Alan stepped through the entrance onto the path leading to the depths of the tomb. It was completely dark inside. Thanks to his enhanced and superhuman senses, he could see in low light, but certainly not in complete darkness.
Fortunately, he had made preparations for this before coming inside. He pulled a small torch from his jacket pocket and lit it up. Though it was provided with a very low illumination, it was sufficient for him. With the glowing torch in his hand, he moved forward.
Inside the tomb, it was exactly as he had expected. The structure was almost entirely in ruins, with crumbling walls, collapsed ceilings, and jagged rocks. It was incredibly creepy. But Alan was not at all uncomfortable.
He walked for a couple of minutes before he finally encountered a body. It was a desiccated vampire. It was a face he did not recognize.
He continued to move ahead, encountering a few more desiccated vampires, but none of them were what he had been looking for.
After a few more minutes of searching, he found the body of the vampire he was seeking. Pearl.
A vampire more than five hundred years old. Her body was desiccated like every other vampire with cracks on her skin. Her clothes, which were more than a century old, were almost crumbling and were barely holding around her.
He approached her and pulled a small bottle from his pocket. It was a bottle containing blood. His own blood. He opened the bottle and brought its opening toward Pearl's mouth.
As soon as the first drop of blood made contact with her lips, there was an instinctive jerk in her body. Her eyes snapped open and her hands moved as she took hold of the bottle, upturning its entire contents to drink every drop in one go.
Alan stepped back a few paces as he stared at the changes happening in her body. The desiccation started to fade, the cracks got filled up and color returned to her face and her entire frame. It took a few minutes before the grayness vanished completely and she returned to normal. At least, as normal as a vampire could be.
But this single bottle of blood was not enough to satiate a bloodlust that had lasted an entire century.
She craned her neck, and her eyes finally settled on Alan. Her mind was barely functioning after remaining shut for more than one and a half centuries.
She had no idea who she was, what she was and what was happening around her. Acting on pure instinct, fangs snapped into her mouth and she lunged toward him. Her aim? His neck.
But she was too slow for Alan. He barely moved, and at the last moment, he clenched his fist and smashed it ruthlessly into Pearl's incoming jaw.
The blow shattered her jaw, flinging her back even faster than she had jumped. She smashed against the rough stone walls with a sickening thud. All her teeth were broken, and her mouth had turned into a bloody mess.
The impact against the stone had likely cracked a few of her ribs. Her clothes, already in a tattered state, were now almost shredded, revealing her skin in various places.
However, that single punch was enough to snap her back to rationality. As her wounds began to heal, she realized her situation.
She remembered her identity, she remembered her life, she remembered being sealed inside the tomb and how Emily had saved her and she also understood that she had just been awakened from her desiccation.
Processing this, she turned once more toward Alan, the man who had ended her century-long slumber.
"Who are you?" she questioned, her voice raspy and trembling.
One hundred and forty-five years without speaking was a strange feeling. But she was able to manage.
"Alan," he replied calmly.
"What year is it?" she asked.
"2009," he answered, and Pearl's expression shifted into pure shock.
"It has been one hundred and forty-five years since you were sealed in this tomb," he said.
This was the same thought running through her mind and she was in a state of slight shock. She had never expected for this long to pass before she would awaken.
"One hundred and forty-five years," she mumbled, her voice filled with disbelief.
It took her several moments to process what she had just learned. She could hardly bring herself to believe it.
"Who are you?" Pearl questioned again.
"I already answered that," Alan responded with a raised eyebrow. "Did I not? I am Alan."
"No," Pearl shook her head. "What I mean is, how did you manage to open the tomb? What is your motive? And why did you choose me to wake up, specifically me, leaving the other twenty-five vampires behind? What do you want from me? I do not think you are doing all this without any purpose."
"Now, that is the interesting part of the question," Alan responded. "My full name is Alan Alejandro. You must have heard of us. The Alejandro family was one of the founding families of Mystic Falls."
Alan was dangling a bait. He was curious to know if the vampires of 1864 had been aware of the Alejandro reality. Had they been aware that they belonged to a line of witches and warlocks.
"The Alejandro family?" Pearl reacted in slight surprise, her eyes widening. "You belong to the Alejandros?"
"Yes," Alan nodded. "And it seems you know a thing or two about my family."
Pearl simply nodded.
"Yes," she said. "No matter how deeply they tried to hide it, I was able to pick up on the fact that they were witches and warlocks."
"Did you know anything else?" Alan questioned.
"No," Pearl shook her head. "It was not as if I were close to them."
Alan nodded.
"How did a member of the Alejandro family get turned into a vampire?" Pearl questioned.
"I am not a vampire," Alan responded, shocking her.
"Not a vampire?" she repeated, instinctively trying to focus and listen for his heartbeat.
"You are not a vampire," she mumbled in shock. "Your heartbeat is completely normal."
"Then how are you this strong?" she questioned. "Even if I am weak right now, you could not have punched me in that manner unless you were a vampire. At least, humans of my time could not do this."
"Have humans undergone so much change?" she asked in a wondering tone. "Or are you a werewolf? But No. The Alejandro line was not a werewolf line."
"Humans of the present age could not do it, either," he said. "And neither am I a werewolf. I am just a bit special."
She was about to open her mouth, but Alan cut her off.
"I think we should exit this place, and then we can talk about everything in detail," he said.
Pearl nodded. To get out of this damned place, there was nothing she wanted more than that right now.
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