AN: New story! This is a Dracula story, but not based off of the 1992 film...sorry but no. This one is based off of the BBC/PBS TV movie Dracula starring Sophia Myles and Marc Warren. The story is based some 20 years after the end of the movie.

Backstory(which will be explained more in the story): Mina marries Dr. John Seward after the destruction of Dracula and the deaths of the ones they loved. It is not a marriage of love, more of convenience. Lord Arthur Holmwood has recovered from his syphilis (making up a cure) and is residing at his estates, mourning Lucy. Dr. Van Helsing is still in London and teaches at the university. Dracula is believed to be destroyed, but the characters in this drama are about to be surprised...

Let us begin...

Prologue: Nothing is What it Seems

Things are never as they seem. The four special individuals residing in different parts of England were very aware of that fact. They had fought against an evil no one would dare believe existed. Two had lost those dearest to them, while all had nearly lost their lives. Their lives would be forever changed by their battle with the undead.

Mina, still mourning for her love's death, prepared for spinsterhood, vowing never to marry. However, her living circumstances left her with no choice but to break her vow. Dr. John Seward, the lovesick admirer of Lucy, offered to marry her to help. She accepted only because she knew what would happen if she did not. They wed quietly and made their lives together. She gave birth to a child a few years later and she loved that child. She was the only one. Her marriage was a farce and everyone knew it. Her husband cared more for his patients than her. Mina was left to wonder why he married her at all.

Lord Arthur Holmwood, Lucy's husband and widower, didn't fare much better. He resigned himself to a painful death courtesy of his illness, the very illness he had tried to spare Lucy and still ended up killing her because of it. Sadly, Fate would disappoint him once again. A strange man traveling through England had offered to help him cure his disease. Arthur nearly refused, since the last time he had taken a similar offer he nearly ended up dead. But the old man convinced him and he took it.

He bled and vomited for nearly a week before he felt anything change. He summoned the old man, but found he had left right after giving Arthur the cure. Arthur summoned his family physician and demanded to be examined. The doctor did the same tests he had done when Arthur's father died of the disease and was left in shock. The disease was gone. He begged Arthur to tell him what cured him, but Arthur couldn't answer. The vial he had drunk from a week earlier was gone and the sheets he had been sick on had been burned. The physician left Arthur's home and pondered.

Arthur himself merely existed. He was free, but he no longer had anything to live for. He had the parties and balls, but it was meaningless to him. The only people he kept in contact with were the other three that had fought off the evil with him. Most of his contact was with Mina, his last connection to Lucy, but also his dearest friend. He felt terrible guilt because it was his fault that Jonathan Harker was dead. If it hadn't been for him, Jonathan would never have been sent to hell on earth. Mina forgave him everyday and made sure that he didn't kill himself. He in turn made sure that she stayed safe from her husband. She would never leave, so he made sure that she stayed happy and healthy, as well as her child.

As for the final member of their strange little family, Dr. Van Helsing was his old self. He moved permanently to London, not far from the Seward's and was a frequent visitor to the Holmwood estate. He was able to get a teaching position at the top university in London and after some time, was the most popular professor there. He too watched over Mina and her child, making sure that her husband did them no serious harm.

Time passed and while the friendship between them stood fast, it soured in some ways towards one. John Seward went from a grieving suitor to a slightly mad man. His grief consumed him to a point to where he believed that the evil that had taken the woman he 'loved' was still in existence. He talked about it often and publicly. People thought him mad, but did nothing because he was a great physician.

But something was coming. Something big. It would bring them all together again and they would fight. But the fight would not be to destroy evil, it would be to protect it from one of their own...

AN: So what do you think? Really this chapter probably is crap, but only because I needed to start this story somehow. Hopefully the rest of it will be better...stay tuned to see if I'm right...