If you want the playlist I used for this, feel free to ask.

My Middle Brother picked the chapter title.

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It would take seventeen years to regenerate, fifteen painful years. Years spent trying to purge Mary Van Helsing from his thoughts and being and trying to find a new anchor, something else to keep him on the world. The only reason that he had not been allowed into the gates of Heaven was because he needed to redeem himself. That was what that bastard Peter had said when he had met him at the gate anyway. He had tried to protest but was ultimately sent back to the mortal world in his immortal shell with firm instructions to "make someone's life better, we don't much care who but someone and it had better be worthy, Judas because if it isn't you'll only be there longer." He had fought the urge to make a face at Peter, or to wrap his hands around the other man's neck.

Anyway, that was how he found himself glaring at the ceiling of his coffin. He knew it was night time, and he knew that Mary was far away from where he was now but he wasn't aware of where that was exactly. It took him several hours to realize that no one expected him to come back, let alone regenerate as he had. Perhaps... He tried to shove the coffin lid open with no success. So that had locked it, damn. He punched the wretched thing. How, exactly was he supposed to get out of this and do what he was meant to do? Maybe he could, entice someone into letting him out? Dracula closed his eyes and let his senses float out, looking for some poor sap who could release him.

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In America

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Iola Romano was scuttling about her new home, getting everything from furniture to boxes of books where she needed them to be. It was her first time living away from home and honestly, she was starting to regret the move that took her from her comfortable home town of Wichita, Kansas to Reno, Nevada. It was a casino town, almost as bad as Las Vegas but the rent on this house was cheap and she didn't exactly have a roommate to split the costs with. Still, the one-bedroom bungalow was cute and she liked the layout of it and it came with washer and dryer AND fridge. Who could complain about that when the rent included utilities as well and was under $1,000? She had been lucky and it was a steal. The landlady was nice too.

Iola took a deep breath and dug her phone out of her purse and unlocked it before flipping over to her music app and turning up the volume. She picked a playlist at random and smiled when "Miss You" by Blink 182 filtered through the speaker. She set the phone on a small stack of boxes and nodded her head along to the beat as she pulled the box with the futon couch over to one wall, this would be where she put it and she would open it late. She found the cardboard covered coffee table that had been a gift from her grandmother and dragged it in front of the futon her TV stand, one of her first purchases as an adult, was pushed against the opposite wall and the pink armchairs, a gag gift from her mom, were shoved next to the futon. Mercifully that had come in black and would match the dusky pink of the armchairs.

The song changed and she noted "Karma Cameleon" for a moment, before she danced around the boxes for a moment. When she nearly tripped over her own feet she went back to work, finding the set of book cases. They weren't tall but she could line the walls with them, it would decrease space but she had a lot of books and movies so sacrifices needed to be made. Once she more or less had boxes where she wanted them she picked up her purse by the kitchen entrance and pulled out a box cutter she had stuffed in there a few hours ago. The tool kit she nicked from her older brother, Michael, was sitting on the kitchen counter by the sink and she grabbed that too. She would need it once she started setting up the big furniture.

She had started at high noon and by the time she had finished building the couch, the book shelves and taking the cardboard off her table it was evening, nearing 6 pm. She would finish her living room and sleep on the couch tonight before she moved on to the rest of the rooms.

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London

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It had taken Dracula six months to entice some fool down into the underground of London and open his coffin. The bumbling fool had set off so many of the alarms he was surprised Mary and her pet antiques dealer hadn't showed up. Then again, when he threw out his mind looking for her, he found her to not be in the country. "How convenient," he muttered as he made his way out of the prison that he had been shoved into. He was only in a pair of black trousers and he looked like a withered old man again. Damnation he despised this but he would need to eat again, at least thrice more before he was back to himself. After that he would need to lay low for a time to be able to gather himself and then search for someone whose life, he could... Better. Damn he was really going to do this wasn't he? HE scowled and hurried off into the London night, taking to the rooftops so as to not get lost.

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America

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Iola curled into herself and fought off a shiver, this place was freaking cold at night! For a place that was called a desert she was not expecting the night to be so frigid! She was going to have to find a blanket... Or she could just get up and adjust the heater. Yeah that might be the smarter idea. She got up and for a moment froze, there was someone here, she could feel it. "Fuck," she grumbled. She had left home hoping to leave the dead there as well, but apparently, she was not allowed to get away from that. She rounded into the kitchen in search of the utility room and came face to face with the image of a man she had never seen before.

He certainly wasn't was not one of her usual dead visitors and... and he was half naked. Son of a mother heffer who buried him like that? His wife or girlfriend? She doubted his mother would have approved of that. She pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest. "Can you go away please?"

The man looked up at her, surprised, like most were that she could see him. He looked at her almost like a scientist would study something interesting and she scowled at him and started to tap her foot with impatience. She was going to have to ward the house at the first opportunity she got. Something caught his attention and he vanished. Well, she did ask him to go away so she took it as a bonus. Now, where was the heater again?

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London

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Dracula had been in meditation, trying to connect to a mind somewhere, anywhere, that could benefit from his influence and had ended up in a little kitchen facing a young woman who had seen him, had spoken to him. Granted she told him to go away but it was a connection. He smiled and slipped back into his meditations, he would try and connect to her again so that he could locate her; he was becoming rather bored of the London sewers and going elsewhere sounded lovely.

He plotted on how to get himself some new clothes as well as how to get to his new project. It was fascinating that she could see him, speak to him and did not appear to be afraid, not like Mary when he had visited her as a child in her dreams or her waking hours. Mary had always been afraid of him, this young woman had only given him a sour look, met him head on and told him to vacate her home. Few would have ever done that to him, especially a woman, those tended to fall into his allure without complaint. He would wait for night before he set out to acquire clothing and a means to get to the woman. She would be the one, he was certain, or she would lead him to the one whom he would help.

Yes, food, clothes and a place other than the sewer to hide in and then learning the new world to aid him in his quest. He laughed just a bit, remember all of those kings who had thought themselves appointed a mission from God as they lead wars in His name and here was Dracula, Judas Iscariot, actually appointed a mission to redeem himself by God Himself. He believed the word he wanted for this was irony.

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I really should not have watched Dracula 2000 again. I haven't seen it since I was a teen and now look what I've done to myself.

Yes, to those that end up reading what I write, I am working on everything else. "It's Complicated" has a new chapter in the works and "Finding Family Take 2" has the next five chapters planed, they just need to be put together rather than sitting as my messy notes. "The Blue Expansion Pack" Will still be a thing, I just need to finish the first chapter, easier said than done when you're an essential worker and working from home.