“I can’t believe you’re a vampire hunter when you say things like that,” Axel complained. “You sound like someone’s parent, saying there is no boogeyman in the closet. They’re always the first to die for not believing the kids.”
Loki saw eyes staring back at him from behind Axel. He knew they were eyes because they blinked. They were mostly golden; a pair here and there, always pairs. Telling Axel about them would have freaked him out even more.
“Listen,” Axel said, tiptoeing. “I can hear them.”
Loki heard Dee singing with the boys nearby. They sounded officially drunk. Loki thought that it was what kept them from getting scared. Big Bad was singing again:
Snow white sucks the blood. La O la la la
And when she sucks you will die La O la la
“Creative, I must say,” Loki raised an eyebrow, exchanging looks with Axel.
“I got a better one,” Axel said. “Princess Snow White sucks the blood, ee-i-ee-i-o. She’s gonna waste them all like rats ee-i-ee-i-o.”
Loki covered Axel’s mouth with his hand, “You’re singing is too loud. They’ll hear us.”
“Ten dollars, Big Bad is the first to die,” Axel said, pulling Loki’s hand away.
Unexpectedly, Axel walked past Loki, fueled with sudden bravery. “You know what?” he said. “If they’re not scared, then I’m not scared.”
Loki guessed this was the result of being scared too long: you get bored from it, and since nothing bad happens you decide to be brave for a change.
Both of them reached the end of the forest and peeked through the last line of trees into an open snowy area.
Dee and her friends trotted farther ahead in the heavy snow, singing, telling jokes, and occasionally swearing about Snow White.
“Looooook!” Axel pointed ahead. “Holy Lord-“Axel shrieked. “Of the rings.”
Loki looked. It was the castle, the Schloss, far ahead beyond the boys and girls. It shined through the night like an enormous jewel, so huge, bigger than the biggest five-star hotel he’d ever seen. It was an immense golden structure, a bit too curvy with too much glass, standing proud in the snow, imposing its presence and causing Loki to take an unconscious step back.
What the tic tac toc is that thing?
The Schloss looked like a fairy tale castle, out of this world, a little curvy like the Taj Mahal, only the architecture was European and a bit gothic.
Loki brushed his eyes to look again at the immense beauty. From a distance, it seemed like it was painted gold. The truth was that it was made of gold and glass, and the windows were made of transparent pearls. Loki thought it had a heartbeat of its own, and that the shadows and shades which surrounded it constantly changed. The windows were huge, staring down at him like dead rectangular eyes made of foggy pearls. The white curtains behind the windows fluttered like ghosts dancing and waving at the intruders. Loki had to blink again to make sure he wasn’t imagining this.
The main entrance had a great door, the shape of what looked like a whale’s mouth—Loki remembered the gate to the Train of Consequences. The double door looked like it needed an army to pull it open. Although it was shiny, an aura of gloom surrounded it, as if the castle was telepathic, passing on its thoughts to Loki’s brain. In short, Loki was almost sure the castle was alive.
“What the—” Dee stood with an open mouth, amazed by the castle’s appearance. She must’ve seen a detailed version since she was only strides away from it.
From Loki’s point of view, the boys and girls seemed tiny compared with the castle’s size. They looked like Alice in a snowy Wonderland, ready for a magical journey with their hands down at their sides, looking up at the incredibly beautiful fa?ade walking toward it hypnotically.
“That explains why the town’s council wants to use it as a tourist attraction,” Axel said.
“A tourist attraction?”
“I heard that new principal wants to get rid of the vampire princess to turn the castle into a tourist attraction and make the town rich,” Axel said. “If there is no vampire princess inside, this could be the best tourist attraction in the world. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I wonder why no one has photographed it and uploaded it on the forum.”
“To tell you the truth,” Loki said, “I imagined it’d be a dark, scary, abandoned mansion with dirty, blood-spattered walls.”
Dum threw her beer can away and rubbed her eyes, skeptically amazed by the Schloss’s appearance. Dee danced around like a little kid who’d just found Santa Claus’s cabinet of curiosities. Big Bad was eagerly trotting toward the main entrance. Only Donnie was unimpressed. Loki thought that he’d sensed the same dread he felt, that killing the vampire princess was far from easy, and this castle was in no way ordinary.
“Come out, you evil monster,” Donnie shouted provocatively. “She is playing games with us,” he told his friends, then abruptly countered with “I say that’s it for tonight. Let’s go back.”
“What kind of vampire hunter are you?” Dee laughed at Donnie. “You wanted to kill her seconds ago.”