Castle Dracula, Christmas Eve Morning, Year of our Lord 1534
The snow lay thick upon the ground when Vladimir woke up. he was anxious- today was Christmas Eve,and his coming of age and into his inheritance. he walked over to the window and looked out. The cold winter sun was bathing the snow-covered courtyard in an eerie yellow light…the sunbeams glanced off the icy ground like a hail of diamonds…a beautiful day, but for Vladimir, the sense of doom would not leave… The curse of the gypsy ran through his mind…Amira had been specific.. he would die,but not die,and would exist on this earthly plane for all eternity, an entity of evil, doomed to feed off his fellow-man, until he found a woman who would love him enough and truly to do what was needful to release and redeem his soul…whoever it ewould be would have to strike with true love in their heart and pray for his redemption…He had heard of vampires, but didn’t believe…his father had told him that they only existed in the world of legend and hearsay..and that the curse was no more than a ploy to try and weasel her son into the family as successor. Vladimir wanted to believe that this was the case, but something didn’t gel for him… he had heard his father talking of the night, and of things that were best left buried and unsaid…He shuddered as he remembered the incident with Rosario…the feeling he had, and of leaping out of the second storey window and reaching father Gerontius before he drowned…he remembered that the feelings were dispelled by prayer, but most of all he remembered the coarse evil voice of the gypsy as she cursed his father, and him in his turn..her son was killed in a freak accident, one that had cost his father dearly…but the die was cast… words were spoken that could not be retracted…he eyed his suit with little joy…he had no idea of what was to come…only speculation and wild conjecture…