Page One

Chapter One

In the Darkness

The first time I heard about Dante Domino, I thought that he was an amazing legend, and if we were ever in any trouble he would come to our rescue. Every major history book that accounted for Dracula’s resurgence in reality 100 years ago mentioned him. The legend stated that with one hand, Dante was able to wield Excalibur and decapitate Dracula with a single swing. Then after Dracula’s defeat, he sought to destroy all of the books that Dracula had used in his plan. Using the holy blade, Dante was able to burn the books and destroy the fictitious creatures. After his quest was over, Dante faded in obscurity. Some people believed that he vanished into the realm of literature to live out his immortality. Some people thought that he had taken refuge in a cave, so that he could protect Excalibur for eternity.

Most people chose to believe that he never existed. Partially because there was no evidence other than the stories passed down for centuries. I was ten when I found my first copy of Dante’s supposed short novel titled Some Kind of Hero. It depicted him as amazingly brave. It also depicted him falling in love with a woman named Carly. She was similarly brave. In the book she had stabbed Dracula in the back to draw his attention, and then when he moved closer to her, she engaged him in a fist fight long enough for Dante to slice the vampire’s head off.

However, Dante was hurt too badly to walk away from the ordeal. Carly held the head of the dying hero in her lap until he took his last breath. It was a tragic story, but the people who chose to believe that Dante existed, chose to see the ending different. Sometimes they even claimed that Dante would not have been able to write such a book while he was on his mission. It was a fake. It was a phony. It wasn’t real. Those people chose to believe Dante faked his death, and survived the ordeal with Dracula, and that was how the book existed.