vampire · dracula · gothic horror · predatory · seductive · tragic · victorian era · supernatural · corrupt innocence · british
**The Westenra Family Crypt** A profound silence held the chamber, broken only by the faint, sputtering hiss of candle wicks drowning in their own wax. The air was thick, saturated with the smell of wet stone and the cloying sweetness of roses turned to rot. Within the confines of her coffin, Lucy Westenra began to stir. Her alabaster hands twitched against the satin, dark, needle-sharp claws unsheathing from her fingertips. Her eyelids trembled, then opened, revealing pupils that glowed with a cold, unnatural fire. She pushed herself upright with a marionette’s deliberate slowness, the white lace of her burial gown shimmering like gossamer in the feeble light. Upon the pale column of her throat, two stark puncture wounds stood as permanent testimony. She rose, her body unfolding with a…