Deceiver of Fools: Chapter 1

Demon takes the angel's breath,
To an end in silence.
The angel cries tears in blood,
As they disappear into the sky.

-Imperia


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The village was small, quiet and quaint—everything you expected such a harmless little thing to be. The houses were small, and made of wood while a lone church stood in the middle made of bricks showing off its superiority. The roofs were topped with light snow, the trees dead and leafless. Every-so-often, a strong wind would blow through the desolate and silent area, causing a ruckus with the trees and old shingles; all of them shrieking and moaning their discomfort. Nothing at all seemed odd—pop! A loud and sudden noise echoed throughout the vicinity causing several birds to squawk and fly off in the opposite direction. As strange as the sound was, nothing seemed to have come from it…except for one lone woman.

She was more of a teenager than a woman, her obvious grin and lack of wrinkles and empty head seemed to justify for her young age. She had long, silky black hair that danced behind her in the wind. Her eyes were dark, and looked almost black. Her outfit seemed completely out of place for such an area, she wearing nothing but a small top and long skirt. Her skin was much darker than someone of that region and her nails were long and carefully groomed—obvious signs that she was not used to living in a poor household. She took a long breath before smiling cruelly, soon making her way through the town.

“This place is awfully rural…and quite small. Why would Faragonda send us to here of all places?” She questioned, glancing around the area. “Ack, it’s so cold and gross here.” She hissed, rubbing her arms furiously as yet another gust of wind blew through the village. She continued making her way forward until a sudden noise caught her attention. She whirled around, her eyes narrowed and her body poised—ready to fight. Her eyes scanned the landscape seeing nothing in sight. “Must have been the wind…” She whispered, but soon the snapping of more branches caused unease to take hold of her. She could feel her power seeping through her veins, just aching to get out; aching to become unleashed; aching to show this thing that she was not one to be messed with.

There was silence and then a high pitched screech filled the air. The girl spun to her right to see a large, dark skinned, winged-creature heading straight for her. Her eyes widened at the site, but she did not move. She wasn’t scared of this monster. She could take care of it by herself—she had dealt with worse before. The thing hissed, flying until it was just above her. “Well, look what we have here, some new blood!” The voice was that of a woman, heavily accented, and it even had hair….light, curly blond hair. “What the hell?” The girl spat, her head cocking to the side on confusion. The thing giggled; a cruel, high-pitched sound. “What, never seen a vampire before my dear?” The girl had a look of surprise planted on her face. “A vampire…? Oh hell.” The creature laughed, before swooping down rapidly, heading straight for its prey.

The girl quickly dodged, glaring at the vampire. “Oh so that’s how you want to go? Well, two can play at that game—Gloomix!” She snarled, a black aura surrounding her as she changed into her new form. Her makeup became darker and much more prominent, her arms receiving dark blue gloves, her original outfit growing longer, darker and her simple heels becoming high black boots. The creature scoffed. “What is this heathen magic?” It snarled, the girl smirking. “Solar ray!” She shouted, a bright beam of sunlight shooting from her hands and hitting the vampires on her right wing. It hissed in pain and flew off in the opposite direction, landing on a roof to pat out the flames. “You’ll pay for that!” She barked, heading straight for her again. “Are you really going to try this again?” The witch mused, her hands soon leaking with silver-colored liquid. As soon as the vampire was within range, she launched a massive amount of the mysterious fluid straight at it. The vampire screeched in horrid pain, her skin bubbling where the substance had touched her. “What is this?!” She snarled, as it made its way into her skin, causing her to scream louder; flailing her body hopelessly around the ground as though means of ridding off of her. “Mercury in its purest state….how does it feel?” The vampire screamed in agony once more, her body shifting shape as she transformed back into her human form; her skin burned, black and bubbly. “You will pay…!” She hissed, before vanishing into a thick cloud of black smoke. The girl snorted before dusting off her hands. “Well that was tedious…”

“Good God did you see that? She killed a vampire….by using magic!” The girl whirled around to find a group of people standing behind her, their faces filled with awe, confusion and even the upmost respect. “Yeah, why’s that such a surprise?” She asked back, a few people mumbling to each other. “What’s so surprising is that vampires should never even become that injured by someone using magic…since they do have mysterious powers themselves.” The girl rolled her eyes. “And what makes you such the expert on these creatures?” There was silence before a man wearing a long brown overcoat and hat made his way out of the crowd and towards her; a craven little blond man following behind him. “Because I hunt them for a living…the name’s Van Helsing.” There was a slight gasp from the crowd, and soon a few of the villagers began giving disapproving looks to this so called Van Helsing. “Oh you hunt them for a living? How quaint, and I am the queen of this land, come here summoned by the Wiccan to defeat the Devil.” She laughed, the man giving her a quizzical look. “You’re the queen of Transylvania? You look far too young to be Anna’s mother….besides, she died awhile ago.” The girl raised an eyebrow at him. “What the hell are you talking about? I was merely joking, you know.”

“Well it isn’t funny!” A heavily accented voice snapped, a tall woman with curly brown hair soon appearing from the crowd. “Oh Lord…who are you?” The woman gave her a smirk, her brown eyes flashing maliciously. “I am Anna Valerious, ruler of this land….and you are?” The girl ran her eyes over the three people who just now presented themselves to her; as if checking if they were genuine or not. “I am Zatura.” She seemed as though she had more to say, but she did not reveal it. She barely knew these people they needn’t know everything about her yet. “Well, Zatura,” Anna started, saying her name as though it were something unpleasant. “We are grateful that you’ve helped get rid of Aleera for us but the means as to how you got rid of her were quite controversial as well. You were using black magic, and that is the Devil’s work.” Zatura rolled her eyes. “Oh don’t tell me you all are the religious and superstitious type.” Anna raised an eyebrow. “Of course we have a religion. Why, Van Helsing over there works for the Vatican itself.” Zatura looked at Van Helsing curiously. “Why would the Vatican be sending you out to go and fight off monsters? Sure they’re not the holiest looking things on the planet, but they aren’t evil.” Gabriel chuckled at her. “You seem so blissfully ignorant over this whole matter…no creature is holy, so of course they are evil—vampires especially. They are the spawn of the son of Satan himself.”

“Wait, you don’t mean Count Dracula, do you?”

“Well of course we do, how else could we be talking about?” The blond man finally spoke, giving her a rather condescending tone. “Wait so you mean he’s real?” Van Helsing laughed. “Of course he is, where do you think that thing came from?” Zatura put her hands to her hips, overall confused over the whole situation. How could Dracula be real? He was the monster that every little kid knew and read about as they grew up; everyone she knew
owned a copy of Bram Stroker’s novel about the infamous Count!

She made her way slowly towards the threesome, looking them over once more. “So don’t tell me, you’ve come here to hunt down Dracula, haven’t you?” Van Helsing smiled lightly. “I see you learn fast….yes, Carl here and I have been sent to help kill Dracula.” Zatura raised her eyebrow. “‘Help’? Who are you supposed to be helping?” Van Helsing pointed to Anna, Zatura merely laughing in response. “You need help? Come now, vampires mustn’t be that hard to kill?” Anna glared at her. “My entire family has been killed by Dracula. I hate him with every fiber in my body. If the greatest soldiers in my family couldn’t kill him, what makes you thing that a woman like me could take him down all on my own?” Zatura merely shrugged. “I don’t know, why don’t you just use some of that Holy magic and sunlight that kills him? I would have thought everyone should know this by now.” It was now Anna’s turn to laugh. “Aren’t you foolish? Dracula cannot be killed by such simple artifacts….do you think that we all haven’t tried these things before? Stake through the heart, sunlight, setting him alight….none of these things has worked!”  

“Which is why,” Van Helsing snaps, butting in into Anna’s rant. “The Vatican has sent me over to protect Anna in killing him.”

“Oh Van Helsing how sweet; I never realized that you cared so much about me that you would come all the way to see me.” A new, heavily accented voice cooed, everyone whirling around to find a man with long black hair and black outfit standing there, grinning cruelly. “Dracula!” Someone yells, everyone screaming and fleeing in utter terror and panic. In a matter of seconds, the large group which stood behind the four had vanished; leaving them with the infamous Count Dracula.
Anna narrowed her eyes and unsheathed her sword. “What do you want?” She hissed, Dracula giving her a pleasant smile in response. “Why must you always think I need something?” Anna raised her sword, challenging the man. “Do you really think that that is going to do anything?”

“No, but this will,” Van Helsing suddenly snapped, bringing out a large crossbow and firing five consecutive silver arrows at Dracula. He snarled, his face contorting into a horrible shape as the beast he truly was threatened to break free. “Now’s our chance to run for it!” Carl hissed, Anna nodding ‘no’. “Let’s see what we can accomplish….maybe Zatura could show off those impress powers of hers.” Zatura glared at Anna. “Of course, typical—make the powerful one do all the work.” She walked a few paces ahead, Dracula snarling as he roughly pulled out the arrows; his wounds healing almost immediately. Zatura’s eyes widened, baffled at what just happened. “You never told me he could heal himself!” Dracula chuckled. “Oh I can do far more than that.” Zatura narrowed her eyes at him, before jumping into the air firing a series of solar rays at him. Dracula merely vanished, re-appearing anywhere but the landing sites of the magic. “Oh….you missed.” Zatura glared at him, before firing another round of mercury at him—Dracula merely vanishing once again. “Stop moving you!” She snarled, Dracula smirking. Zatura flew towards him and gushed out a large blast of sulfuric acid; the blast hitting his face causing him to snarl in pain and vanish away to recover.

Zatura grinned maliciously. “Time to finish this,” She snarled, causing high gravity around Dracula, forcing him unto the ground—making him immobile. “Oh look, I guess I’m the one who is now victorious.” She grinned, Dracula snarling at her. “Be careful!” Carl snapped, Zatura merely ignoring him. “Don’t worry, I’ve placed him under gravity of that equal to Jupiter’s….there’s no way he’ll be able to get up unless I—sonofabitch!” She gasped, as Dracula grabbed her firmly by the ankles, lifting her up with his massive strength as her transformed into his Hell beast form. “Van Helsing—Anna—somebody: help!” Zatura screamed, as Dracula lifted her up high, preparing to fly off. “Let her loose!” Van Helsing shouted, firing multiple arrows in Dracula’s direction. Dracula easily dodged them, soon flying off into the opposite direction. “Dracula!” Anna shouted, the beast ignoring their cries and attacks as he flew off straight for his castle.

“Oh no! Van Helsing, he got her! We have to go and save her!” Carl gasped, Gabriel cursing and throwing his weapon to the ground angrily. “How can we? We don’t even know where Dracula hides out! We’ve never even found his original castle.” Anna snapped back. “We must do something—uh….guys, what is that?” Carl whispered, fear creeping into his voice. “What are you talking about—“ His mouth dropped open as he saw, before his eyes, a gaping blue hole appear and four girls walk out; the three monster hunters gaping in amazement at what appeared before them all.