Finding a good spot to park the car in the airport wasn't as difficult as I had expected. Lucas moved all our luggage onto a large trolley, while I gathered Aurora from her seat, trying not to wake her up, and not succeeding. As usual, she was wide awake nearly the same moment the car stopped. Luckily, she was a happy baby, who hardly ever cried or complained these days.

Lia and Stoker were waiting for us outside, away from the noisy, confused crowd of travellers filling the terminal despite the early hour, making it easier for us to meet. We whizzed through the checks and controls relatively fast and after we were separated from most of our encumbering luggage, we sat in the airport lounge to wait for our flight to be announced.

"May I feed her? Please!" Lia begged as we made our way back to our seats from the toilets. It was obvious that Aurora, dry and happy again, thought of nothing but food now.

"Of course. There." I said, sitting back down next to Lucas and passing the baby to him, before I reached for the small suitcase, my hand luggage, and opening it, let Lia choose Aurora's snack.

I started feeding her some baby food, apart from the milk, a week ago, and she seemed to enjoy it greatly. Even now she was so excited at the sight of the small jar of mashed fruit Lia chose for her, that the look of her, making all sorts of appreciative sounds and movements, made me laugh.

Lucas laughed too, and handing her over to Stoker, sitting next to Lia opposite of us, said, "There, Uncle, practice!"

That made Lia blush, but, strangely, she said nothing. She concentrated silently on feeding Aurora, settled comfortably on Stoker's lap, her breakfast, spoonful after slow spoonful, while I leaned my head over Lucas's shoulder, watching them.

My mind strolled back to the last few days as I tried to remember if I did all those things that I meant to do before leaving-- I said my goodbyes to Mum and Julian, Dad, William, Anne and Mark, Mr. Turner... I left a spare key of the house with Luigi and Veronica, asking them to look after Whisper over the next four days... and instructing them what to do with the key if I... did not return.

I knew that I most probably looked paranoid in my friends' eyes, but none of them, apart from Stoker of course, had ever been in that world where I was returning now, they were not there the last time I got too close to Radu...

I only realised that I sighed aloud, yet again, when Lucas wrapped his arm over my shoulders encouragingly, moments before our flight to Bucharest was finally announced.

While Lia stood up and went to throw away the now empty jar of baby food, I fished the baby carrier, which I bought purposely for this journey, from the suitcase. Lucas fitted Aurora safely in it before I pushed my arms through the straps and he buckled the thing across my back and around my waist. This was so much easier to handle than the pram which I had left at home. And it was so much better, having the baby so close; feeling her weight and warmth was giving me so much comfort.

Apparently even to her-- she started settling for another nap the moment I put a soft green hat over her ginger curls, then wrapped my arms around her.

"Ready," I told the others, who were waiting for me patiently.

Lucas, carrying my handbag on his shoulder and all of our coats over the small trolley he was pulling behind him, preceded the rest of us towards the correct gate.

After having spent nearly three and a half hours on the plane, half an hour on the Bucharest's Airport shuttle taking us to the train station, another three hours on the slow and delayed train to Brasov and the final forty minutes on a small bus which finally delivered us to Bran village, Lia, Aurora and I arrived to our hotel feeling cold, hungry and exhausted. Stoker and Lucas looked way better, and I was sure they felt that way, too. There were definitely advantages in belonging to their kin.

"Samara!" Alina, the friendly, short, brown-haired receptionist ran towards us from behind her desk, the moment we walked inside the large reception room.

Nothing has changed here during the year. I mused, looking around.

The long, shiny reception desk, the soft ambient lights, even the small table standing by the window, buried under the guide books and postcards, were the same, making me feel weird. It was as if I had never left this place, as if I just got back from the castle and the whole year had only been a dream...

But then Aurora stirred in the carrier, impatient to be freed, bringing me back to reality.

I let Alina embrace us together before I introduced Lia and Lucas to her, both of whom she remembered, she said, and then Mr. Balcombe, as Stoker had asked me before to be introduced.

"I'm so glad to see you again, so glad that you..." she stopped, glancing at my companions uncertainly, and only went on when I nodded, "...that you are going back to him."

She walked back to her desk, checked something on the screen of her computer briefly, then came back with the keys to our rooms-- two singles, for Lucas and me, and one double, across the corridor from our rooms, for Lia and Stoker.

"Rest and refresh a little, you must be tired," Alina said in her heavily accented English, "then come back down. I asked the cook to prepare some food for you before she left. You can eat here tonight, if you don't fancy going out again."

We didn't wish to leave the hotel again, we assured her. It was cold and windy outside, and there were not many restaurants to choose from in the village. Accepting her offer gladly, we climbed up the stairs, to our floor.

Lia and Stoker got the room where we stayed last Halloween, with Anne. Mine and Lucas' were smaller, but just as clean and warm.

Once I looked around my room and bathroom to check if there was all that I might need, I laid Aurora in the middle of the bed, freeing her from the carrier and propping her against the pillows. After having dragged a chair to each side of the mattress I switched on the television and sat down next to her for a few moments, still fully dressed, trying to warm up.

Soon, enjoying the heat of the room and the sound of Romanian language pouring out of the television, I took our jackets off, and started to unpack while waiting for Lucas or Lia, whichever would come first, to look after Aurora while I showered.

It was Lucas of course, and when neither Lia nor Stoker appeared, not even when I, and Aurora too, were washed and changed, we just knocked on their door on our way back down, telling them where to find us whenever they were ready.

They joined us in the empty breakfast hall where Alina served our dinner, some fifteen minutes later.

Alina had no news concerning Vlad for me of course, like myself, she did not see him, or anyone else from the other side, the whole year. She said that we should go up to the castle at eleven tomorrow morning, with the first group, and see if we could find him.

You are so close, just several hours away from him, my subconscious murmured, making me shiver. I was so close, and I still had no idea about what will happen once I get in the castle, how will this all go. I pulled Aurora closer, absorbing her warmth and her scent, rendered breathless with anxiety as I remembered that I'd most likely be separated from in no time...

Lucas pulled us closer, and I looked up and smiled at him. She would have him and the other two to stay with her even if I had to leave her for ten minutes... A year!...

Shaking the awful thought off, I concentrated again on Alina.

Once we finished our dinner and the chat, we agreed to meet the woman at half past ten in the reception room, and she would accompany us to the castle herself.

But when we got there in the morning, after what for me had been an awfully long night which I spent fighting off nightmares and a sudden strange, unpleasant feeling I couldn't shake off, despite the fact that Lucas spent most of the night in my room, trying to talk me out of it, we did not find Alina.

A young man whom I had never seen before sat at her usual spot behind the desk.

"Are you Alina's son?" I asked, making a beeline for him the moment I entered the room, my anxiety rising further by the second.

"Hmm... no... I'm just a family friend, helping out for the day..." the man replied while Lucas tried to pry one of the curls that found its way out of my messy bun from Aurora's fist, before she could bring it to her mouth.

She giggled at him, bouncing happily in the carrier, distracting me momentarily, but I was too nervous to really enjoy their antics for long right now.

"Do you want me to carry her?" Lucas offered, but I simply shook my head and continued with my interrogation.

"Can you tell me where Alina is? We were supposed to meet her here, now." He is just their friend, he knows nothing about you and Vlad, you need Alina... My subconscious whispered.

"Are you her friend...?"

"Yes, yes I'm her friend," I called, getting impatient with him, "tell where we can find her, please."

"She was taken to hospital. Don't get alarmed, they said it's not serious but they'll keep her there for at least twenty four hours. There was a minor fire in the castle early this morning, something happened, probably a short circuit, when Alina went to open, and before the firemen arrived, she inhaled some smoke. But as I said, you don't have to worry," he added, looking scared himself by the sudden paleness of my face, most probably.

That isn't good. My subconscious stated the obvious unhelpfully, making my knees tremble.

Seeing my state, Lucas removed the straps of the carrier off my shoulders carefully and I let him take Aurora from me, before I leaned against the reception desk.

"Can... can we still visit the castle today?" I asked, forcing myself to remain hopeful.

"No, I don't think so. At least not at the moment. If everything goes well and we can just shut off a couple of rooms, there might be one entry late in the afternoon. But if I were you, I wouldn't count on that. Why don't you visit Poenari Citadel instead today? I'm just organizing a bus to take all our visitors there, shall I book your tickets?" He asked, smiling broadly, as I pressed my forehead against the cool, smooth wood of the tall counter, the smell of its polish flaring up my nostrils, reminding me of the scent of the ancient furniture in the castle... where I apparently would not get today.

"Two one way tickets, yes. We might decide to spend the night there and come back tomorrow..." I heard Stoker's voice resuming my conversation while I felt Lucas' hand draw soothing circles on my back. "When is the bus leaving?"

"In an hour sir, from the parking lot behind this building. The journey takes a little less than three hours, you'll be there in time for the three o'clock entry." The boy said, and as I straightened up I saw him handing a printed piece of paper to Stoker. "This includes two one way bus tickets, and also the entry to the Poenari castle ruin." He rattled on while Stoker paid.

Once Stoker thanked the receptionist, then folded the paper and slid it in his breast pocket, Lucas laced his arm through mine and made me follow his uncle and Lia to the breakfast room, now serving as a waiting room for a handful of tourists, whose dreams of visiting Bran Castle on this Halloween night were shattered like mine.