I'm Dating Dracula -Chap. 1-

Chapter 1

One month later
Twenty-two year old Liz Haley's vacations always included tours and visits to mysterious places. For this vacation Liz's trip to Romania included a tour that went through the central part of the country near Brasov. The tour just happen to be stopping by the Castle Bran. Though the tour did not go onto the castle grounds, it did pass by at a good angle, so it was clear enough to see and therefore photograph. The tour guide spoke in broken English but Liz could understand him fine. Besides she wasn't listening as much as she was looking and taking pictures of the landscape.
As the tour bus passed the castle, Liz began focusing on that. After all that castle was the main reason she took the tour. She picked up her digital camera from her lap and began taking multiple snapshots at once. Zooming in and out Liz wanted to have some really good photos of that castle. After a few moments of non stop shots the tour bus had turned so that it was obscured by tons of trees. They wouldn't be getting back on a good side again so Liz ceased taking pictures. She decided to review some of the ones she had taken that day instead.
Liz looked through each picture, deleting a photo here and there due to her dislike for the shot. She then came upon the pictures she had taken of the castle. She found a couple she wanted to delete, but she then came across one picture taken at a very close view. Liz had obviously zoomed in quite far. The picture hadn't turned out that great but there was something that seemed very odd about it. The shot of that side of the castle contained three windows. Only one of the windows was in sunlight, the other two were overshadowed by the towers that jetted out from the sides. One of the windows in the shadows of a jetting tower had a figure in it. From what Liz could see the figure was obviously pale. It must've been dressed in black or dark clothes for the blurred silhouette of a pale face and hands was the only thing you could see. In fact the visible parts on this figure just looked like fading white blurs. But Liz just knew it was a face and hands.
A chill ran up her spine and she was overcome by the feeling that whatever it was in that window of the Castle Bran, it was staring at her and only her. Why she was feeling that way, Liz had no idea. The pale face could've been staring at someone else. It was to far away to tell if it was even a person standing in that shadowed window or not. So how did she know the figure was looking at just her?
Lifting her head up, Liz realized she had missed a big chunk of the tour that she could have gotten great pictures of.
"Damn." Liz said to herself.
However, she realized it was her own fault for looking at her other pictures for so long. She decided there was no use in being mad over it. Though she could not stop thinking about that figure in the picture. Liz tried to tell herself that Castle Bran had a pretty big history. And she was sure the place was haunted due to it's infamous past owner. So it wasn't a surprise she saw some pale, almost transparent figure's face and hands floating in the darkness of one of the castle's windows. But she still had an eerie feeling about it. Or was this feeling the excitement of seeing a potential ghost in a notorious castle? Liz just couldn't tell.

That night, back at her hotel, Liz was packing for her return to the United States. She had been in Europe for two weeks now, vacationing in Greece for one full week and then staying in Romania for the last. The window was open to let in some fresh air. It was late summer and it was starting to cool off for that part of the world. She knew when she got back to the U.S it would be in the 80's for at least another 3 weeks or so. So Liz enjoyed the nice cool breeze coming from Romania's hills. She was looking through some of the shopping bags she had, trying to fit the new things she bought in with the things she brought on the trip. She came upon a small bag with a blue box in it. She noticed that it was a nice perfume she had bought a couple days ago. It had been a tad on the expensive side but Liz thought it was a beautiful scent so she spoiled herself anyway. Though it wasn't necessary Liz took out the bottle of perfume from it's box and sprayed a small amount around the nape of her neck.
Just then a stiff breeze came through the window, first blowing in and then it seemed to be sucked out, blowing Liz's hair back in that direction. At the same time Liz got another strange feeling. But this time she felt like she was being watched right from her window. As if somehow someone was perched just outside, nine stories up. Though she thought it would be impossible for someone to scale nine stories just to peep at a woman, she walked to the window anyway, just to check.
Liz was only a foot from the window when she suddenly heard the flapping of wings, like something sensed her coming and flew away before she saw it.
Looking out the window, Liz extended her body a little to get a better view of the outside. She looked right and left and then down at the ground below. Then she looked into the sky. Though it was a moonless night she caught sight of a silhouette of a bat. But it didn't look like any ordinary bat. From what she could tell it was a huge, about 20 times the size of a regular one. Due to poor visibility Liz wasn't scared or frightened by the unusual phenomenon. Instead she stared at the gigantic bat in awe as it flew away and out of sight. Another stiff breeze came along making Liz uncommonly chilly and awfully uneasy. She quickly closed the window and the curtains, and quickly resumed packing.