Hello again!

First things first, as I mentioned before, I'm assuming you've seen the musical so I won't translate every scene into text here. So if a scene is missing, I'll probably reference it, but I want you to see what "didn't happen on stage." Or, at least, my version of it.

Secondly, I am planning to continue this story into the realm of what happens after. I always thought Tanz ended very ambivalently so I wanted to write some more. Not a whole bunch after, but enough.

Enjoy the next chapter! Love you all

OOO

In a few short hours, everything had fallen to ruin.

Rebecca could still not fathom why such awfulness had chosen her. Why had her God been so vengeful against her? What sins had she committed? Rebecca had not been an appealing enough wife. She had not been an attentive enough mother. She had not protected her daughter in her hour of need and now Rebecca was going to pay the price of it. Yes, Rebecca was a sinner, the worst of sinners. Everything she had done had led this to happen.

That beast had taken everything. It had taken everything, and there must've been a reason. There was always a reason. The vampires in the castle did not take or harm others arbitrarily. For Sarah, Rebecca had always feared. She'd feared since Alana had joked about Sarah joining those creatures one day and feared more when it seemed the joke had become reality. Rebecca had feared for Sarah for all of Sarah's life. Perhaps she had not feared enough.

The ignorant child. The naïve little girl. Rebecca often joked that Sarah was as innocent as an angel and now found it horrifically true. Sarah was naïve to a fault. Sarah had tempted this man, this creature, this devil, for whatever stupid juvenile reason and had cursed herself. She'd cursed all of them. Yione was gone now. Yione was one of them.

Overcome with her grief, Rebecca fell to her bed in groaning exhaustion. There were hordes of people in the taver, but she no longer cared. They wanted to ask her questioned. They wanted to offer condolences. They wanted vengeance. Rebecca wanted to sleep. She wanted to sleep and to forget everything that had happened. And the patrons all waited about wondering if these foreigners could save them but nothing could save Rebecca. Nothing could save her now.

Gone. They were both gone. Her small family had left her.

Should she dare? Should Rebecca dare go to the castle and fetch back her family?

The idea was nonsense and yet… And yet…

Rebecca howled great sobs against her sheets as she stared at the now setting moon. Sarah was gone. Yione was gone.

Would they even come home if she came for them?

OOO

Sarah had the most wonderful dream.

It was certainly a dream this time, not a strange half waking like what had occurred earlier. For in this dream, things were fantastical and strange in ways they could not be in reality. Sarah was back in the ballroom, yet the dream land had no walls and no ceiling. Above her was a sky with chandeliers instead of stars and beside he were trees filled with fairy lights and beautifully dressed people. Not as beautiful as Sarah. Sarah was the most beautiful of all.

There she saw him. Her angel shined like a beacon for her and Sarah went to his arms readily. He was real. Of all the things in this strange place, Sarah was certain he was real. That was something these creatures could do, could they not? They could dream walk and visit people they found to be special…

"Is this real?" Sarah inquired of the dream man. The beautifully dressed people around them whirled into a dance and Sarah found herself doing the same.

"I made it for you," he said instead of an answer. He smiled his strange smile and Sarah felt like she was drowning in his eyes. She was not sure why she thought that phrase.

In this dreamland, Sarah danced with Count Von Krolock and he looked at her in that strange way he always looked at her. Sarah was reeling from the spinning but did not want to stop. God, she did not want to stop. This place was beautiful. This dreamland he had taken her to was beautiful. Would they go here all the time once she became like him? Would they live here in this land of color and trees?

"It is so beautiful," Sarah said. She laughed as he spun her around. Everything was funny here. It was like she was drunk on some liquor she'd never tasted before. It was a wonderful liquor. Sarah wanted more of it. She wanted more of this dream and of him and of everything. He held her as she laughed from the bubbles. He was very strong. And handsome. Sarah thought him the handsomest man she'd ever seen. It made her laugh. How she loved to laugh in this strange ballroom. He seemed pleased to watch her laugh.

"Are you happy?" He asked as Sarah lay against him from the laughter.

She flung out her arms, "Wonderfully!" She laughed again as she pulled him closer. He was so handsome, and this place was so beautiful. Sarah never wanted to leave. What a happy place this was. What a beautiful place…

Her dress was blue. No, it was red. Maybe it was purple. Sarah couldn't tell as they spun around the forest. Was this real? It couldn't be real, but he seemed real. Nothing was real but him. Everything that was him was so good.

Suddenly, they were kissing. They were elsewhere. They were not in the ballroom with trees and fairy lights. Sarah didn't know where they were but it was wonderful and warm. And he was kissing against her ear and on her neck and lifting her in his arms and whispering such sensual things and it was moving too quickly but Sarah didn't want to stop and she was getting dizzy but he was touching her and...

She awoke to an empty bedroom with bits of light peering through the shutters. A dream. It had just been a dream. Yet Sarah felt her breath heavy as though it had been real. She felt dizzy and drunk as though it had been real. It had not been real. It could not have been real.

He could have been real. Sarah was reeling at the memory of his kisses. She had not been kissed like that by anyone, not even in her dreams. Oh, it was going to be so wonderful to live here. A castle. Sarah was going to live in this castle and be treated like its queen. Her angel had whispered to her as much in her dream. Yes, he'd said how happy she was going to be and how badly he wanted her. In the dream, as he'd kissed her, he'd promised Sarah absolutely everything she'd ever wanted. How could he know that? How could he know everything she ever wanted if he were not an angel?

Yet Sarah was not an idiot: she knew what he was. She knew he was not an angel. She knew what he required of her. That didn't scare her. Which was a lie, and she knew it. It terrified her. The prospect of everything terrified her. For what if she displeased him? What if she were not what he wanted after all? He could be a very cruel man, their lord, and was unopposed to evicting those who could not pay their keep. What if Sarah could not pay her keep? What if he grew to hate her?

Nonsense, Sarah insisted as she sat up from her bed. The beautiful room proved a welcome distraction from her rampant thoughts. For it was so beautiful, her bedchamber. She did not think a bedchamber in a castle for vampires would be so well kept. She wondered if they all slept in bedchambers. She wondered which one his would be…

In the night, she had not noted the colors of it, but now she saw it was lushly adored in reds and golds. Not a room for a princess, she thought, but a queen. It was a queen's bedchamber. Her fingers ran down the thick curtains that surrounded her bed. The bed had been larger and softer than any she'd ever slept upon. There was also a great red setee upon which Sarah could not imagine sitting. It seemed to fine and too…too mature, almost. She was unsure why she thought such a thing.

I shall sit upon it; it's mine. Coquettishly, Sarah moved to the sensual red longue and laid herself upon it. It was wonderfully comfortable, she found, and made her feel powerful for whatever reason. Laughing to disperse the strange energy inside of her, Sarah stood and paced the rest of the large room. There was a wardrobe and a vanity and her red dress still stayed on its form near her door. So that had been real. That kiss had been real. Sarah imagined kissing him on the red setee. Kissing him on the red setee while wearing a red dress…

On the vanity were the jewelry pieces he had given her through the years. On the ground near it were the boots. The magical boots that had come from a rose. For Sarah had tucked a rose into her blanket and out had come her boots. Everything was red in this place, it seemed.

Except for a small item sitting on a table. It could not be… Sarah trotted towards it and found the bear her mama had ruined sitting perfectly unscathed upon the table. The bear, her bear. It almost made her cry to see it. Lifting it up, Sarah saw that it was the same one from before, sewed to no longer be so cruelly broken. Her bear. He had given her back her bear. It suddenly made her feel far less queen-like and much more child-like.

Mama. Oh, Sarah had hardly thought of mama. Mama was going to be so upset. Papa was going to be so upset. They'd been so cruel, hissed a voice. They were always so cruel. Even so… Even so, Sarah had broken their hearts. The boy as well. The sweet, simple boy who'd wanted to run away with her. It seemed in following her own, Sarah had broken several hearts. Never had she intended to do such a thing.

Sarah clutched the bear tighter to her: he loved her. Her angel had to love her. He had promised her happiness. He had promised her exquisite happiness. Sarah was certain she had never been exquisitely happy about anything in her life. She wished he was here right now. Another part of her wished to never see him again.

But it was still morning.

Sarah blinked: today was her birthday. She had completely forgotten.

OOO

Whenever musing how her life would go, Magda had never anticipated anything like this.

Well, she supposed every girl dreamed of castle. A more niche type of girl dreamed of vampires. Living where she did, both had passed into the realm of her mind more than once. Though every time it did, the tale as an entirely different one. It was Magda who'd be a queen. It was Magda who'd life a lush life like the aristocratic vampires of this castle and others nearby. For there were other nearby. Magda had lived in a different village; that one too with a castle and that one too with vampires. But Magda had never supposed this…

It could be worse. Chagal had his charms, she supposed. And being a vampire made everything supersensual. Every little thing he did felt far more pleasurable than any man she had laid with before. Magda was no stranger to lying with men. She did a far better job at hiding this fact than most, but lay with men she did. And Chagal was…different.

The castle was nice at least. It seemed Chagal had forgotten all about why they had traveled here in the first place. He no longer cared that his daughter was wanted by the Count. He no longer cared about anything really but Magda and fucking. Magda was still curious. Of course Magda had heard all the rumors about Sarah when she took her position at the tavern. There were tales of Sarah being cursed, of a prophecy, or Sarah being so virtuous that he desired her, or Sarah being so immoral that he desired her. Magda hadn't any idea what to make of it. Sarah was virtuous, Magda knew that at least. The girl upturned her nose at nearly everything Magda ever did.

What will she make of me now? Magda mused as she lay in a coffin with bite marks all over her body. Magda had not even considered that they could continue sucking on each other even after than change was complete. She quite liked the pleasurable pain of it. She liked her new life. A very different life, but a far better one. A more powerful one.

A slightly more powerful one, perhaps. Magda was still under The Count's rule. When they had approached the castle, The Count told them they must obey his rules to stay in his court and receive his protection. They must also never leave his lands without permission or suffer great consequences. "Great consequences" with a man such as he surely meant death. Chagal had not even asked about Sarah when they were ushered inside. That old man and the boy had been following; there had not been time.

Even after, Chagal said nothing of Sarah. It seemed he'd resigned her to whatever fate had been destined. Which, as Magda considered, might not be terrible. Being doted on by a count…

"Your daughter, Chagal," Magda began as they lie next to each other. "Is she here? Is she in the castle?"

"I don't know," Chagal answered. "Perhaps."

"You seem rather unconcerned."

"Need I be concerned?" His voice was gruff. "Sarah is not a child anymore."

"You were quite concerned earlier." Magda pressed. Her deadly curiosity was eating at her. "Why were you so concerned for her? Did things happen before? Things with him?"

"It matters not!" He announced. "Go to sleep. We've the ball tonight."

It seemed there was nothing else to be said and Magda was not in the mood for argument. I will find this out, she vowed. She would find out how such a little girl could have fallen under the spell of The Count.

OOO

"Lady Sarah?"

She jumped at the voice. She had not even hear the door open.

At the door was a girl. Not a girl, she supposed, but a woman. A woman who seemed not all that much older than she. Yet she had those features that Sarah noted all vampires seemed to have. Pale skin, sharp features, and red eyes. Her red eyes seemed like they were studied every form and feature of Sarah, as though searching for flaws on her and within her. Yet as she gazed, Sarah thought there was something vaguely familiar about her.

"Alana?" Sarah blinked. Yes, she remembered this woman. Barely had Sarah ever spoken to her, yet for whatever reason the memory was there. Sarah's mama had never much liked Alana. Alana had associated with vampires…

The woman smiled, "Yes, my lady." 'My lady,' that was strange. It made her feel like some great lady where Sarah knew she was not. Not really. "You've grown up so beautifully."

"H-how…" Sarah began but thought better of it. Of course she knew how Alana had become this way. What Sarah did not understand was why she was in her bedchamber now. Sarah was still in the nightdress. It made her feel very young to still be in her nightdress.

"I'm to draw you a bath, my lady." Alana spoke with that title again. Sarah wondered if she needed to correct her for she was not nobility. Alana had known that. Alana had known her when she was just a little girl. However, Sarah did not get a chance to say a word before she was led from her bedchamber and down the hall. There were eyes upon her. Sarah could not see them, but she could feel them. Somehow, she could hear them. They whispered things. Odd and enthralled things.

"Come, my lady." The vampire woman had stopped and Sarah had hardly noticed. She felt so foolish she could nearly die. Alana was staring at her strangely and Sarah desperately wanted to know what she was thinking. Part of her imagined it was not very kind. Regardless, the woman led her in to the bathroom that was just as breathtaking and ornate as every other part of the castle. Walls of white and gold and floors and dark stone. It was clean and smelt like flowers and all of it made her skin fill with gooseflesh.

Sarah froze slightly, staring at it all. She'd never seen a bath so large. It was surrounded by panels of faded paintings and great beams of gold stretched to the tall ceiling. Perhaps she'd stared to long, for Alana narrowed her eyes ever so slightly and Sarah scampered nearer.

Sarah glowered, "Sorry."

Alana breathed, "It's not for you to be sorry, my lady." As she spoke, she turned on the tap. Sarah could cry: they had taps here. How absolutely magical a place this was. The woman moved to a cabinet as Sarah spoke.

"Why do you call me 'my lady'?" Sarah shifted back and forth on her bare feet. She had not thought to put any type of shoe on, and she supposed now it did not matter. The scents coming from the bath were intoxicating, yet Sarah could not name the scent. It was most peculiar, like everything here, but it did not frighten her. Lush, bright bubbles appeared upon the surface.

"The Master's orders, my lady," Alana added oils to the mixture. "You are to be treated with the upmost respect. Treated as royalty."

That made Sarah flush instantly and suddenly made her feel much younger. A princess. It seemed Sarah truly was to be made a princess. Yet, it seemed, the woman was not so happy about this.

"What's he like?" Sarah eventually inquired. "Your master. The Count."

"Cold," Alana said immediately. The immediacy of it frightened her. "Aloof, yet very passionate." Those red eyes cast upon Sarah and Sarah felt the ferocity of them. "Extremely infatuated with you, my lady."

Sarah nearly smiled but the woman kept staring.

"He is not infatuated often. Or ever, from what I've heard."

It seemed a warning, not a praise, and Sarah was suddenly too frightened to inquire further. Alana too seemed uninclined to comment any further either. Her hand, like a pale spider, slipped beneath the water and turned it around slightly. The bubbles had grown to a truly insane height. Sarah thought she might drown in them. She wondered if the woman wanted her to drown in them. This woman did not like her, of that Sarah was very certain.

She turned, like she'd heard Sarah's thought, and walked towards her deliberately. Her eyes were hard and cold and Sarah knew not what this woman wanted of her. She gestured for Sarah to raise her arms and she did, then was hit with the very sudden fear of being naked in front of this woman. She did not at all want to be naked in front of this woman, but it seemed she'd little choice.

The nightdress was pulled from her and Sarah covered her exposure immediately. Something in this greatly amused Alana, for a smirk played on her teasing red lips. There was a new shame, a shame for covering herself, but Sarah was very set in her decision. This Alana woman hated her for whatever reason and Sarah would not stand naked in front of her.

"Why do you sneer at me?" Sarah asked and felt rather brazen in asking it. For it was Alana who just said that Sarah was meant to be treated with respect and it was Alana treating her without it.

Alana looked over her shoulder, stalking near her in a way Sarah very much did not like. Sarah very much wished she were wearing her nightdress again.

"You're very sweet," Alana said appraisingly. "You always were. Very beautiful too." Her spider like hand moved far too familiarly along Sarah's line. She did not like this woman. "No one quite understands this desperate infatuation, but I suppose there is something to it." Alana looked at Sarah like she was either going to kiss her or strike her, but the woman decided upon neither and turned to the bathroom door.

"I'll come for you in an hour's time." Alana spoke. "The ball is tonight and you must be perfect."

OOO

The boy. Sarah couldn't believe it: the boy was in the castle. The boy had come all this way to "save" her and was here in the castle. Her mind could hardly focus as Alana pulled her from the bath and dried her with a soft towel. Sarah cared not for covering herself or feeling strange: the boy was in the castle. Had Alana seen him? The woman said nothing about it. She pulled out some stopped of strange oils and began rubbing them into Sarah's skin.

"Sarah!" The boy with the wide eyes and blonde hair had appeared before her like he was a dream himself. Perhaps he was. Sarah had had such strange dreams in the castle.

"You." She'd breathed, pulling the large sponge she'd found in the bubbles to cover herself. The boy rushed forward like Sarah was not in a bath and like he was not something from a dream. No, he was real, Sarah decided. She was not imaginative enough to have made him up. Now he stared at her with his wide eyes and light hair and she felt a stirring inside of her that was both warm and strange.

He sighed, "Thank God, Sarah. Thank God. I thought you were dead."

"Dead?" It was the silliest thing she'd ever heard. "No. Of course not."

There was a shift in his form. Sarah had thought him a demure thing, especially last night, but there was a fire in him she'd not noted before. The fire flamed suddenly.

"We have to go," he instructed. "You must leave this place, Sarah."

"What?" She asked. "No. No. T-the ball is tonight. I've been invited, and it's-"

"Sarah." The boy moved like he wanted to take her hand. Like she did not now lie naked in a tub in front of him. Like it was not entirely untoward that he was in here at all. Like Alana was not right outside. God, had she seen? Would she tell? Sarah knew not the Count very well, but she couldn't imagine him being happy with this…

The boy's face pressed, "Sarah, these people aren't… They aren't people. They're not good-"

"I know what they are." Sarah told him sternly. It seemed to shock him. Good, she'd aimed to. "And they aren't bad." The bubbled prickled against her as she spoke. "I want to go to the ball. I've been invited. He's given me a dress and jewels. A bedroom too. It's all so…" It was probably best to say no more. "I'm not going to leave. I've been invited."

"Sarah, please." His voice broke and so did something inside of her. Perhaps she was being too cold. But she couldn't just… She couldn't just leave. This was all she'd ever wanted. This was all she'd ever dreamed about. Yet this boy had switched something in her and she didn't even know his name. You don't even know the Count's name.

The water suddenly felt colder. Was she to leave her fate in the hands of men whose names she did not even know? Sarah had given twelve years to a man whose name she did not even know.

The boy spoke, "Can we talk? Not in here. Just talk. I'll not try to make you leave but… Just talk. Please."

"All right." Sarah agreed without even thinking. For she was mad, wasn't she? She was insane to do all of this, and yet how could she not? She had devoted too much. Sarah had done too much to change her fate now. She was going to be a princess.

The memory faded as Alana's hand rubbed oil feverishly into Sarah's warm skin. Her hands moved in places Sarah did not particularly wish them and it made her wonder why she must be so perfumed. 'You must be perfect,' the woman had said. Thoughts were flying about in her head as more oil was poured into her hair and brushed through with a comb. It made Sarah feel like some sort of pet. A pet to be pampered and groomed and sent off to its owner.

No, no she must not think like that. This was her angel. This was her ball. This was all she'd ever wanted. He loved her. He seemed to love her. He'd given her such wonderful things and it would only continue now. A forever of wonderful things. Yes, yes! Everything she had ever wanted. She'd run off with the vampires and join them in the castle and then… She had not thought much about the "and then." For what was there after one's dreams were realized? Was there nothing else? There had to be something else. Sarah had never considered much the else.

The boy wanted to speak with her. Maybe the boy would help her.

"Here, my lady." A white robe was slid over Sarah's shoulders and clasped in the front. "To your bedchamber now. I shall dress you for the ball."

"Now?" Sarah felt her heart pounding. The boy. Where had the boy gone? Why did she want to see him so badly? Why did tears form in her eyes at the thought of not seeing him? The boy was so…easy. He was uncomplicated. Sarah could speak to him and tease him and not feel like everything inside of her was itching. The Count terrified her. He scared her to death. Last night in the dream had been beautiful, but she'd been terrified all the while. She did not know how to speak to him. She did not know what he wanted. No, she knew exactly what he wanted.

Sarah's face was flushing. Her legs could hardly move.

"Come along, my lady," Alana insisted and Sarah followed suit.

She must calm down. She must not lose her head. Tonight was the ball. Tonight, everything would be as it should be. It would not be scary. Nothing would be scary. They'd dance and kiss and then…

And then.

Sarah knew not what would happen in the "and then."

And she felt like an absolute idiot for never considering it.