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Moonlight and Scarlet Stone

- Moonlight and Scarlet Stone -
A.k.a. The True Dracula
Based on some of my past-life memories�

Prologue: Halloween Symphony

Each year Halloween comes to bring back old memory,
As the season of the dead sings it�s secret symphony.
Children trick or treat dressed as they often think I did,
As lunatics and madmen use my name to cast their bid�
For attention, or destruction; so I laugh at them all thus,
I, whose name was Dracula, came before all of this fuss!
I am the truth in the fiction, the reality behind the name,
In a past age, I did unspeakable acts; I knew no shame!
They call me immortal, but only my soul can ever be such.
I have died a thousand deaths, and felt the Devil�s touch!
Only to be born again, to grow up and learn my identity�
In each life the memory returns, restoring my lost dignity.
This verse I pen so that 'ere this life comes to a final act,
The truth behind my legend is so revealed in honest fact.
Walk with me back in my mind, to a time now long dust�
To a castle where I lived, loved, and often gave in to lust!

My home is no longer a castle, a chair is now my throne.
But still I recall the old country; how the wind did moan!
In the land beyond the forests, where spirits still haunt,
And wraiths stalk the living, ever featureless and gaunt...
I was a mortal monster, but one made by my fellow man,
We all begin life innocent, before we follow another plan.

Part One: The Ruins of Poenari

Chill is the mist in the endless pines of these mountains,
Cold is the snow that coats a land where gypsies dwell.
Yet therein was my home, my castle and its� fountains,
There was my sorrow, and the pathway leading to Hell.
Now it is summer, and the snow is not fallen on the path,
Roughly hewn, the road that leads up to the battlements.
I look below, as I climb, to see the site of ancient wrath,
Where skeletons lay on stakes, free from resentments�
Unable to again take up arms against me, they are freed.
I bid farewell to former foes, and soon I stand above all!
Master of these lands was I, when the lands did bleed�
As I took up a sword and pike, when came the holy call!
When the sultan came to claim what his greed bade him,
I met his legions with the fury of the dragon in my veins.
And though it cost me dearly, I repaid every wicked sin,
By unleashing upon the foe, one thousand terrible pains.

Poenari Castle, above where the Arges river entwines,
Was where I lost my princess, amongst watery pines�
In the river where she leapt from a high tower window,
Down to her death, where the cold waters still do flow.
The Prince of Darkness I was called, but I have a heart,
To my people I was a hero, and I strove to do my part!

Part Two: Blood for the Princess

The hearth in the castle has grown cold, once so warm�
Where my princess and I sat, talking long into the morn.
Long has it been, since my heart was as warm as the fire,
That once we tended, tenderly, filled with wanton desire.
Now darkness lies within halls once lit with bright torches,
And shadows lurk as sharply as any flame that scorches.
When an enemy arrow�s note told her that I was no more,
My princess ended her life, pushing me past Hell�s door.
For so long, I carried the battle with hate and vengeance,
But when the red haze passed, there was nothing to win!
It could not bring back my princess, not even by chance,
All the wars, and enough blood in which one might swim!
Like a princess in a river swimming without breath of life,
Those who took her life now drowned in their own strife.
Impaled in the woods, their rotten forms feeding crows�
Their blood nurturing my roses, where red beauty grows.

I spent seven years a prisoner in Hunyad Castle�s tower,
A guest of a king who so sought to bind me to his power!
In the end he gave his daughter to be my second bride�
I took her to my castle, and there for years did we abide.
The Prince of Darkness I was called, but I do have a soul,
Though always thrust into circumstances beyond control.

Part Three: The Black Dragon's Son

How I tried to conquer and overcome the agony of loss!
But it was not enough to stem the madness when alone�
Evil are the lonely hours when moonlight�s shaft will toss,
Blackest shadows upon the rough, scarlet-colored stone.
The statue of a black dragon with a cross through it I see,
Upon a pedestal from my father�s time, now given to me.
Dracula they call me, the Son of the Dragon that means�
I sit on a throne of skulls, as the moonlight palely gleams.
In other forms I existed and when Lilith walked the Earth,
I wore the wings of an angel, and was not of human birth!
But now in human flesh I walk, and shall walk once again,
Until I find my princess anew, my journey can never end.
But long after she and I descend, to our infernal paradise,
Men will speak of Dracula, and their veins will be as ice!
I will hear them from beyond and laugh, as is my whim�
Knowing secrets, unknown to all: both glorious and grim.

Today I write this in a body born in nineteen seventy-four,
My old body lies in Snogov monastery, beneath the floor.
Again I spent seven years alone, now for my bride I look,
I am the true Dracula, not the character written in a book!
The Prince of Darkness I was called, and still am this year,
Everyone's favorite bogeyman, filling faint hearts with fear.