Chapter Text
Down the Rabbit Hole
Bella Swan was scared shitless. Trapped in a dungeon with beautiful model types, with blood red eyes, giving her and twenty other tourists Death Glares. They looked at them like they were Happy Meals. How the hell did she even get here?
Well she came to Italy with her Mom, Renée. Another adventure her Mom decided to go on last minute.
An hour ago she was touring the city of Volterra. Taking in the sights and history, when a beautiful woman asked if they’d like a tour of the local castle. Renée said yes immediately.
“Bella! A real castle! How exciting”. I nodded along, agreeing. It was always easier to just go along with Renée. She had an eerie way of getting what she wanted.
My dad Charlie (her ex-husband), and I were the only ones who really ever could push back against her. Pulling her back from her more extreme ideas, bungee jumping, down hill skiing, sky diving, etc..
But when it came to more mundane activities it was still easier to just go along with her. Like taking a tour of a castle, I mean what’s the worst that could happen?
So now here we stood after a brief tour of the castle and she knew she was going to die. Three men on thrones sat in the middle. Their skin had a weird texture, as if it was made of paper. Like you could poke a hole straight through their skin. Four more supermodel types surrounding them in cloaks matching their blood red eyes.
The alluring tour guy, a bulking man with short black hair as big as a small car, and two blondes, a boy and girl around my age. Maybe a year or two younger, that looked like siblings. They were all very beautiful, the blonde girl smirking at me, as if she was holding in a secret that she was dying to tell me.
The room was dead quiet, a feeling like waiting for a test you didn’t study for. Waiting for doom you knew was coming. And then as fast as a breath, it began. The gorgeous tour guide was the first to move.
In less than a blink of an eye, the tour guide went from being behind the men on the thrones to biting one of the women that was with us on the tour. Blood seeping from her bite.
As if that was a signal the rest of the supermodels were waiting for, the other three cloaked figures from behind the thrones sprang forward, tearing at the throats, of the men and women, even some children. Tearing apart their necks. And what I could only assume was them DRINKING their blood. The sounds they made were especially disgusting, as if they were in the throes of lovemaking, like these innocent people were their secret lovers that they had waited a life time to be reunited with.
I wanted to scream, but I knew if I opened my mouth all that would come out was vile.
Renée had no such problem. She screamed.
While the scream wasn’t necessarily loud. At least not compared to the others who weren’t currently being necked .
Her’s reverberated. Almost physically knocking back the heads of everyone in the room.
As if her screams were actually worth note. Every person, red eyed or not, paused. As if all the sudden they wanted to help this poor woman in their grasp, like she was lamb who needed to get back to her herd.
The three men looked at each other, a question in their eyes. The man on the left throne looked peculiarly intrigued. The look on his face one as if he was waking from a long nap. Renée seeing she had their attention started to beg.
“Please, please” she sobbed. “Please spare me and my daughter, we won’t tell anyone.” She begged “Just let us go.”
Tears falling down her eyes, she gave them a look I’d seen before but amplified to 11. Like a puppy you loved, but just kicked. Only now it was more intense, as if she was baring her very soul, just for you.
The red eyed man on the left stood up. “Marcus” the fey-ish man in the middle spoke seemingly surprised.
Marcus? Took a step toward’s Renée. As he came before her, he put a hand on her face. An expression of surprise on his own. As if he was seeing light after a century in the dark. You could hear Renée breathing nearly stop, holding her breath.
“Please” she begged him. “Help us”
Renée’s face was heartbreaking and everyone in the room seemed to feel it. All the sudden Marcus swept Renée off her feet.. Marcus finally breaking his gaze away from Renée, gave a quick look between me and the other paper men and then disappeared.
The man who appeared to be the leader, rose from the middle throne and stepped to me. Everyone in his way parting like the Red Sea. Scared of what he might do. He gad a queer smile on his face. A smile so wide it looked cartoonish.
“Well” he said, talking as if he has seen something so surprising that he couldn’t put it into words. “I don’t think anyone could have seen that coming” his words having a giddy lilt to them. He turned to me still with that cartoonish smile.
Gathering my courage I asked him “What are you going to do with my mother”?
“Oh I believe she is going to have a wonderful destiny here . Hehe ” his laugh was creepy, like a man possessed.
“I believe my brother wishes for her to join us” He said it with a smile. Like this was the happiest news he ever heard.
My stomach plummeted. Did he mean she was going to become…? A monster like these supermodel looking….beasts?
As I took a breath trying to calm down, a word came to my brain. In my panic I didn’t think of the obvious, the word that fit so perfectly for these Gothic creatures. A word so absurd I would never believe it, if I hadn’t seen it for myself.
“Vampire” I said. Looking in to his dark eyes, he smiled even wider as I said the word.
He offered me his hand palm up, waiting expectantly. Knowing, just like I did. I had no choice but to accept. It was this or die. I grabbed his hand.
Truly I thought he couldn’t look more surprised after Marcus ran off with my mother. I was wrong. He look at me like I was jewel. Waiting to plucked from the dirt that he almost stepped on barely giving it a second thought.
“What a surprise” he breathed. “And I thought your mother was gifted, but you my girl… You are truly….. special,” he breathed the words, they creepily floated in the air between us.
Like bugs.
I was lost. I had no idea what he was talking about. But I didn’t have long to think on it, because in the next second he grabbed me and in a nanosecond we were running through the castle. Moving so fast that the painting’s and tapestries were a blur. Finally we stopped at what appeared to be a small tower.
It was small, circular and had only a bed. I was immediately scared of the implications. But there was thankfully, no lust in the way he looked at me.
And then faster than a cobra, he bit me, and the world burned.