In a dark and smoke-filled hallway of Grady Memorial Hospital. 19th floor.
*Cough – Cough - Cough *
"Keep moving," the doctor urged the nurse beside her.
"Mrs Harker's office is just ahead.".
They burst through the heavy oak double doors at the end of the hall, slamming them shut and locking them with trembling hands.
The office was terrifyingly calm. A stark contrast to the claustrophobic hell of the hallway.
It's vast and airy. Fed by the night breeze coming from the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows that led to the veranda.
Sitting behind a massive desk was a woman. A pale woman in her thirties with an elegance that felt timeless.
She was motionless, her eyes fixed on her window. Watching the city burn right before her eyes.
"President Mina!" The doctor gasped, rushing forward.
Mina didn't flinch.
"President, look at me!" The doctor slammed her hands on the desk.
"The military has bombed the city! What are we going to do now?!".
Mina looked up meeting the doctor's eyes. "Director," she said softly. "There's nothing to worry about".
"What are you talking about?!" the young nurse cried out, pointing at the window. "What if the next bomb hit the hospital directly?".
Mina stood up slowly, smoothing her suit jacket. She walked towards the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the back wall.
Although the books have been scattered on the floor. The shelves remained intact.
She slid it to the right. Revealing a hidden passageway behind it.
"Follow me inside," Mina commanded.
"Is there another exit?".
"Just follow me,"
The doctor grabbed the young nurse's hand, and they followed Mina inside. Hope ignites inside their hearts. The secret door clicked shut behind them.
The corridor was eerily dark. It was a long, stone tunnel that seemed to stretch throughout the entire hospital.
As they walked, the doctor and the nurse's eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Along the wall to her left hung the tattered remains of a medieval tunic bearing a dragon crest.
Next to it, a rusted suit of chainmail. Further down, the distinct red coat of a British officer from the 18th century, followed by the field grey trench coat used in World War I. There is even a uniform of a US soldier during World War 2.
"These are war uniforms. From different eras. Why are they here?" The young nurse asked.
Mina didn't look back. She kept her pace steady. "They are not mine. They are mementos of battles fought long ago."
"Battle? Whose battle?".
"You'll meet him soon.".
The two looked at each other, confused.
Mina stopped and turned, smiled innocently at the two "I am merely the caretaker of this place".
She turned back and walked toward the end of the corridor. The tunnel opened up into a circular stone chamber. It was dark, very dark.
In the center of the room lay four wooden coffins. Three were modest. But the one in the center was massive.
Mina walked to the foot of the great black coffin. She bowed her head.
"My master, I am here" Mina proclaimed, her voice echoing off the stone walls.
"Humanity has failed. A war has begun. A war between the living and the dead."
A heavy, grinding sound filled the chamber.
The Doctor and the nurse behind Mina tremble at the sight. The lid of the black coffin began to open.
From the box, a pale hand rose, the fingers long and elegant, the nails sharp as glass. Slowly, fluidly, a figure sat up. He was dressed in a black tuxedo.
His eyes opened. It's blood red. His hair is long and silvery. His ears pointed. His sharp fangs are visible.
"Ahhh!" The young nurse schricked. Hiding behind the doctor. Shivering in fright.
He looked at Mina, then at the two terrified women.
"Why did you bring two cattle this time Mina?"
"C-cattles?" The doctor and the nurse exchanged a glance. Then turned their gazes at the being once again "Do.. Do you mean us?".
They instinctively took a few steps back. Wanting to run away from the being staring at them.
"W-who? No what are you?" they stammered their voice cracking.
"I am Dracula".
Dracula mused, looking at the two young women in front of him. Then he disappeared in front of the nurse's eyes. She gasped, her breath hitching in her throat.
"Ahhh! Nooo! Get away from me!" The young nurse begged.
One second Dracula was in the coffin, and the next, he was tightly holding the young nurse.
The nurse thrashed wildly. She raised her hands to claw at the withered, claw-like hands gripping her shoulders, her mouth opening to scream.
"Look at me,"
Dracula forced her chin up. His eyes were glowing brightly red. Locked onto hers. The nurse's struggle ceased instantly.
Dracula's gaze isn't just about staring. It's a psychological weight, that strips away a person's autonomy to think.
Her raised fists halted in mid-air, then slowly uncurled, dropping limp to her sides. Her breathing slowed. The terror in her face melted away, replaced by a vacant, glazed serenity.
She tilted her neck to the side, offering herself to him. With a low, animalistic growl, Dracula buried his fangs in the crook of her neck.
"No! Stop!" The doctor screamed.
She lunged forward, planning to separate the two. But a grip like iron clamped onto her wrist. She was jerked back violently.
"President, let me go!" The Doctor cried, struggling against Mina's hold.
"You must not interfere"
"It's killing her! He is infected as well!"
"No he is not. The master is far beyond those mindless beasts" Mina forced her to look at the gruesome scene. The doctor's heart shatters at the sight.
The feeding was gruesome in its efficiency. As Dracula drank, the color began to drain from the nurse's skin.
The flush of life in her cheeks faded. Her lips, once pink, turned blue.
Overwhelmed by the cruelty of it, the Doctor's legs gave out. She dropped to her knees on the cold stone floor, covering her mouth to stifle her sobs, tears streaming through her fingers.
As the vitality left the nurse, it flooded into Dracula.
The transformation was visceral. The brittle, silvery hair that hung like cobwebs around his face began to darken, the grey retreating as a wave of midnight black washed over it, becoming thick and lustrous.
The pointed, bat-like tips of his ears retracted, smoothing out into the shape of a human.
The dry, wrinkles vanish. The sunken cheeks rose, flushed with stolen vitality.
Dracula released the nurse. Her lifeless body collapsed onto the cold floor.
Dracula became young, handsome, and full of vitality.
He ran a tongue over his red-stained lips and looked at Mina.
"What is happening outside?"
--
(Prologue)
Two men opened a wooden crate. One slashed the throat of the being lying inside, and the other stabbed its heart.
"It is over," Van Helsing whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. "The monster turned to dust."
But as he looked up to the sky to offer a prayer of thanks, his eyes caught a flicker of movement. High above was a massive black bat, flying, blocking his view of the sun.
It wasn't flying away. It was watching them.
Suddenly, the golden sunlight flickered. It shuddered like a dying candle flame.
The bitter cold of the mountain pass began to melt away, replaced by the rhythmic, mechanical 'clack-clack-clack'.
The sky didn't turn to dusk. It vanished entirely.
Van Helsing's eyes widened in horror. The snow beneath his boots turned into the plush red carpet of a luxury train car.
The jagged rocks of the Transylvanian mountains morphed into the mahogany walls of the Orient Express.
"What... what is this?" He stammered.
Standing by the cabin door was a woman. Their trusted companion. Along with a stranger.
In one of her hands, she held a small, empty glass vial. On the other hand, a knife dripping with crimson fluids.
In the stranger's hand lies Van Helsing's prized crucifix.
"The sedative worked quickly, my Master. And your servant beside me has removed all the holy objects from their bodies" the woman murmured, her voice a hollow shell. While looking at the large bat flying outside the window.
Noticing the knife in the woman's hand. Van Helsing looks around to check his companions. Only to see a gruesome scene.
Crimson fluids dripping to the floor from the slit on their necks. All his companions are now sitting lifeless.
"Mina what have you done!"
She ignored Van Helsing's protest. Kicked one of their companion's weapon across the floor and looked at the stranger as he swept the sacred wafers from the table, grinding them into the carpet with his boots.
The bat outside the window didn't fly away. It dissolved into a thick, putrid mist that seeped through the cracks of the window frame, coalescing in the center of the narrow cabin.
Dracula stood before them. He was not ash. He was not dead. He looked more vital than ever. Smiling menacingly at them. His eyes are blood red.
Dracula ignored van Helsing, turning his gaze entirely upon the woman.
"You have done a splendid job my dear Mina"
Van Helsing tried to rise, his face pale with horror. "She… was under your control the whole time? .. The pass... the sun... It was all an illusion?".
"You have fallen from my trap the moment you decided to use Mina against me. She drank my blood. I could see what she sees. Feel what she felt. Know what she think" Dracula sneered. He looked at Van Helsing with utter contempt.
"Did you think I wouldn't do anything… while you're stuck here in this train for days.. before reaching your destination?".
Dracula leaned in closer, his eyes burning red.
Van Helsing's eyes widened in pure, unadulterated terror. He threw his head back, his face contorted in an expression of absolute agony.
"You knew everything from the start? Noo…" Van Helsing's voice cracked, growing into a guttural, hollow sob that echoed against the rattling windows of the train.
"No! NOOOOOO!"
(End of Prologue)