Dracula's Curse (Intro)

Dracula’s Curse 1

Based off Castlevania: Dracula’s Curse2

BY AJ PEASLEE3

1450, Wallachia in the Region of Romania.4

They pushed her with angry, violent hands of disgust. Through the streets of Targoviste, she was thrown around by the villagers who had become savage. The entire town seemed to be dragging her down the street, leaving only the stone buildings to watch in silence. Her brown gown torn by the tearing fingers and her own scrambling feet, her blonde hair pulled from its ponytail bindings and her face stained with bruises and tears. This beautiful maiden has been reduced to shambles in what started out like an average day until the angered yells came.5

Witch!6

Devil Worshipper!7

Whore of darkness!8

Defiler!9

They shouted obscenities and insults at this woman they have known for many years. They brought their ill children to her for medicine; they trusted her with their lives and prayed that her knowledge was vast. But now, she is viewed entirely different. They no longer saw a kind woman, they see a hag that conjures up black magic and sleeps with the Devil. 10

She could not escape the village; they have had her surrounded in large numbers with larger torch flames. Her body ached from the attacks and emotional distress, but when she saw the cross affixed above a large pile of hay, everything seemed to break. It was terrible to think that all her memories would fade with her ashes, that her betrothed would be in agony and her son without a mother. 11

She is dragged from the dirt below and into the air above with snapping joints, situated before the cross where she has no illusions of survival.12

Her hands tightly strapped to the corners of the cross as she rested in a crucified position. Her tears fell to the hay below where a villager mocked her with crude gestures. 13

The flames erupted without a second thought in a large cloud of smoke that burned her nostrils and seared her eyes. The lungs fill with a choking grasp that is surely the hand of Death.14

Her gown burst into orange heat as it raced upward in a rage of crackling pain. Her eyes focused on the young boy in the crowd. Her son stood there with a waterfall of sadness. 15

She tried to speak through the pain, through the tears, the smoke, the fire and words of hatred.16

“"Do not hate humans. If you cannot live with them, then at least do them no harm.”17

Her angelic voice rang out in a broken song that vanished with the smog. She is nothing but a blank black frame surrounded by a deep, roaring fire of ripping tones.18

The villagers laughed out in sadistic glee upon their “noble” victory. They were doing the land good by killing a witch, a woman that they once believed to be a practitioner of medicine until they found her with parchments of arcane symbols. 19

Her name was Lisa, and she died on the cross in front of her son for crimes she did not commit. 20

Her son will forever be filled with horror by that memory. 21

And, unbeknownst to the people of Romania, she was married. 22

The news is soon learned by her husband in a castle deep into the Romanian countryside. He fell to his knees with sorrow and disbelief from the sudden realization that his beloved has been killed. 23

His expression became wrinkled from the sadness overwhelming him; his eyes welled by the tears for future memories that will never take place. Why did this happen?24

But those eyes soon turned red, his expression becoming infuriated as his hand slammed the ground below with a roar. 25

They would soon remember the name of Vladimir Tepes Dracul. They would half whisper in fear the true name: Dracula.26

Today would be the last they saw dawn’s light.27

Tonight, the moon would glimmer with blood.28

++++++++++29

The villagers went back to their daily habits while Lisa’s body was cast out into the fields like common waste. They ploughed the crops, opened their shops and conversed in normal routine as the sky became gray and increasingly dark. The winds howled through the buildings and trees like a firm warning as all the villagers stopped and looked upward. 30

The sky was as black as night. But it was of deep blue and violet satin hues, something not yet seen by anyone alive. Something moves within them, something fast and fierce. The villagers move away in awe and fright, unsure of what is happening. 31

A swarm of large bats, gargoyles and other demonic aberrations come through the clouds, sending the populous into panic. Blood curdling screams resonate around the homes as red stains coat the cobblestone below. The dead rise from the fields surrounding the township and the monsters spoken of in late night fire tales appear as if they had been there all along. The villagers are ravaged, their bones broken, their heads decapitated, their torsos torn in half.32

This is what they brought on themselves. This is what they did. The black rain falls on the just and unjust alike. 33

The horror is soon reported to the highest order of the church with shaking hands. Soon villages all over Wallachia and Transylvania burn to the ground and more people come with prayers of anxiety and help. The land bleeds, the people suffer and there is no hope to stop this rampage of vengeance.34

Many years pass, all without the sun’s brilliant grace. The moon seeps blood and the land is one of ash and smoke. Demons run rampant throughout Romania while the church campaigns to cease the madness. 35

All result in failure. 36

It seems that God has abandoned the people.37

But the pope knew of one last glimmer of light.38

A family that had long since been forgotten, outcasts to the land they loved and served. 39

They would ask the successor of the legacy for aid, only knowing that he would have the weight of Romania on his shoulders should he accept the task.40

His name was Trevor Belmont, the man with the Vampire Killer.41