Chapter 2: Return
England around 1895
It is said that facing your demons helps you overcome blows of fate and understand dramatic events in the past. But what if it turns out that these demons are commonly viewed as the heroes of certain events?
Especially after a resourceful Irish writer took the opportunity to put these events into his own words and to do so using the diaries of those who, unlike himself, were involved in said events.
It didn't surprise me to learn that a certain Bram Stoker had become so interested in the events of the past that he devoted an entire novel to them. What surprised me, however, was that he was allowed to use the real names of everyone involved in these incidents. It seemed that they were convinced that by writing this book they would one day be able to forget everything that had happened to them.
Fools that they were!
Did those who survived really believe they could free themselves from their memories in this way?
Did they really believe so steadfastly that they had defeated evil once and for all?
Did they really believe they would finally be free again, even though there wasn't one of them who didn't every so often wake up screaming from his dreams?
None of them were free!
They all still felt the nightmare on their chests left by the events of the past ten years, especially on those nights when fear gripped their hearts with an iron fist. When they realized that all their hopes were dashed by the one, irrefutable truth that evil never dies. Just as my hopes had been dashed time and time again by this very truth after my own father had mercilessly sold me to this evil and thereby condemned me to walk the earth as who I am...
Dracula!
Born into a time of war and ruin - not only the ruin of my unfortunate people, but also mine. Doomed to endure the test of time, cursed, desperate, bitter.
Centuries have passed, and I have seen, done and experienced things beyond the imagination of any mortal. Truth and lies, honour and betrayal, need and misery, blood and death... and yet...
Even though my memories go back so far, they always end at this one point:
The day my father ripped me from my mother's arms and took me to a place so remote, dark, and hidden from the world that my childish mind couldn't comprehend it.
It was a place so dark, so contrary to nature, that even the enemy dared not set foot there. To this day I don't know what happened to me there. All I know is that I wasn't the same when I returned from there. I became a fearsome warrior, repelling the enemy with cleverness, cunning, and unrelenting harshness and cruelty.
But who am I really? What am I really?
The search for an answer kept my restless mind busy constantly, and I have sworn to myself that I will only allow myself to rest again when I got to know what the secret of my blood is all about and I have found the dark place where my father left me to my fate.
Until that happens, I will continue to keep a watchful eye on those who once tried to take my life. I have no doubt that they will try again, but I hope to receive help from a source that none of them could imagine at this point.
Unlike my opponents, I have never stopped giving them some of my attention, and I admit there are certain advantages to being considered defeated by everyone.
Only this circumstance allowed me, deep in secrecy, to regenerate my powers and make them available to the Circle of Seven. And it was only because of this circumstance that I was able to find out what happened to Mina, my beautiful, and her Jonathan Harker.
Maybe it was a mistake that I didn't make her one of my kind back then, but I didn't want to force her to my side. I wanted her to come to me by herself, I wanted her to seek my near on her own, and I wanted her to give herself to me of her own free will...
Well, it seemed that Jonathan Harker was equally unable to keep her permanently attached to him and I knew I would get my second chance - and this time I knew how I'd make use of it...