Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (22 page)

    “
Not so easy is
it Jenny, even with your power
. I’ve got you.”

    All the doors in that labyrinth had been red and so when she discovered the bright yellow one she was a little puzzled.
What if w
hat lay beyond that doo
r with the golden doorknob was actually
a deeper trap, sinking her to an even lower level, but it could also be the way out. She could continue on
in a different direction
or go through it.
She stood akimbo staring
at the door. What to do?
Jenny placed her right hand on the doorknob and discovered that it was quite cold. She tried to turn it but it would
n’t
budge. She checked the door up close
and it was genuine. In a fit of anger she kicked
the door and it swung open,
as it commenced to close it creaked like a door in a haunted house, as if it was a hundred years old.

    The world that she was now stuck in wasn’t real but yet just as dangerous as the physical world. There had to be a way out but would she find it in time. She was becoming more frightened and that could influence her actions.

    In the
new
room
she had entered
the walls
were butter-
yellow
. T
he fire
pit in this chamber
had yellow flames
that shot up almost to the ceiling. Instead of heat it was producing a banana smell. She was getting the feeling that a lot of this
was a distraction. Was he
making fun o
f her in his mind? She then saw
the second door, also yellow. As Jenny approached it there was a pounding from the other side; she opened it to discover a large African male, so muscular that he must have spent every waking hour in the gym. His muscles had muscles.

    “You are wanting to come
in here? You no get by Badru
.” He spoke with some sort of accent but the girl didn’t recognise it.

   
On the outside her magic would be an advantage, but in here who could tell what the rules were.
His body language told her not to even attempt to get in there. He smashed both
of his gold bracelets together; causing sparks to fly from them. Then one fist loudly struck the palm of his hand.

  
“I’m going in there, like it or not.”

    “I break you head
.”

    Jenny considered
that this guy ate more than her weight for lunch. She stuck her head through the d
oor to observe its
contents;
it was full of flowers of every kind.
It smelled wonderful.
Besides the fi
re pit the place
was nothing but flowers.
She was knocked down by a sucker punch to the top of her head, and boy did it hurt. “You bastard!”

    “Hurt head? See big bump.”

  
Jenny kicked him in the crotch so hard tha
t it sent him flying some ten
feet
into the flowers, with pot
s and flowers flying everywhere, breaking one of the pots with his head; h
e screamed repeatedly.

  
“Hurt head?”

    Badru got up slowly, seemingly in a lot of pain
, but surprised her as he rushed her exceptionally fast. He picked her up over his head, throwing her right out
of
the room, back into the yellow one. He crossed one hand over the
other as if to say that she was out and staying out, but before he could finish she was on him; she swept him off his feet and he fell hard. Badru got up and she jumped and kicked him into the fire; in mid scream he disappeared, as if he had never existed.
One didn’t have to worry about killing someone that was the product of a sick imagination. He hadn’t been real but his punches had certainly felt genuine.

   A little Bichon Frise ran in seemingly from the yellow room and started to bark up at Jenny.
It was as white and as puffy as a cloud. She looked down at the dog and wondered if i
t was some sort of trick
? It was so cute that she bent down and it licked her face.
Although she didn’t know it, some of Jenny’s magic was on automatic. The dog had come out of her own mind and not from the w
izard
. It barked as it moved ba
ck and forth. It ran
out the
door and she followe
d it through several doors before going
down a purple corridor and into a room on the right. The room was full of books, some on the floor in the corner, but most of them on brown bookshelves
.
The floor was a reflective white and she could see herself in it.
She picked up one book and looked at it
Madman in the Mirror
; she’d never heard of it and tossed it. The white puffball ran and pawed at a bookshelf on the far left.

    Jenny looked down at the dog. “What’s so special about that bookshelf?”

    “Bark, bark, bark!” The dog was now overly excited as it ran in circles.

    She pulled a
couple of books and then put
them back in.
Jenny looked down at the dog and watched as it ran its head into the bookshelf.
Then she noticed a slight glow from behind it. When she moved the
book
shelf
it fell over;
she observed a large board painted black, the smell of the fresh paint was quite strong.
The p
aint, when touched,
melted off into a puddle on the floor. T
here it was, the way out! Without hesitation she stepped into it and returned to her body on the ground.

    “You poke me one more time and it’ll be your last poke.”
Jenny stood up dusting
herself off, and from the look on his face he was surprised.

   
The old wizard was astonished; he
took a step backwards and fell
onto his ass. “
That was m
os
t impressive little girl.” W
ith that he blurred around to the other side of the house and out of sight.

   Jenny followed him only to discover that he was gone. She couldn’t even sense him
anymore
. Wizards were tricky buggers, but she smiled as she was talking about herself. Then she heard him laughing from the inside of the cottage. “
You son-of-a-?
Are you in there?”

    “Oh, I am, I am. You need to get in here but you can’t.
Therefor Ipso facto I win.
”

    “I’ll facto you when I get in there.
” Jenny was furious but how on earth did he get in there?

    More laughter
originated
from inside.

    “Oh shut up!”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

    T
HE NIGHT WAS DARKER THAN IT HAD EVER BEEN.
There was no moon, no stars, and no lights anywhere to throw even the least bit of illumination.
A person with claustrophobia
would have died an awful death, frightening the soul out of them.
No way to judge time or space.
It was as if the sun was nonexistent.
There was absolutely no way to tell where he was. It appeared to be total darkness.
Could have been standing inches from a sword and wouldn’t have known it.
The consequences of a single step forward could not be discerned. He tried but couldn’t see the hand in front of his face.

    Vampires were known for seeing perfectly well in the darkness, yet he could see nothing.
Had he gone blind?
There were no sounds of wildlife, no sounds of a ticking clock.
Silence was never complete and yet this seemed to be.
He c
ouldn’t even
be
sure if he was inside or out
. Because he wasn’t bumping into anything he thought that he was probably outside, but the silence was deafening. He swallowed and
took
at least
a little comfort in the fact that he could hear it
. Steven bent down and felt the ground beneath him; it felt like dirt and some sor
t of bug crawled on his
hand,
he quickly shook it off. He stood up and didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t run to get out of whatever area he was in, he could barely take a step or two.

    The scent of Clive Christian No. 1 cologne was on the air. There was a masculine scent with a touch of floral. It was nice but of course it meant that someone was there.
Since he couldn’t see he attempted to liste
n but couldn’t hear a thing; he
couldn’t hear his own footsteps as he took two forward.
Steven
slowly pulled his sword and swung it
harder than he had ever swung, but it connected with no one.
Someone or something was
breathing to his l
eft and he swung again but he knew that he hadn’t made contact.
Steven wasn’t claustrophobic but now appeared to be. Not being able to judge space was exasperating
, and with an
enemy nearby it was scary as hell. Any second a blade could slice through his neck and he wouldn’t see or hear it coming.

   
There had never
been a gloomier atmosphere.
Someone whispered his name from behind and then from in front of him. Was it two against one?
Or was someone blurring around him?
A long silence ensued until finally someone scream
ed
at him; he almost jumped out of his pants as the scream broke th
rough the silence.