A Beautiful Morning

Many hours later, Vlad is awoken by his hellhound Zoltan, the fluff-filled, alchemically animated companion roughly tugging away at the bed sheets insulating the boy with his teeth. Although still tired, so warm and comfy in his bed it takes him several minutes to rouse himself from his slumber, he eventually does get up. Half awake, groggy, and unable to comprehend the reality of consciousness, Vlad slowly loosens his grip on his covers, allowing Zoltan to free him from the heavy entrappment of his duvet, pulling off the several blankets also layered over his form.

Now unrestrained by the admittedly cozy and enticing covers, Vlad shivers at the contact of cold morning air on his skin. Yawning loudly, he slowly wrenches open his eyes, blearily resigning himself to the reality that he can't just stay in bed all day. After all, he's got to go to school. ".... School!!!" Vlad exclaims, suddenly bursting up into a sitting position in realization and exitement.

The sleepy haze surrounding his thoughts had prevented the enormity of such a change from properly sinking in. For the first time in his life, Vladimir Dracula is going to school like a normal, human boy. Needless to say, yesterday didn't count. What with him acting and planning and plotting, loath as he is to admit it, and the exhaustion that followed him throughout the day, it didn't really FEEL like a new beginning.

That's not to say that he didn't enjoy it, because he did, but he'd prefer not to think of, or even acknowledge the fact that, the method used to acquire his normal school life was, inherently, quite vampiric.

"Good morning Master Vlad!" Zoltan barks from his place beside the bed, capable of speech now that his mouth isn't filled with the fabric of the boys covers.

Scrambling out of bed, Vlad mutters a quick "Morning Zoltan." in response to the wolf's exuberant greeting, before dashing to the tower room window. Unlocking the rusted iron latch of his windows oak doors, Vlad throws them open. The early morning light and the cool morning air greet the boy as he appreciates the reds, oranges, purples, and blues of the sunrise, well aware of how limited these kinds of mornings really are for him.

And there he stands for the next ten minutes, silently taking in every detail of the beautiful scene before him. The heat on his skin from the morning sun, the contrasting bite of cold from every breeze, the dissipation of the shadows stretching across the town of Stokely, and more than anything else the way the colours in the sky bleed into each other is such a mesmerising fashion.

Then, after he finishes committing the moment to memory, still awed by the majesty of the morning sky, he appraises the scene in interest. Taking note of the sun's height and the level of light in the sky, he estimates the time to be between five and half six. Ruefully, Vlad laments to himself "I really need to get a watch..."

Turning from the view over Stokely, Vlad streches his limbs as he walks his way over to his bed. Looking down at himself, he, for the first time today, acknowledges the remaining presence of his school uniform on his body. Feeling how his sweat soaked clothes stick uncomfortably to his skin, he grimaces, grabbing at his shirt and tearing it over his head, bringing the overlapping jumper off with it.

Removing his shirt from inside his jumper, Vlad tosses the unclean shirt into the pile of clothes he'd designated as in need for washing. After throwing the still mostly fine jumper onto the bed with his school blazer, which seems to have come off at some point during the night, the pre-teen vampire moves over to his dresser. Grabbing a new set of school clothes from his drawers, bar the jumper and blazer, Vlad gets changed for school, dumping the remaining filthy clothes onto the ever growing pile of laundry-to-be....

An hour later, he makes his way to the dining room, cleaned up, dressed, and his backpack, containing all his school stuff for the day, slung over his arm. Obviously he'd woken up a bit earlier than necessary, having plenty of time before school even after getting ready at such a leisurely pace. And as such, no-one else in the castle is about.

Seeing such a rare opportunity as what it is, Vlad plonks his backpack onto the dining table, takes out his school books and his pencil case, and sets about getting a start on his homework. Since he was new, all homework he'd been given was pretty easy, and wasn't due for a few days yet, but that isn't any reason to put it off, now is it? 'Probably best to get this out of the way. No telling what dad'll do if he sees me being a good student.'

Of course, while that is a part of why Vlad's doing his homework, it wasn't all of it. In truth, he's just bored and uncomfortable. It isn't often Vlad gets up this early, and what with the new town, new castle, and new routine, he doesn't really have all that much he can do. He's already dressed for school, so he can't really go about exploring the decrepit castle just to get his uniform all mucked up, and they don't own a TV so he can't just lounge about all morning. 'And to top it all off, it's just too bloody quiet...'

Yes. That too. He doesn't like it being too quiet. Don't get him wrong, he appreciates a bit of quiet as much as anybody, but at a certain point the silence stops being peaceful. When there's just too little noise everything feels lonely, almost empty in a way. At least in Vlads opinion.

Back in Transylvania, there was very little quiet for the Dracula family, not that they even wanted it. No, they sought out the noise, the busyness, looked for it wherever they could. After all, what else were they to do? Neither Vlad or Ingrid really had any friends, what with them being the only vampires in the locale and dad forbidding any contact with the village folk, and it wasn't often they got guests to interact with.

As far as socialization and entertainment went, they only really had each other. Well, Vlad and Ingrid at least. Their father would just flap off to visit old friends whenever he wanted someone to talk to.

This resulted in them spending most of their time together, though not together. They'd occupy the same space and do their own separate things, only really acknowledging the others presence to make jokes, play pranks, and snipe at eachother verbally. Maybe it wasn't all too amicable all the time, and maybe it got out of hand on occasion, but it was something. It was company, an absence of boring, nothing silence. God, how they'd gotten sick of silence.

And so Vlad busies himself. He settles into his school books and focuses on the maths and the english and the correct way to put his thoughts into words and numbers for each. After a while, when he finishes his homework and has it checked for any mistakes, he raises his head from his work and lets himself be released from his immersion. He hears noise, and he smiles.

Five minutes later Renfield scuttles into the dining room, being taken back by Vlads presence there. He grumbles about something Vlad can't quite make out as he gets to work, going about his regular chores. Another twenty and Ingrid appears, waltzing into the dining room like she was owed money or something, her steps confident and steady, a clear rythm to her movement.

After he'd finished his homework and noticed the others getting up, Vlad had spent a while just doodling in the margins of his work books, wasting away his time as he waited for the other members of the Dracula household to arrive. And a few minutes after Renfield showed up, the servant had gotten around to setting the table for breakfast, meaning Vlad had to put all his stuff back into his bag and move said bag to the floor.

And so Vlad, having nothing to do for the next while except think or watch Renfield, is already looking at ingrid when she enters the room, all style and self-assuredness as she sways in her personalised school uniform.

Pulling out a chair opposite Vlad, Ingrid drops the skull, coffin, and bat pattern backpack slung over her shoulder to the ground, before sliding smoothly into her seat and staring at him. If she's surprised to see him up earlier than her, or surprised to find him staring right back at her, she doesn't show it.

Silence streaches between them as they cast analytical gazes at one another. Ingrid, after a few moments of silence, rolls her eyes at Vlad, irritated by his lack of reaction to her presence. "So, you're awake extra early today. Wanna make a good impression at school?" She asks mockingly in that derisive baby voice people use, obviously not in too good a mood.

Vlad nods, tone almost daring as he responds to ingrids question. "Yeah actually, I do. Something wrong with that?" Vlad quirks an eyebrow as he finishes speaking, tilting his head slightly and smirking at his sister.

At Vlads question, Ingrid frowns, voice biting as she sends what she means as an insult his way. "Garlic, you're such a goody two-shoes. I bet when you turn sixteen you won't even get fangs!"

"Lucky me." Vlad states, smirking even wider at the the look of disgust that marrs ingrids features upon hearing his words.

Renfield, apparently having completed his more pressing chores, re-enters the dining room for what must be the millionth time this morning, carrying with him a silver tray stacked with various different breakfast items. Of course, most of these are vampire breakfast items, and are therefore utterly disgusting, but a box of Count Chocula is luckily among the few edible options.

Placing the silver tray down between the two arguing siblings, who stop in their back and forth upon finally noticing his presence, Renfield let's out a gruff "Here. Breakfast." before turning around and trudging out of the room.

Looking down at the selection of breakfast, both siblings eyes fix on the box of Count Chocula, before looking back to each other. A moment, then two. The peace is broken simultaneously as both siblings reach for the cereal, arms darting out for the box of chocolaty goodness.

It was moments like this Ingrid relished being the older of the two of them, as she was bigger. Longer arms. Pulling her prize closer to her, she smiles as Vlad pouts over his loss, the murmured "Cereal. That's soooo vampiric of you." from her little brother going completely ignored in the wake her victory.

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Chapter 13: 1826 words (not including this bit)

Sorry I didn't post a chapter last week. I wrote an entire chapter but it took forever, was a total slogg to get through, and I just wasn't really feeling it, like, AT ALL. And, seeing as I'm doing this mostly for my own satisfaction, I didn't think it best to post the chapter.

So, I salvaged what I could of the chapter, repurposing and recontextualizing paragraphs that I liked to fit a more satisfying and appealing narrative, and I made a chapter i actually like. Although, as I changed the narrative ever so slightly, I had to change the previous chapters title, as it wouldn't be a multiple part thing.

Regardless, I'm pretty damn happy with the vibe of this chapter, especially when compared to the previous failed iteration of this chapter, and i hope you guys and girls are too. Hopefully you don't feel too mad about the lack of a chapter last week, but anyway, best of wishes. If you like the story, stones are appreciated, if you have any opinions, constructive criticism is always welcome, and if you're feeling extremely generous, I wouldnt mind if you shared this story. I hope you have a good day/night, goodbye for now!!!