"We can't just leave you here!" Kuriko argued, tears pooling in her pale purple eyes. She placed a shaky hand on the glass window of the door. Sirens rang out loudly. The whole place would go under lockdown soon.
Forcing a big smile, I repeated our plan. "Stay hidden for at least a year. However long it takes to stay off his radar. Then you go find them. That's the plan. Stick with it, okay?" The idea of staying here alone for a year or more turned my stomach. He'd only have me to take out his rage on.
Kuriko shook her head. "No, I'll stay with you."
"Shiro, get her out of here. You can't waste any more time lingering. Don't deviate from the plan." I gave a little wave to reassure them and myself. "Don't forget to come get me."
"Asako!" Kuriko screamed over and over.
"Asako," Ruri's voice came from the other side of the sealed door. She tapped again and again. "Hey, are you awake?"
Cracking my eyes open, I sat up on my bed. "Yeah, coming." That nightmare haunted my dreams since the day they left. There was no way of knowing when they'd return, but at least they hadn't been brought back. That made me happy.
Looking around my room, one might think that I live a normal life. String lights hung around the room, illuminating the packed room. My walls were covered in artwork that Kuriko had drawn and left behind in her room. Trinkets and books lined my many shelves, all things that I'd gathered from my cousins' rooms. Little reminders of their existence.
I sat down with my back against the door. "Anything new? Is he back?" Ruri was just a voice to me. We'd never met before, but I considered her my best friend. She knew everything about me. It got lonely being trapped in this room. Since the others had escaped, I hadn't left this room. That was my punishment. Total isolation.
Except for Ruri, and her three cousins: Atsumi, Yuki, and Kai. They only came a few times, not wanting to risk being caught. Ruri, on the other hand, had been caught many times and still returned. "Yeah, he came back this morning. He's been down in the lab with Kai." The solemnness in her voice wasn't anything new. Anything that happened in that lab was unspeakable. She went quiet.
"Ruri?" I asked.
The heavy clunk of the magnetic lock releasing startled me. Jumping back, I scrambled to get away from the door as it swung open. It shouldn't have surprised me who was standing there. His research would come to standstill without me, a pureblooded vampire from his own family. "R-Richter."
"It's time for you to return to the lab," Richter ordered waiting for me to get off the floor.
If my heart could beat, it would be pounding out of my chest. The lab was much worse than isolation. His terrifying glare got my feet moving. Sliding in my socks on the cold floor, I tried to keep up with his large stride.
Ruri watched from her spot against the wall. She didn't look at all like I had imagined. Taller, for sure. Her blue-gray eyes met my bright green ones for a few seconds. "I'm sorry," She mouthed, twirling a piece of her black curly hair between her fingers. There was nothing she could have done to stop it. Richter is extremely powerful.
Down in the lab, Kai was on the second table, unconscious with her blonde hair matted to her face by her sweat. "None of them are compatible, even though their fathers were turned by Karl Heinz." Richter said, strapping down my wrists and ankles to the table. He ran his hand through my hair. "The purple dye is gone. You looked just like Cordelia. Now you look like that one," he said with disgust.
He said that a lot. Whoever my father was, Richter hated that I resembled him. He rarely talked about my father before I cut my hair short and refused to dye it purple after my family had left. I'd only done it to protect Kuriko and Leiko from this monster. Testing the straps, I tried to prepare myself for the imminent pain.
Richter looked lost in through, staring at me and brushing his hand down my face. This Cordelia lady must have been important to him. So important that he used me as a surrogate for her in disgusting acts. "You're much shorter than she was. And her beauty far exceeds yours. You're much too similar to Ayato."
Finally interested in this conversation, I kept my mouth shut, not giving my usual snarky remarks. This is the first time I'd heard his name. Richter continued to talk about Cordelia. Beautiful beyond compare. The perfect creature. If she's so perfect, why isn't her with her? Why torture me? It made me wonder if she had died.
Kai groaned from the table next to me, interrupting his reminiscing. Attaching an IV to my arm, he said, "You must be thirsty, Asako. It's been a while. What, eight months since you last had blood?" Richter asked. He took a syringe filled with a dark blue fluid and stuck it into the IV line.
As it seeped up into my bloodstream, I clenched my teeth. It seemed stronger than normal, and burned through my body. The pain continued to grow, making it harder and harder to stay quiet. Screaming only made him angry. With all my muscles tensing up, my breaths became shorter, and my throat grew dryer. Over the year that I'd been isolated, I hadn't missed this part of being out.
"Whenever you're thirsty enough, your meal is right here," Richter taunted. Over on a couch laid a human girl. He slid a knife down her arm, starting to rouse the probably drugged teenager.
Her blood hit me hard. Sweet. Fresh. I wanted it. Badly. It became a battle to control myself. The purpose of the research Richter was doing to me was to create the strongest vampire. He wanted me to kill Karl Heinz and anyone who stood in his way of controlling the Sakamaki household. I'd been the most susceptible to the drugs, and became the main test subject. Whatever he'd created, made me a monster.
"Don't fight it, Asako. Let your vampire instincts guide you to the thing you want most," Richter encouraged, making notes on his writing pad.
My chest heaved with my lust for her blood. Damn did I want it! The monster inside me took control. The straps snapped like twigs and my eyes locked on my target. She was taller and more muscular than me. But, I'm the dominant species.
The girl, now fully awake, screamed and bolted for the open door. No matter how much she wanted to escape, it would end with her death.
"D-Don't… do it." Kai slurred her words, and barely held her head up. Her eyes flickered between bright blue and red. "I know you don't… want to. So don-" She cried out in pain when Richter turned on the electric shocker that had been attached to her body.
Kai was right. I didn't want to. I had to. This drug enhanced my instincts to the point where I did it to survive, and oh how thirsty I was. One deep breath told me which direction she had gone in. Catching up to her was easy. Reading the room however, angered me. Ruri was closest to me, the one I assumed to be Yuki, with the brownish-red hair, had the human girl directly behind her, and then Atsumi, with the dark green hair, stood off to the side. Ruri held up her hands. "Asako, you can control the urge. We can help you."
A laugh bubbled up inside me and once I started, I couldn't stop. "You think I want help? All I want is her blood. Move out of my way." It didn't even sound like me talking.
"I can't do that."
Another fit of laughter and I shrugged my shoulders. "Have it your way." Without touching Ruri, I teleported around her and beside Yuki, landing a hard punch. It sent her flying into the wall. The human girl cowered in front of me. The smirk of satisfaction grew on my face. "You smell so good." I said, jerking her head to the side and sinking my fangs into her neck.
The girl screamed and struggled, but no one else tried to help her. Richter had followed and there would be no more helping this human girl. She was my prey and when I killed her, that would be the end of it. Her blood coursed through me.
When I had finished, she still breathed and cried, "You're a monster!"
It annoyed me. It got under my skin. Holding my head, it was me that screamed next. "Shut up!" I took a hold of her arm and kicked my foot into her stomach so hard that when she flew back, her arm ripped off her body. From there, I dismembered her until there was nothing left of her but a pile of body parts. The silence in the room lingered.