Together with her, the entire gloomy cave suddenly came to life. The light of the fire spread over the darkness and illuminated the bizarre stones of the walls, endowing everything around with a magical, ominous beauty, and the terrible figure of a girl in the middle of the cave by the fire shone with an otherworldly light.
Her light clothes fluttered in a fiery whirlwind, her hair in the darkness looked like tongues of flame, and her hands, white as snow, extended towards the fire in a silent, witchcraft gesture.
He slowly walked closer to the girl and stood right behind her. His lifeless gaze now shone with something malevolent.
“Show me everything, Madeleine,” he whispered to the beauty, “tell me what fate has in store for me.”
His words sounded like an incantation in the silence, and, obeying his command, she straightened up to her full height. A bright fire was reflected in her huge eyes, there was no real life in them. They sparkled with deathly emptiness, and she herself lived the magical life of the vampire. She was killed by a vampire, she lived and at the same time was dead, she was a living dead, a ghost of flesh, a ghost of a fire witch. At any moment she was once again serving the demon and the secrets of witchcraft.
She crossed her arms over her chest and quickly began to whisper indistinct words that echoed in a whirlwind of madness over the fire. Madness was reflected in her eyes, which at that moment became the eyes of a wild forest beast, a beast of fire. The depths of the flame and the depths of the blood of centuries parted before her gaze.
“From century to century,” she whispered, “you are the bloody legend of centuries, you are the king of devils, the lord of nightmares, the lord of eternity, you are the bloody curse of the earth, death from hell, but the power of blood is not eternal. Death will pay with death, love will kill you.
“Speak,” he whispered, and the uncontrollable fierce anger that sounded in his voice echoed in a threatening echo throughout the cave, “make the fire tell you all who she is, in whom the power of life is stronger than the blood of centuries.
“There has never been and never will be like her on earth,” Madeleine whispered as if in deep oblivion.
“She will combine beauty, daring and noble, and the heart of a hero. She will be half human, half dream. Even a magical dream is unable to reflect the purity of beauty that will be embodied in it. She is the one that is more beautiful than anyone in the world, she is eternal love herself, and her name will say everything for herself. Dreams and dreams will merge in it, and the only sincere love in this world of darkness.”
Words with sharp pain burst from her chest, as if someone else spoke for her, causing her unbearable pain, her body shook in silent sobs. The desire to know everything instilled even greater madness in his cruel heart.
– Who? he said. – Tell me who is she?”
“A dream,” the girl whispered, and the fire in her eyes flashed with renewed vigor, “the daughter of the most beautiful queen in the world, the beauty of her heart will become your death.”
She slowly, with difficulty, turned to face him. Her weak body was trembling violently, life was leaving the dying soul, but the power of the fire gave determination to her heart. She held out her hand to the man in black, and the fire illuminated the girl’s beautiful face. Slowly, drawing out the words, as if in some kind of dream, she. With difficulty moving her dead lips, she whispered barely audibly:
“Maerlin, beware of her,” these words, the last words of life before death came, echoed madly and menacingly through the caves.
Her prophecy confirmed what the bloody demon had known for centuries.
No matter what evil has settled in this sinful world, no matter what pain the darkness and hatred of misfortune may harbor, but, like eternal love, a true dream is immortal, and it is able to avenge itself with an even greater evil of its beauty. Having uttered the last words that took the last drop of life from the dying body, the beauty shuddered. The last cry of pain and inhuman fear froze on her lips, and her eyes stared into the void with their unseeing gaze. The imprint of death again lay on the beautiful face, the last spark of life extinguished, giving way to cold and terrible death.
The death of a young beauty could not strike pity in the demon’s cruel heart. He silently looked at her bloody corpse with his icy gaze, in which there was a glimpse of gloating.
“You are dead, fire witch,” he whispered with a cold grin, “but your flame in its last hour could not tell the truth. The joys of life will not destroy me. I am eternal with my bloody curse. As long as it lives, so do I. You are my death, but of the two of us, it is not I who will die, but you, Maerlin, the eternal dream.
He clenched his hand into a fist, and the witch’s body jerked in the last moment of life and froze, bleeding. At that very moment, at the other end of the cave, the blonde beauty cried out in horror, and the gaze of the black devil immediately turned to her. She was here again, against all odds, like an angel of light and revenge for her lost love. Her lush hair was disheveled, and an expression of horror and pain was frozen on her face and in her blue eyes in the light of the darkness. They stood opposite each other: an angel of light and an angel of darkness, black and light beauty, an idol of revenge and an idol of darkness, but something brought them closer together in the moment of witchcraft death.
“Why did you do this,” she whispered as if in disbelief. – Why did you kill her?
Her questioning gaze could not find an answer on the impassive face of the bloody demon.
“You killed my love, and you killed my life,” the fear on her beautiful face suddenly gave way to wild rage, “I hate you, I hate you,” she shouted, “let the fire witch’s prediction turn out to be true. You cannot defeat the dream itself.
She darted from her place with her last cry of rage and rushed out of the castle, and the bloody demon grimly looked after her, bursting into evil and cruel laughter.
He turned and looked at the fire that flashed with the anger in his eyes.
“Forces of darkness, forces of blood, forces of hell,” he whispered, and his wild whisper merged with the hiss of fire, “catch up with her, hold her back, instill fear in her soul, defeat the dream of her beauty.
She did not hear his words, she quickly ran out of the castle into the cold of the dark night. She felt evil around her, wanted to run away from him, but she did not know from which side it could attack her. She looked around. The summer night was quiet. The full moon shone in the gloomy skies above the gloomy castle and its rock, illuminating everything with its golden light.
The beauty rushed away along the narrow path, but immediately a thorn scratched her. Thickets of thorny branches grew in her path, where before there was no shadow of them. Her hands were scratched, and blood oozed from them to the hem of her tattered dress, but she ran forward through the thickets of thorns, farther and farther from the blue hell that had taken her love and life, and now threatened her with death. The thorns grew thicker and thicker, a whole forest of it grew around a small path. It clung to her hair, tore at her dress and scratched her face. On her way, bloody ghosts stood up, crying, threatening, beckoning, demanding that she returns.
“Turn around,” shouted the fiery ghost of a bloody Madeleine, “look what your dreams have done to me, my sister.
She ran on, oblivious to the screams of the ghosts or the numerous scratches from the thorns.
“Help me, Emily,” Madeleine shouted to her.
She turned around. The bloody ghost stretched out his hands to her, and she almost went to him, but then the moon returned to her for a moment the ghost of the one she loved and whose life was forever destroyed by her pure love.
“Run,” he whispered to her. Pleading was reflected on his handsome face, he loved her even after his death. He did not leave her in a moment of danger – run, my love, run away from the cliff, and the power of darkness will no longer be able to catch up with you, I beg you to save yourself and her, our child. Run, don’t turn around, Emily, run away from the power of the blood over your soul.
His call struck her heart like lightning. She had to run away, she had to save her last hope. She quickly ran away, deflecting the thorns with her hands.
“Come back to me, Emily,” sounded behind, but did not turn around. Only by going down from the cliff, she could again find freedom from the forces of evil. Her love sustained her, and hope remained in her heart. She knew that her dreams are stronger than the forces of darkness. Screams, screams, noise – everything merged into one in her frightened mind, but she did not stop. The faster she moved away from the cursed castle, the weaker the power of darkness over her soul became. The screams behind her, the bloody hands, the devil’s thorns – it all had to end at the foot of the cliff. Finally she ran to it. Here the mountain path ended, and with it the power of darkness ended. She, breathing heavily, pressed against the ledge of the rock. Her whole body groaned with unbearable pain, but she was alive, which means that hope itself remained.
“Come back to me, Emily,” was still heard from the cliff, where the deathly pale Madeleine stood in a fiery dress, but she could no longer see her. Fatigue fell on her. Her heavy breathing echoed over the shore near the cliff and mixed with the sound of the sea, which illuminated the beauty’s tired face with its blue. She moved away from the cliff and tried to walk a few steps in the darkness of the night, but only the old sea cemetery greeted her with its gloomy, gothic beauty. Stone crosses, gloomy graves, among them, in the eternal peace of death, lay her love. Her beloved was dead, sudden death was sent to him by the forces of darkness.
Slowly, convulsively holding her side, she reached the middle of the cemetery. Tears of grief and despair gushed from her beautiful eyes, and the beauty involuntarily fell to her knees before the lonely grave.
– Forgive me, my love,” she whispered, “forgive me, if it were not for me, you would be alive, but I am glad alone, you died before the forces of evil touched your soul, and now they do not have power over you.”
“You’re sure of that,” the same cruel, mocking voice rang out over her.
She shuddered all over at the sound of a voice so well known to her, and her wary gaze quickly ran all around. Suddenly cold hands with long sharp claws grabbed her, squeezing her shoulders with their icy weight and strength.
She almost screamed at the sudden wave of sudden fright that came to her heart.
Jumping to her feet, she realized that again, barely getting out of there, she entered the realm of evil, and this time nothing would have been able to rescue her from here. She ruined her love, and now the hour of reckoning has come. She also ruined her own life.
She tried to look her enemy in the face, but a clawed hand held her shoulders with its inhuman strength.
“You are still as beautiful as you were many, many years ago. Time spares you and your face. After all, it still has so much nobility, so much purity and innocent beauty. Your heart is not subject to time, time is not powerful over you because your heart is not the heart of a person, it is the heart of the dream itself.
“It’s you again,” she burst out. For the first time in many years, the memory of the past returned to her again.
“Yes, from the depths of time,” he responded, “fate itself helped me to find you.”
She shuddered, and a clawed paw ran over her beautiful face. There was no longer any sea or rocks around, only darkness enveloped the gloomy crosses and Emily’s blond hair shining in the darkness with golden fire. She cautiously scanned everything around, but the clawed hand, as before, tightly squeezed her shoulder, preventing her from turning around.
“You betrayed me, Emily,” he whispered, “and you were one of us, but your heart was split in half, it became half the heart of a man.
“I don’t want to be the evil creature of the night anymore,” courage returned to her and filled her beautiful blue eyes with rage, forcing her to half-turn, “I don’t want to be what you have become, I don’t want to be death, I don’t want to be evil.”
“Yes, your beauty, it does not allow you to like that, but you betrayed me, Emily, you fell in love with a man, but love cannot save your soul from the power of darkness, even if you have the beauty of a dream and a human heart, but you were born at night, and you also my child, a child of blood.”
They stood, black darkness and radiant light, evil and good, monster and beauty, a beautiful blonde girl against the background of a terrible black figure. The forces of darkness pursued the beautiful princess. The bloody flames of hell from the unfathomable darkness of the ages haunted her all her life with the cold wind of a cruel legend.
A feeling of pain, emptiness and unbearable sadness filled Emily’s heart, bursting in the throes of terrible losses, suffering, but still managing to retain a drop of kindness.
Bitter tears poured from the eyes of the beauty, full of grief and confusion, and yet they managed to make her face even more wonderful, crying about the misfortunes of her love, a beautiful angel.
“I have nothing more to grieve for, demon,” she whispered through her tears, “you stole my dreams.”
“Dreams of youth, my princess, this is just the remorse of nature, cruel, evil, depriving, like life. You did know their charms on yourself, but you are a dream, Emily, you have embodied all the beauty of a ruthless world, for which people in vain plead with a merciless fate. You are a beauty, and even at the expense of the suffering of others. Do you hate yourself for that?”
“Not for that,” she whispered, “for the fact that, by the will of fate, I became a nightmare creature of the night, like you, a dark creature of evil with a soul full of darkness and secrets, eternally thirsting for torment and blood. I hate myself and you for this, but at the last moment of repentance of my soul, I pray to the God forgotten by me to bring to life the witchcraft prophecy. May your death finally find you. May, when I die, she will kill you, a dream. Maerlin, remember she is your death and your curse, which, in spite of everything. will come true.
His evil eyes lit up with fierce fire, and long claws sank deep into the beauty’s shoulder.
“Damn you, Emily,” he hissed, “damn your witchcraft beauty. You betrayed your heart, you became a human, and with this you ruined your immortal love. You are cursed forever with me. Unless your daughter Maerlin saves you, she can’t. She bears the same curse, she is half human, half her soul belongs to the call of the blood. Only she can become my death, but this will not happen, she will die today the same night as you.””
She shuddered involuntarily. Her death stood before her in the face of a nightmarish demon. She will die like the fiery witch Madeleine, like thousands of other victims of the demon, like the one she loved.
“Emily,” he said gently and passionately, and the claws of a terrible hand with a lightning movement passed along the snow-white neck of the young girl, and as if from a sharp dagger, a long bloody trail remained on her.
A wild cry of unbearable pain pierced the silence of the lonely cemetery. He became a prophecy and a curse, condemning a bloody demon to torment, who invented new tortures for people, but was not used to suffering himself.