𝔢𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔫𝔞𝔩 𝔥𝔲𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯
Count Dracula x fem!reader
w.c 1.5k
ao3 link for the rest: eternal hunger
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
1⃣⃣ 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚜
She had never considered herself particularly unlucky. But that conviction faltered when she could see her trembling reflection in the armor behind which she was hiding, staring back at her. It was cold and dark and silent as a tomb. My tomb, she thought.
Today marked seven weeks since she had found herself lost in Romania and sought refuge in the colossal structure in whose deepest bowels she now hid.
The story began like all gothic horror tales. Someone lost and alone. A night so dark it seemed eternal, torrential rain, an animal howling in the distance. Her situation was straight out of a book, and she ignored every warning sign that presented itself before her. Only when the shadow that seemed to swallow all light around it loomed over her did she realize her mistake.
The monster in the skin of a man was swift in his abduction, and before she even realized it, she had been taken to the highest part of the structure. An isolated tower, thousands of steps between her and the next door to the outside world; the room was exquisitely decorated, yet old — ancient wealth in every detailed ornament that adorned her gilded cage.
He visited her in the small hours, elegantly dressed. Always calm, always soft-spoken. Always keeping his distance, just barely reaching out. But he came, sometimes, when he thought she’d be asleep, which since her confinement in these walls she found it a struggle — only when exhaustion pushed her eyelids closed, she would fall unconscious. The monster dressed and fed her, demanding her company in the late hours. Only when the dawn broke and its light slipped through underneath the velvet curtains, he would leave her, only to come back up after the day had turned night.
He had grown complacent, she thought. Too full of himself and his subtle intimidations, that he started allowing her to roam the castle freely. Or as free as the thousand eyes permitted. It had been weeks in the planning, weeks of snooping and adventuring to create herself a mental map of the castle. A way out from his clutches and back into the human world. But as she walked and turned and searched, far too late did she realize her own mistake as the day had gone by without success. She had no idea how to escape. Every turn buried her deeper into the labyrinthine hallways of the castle, to dark alleys, and dead ends.
Had it turned to evening? Had he gone up to her room only to find it empty?
Her heart pounded in desperation as time went by, and she found herself even more lost than when she started. Maybe it was not too late — she could accept her own defeat and reach the tower before he grew displeased.
She heard a distant ruckus and she could swear her feet vibrated with the rumble of his rage. Heart pounding in her chest like a furious drum.
She trembled behind the armor. A cold sweat slid down her back and neck. Minutes felt like hours in her stillness as she tried to summon the courage to leave her hiding place. But she couldn’t find it.
Come on, come on. Get up.
Get. Up.
When she finally gathered the courage to stand, she heard booming footsteps approaching and moving away. They came from the left and from the right, from all directions. She was surrounded. There was no escape. She cursed herself for thinking she could run from her fate, from the darkness. She felt like a fool.
"Sir." A metallic voice cut through the silence. Its owner and the receiver must have been at the end of the long, dark hallway, their words echoing against the stone and reaching her ears above her own fearful heart. "We can’t find the human woman." They were talking about her. She felt fear seize her and she pressed herself against the wall behind her hoping the thick darkness would shield her.
“No? Oh—” It was his voice. Her captor. The man whose imposing presence provoked both primal fear and dizzying allure, a pull like a melody written just for her. Even then, paralyzed with fear, she had to fight the instinct to go to him as soon as she heard his voice. The next words he spoke froze the blood in her veins, and before she could even think, she ran in the opposite direction. “She can’t hide from me,” she could almost hear the delight in the Count’s voice. “She’s on her period.”
Corridors and doorways passed in a blur as she ran with everything she had. Her breath was heavy and ragged, her heart pounded wildly in her ears, her chest ached with the shortness of breath given by sedentary life, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t. She ran through corridors and halls, past the monsters that resided there. They’d grown accustomed to her presence, her quietness as she slipped and explored the castle the past few weeks. They let her pass as if such a scene was perfectly within the ordinary, nothing out of the norm. She made the mistake of looking back over her shoulder, the bright red eyes of the Count met hers in the middle of the chase.
“No, please!” she screamed, but this only seemed to amuse the Count even more. “Let me go, please!” She felt tears fill her eyes and slide down her cheeks as she continued to flee.
“You can’t run.” she heard the Count’s voice echo inside her head. “You and I both know how futile this is. Let us return to your chambers.”
The Count’s shadow stretched toward her, right at her heels, and deep down she knew this was nothing more than a game to him. It was nothing but a hunt.
