A Note: Something I came up with on the spur of the moment while listening to Evanescence's Bring Me To Life. If there's something wrong with it tell me.

Ashling was in her room when she first heard it. A fleeting whisper as if it was floating on the wind, it said: "Come to me."

It began to talk to her over and over again. Sometimes it told her the thoughts of her peers, their actions, but other times it insisted she come to it. At school it made her head itch and kept her from getting any work done. At home she simply stopped hearing what her mother and father said most times. After a stern teacher had thought she was lying to her the principal had talked to her parents.

"Something has to be done." She had said. "If your daughter doesn't start paying attention in school her grades will drop." Ashling had been sat outside the office, but they hadn't closed the door.

"They are insulting you." The voice said. "They don't think you'll understand."

"Shut up!" The first time she had spoken to it, it laughed at her. It-He kept laughing as people began to stare at her oddly in the hall.

After the teachers had spoken to her parents they argued. At first it was about her; whether she should go to a psychiatrist, or just be left alone. The voice became more and more urgent, at times yelling at her, to where she would develop a migraine. Steadily her parents troubles escalated where they would yell at each other over the stupidest things. During the fights he would talk to her almost soothingly.

"You can get away from all this," He said. "All you have to do is ask."

As both her parents shouted at each other from across the dinner table she put her head in her hands.

"What do you want from me?" She whispered.

"I am so glad you asked." It said. "Come to me."

"Where?" The shouting grew louder even though her parents had moved into the other room.

"Here, in your head." He laughed at her evilly.

She slammed her fists on the table and ran to her room. She threw things into a duffel bag as she spoke to him. "Where, where should I go?"

"To Transylvania my dear. To my castle."

"Why?"

"You shall see when you get there." She grit her teeth and stormed out of the house, swiping her mom's credit card without even thinking. From outside she could hear them yelling. What were they even fighting about in the first place? She didn't know.

She took a bus, to her told destination. At the airport he talked and pointed out things to her as if he was using her eyes. She found out she was going to a remote village in the Carpathian mountains, but more he would not say, only that she should not let the locals there see her.

On the plane he exclaimed what a joy it was to be flying again. She itched to ask him if he had been on a plane before but didn't want to upset the lady next to her. The fasten seat belt sign went off and the lady got up. She whispered her question to herself and at first got no answer.

"No my dear I have never been on a plane."

"Then why did you-" A stewardess looked at her. Ashling smiled pleasantly and she went on down the aisle. "Why did you say you had flown before?" She barely heard her own voice she was so quiet.

"That is one of those things you shall find out later." Ashling could ask no more questions when the old lady sat back down and returned to her book.

Hours later Ashling landed and found out the voice had led her to Romania. "Why can't we just take a bus there?" She murmured to herself. Now she ignored the looks she got from people. She would never see them again she reasoned so what if they thought she was loony. She must have looked strange in her light jacket in a place where the people wore coats this time of year. She didn't care; she felt like she was standing next to a stove.

"Because you must enter on foot from here." He practically yelled at her and she covered her ears at the pressure. A mother rushed her child away from her. Her eyes were pulled to the sight of mother and child. "A sweet sight," He said. He was silent for a moment, during which Ashling felt suddenly naked and exposed. "You will give me children." The voice was soft and alluring.

"What!" She said it louder than she had expected. She walked away from the looks and out into the cold night. She walked and walked compelled by some inner urge that she should not stop and should not talk to anyone. The city lights were twinkles behind her before he spoke again.

"My wives could not bear children, ones that would live." The voice was solemn. "But there is a strangeness about you. You are almost like me."

Ashling still walked she walked for miles and never stopped. Her vision and her memory became blurry because the next thing she knew the voice was yelling at her. She stopped suddenly and fell dead over in the grass.

When she came to it was dark. "How long did I sleep?"

"That does not matter. Now hurry you must make it to the castle before sun rise." She ran down into the village. In the empty square she did a double-take.

"This place is like the 1800s!"

"Yes this place is time locked. The people here change and they may even enter or leave but the place never changes. It is a portal to the another world, my world."

"A time lock; somehow I don't find that hard to believe."

"You shouldn't."

By this time she had reached a house. The mansion was huge and looked like it hadn't been touched in years. She entered without even thinking and walked through the place until she reached a huge mirror. She stared at herself. Her straight brown hair was matted and had leaves wreathed in it. Her jeans and jacket were grass-stained and torn in places.

Another person stood beside her. A man dressed in a black cloak with long black hair held back with a golden clip was reflected standing close beside her.

She gasped and whirled around. It was empty. Looking back at the mirror the man was smiling at her laughingly showing pointed canines.

"Go."

Ashling walked toward the mirror and went right through it! On the other side a black fortress loomed in front of her; she had never seen a structure so big. Snow blanketed the ground and the dead trees. The trees she failed to notice held skeletons pierced by the branches, frozen in their death pose.

"Walk girl. I'm becoming impatient."

She did. Through the door, weaving through passages until she reached a lab. Equipment stood all over the place. Patches of the floor had soot on them from long put out fires. In one place a stain marked the floor. She went towards it and went down on one knee to look closer. It was like ash, but reddish in places.

Ashling didn't notice what she was doing until the skull was in her hands. It was huge and its teeth threatened to pierce her skin as she stared into its eye sockets.

She gasped. Her wrist was bleeding a drop of blood fell from one of the fangs. She swore she heard laughter, not just in her head but from her ears. The ash flew up as if blasted from above. It nearly scattered before it collected into itself and compressed. Ashling felt the strength draining from her as the skull whipped out of her hands. In a blink the dust was gone and so was the presence from her mind. In front of her stood the very same man she had seen in the mirror.

He smiled at her and when he spoke he was the mimic of the thing in her head.

"Hello Ashling." His eyes were a piercing blue, and they stared at her seemingly into her soul. "I am Count Vladislaus Dracula." He bowed to her.

He watched as her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell over backwards, not able to take staying awake any longer.