That night, I had a different dream. I wasn’t in the mansion, nor was I in the time I knew. I was in the past, lying on the ground amidst rubble and dust. Around me, several prisoners laid crushed by rubble or impaled on spikes that were spread out across the floor. I had managed to avoid the trap, but only by a few inches. I had been hit with an arrow while the other prisoners and myself tried to flee into the depths of the enemy tombs.
The floor gave way and we fell. I still lived, but just barely. The arrow pierced my side. I was bleeding profusely. I didn’t have much time. My thoughts were only on Rayna and what had happened to her. Surely they would have killed her for conspiring with me, but if I made it out, I would find her.
Death was coming, though, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I knew this memory all too well, but for some strange reason or twist of fate, that night as I slept by Natalia’s side, the missing pieces revealed themselves.
A gaunt and emaciated man emerged from the darkness in the back of the chamber.
“You’re dying by the looks of it,” he whispered.
He sounded like he was in pain himself. He hid his mouth from me with his hand as he spoke.
“Please, help me,” I whispered.
“Aye, I can help you, but it is not a fate I would wish upon any man, even my enemies.”
“I must find her, I must save her,” I said.
“You would do this, at any cost?”
I coughed. Blood splattered across the sand covered ground in front of me.
“At any cost.”
“Very well, I will take you to her.”
The man dragged me across the ground by my arm. The pain was overwhelming. My screams echoed through the chamber, but no one responded, not even him.
“I will give you life eternal, but it will come with a cost. You will have the chance to save your beloved, if indeed she still lives, but you will live long after she is dust. Do you wish to take this burden from me?”
I was delirious. I shouldn’t have said yes, I should have died there!
“Yes.”
“Very well.”
The man lifted me onto his shoulders and I saw the statue of the goddess that now sat in the vault of my home. He lifted my arm into the statue’s mouth and its stone fangs dug into my skin. I had a brief moment of clarity as it drained everything from me. I looked over and saw the man’s vitality return to him. He took his hand away from his mouth and I saw a pair of fangs. They fell out like children’s teeth and landed on the ground in front of him. Joy filled his face as my vision went black.
***
I awoke to the sound of yelling. The lights in the bedroom illuminated and I saw a portly fellow stroll into the room. He swayed as if drunk and waved a pistol around that he had clutched in his hand.
“How dare you! How dare you steal my property!” the man screamed.
“I climbed out of the bed and pulled on my robe. Richard stood in the doorway behind the drunken man.
“I’m sorry sir, he threatened to kill me!”
I waved Richard off. “Go, I’ll handle this.’
“Did you sleep with her? Huh? Did you?”
I nodded.
The man pulled back the hammer on his revolver and growled.
“I had people lined up, people who paid good money for her first time! Now you took that from me!”
“I assure you, I can offer you something far more valuable than her in exchange. It’s just inside that vault there,” I said.
The man looked to the vault and then back to me. “In there? Unless you got another virgin woman in there, I’m not interested!”
“Constantin, don’t do this for me. I’ll go with him,” Natalia said.
The man spit on the ground. “I don’t want you back, whore! I want what’s owed to me!”
I looked back at Natalia. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”
I typed in the code and opened the vault. The man followed me inside and looked at the statue with contempt.
“This is it? Seriously? How is this supposed to help me?” he asked.
“It’s not the statue that’s priceless. It’s what it does. Go ahead, give it your arm,” I said.
“What’s it going to do?” the man asked.
“It’s going to make you immortal. Would you like that?”
“You’re shitting me!”
“Even if I am lying, what do you have to lose?” I asked.
The man raised his arm and placed it into the statue’s grasp. It grabbed him and lifted him off the ground. He screamed and dropped his gun as it bit into him. I picked up the gun and watched as it drained him entirely until he looked like nothing more than a fleshy sack of blood. I backed away from the scene and looked down as the fangs fell out of my mouth.
I felt a rush of adrenaline as I ran to the vault entrance. I pushed the door closed and it locked. I stepped back and fired the gun into the control panel, sealing him inside.
Natalia was dressed and standing beside the bed.
“What happened?” she asked.
I laughed as a smile swept over my face.
“Constantin, you have to go, the sun is coming up!” she said.
I shook my head. “No, I want to see it.”
I turned and ran down the hall. Natalia chased after me, begging me not to do it, but I had to know, I had to know if it was truly over.
Just like my dream, I approached the doors and grabbed the knobs with shaking hands. I pulled the door open and ran outside as the first rays of sunlight illuminated the world. I closed my eyes and felt it wash over me. I felt warmth, live giving warmth. Tears slid down my face, but when I touched them they weren’t crimson, they were real.
I looked over as Natalia stood in the doorway with a shocked expression on her face.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
I ran over and wrapped my arms around her. I felt her warm skin against mine.
“It’s over, the curse is broken!”
The nightmare had finally ended. I was awake. My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding in my chest.
I was alive.