Daniel grew up in a small village near the town of Constanta, Transylvania. He was an obedient and wise son with a good heart. He did not put much stock in friendship, but preferred family. The day after his seventeenth birthday, his village broke out in a terrible illness, an illness of legend said to turn its victims into monsters. Daniel promised his parents that he would learn to live with the illness and attempt to find a cure; he made that promise the night they died.
After leaving his home village in search of a cure, Daniel met a luscious woman by the name of Neroma. However, Neroma was not everything she seemed to be. She was a powerful woman with a conquer-and-rule-the-world motive and she stood in the way of Daniel’s quest for a cure. She took him as her mate and warped his mind into madness with her newly acquired secret powers, causing him to live as a murderer and a slave.
There was only one way for Daniel to break Neroma’s hold on his mind, but Neroma was not concerned about that happening. However, when she commanded Daniel to train another female vampire for her evil cause, she did not foresee what would happen.
------------------------------
Chapter One: Daniel Lives
“I am the walking dead heartbreaker, my apologies”
Eska and Neroma descended the ladder into the sewers of Presov, Slovakia one at a time. Neroma reached the bottom first and Eska splashed down in the dirty, mossy water behind her.
Neroma wore a floor length black traveling cloak with a similar length black dress underneath. Her bright blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, framing her white skin and black eyes magnificently. Eska was dressed in a similar traveling cloak, but underneath he wore dark brown pants and a dark green tunic. His short black hair accented his dark skin and black eyes well.
Neroma wore a floor length black traveling cloak with a similar length black dress underneath. Her bright blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, framing her white skin and black eyes magnificently. Eska was dressed in a similar traveling cloak, but underneath he wore dark brown pants and a dark green tunic. His short black hair accented his dark skin and black eyes well.
“So where is this thing supposed to be exactly?” Eska said.
Neroma ignored him and walked past him down the dark tunnel. He hurried after her and followed behind.
Neroma ignored him and walked past him down the dark tunnel. He hurried after her and followed behind.
Neroma’s long dress dragged in the sewer water as did her black traveling cloak, but she did not seem to notice.
In front of them, the tunnel split in two; Neroma led Eska into the left fork.
“How do you know where you’re going? You’re not using a map; I thought there was a map,” he said in a rush.
She held her finger up to his face without turning around to face him. “Shhh, I am the map.”
His facial expression became confused, but he did not press her for more. He wanted to find it as much as she did, or so he thought.
Neroma stopped and Eska ran into her because he had been looking at the walls around him for any sign of what they were seeking, purely ignorant of the situation. Neroma did not acknowledge him at her back, but began to examine the surrounding walls along with him.
“What are we looking for?” he asked her.
Once again, Neroma did not answer, and then her wandering eyes stopped on a specific part of the wall to their left. She walked up to it, brushed her hand over the spot, and then stepped back.
She looked on the opposite wall and did the same thing, stepping back once she had looked at the specific spot. She stood in between both spots and reached her arms out to each wall, but she could not reach them both at the same time.
“Eska, come here,” she commanded without looking at him.
Eska joined her and stared at her for further direction. Neroma took his hand in hers and ran it over the specific spot on the left wall.
“When I give the word, push this spot,” she instructed.
He nodded and stood there waiting for her to give the word. She walked to the other wall, put her hand over the spot again, and then looked over to Eska.
“Now,” she said.
They both pushed their specific spot simultaneously and the middle of the tunnel floor slid out of the way, revealing a black square of darkness beneath.
“Let us go,” Neroma said.
Neroma took one long look at the black abyss between them and jumped through the black square. Her long cloak and dress soared up to her waist, whipping around in the wind. Eska followed her without hesitation, his cloak doing the same. Neroma hit the bottom steadily after a good thirty-foot drop and Eska joined her almost directly.
The air around them was stale and musty, but that did not bother either of them and neither did the complete darkness. Neroma looked around and saw that they were on the top of a massive circular stone pillar. She began walking forward and found a very narrow footbridge in front of them; the footbridge could not have been more then two feet wide. They crossed with perfect balance and ease, careful not to put any pressure on the footbridge. Making it to the other side, they found themselves on a similar massive circular stone pillar. The only difference here was that in the middle of the stone pillar was a black wooden table with a round, black box on its top surface.
Eska did not hesitate, walking straight for the table and the box, which it held out in front of them, but Neroma put her arm out and stopped Eska from making any advances. She hesitated and then proceeded, taking four steps towards the table, and picked up the round box, leaving a dust free circle in its place.
Neroma cleared her mind and opened the box slowly. Inside was a clear stone attached to a clear chain in the form of a necklace. She removed the necklace and sat the circle box back down in its original place.
She held the necklace out in front of her to get a better view of its magnificent beauty. She rolled the clear stone around in her hand a few times and then put it around her neck slowly, letting it fall between her breasts. Once it was around her neck, the chain turned gold and the stone turned black. She turned around and faced Eska, showing off her new piece of jewelry.
“Is that it? It’s a stone necklace?” Eska asked her in disappointment.
Neroma laid her right hand over the newly transformed black stone and walked back to Eska.
“Eska, my dear, you will not try to take the stone from me. You will do as I say for the cause,” she said quietly.
“Of course Mistress Neroma, I will be happy to do as you say,” Eska replied with hazy eyes.
Neroma looked around the dark chamber. There was nowhere else to go, but there had to be. Along with the necklace should be some sort of instruction of its use, but there was nothing else in sight. She walked to the edge of the big, stone, circular pillar on which her and Eska stood and peered over the edge. There was nothing below that she could see, nothing at all. It did not make any sense; the legends also spoke of the stone's secrets. She did not know how to use it to its full potential without the secrets. There was only one vampire whom she knew of that knew of the location to the secrets, but he had told her before he had died that it was in this very chamber along with the necklace. Either he had been mistaken or someone had moved the last piece of the puzzle to a new location.
Neroma looked around the dark chamber. There was nowhere else to go, but there had to be. Along with the necklace should be some sort of instruction of its use, but there was nothing else in sight. She walked to the edge of the big, stone, circular pillar on which her and Eska stood and peered over the edge. There was nothing below that she could see, nothing at all. It did not make any sense; the legends also spoke of the stone's secrets. She did not know how to use it to its full potential without the secrets. There was only one vampire whom she knew of that knew of the location to the secrets, but he had told her before he had died that it was in this very chamber along with the necklace. Either he had been mistaken or someone had moved the last piece of the puzzle to a new location.
She silently cursed her efforts, but she was still glad that she had managed to find the stone. Without it, wanting to destroy Cibalta's coven would be pointless because she would not be able to succeed, but now that she had the stone, her success was eminent. She smiled to herself.
"Are we looking for anything else?” Eska asked her.
"Not here, but we do need to find a way out of this vast chamber. Search the area around us and below and see if you can find a way,” Neroma told him without even a glance in his direction.
Eska began to look around himself, as did Neroma. She continued to check below them and Eska checked on the surface where they stood. Neroma noticed a river very far below, which possibly led to another underground cavern, but she could not be for sure.
Eska made his way over to the table and examined it. Nothing strange stuck out to his trained eyes, but then again he was still under Neroma's mind control and not thinking clearly.
Eska made his way over to the table and examined it. Nothing strange stuck out to his trained eyes, but then again he was still under Neroma's mind control and not thinking clearly.
"Come to me," Neroma said.
Eska made his way over to her and she pointed down to the river. "What do you think?"
"I think that Mistress Neroma knows best and that I will follow her anywhere,” Eska said blandly.
"Have you found anything?” she asked in a bored voice.
She thought the stone's mind control was useful, but it was also annoying and not helpful in this situation. She desperately needed to find the other information.
"I have searched the table, but nothing looks out of place,” he told her.
He leaned over the edge of the pillar and looked down at the river again. He stepped another step towards the edge and lost his balance. His hands flailed in the air, but Neroma grabbed onto his cloak before he could completely lose his footing and fall over the edge, although she did think it might be beneficial to make him go over the side and check out the river. If that way proved to be a dead end; however, she did not know how he would get back up to her. After all, she needed him to do her dirty work.
"Let us check the table together. If that is not the answer then I believe we will have to take the river out, even though we do not know where it goes and how wide it is,” Neroma said.
They walked back to the black wooden table together and proceeded to examine it slowly, taking each surface one at a time so as not to miss anything important. Eventually Neroma knelt down and looked under the table, noticing a slight bulge in the middle of its underside, directly under where the black box was sitting.
"Eska," she said, calling him to her.
Eska examined the bulge she pointed out and automatically pushed on it without Neroma's command. Neroma cursed under her breath immediately, but then took it back when a silver ladder shot down from the ceiling, stopping directly over the table. Neroma rewarded Eska with a smile and he beamed in satisfaction.
They stood on top of the table in turn and then proceeded to climb the ladder one at a time, Neroma first. When she reached the top rung of the ladder, she found herself staring up at a solid rock ceiling. She looked around her and saw another ladder a good distance off to their left.
"Eska," she pointed over to the other ladder.
Then she jumped, soaring through the air, and landed cleanly and elegantly on the other silver ladder. This ladder was much closer to one of the chamber's walls. She began climbing and eventually reached a small dark hole. She looked down the ladder and saw Eska right below her, so she pressed her body into the hole. She fit perfectly, which meant that Eska would fit quite snugly, but he followed her nevertheless.
As they proceeded to crawl down the dark tunnel for quite a while, Neroma eventually heard running water in front of them.
"A river," Eska said from behind her.
Neroma kept crawling towards the noise and stopped once she reached the opening of the hole. She stepped out filthy, yet graciously, and Eska emerged behind her. In front of them was a massive flowing river, its down stream going to their right. They both looked at their surroundings, finding themselves in a massive cavern. There were hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites around them, but there were no other caves within sight.
"It appears as if this is our way out," Neroma said, her voice reverberating around the cavern.
"I will follow you anywhere," Eska said.
Neroma led him over to the river and they followed its down stream path. After a few miles, they came upon a wall and the river disappeared underneath it and through a massive black hole.
"Let us continue," Neroma said.
She gracefully jumped into the flowing river with Eska right behind her; their cloaks billowed around them on the surface of the water. Flowing with the river into the black hole, they greeted the blackness whole-heartedly because they could still see, being able to duck in the appropriate places, avoiding decapitation, which is a vampire's death sentence.
The river flowed slowly for a few miles while carrying them through the earth. Eventually, the water picked up speed, turning the slow moving water into rapids. The water splashed against the sides of the tunnel, throwing both Neroma and Eska about as if they were ragdolls. The water slowly began to head down a steep hill and towards a black sky, carrying Neroma and Eska down and around the outskirts of Presov, revealing a starry night and a full moon in front of their eyes.
~~~
He has called himself D for centuries, trying to work his way out of the history legends and horror stories, but his birth name is Daniel. It started centuries upon centuries ago in Transylvania, where Daniel lived with his parents in a small village near the town of Constanta. He was an only child and his parents cherished him. He never got into much trouble, unlike most young boys in the village, because he was resourceful and wise; he had grown up faster than most of the other boys his age.
The day of his seventeenth birthday, he celebrated with only his parents because they were a close family and friends did not mean much to him; he had out grown most of them years before.
“Daniel, son, you are the wisest man of seventeen in our village. Happy birthday and your father and I hope that you will always be as wise as you are now, if not more,” his mother told him.
Daniel beamed at her words as his father ruffled his shaggy black hair.
The following day, a terrible illness broke out amongst the villagers. There had been ancient tales passed down for hundreds of years about humans turning into monsters through an illness. They thought it was the same illness sweeping through their village now, and they were right. No one would mistake this illness for another simply because the symptoms were unique.
The symptoms of the illness were ghastly and horrid. Those who were infected experienced pounding headaches, which made them scream in pain, receding gum lines, which made their gums bleed and their teeth seem longer, an aversion to sunlight because of their fragile state, which caused their skin to lose coloring, and the loss of appetite except for rare meat. Those who were infected and died had died from malnutrition and the pain of the headaches. Their bodies simply withered away as their headaches worsened and threatened to torture them into madness.
Daniel and his parents were among those in the village who were infected. As his mother and father lay on their death beds, Daniel struggled to make them better, but it was not enough.
“Daniel, my dear boy, you will be all right. You are able and strong and I believe you, if no one else, can make it through this alive,” his father told him in a cracked voice.
“You will live Daniel and you will find a cure …,” his mother said.
Daniel, leaning over his father, nodded his head. “I promise.”
Just then, he saw his mother’s right hand fall off the bed. He bolted to her side, screaming.
“Mother, no! Please do not die. I cannot live without you and Father. Please, stay with me …” but unlike their son they did not make it out alive.
His father’s dying thoughts were of his son and the hope that he would be able to find a cure before the illness, or madness, took him as well.
Daniel slowly began to try to live with the pain of the symptoms and inhuman cravings after his parents were gone. Daniel turned out to be the only survivor out of the many who were infected. Those who were not infected shunned him and became afraid and suspicious of why he was still alive. The villagers’ minds began to work furiously, trying to figure out the best way to rid themselves of the sick boy. Eventually they decided that the only way to get rid of him was to kill him. The reason they wanted him dead was not that they were afraid of the illness spreading again, but because of what it was doing to him.
The villagers were cautious, but mostly scared, of Daniel turning into the monsters they had come to fear. Without hesitation, they had each made up their mind that it would suit the people of the village to kill Daniel finally and do away with the looming possibility.
One night, less than two weeks after his parents had died, the men of the village who lived through the illness, remaining unaffected, began to gather around Daniel’s lonely home. Some were carrying axes and others had brought rope for a hanging, but most had grabbed the first thing they had seen, which just so happened to be a pitchfork; there were a few women behind the crowd of men who were carrying torches to ensure that the hanging would be visible for all.
Young, grief stricken, ill Daniel had heard and felt them approach before they were upon his house. He peered out the window to see what was going on, but then he realized it was not going to turn out to be anything good. His pounding head told him to run, but his still-beating heart told him to talk reason to the people he had always called his friends.
He met the crowd of men and few torch-carrying women out on his front stoop. Holding his head between both palms and squeezing his eyes shut tight because of the pain from the headaches, he waited for them all to gather around before he began to speak.
“My friends, I am not a danger to you!” Daniel said.
The crowd cried out, raising their weapons and ropes into the air above their heads.
“What is it that you hope to accomplish on this, the night of the full moon?” he addressed them again.
The man at the head of the crowd and closest to Daniel answered him. “We fear the tales of the disease which brings forth monsters! Our village is more important than the life of a monster!”
“Julius, friend of my father, I am no monster. I look dreadful, but I am no monster. If it makes you and the other families of the village sleep well tonight, please know that I can feel my own death approaching. I had held out for my parents, but that is no longer necessary. I will join them in death soon enough,” he told the mob as blood from his receding gum lines ran down his face. The symptoms of the illness were not helping Daniel’s case for mercy.
The axe holding, rope wielding, pitchfork pushing, torch carrying crowd murmured to each other while looking around to see what should take place. No one man was strong enough to stand alone against a monster, so they all had to stand together or else the monster would win.
“In that case, Daniel, we shall grant you a quicker death,” Julius said as he and the other men standing beside him began to climb the stairs to Daniel’s stoop.
“This is murder!” Daniel cried out. “You will all pay dearly for this in the end.”
With that said, the fear stricken mob stared at each other with even more terror in their eyes. They took his words as that of a monster’s threat, but Daniel’s mind was processing his words differently. Many of the villagers trying to kill Daniel had lost family and especially children to the illness. Daniel could not fathom how they were so willing to murder him out of fright, when they would not have even dared to kill their own children.
“Get him!” the mob cried out in unison.
They pressed forward, climbing the stairs to the stoop where Daniel was standing. He spared one last thought to their feelings and then vanished, running through the house and out the back door before Julius had even put one foot on the stoop.
Daniel did not know where he was going, but it did not matter. There was nothing left for him in this village so he would just have to make it on his own. He had not even bothered to grab any food or clothing. The clothes he had on his back, torn up lightweight black pants, black boots, and a long sleeve black tunic, would have to last him until he could find somewhere to stay. Somewhere people would not try to kill him.
“Find him!” someone from the mob yelled.
Daniel was running through the forest then. When he heard the men crying out he slowed to see what was going on back at his house. It was too dark to see much, but once his eyes focused, he could see everything. The mob was tearing apart his house, probably in hopes that he was simply hiding inside. Eventually they realized they were wrong and men split off from the crowd in search of their fleeting monster.
Daniel started to run again, leaving his entire life behind him without even a backward glance. Nothing he was leaving behind was important to him anymore. His parents were dead so that left him with no standards but his own to live up to now. His friends were obviously too afraid of him now to welcome him back and care for him like any other seventeen-year-old boy. Obviously, he was on his own. The woods would turn out to be his protection, the animals would be his food source, and the streams would keep him alive. That is, alive long enough to die. He had not been joking about feeling his imminent death.
He ran for what seemed like hours with his blood pounding in his head and his feet going numb. The midnight air was chilly, but he did not feel it. The pounding in his head moved him forward, but the dryness in his throat kept becoming worse. He knew he needed to find a water source before getting any sleep, or at least trying to sleep. He expected his headache to keep him awake that night as they did every other night.
After running a few more miles, he stopped. He reached out with his senses and his recently sensitive ears picked up the sound of a slight gurgle that only a brook would make. He trusted his senses, shifted in the proper direction, and walked through the tall trees and the black night. Leaves were underfoot, but none audibly crumpled and no twigs audibly snapped.
Only a few more minutes left him before he had found the source of the familiar gurgle. He came out through the underbrush surrounding the brook without needing to check for unwanted company. His senses were beginning to develop further and he became accustomed to using them, even though he had no recognition that his resources were not exactly normal. He had known a mile off that no one was coming after him and no large animals were in the vicinity.
Daniel threw himself down upon the bank of the brook and plunged his head into the water without hesitation. After resurfacing, he cleaned the blood out of his mouth from where his gums were bleeding. When the bleeding discontinued for a time, he then drank deeply from the brook; water had never tasted so fresh. He continued to drink and when he was satisfied, he took several more minutes to clean his face and hands, deciding that if he came upon another village tonight that he needed to look better than he had before.
His head was still pounding and the bleeding from his gums ensued. There was no way of which he knew to make either of them cease, but he wished there was a way. He wished that there had been a way to keep his parents alive. He should have fought harder, not letting them die.
Now that he had found a water source, he was beginning to feel the awkward hunger of the illness. If he did not find rare meat soon, his headaches would get worse and unbearable. It was only when he ate that the headaches seemed to lessen, which allowed him free range of normal human thought instead of constant agony.
He got up from his resting position beside the brook and began walking, not in a specific direction, but just in the general direction away from his village. After walking for only a few miles, he heard a rustle in the thick underbrush a little ways off from his position. Instinctively, he crouched down on his hands and the balls of his feet, waiting to strike.
A lonely wolf emerged from the underbrush, unaware of Daniel’s presence. There was a howl in the distance and the wolf turned its head in the direction of which it had come. Daniel used that instant to make his move.
He leapt on the wolf, knocking it to the ground in one swift movement. The wolf had no warning, but that was Daniel’s advantage to finding food. He killed the wolf easily with his bare hands by a twist of its neck, not wanting it to suffer more than necessary. After all, it was the circle of life and Daniel was the superior hunter. He would soon find out just how superior he really was.
Daniel did not think the food would do him any good since he thought he would be dead soon anyway, but he decided to go ahead and eat the meat just to suffice his headache for a time. He began to cut up the wolf using only a sharp edged rock and his bare hands.
While he was bending over the wolf’s lifeless body, the scent of its blood made its way into Daniel’s senses. His headache lessened slightly at the mere psychical scent and Daniel could not resist any longer. He dropped the sharp edged rock onto the ground and ate the meat straight off the bones. The headache began to dissipate even more and Daniel was already feeling better. The hurt in his gums lessened and his vision became sharper as did his hearing.
It took him almost no time at all to finish his meal, and when he did finish he felt as if he was not ill at all. There was no meat left on the wolf.
Now that he was no longer in pain, Daniel took the opportunity to sleep. It had been so long since he had slept for more than a few hours off and on, but now that his headache was completely gone, he was exhausted.
As he slept, dark dreams flooded his mind’s eye. Everything he saw was one big mixture of the trauma he had survived back in the village.
He dreamt of the villagers and their pitchforks looming over him, not able to escape their dark eyes. Then the dream shifted and his mother and father would be standing in front of him, but he would not be able to reach them. They would melt through the cracks in the floorboards of their house and he would not be able to go after them. Then a wolf jumped out at him from the shadows within the house, pouncing on him and pinning him to the ground. The wolf began to bleed and the bleeding did not stop. Daniel’s whole body started to tingle and convulse and then he pushed the wolf off him and pinned him to the ground instead as the wolf continued to bleed all over the wooden floorboards. Daniel’s fingernails grew to long, sharp points and he tore at the wolf’s body, making him bleed faster.
Then he awoke, sitting bolt upright in a cold sweat as his heart pounded. He looked at the forest around him and, not finding anything suspicious, he fell back to sleep almost instantly. 
