Here's my idea! Normally I don't write fantasy, but a while I was reading Dracula while watching Pan's Labyrinth on TV and BAM! New story idea! I've gotten a little over 200 pages in.
Germany, 1915, First World War. The main character is a girl who is eighteen years old. Her name is Maura. Maura's two younger brothers and father were killed in the war, and now she lives alone with her mother and grandmother. Near their house in the country, there is a small, fast-flowing river, and on the other bank a high wooden wall with the word VERBOTEN (means 'forbidden') painted across it. Over a few months, she becomes ever more curious, and when her mother dies she think things can't possibly get any worse so she decides to see what it is behind the fence. There's a dark forest, with mossy tree trunks and sinister-looking vines. Strange cries unlike any earthly creature are heard, and when Maura turns to leave the river is there and she can see her house, but she can't cross back- it's like there's an invisible barrier. She walks for about an hour, when she finally comes across a unicorn! Oh, happy happy! Until the unicorn tries to skewer her to a tree trunk with its horn and drink her blood. In the nick of time, a boy who looks about sixteen or seventeen comes into the picture, skillfully brandishing a large sword, and chops off the unicorns head. Only blades can kill unicorns. The boy's name is Alexander De Leon, and he speaks German with a French accent. His black hair is tangled and longer than would be considered stylish at the time for a boy. He has a light tan and his eyes are a light violet color. He looks too thin, and dirty, so Maura assumes that Alexander has been in the forest for quite a while now. She asks him how long and why he's lived in the forest, but he ignores her question. (Note: unicorns are evil in this story, and so are phoenixes. A large part of story right now is Alexander teaching Maura how to survive) A long time passes. We finally learn why Alexander is living in the forest. Five years previously, Alexander, his little sister, and his father were forced to live in the forest by some people in a small village. Why? As it turns out, people with purple eyes have the genetic predisposition to become vampyres when they die! (Vampyres, as it turns out, are never created by other vampyres. they are born human, and if they have the defect, purple eyes are a sign of the defect, they will come back as a vampire when they die) He knows this is true, because his little sister died first of starvation, and then his father was killed by a unicorn, and when they became vampyres Alexander ran for his life to the other side of the forest. Apparently a curse was laid on his family a long time ago. Alexander is trying to avoid death so he will never have to suck people's blood to live. However, death in inevitable for all humans. This scares Maura, but their discussion is interrupted by a sudden attack from a phoenix. Months pass, (I am leaving a lot of plot out here!) and finally they make a breach in the invisible barrier (too many details on how- can't write everything)! Maura and Alexander both run through and swim the river to immediately get back into the real world. Alexander stays with Maura and her grandmother. Everybody thought Maura was dead, for she had been gone over a year. They don't tell anyone what happened. After a week or so, one night Alexander confesses to Maura that he's in love with her, perhaps this isn't a good thing, but he doesn't care. Maura tells her feelings and (now I am certainly skipping a scene)… and in the morning Alex is gone, but he left a note on the table reading something along the lines of 'I love you, Maura. I think I know how to lift the curse on my family to stop us from becoming vampyres. If you want me to be with you forever, there is no way i could allow this to happen until this curse is broken. I long to see you again, but I probably won't survive my quest. If i don't remember me as what I was.' She doesn't expect to see him again. (Insert here a slight sub-plot about Maura and her grandmother). Skip ahead a year. The night after the war ended. Maura is almost sleeping, barely awake, when she hears a noise. She feels a slight pressure at the side of her neck, but is still convinced that she's just tired. Suddenly, she hears a gasp, and the pressure on her neck immediately vanishes. Maura turns on the light, and she sees Alexander. His violet eyes are tinged with crimson, his skin is pure chalky white with darker gray veins visible on his wrist, and his lips are dripping with fresh blood! Oh no! He immeadiately jumps out her window and runs into the night, and Maura thinks she just imagined it. But when she wakes up, there is blood on her pillow and the cuts from his fangs on her neck. Maura know she won't become a vampyre unless you're born with that destiny, and her eyes are blue, so she's not worried. She's just worried about Alexander and wants to t
to speak with him.
So when she finally does find him, he talks about his new, nightmarish life for a bit and say that he can never see her again, then he runs off into the night.
That's as far as I've gotten so far… it's about half-over… what do you think?
