Time

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to konami not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Joachim . . . then he’d be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Set: way before Lament of innocence

Part: one of one

Authoress note: Joachim battered his way back into my brain, this was the outcome I’m afraid.

Italics = thoughts and flashbacks

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If he stared hard enough he could make objects out.

Not that he cared any more for objects. But he could see them none the less, he could make out the uneven surface of the stones on the wall opposite, he could make out the hard wood of the door and the broken, cracked stone of the floor. That was all there was to see in this cell. He’d been in here a long time; at least he thought it must have been a long time. When he entered this room his hair had been cut considerably shorter only just brushing his shoulders, now when he lifted trembling fingers to it he could feel that it fell someway down his back now.

The room was cold and damp, it should have made him sick but it didn’t. The little food he did receive was raw meat and rancid, it to should have made him sick but it didn’t. This place was Hell, it was a frozen hell. One he could not escape. Occasionally he would find blood on the floor of his little room and he would wonder how it had gotten there only to realise it was his own. His nails bloody from clawing at himself. It was a cold pain. Pain was all he had felt for a time. Pain in his body, pain from the daemon’s poison, running in his veins. Pain in his heart, he had been forgotten abandoned, left by everyone he had ever loved. God had left him, his family, he doubted they had ever made much of an effort to find him and now he had been abandoned by his tormentor.

He had been forgotten.

In the beginning he had been visited often. A tall visitor had often come and taken him from this place but his anger would return and in turn he would anger his visitor and he would be put back in this strange dark room. But now no one had come for a great long time, his nails had grown and broken and grown and broken three times over and still no one came for him, no one wanted him, he had been truly abandoned. When he had first realised that he had been forgotten he had howled and screamed at the door, hoping someone would come and tell him to be silent but no one came. No matter how loud he howled or keened, no one appeared.

He hated Walter, the one that had put him here, the one that had raped him of his life. Taken everything from him, only to abandon him in this place. But despite the hate there was something else also. Some evil dark magic made the young fledgling vampire want his master, his maker. The blood Walter had forced down his throat linked the two of them in a strange way. Joachim had found that the link forced him to feel things he would have denied if he had been able. He felt love for the older vampire, affection and a deep sense of safety when the older one was present.

He could remember the first time he had felt the blood link, that strange affection and security when the other was near. He had woken slowly for the first time, the oppressive heat of the sun pressing in from behind the curtains caused a deep fear in him that he had never felt before. It confused him, this sudden terror and he moved backwards colliding roughly with a warm body behind him. He turned panicked and let out a cry of despair, it had really happened, it was all true.

The rain, the wind, the wolves chasing the carriage as the horses ran. There had been a sound so loud and terrifying that Joachim had screamed his terror into the night. The carriage had fallen, the horses fell under the wolves, held down by harnesses and panic. There was another sound outside the carriage but Joachim did not hear that one, his head still spinning from the crash. Then out of the darkness, strong arms, a soft voice, and kind words. He had been lifted, carried, taken away from the place to somewhere warm, dry and safe. He’d come back to himself to find himself in the vampires castle and fear had taken over. The night itself was a blur of screams, pleading and begging first for his life then for the vampire not to stop.

Now the sun was leaking in the cracks in the shielded window making him tremble with fear. He heard himself whimpering before he’d realised he was actually making any sound. Then suddenly he couldn’t move, stunned by the sudden power of the scent around him. Naked, cool arms wrapped around his shoulders and waist, pulling him into a cold hard chest. There was a rumble of soft words and an unexplainable calm washed over him and he purred, turning in the older vampire’s arms and burying his face in his shoulder, inhaling the sent. The elder continued to make soft sounds of reassurance, slowly lying them back down on the warm bed.

Joachim shuddered, burying himself in the blankets and the other vampire. Curling as close as he could possibly get, making the other laugh and run gentle hands through his blonde hair. Burring his face deep into the other, he inhaled, becoming calm at the sent, relaxing and feeling the soft thrums of loyalty and affection. A soft contented sound rumbled through his chest, and exhaustion soon took him back into sleep.

Walter smiled to himself as his new fledgling fell back into sleep and allowed the day to claim him also. However he was woken once again by panicked screams and a sharp little fist in his nose.

“What have you done to me!” the cry went ignored by the older vampire, who snarled at being woken so abruptly. “You wretch! What have you done!”

“My, you are loud.” The elder vampire smirked, yawning in a relaxed fashion. “Hush now, come back to me.” He held out an arm and watched happily as the newly turned fledgling took a tentative step towards him then fear flooded its features and it span away from him.

“What is wrong with me?” The fledgling wailed “you monster! I will kill you for this.”

“No Joachim, you won’t. You will be loyal to me, you will love me.” Walter almost purred watching his delectable fledgling bolt around the room in a panic.

“What!” Joachim snarled “never!”

“You have little choice little one, it is in the binding I have placed on you, it runs in your veins as it does in mine.” He laughed “you should stop fighting it, it is pointless.”

“No!” Joachim felt tears on his face “you will never have me!”

“But I already have.” The elder smiled a wolfish smile “and I am not letting go.”

It had gone on like that for the best part of a month. Sometimes Walter would catch him off guard and the blood-link would overwhelm him, making him docile and attentive to the master vampire, craving his touch and attention. Other times he would feel Walter coming and would gird himself to hold off the feelings of want and love and he would speak his true mind to the vampire, hissing and spitting when the elder tried to approach him. Eventually Walter ran out of patience and threw him in here. Into this dark hole in the castle basement, a tiny cell with cold uneven walls and sharp floors. Left him alone in the dark to rot away, to lie unused and unwanted in this awful place.

He used to be afraid of the darkness but not any longer.

End ficlet

Authoress note: why are all my muses depressed recently?

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