy wanted to hear. Especially since he needed the courage to go through the forest alone.
"Well..."
"And father?"
"Just go quickly," Cornell said. "Go. Do it for your mother. She made it possible for you to escape."
Henry nodded. "Alright..."
He went through the gate and looked back briefly, taking the last look at the warrior before traveling through the forest.
Cornell went to inform Mary of his task well done. She smiled with comfort.
"That is wonderful news! As long as that child is safe, I have no more regrets..."
"Will you escape as well?"
Mary shook her head. "I am resigned to my fate and intend to stay here with my husband to the end..."
A short while later, Cornell made his way back into the hedge maze and through an exit that lead to a basement. Perhaps it was also an underground exit? He opened the wooden door and walked down the basement steps. The basement was dimly lit by torches that hung from the walls. To the man-wolf's dismay, there were also a few dead bodies by the walls, staked upward from the ground. It must have been a painful and torturous death! The thought of Ada came through his mind, and his courage and strength were renewed. There would be no such death for Ada! Cornell held on to the battle axe he had gotten from the villa. These were the times that he was glad his father taught him how to wield a weapon. He was ready! This was good because that same moment, a vampire jumped from the ceiling, narrowly missing Cornell. The warrior managed to get a good slash in before the vampire jumped away. This one was different from Oldrey... He lashed out at Cornell with a chain of fire. The man-wolf was taken off guard and was knocked back. Despite the painful lash, he was quick to recover and readied his axe.
Cornell charged forward and swung the axe. Like a whip, the vampire's fire chain struck forward and wrapped around the axe. The vampire wrenched the weapon from him, and grinned evilly. Cornell didn't need the axe to defeat this vampire. He didn't even need his wolf form. With a few quick moves of dodging the fire chain and skillfully avoiding whip cracks, he could come close enough and give the vampire some serious gashes.
Finally the vampire realized his defeat. He grabbed his wounded arm.
"Ugh...It is true, you are not a mere man-wolf."
"Quite a show there, lobo."
Cornell turned and saw a woman a few paces away. She had a dark dress and hat, and carried a staff with a jewel on the end. She was a witch. Cornell glanced from the witch to the vampire.
"Who are you people anyway?"
"A man of your skills should be able to put up a good fight against Him." Actrise continued.
Gilles de Rais nodded. "We don't have any idea the power of the man-beast magic."
"It's so exciting, don't you think? Ha ha ha ha!" Both Actrise and Gilles de Rais disappeared.
Cornell looked around. "'Him'? 'The man-beast's magic'?"
He determined that he was unsure of what they meant. Perhaps they were referring to Count Dracula; But what did the Count want from him? Why was he after Ada? Cornell retrieved his axe and came to the coffin in the back of the chamber. It was laying on a stone platform, luminated by the wall torches. The coffin was the only other object in the chamber besides the tortured bodies. Cornell inspected it carefully and opened the lid, his axe poised to attack.
The coffin was empty, but the inside bottom began to move. It moved down and slid out of view, leaving a tunnel behind.
Cornell blinked. A secret passage way... He gripped his battle axe and jumped inside.