[Underworld] Circle of Hell

[Salem Renfield]

Salem realized what was going on the moment she saw her own house. She was suddenly wanting to get away, straining to move, straining to scream, straiging to just realize that this was a dream, but her body and her mind wouldn't pull out of it. Struggling was doing her no justice, wearing her out physically, mentally as well. She felt her legs being touched by the decorative plants outside on the patio and then it was like she had been directed into the room. The doors opened for her, the floor right below her. She was stopped and sat on the ground, yet she was still unable to be in control.

She saw the scene before her, her room in such a dark shade that nothing looked the same, her mirror...the items..the bed...nothing was the same. She frowned when she heard hisses and felt something on her. She looked at the ground and saw snakes and spiders rolling over one another. She moved to jump, but it was to no avail, they were everywhere. She screamed with the feeling of having things over her, then the voice, the smell, everything came together. She heard the voice of seduction, the voice of reasoning, the voice of her nightmare. She glanced up and gasped in horror, her eyes watering with fright, her body heat beginning to rise. She tried to move but it was like she was stuckin in a glass box, limited range of movement.

A mask of sheer terror stared at her, with the body and sound of the other monster that she had gotten acquainted with. She looked away in fear, but some force drove her to look. Before she knew it she was being dragged across the floor, his hands well at work, he was pulling her towards him. She tried to look away, but nothing could be done unless the man in control wanted it to. Salem's eyes were stuck on the mask, stuck on the object, stuck on the horror she faced.

"Sweet jesus." She managed to say lowly, unable to say a curse word which at this point she would have highly wanted to express herself. "What are you?" She questioned, unsure if she was even wanting to know the answer. "Go away." She stated in a voice that was nothing but laced with fear, terror, and the dire need to get away.

[Dai Yosada]

Dai purred as he dragged one hand up and grasped the mask, pulling it off his face and tossing it against the wall. It shattered into a million pieces all of them exploding forward. But as they flew around they all slowed and finally stopped, floating around he and Salem as if waiting to dive in and stab into their bodies.

Dai smiled at her as she was finally mere inches from her face. His eyes explored hers, saw the sheer terror. He rubbed his face agaisnt hers like a cat and gently tilted her head to the side to give himself a clear shot. Once he paralyzed her mind, her body would be at his mercy in reality. He ran his tongue over her pulse point and leaned back again, his eyes slowly draining of color as he readied to bite her.

"I?" he laughed. "I am your worst nightmare...see?"

[Salem Renfield]

In a way her body was reacting to it in such a manner that made her hate herself, her knees were weak, her body vulnerable, her needs needing to be fulfilled, and having bottled up sexual urges, having a man licking her neck was not a very good thing to have happen at that exact moment in time. She fought her sudden liking, fought it like there were no tomorrow. She looked at him with severe hesitance, she wasn't even wanting to breathe because of their closeness. She swallowed and tried to pace herself, but it wasn't working, her heart was beating too fast, the fear could probably even be smelled.

"My nightmare." She repeated seeing his eyes drain of all color. It was a shocking thing to see, shocking to realize and comprehend that this might be the end of her dreams, her life, her existence. "Why are you following me?" She questioned after trying her best to breathe normally, but it still came out choppy and in panicked breaths.

"Why are you stalking me?"

[Dai Yosada]

Dai paused a moment, then laughed, leaning back slightly. She wasn't going anywhere, and he figured he owed a dying woman and explanation. He stepped back a pace or two and leaned against the wall.

He tossed his head and all the snakes, and spiders, were sucked back up underneath her bed, leaving the room in absolute silence, except for the woman's heavy breathing. He smiled at her again.

"Have you any clue as to your ancestry, Salem Renfield?" he asked, his voice lowered now to it normal deep pitch. "Do even know what you are worth to me?" he shook his head. "Of course you don't because you think you know yourself, but you don't. You think you have knowledge, a life, friends, but you have nothing. And you won't ever have those things," he muttered. "Because mortals don't have the mental capacity to achieve the ultimate higher thinking.

"I need you, Salem. To complete my abilities. Without you, I can't achieve my highest level of thought, or abilities, you see. And if I choose to, I can give you a form that will take your body and your mind to a level of perfection you've never known," he paused a moment. "Any other questions?"

[Salem Renfield]

"Yeah," She stated to him. "Why won't you go to hell?" She leaned back as best she could, trying to rid herself of it all. Trying to get rid of the nightmare in her life, in front of her.

"You always think of yourself and what others can do for you?" She raised an eyebrow and wondered how she could wake herself, but she didn't know how. Nothing in her room was really there, it was all a dream. She wondered what she could touch that would cause pain, what could let her realize that it was time to wake up, time to turn on the lights, time to get some help for her night tremors. But the longer she stayed there the more she realized that perhaps this wasn't going to have a good ending after all.

[Dai Yosada]

Dai laughed in his throat.

"My dear sweet woman, I am in hell!" he licked his lips and moved forward again. He leaned close to her observing her blue eyes. "And yes. I do always think about myself. I have no one else to worry about..." he paused. "Now."

He reached up and moved her hair out of the way. He needed to make her mind shut down so that he could get into the actual apartment and truly bite her. He wrapped on arm around her small waist and pulled her to him, running his lips down her jaw to her pulse point where he could almost feel the blood running through her veins. He couldn't wait until he actually drank her blood in reality.

"Now, my dear..." he muttered. "This might sting."

[Salem Renfield]

Salem inched closer to him and not by her willingness either. She looekd around trying to figure out what to do, how to get out of this mess that she was very unfamiliar of. Who else got put into this position every time they shut their eyes to sleep? She saw her light, her savior --no pun intended-- night tremors caused her great pain, bad memories and the only thing that brought her comfort at college was her religion, although she had abandoned it for quite some time, perhaps after this incident she'd get back into it. Her night tremors caused violent movement, so violent in fact it had knocked her crucifix off the wall and onto her bed. She felt the power struggle between them and his warning as to the sting. She grabbed her bed clothes and pulled them towards her, the crucifix within reach.

"Hopefully not as bad as this?" She felt her fingers touch the wooden cross, then wrap around the legs of the iron Jesus that was impailed on her ornament. She somehow managed to find some strength to move away from his lips and she was quick to put Jesus and the cross between the two, pushing it against his stomach. If old rules applied in this day an age, he'd be moving away from her. She just prayed to God that those books and stories were right.

[Dai Yosada]

Dai screamed.

He flew back attaching himself to the wall crawling upwards as his black feathery wings burst from his shoulder blades. His hold on her mind trembled and began to crumble. He hissed violently his fangs bared like a frightened tiger, as his eyes went black. The crucifix was causing him pain that he could not bare.

He leapt off the wall, his wings flapping wildly about the room that was too small for thier span. Dai was panicking. He didn't know which way was out, he was getting lost in his desperation to get away from the cross. He lashed out once at the woman before spreading his wings and flying out of the still open balcony doors.

"Dai!"

The voice was sharp and so was the pain in his neck. Dai sat bolt upright from where his body had crumpled on the ground. Angel was crouched over his legs, a small drop of blood visible on his lip. Dai touched his throat and felt the two puncture holes--Angel's first option when bringing him back from being lost. It had worked. The puncture holes healed quickly enough and Dai roared his anger. He didn't care who heard him, if God Himself did, all the better, let the Big Man come down and fight Dai himself.

Dai grabbed Angel's shoulder and shoved him away roughly, standing up, his hair fluttering around his face as he glared with pure hatred toward that second floor apartment. He snatched his fedora off of the ground and straightened his trench coat and gloves, snarling a string of oaths.

"Get in the car, Angel," he barked over his shoulder, still watching those french doors. "We're leaving."

[Salem Renfield]

Salem shot straight up out of bed, gasping for air, trying to get air into her lungs, trying to realize that she was awake from her dream. She lunged to the table and turned the light one. She flinched once, but quickly adjusted to the light. She looked around seeing that nothing had changed. The doors were still shut. She stood up and suddenly screamed, jumping back onto her bed and remembering that just a few minutes ago what was slithering out from underneath it. She leaned on her stomach and bent her head over to see that nothing was under there, just the wooden flooring.

Salem sighed out with relief and leaned back up, glaring around the room, over to the mirror that had its original shape back, seeing her rear end right in the middle of it all. She sighed out and looked at the patio door. She got up and jogged over to it, peering out of the windows to see a black car speeding off in the distance, nothing really unusual. Until she looked back over at her bed.

Salem frowned and leaned off the doors and hesitantly walked over to her bedside table. She glared at her bed, her eyes finding something underneath the covers. She reached out and felt the warmth from where she had been laying and scooted her right hand under the sheets until she felt an object. She pulled it out and almost dropped it.

"What the?" She stared up at her wall and saw a tiny nail sticking out then she looked to her hand. Her crucifix. She felt a shiver run down her spine. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something and she quickly turned, holding the crucifix out in front of her like it were a gun, but she was quick to drop her arms and allow her eyes to follow the small feather that floated down onto the ground. Once it landed she walked over to it and squatted, reaching out her left hand to touch it and to pick it up.

"Oh my god." She stated to herself. "It wasn't a dream."

[Dai Yosada]

Dai ripped off his shirt and threw his hat away from him, nursing the lingering cross pain as he moved into the coffin room and threw open his black coffin, peering down into his purple silk lining and pillow. He glanced over his shoulder as Angel followed quietly.

It wasa little early for them to be going to bed, but Dai was exhausted after all of that and he wanted to make up for the lost sleep the day before. He leaned up and laud down in his casket, slamming the door shut above him. He was plunged into total darkness and he liked it.

With a deep breath he shook his head, sighing it out as he stared at nothing above him. He heard Angel toss his shoes away from him and slide into his coffin. The other vampire closed the lid gently and then was still. Dai listened for another moment before turning over slightly and closing his eyes, cursing the headache he had.

This only heightened his want to have her blood. He needed it and wanted it. And he always got what he wanted.

[Salem Renfield]

"You think I'm crazy don't you? I am sure Vampires, crucifix's, coffins, nightmares...all of this is insane sounding." Salem sighed out and leaned her head into her hands and tried to make sense of it all, which was why she was sitting in a comfortable, bright, therapist's room where her friend sat across from her, staring at her blankly.

"But I promise, I'm not." Salem looked over at her and sighed. "I woke up and it was all there. I am getting coffins sent to me, I'm getting pictures of this guy! I am dreaming of him.." Her friend nodded and was quick to tell her the only thing she needed was good sleep. Salem had left the office with a feeling of disgust in the pit of her stomach. This was a lost cause. She was fighting a battle against, not only a vampire, but everyone els for they didn't believe her.

She had made her way to her office where she had a voice mail from a man she had given the photographs to test the age of the paper. To her surprise they were one of the first kind of photograps to ever be taken. This, of course, confused her.

Salem had decided she waited long enough and ended up opeing more of the presents to see that she had more jeweled boxes with pictures. She didn't understand for each one looked the same, she flipped through one, then another, and another...so on and so forth until she suddenly realized that this was much like a picture book. She had gathered up all the photos that had been delivered to her and put them in order by the small marks on the back of the paper, tallies. She wasn't evne sure if this was even what the purpose for them were, but it was worth a shot. She held the thick pages in her left hand and saw the first photo, nothing, gray. She bit her lowerlip and grabbed the right side of the pictures and put her four fingers on the back and arched it, pushing her thumb down, causing the photographs to be turned into a flip-book. She frowned when her guess was correct.

At first it was grey, then she saw a small noised picture of the man in her dreams, inching closer and closer towards her until all the sheets ran out. But the last one she payed attention to. In the background, peering out behind what looked like a pillar, was a woman, at least she figured it was. She frowned and put the photgraph closely to her face and strained, but it was too old, too blurred.

The phone rang and she jumped and looked over at her shoulder and frowned, wondering who'd be calling her office on the weekend. She grabbed the phone and answered, hearing an unfamiliar voice on the other line.

"Be careful with your new toy. He is quite a rough one. He doesn't play nice very well." Salem heard the man laugh and she glanced over at the objects on the floor.

"Is this M?" The man laughed lightly and she could hear him breathing in deeply.

"Marius." The line went dead before she could say anything else to the man. She slammed the phone down in aggravation. Sure she had always wanted some kind of excitement in her boring life, but she had always figured it'd be the man of her dreams sweeping her off her feet, or winning the lottery. Not having a man invade her dreams.

[Dai Yosada]

Angel was still asleep when Dai left.

It was early, around nine thirty on a Saturday. Few people were awake and about, or at least the streets were mostly empty and Dai didn't really see people beginning to come out. Probably because it was another cold, dreary London day.

He stuffed his hands deeper in his pockets as he tried to ignore the rumbling in his stomach. He was hungry and on a search for food. He had hoped someone would be out at this time, but the farther he walked the bleaker it got. He saw no one, and the ones he did see were either too old, with blood worn out, or too young, with sickening sweet blood. Dai was looking for a teenager, a twenty-something, even in thier thirties...but none seemed to be out and about to day.

He sighed finally as he turned down a street, deciding he might as well go look through the museum to see if he could dig anything else up about the woman. Now that she knew what hurt him, it was unlikely she would be without it.

[Salem Renfield]

Marius....England.....Transylvania....France....Greece. Salem typed anything and everything into her search engine specifically designed to find anything on those who had lived in those main countries pre-18th century. She knew it was silly, but she somehow had this inclination to search wherever she could at any available date. This Marius, although he did not have a last name that she knew of at that moment, it was still worth searching, still worth looking for.

"Bingo!" She screamed loudly, almost jumping out of her seat. She bit her lower lip, embarassing herself. She sat down quiickly, her hands shaking with joy, eyes scanning all the available files on the man. She was quick to click links, connect dots, write information down...but everything she had so far seemed mythical, gossip turned to rumors.

Apparently, what Salem figured to be truth, he had been a very ingenius artist who had disappeared at the turn of the 19th century in London, England. Having been an eccentric man who loved money and art he bought a castle just outside of Salisbury where he could be alone and be with all his riches and art, but his loneliness apparently drove him mad. Salem read more and suddenly was very interested.

So the lonely man ended up wandering into a nearby town late at night and snatch up young prodigies, men and women alike. They all disappeared and soon the town banned the man and even went to trash him home only to find he had created an army of immortals. Companions he apparently needed. Salem, of course, laughed at this information and moved on to others, but it seemed that every story had another spin on his loneliness. One name, in particular, stood out. A young vibrant man who had gone missing in a small Japanese village. Her mind went rabid with thoughts.

She searched high and low for some kind of photograph, but found nothing, no evidence on the boy. But something clicked in her mind. Marius went hiatus in England...perhaps he found her stalker in Japan? She couldn't help but feel a shiver for her mind kept going back to his words. Apparently, he knew the man who was invading her dreams and had for quite some time. Salem looked over at the boxes and shook her head.

"Trying to warn me?" She asked aloud. How would he have known? Salem quickly looked over her shoulder to look out of her grand window from the front of the museum. Was Marius here? Was he watching everything? She shivered and stood up, walking over to the window to peer out at the bright grey sky, jumping slightly when a drop of rain hit the window. It was another fine day in the foggy London town.

[Dai Yosada]

The museum wasn't open to the public today. Only to the workers who wanted to be in this early on a Saturday, which it appeared no one did. Except for one young woman he saw looking through some things in through a large window. Dai smiled genuinely as he looked through the window at her.

Dai had never been an unpleasant person. Not before he was turned. In fact, he had been quite a normal boy in a small fishing village in Japan, years and years before. He'd had a normal life, a normal family, normal friends. He had been a little strange, always, but never like he was now. Dai could still remember vividly sitting on the shore with his father and his best friend and fishing, talking and laughing together. He could still remember well being eighteen years old and meeting that man for the first time.

He wasn't Japanese, no very far from it. And though Dai had not been able to speak English, the man somehow communicated with him. Somehow. He had given his name as Marius. Dai had taken to calling him M. Because he could pronounce it better. He had been older, and charming, and immediately swept Dai's feet out from under him.

Everyone in the village warned him. Told him that M was not a good man, that he was planning things no one wanted. But Dai wouldn't listen. He never listened. So one night, when M came to his home asking that they leave together, Dai had no second thoughts. He simply packed what Marius told him to pack and they made thier way away from the village to a small boat awaiting thier arrival.

After that it was mostly a blur to Dai now. He remembered wondering where they could take the boat to, remembered wondering if he would ever see his family again.

Within twenty-four hours, Dai was dead.

Yet he remembered waking up mext to Marius on a large bed in a large manor that he did not recognize. His body was still and he felt cold. He could remember looking in the mirror. His skin was more pale than it had been before, his eyes darker than before. He couldn't speak Japanese anymore, not really. It had frightened him.

Dai looked away from the museum as his mind wandered to places he didn't want to recall. He suddenly didn't want to go in after the woman. He didn't want to bother her today. It was an odd sensation, having a day lain out before him without having the urge to torment her. It had been his purpose for so many months he had forgotten what he had done before knowing about her.

Flicking out a cigarette, he leaned against the cool wall of the museum and lit it, sucking in the toxins and sighing it out through his nose. It began to drizzle as he stood there. He titled his fedora a little lower to keep the sun and water off of him and smoke his cigarette in silence, as if he were waiting for something. But Dai knew if he began waiting for something, he would wait forever.

[Salem Renfield]

Salem leaned on her desk, her left hand behind her neck while the other played with the mouse, wondering what else to look for on this Marius character, but she couldn't think of anything. She leaned back in her chair sighing out as she closed the computer program trying to think of where else to go. She let out a moan nad rubbed her face, trying to imagine what it must've been like to be snatched from a family, like a monster from a fairy tale. She sniffed slightly when she smelled cigarette smoke, followed by the lingering scent of the man she had been dying to get rid of.

Salem stood up slowly, unsure as to where it was coming from for there was no smoking in the facility, also the building was locked and only certain personnel could enter the museum. She bit her lower lip and put her hands into her pockets and slowly lingered over to the window in her office, stopping just inches away and glancing outside, to the left then to the right. She saw smoke billowing around the panes and suddenly she knew he was out there, if that was even possible.

Salem wasn't afraid, surprisingly, she had her crucifix with her for protection against him, but at that moment she felt like she didn't need it for he wasn't really there. It could have been anyone stopping to have a smoke, in the rain, but she somehow could sense it was him. She bit her lower lip and leaned against teh window and looked out towards where the smoke was moving from. Now that she had learned some information she was more than willing to ask questions...at a safe distance of course.

Salem had never beleived in mythical monsters such as Vampires and Werewolves, but it was kind of hard to deny that there was a vamp ready and willing to suck her dry, and invade her dreams when she was most vulnerable.Som nay things ran through her mind at once, one right on top of the other, the most recent thought being when those pictures were taken of him and who the female was in the distance. But would she ever be able to find out without risking her life? She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to not like the thoughts she was having. She moved away from the window and back to her seat, sitting down and figuring it was better a time than never to get her catalogging done, after all she had all day.

[Dai Yosada]

Dai got a phone call from Angel a few moments after he had leaned against the wall to smoke. The younger vampire couldn't sleep, and woke to find him gone, and wondered where he was. Dai calmly reassured his companion before hanging up and flicking the cigarette butt into a puddle on the steps not far from where he stood.

Cars were beginning to pick up and Dai noticed more civilians walking around than he had when he had come here. Ever since the evening previous, he had been reevaluating his goals. Certainly, he still wanted the power that that woman's blood could provide for him. And he wanted to gain more knowledge that she could provide for him. But he had wondered, breifly, if he were going about it all the wrong way.

Ever since he had been abandoned by his Maker, Dai had been bitter. Bitter and angry and desperate for revenge. On someone. It didn't even necessarily have to be Marius himself. If it was just someone who would feel the same pain he felt, understand the horrors he understood, if he could just show someone, it would be like getting revenge on the Vampire who might as well have ruined him.

Dai had always been called vindictive. He held grudges like most men didn't. He was selfish, or had become so. He had never used to be like this. Never before would he have considered himself above someone else. As a human, he was one of the most caring people. But now...he was someone even he himself didn't know. And in a way, he didn't want to know. He was frightened of himself, the little shreds of humanity he still clung to deep inside, feared what was to become of him.

Dai didn't usually bother himself with thoughts like this. They had no place in a Vampire's world. Yet, over the months that he had tormented this woman, he had begun to draw startling parallels between he and his own maker. He was seeing traits in himself that he had hated so much in Marius. He hated it, hated being like him, hated knowing he was that man's creation, and yet he was turning into him. Blatently ordering about his own offspring, constantly forcing him into doing things he may not have otherwise down. Angel had a loyalty to Dai that was unrivaled and Dai didn't plan on losing him, but he was realizing that towards Angel and towards everyone else--suddenly including this woman--Dai was becoming more and more like Marius.

Dai leaned off the wall as he stuffed his cell phone back into his trench coat and tilted his fedora up a little. He moved in front of the window, peering in at the woman. She had a full view of him now if she decided to look up. He was intrigued by her now, more than just what she could do for him. Her courage the evening previous had given him a side of mortals he hadn't yet encountered.

[Salem Renfield]

Salem sighed and looked at her computer screen. What was her purpose of being there? Why had she even decided to come in today? her answer was oblivious to her now as she stared at the screen, her mind wandering back to the pictures and the man who had phoned her. How had he found her? How did he know her? How did he even know that she was having dreams of that vampire? Salem rubbed her aching eyes and looked up at the window. Her eyes grew wide and she gasped with horror and jumped out of her chair and backed away from the desk as if he were actually in the room.

He stared at her, rain pouring heavily now outside, staring at her with a look she hadn't seen before. He almost looked normal, human. Although she really didn't have any inclination as to what normal would be like for him since she had never seen him in such a way. She bit her lower lip and stared back at him. She wasn't feeling funy, she wasn't hearing things, she wasn't inclined to run or grab her crucifix, and she had all the free will she needed. Salem looked away for good measure, surveying the area around her desk taking note that there was nothing of importance there. She looked back up to find the person still standing there, looking in at her as if she were on display.

"You here to try and kill me again?" She asked, not even sure it he could hear her, but she was almost positive he knew she was frightened and taken highly off guard.

[Dai Yosada]

Dai cocked his head at her as she asked him the question. He leaned back a little, squinting a little and shaking his head.

"Not today," he told her through thier mind connection, as kindly as he could manage, which was some feat for him. He continued to watch her for a long moment before his mind caught onto a strange thought in her mind. A golden casket. Dai couldn't exactly read minds. He could influence minds, and catch snippets of thought if he tried, but every now and again, he would catch a thought here or there. He furrowed his brow slightly and pushed the envelope stepping towards the door.

"A casket?" he asked, this time using actual words as he laid one small hand on the door handle. It unlocked at his beckoning and he slipped inside out of the rain. "Why a golden casket?"

[Salem Renfield]

Her heart skipped beats whene he responded. She wasn't sure whether or not to believe him, so she kept her guard up, staring at him through the window as the rain cascaded around him. Was he completley oblivious to his surroundings. Suddenly she felt like she needed to run away especially when he entered the room, but she figured that if she needed to send him away that her crucifix was right at hand. Salem kept her distance, a good distance from him, but figured to at least ask him the questions that had been revealed to her. But it turned out, the man had questions as well.

"I dunno." She said looking at him almost in disbelief that the man who was stalking her in her dreams was real and was standing in front of her. A vampire at that. A vampire that might have been a missing boy in a Japanese village many centuries ago. She shivered at the thoght for she was unsure of his age and how long he had been like...this.

"Perhaps you could answer that. A man has been sending me little gifts here and there all week. Yesterday was a casket. The day before photograhs." She bit her lower lip and stood looking at him up and down, admiring him in a less fearful manner for he actually looked dress for a friendly visit, although she was unsure if he had actually planned this meeting.

"Why are you scaring me?"

[Dai Yosada]

Dai reached up and took off his fedora to be more respectful and also because it was itching his head. He held it in one hand, the other plunged deep into his trench coat pocket. He wet his lips.

"I told you," he said, moving boldly forward. He passed her and went to her desk, leaning over it, looking at the papers and pictures that were strewn over it. He considered all of it for a moment before turning back and looking at the woman, being able to really examine her. She was average height, black hair, pale skin, and icy blue eyes. She looked more like a vampire than some vampires did. Dai looked around a moment before finding her with his eyes again. "Your blood. It's important to me." He paused.

"This man. Did he give a name to you?"