Curses
By: Shinsei Arikoto
Dedicated to: My Best friend, Akari Iwahashi
The end of the 18th century in a poor village deep in the Kioku Forest of Japan is where this tale begins…
Two handsome young men stood back to back waving a sword and dagger to keep the villagers that were attacking them at bay. They both had deep wounds from swords and fire covering their bodies and knew they couldn't last much longer.
"Brother!!! We cannot keep fighting these people off like this! We need to run or they will kill us!!!" yelled a man with black hair right passed his shoulders, a bloodstained ancient style black shirt and pants, and with a dagger in hand.
"I know. Damn it all!! Wait, there's the abandoned mansion on the other side of town. We can hide there!" yelled a man with long dark blue hair to his knee's, wearing a white shirt and black pants covered in blood, and a sword stained with blood from the villagers. "Quickly Alucrad! Burst through the crowd!!"
Alucrad rammed through the villagers knocking half of them down. "Suru!! This way!!" yelled Alucrad yelled from the gate of the village. His brother ran passed the dumbfounded villagers and to him. The villagers got up slowly shaking their heads and saw the brothers staring at them from the gate.
"GET THEM!!!" they yelled and chased after the brothers.
"Run brother!!!" yelled Suru as he pushed his brother forward and they both ran. They ran to the mansion across the village, but found the main gate locked. "Hyah!" yelled Suru and he broke the lock and chains with his sword. They ran through the dead yard, to the front door with a trail of blood behind them. The door opened before they could touch it, but with revenge- thirsty villagers behind them, they couldn't wonder about it. They barricaded the door with chairs, tables, and any other heavy furniture they could find. The brothers ran upstairs and looked out a large window overlooking the front gate. There stood the villagers just staring at where they had gone and then… they ran. They ran like animals being hunted, but one group ran the fastest, the women.
"Why did they run…? That's odd… but at least we're safe." Said Alucrad, he sighed, and then began back down the hallway.
"Wait brother! Something's not right…" said Suru as he stepped in front of his brother pointing his sword in front of him. He looked around nervously hearing a strange shuffling noise coming from somewhere. Then it suddenly stopped. "I think it's gone. That's good huh Alu- ALUCRAD!!!" he yelled as he looked behind him and saw his brother in a ball of pain on the floor with blood coming from two small holes on the side of his neck. Suru looked up at saw a dark man standing behind his brother that was as white as a ghost. "gr….. Who are you!? How dare you attack my brother!!!" he went to swing his sword at the stranger, but was cut off when his neck was bitten into and he collapsed onto the floor. "Wha- what do you want from us…." said Suru then winced from pain.
"We have been waiting for you two for three centuries. You are the two who will become the cursed guardians of this house as foretold in the prophesy." Said the dark man who had bitten Alucrad.
"We will die before the sun rises and you to will have completed the transformation to become your new beings." Said the taller man that had bitten Suru.
"Vampires…" said the two strange men. As the sun rose their bodies turned to dust and they faded away.
"AHHH!!!" the brothers screamed as their bodies began to change. Fangs grew from their mouths, their clothes changed, and they became stronger physically and mentally. Right before the sun was fully in the sky the two were pulled into a painting across the hall in a large storage room.
And there they would stay, sealed inside that painting and mansion. Until two special guests arrived…
Chapter 1: The Meeting
"Rozen! Rozen!! Wait for me!!!" Yelled a girl chasing after her best friend. She had dirty blonde hair ending halfway down her back, green- blue eyes, was 16 years old, and dressed like a boy. This was Ari Kusanagi.
As Ari ran her friend stopped instantly and she ran into her. "Hey why did yo- woah…." She said. They both dropped their bags on the grounded and stared up at the ancient mansion.
"Look at this place Ari… This is… AWESOME!!! Now I'm ready to stay here for a week!" said Ari's friend. She had light blue hair going all the way down her back, deep blue eyes, was 16 years old, and wore a mix between girl and boys clothes. This was Rozen Shizuoka.
"Yeah…you're doing this for fun. I'm doing this to prove I can be brave to those prissy stuck up girls at school." Ari stared at the mansion then jumped into the air waving her arms and legs yelling "Let's go!!!" Then she grabbed her bag and ran toward the mansion. Rozen grabbed her bag laughing and chased after her friend. They raced through the gate, through the yard with dead grass and other plants, and finally reached the front door.
"Okay, I win! So I get to do inside first." said Rozen smiling as she went to open the front door. But before she could touch it, it opened of its own accord. The girls stood there in terror of the large door.
"Uh… Rozen……. Did you open… that door…?" asked Ari just staring ahead her hair standing on the back of her neck.
"No…." Rozen said looking the exact same way Ari did. "Well come on…." She said as she walked inside. Ari walked in right behind her looking around nervously. Then suddenly then door slammed behind them, which made them jump and gasp.
"Well…. You sure we should do this? We were just greeted by an opening and closing door!" said Ari yelling loudly.
"We can't do anything now. Looks like we're stuck here, plus I'm going to help you prove you're brave. Let's go find some rooms for us." Rozen said as they walked out of the entrance hallway into a Grand Hall.
It was completely preserved with it sparkling in the setting sun. Two curving stairs cases led to a top floor and in the center of the floor, carved into the wooden floor, was the symbol for vampire back from centuries before. The girls just stared at this picture then walked up the stairs nervous of what to find at the top. What they found were four hallways each going the four directions of the wind, North, South, East, and West. The girls walked down the hall facing the west and found two doors. One at the beginning of the hall and one at the end, two bedrooms. Ari went to the end of the hallway and opened her door to reveal a good sized room with many different things being stored in there from years before. Rozen had a large room with red linen lining the walls with a canopy over the bed.
"I'm going to unpack and go to bed! Night Rozen!!" yelled Ari from her doorway. Then she unpacked most of her clothes, but fell asleep on the bed before she could finish.
"Night Ari…" said Rozen before she fell asleep on her bed as well.
Little did they know of what was going to happen that first night…
In the Northern Hallway of the mansion there hung the picture of Suru and Alucrad. As the moon came fully into the sky they painting began to glow and the brothers fell to the floor.
"Ugn….what….what happened…?" asked Suru standing up and looking around confused. "The mansion… the fangs… the clothes… we really did become…"
"Vampires…" said Alucrad as he stood up looking very serious. "We've been trapped in that painting for centuries. But remember why we were released.." he said smirking.
"Right…two women have wandered into the mansion and it's time for us to feed…" Suru looked at his brother. "Remember…there are rules though."
"Yeah yeah I know. Let's just get going even though we can't feed until tomorrow." Alucrad said 'hmphing' and walking off to his room and Suru did the same.
Suru wandered into his room and found new technology all over the room. "The mansion must advance on its own as the times do. Huh?" he looked over at his bed and saw a young girl laying there facing the window. As he walked closer her face shined in the moonlight and he sighed. "Such a young girl…" he said quietly to himself.
"Hm…mmmmm…." Ari began to stir and woke up a few minutes later. She sat up and looked up to see a man standing over her. It took her a few seconds to realize that he was actually there. When she did she yelled and flipped over the other side of the bed. "Wh… who the hell are you!?" she asked but could not finish her questions for…
"AHHH!!!!" rang through the halls coming from Rozens room.
"ROZEN!!"
AUTHORS NOTE: Okay!!! I hope everyone liked this first chapter. There will be many more to come!! Please keep reading!!
PREVIEW: "We can only take blood when the female is in a full state of lust...so..." Suru said as he grabbed Ari and kissed her deeply. Ari could only blush and kiss him back put her arms around him.
