๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ย ๐ช๐
ย ๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐ฌ.๐ญ. ๐ ๐ข๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ง
a series of dialogue prompts from the 2021 dracula re-telling.ย ย feel free to change pronouns as you see fitย ! cw; gore, sexual themes, emotional abuse, & toxic relationships
โ i never dreamed it would end like this. โย
โ there is no horror left in this world that can surprise me. โ
โ eventually, even your death becomes its own sort of inevitability. โ
โ i was so happy to be your marionette, at first. โ
โ am i sick to still think on you softly, even after all the blood and broken promises? โ
โ this is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. โ
โ war is never valiant, only crude and hideous. โ
โ good. when life fails you, spite will not. โ
โ i will raise you out of the dirt and into queenship. and, i will give you your vengeance. โ
โ i wanted to break them, even more slowly and painfully than they had broken me, leave them bleeding out and begging for mercy. โ
โ water your motherโs flowers with their blood. โ
โ in this world, you are what i say you are, and i say you are a ghost. โ
โ bloodlust brings on a delirium thatโs difficult to describe. โ
โ i have loved you too long to imagine you do anything without an ulterior motive. โ
โ iโve never been looked at before. like that. โ
โ what is more lovely, after all, than a monster undone with want? โ
โ i was your little mouse, kept in a gilded cage until it was time for the cat to play. โ
โ i knew nothing except the strength of your arms and the scent of your hair. โ
โ your priestโs bedtime stories cannot account for us. โ
โ to know oneself, oneโs limits and abilities, is its own power. โ
โ i was alone, and i was scared. i had no home left to speak of. โ
โ and god, how i adored you. it went beyond love, beyond devotion. โ
โ i wanted to dash myself against your rocks like a wave, to obliterate my old self and see what rose shining and new from the sea foam. โ
โ you turned a strong-minded girl into a pulsing wound of need. โ
โ what would you have me do, as ruler? โ
โ are you sure you arenโt a holy man come to lecture me on the sins of excess? โ
โ i was well-acquainted with violence by then. โ
โ but I had never outgrown my thirst for vengeance. โ
โ in my mind, i was godโs lovely angel of judgement, come to unsheathe the sword of divine wrath against those who truly deserved it. โ
โ you mocked my lofty aspirations, cynical as ever. โ
โ when will you give up this ridiculous crusade? โ
โ there was a darkness in your eyes and a tightness to your mouth i hadnโt noticed beforeโor perhaps hadnโt wanted to. โ
โ i would never leave you, my love. not for the entirety of my second life. โ
โ you seemed to me a fire burning in the woods. i was drawn in by your enticing, smoky darkness, a darkness that still stirs memories of safety, of autumn, of home. โ
โ it was like grasping at a flame. i never penetrated to the burning heart of you, only came away with empty, scorched fingers. โ
โ whenever we were apart, you left your essence caught in my hair, in my clothes. i scented the taste of it on the wind, I shivered and ached for it. โ
โ i was happy to spend countless lifetimes chasing the warmth coming off you, even though the haze was clouding my vision. โ
โ my piety was a sporadic, half-feral thing, sometimes lashing out at god with teeth bared, other times nuzzling against his loving providence like a kitten. โ
โ i felt my heart tumble down through my ribs and hit the ground. โ
โ it tortured me, how perfect you looked. i wanted to pull you behind the carriage and drain you dry. โ
โ i wanted to crawl between whatever was blossoming between the two of you and live there. โ
โ youโve found cruelty to be an effective tool. โ
โ do you want her for your own? โ
โ ours is a solitary existence. it would be good for you to have a friend. โ
โ itโs as easy as breathing. one foot and then the other. and donโt overthink it. โ
โ you must never overthink any good and pleasurable thing. โ
โ you must sit with me tonight at dinner. i must have you close. i want us to be the best of friends. โ
โ i think i shall never marry, my lord. i will simply take lovers and never let any man shackle me with wedding vows. โ
โ am i to be bidden to my own bed like a dog invited to beg at the masterโs table? โ
โ desire makes idiots of all of us. but you already knew that part, didnโt you? โ
โ there was an uncontrollable fire in you that was hard to look away from, much less resist. โ
โ all vampires find some way to stave off the monotony of an endless life, with hedonism or asceticism or a rotating door of lovers. โ
โ iโm talking about us, you and i. letโs be honest with each other, for once. โ
โ love was no girlhood game. it was an iron yoke, forged in fire and heavy to wear. โ
โ laying with you made me feel so vibrantly alive. it was almost enough to make me forget that i was already dead. โ
โ this is about your obsession with justice, isnโt it? โ
โ i was suspicious, and even more dangerously, i was curious. โ
โ i was the love that started it all, wasnโt i? โ
โ it has been a long time since i have felt clean. โ
โ like christ, i had become intimately acquainted with violence and the sins of the world, but i had not come away unblemished. โ
โ but it was not god who spoke.it was you. โ
โ you could have kissed me or slit my throat and either would have made as much sense. โ
โ i donโt know what I had been thinking, supposing i was strong enough to leave. โ
โ you made it into an art form, this quiet sort of violence. โ
โ i want to live. but i want to live in the world, not on the outskirts of it. โ
โ love is violence, my darling, it is a thunderstorm that tears apart your world. โ
โ love makes monsters of us, [ name ] and not everyone is cut out for monstrosity. โ
โ [ name], our sunlight, our destroyer. my prince cast in marble and gold. โ
โ he was as inevitable as a revolution, and heralded in just as much violence. โ
โ potential. you always loved that word. you were drawn to potential like a shark to blood. โ
โ look around you. what sort of life is this? โ
โ i craved you like maidens crave the grave, the way death burns for human touch: inconsolably, unrelentingly, aching for the annihilation in your kiss. โ
โ i still wanted to believe I was living in a fairy tale, that i laid down every night with a prince instead of a wolf. โ
โ before your time dear, just some dreadful victorians. โ
โ it took every ounce of self-control i had not to pin him down and tear out his throat. โ
โ the world has no place for us, we are wanderers by nature, lions among lambs. โ
โ we cannot exist only for each other. โ
โ i had never allowed myself to want this because i assumed it wasnโt a possibility. โ
โ i love you. look at me, [ name ], my jewel, my wife. i love you. donโt do this. โ
โ i was tired of waiting expectantly at your tomb every night for you to rise and bring light into my world once again. โ
โ i made you into my private christ, supplicated with my own dark devotions. nothing existed beyond the range of your exacting gaze, not even me. โ
โ i apologize if you were expecting contrition, my lord. i donโt have any to muster. โ
โ here's your demon, do what you will with him. โ
โ i think, someday, i would like to fall in love again. โ
