Prologue…

Transylvania,May 24th, the Year of Our Lord 1538….
The years have flown by…The time is fast appraching of my Coming of Age….and with it, a fearful curse will be upon me…there is no escape…no place to run…The inevitable will happen…my father’s curse will become my own…on the stroke of midnight tonight, I will die…but will I die, or will I slip into the terrible nightmare world foretold for me by Andrushka, my father’s gypsy servant, who laid the curse on me ?Time will tell…I am alone, I am afraid….I cannot hide… wherever I go, the curse will follow me… I cannot escape…I can only hope that the kind soul who finds and destroys my mortal shell will strike with love and prayer in his heart…only then will my soul be truly free of this evil…
Should you be the one to find this letter, please pray for me, and seek the knowledge that will enable you to free my soul…if not, I will be condemned to live forever in darkness, and I shall not know the God that made me….a vile creature of the night for all eternity….
Writing this in hope of redemption,
Count Vladimir Dracula II.

The Past- Chapter One.

Castle Dracula, Transylvania, December 20th, the year of our Lord 1534.

It was a day like any other…it was midwinter, and the mountains around the castle were covered with a white, snowy blanket, like a fairytale scene from the children’s books that he had been given as a child.
it was one week to Christmas, always a favorite time of year…The castle would be filled with guests as it was always on Christmas Day.
Vladmir sighed….there was much to do, even for him, the Count Vladimir di Dracula’s only son…the castle was buzzing even though it was still very early in the morning, and soon the huge gong would sound for breakfast and morning prayer…Vladimir pulled a face and proceeded to get dressed…He slipped out of his room and walked slowly down to the main hall…everything was as it should be…he saw his sister, Maria-Elina, two years his junior…she ran to greet him, with a worried look on her face…Vladimir knew that look only too well…something wasn’t quite as it should be…

“What’s the matter, dear sister?” he asked, concerned.
“We are having visitors to stay for Christmas…”
“Don’t we always?”
“Yes, but these are unwelcome visitors…”
“Oh?”
“You remember father’s second cousin, the Baron Igor Rachovsky?”
“The one who disgraced the bloodline by marrying a common Gypsy?”
“The same…He is coming with the ‘Baroness” Amira, her mother and their dreadful son, Zoltan…”
“That is a fight waiting to happen…I hate that little fool…he will never amount to anything.”
Zoltan was always considered a lightweight in the family…no-one really liked him, but he was tolerated for the family name…in fact, his mother had never been truly accepted…she was, after all, not of Royal blood…she was not accepted so much not as a matter of snobbery, but because she was, at the best of times, a rather nasty piece of work, a common manipulator, who could twist that idiot Igor around her little finger…

“And as if that is not enough, she married Uncle Igor on a false premise…”
Maria looked up from the book she was leafing.
“oh?”
“Yes… she tricked him into believing she was pregnant…when he married her, she finally told him the truth, but the damage was already done…”
“Who told you?”
“I heard father talking about it long ago…He knows I know, but made me swear to secrecy for the sake of the bloodline…but if Zoltan causes a fuss, I don’t know how long I will be able to remain quiet…”
“Vladimir…a promise is a promise…it IS only a few days, after all…and we will have sooo much to do anyway!”
“Huh! We’ll see!”
“Oh, stop it, silly! Let’s go to the kitchen. I am sure Marga will need something from the village! We can go for Aa ride and get that too! Come on, I’ll race you!”
Her laugh was like the tinkling of water over the pebbles in the moat- clean and fresh. Vladimir always loved that laugh…Maria-Elina was a wonderful girl…He knew that he would be lost if anything ever happened to her. He also knew that Zoltan had his greedy eyes on her…He would not allow that, not ever…He wanted his sister alive..
He sighed and set off after Maria.

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