Chapter Five - Emily

[Here is an excerpt from my NaNo novel ... please remember it is not edited yet. I would appreciate it if you would keep your negative comments to yourself. Constructive criticism is happily accepted!]


“Follow me,” Neroma said.

She walked past Dracula and into the front entrance hallway. Instead of turning left toward the bend in the hallway and the black marble staircase, Neroma went straight across from the parlor.

Dracula had been this way only once because it led to the kitchens where blood was stored for emergencies. When they entered the hallway Neroma led him straight down and past the kitchens. There was a bend in this hallway as well, but this bend went to the left instead of the right as the other one did.

If Dracula’s mind was not being controlled by the madness and Neroma’s mind control, he would have been curious to see what lay around the bend since he had never been this far down the hallway, but he was not the slightest bit interested.

As they curved with the bend, a staircase leading to a lower level greeted them. Neroma descended the black marble stairs covered in the middle with red carpet and Dracula followed. Darkness greeted them as their footsteps took them lower under the mansion, but it did not affect their journey. The stairway was long and eventually the black marble began to fade out and was replaced, gradually, with cold grey stone.

Once they had reached the bottom, screaming and cries for help greeted their entrance. Neroma led Dracula through the tunnel they had arrived in and they went further under ground as they walked.

The walls were made up of the same grey stones the stairs had been. There were no fancy portraits on these walls, however, but water trickled down in their places. It provided the occasional visitor with a smell of mildew and rot; Dracula did not register this either.

There were also no doors to be seen as of yet, but then there was yet another bend in the passageway. Once they followed its curve they were greeted with a wooden door. Two guards, similar to the ones at the front entrance of the house, stood in front of the door with blank expressions. They too carried axes and spiral metal stakes, but their belts also included at least one rope.

Each guard nodded to Neroma in turn, foregoing the traditional bow so as to not lose their concentration of the duty at hand.

“Leave us,” Neroma told them.

This time they bowed and left the way Neroma and Dracula had come. They took their posts to the top of the stairs instead.

“In here awaits your cure,” Neroma said looking at Dracula.