A/N- It is my responsibility to have a disclaimer of Vampire Knight. I do not in fact own anything near the franchise besides this plot. I will state now that this story deals with lots of heavy stuff. Murder, future character deaths, rape, verbal&physical&sexual abuse, suicide attempts, my attempt at lemons. . .pretty scary stuff, ne? To my defense, all of these themes are to be expected wherever Prison is involved. If it weren't so horrible then it wouldn't be much of a punishment.

"There's no way it'll be me, that's for sure."

A group of four friends were gathered about in a study room, a dire discussion being the case. It had been quite some time since the group has gathered since their youthful years at the Academy and still they were missing other companions. As close as they once were the years has drifted them apart except for a certain few. Only on special occasions would they gather together like this, and this was a very, very special occasion indeed.

Out of the two females of the group, the one whom spoke was a beauty with ashy blond waves flowing down her head to mid-section. "I won't do it." She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest as if to emphasize her point. The handsome man to her right only sighed in defeat. He knew better than anyone else that when the woman made up her mind there was no changing it. The orange head male gave a pleading look to his friend with equally orange eyes. He did not want to get his fiancée started so he urged silently for them to stop while ahead.

Baby blue eyes blatantly ignored his warning and continued with its advances. "Ruka please." The amber haired man began to study the article in his hands once again while assessing the situation in his mind. "There's no one else but for you to do it." he looked up again to soft brown eyes holding his gaze; Ruka was observing him skeptically. She had known her friend for a long time and always the red head was in the state of slumber: whether it be sleeping, sleepy, or in between, he was never fully awake. It just goes to show what seriousness the situation called for. 'Still,' Ruka thought bitterly. 'It's not fair!'

"Well I refuse." She stated. Stomping her foot like a child, Ruka pout and turned her face away. "I don't care for your reasons, Shiki. I said I wouldn't do it so I won't do it!" Both males sighed in unison, one in defeat and the other of desperation. The remaining friend observed the scene with what looked to be indifference, but if one knew better –as did the red head- one could see the strawberry blond break a slight sweat.

"You have to understand that you're the only one left capable of delivering the news." Shiki urged.

Ruka had had enough of everyone's pestering stares. It seemed to her as if they all were ganging up against her. Even her fiancée looked as if he agreed with Shiki. "I refuse to be the one to feel the blunt of his anger!" She shouted. She made a point to glare at each of them but only Kain saw the tinge of hurt. She turned on her heel and marched out the room still graceful in her haste. Her ever faithful fiancée, Kain, followed her every step.

The infuriated red head slammed the news article on the coffee table and sat in a sofa he usually took his noon naps in. "Shit." He slumped over and his elbows took place on his knees. Shiki brought his face to his hands then lead them up to his amber locks and tugged. He repeated the curse like a mantra and shut off his eyes to the world.

How could that woman be so unreasonable? He'd always known she was stubborn but never to the extent of childish. It was obvious she was the only capable of delivering the news, having been close to his cousin once before. From all that were left she was the best choice. Only a fool would be blind to this. She must know that she was their only hope of surviving the wrath that was to come.

A gentle pat on his shoulder brought him out of his inward musings. He opened his eyes and looked into sympathetic eyes. Rima observed her husband with deep, dark irises.

In all her life had she never seen the man in such a state; Shiki was always so relaxed and level headed about everything, seeing him so stressed and anxious brought an ache to her heart. He looked on the brink of desperation. She noticed he was tugging at his hair much too hard. When he opened his eyes at her reassuring pat the look of desperation in his icy blues almost broke her heart.

She rubbed soothing circles along his shoulders down his back and he leaned into her touch. "She has to do it, Rima." Shiki exasperated. Rima directed his face to her lap and he obliged. He lay in her lap as he confided all his thoughts to his life partner. She in turn massaged his abused scalp. "It can't be me: I'm his bastard cousin and it can't be you, you're his bastard cousin's wife. It can't be Kain: he threatened to kill him over Ruka. Kaien is definitely out of the picture, the poor man is an emotional wreck. It certainly can't be someone from the council: they'd twist the events to their liking and try to manipulate him."

Rima was still massaging his scalp while observing his mouth, noting a slight quiver when he paused his words. She looked at his eyes and wasn't surprised to see him observing her as well. "She has no idea what we're dealing with." He whispered. His voice was so low and hoarse she thanked her special hearing abilities she caught it. Locking eyes he continued. "He's a sleeping beast, Rima. A caged monster. This news will wake his inner demon and break his last shred of humanity."

Shiki closed his eyes. "He'll destroy everything and anything he can get his hands on. He'll tear him to shreds, then kill us just for the sake of sadistic pleasure." Shiki abruptly opened his eyes and Rima was surprised to see determination steel over his eyes. Shiki bared his fangs as he spat out "I don't give a damn for everyone else. Let us be resigned to our fate. But- "

The strawberry blond was shooing the boy but he carried on. "I'm afraid of what he'll have done to you. I can't bear the thought of losing you! I can't fathom a world where Rima doesn't exist or is by my side!" Rima smiled sadly and put a finger to her husband's ramblings.

"Shhh. . . . ." she coed as she leaned down to take his lips to hers. She wanted to stop words of desperation from leaving his lips. Partially because she was overwhelmed with love for her husband, and a kiss seemed just right at his loving words. She kissed because though the world was seemingly drawing to an end she wanted to show him that she was still here. Always she would be by his side. She kissed him also as a form of distraction. Drawing back just a smudge she said "I love you." Their lips met again and this time longer and deeper.

It was all she could do to sway her husbands worry. They were never the sort to lie to each other, even for comfort -both being blatantly blunt- and she couldn't deny the possibility of their oncoming doom. She knew just as well as Shiki how dangerous his cousin was. Even the ignorant and foolish in their world knew to never cross him. So how else could she reassure her slowly breaking husband from his earlier words of desperation? No matter how one looked at the situation, all he said was the truth. . .and they couldn't protect each other from the truth.

A/N - There you have it folks. This is my prologue. This is my FIRST story ever. I had been dying to write a story myself and 'A Really Big Idiot' gave me the encouragement to give it a go! This FanFic was inspired by her marvelous work of art, Silver Night (as Im sure many of yours have as well). But as I have mentioned above this story will be dark, nearly as dark as Cloud Cover by 'SecretSky' (if you love SasuNaru as much as KaZe, check out her work now!) but Im a strong believer in happy endings and KaZe. I have nothing to say at this point besides I'm super nervous for my first publish and I hope you'll all give it a chance. Heck, maybe you'll like it? I plan on posting the first official chapter soon, it really depends on the feedback i get. I have the chapter typed and ready to go as we speak. . .*ahem* Enough talk from me! R&R if you will 3

-ColorlessXrainboW