"Okay, so..."
VYRASIA, RUSSIA 1933
"О, ничего себе! You know, that boy of yours is so special!" The lady in the blue dress exclaimed to his mother, nodding over to where he stood next to baby brother, who sat, distracted, in his stroller. "And he's so well behaved!" the lady exclaimed. Alexei squirmed, pulling at his tie. His mother had dressed him in his newest all-white outfit, complete with the black tie and shoes.
Alexei's mother looked over to his brother and him with a smile. "They're my joy. And you know, Dmitri already knows so many words!"
"Oh, my, a smart one, too! To have the gifted be so prominent in your family, you truly are blessed. And yet, your husband shows no signs?"
"No. It's very common that one sibling could be gifted while the other comes out with a particular taste for cheap vodka. Also, I somehow still laugh at his jokes, so maybe there's a special gift he's not telling me about." Alexei's mother and the lady laughed.
The sun shone down on the backyard, making the green grass look even more vibrant than usual. Even the drab gray picket fence seemed brighter than usual. There were so many people in their yard today. Alexei didn't know most of the stuffy grown-ups at his birthday party, but his mother had told him that his father's "work friends" would be coming. The boy's own friends couldn't make it on a school night, so he was told he would have to wait until the weekend for a party more his speed. He tried hard not to look as bored as he really was.
Alexei looked around and noticed how high the gifts had piled on the table. He smiled and pulled his finger from his collar. It was the only good thing about this whole event. Grownups can afford good gifts. Well, it was that, and Mr. Abraham, his father's assistant. Mr. Abraham was always so theatrical and ready to entertain. Maybe he'll do some of his amazing magic tricks.
"Well, we'll need as many warriors as we can get, blessed and not," blue dress lady continued. Another guest arrived, and Alexei watched as she placed a smaller present on the table, wrapped in bright yellow and red.
"Why do you say that?" Alexei's mother inquired of the woman.
"Oh you haven't heard the rumblings?" the woman returned.
"Alexei!" His father exclaimed as he scooped the boy up from behind in a hug. The boy squealed with glee at the sudden flight. "I bet you are just dying to get out of these white clothes so you can do some running around and enjoy your birthday!"
"YES!" the birthday boy giggled.
"Well let's change clothes and get you in something that suits you a little better and then you and I and Dmitri can have some real fun at this party!" He leaned over the cover of the stroller at the unusually quiet toddler in a tuxedo. "Well, I guess someone is going to stay just the way he is." He said, suddenly in a whisper. "You go ahead and change. Dmitri's asleep."
***
"просыпаться Дмитрий!"
Alexei ran to his little brother's bedside and shook him frantically. The four-year-old boy that he was calling to let out a sleepy whimper. "Please wake up Dmitri, we need to go," Alexei said in a half whisper. He looked from the room into the hall, heart racing. It was three days after his seventh birthday, and everything was falling apart. The monsters had come.
He didn't know what they were or what made them come, but he had overheard his parents talking about them on different occasions, and they always sounded nervous. He had heard them talk about the rivers of blood that the creatures caused to flow through the streets, and he remembered them praying that the monsters would never return to their town. But here they were. And here he was. He had been watching his sleeping brother for a few minutes while his parents had stepped out to the neighbors. "If anything happens, don't try and find us, you go to your Uncle Ivan's house, immediately," his father had told him, like always. They gave each boy a kiss on the forehead, as always. "We will be right back, okay? Look after your brother," his mother assured him, like always.
A piercing screech echoed through the halls of the house. Alexei had turned on every light he passed, but the oak wood trim on all of the walls always seemed the house darker.
"Dmitri, we need to go. Come on, there you go," Alexei said to the toddler, who was slowly crawling out of his toddler-sized bed and rubbing his eyes.
"Ma?" Dmitri mumbled.
"мама will be right back, Dmitri. Come, we're going to Uncle Ivan's house. You like Uncle Ivan, right?" Alexei talked as much as he could to mask the terrifying noise outside.
"Seep?" Dmitri asked.
"Yeah Dmitri, you can sleep. We have to hurry though, come..." He began pulling Dmitri toward the door.
"одеяло." said Dmitri, requesting his favorite blanket, and pulling back with a whimper that threatened an oncoming tantrum.
"Ok, ok Dmitri, please be quiet. I'll get your blanket." Alexei responded, letting go of Dmitri's hand to run back for the blanket. His eyes began to well up with tears as he rushed back through the hall of his one-story home for the blanket, and he wiped them away immediately. This was no time for weakness. What would папа do? He thought to himself. "He would be strong. My father would be strong," he whispered to himself aloud. He snatched up the blanket and turned around to rush it to his brother who had followed him and was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, completely ignorant of the bloodthirsty threats that awaited them outside. Alexei placed the coveted blanket in Dmitri's waiting hand. He picked up his little brother and began to carry him toward the front door of the house. His parents had always praised him for his extraordinary strength for his age. He laid Dmitri's head on his shoulder and covered the toddler's open ear with his hand. "Go to sleep Dmitri," Alexei said, hoping that the deafening pounding of his own heartbeat wouldn't keep the toddler awake. "Everything will be okay when we get to Uncle Ivan's house," he said to his brother, but actually trying to reassure himself as he tentatively moved through the house. Suddenly the front door burst open, ripping from the wall. Alexei froze in fear, holding his brother tight.
"Hurry, boys!" It was Uncle Ivan, standing tall and gruff, his massive beard the same color as the fur on his black coat. "Come! What are you waiting for?!" Alexei shook off the shock and ran to his rescuer.
"Uncle, what's happening?" Alexei asked as he handed his younger brother to him.
"Vampires, boy." Uncle Ivan responded. "Foul, bloodsucking beasts. Come, come, boy, we must get to shelter. We'll be safe at my house." He took his nephew's hand tight. They moved quickly out into the night. It seemed like the only light that shone came from fires around the town. Clouds covered the usually starry night sky. The chaos seemed a blur as the trio rounded the corner and saw the light from Uncle Ivan's grand home shining through the glass in his massive double doors and into the street. The group reached the stairs to the haven and climbed as fast as they could. Uncle Ivan pushed the boys forward into the house and turned to close and lock the door. Suddenly, he was sent flying back above the boys' heads and through the great double doors of the next room, onto the marble floor in his Great Hall. As he rolled over, his massive form exposed the pale, naked feral-looking person hissing loudly at him. He pushed it off, sending it flying into a wall, and took a fighting stance.
"Up the stairs! Both of you! GO!" He yelled at the boys.
Alexei quickly prepared to obey, but before he could grab his brother and head for the stairs, a woman's voice came from the open doorway, leading to the outside.
"Can I come in?" the woman asked calmly. It was sweet, soft, and rhythmic. It sounds like angels crying, Alexei thought to himself. He turned to her. She was beautiful. She wore what looked like an all black wedding gown, bejeweled with rubies. Just the sight of her made him relax, and all his fears melted away.
"Yes," Alexei responded in a whisper. She smiled the sweetly.
"NO!" Alexei heard his Uncle yell. Alexei snapped out of his stupor and immediately noticed the unnaturally long canines in the woman's hypnotizing smile. The rubies in her gown became blood splatter. Her smile dropped to a frown as she turned her gaze towards Uncle Ivan and when she did, the beast in the room with Ivan charged towards him with a shriek. The burly Russian swiftly caught the creature's face in his palm and with a flick of his wrist, broke its neck backward. He then grabbed the dead monster by its leg and threw it with all his might at the woman in the doorway. The ghoul flew swiftly across the Great Hall.
How is Uncle so strong? Alexei wondered.
The woman reached out and caught the creature with one hand, spun around with the momentum and sent it flying back to Ivan, who stepped aside and let the body crash limply into the grand pillar behind him. She looks so elegant-
"SNAP OUT OF IT, ALEXEI!" came a booming voice through the fog. Suddenly Alexei could hear the cries of his baby brother as things cleared away in his head.
"MAMA!" the toddler cried, squirming in Alexei's arms.
"Hush, Dmitri," he whispered into his brother's ear. "Mama will come." he lied.
"Now is that how you treat an old friend, Ivan?" the woman asked calmly, adjusting her gloves, walking patiently into the home and through the doors of the Great Hall.
"I've never liked you, woman. Even when human blood coursed through your veins," Ivan retorted. "Alexei, upstairs!" he commanded, walking toward the woman. Alexei grabbed Dmitri and ran up the stairs, stopping partway, mesmerized by the events unfolding before him. "Why have you come here?" He demanded of the vampire Queen.
"You know why I'm here, Ivan." The woman replied, eyeing Alexei and Dmitri with a gentle smile as they scampered up the spiral stairs. "I am going to walk away from this place with that boy."
I won't let her get him. Alexei thought, clenching his brother tight and inching up that stairs.
"I will not let him become one of you. Leave this place now, before your reign over these foul creatures comes to a swift and painful end," Uncle Ivan said to the woman, walking toward her.
"As they say, Ivan, talk is cheap." the woman responded. She thrust both her fists into Ivan's chest, throwing him back, deeper into the Hall. As he landed, the house shook. He rolled and jumped up quickly as she charged towards him in a fury. He caught her, mid-dash, with his boot to her chest and slammed her to the floor. He raised his other foot and aimed for her deceptively beautiful face, but the bottom of her boot met the bottom of his, her knee tucked into her chest. She thrust her leg up, sending him crashing into the roof.
As he fell back down, she rolled out of the way and let him hit the floor. She leapt while he tried to recover and shoved her high heel into his side with all her might. "AAGH!" Uncle Ivan flew across the room and crashed into the wall.
"It was nice knowing you, Ivan." the woman said as she walked across the Hall, adjusting her gloves again. She left a trail of blood that dripped from the heel that had penetrated his side. At the front door, the pale creatures began to pour into the doorway and rush towards the Hall. Alexei tried hushing his crying brother, whose wails seemed deafening.
"It will definitely take more than a little paper cut to stop me, woman. You know this." Ivan said, rising to his feet. Blood began to pour from his open wound.
"Haha, I would never underestimate you like that, Ivan," the woman responded with a big, fanged smile. As she spoke, a pair of dark, leathery, clawed wings, grew from her back. She ran towards him, and as she got close enough to him to strike, one of the wings thrust out, claw first, towards Uncle Ivan's chest. He caught the appendage with one hand, pulled the woman to him with it and wrapped his other arm behind her head. He held her head under his arm and crushed the bones of the wing in his hand. She let out a vicious, pain filled scream. Ivan squeezed and wrenched her neck up in a jerking motion until the bones let out a loud and definitive "SNAP." He dropped her limp body to the floor. All around the hall stood a small army of vampire ghouls, hairless humanoids, once normal people, now mindless, loyal pets of the queen. They were quiet. Staring. Waiting.
Ivan spat on the floor, looking at the beasts. "Waiting for orders from a leader that isn't there." Ivan began to walk toward the stairway.
"Ivan, I would think you would have the common courtesy not to underestimate me either."
Uncle Ivan stopped in his tracks and sighed. He turned his head towards the voice coming from behind him.
"You're starting to irritate me, beast." His hands curled tightly into fists. The vampire charged at him. He turned and caught the wings as they thrust toward him. "You don't learn, woman." She walked closer to him, his hands occupied holding the clawed extremities at bay. He prepared to raise his leg, but the woman caught the top of his foot with hers and stomped it to the ground.
"Oh, I learn well, Ivan." She removed the glove from one of her hands and rushed to him, embracing him with one arm. She sighed.
"We could have been soooo good together, Ivan." She whispered. His grip weakened on her wings. She stepped back as he fell to his knees. The woman pulled her hand, dripping with blood, from inside of his stomach and licked her fingertip. She turned around. "Now for the boy." She walked over to the stairway, at the top of which was a fearful Alexei holding his whimpering little brother as tight as he could. She smiled the sweetest smile and hid her bloody hand behind her back.
"You can't have him," Alexei said, shivering.
“Alexei Vestyaz," the woman said, with a gentle smile, "I don't want him." She cast a look to the little one, and his crying stopped immediately as he became fixated on the woman. Alexei stared at her in awe and confusion. "No," She said, turning to the older brother again. "I'm here for you. You're the special one."
Alexei’s brow furrowed as he tried to comprehend what she meant. Finally, he understood that with his Uncle Ivan gone, there was nothing he could do but whatever the strange lady said.
"If- if I go with you..." he stuttered. "You have to promise you won't hurt Dmitri!" Alexei demanded.
"Oh, I'd never, darling." Alexei's grip on his brother relaxed. She laughed softly. She came up close to them. "No harm will come to your beautiful baby brother. Ugh! You are just the cutest, you know that, Alexei?" She leaned in, to look deeper into his eyes. "You're a lot like your Uncle. Strong. Cute. But, do you want to know how you can be even stronger than your Uncle Ivan?" She asked.
"Yes?" Alexei replied, lost in her beautiful, dark eyes.
"I can show you. Just turn your head and close your eyes."
"Okay." Alexei laid his brother down next to him, gently. "It's going to be okay," he whispered in Dmitri's ear.
The Queen smiled. "This'll sting for a second," she told him as she leaned in and sunk her razor sharp fangs deep into the side of his neck. Alexei winced, and then he relaxed. He exhaled for the last time, grabbing the woman's head, and holding her tight. The cold rushed into his skin. Suddenly, she released, and her head jerked back. He opened his eyes. A hand was protruding from the woman's chest. Uncle Ivan peeked over her shoulder.
"Head and heart." Uncle Ivan said. "Sorry about that. I seem to have forgotten. Won't happen again." He wrenched her head back until he heard that familiar snap. He dropped her body down the stairs.
"Alexei!" he exclaimed when he saw the blood dripping from his nephew's neck. He fell to his knees.
"You can't..." His face turned up. Tears welled in his eyes as he weakly reached his hands up to his nephew's neck. "You can't..." his face relaxed. His hands released as he collapsed back on the stairs and fell to the bottom on top of the lifeless Queen.
Alexei collapsed next to his brother. "Dmitri... I-" Alexei strained. The Darkness crept in as he closed his eyes.
***
"Wait, what?!"
"What's wrong?"
"I thought this was the story of the vampire king!"
"Well, it's only the beginning..."
