A Real Nightmare

Giving into the Beast

Katerina peeled her eyes open, realizing that she was right back in Viktor's dungeon, and not only that, she was still chained up and muzzled like a dog. She had no wiggle room in the thick blanket of chains, her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were bound together, and of course, the muzzle prevented her from biting anyone. She was trapped for the moment, she could think of nothing better than coming up with a fool proof plan — one that involved a lot of bloodshed.

While she laid there scheming, she could hear arguing voices in the distance. She listened in closely, trying to decipher who was whom and what they wanted. Katerina picked up bits and pieces of the conversation and just when she thought she needed a plan, one of the people spoke up about Kat and how terrible she looked. Katerina smiled. It was just to easy for her - now it was time to act it all out.

"Celia, we need to get on with this. Katerina needs us, too." Lilly spoke softly.

Celia nodded and began to dig around inside her purse, looking for the real Rosary. When she located it, she opened it up and took out a small, black medicinal dropper. Whatever the contents of the dropper were, both Serenity and Lilly observed the orange and gold-flecked substance beginning to glow with a bright intensity.

"What is that?" Serenity and Lilly both asked simultaneously.

Celia's irises began fracture and glow fluorescent in color, as the glittering contents illuminated.

"It's what Viktor deserves. This serum contains the one and only cure for Vampirism. And the dropper... it means certain death for all Vampire's that drink it. There is only one dropper in the world and I have been waiting until I captured Viktor to choose his fate." Celia replied holding up the green serum in one palm while the black dropper was in the clutched in the other.

"And which one are you going to give him?" Serenity asked.

"Personally, I think he should suffer as the humans do! He should have to suffer tantalizing fear, fear of the night, fear of the unknown, fear of the pain and loss of a loved one, fear of sickness and disease, fear of mortality; fear of the only thing you had being taken away from you!" Celia's tone was rigid, her voice began rising, her features were hard and distant.

Lilly began to panic, anxiety quivered in her voice as she disagreed with Celia, "But you can't give him the cure! Katerina needs the cure for herself, that way if any Vampire tries to do this to her again, they will die once they bite her. She needs that cure way more then he does!" Lilly screeched.

"May I intercede here, ladies?" Adali asked calmly.

"As I understand it, the dropper will cause death to all Vampire's - which includes Viktor, whereas the serum that holds the cure only cures Vampirism for life and does not bring death upon Vampire's. Why not give the cure to Katerina, and give my Brother here, the serum?" Adali stated matter of factly.

Adali knew it wasn't his fight to fight, but he couldn't stand there while the witch gave Viktor the only cure for Vampirism while Katerina had a chance to be turned human again once this was all said and done with. She deserved some peace of mind, she deserved to be human again, mostly, she deserved to never go through this again and he was going to see to it that Katerina got that cure.

Viktor butted in, "You're wrong, all of you are. The cure kills Vampire's, too. Whatever age you were turned at, your body begins to rewind back to that time. You desiccate, you rot, your flesh begins to liquify and fall off the bone. I would most certainly die if you gave me that cure. It doesn't matter, though, does it? You're killing me either which way it goes. So, come on, let's get this over with."

"You're right, Viktor. I am going to kill you either way, but one way is a peaceful death while the other is so full of pain and torment that you couldn't describe how beautiful it will be to see. You deserve this pain and torment, and you will get it one way or another."