Chapter 1 As Joseph Belmont was studying the maps, writing down important notes, the stewardess for his charter flight walks up to hand him his late-night meal. "Here you go, mister Belmont" Joseph sets his work aside, and accepts the meal, then makes small talk with the flight attendant, "Ahh, thanks madam, if this is half as sweet as you are, then I know it'll be more than filling" She blushes, "Oh, come on now. So, what brings a famous author like you out to the Romanian countryside, Mr. Belmont?" "Please, just Joseph. From Romania, I'll be heading to Transylvania, to gather research. You see, I'm creating a book about my family history, all the way back to the birth of Christ. A large part of the Belmont family history lies in the areas surrounding Transylvania" She seems somewhat interested and says "Oh, I see. Well, dont let Frankenstien and Dracula get a hold of you, heh heh heh". Joseph says, sarcasticly "Yeah, I'm sooo sure. Scientific research proves there is no such thing as supernatural phenomenon" "I know that! It was a joke. Well, nice chatting with you, Joseph" "You too, now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some work done around here" "Heh, alright, I'll wake you up when we arrive in Romania in the morning" "Goodnight", Joseph quickly finishes his meal and gets back to writing his notes. Early the next morning, Joseph steps off the charter plane and sees a man holding up a sign, it reads "Joseph Belmont". Joseph walks up to the man, who appears to be of mixed race, and says "I'm Joseph, are you my guide?" "Yes, I am your guide" says the man. Joseph can tell that the man is not very good in english. "Hello, how are you" he says, in bad english with a turkish accent "I am Vladimir, and will be escorting you to your destination, come this way please". Joseph and Vladimir hop into a AT Hummer and are off. The noise that the Hummer makes is very loud, so Joseph and Vladimir cant hear a word that is said. They remain quiet as they creep along the Romanian countryside, Joseph doesn't pass up the opportunity to take in the sights, he feels a sense of pride, like he is in the homeland of his namesake, this is HIS territory. He looks up into the clouds and wonders. He wonders about his ancestors, wonders about what they did, what thier jobs were, and felt excited, because thats what he came here to find out. 3 hours after thier departure from the airport on the edge of Romania, the two are in the very small, abandoned town of Java, overlooking the historical Castlevania. This town, with one road 5 feet wide, that seemed more like an alley, was where Joseph would begin his research. At that very same time, high atop the hill, the two were being watched. Being watched by a group of four people, situated right outside Castlevania. The group did not show any emotion whatsoever. The tallest one, who must have been 7 feet tall, steps forward a few steps, pauses, and says, in a monotone voice "It is time". He slowly raises his hands up, and a large spectacle of lightning snaps in the sky. The leader starts chanting, seemingly mumbling "niaga steerts eht sklaw t nomleb a, ekawa daed lanrete eht yam". At this, the group of druids begins dancing in a pagan manner, in a circle, and from high atop Castlevania, in a large shrine, an evil set of eyes open, Count Dracula awakes! Back down in Java, Vladimir has showed Joseph the town library, with books from the past 15 centuries, including stories of the people who had lived there. He's now on his way out, and Joseph bids him farewell. "Thank you Vladimir, its been nice meeting you" Vladimir acts like he didn't quite understand what Joseph said and says "Yes. You must spend a week here, with no transportation, then in 1 week, more people will come to escort you around Transylvania. Are you sure you can take it being here alone?" "Yes, quite sure" says Joseph, "I wish you luck on your way back, that lightning didn't look too good" "Oh dont worry about it" says Vladimir, "It was just heat lightning, theres no rain around here and there wont be for some time". With that, Vlad gets back into the Hummer and takes off, as Joseph gets his nose in the mountain of books, he has a lot to read and absorb in just one week. As twilight falls, Joseph is distracted from his reading by a howling voice, that of a wolf. He's not going to live around a wolf for a whole week, so he pulls out the Winchester shotgun he brought along, puts down the book and goes to take a look. A few minutes walk down the dirt road leads him to wolf, with his face down a hole, only his back half exposed. Joseph had never actually killed a living thing before, but theres a first time for everything, and he couldn't feel safe with wolves stalking the area. He holds up the shotgun, but then puts in down, not wanting to kill the wolf, the wolf wouldn't know what hit him. After gaining some mental stability, he holds the shotgun up again, as the wolf picks up its head and looks at Joseph. "OH MY.... What the..." It wasn't a wolf at all, its head is that of an eagle, with red eyes. The monster lunges for Joseph, who blows a hole through the monsters chest when it is in complete midair. To Josephs astonishment, the... thing gets back up and runs up the road. As Joseph follows the thing with his eyes, he notices something else as well, its the hummer, smashed against a tree. Joseph runs full speed towards the wreckage, to find the Hummer totally smashed in. Joseph is sickened as he turns around to see Vladimir, his carcass, with the stomach chewed out. "Oh.. dear Lord" Joseph says to himself. He walks over to Vlads body, and kneels down. "What did this? MY GOD" still in shock. Joseph was even more shocked when Vladimirs eyes turned blood red, and he jumped up and growled at the Belmont descendant. Vlad clawed Joseph in the face, leaving a deep gash, Joseph jumped back, giving him time to cock the shotgun. As Vlads corpse rushed him again, Joseph blew his head off. To even further astonish Joseph, this did not stop the corpse at all, so he delivered another blast from the shotgun and blew out Vlads knees. Vladimir was still moving around, he just couldn't walk 'cause he had no legs. As the adrenaline level ran down, Joseph became intoxicated with more fear than any human being should ever be put through, tenfold. The one thought that kept resinating in his mind was "What next?" Chapter 2 Joseph leaned against a tree to catch his breath, and settle down. He had never been the kind of person that believed in the supernatural, and all of this happening at once had him in a state of shock, he felt as if he couldn't move. Clutching his rifle as if it were his only lifeline, he slowly sat down against the tree. He sat still for minutes, without a real thought going through his head. Suddenly, he heard a voice. "Vwa ha ha ha ha, fresh blood. It's been years since I've enjoyed the smell of the blood of a Belmont!" Joseph, finally snapping out of it, says loudly, "WHO'S THERE? HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" Just then he sees a floating silhouette come closer to reveal the face of a skeleton, with a thick black robe and a scythe in his bony hands. Joseph gasps. "It is I, the embodiment of death, the evil servant of the count, the GRIM REAPER, VWA HA HA HA HA!" "DEMON," proclaims Belmont, "What is it you want with me?" "I WANT to see your head on a plate. I could rip you apart right now, but I'll give the master the honors." Joseph doesn't know who the Grim Reaper is talking about, "Master?" "Yes, Count Dracula has asked to deal with you personally." "Count Dracula? Exists?", sputters Belmont, still nervous but capable of thinking. "What an ignorant man!", says the Reaper, "It's hard to believe you are of Belmont lineage. It shall be a pleasure torturing you, now stand and prepare to fight. Let us now begin the SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT! VWA HA HA HA HA HAAA!" At this, the Grim Reaper disappears, and the twilight changes into pitch darkness. The castle atop the hill, Draculas castle, begins to glow with a gloomy shade of light. A screeching howl breaks out, followed by another, and another. Parts of the ground open up, and the corpses of the dead crawl out. Joseph gets up and cocks his shotgun, getting it ready for use. He looks all around to make sure nothing is sneaking up on him. There are corpses everywhere, coming straight for him. He fires at one of them, aiming for the head. The blast does nothing to stop the corpse, he keeps coming. Joseph turns around and blows another corpses legs off. The corpse is on the ground, still wiggling around. When Belmont sees that there are too many of them to shoot, he takes off running, back down the road towards Java. Suddenly, a werewolf jumps out and starts directly attacking. Joseph blows out his knees, only for them to be regenerated. Astonished, Joseph takes off running, with the werewolf giving chase. Joseph can see the town up ahead, but the werewolf finally catches up with him and slashes him to the ground. Joseph gets his gun ready as the monster jumps high into the air, and as he is about to come down upon Joseph, is blasted by the shotgun through the chest and is knocked backwards. Joseph stands up and shoots the beast 6 more times in the head and chest area before running out of ammo and making a run for it, finally finding shelter in an old, small shack in the cemetery of Java. Joseph takes the time to catch his breath and tries to straighten things out in his mind. He keeps thinking he is going to wake up and find out this has all been a horrible nightmare. He knows it isn't, but he really wishes it was, and at times his mind will play tricks on him. At this point, Joseph is estimating that he's going to die, he just doesn't know how long it's going to take and how long he can hold out. Suddenly, Joseph hears the familiar voice of another human. He turns around, and is very surprised at what he sees.