The snow was already biting at my skin when I finally caught sight of the castle’s silhouette on the horizon. My breath fogged in the frigid air, every step heavier than the last. It had been years since I stood before these gates, years since the night we ended Dracula’s reign together. Five years of traveling, fighting, and clinging to the fragile dream Trevor and I carved out for ourselves. Five years, and now, I walk alone.

I press a hand against my stomach, where life stirs quietly inside me. Our child. The last part of Trevor I have left. The thought is both a blessing and a knife twisting deeper in my chest. He should have been here. He should have lived to see this. But fate has never been merciful to us.

The castle looms like a memory made of stone and shadow. I never thought I would return. And yet, here I am, driven back by necessity, by survival. Winter has already begun its march, and the roads are no longer safe. Monsters are everywhere, prowling, restless. I can’t wander the world with a child growing inside me, not alone.

When I reach the gates, I hesitate. My heart pounds louder than the wind. Alucard... I haven’t seen him since the day we parted ways. I remember the sorrow in his eyes, the hollow way he stood in that endless hall after burying his father. We left him with the castle, telling ourselves he would find his own path, that solitude was what he chose. But I wonder now, was it? Or did we abandon him to ghosts?

My boots crunch against the snow as I approach the gates. My heart pounds in my chest, not from fear of him, but of what I might find. Has solitude broken him? Will he even open the doors?