"The Winter" by Balmorhea: watch?v=l9cVN4ZqNIM
A velvety blackness enveloped your entire being as you stood there all alone. The silence caused your ears to ring. Placing a hand in front of your face, you discovered it wasn't even visible. Finding no other option, you blindly walked forward, hands swimming through the sea of black. Suddenly, you heard something, a female's voice. It sounded like laughter. Out of the darkness, you felt a hand tightly grabbing your wrist. Looking behind you, you noticed that the hand belonged to a concerned Kiryu Zero. Before you could even ask, he pulled you away from where you were going.
"_! Get out of here now!"
Confused, you searched his face for an answer to what was going on, only to find an emotion of fear sweeping through his eyes as he looked behind you. Your eyes peered ahead of you to find the source of fear only to be met with two red, glowing eyes protruding out of the darkness. Your heart began to thump wildly as you felt your knees begin to buckle. Suddenly, a shrill scream sounded from somewhere in the dark. You covered your ears and squeezed your eyes shut.
The scream suddenly sounded from your own throat, jolting you awake. You sat up in bed, breathing heavily. Your entire body was drenched in sweat as you haphazardly reflected on your recent nightmare. Suddenly, you felt the all-too-familiar feeling of having overslept. Quickly, you looked at your alarm clock. You had overslept for twenty minutes!
You yelled obscenities as you threw the covers off of you.
You skipped taking a shower and instead quickly put on your school uniform. After putting on one of your shoes, you hopped to the door while trying to slip on the other one. You snatched your backpack, locked the door, and ran down the dormitory hallway. You sprinted down the stairs and fell part of the way down, skinning your knee. Once you opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, you kept running, paying no attention to the other students gawking at you. The building to your homeroom was in your view, and you ran with all your might, your hair flying wildly in the wind and your heart racing in your chest. The starting bell rang as you wrenched open the door and ran down the hallway. When you finally reached the classroom, you yanked the door open and went inside, panting. Every single student, including your teacher, Mr. Lee, stared at you, wide-eyed.
"That's the fourth time this semester, Miss _," Mr. Lee stated
Shoulders hunched, you walked up the stairs to your seat, which was located in the back of the classroom. You could feel the stares burning the back of your form as you walked.
"If you're late to my class one more time this semester, I'll have to give you a detention."
You plopped into your seat, a sigh escaping your lips. Mr. Lee droned on, and eventually, you tuned him out. You were seated next to your best friend, Cross Yuuki. Yuuki was the headmaster's daughter. She was the nicest girl you knew at Cross Academy, the only one who didn't seem to have an unhealthy obsession with the students of the Night Class, unlike every other girl in the Day Class. She turned to look at you, her bright, chestnut-colored eyes darkening with concern. She leaned to her left, her shoulder gently touching yours.
"_, you don't look so good. You look like you got ran over by a train. Have you been sleeping okay?" she whispered.
"Yeah," you lied. You didn't tell anyone about your nightmare, the same exact one you've had for over a month now.
"Miss_," Mr. Lee yelled from the front of the classroom. A rosy blush tinted your cheeks as your peers turned their attention on you. "Since you failed to be in class on time today, I will tell you what you missed." Internally, you made a sour face at him. "The final for this class will consist of a partner project. Since this is mythology class, the project will be about any mythological creature of your choice. I expect to have a well-written research paper along with a ten minute presentation in front of the class. It will be 30% of your final grade."
You looked at Yuuki, who looked back at you helpless.
"Sorry," she mouthed, "I'm taken."
Seeing the eminent desperation on your face, Mr. Lee stated, "Everyone has a partner except for Kiryu Zero. So, you will partner up with him."
You looked to the other side of the room at Kiryu. He returned your glance with a thousand-dagger glare, along with a permanent scowl on his face. You grabbed your belongings and moved over to the empty seat next to him. After fifteen minutes of continuous droning, Mr. Lee instructed the class to discuss with their partners their plans for the project. Soon a hum of voices invaded the room like a swarm of bees. Your teacher walked up to Zero and you, a notebook and pen in his hand. After flipping his notebook to find a certain page, Mr. Lee cleared his throat.
"Have you decided on your topic of research?" he asked, clicking his pen open.
Realizing you hadn't given it any thought, you looked at Kiryu.
"What do you want to research?" you asked.
"I don't care," he replied, folding his arms.
"Well, why don't we do...vampires?" you asked, thinking it an easy topic.
He jerked his head toward you, a sudden look of disgust on his face.
"No," he growled, his voice seeming to go down at least an octave.
"Surprisingly, vampires aren't taken. You guys could research that," Mr. Lee commented.
"Yeah, Kiryu, why not? You know, it would be such an easy topic to-"
"I said, 'no'!" he raised his voice.
You raised your eyebrows in shock at his immediate defiance to your suggestion. Clearly, this guy wasn't easily persuadable.
"Why don't you guys just pick vampires? It's an easy subject. Besides, it'll stop the fighting," Mr. Lee persuaded.
"Fine," Kiryu finally said through gritted teeth.
Mr. Lee walked away, and you just sat there, not making any eye contact with Kiryu, afraid he'd bite your head off. The ending bell rang, and you grabbed your backpack and exited the classroom. School seemed to go by fairly quickly for you, and when the final bell for school to end rang, you felt relieved. Once you walked outside, you interlocked your fingers above your head and stretched your back as you took in a deep breath. The green grass swayed lazily as a faint, warm breeze blew. The weather seemed to put everyone in good spirits, and you walked to a nearby bench with a hop in your step. Once you sat down, you looked up at the weeping willow that hung above your head, its leaves dancing with the gentle wind. You closed your eyes, feeling the sunlight warm your skin as you sat there. All of a sudden, it suddenly dawned on you that all your energy had been drained. You were now running on fumes. Feeling like you'd hit a brick wall, your limps suddenly felt very heavy. Trying to stay awake, you opened your eyes wide as you drew your knees up and rested your feet on the bench seat.
Why were vampires such a touchy subject for Kiryu? you wondered.
You closed your eyes for a moment and thought. Today was Friday, and there was no school tomorrow. You'd have plenty of time to work on the project, with Kiryu's help of course. You opened your eyes and noticed that the sun had set. Lacerations in the sky revealed splays of crimson through faint pink clouds. The breeze from earlier now felt cool against your skin. You shivered, and goose bumps formed along your arms and legs. Realizing you were close to curfew, you rose and headed for the Sun Dormitory. As your hand touched the metal handle of the dorm, you suddenly realized you left your psychology textbook on the bench.
Sighing heavily, you begrudgingly walked back.
"The Fountain" movie soundtrack ("Stay With Me"): /FHCNtaf2ypY?t=19m40s (19:40-24:50)
As you walked, the sky grew darker. Realizing you were getting closer to curfew, you hurried to the place where you sat. The bench came into your view, and you saw your textbook. Relieved it was still there, you picked it up and headed back toward your dorm.
As you walked back, you couldn't help but think someone was following you, watching you with hungry eyes. Bracing yourself, you quickly turned around and saw two students from the Night Class, Hanabusa Aidou and Akatsuki Kain. Opposite from your uniform, theirs was white with a crimson tie that was tied closely to their necks. Although you weren't one of those crazy fan girls that drooled at the sight of a Night Class student, you couldn't stop yourself from staring at them. After all, they were so handsome, they looked almost god-like, as if the hands of perfection itself had created them, never acquainted with the definition of the word "flaw".
"Good evening, _," Hanabusa said, formally bowing to you.
"Good evening, Hanabusa-senpai," you replied, nodding back in acknowledgement.
"There's no need to be formal. Please, call us by our first names: Aidou," he said, gesturing to himself, "and Kain," he said, pointing to Akatsuki.
"Okay, Aidou...Kain." Kain nodded his head silently.
Almost seeming to sense your amazement of their attractiveness, Aidou smirked and began to circle around you, his seemingly predatory gaze burning along your body. A unknown fear gripped your heart, forming a lump in your throat. Swallowing, you maintained your eyes on him. Anxiety began to form, like a stone being dropped in the pit of your stomach. Something wasn't right here. You could feel it.
"You're such a pretty girl," Aidou said playfully.
You blushed. It didn't seem right for someone so beautiful to be giving you a compliment. Feeling the heat spread across your face, you bowed your head, allowing your hair to cover your face. A small chuckle escaped Aidou's throat as you felt a cold hand gingerly brush your hair out of your face and tuck it behind your right ear. You felt your heart quicken its pace. Then, he gently took your left wrist in his frozen hands like it was made of expensive crystal and he was afraid it would break. Bringing his lips to the back of your hand, he placed a gentle kiss on your soft skin. His lips felt like ice, and you felt your heart jolt, running adrenaline through your system.
"So very pretty, indeed," he murmured, almost hypnotically. He then began to hum absentmindedly. His voice sounded like a soft lullaby, and you felt your eyelids growing slightly heavy. Control faded from your body, leaving you in a mindless trance. Thoughts no longer formed in your mind as you wordlessly watched Aidou's graceful actions. No sooner had your heartbeat returned to its normal state than he turned your wrist and traced along the pale blue branches of veins with his finger, examining it ever so slowly, like a piece of artwork. "Beautiful…" he trailed off as he gently pressed his lips against your wrist. Suddenly, you felt his lips curl up into a smile on your skin.
"Do you mind, my darling, if I..." he kissed your wrist harder and then parted his lips, revealing a pair of white…FANGS?!
Your mind felt so foggy. Should you be scared? Was it even all that bad? You weren't sure. Without even registering what was happening, you felt a sudden sharp pain in your wrist. You winced, and a small cry escaped your throat. A low chuckle sounded from Aidou's throat. Almost as if his laugh signaled it, you felt your body grow physically weaker, the tempo of your heartbeat decreasing its speed with each passing second. The air around you felt thick and heavy, as if you were breathing through a wet cloth. You were now gasping for air as your lungs constricted. A strange mixture of heaviness and slight nausea swept over you and your knees buckled and gave out from under your weight. Right before you collapsed on the ground, Aidou caught you in his arms and pulled you closer to his cold, marble body. Surprisingly, he was much stronger than you thought.
Suddenly, you woke from your stupor. Help! your mind screamed. Please, help! Somebody. Anybody. As if your thoughts took voice, you saw the barrel of a shiny, silver gun touching Aidou's head.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" a voice growled.
Aidou unlatched his lips from your wrist and glanced above the gun's barrel. He smirked, a trail of your blood running down the corner of his lips. His tongue flicked out, cleaning up any trace of your life force that was on him. His crimson eyes seemed to give off a faint glow as he frowned at the bearer of the weapon.
"Aww, c'mon, Zero. I was just having a little fun," Aidou chuckled.
"Get out of my sight," Zero said grimly, cocking the gun.
"Fine. Have it your way, Zero. Maybe someday it'll dawn on you that it is fun. Sooner or later, you'll come around."
He let go of you as he and Kain walked away. Just before you hit the ground, Kiryu caught you. Placing his pistol back in its holster, he examined you, his lavender eyes scanning your body. His expression changed from the familiar anger to a surprising concern.
"_, are you alright?" he asked.
Not even able to find the strength to speak, you subtly groaned in response. As he rose, he scooped an arm under your knees, the other on your upper back. Looking off in the direction of Aidou and Kain's departure, you noticed his face darken with fury. You grabbed the collar of his white shirt, the blood from the bite mark on your wrist soaking the fabric. He looked at you with pain in his eyes.
"Ze-ro," you muttered before your mind completely succumbed to unconsciousness and your vision faded to black.