Chapter VIII

Toccata of Nightmares: The First Movement /and/ Horrific Truths

"Salutations," said the voice, "And…welcome to my castle."

The six companions watched as an elegantly dressed figure appeared on the balcony above the door they had just come through. He wore a suit of armor that was dark red, like the color of recently dried blood. He also wore a black cape that hung over his shoulders. His defining feature however, was his long, blazing red hair, which he had done up in a low ponytail that hung to the middle of his back. The rest of his hair framed his pale but handsome face elegantly. Jonathan, Charlotte and the Lecarde sisters didn't need to see his fangs to know that he could be none other than their target, the vampire Alastor Bernhard.

"I trust that you are all…enjoying your stay?" he chuckled, "I confess that I am impressed that you have made it this far. However, mark my words: You have only survived thanks to Mathias' meddling. You wouldn't have lasted a day, without all of his sanctuaries."

Charlotte looked at him suspiciously, "When you say 'Mathias' do you mean Mathias Cronqvist?"
"Do not utter that cockroach's name in my presence!" he raised a gauntlet-encased hand, and an orb of darkness shot from his palm. Charlotte was knocked into the bookshelves and a multitude of dusty tomes buried her in seconds as the entire unit collapsed.

Jonathan suddenly felt something in his bag pulse. He wasn't expecting to need it so soon, and he didn't want to use it either. But despite his reluctance, he pulled it out. There was also a lot of motivation to use it seeing as the vampire had just attacked Charlotte. Stella and Loretta gasped as they saw him gripping the Vampire Killer.

"Why? Why'd you bring it! It'll kill you if you use it too much! You know that!" Loretta shouted. Once again, Alucard glanced at the two sisters with a look of intrigue. How would they know that?

Jonathan didn't seem to be paying attention to them. He glanced He narrowed his eyes at Alastor, "You hurt Charlotte. You can go ahead and do that, but we charge a very steep price!" he jumped up to the ledge and swung the whip in a wide arc. The vampire laughed diabolically and raised his arm. His body faded away into a swirling black outline of himself and transformed into a colony of spectral bats that flew a few meters away before grouping together and reformed into the vampire's body.

"You'll have to do better than that. Consider yourself lucky. I won't kill you or your friends just yet. Frankly, I should thank you for doing away with that bastard Cronqvist for me; but that is the only reason for which I stay my hand: If you continue to invade my castle, I shall see to it that you all meet grisly ends. Farewell!"

With that he raised his hand and laughed that terrifying laugh of his. Once again, he became a mass of spectral bats, and moments later, they flew up and through the ceiling, presumably back to his chamber at the pinnacle.

Moments later Charlotte reached out from beneath the pile of books.

"Hey! A little help here?"

"Charlotte!" Jonathan shouted worriedly, "Are you alright?"

"No need to yell, I'm right here," she chuckled, "I'm fine, although I feel kind of sad that I was almost killed by a load of books. The irony of that just sickens me."

"Yeah, that would be ironic. Terrible, but ironic. I couldn't imagine being killed by something that I took solace in."

"Doesn't matter too much. I might even laugh if that happened to me. Inaudibly of course, but like I said, that doesn't matter too much. Why aren't you pulling me out?"

"Okay, on three, you're going to shove yourself forward and I'm going to yank on your arm."

"Okay, although wouldn't it just be more effective to just clear the books out from on top of me?"

"That pile is the only thing keeping those shelves up. If it goes, at least one of us would be crushed to death."

"Okay then; on three," Charlotte resigned, "Everyone stand back."

"One…"

"Two…"

"Three!" Jonathan pulled with all his might and Charlotte managed to break free of the pile.

"I have a few questions," she said as she dusted herself off. "I'm going to get back to reading that book about Leon Belmont while we're here. Why did Alastor keep talking about Mathias? And what did we mean that we'd killed him? He's obviously important. Maybe I'll find some clues in Leon's story."

Let's just hang around here for a bit anyway. It's safe enough I'd say," Maria suggested from the balcony.

After a couple hours, Stella went over to Jonathan.

"Why did you take it with you?"

"I didn't plan on using it actually, I only brought it case of an emergency," Jonathan confessed, but when Alastor hurt Charlotte…Something just happened…"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not really sure myself. I just felt this intense rage coming from the Vampire Killer. When I fought Dracula, something similar happened, except that when I was fighting him, the emotion that I felt from the whip was more along the lines of pity, or something like that."

"Why would that be?"

"Because more than anything, she must hate the Bernhard clan than any other vampire," Charlotte's voice sounded empty, like she was on the verge of tears.

"What do you mean by 'she'?" Jonathan asked carefully.

"Sara…S-Sara Trantoul. Her soul was bonded to the whip when…Leon killed her with it!"

"What? But didn't you tell me that they loved each other more than anything? Why would he do that?" Jonathan shouted.

"Because…Walter had turned her into a vampire! She let herself be killed before she lost her humanity. The reason for the Vampire Killer's incredible power…is because it was forged with the willing assistance of a creature of darkness," tears began to flow from Charlotte's eyes, "but the fact is that Leon had to kill her himself! No one else could do it! It must have felt like they were both having their hearts torn out. There's no wonder that the whip hates Alastor. Sara wants to slaughter him like the filthy animals he and his grandfather are… or were…in her fiancée's name, seeing as he can't anymore."

"I'll be glad to oblige her then," Jonathan muttered.

"I'll-I'll just get back to reading," she mumbled, "I'm almost at Leon's dramatic confrontation with Walter."

They spent another two hours in there as Charlotte read until finally her eyes widened in horror.

"No…"

"What?" Jonathan asked.

"It can't be…the author must have made a mistake. That has to be it."

"What's it say Charlotte?" Stella asked.

"Walter's just been killed. But Mathias has showed up at the top of the castle. And he's taken control of Death using an artifact called the Crimson Stone. That explains why Walter has never has been able to come back, but that would mean…that would mean that Mathias became Dracula!"

"Really!"

"He gave Leon the option to join him. In the book he says that seeing as he's lost the love of his life as well, he'd understand. How could be so ignorant? After all the praise that Leon's given him throughout the book, that's what he is."

"So that's what Alastor meant…" Jonathan muttered.

"It gets worse," Charlotte choked, "He admits to using his own best friend, Sara herself, and even Walter!"

"Yikes," Jonathan exclaimed, "The guy really was a genius tactician."

"But the worst part of it was that…he did it…he did it all out of love!"

"You're kidding?" Loretta gasped.

"No. His wife Elizabetha fell ill while he was on a Crusade and he rushed home to her. She…She died literally just as he was coming to her bedside. Honestly, I can't even bring myself to blame him," Charlotte was in tears again, "He fought in God's name all his life and then God took the person he cared about more than anything from him. He declared war on God for this. I'd have supported him if he didn't seem so proud of himself. He orders Death to kill Leon when he refuses, but Death was defeated in the ensuing battle."

"That is correct," Death's voice came from everywhere in the room before he appeared above the balcony, terrifying Maria and startling everyone else.

"Leon was a worthy adversary. Much more powerful that you Morris, though I might say that you might have stood a chance against him Miss Aulin. I was defeated and my physical form vanished for many years. Eventually, Leon remarried a woman he didn't love to continue his bloodline," Death said, "but he died before his son was even born. They buried him with the Vampire Killer, but a year later grave robbers who wanted the whip for themselves desecrated his tomb.

"They opened the coffin to find that his body was gone. There weren't even any bones left. The first thief who touched the whip died instantly and the second one tried to bring it to a priest. His skeleton was found the next day in front of the town's church where the holy man picked the whip up. It was only by chance the he happened to be the minister who was to arrange Leon's marriage to young Miss Trantoul, and he hid it from the world until the next Belmont returned to claim it."

"That's a pretty sober story," Jonathan muttered.

"I wouldn't know," Death responded, "Carrying out the ultimate law of the world is no more than a job and a responsibility to me. I have no need to judge myself for my actions."

"That's very true," Alucard quipped.

"Of course. You would know better than anyone else here, wouldn't you," Death chortled slyly, a sound like shaking bones.

"Do you two know each other?"

"Oh, not at all," Death's voice tapered away into an echo as he slowly faded away.

Death's voice echoed from around the room even as his presence vanished.

"And wipe those tears from your eyes Miss Aulin; that is no way to present yourself to the Ancient Librarian. I would advise you to take a look at the coin I gave to you."

"That's right," Maria noted, shivering, "He said that it would lead you to whatever he wanted you to find didn't he?"

"That's right," Jonathan remembered, "Let's see what that thing's for."

Charlotte picked herself up off of her place on the floor and reached into her blouse's pocket. The silver coin that had been blank when she had received it now bore a design that looked like a book of some sort. As she held it, she found that it was pulling her in a certain direction. For some reason she felt strongly compelled to follow it. Without another word she headed for the door on the balcony.

"Charlotte?" Jonathan grabbed her by her shoulder, "Where are you going?"

She seemed to snap out of her trance at this.

"Oh! This coin…I feel like it wants to take me somewhere. Although, the memory I have of walking up here is kind of hazy…which worries me. Do you think you could come with me?"

"Um, sure," Jonathan complied.

"You know what? I think I'll come too," Maria piped up.

"Are you sure," Charlotte asked with effort. She felt the coin exerting control over her again and keeping herself under her own control was expending a great deal of focus.

"I have a feeling that you might need me. I don't know why; I just do."

"Okay, I guess it's alright, but promise us that you'll be careful," Jonathan insisted.

"Cross my heart, hope to die."

"Alright then. Let's go, Charlotte."

His partner didn't hear him, already having left the room under the coin's influence.

"Hey! Wait up!" Jonathan shouted despite his suspicion that she couldn't hear him anyway. Not wanting to get left behind, Maria followed him as he rushed down the hall in pursuit of their friend.

Author's Note: *Gasp* *Pant* *wheeze* Sorry I'm late! Please forgive me! I was on vacation in New York and then I was in Ithaca for a few days. Home of Cornell University. Yep, I was on the site of the first chapter in this fic! I also narrowly missed Hurricane Irene and I did miss a spectacular lightning storm back home. Anyway, was anyone expecting Charlotte to get the Book of Binding after the malachi ate her spellbook? Yes? No? Anyway, it's a fun twist I think. Also, who knows what game this chapter's title alludes to? Hint: It has to do with that game's boss battles.

The Armory:

Jonathan's Weapons:

The Vampire Killer – The legendary whip wielded by the members of the Belmont clan. For more details, see its page on the Castlevania Wiki.