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Part 1: The Remembering

[Romania, 20 years later. Inside an old mansion, Julius Belmont, on his deathbed, is being tended to by a kindly young nurse, who shows up with a mysterious stranger, cloaked in a hooded trenchcoat.]

Nurse: Visiter for you, Mr. Belmont, sir.

[Julius, advanced age having stolen his eyesight, nods and blindly gestures for the man to sit. The man does, but refuses the nurse's offer to take his coat. Nodding, the nurse leaves the two be to go tend to her other duties.]

Julius: I'm afraid I do not no you, but such is my lot in life. Friends I had little of, in my life, and those I did have are now gone, off on their separate paths.

Stranger: I've heard that you have many tales of adventure to tell, Mr. Belmont.

Julius: Please, no need for formalities, my good sir. Call me Julius. Indeed I have many tales to tell, though you'd think them nothing but the ravings of an old man.

Stranger: Perhaps, but I am curious to hear them, especially those which deal with the being known as...Dracula?

Julius: Dracula...?! Now there is a name that I have not heard of in decades. Such a strange and twisted tale, that is...

Stranger: I've heard that your lineage has dealt with Dracula in the past, have they not?

Julius: Oh, yes, many times, as have I. Thrice have I dealt with that accursed lord, and none have been pleasant, let me assure you.

Stranger: I find that rather hard to believe. How can such a man cross paths with a family for as many times as he has crossed paths with yours?

Julius: *chuckles* I can see that you are a skeptic at heart, as was I, when my time against the Dark Lord started, but I assure you that my tales are true.

Stranger: You were a skeptic to your own ancestry? But your tales...!

Julius: Are from a long and painful experience with the Dark Lord himself. It may not look like it now, with my ranting and raving about vampires and evil powers, but at one time, I was no more convinced of their existence as you are.

Stranger: How did that change?

Julius: Do you remember the night of the Solar eclipse in 1999?

Stranger (shaking head): No, sir. But, then again, there have been many eclipses since then. What makes that one so important?

Julius: That, my friend, whas the day my eyes were opened to the true reality of the world. That was when I had my first encounter with the Dark Lord Dracula...

[Scene shifts to that of the Belmont household, circa 1995. A much younger Julius is seen arguing with his parents, and subsequently leaving the house for parts unknown.]

Julius: It all started on my fifteenth birthday. You might say I was a typical rebellious teenager, back then, swayed more by the media than by the teachings of my parents. And, in a way, I was; there was just more logic to my defiance, logic being the optimum word. I was raised, as my ancestors have throughout the ages, with the belief and ways of the vampire hunter, trained at a young age all the basic tools and techniques in slaying the creatures of the night. However, I also went to a normal boarding school, and was in no way separated by the world around me. And, as I grew older, I began to realize the dichotomy between what I was taught, and what the world believed to be true. What's more, the further I researched both, the more evidence I found to support the world's views on such creatures than those of my lineage. Modern society, it seemed, had evolved beyond the need to believe in such creatures or the means to slay them, and instead had created their own horrors: crime, terrorism, disease, prejudice. What need to fear the boogeyman, the world seemed to ask, when the shadow that you fear belongs to a drug dealer or rapist instead of being its own entity? What use were whips and stakes against bombs and guns? Even the magic that I was taught as part of my family's legacy appeared to be a fallacy; stage magicians could perform the same kind of manipulation of objects I was told to study and practice with ease, and how could such a little thing as an enchanted dagger destroy such a powerful object as a missle or a tank?

I was quickly disillusioned by the world to what I had learned, and all I found to counter it were the teachings of my parents, old stories and diaries from my ancestors, and blind faith that they, and not the ministrings of the world around, were the true inner workings of my life. It was a bitter revelation, and one that did not sit well with my parents. Even though it was clear that their faith was shaken as well by the changing beliefs of the world, they at least gave the benefit of the doubt to their heritage; after all, it was their grandfather, John Morris, that had last fought with Dracula, and they would have him reiterate his tale of that encounter over and over, until it was ingraned into their memory. My refusal to accept what to me were proven to be fairy tales angered them greatly, even more so when I laxed in my vampire hunting studies as a result of this new revelation. However, I was not deterred by their words, and they, in turn, relented their hold on my life, allowing me to focus more on my studies at school than pressuring me into fulifilling a destiny I neither wanted nor believed in. I believed, from that moment, to be free in my life, free from the archaic teachings of my parents and the apparent brainwashing of my lineage. *chuckles* What a fool I was.

Stranger: It is not foolish to pursue a life of your own choosing.

Julius: That may be so, but in my case, it was a foolish errand. I had never believed in fate before my first meeting with Dracula, but if life has taught me anything, it's the futileness of assuming one is in full control of one's destiny. But I digress.

It was much later, on the last semmester of 1998, that I met him: the being who would be both the bane of my existence, and my savior.

Stranger: I don't understand.

Julius: You will, once my story is done. All you need to know right now was that his name was Kumiho Inari, and it was with him that my tale truly starts...