Beautiful and Pale - AxD

Before staying at the Castle of Brennenburg, Daniel did recall hearing some of its darker tales from the towns below. Despite the fact they could've all been lies or simple scary stories about the castle that's been around for more than 300 years, he still couldn't help but expect something out of the castle. However, helping Alexander torture, kill, and brutally extract Vitae from prisoners wasn't something on his list of things to expect. Daniel didn't care much after a while since he was doing this to save himself and clean the population of its criminals. Yet, despite that thought, he couldn't help but remember those rumors. What was Alexander really planning? He wondered to himself as he went down to one of the rooms that Alexander was usually found in. Looking at the recent bodies and most likely extracting Vitae from them.

However, when he walked into the room his whole train of thought of Alexander seemed to have stopped and blanked completely. The other male was doing something completely out of character. He was… dancing! All by himself, in the room full of recent corpses, and because of this sight, Daniel dropped the bloodied knife in his hand in shock, which fell and clattered on the stone ground beneath him.

Alexander didn't seem to notice Daniel, or rather, he did notice and just didn't care despite the noise Daniel made when coming into the room. Normally, he would have been disturbed, but at this moment, Alexander was lost in his own world. Counting, humming, and simply dancing away with a strange look upon his face that Daniel couldn't place it despite the fact he was quite familiar with emotions. Finally, the older man stopped his waltz and looked over at Daniel with a bit of a sad look in his tired eyes. "What is it Daniel?" Alexander asked, his deep voice lulling Daniel out of the daze he didn't realize he was in. "Did you succeed in warding off the Shadow?" Daniel nodded slowly, his mouth slightly open as if wanting to say something, but couldn't. Of course he succeeded. The Shadow was gone. At least, for now anyway.

Paint the man… Cut the lines…

Snapping himself out of the memory, Daniel looked over at Alexander and found the other male dancing to himself once again. To Daniel, it seemed Alexander was trying to do something as he danced. He wasn't even paying attention to the corpses anymore. His full attention onto the strange, hypnotizing dance that Daniel couldn't help but feel attracted to it. When he really looked closely at Alexander's dancing, Daniel realized that Alexander was practically glowing in the dark room surrounded by nothing but candles. Strangely enough, the candles and the way Alexander looked under the dim light put Daniel into some sort of trance. To him, Alexander was so beautiful and pale. While he, covered in nothing but blood and sin, watched in the dark as the older man counted steps out loud before continuing his dance with an imaginary partner.

Daniel took a step back, not wanting to intrude on Alexander's strange moods. Yet, despite the fact he would have left Alexander to dance away in his thoughts, and clean off the blood of the prisoner on him, he felt clean, pale hands grasp his own bloodied ones and drag him out of the dark corner and fully into the room. Daniel gasped slightly and watched as everything began to blur together as his own mind and body began to betray him. Daniel knew, that like a snake, Alexander had bewitched him into this deadly dance, as the screams of the prisoners echoed in the silent room, creating an almost dark tune.

As they danced, Daniel could only stare with a hypnotized smile at Alexander, who in turn smiled back at him, their gazes never leaving one another. As the dance continued, Daniel could slowly begin to hear music over all the screams and cries of the prisoners. He moved closer as Alexander twirled him in beat with the waltz. The music was beautiful, and yet foreign to his ears. Daniel wasn't sure where it was from, but Alexander seemed to know of it and looked almost… homesick? Daniel closed his eyes and leaned against Alexander's chest as the music lulled him away from the thoughts of Shadow, the screams, and his growing guilt. To him, this moment was nothing but a dream.

A dream of light and dark meeting and blending together in a deadly waltz.