Post by Costin Dracula on Oct 18, 2017 19:09:08 GMT -5
On the other side of the portal: New Sighisoara Manor, Antares 4
It was somewhere in the middle of the day, and it was an hour Costin was accustomed to having the house to himself. Since he'd gotten home the night before, he'd had a relatively uneventful evening with his parents, eating dinner, talking about school, remarkably normal stuff, considering their family situation.
Today, upon waking, he had spent an hour or two in the library, reading various books he actually found interesting (there was no one to impress here). He had just put up a book and was looking for another, when he heard footsteps approach behind him. There was no sunlight in the inner rooms of the mansion, but he was still surprised to see his father out of his own chambers this time of day.
"Come to join my book club?" he quipped, giving Dracula a quick smile. It was met with a blank stare as his father crossed the room to a bottle of brandy that sat on one of the various low tables around the room. The smile faded from Costin's face, and he looked back at the books. "Or maybe you've just come to taunt me."
"I'm not here to taunt you." Dracula said, and Costin wasn't looking at him, but he could practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Why would I do that?"
"I don't know," Costin said, still miffed at his joke having fallen flat. "Why won't you make me like you and Papá?"
Dracula growled under his breath.
"I have warned you against this course of inquiry many times."
"If you'd just do it, I'd stop asking," Costin pointed out. "I don't know what I have to do to prove myself to you."
"It is not because you have not proven yourself," Dracula spat, a terrible anger in his eyes, "it is because you are unquestionably the most selfish, ungrateful, insufferable creature I have been forced to interact with in a thousand years."
Costin's chin came up defiantly, and with every ounce of willpower in his being, he fought back the tears that stung his eyes.
"Then why did you bother?" he demanded. "You hate me as much as you do, why bother with me in the first place?"
"Because I had no choice. Stop pressing the issue, Costin, you will not like the results."
Costin shook his head.
"That's not good enough. You always have a choice. You chose to save me. You could have left me with other orphans, you could have left me to die on the street. You wanted me here, and I don't know when you stopped, but I suggest you dig inside that cold, lifeless heart of yours and find a piece of that somewhere because I am here now and you owe me what is mine. You gave me your name, but not the legacy it bears, and I am tired of being denied."
Dracula moved faster than human sight could follow, flying across the room to grab the front of Costin's shirt, pushing him against the shelf of books behind him. Costin flinched, turning his head to one side, eyes squeezed shut in reflex at the sudden movement, at the force with which he'd been pushed against the wall.
"You stupid, stupid boy," Dracula hissed. "There were no other orphans, there was no street, there was only death. There was a family of corpses, your family, and I, I would have left you there to die with them, I would even have done the merciful thing and ended your life quickly, but..." He stopped, eyes a little wide with the realization of what he'd said, and let go of Costin as if he'd been burned.
Costin felt as if he couldn't breathe. His mind was trying to process the things he'd just been told, and it was as if it couldn't do that and remember to breathe all at once. He took a deep, sobbing gasp.
"But what?" he choked out, bitterly. "But..." And suddenly, it all made sense, the pieces came together, the world fell into place. Why he had always felt Tulio was the one who really cared about him...because he was. "Papá," he breathed, answering his own question in a broken whisper. Dracula's head snapped up, that dangerous anger burning in his eyes again.
"There is nothing in this universe or any other I would not do for your father," he said, "but by all the gods in all the heavens, Costin, you have tried my every limit."
"Then give me what I want," Costin whispered. "Change me, and I will never tell him what you have told me, he will never know we spoke of this."
"Look at me," Dracula said. Costin made a soft sound of resistance, almost a whimper, turning his gaze to the side, at the spines of the books on the shelf next to his head. "Look at me," Dracula repeated, and this time it was mingled with the irresistible layer of vampiric hypnosis.
Costin fought to keep his head turned, to force his eyes closed, but against his own will, found himself turning, brown eyes locking onto the inescapable darkness of his father's, tears finally tracing cold lines down his face as he felt his resolve break under the weight of the suggestion.
"You will forget this." Dracula said, reaching over to rest one hand on Costin's shoulder. "If Tulio asks, you will say that you have felt loved. You have felt wanted. You know none of this." There was a split second in which Costin thought I have never felt less loved or wanted, before that defiance melted away into the warmth of the suggestion.
"Da, desigur," he agreed, his voice hazy, his thoughts clouded. "I want to go back to school now, please."
Dracula looked away, and let his voice return to normal.
"Of course," he said, giving Costin a flat smile. "I'll take you back at sundown. It's been so good having you home."
