Storm clouds brewed above a high-rise hotel. What was odd was how the storm was limited to the hotel itself, and even odder, absolutely no one paid it mind, just continuing with their lives as if they'd seen nothing odd.
On the top floor, in the suite in the center of the floor, was a skeleton in a bellhop uniform. It tirelessly used a heat-gun to scorch the a complex series of runes in a circle. No sense using chalk and one slip destroying all his world after all.
The room's lights were off (mostly because bright light would be annoying to his mistress-to-be), lit by candles set up in a particular pattern for the ritual as well. The expensive furniture for the room had been moved aside to make room for an object of infinitely more importance. A small, child sized coffin, pitch black and polished to a shine, padded with beautiful red velvet, rather classy for what was meant to carry a corpse and then to be placed in the ground. But that was not this coffin's purpose at all.
"Just a few moments more, and all shall be ready," the skeleton said in a raspy voice.
A young girl sat on one of the plush tables, looking at the skeleton silently. She'd never seen such luxury in her life.
"All of this is really going to belong to me?" She asked. She'd washed-up, put on the beautiful black dress the skeleton had given her, and the blood red ruby pendant.
"All of it will be yours to claim," the skeleton corrected. "In exchange for never seeing the sun again, and never setting foot in the land of the dead, all will be yours to claim as you see fit. All will be yours to bend to your will."
The girl had not been scared of the skeleton when she first met him, she'd lived through far worse things in her life than a skeleton that happened to move on its own. She was surprised that no one else seemed to notice he WAS a skeleton, or when they did, they shrugged it off as if a skeleton walking about on his own was normal.
The skeleton had offered to take her from the awful place she'd lived before, and she hadn't even hesitated to accept his offer. Even when he explained what the price of his offer was, she never even looked back. As a free gift, the skeleton had set that place on fire for her. She'd never felt so happy to see something burn.
"There is no turning back once the ritual begins, of your own free will child, you are free to leave child. This is no longer the middle ages after all, I'm certain the police and public services will grant you sanctuary," the skeleton said as he finished the engravings surrounding the coffin.
"You said I could take all this for me? Just me? Not anyone else's? It can't be taken away from me? Nothing can be taken from me ever again? ... I... I want it."
"Very well mi'lady, just lay inside, and the ritual will take care of the rest, and will you awaken, all shall be yours to claim."
The girl climbed inside the coffin, and the lid sealed shut on its own. There wasn't enough air to keep her alive for long, but she wouldn't need air soon enough.
The storm outside the tower grew wilder and louder, and still no one paid it mind. The gem the girl wore and the runes surrounding the coffin both glowed crimson. The girl gasped as she felt the gem burning on her, and it burned through her, burning away her soul and her mortality.
A shockwave went through the room, originating from the coffin, knocking the skeleton over. He'd protected the coffin for eons, from those who sought it destroyed to prevent the creation of a new master or mistress to serve without question.
The lid was brute forced open. And out came the girl, her skin now as pale as a corpse, her hair as red as blood, her eyes as dark as midnight. She stood tall, confident, in control.
The skeleton knelt before her. "Mistress, your humble slave is yours to command."
"Jervile, thank you for my rebirth," the new vampire said.
"My pleasure Mistress. Please, what is your desire?"
The Mistress looked about the hotel room. "... Everything. Everything I was denied when I was alive. Everything!"
A new shockwave came through the top floor of the hotel... and it twisted and warped... to the outside observer, it was seen that the top of the hotel became shaped like gothic castle. And still, as soon as it was done, people didn't understand what they'd been so concerned about, it wasn't anything usual.
Inside, the Mistress now sat upon a gold and velvet throne scaled to her size.
"Beautiful work Mistress!"
The Mistress looked about her throne room. Then she said. "I desire playmates, those who might join me in eternity. And those who serve me as you do."
Jevile offered up a beautiful black umbrella. "Shall you be going out then Mistress to see the world of men with your new eyes?"
"That won't be necessary."
-
"Yes? Room service? Right away."
-
Cammy stepped out of the elevator. She wondered why she was surprised when she looked at the stone halls, and ghoulish paintings, suits of armor, and nightmares woven into the carpet. It was all normal. There was nothing to think about. She found her way to the throne room, even if she'd never been there.
"Room service, you called?" The maid asked. Looking at the bellhop and the owner of the castle floor.
"Yes... I desire a friend and liquid life, you'll provide both." The Mistress said rising from her throne. Before Cammy could ask what she meant, the Mistress moved in a flash, sinking her fangs into Cammy's neck.
The blood drained from her, her skin turned pale, her spirit extinguished. Then... she began to shrink, her uniform shrinking with her. Until Cammy looked about the same age as the Mistress.
The new vampire curtsied. "Mistress, I am ready to serve, for all eternity."
"You are just the first of my playmates, all the world will know eternal life... what use is there is a next world when you never leave this one?" said the soulless undead.
"There is one danger Mistress, now that you have taken your throne, fate will conspire that the other heirs of magic will rise to oppose your endless night."
The Mistress narrowed her eyes, they glowed red, her fangs become more pronounced, her face more inhuman. "So be it. Let them come. I won't let anyone take anything from me, ever again! The whole world will be endless night!"