Bitten

I sat in my room, staring over at the wall. I still didn’t completely understand what was going on. A few days ago, I was sitting at home, probably having a conversation with Nami over Skype. Now, I’m in a vampire house…surrounded by a bunch of vampires who think I’m “delicious”.

I allowed myself to fall back on the bed and took a deep breath. I didn’t feel safe sleeping here. Actually, I didn’t feel safe even living in here. Maybe living is the problem.

Why couldn’t I just die?

I licked my lips. Or turn into one of them. That way I wouldn’t be so afraid.

I allowed my eyes to close and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I was in a room of the mansion with King and Prince. They were staring at something off in the distance. When I looked back, I saw Demetri and Crimson talking. Demetri smiled slightly, looked over at King, and looked back at Crimson.

Crimson nodded, muttered something, and walked over to the twins. He explained that King was to be sent to isolation for his actions.

King lowered his gaze and Prince’s face turned red with annoyance.

“That’s stupid,” Prince hissed, “He didn’t do anything wrong!”

Crimson slapped his son across the face, “Shut up, child. This has nothing to do with you.”

Prince staggered back, covering his reddening face with his hand.

I walked over to them and searched King’s eyes for any sign of remorse or shame. But, all I saw was pure hatred. Cold, hard hatred. I had never seen that look in his eyes before.

King’s mouth twitched.

“I would have thought you would be a better person,” Crimson commented, “But we’ll have to teach you. Killing a human is one thing…but killing one of your own…that’s not going to work.”

I looked over at Demetri, who was still smiling unnervingly in their direction.

When I looked at King, he was chewing on his lip. Blood slid down his chin and dripped to the floor.

No one said anything. No one even tried to stop it.

He looked at Demetri, “I’ll get you back, Demetri. Pinning things against me isn’t going to get you anywhere in the vampire world.”

“Quit blaming others for your own mistake,” Crimson said, taking his son by the arm.

I followed them through the mansion and down into the cellar. Crimson chained King up against the wall, a sad look crossing his eyes.

He knelt down, “No blood for three months…son, I’m sorry. I hate doing this to you.”

“Tsk,” King laughed sarcastically, “Get out of here, you joke of a father.”

His dad stood and walked out. He paused at the door, debating on whether or not to say anything more to his son. Eventually, he bowed his head and walked out, locking the cellar door behind him.

Time sped up and King’s whole body was pale. He was breathing heavily and his head was down. Sweat trickled down his skin.

He was cussing vulgar words, cursing his mother and his father. He pulled as hard as he could, trying to escape the chains. When he raised his head, I noticed his eyes were red from crying.

I walked over to him and sat down. I knew I couldn’t say anything to him. This was just a dream. But I wished that I could say something. Anything. This was almost too much for me to handle.

Why was I dreaming this?

The cellar door opened and Crimson stepped in with a spiked whip in his hand.

King glared at him and bared his fangs.

Crimson stared at him, no expression on his face.

He shut the cellar door and walked over to his son. He knelt down and I immediately saw the resemblance in the facial features.

“Just admit what you did,” he said softly, “You can get out of here.”

“I’m already two months into it,” King spat back, “Why not just finish it off? I haven’t eaten anything in months and you have the balls to come in here and tell me that I need to confess to something that I didn’t even do?”

Crimson stood, “Well, then I’m sorry that you have to endure this. Aleron says that you will be punished four times a week for the last month if you don’t confess.”

King spit at his father, making him raise the whip and bring it down onto his son’s face.

I screamed and slid away from him.

His father kept beating him with the whip. The spikes dug into his skin and tore him apart, splattering blood onto the walls and on Crimson’s clothes.

King was screaming in pain. His eyes were clenched shut and tears streamed down his face.

I woke with a start. I opened my mouth to scream when I saw King lying next to me.

“Shh,” King covered my mouth.

I stared at him with wide eyes, tears threatening to escape. When he let my mouth go, I felt a tear slide down my face, “What was that?”

He smiled tiredly, “Not only can I make you visit your nightmares, I can let you visit mine.”

“So that didn’t happen,” I asked.

The smile faded, “No…that’s what happened to me. That’s why we hate Demetri so much.”

“He framed you?”

He nodded, “He killed someone and blamed me. He set it up so that my DNA was on the victim. He then ran and told my father what happened, who told Aleron…at that point I had no say in the process. I’m still seen as the killer in here.”

I scooted forward and wrapped my arms around him. He put his hand on my hip and pulled me closer to his body.

I put my head in his chest and closed my eyes, “I’m so sorry.”

“For what,” he asked.

“For everything,” I said, “For saying I’d rather die than be with you. For acting like a jerk towards you. For saying you all are freaks…I just…”

“Hey,” he said, voice quiet and soothing, “don’t get all sad about it because you saw what happened to me.”

“But it explains everything. It explains your actions and why you all are the way you are.”

He was silent. His hand moved to my back.

I pulled my head away and looked into his eyes.

He looked down at my lips quickly before looking back into my eyes. His eyes were filled with sadness.

I moved his hair out of his eyes, “Why don’t you want your parents to know that you have feelings towards a human?”

He sighed and looked past me, “Well…humans come and go. They just don’t want me hurt. And they don’t want me turning people into vampires. So, loving a human is a lose-lose situation for me unless I could talk them into allowing me to change the human into a vampire.”

I nodded as if I understood. In all actuality, I didn’t get it at all. I knew that humans live a normal life span and die…but I didn’t understand why his parents didn’t allow him to love someone for the time being. Relationships nowadays don’t last long anyway.

He looked back into my eyes, “And I’d have to get that human to tell me that they want to be with me forever. And forever is quite a long time when you’re immortal.”

“Couldn’t they just become a vampire and then you two could break up,” I asked, “Do they have to stay with you?”

He shook his head, “No…but what’s the point in becoming immortal if you don’t have someone to be with?”

“They could find someone.”

He laughed quietly, “Kaori…I don’t think you understand. I’ve been a vampire for one hundred and thirty six years…meaning I’ve been alive for one hundred and fifty three years. I’ve seen people come and go throughout my life and it hurts to be the only one stuck at seventeen. I hate watching people I know die off. But I can’t just go off and turn them into vampires. Either I drink their blood and kill them, or I keep it a secret. I hate losing people. And if I would have known that the girl who changed me was going to leave me…I would have never agreed to become a vampire in the first place.”

I leaned my head back into his chest, “So, you did it for love and she left you?”

“Mhm.”

“What about your parents? How did they become vampires?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “Well…my parents had become vampires a few years before me and Prince. Prince and I both knew they were vampires. Once it happened, they sat us down and let us know. Prince immediately wanted to become one because he thought it was cool…they said if I chose to become one, they would make him one too…but that’s a different story. My parents had met up with a couple and wanting to become immortal. Once they had, though…they immediately regretted it. They still regret it to this day. Aleron was the one who changed my father. He’s the head and makes all the calls. So, when my parents were forced out of our house and into here, they had to leave us behind. So, in a nutshell, they became vampires for their own selfish wants. And now they pay for it everyday.”

I nodded slowly, taking in every word that he spoke.

“Kaori,” he whispered.

I lifted my head and looked into his eyes.

He grabbed the back of my neck and pulled my face to his. His lips hovered over mine for a moment, seeing if I was going to retreat back or not. When I didn’t make a move to push him away, he pushed his lips up against mine gently.

I smiled slightly when he pulled away. Hopefully enough to where he couldn’t see.

He leaned in and kissed my forehead, “Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

At that, he stood and walked out of my room.

When he was gone, I put my hands over my face and closed my eyes.

Why did I have butterflies in my stomach…?