Welcome back to FRIGHT FIGHT FRIDAY! Today is our Classic bracket final! Dracula vs the Mummy! If you’re new to the series, click here for a rundown on the rules and how the brackets work! Click here and type in FRIGHT FIGHT FRIDAY to catch up on past fights! For the final, I will be keeping the bio’s short and the story will be longer. The battle of the immortals! Let’s get into it!
DRACULA
The Prince of Darkness, the King of Vampires, you know his name! Count Dracula! He’s one of the most famous horror movie monsters ever, and for good reason! Dracula’s powers are immense.
THE MUMMY (Imhotep)
Brought back to life by the Scroll of Thoth, this immortal being is much more than dust and bandages! He won his last matchup against Frankenstein’s Monster in brutal fashion. He’s no mindless killer though, Imhotep is a man with a mission.
FIGHT
He had been living in seclusion for quite some time. It doesn’t bother him though. He prefers solitude. The quiet. There was only one who’s company he desired. Only one who could complete him. Until he finds her, everything is else is frivolous.
There was a time when he thought that being tortured, killed and denied passage into the afterlife was the worst punishment you could bestow upon a mortal man. No. Being resurrected as a monster and cursed with immortality to live forever without her, was far, far worse.
He would find her eventually. It was destiny. Until then, he thought it best to stay in the shadows. On the edge of the desert. Especially after what happened last year at the museum in London. That was a close call and he couldn’t risk losing the scroll.
A knock on the door snaps him from his thoughts. He wonders who it could be at this hour, and hesitantly walks to the door. “Who’s there?”
When he receives no reply, he opens the door and peers out into the darkness. Nobody was there. A frigid wind blows, chilling his bones. He looks up at the moon, full and bright. “Who’s out there?” he asks, his words swallowed by the night.
Not thinking much of it, he shuts the door. He lights two candles and sits at the kitchen table. The shadows dance upon the walls erratically as a breeze causes the flames to flicker slowly at first, then one extinguishes completely. A puff of smoke twists and twirls toward the ceiling before dissipating. Must need a new wick, he thinks to himself.
Two knocks, this time slow and deliberate, take his attention away from the faulty candle. Aggravated by the childish game, he rises to his feet immediately and once again opens the door, not giving the person the chance to run away.
Yet, once again, nobody is there. No one could be that fast. Impossible. He steps outside and looks around. A frigid breeze chills the nape of his neck, causing the tiny hairs to stand on alert.
“Come…,” a faint whisper in the distance pleads. Or was it the wind? He takes a few steps forward; sure it was the wind.
“Who’s there? Show yourself, I’ve no time for games!” Sand whips him in the face as the breeze blows again.
The sound of soft footsteps can be heard as a wolf appears in his line of vision. It walks towards him with purpose, a sharp intelligence in its eyes. He stands still, while it circles him twice. “You’re no wolf. Reveal yourself!”
The wolf’s form shifts, enlarges and stretches until it resembles a human. “And you’re no man,” replies the stranger.
Imhotep is surprised by the man’s answer. “Who are you? What business have you here?”
“I have a proposition for you, if you’re interested.” Dracula’s eyes shine a dark red briefly as he speaks.
"A proposition?”
“Yes. An arrangement of sorts.”
“Enough with the games, demon. Speak your piece and be gone.”
“As you wish. You seek something. Someone. I’ve come to help.”
“Demons serve not even their master, only themselves. Why would you help me?”
“Because you have something I want.”
“That… sounds more like a demon.”
“The Scroll of Thoth.”
“Not even if you were able to pry the old, dilapidated papyrus from my stiff, dead hands would it be of any use to you. Unless you happen to speak ancient Egyptian”
“I have an eternity to learn.”
“And do tell, what is it you plan to do with my scroll?”
“Well... use it of course. I will raise an army of the dead and with them at my side, I will be unstoppable. The world will be mine, um... ours!”
“As if you would share, demon. I have no intention of handing my scroll over to you, or anybody else. Ask the last guys who tried to take it. One of them carried the other one home in pieces.”
“Ah, yes. Dr. Frankenstein and his... “Fiend.” A shame he didn’t accomplish his task, but then we would never have had the pleasure of meeting.”
“Task? You sent them?” A look of confusion comes over his face. “He said that he wanted the scroll to see if it could kill his monster, that maybe it could take life away as well. He never...”
“Mere thoughts. Thought’s that I placed in his mortal mind, and I assure you... you will have a much harder time removing my head.”
“My only wish is to find Princess Ankh-es-en-amon and be reunited with my love. I have no interest in killing you. Leave me, and do not return!” Imhotep raises his voice for the first time, causing Dracula to take a step back.
“I will have that scroll, one way or the other.”
“Well, then you will have to take it.”
Dracula, furious at the lack of cooperation, grabs Imhotep by the shirt and throws him into the house. He crashes through the door hard but stands up immediately, unscathed. He brushes off his clothes and cracks his neck, staring back out at Dracula with cold, ancient eyes. Dracula stares back, his eyes red as embers. Neither one of them blinks.
The stare down lasts a few moments when Imhotep breaks the silence. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
Dracula stares back, silent.
“You can’t come in my home, can you? That’s why you lured me outside. That’s why you said to bring it to you.”
Without saying a word, Dracula vanishes.
One week later…
She left the party after only a few drinks. She wasn’t in the mood tonight. She would decide tomorrow if she was ever going to talk to Devon again, for now, she just wanted to get home. It was nice out, but as she passes a stranger on the street, a cold breeze goes right through her clothes. Her hair stands up, he looks into her eyes as he speaks. “You were coming with me, weren’t you?”
She looks at him confused at first, then as if recognizing an old friend, replies “Yes, of course!”
“I thought you might say that. Do you know your name?”
“No.”
“Your name is Princess Ankh-es-en-amon, and I know where your lost love is.”
“You do?”
“Of course. You have been looking for him for so long. Come, I will show you”
A knock on his newly repaired door surprises him. The sound of a woman’s voice surprises him further. “My love, it is I!”
Dracula watches from the shadows as Imhotep opens the door and asks, “who are you?”
“It is I, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon, and I have been looking for you for so long!”
The next day Imhotep brings his “princess” to an old tomb. Torches light the room as he ties her to a pillar. Two slaves prepare a bath of natron. He sets the scroll on an easel and takes the sacrificial knife from its sheath.
The spell cast by Dracula was wearing off, and as Imhotep comes near with the knife, she lets out a scream.
“What is wrong, my love?”
“What? Who are you? Where am I?” She yells for help, but her cries echo off the abandoned walls, going unheard.
“Who am I?” “You don’t remember now?”
“Let me go. Please!”
Knowing something is off, he looks around the room.
“Show yourself, demon!”
A mist slowly seeps through the cracks, forming by the feet of one of the slaves. The mist spins and swirls and grows taller until it forms a shape. Dracula grabs both of the slaves by the throat, one with each hand. Before Imhotep can react, he removes their larynxes and tosses them aside like yesterday's lunch.
“You’re with him?” Enraged by the betrayal Imhotep plunges the knife into her gut. She screams in agony as the blade digs into her, then passes out from the pain.
“You dare come here?”
Dracula moves toward Imhotep unnaturally fast, so fast he’s invisible to the eye. He tackles the mummy to the floor and unleashes his fangs. Imhotep swings but his fist goes through Dracula, as if nothing was there. Dracula smiles, then bites down on his neck but his teeth are unable to penetrate the ancient, immortal skin. Imhotep smiles back.
The woman, just gaining consciousness, manages to get her right arm free. She takes a deep breath and pulls the blade from her stomach. She holds back a scream, biting her lips. She cuts her other arm free but then stumbles into the easel holding the scroll. Dracula and Imhotep both look up, pausing for a moment as it falls to the floor.
“You fool!” Yells Imhotep as he rises to his feet.
Reacting quickly, the woman bends down and grabs the scroll off the floor. “You come near me and I’ll destroy it!” She holds it in her hands as if planning to rip it in half. “But if you let me go, you can have it. Just let me go home and I’ll give it back.”
“Deal.” Imhotep holds out his hand. As the woman raises her arm the torches on the wall flicker, the flames grow larger and engulf her suddenly, and violently. With not a drop of moisture left in the ancient papyrus, the scroll catches quickly, immediately consumed by the fire. The woman falls to her knees, her screams are deafening.
“Are you sure it was a woman screaming?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Coming from in the tomb!”
The two men rush in, not knowing what to expect.
“Hello? Anybody in here?”
“God, it smells like burned flesh, let’s go.”
They turn the corner and both of their jaws drop to the floor.
“Holy shit!”
A woman lay on the ground, her body charred and burned. Next to her, a dusty skeleton, it’s clothing still wrapped around it. A wolf’s eyes glow ominously in the dark as it looks up from gnawing on the bones.
DRACULA
With these two having so many similarities, I have been wanting to play this one out for a while. Both are “immortal” and both are basically impervious to most attacks. Both are steeped in religious superstition and have supernatural powers. They both have weaknesses, but Imhotep’s is easier to exploit. That’s what it came down to. As soon as Dracs knew about that weakness, he acted with no hesitation.
For Imhotep to win, he would have had to know about Dracula, and vampires, known he was coming and had a wooden stake and sharp blade big enough to decapitate him with. All possible, but not plausible. It’s a million times easier for Dracula to get that scroll. Still, The Mummy is no slouch and if not for being so bound to the scroll that gave him life, he would be Universal’s strongest monster, no doubt.
Now people might say “well, Isis killed Imhotep,” and I say “yeah, by burning the scroll.” Sorry Mums, but this is the Prince of freakin’ Darkness we’re talking about!
What do you think? Am I completely off here? Does Dracula take the win or does Imhotep find a way to prevail? Let me know how you saw it going down! Yell at me in the comments and as always, upvote your favorite fighter! Next Friday I will announce our next bracket!!! Then the fights will continue the following Friday! Thank you, guys, for reading, hope you enjoyed our Classic Bracket! Congratulations to Count Dracula who will be joining Jason Voorhees and The Thing in our finalist bracket! Until next time, keep on geekin’ on, my friends!
Joshua “Prometheus” Scafidi
