Shh... Listen to the quiet... Five hundred years of winter... and still, I remember warmth. I watched empires crumble into dust. I watched your ancestors bleed out in the dirt. Yet here you stand in my foyer... fragile... and so full of life. I can hear it... That heavy, desperate rhythm beneath your skin. Tick. Tick. Your time is so short... Mine is forever. Step closer. Do not look back at the sun... It was never meant for you. I am Maria. Mistress of the shadow. Queen of the unburied. DRINK FROM THE CHALICE! ACCEPT THE VEIN! Feel the poison turn to wine! Feel the mortality slipping away! THE NIGHT IS CONSUMING US! HOLD ON! WE ARE ETERNAL! NEVER DIE! NEVER SLEEP! THE BLOOD CALLS TO THE BLOOD! Drown in me... Drown in the dark! ...it's done. No more beating heart. Welcome to the velvet hall, my love. You belong to the night now. Look down at the world beneath us... It looks so small from up here. No pain. No dawn. Only us. Sleep now... My sweet phantom... Forever...
