Chapter 1

All I heard was screaming then something hit me in the head. Then darkness, the sweet bliss of painless unconsciousness.

"Where am I?" Klaus thought aloud as he observed the castle he found himself at. Klaus feels a chill of excitement and, surprisingly, familiarity as he enters through the massive front double doors. 'This is peculiar.' Klaus' thoughts are thick, like honey through his hazy head.

As he looked around the entryway he could tell the castle was spacious inside. Klaus was surprised to see a woman in a maid outfit come out of the room on the right at a hurried pace. He watched her as she went to the door on the far wall and quickly came out with a tray of food and went up the staircase on the right.

'Where is she going?' He wondered as he began to follow her up the stairs to the left. She walked down the hall and entered the second door.

"Here is your tray milady." "Thank you Saria. You may go." Klaus heard. Dismissed, She left the room and went back down the stairs. "You're an elf!" Klaus exclaimed, seeing her ears. 'She can't see or hear me?' Klaus thought, noticing she didn't acknowledge his existence.

"This is lavish." Klaus whispered, amazed. The woman then caught his attention when she stood up ignoring the tray left on the table next to the window, and walked towards the bed.

'She has a child, a boy!' He thought as she lifted her son. 'Who is she, and how is any o-' his thoughts interrupted as he scrambled to follow after her into another room. "-om eat with our son. You've been away long enough and you need a break." she scolded her husband lightly.

"But Leora, I've only just started making progress, to keep our family safe." Ezekiel stated tiredly. But followed his wife to their chambers where they began their meal.

"Our son will grow fast and there is plenty of time to finish, after all they wouldn't dare move in the open!"

"You are right, we should have a century to complete the ritual." Klaus stopped eavesdropping and looked around the room for the first time becoming aware of the hundreds of books.

"Sealing? Blood ritual? Summoning basics? Forbidden magic? Ancient blood magic? Laws of magic?" Klaus read aloud as he studied all the books on the desk.

'This one doesn't have a title?' Klaus wondered. Ezekiel closing the door startled Klaus and he moved to watch as Ezekiel went back to studying. Klaus quickly bored of watching him mumble to himself, began to wander the library and examine the massive collection of books on the shelves.

"There is a lot of books on the subject of magic, compared to the other subjects that are here." Klaus whispered as if he would disturb Ezekiel's diligent studying. 'A chess board?' Klaus walked to the chess board.

"I can interact with it? I haven't been able to move or touch anything here." Klaus moved the white knight from D2 to E4, then walked through the door closest to him and into what appeared to be a study.

"Ezekiel likes his bourbon." he said looking at a collection worth more than half the houses in the town he was raised in. He then turned walking back through the door he entered, seeing Ezekiel looking at the chess board with a puzzled yet amused expression. Then he moved the black rook from D8 to E8.

"Why would you do that and not take the piece?" Klaus thought aloud, while studying the board. 'He's testing me!' he thought, chuckling to himself. Then slid the bishop from C1 to F4 before looking at Ezekiel and laughing at the dumbfounded expression on his face seeing a piece move on its own.

"See what you do with this." His expression switching to determination, and moving his knight from F6 to E4 taking Klaus' knight. Klaus grinned and took his knight moving the white rook from E1 to E4.

Ezekiel laughed and took his piece, moving his rook from E8 to E4. Klaus moved the queen from F3 to E4. Ezekiel moved his other rook from H8 to D8. Klaus responded by moving his queen to D5, which was followed by a soft "hmmm" and black moving his queen from A6 to B6.

Klaus moved his bishop to D6 taking blacks last bishop. Black took the bishop with his queen. Klaus took Ezekiel's queen with his queen then lost it to a chuckling Ezekiel who took it with his rook.

'I don't know what move to make, every move leads to me losing.' Klaus thought while studying the possible outcomes. 'I have to concede, I can't win!' He then tipped over his king, startling at the very loud and free laugh from Ezekiel.

"Good play whoever you are! You are really good, it's been a long time since I had to think through a game like this."

Ezekiel, not hearing or seeing anything, thought the "ghost" had moved on and went to write in his journal on the desk. Klaus left the library and went to see what Leora and their child were doing. Klaus' cheeks and face went red walking in on her feeding the child and turned to return to the stairs embarrassedly.

'What's happening, it's getting dark!' Klaus thought as the world faded to black.

"-KE UUUPPPP!! I said wake UP!"