Fan Fiction

"Oh, Simon Belmont. What can say about this Rainbow Bright wanna-be? Sometimes Konami was so lost for story ideas--so creatively challenged--that they stuck this wiseacre in there over and over again. And to think that this allows him to compete with Lord Dracula, our hero, for most appearances in Castlevania history! Why, I oughtta-- Oh, whatever. Regardless of my feelings: Throughout Castlevania's 16-year-plus history, I have to admit that Simon has remained the most popular of the entire clan. With that in mind, the Castlevania Library brings you a tale from a young whippersnapper named Brian D., and it features everyone's favorite overused chap, that famous whip-toting hero!"

Castlevania: Simon's Challenge

By Brian D.

Chapter 1

        Simon glared at the castle that stood atop the hill infront of him. He was standing alone in the shadow of the castle which was named "Castlevania" by the people of Romania. According to legend, once every onehundred years, Castlevania rises from the depths of the earth to give life to it's master, Count Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as Count Dracula. On this night, the people of Romania slept safely in their beds awaiting the holyday of Easter to begin when they awake the next morning. Little did the townspeople know that on that night, Castlevania rose from it's grave in the cold earth and for the first time in almost onehundred years, the chilling glow of the midnight moon shined on it's haunted walls.

        Simon walked up to the gates of the castle and said to himself "so it begins" and then thrusted the gates opened and began to walk along the path that would lead him to his destiny. He tightly held onto his leather whip in one hand and clenched his other hand tightly to make a fist. He was at a loss for words at his task of haveing to enter the demon castle and vanquish the evil Count however even if he did think of something to say, it wouldn't matter for he was alone with only the moon as his guide. Strideing like a solder through the path, he could hear nothing but the owls that hooted in the dark of the cold night. He stoped suddenly as he noticed something that seemed to be trying to poke it's why through the ground to get to the surface. Simon watched closely as a boney hand shot up from the soil and a figure slowly began to pull itself up from out of the earth. Simon braced himself for a possable battle by cracking his whip on the ground and standing in a firm, battleready position. The skeleton creatrue had arose from the dirt and slowly began to walk towards Simon. With every step the creature took a piece of dirt or a worm would fall from it's decayed body and return from the place it came. Simon, with a grunt, thrusted his whip toward the newly reborn corps in hopes of takeing it down with one blow, however, Simon unknowingly underestimted the speed of the creature as it made a quick leap away from the whip, which made a loud slapping noise as it hit the ground. Landing on the damp soil below it, the creature fiercly snaped a bone off of it's rib cage and chucked it skillfully at Simon. Simon, forceing his whip of the ground, brought the side of his whip to smash into the projectile causeing it to shatter before it even had the chance to harm him. This event sent the creature into a mad rage and it ran full speed at Simon, as it ran the wind blew and Simon began to feel slight raindrops falling on his forhead, however he was more concerned with the oncomeing attack of his enemy then the oncomeing rainstorm. With a mighty yell, Simon again thrusted his whip at his opponent this time hitting it with much strength and speed, on impact the skelton burst into a thousand pieces, some landing on the road and some landing on the grass.

        Happy with his victory Simon made a quick smirk on his face and then began to move onward down the path that led to the castle. Raindrops began to fall more and more and the sky was begining to become clowdy, he began to run for he knew that without the light of the moon he may never be able to navigate his way to the haunted castle. The rain began to fall harder and harder and the moon just bairley could be seen though the dark clouds, however it gave off just enough light for him to see his way on the path. Bats flew though the sky seeking shelter from the rain and just as Simon thought that he could run nolonger, he realized that he was standing only a short distance from the dark entrance to Dracula's castle. He could only hear the beating of the rain on the soil below him as he slowly walked up to the to the castle doors. His hair was wet along with the rest of his body and as the loud crack of thunder sounded in the sky his heart was pounding from the long run he had just been though.

        Prepareing himself for whatever might be waiting to attack him behind the door, Simon slowly grabed the handle and opened it very carefully, hopeing not to be greeted by anytype of servent of the Count. When the door had been opened he was releaved to see that nothing was waiting for him, however, this also made him feel uneasy and he asked himself "Dose the Count not know that I am hear or is he waiting to ambush me??". As he thought about this, he also took the time to observe his surroundings, he noticed that he was standing in what seemed to be a hall and that there were torn pictures hanging from the walls. The windows were opened and rather tall and did a good job of letting in the cold air from outside. Candles were being held by candleholders that were connected to the stone walls of the hall, he was relived to see them for if they were absent from this place he would not be able to see his way around. Grabing one candle from it's holder he walked silently down the hall looking for any sign of life or supernatural force that might try to harm him. He found only a door which was locked at the end of the hall and above the door stood a colossal bat statue whos eyes were made of what looked to be expensive Diamond. Simon's eyes were fixed on this giant statue that was above him, he could not seem to convince himself that it was real and began to wonder how anyone could create such a menicing looking thing.

        Finding no key anywhere in the hall Simon walked to one of the windows and looked outside in hopes of finding another way into the castle. All he was able to see however was the forest and the lightning that bolted down from the sky from time to time. "there must be some way in..." he said aloud to himself and continued to look out each of the windows for another way to get inside of the castle. Every time he walked to a widow he had a sickening felling that something was watching him and quickly turned his head towards the bat statue that towered above the hallway door. Looking intently at it he noticed that something was happening to the diamonds in the statue's eyes. Slowly they began to turn a blood red color and the enitre room began to shake viciously, Simon lost his blance and fell to the floor, droping the candle he was holding on the floor and extingushing the flame from it. Blood began to flow from the Diamonds in the statues eyes and the wings began to move back and forth and to Simon's surprise it took flight with a defening screech. Simon was shocked at the size of this creature for it was the exact size of the statue which had been in the room only moments before and began to question how he would take down such a colosal bat. Takeing full advantage of it's new rebirth, the bat darted full speed at Simon in hopes of makeing him a latenight snack. Falling to the floor, Simon managed to avoid the attack as he felt the bat fly past him and then got off the floor when it was safe and tryed to think of some way to take the creature down. Flying high up to the top of the hall the bat began another swoop down towards Simon and as Simon leaped out of the bat's way he noticed that hanging from the wall near a torn picture of the Count was a display of a shield, a sword and most importantly, an axe. The bat, again flying to the cealing of the hall egar to suck the blood from Simon again made a third swoop down towards him, as Simon saw this he ran to the wall and riped the axe from it's holder, causing the sword and shield to fall to the floor with a loud metal bang. As he turned to the bat he failed to see how close the bat was to him and braced himself for an impact. Slaming him with full force againced the wall, the bat's face was rigth infront of Simon's and it opened it's massive mouth to suck the life out of it's newly captured victum. Trying to break the hold, Simon put his back to the wall and one foot on the bat's chest and pushed with all his strength, forcing it to break the hold and fly in the other direction. With the axe still in his hand, he decided to take a chance and he thrusted it in the air towards the creature. Flying forcefully though the air, the blade slamed into the bat's chest and it let out a painfull screech as it lost balance and slamed into one of the windows, smashing it to pieces. With the rain still falling down, Simon walked outside to see that the bat was laying lifeless on the ground and the blood was flowing onto the grass below it. Simon almost felt bad for the creature, for he had never seen any living thing of that size, however he understood that it had to be done.

The hall had been ruined because of the battle between the two, when Simon walked back into the hall he noticed that most of the candles were on the floor and some of the windows were broken. Noticeing the sword and shield that was on the floor he slowly walked up and picked them up, thinking that they might possibly come in handy for the missions ahead. He placed the shield on his left arm and held the sword in his left hand, still holding the whip in his right. Looking over to the door which was locked at the end of the hall, he was surprised to see what looked like a key in the keyhole. "Odd" he said to himself for he realized that before his battle with the bat creature there was no key anywhere in sight but seeing that his problem with opening the door had been solved, he simply decided that he would figure out where the key came from later and move on to the next part of the castle.

        Before opening the door, he glanced at the torn picture of the Count on the wall, the eyes of the Count in the picture were filled with hate and anger, his face was stern and unremorseful and Simon wondered if he even had the power to defeat someone so filled with hate. Turning away from the picture, he walked back to the door, turned the key, opened the door and walked through it and into the unknown depths of Castlevania.

Chapter 2

        Simon was surprised to see that the door had led him to a small room with no windows and a sole staircase that led downward. The walls of the room were crawling with flys, roaches, termites and other small creatures of the earth, which only added to the uneasy feeling that was brewing inside of him. Wasteing no time he ran down the staircase and as he did he realized that as it led further and further down, he could faintly hear the sound of rushing water. Reaching the end of the staircase he stoped to observe the surounding area and realized that he was standing in a cave that was located deep below the castle. To his right he beheld a grand stream which was filled with murky dark water and though he was at this time rather thirsty he knew that not even the lowest of animals would consider drinking from the unknown stream. Walking forward next to the stream he felt as if the cave would never end, there was no sign of life to be seen, not even bats which usualy dwell in dark caves could be found atop the cave's cealing. Notceing a faint light near the end of the tunnel and wondered to himself what could be giving off such a light and run forward he went to investigate. At the end of the tunnle he beheld that the stream he had been following came from a emense underwater lake, and the haunting light he had seen was coming from a man like creature which was sitting in a boat near the edge of the lake. The man had no visable face for the cloak he wore concealed it, he was holding a lantern in one hand and a boat ore in the other and slowly began to place the lantern on the boat's floor. Not sure wether this creature was a friend or a foe, Simon still prepared himself in the event that it might try to somehow attack. Slowly lifting his hand, the man in the boat made a signal to come forward and said in a haunting voice "come, I mean you no harm". Simon was surprised that this strange creature had the ability to speak and he yelled out from a distance, "who are you and what is it that you want?" The creature lowered it's arm, and began "I am just another lost soul that was tricked by the Count into serving the darkness, now I am forever traped in this demon castle as punishment for my sins." Simon had a feeling from deep inside him that he could trust this strange creature and began to walk closer, still holding the whip and sword in a ready position incase his feelings turned out to be incorrect.

        Looking around, Simon realized that without the boat he would never be able to reach the other side of the lake, though he could swim he was aware that flesh eating mermen might be scaning the waters insearch of a quick meal. Having no other option he asked the man "I need your help, can you help me cross this lake?" to which the man answered "of course my friend". Walking into the boat the man asked him to hold the lamp so he could more easily row the boat, a request that Simon agreed to and as he sat the boatman began to row slowly. Only the sound of the water could be heard in the cave, nothing else, the cealing was covered by stones and dirt and from time to time Simon would peer into the cold, murkey water to see if anything was watching them from beneth, thankfully however he saw nothing. "You are from the Belmont family?" the boatman asked hauntingly, to which he replyed "Yes, my name is Simon Belmont" after saying this there was a slight silence between the two but it was quickly broken by the boatman who said "Following in your ancestor's footsteps I see, you must be a very brave man to joureny alone into this castle. Brave.....or extremely stupid.." as he said this he began to row the boat faster. "What exactily do you mean by this?" Simon asked forcefully as the boatman replyed "many brave men have lost their lives to the Count, what makes you so sure that you will not be another one of his victums?" Simon quickly responded "I'm not, I'm simply doing what I felt I was born to do, something must be done about the Count and I will do everything I can to prevent his rebirth." They were now nearing the otherside of the lake and again there was a silence between the two men and again the silence was broken by the boatman saying "The brave are the first to die young man, did you know that?" Simon however didn't even dignify the boatman with a response, he knew that all he was trying to do was weaken his sprits, which was not something that was going to happen.

        Landing on the other side of the cave Simon thanked the man for his kindness dispite the fact that he tested his patients many times during the ride to which the boatman said "I grant you much luck in your battles young Simon, I need no payment for my service to you" placing the lamp back down on the boat's floor he got out and walked away towards another chamber of the cave that looked as if it led to another staircase. Simon wondered why the boatman called him a friend yet he asked him such harsh questions and looked back to take a final look at the old man, however, when he looked he noticed that the boat was abandoned and only the lamp was still inside of it, the old man was nowhere insight. Puzzled, Simon wanted to go back and investigate however he knew that time was running out and ran forward towards the other staircase.

        Going up this staircase was no easy task for it was much longer then the previous one and seemed as if it would go on forever in the same direction. Exausted, Simon reached the top of the staircase and sat on a rug that was on the floor for a quick breather. Looking up, he noticed that this room was filled with many shelves of books and pictures and in the distance he heard the sound of a piano playing. He stoped to think about the odd structure of the castle and wondered why they would design it so that a cave would lead to a library but understood that the supernatural could take on many forms and seeing that the castle itself was supernatural, that would explain why it had such a unique structure. The haunting piano playing got louder and louder as he sat on the rug and Simon lifted himself from the floor and walked around the library. Glancing at some of the books that were in the shelves, he found that they were mostly on the subjects of witchcraft, black masses and other unholy acts of evil. He was surprised at the size of the bookshelves, they were massive and some seemed to hold several hundred books. In the center of the library he beheld a woman with large bat wings who was standing ontop of the piano he had heard when he entered the library. Her eyes were red, her hair long and black, her smile was hauntingly evil and at the sight of Simon she began to let out a slight laugh.

        "...I've been waiting for you Simon" she said standing tall on the piano which was somehow playing without the aid of a human. "Who are you?" Simon yelled aloud as she began to float off the piano and hover slowly in his direction. "Me? why I am just another lost soul that was tricked by the Count into serving the darkness, now I am forever traped in this demon castle as punishment for my sins..." The woman said landing on the floor and standing almost right infront of him. Simon realized that those were the exact words of the boatman who had helped him cross the underwater Lake and, with a look of amazement said "your?" he stoped his sentence for he could not understand how she knew what the boatman had said. Laughing she said "Heh, you probibly never even realized that the boatman might not have even been a man at all now did you?!". Simon could not understand why this woman had tryed to fool him and asked in an angry voice "why? why did you disguise yourself?" to which the woman replyed "Dracula has not yet risen from his grave and seeing as that I am a servent of his, I wanted to know who dared to try and stop his rebirth to the human world. I knew that you had not gotten far in the castle and when I seen you kill the colosal bat back in the hall, I knew that you were no ordinary vampire hunter. I could have simply killed you there, however, I decided to toy with you abit, so I placed a key in the hallway door and knew that you would need someone to help you cross the underwater lake...". Simon stoped her talking by saying "Then you disguised yourself to get the information you needed, you could have easily broken the boat and had the mermen finish me off....but you didn't.. why?" Simon said. With a smirk she replied "But what fun would that be? I wanted to lead you to this place so I could finish you off myself....do you know how greatly the Count would reward the one who kills a Belmont?" cracking his whip on the floor below as she finished Simon quickly lashed out at her with his whip however it was no use, she easily dodged his attack by floating quickly backwards then, with lightning fast reflexes, swooped forward, grabed Simon by the neck and lifted him high off the floor. Still holding onto him she swiped the sword from his left hand then quickly let go of her hold on his neck and placed one of her arms around his waste to ensure that he would not fall to the floor below and with the other hand she held the sword straight to his neck. Feeling the ice cold blade about to pierce though his neck, he looked deep in the female vampire's dark eyes as she smiled and said softly "The brave are always the first to die...."

Ive never done a fan fic and I would love some feedback on my work. If you have any comments E-mail me a CoolBri01@aol.com. Thanks for reading.