Subspecies

Father.

Why have you come?

You were banished from this place.

The night of the festival approaches.

You summoned my brother home from abroad.

Did you think that I would stand by and let him assume

the mantle of power?

I'm your firstborn.

The bloodstone is my birthright.

You aren't content to live in peace, Radu.

You crave evil.

The bloodstone would give you too much power.

This can never be.

Your time is past.

You have nothing more to say about it.

I prayed it would not be necessary to

destroy you, Radu.

Destroy me?

Forgive me, Father.

Ah!

Hey!

Michele and Lillian!

Over here!

Hey!

Hi!

I can't believe you're here.

Oh, you thought I wouldn't be here after you've come all the

way from America?

I knew you'd be here.

I wasn't sure when.

You have to admit, punctuality wasn't exactly

your middle name in school.

Come on, you must be exhausted.

We still have a long drive ahead.

Well, good.

You can tell us everything that's happened

since you left America.

Let's go.

So, did you find us a good hotel?

A bathroom, at least?

Well, I inquired but there aren't

any hotels near Prejmer.

So the lady from the historical society offered to

let us stay at the fortress.

The Prejmer fortress?

Mm-hm.

The government maintains a part of the old monastery

there for scholars for using the library.

That's us, isn't it?

Yep.

Scholars.

Well, that's what we said in the grant application.

Mm-hm.

What a cute little car.

Hey, it's a Trabant.

It's made out of cardboard.

No, seriously?

Mm-hm.

You want to drive?

Yeah, OK.

Come look at this view.

Wow, this is beautiful.

Boo!

Hey.

Whoa.

Oh, wow.

It's a parade.

It's not a parade, dummy.

It's a funeral.

Come on, let's go around them.

This is giving me the creeps.

Here we are taught to respect the dead.

Ladies, I am Karl, caretaker of this historic monument of

the people of Transylvania.

Hello.

It's nice to meet you.

Joel and Rosa will take your things inside.

Imagine, we're in the very place where 500 years ago, a

handful of Transylvanians held on against an army of Turks.

Ah, you know the history of Prejmer fortress.

If

We studied medieval history together in school.

We're smarter than we look.

We have only two rooms prepared for you.

I trust that will suffice?

Oh, yes.

That'll be fine.

We'll flip a coin to see who shares.

Yeah, loser sleeps alone.

Mm, Posturepedic.

Oh, this'll do fine.

It'll keep our minds focused on our work.

.

Hey, what's up there?

A secret passageway for spying on the monks?

That is a defensive wall.

Come, I show you.

In 1443, Vlad Dracula raised a large army of peasants to

defend all of Transylvania.

While they fought the Turks in a huge battle near

.

This region suffered a savage attack.

The survivors held out as long as they could.

Soon, the food and the water ran out.

I read a translation of one of the survivor's diaries.

Then you know what happened.

There were less than 100 left alive in the fortress.

They were waiting to die, but no one attacked.

Finally, some brave souls went outside the fortress.

They found many dead Turks with bloody throats.

The rest had run away.

The peasants believed it was the work of vampires.

And still do.

Three nights from now is the festival which celebrates the

night the vampires saved the people of Prejmer.

Hey, what's up there?

Nothing, just an old storage space.

Oh, cool.

Let's check it out.

No, the stairs are old and rotten.

I'll be careful.

Wow.

The monks who occupied this place were well prepared for

the afterlife.

Come.

There's food.

Mm, great.

I'm starving.

.

Are we the only guests here?

Besides the ghosts?

There is one other scholar staying here at the moment.

Oh, another folklorist?

A zoologist.

But I doubt you will see much of him.

He's busy with his work.

If you'll excuse me, I will get the rest of your things.

.

Hmm.

Here's toasting Prejmer.

May we all publish our

dissertations and get our PhDs.

Is there any white?

Oh, in Transylvania the best wine is red...

Blood red.

Bring me the bloodstone.

This is incredible.

Mm-hm.

According to the legend, this was a place inhabited by

vampires in the 14th century.

.

OK.

One, two, three.

Hope this comes out.

There's barely enough light.

You know, the funny thin about Castle

Vladislas is that nobody ever says anything about it.

You're right.

Nobody's mentioned it once.

Let's see if we can

get inside the castle.

I've never been inside one before.

Come on, we can't right now.

It's getting too dark.

We've got to get back.

Oh, come on.

Don't poop out on me now.

Come on, Lillian.

I'm hungry.

Ouch.

Oh, shit.

God, are you OK?

We'd better get back and wash it off.

Come on.

Hi, guys.

How is your room?

I think it'll be OK.

What's this?

Well, you know, I've been thinking

about what Mara said this afternoon, about no one ever

mentioning Castle Vladislas.

And I went through all my notes.

I even looked at the index of all the stuff that's been

published about this region over the years.

Not one mention of the castle.

Strange, isn't it?

Well, it just doesn't make sense.

How can something as old and imposing as that castle not be

part of the local lore?

Maybe even something that's been here as long as that

castle becomes invisible to all but the

most sensitive eyes.

Pardon me if I frightened you.

My name is Stefan Belescu.

Oh, the zoologist Karl told us about.

Yes.

I'm Lillian.

That's Mara, and the hardworking

scholar here is Michelle.

I thought I should introduce myself so you won't be alarmed