Bringer of Death!!…

*How bad can a good girl get?!!...*

**Proserpina**
My nightmare took me into Vlad's lair!
I landed on a rocky surface, dispelling the black volcanic dust in the air. I looked at all the severed heads, crumbling torsos and lost limbs littering the crusty floor, wondering about the tortures these souls may have undergone.
I was in the centre of the stage!
"And introducing the act, 'Bringer of death!', staring Melinoë!" Someone announced while the flashlight fell on me.
"Wait, that isn't right. That's not my name," I whispered in confusion.
The black soot started to fall gently from above like dirty snow. I looked down at myself to find the same white dress I had been wearing in my nightmares.
The stage was inside the cage, a dark and rusted one. The dozens of those bird-like creatures have come back to haunt me. They were huge, almost three times the regular raven, giving me evil glares and showing me their rancorous teeth. I could sense their maddening need to torture me. They snarled at me, stretching out their face like a snake. Their skin was cracked and withered, with plumage missing in some places.
I was terrified and wanted to run, but my heart almost stopped beating when my eyes scanned the surroundings. There were hundreds of shadowed people sitting and staring at me.
The demonic birds started attacking me. "Aaahh!" I screamed, dropped to my knees, and covered my head to protect myself from them.
And that was when a tall figure emerged, casting the longest shadow. The shadow was moving like a long black cloud. He was the villain of my reality and nightmares.
Vlad!!...
His features were concealed as always, but I could see his blazing eyes watching me with a fierce intensity. I could make out his grin, halfway smile and halfway threat, and I couldn't help but gasp at the darkness surrounding him. He growled menacingly at those birds, making them back away.
Then came a loud sound of something dropping behind me. I turned my head and saw a wall of rotted mirrors. It looked like the harsh elements of nature had oxidized it and blackened its edges. But the weird thing that stole my breath was my reflection. It did not reflect my actions. For instance, I was looking down at her; while my reflection was sitting on the dusted floor with her head facing down. She was wearing dirty clothes, and her knotted hair fell in front of her face as if she was some possessed creature. She was wailing as if in pain.
"What happened?" I asked her. She looked at me with her lifeless eyes.
"I am scared. Will you not help me?" Her painful voice floated.
"Me?" I asked. My heart almost dropped when the audience suddenly started screaming at me, "Bringer of death...bring the death..."
The two vampiric bite marks on their necks were bleeding. Then slowly, their skin started decaying. Their faces began morphing into something sinister. Their eyes elongated and took the shade of burning red orbs. Their nose turned skeletal, whereas their lips peeled back, revealing their deadly fangs. The last thing was the eruption of their scaly bat wings with long bones running through them. It seemed all those people were infected by a vampire bite, causing them to transform into vampires.
They were continuously cheering at me, "Bringer of death...bring the death."
I was crying like some forever-trapped puppet in some cruel and twisted game of Vlad with no chance of survival. Those bird-like creatures once again started attacking me from all directions.
"No, please!" I shouted, but it seemed God had left me at the mercy of that sadist.
"Please help me," came the voice of my reflection. I turned to look at her. She took the dagger from behind her. Her eyes spoke clearly of what she was going to do next.
"Please, don't do this!" I pleaded.
"There is only one way to save us. Bring the death." She whispered, bringing the dagger to her arm and slicing through the skin.
"Stop it!" I screamed before looking away in disgust. I couldn't look away for long. It was like watching me being hurt by a possessed version of me.
"This is the only way...the last hope...they are coming to kill us...stop them...stop them now!" She said.
The bird-like creatures intensified their attacks. I desperately searched for a place to hide, but there was none. The tears filled my eyes at how hopeless my situation was.
"Do what she says," commanded Vlad.
I inhaled deeply and wiped my wet face with my arm. Half of me wanted to run away and find a corner to curl into, but the other half knew there was no option. So, I stepped ahead with my feet struggling to move over the cobbled floor. I counted to ten while taking out the magical dagger hidden under my dress. With a quick swipe, I blocked my other senses and slashed my arm deeply. The crimson rivulets of blood dripped down my arm. Within seconds, the bird-like creatures started feeding on my blood like starved vultures. The moment my blood entered their system, they let out an almighty scream. They squirmed around on the floor, and their high-pitched squealing got deeper and sounded more like howls of pain as if a wave of torture had come to drag these creatures to hell. The whole place was filled with cries of agony, ripping flesh and snapping bones. The floor became a sight of the massacre with their body spread out like an autopsy was performed.
At that moment, I realized that everyone was talking about the death of those demonic birds and not mine. And the game was to kill those demonic birds. I was the bringer of death.
My breath hitched when I saw Vlad's shadow Dracula merging into him, his long cloak turning into black wings, unfurling from his back as he descended to the stage. My body shook so violently that I thought it would break into pieces.
"N...no," I stammered the moment he started to make his way towards me. He then stepped into the same spotlight as me, looking directly at my reflection.
"Vlad," I whispered his name. His face was still shadowed, and I don't know why. Maybe, he didn't want me to see his face, or maybe my nightmares didn't want me to. Well, fuck that damn thought, as I have more to worry about at the moment than just his face, and that was,
My face!
I sucked in a sharp breath when my eyes fell on my reflection. I turned away, staggering back to the floor, horrified by the image of myself. It had changed as if the mirror had some magical power of turning me into something vile and dreadful. It showed a very different version of me. My eyes had turned completely black, with tears running down my face in long dark streaks. My white dress was now a gown as black as a raven's wing. It was embellished with a red cord that coiled up my belly and around my ribs, cupping my breasts. My face was white, and my lips were black, with the blood in my veins now replaced with something dark and deadly. My hair floated around me, and I looked like a woman possessed by a dark entity created with the sole purpose of killing. I looked like an evil version of myself with darker make-up and messy, unkempt hair.
"Melinoe!" Vlad said with a shimmer in his eyes as if that was what he expected and wanted.
I scratched my face with my blackened fingernails, drawing the fingers inside my hair, pulling at their roots, and screaming, "No...I am not Melinoe."
"It's time to show what you have got," my reflection snarled down at me, and then she broke into a cackle of laughter. I didn't quite understand what she meant by it, but somehow my body reacted to her words. I didn't only want to fight back, but now I wanted to destroy! I could feel the adrenaline pumping into my veins and anger flowing through me like a wave crashing against the rocks, untamed and without restraint. Some innate force was erupting within me, of which I had no idea.
The lair's walls started cracking, the floors too and the cavernous space started to crumble, destroying it. But none of it affected me, as rage was the only emotion coursing through my body. I have never felt that kind of rage before. It seemed that my body was fueled by hell itself. I looked at the ceiling as it started to crumble under my wrath. All my thoughts ran in one direction,
Death!
Vlad looked up at me in grave astonishment. And then the ceiling collapsed on us.

"Melinoe!" I screamed and jolted out of my nightmare. I was in Hade's arms.
"How the hell do you know of that cursed name?" Hades' words hit my ears before I collapsed again into him.

*I'm not in danger...I'm the danger!!...*