At that age that is how I thought the world was. I thought everyone else lived just like I did, locked away in their dark rooms, left to entertain themselves until someone else came from their room to bring them food. Or, if they were lucky, stay for a while and play. That is how my days played out as a child, I would sit in my windowless room and entertain myself until Kaname brought me my food. Which he did three times a day, almost always around the same time, which I kept track of by when I had the burning sensation in my throat.
The terrible draining feeling in my throat and chest that left me raw and parched, so thirsty that the only thing I could think of was quenching it. Quenching it with fresh, warm, blood sucked straight from whatever raw meat Kaname had to offer that day. I lived out my days in complete solitude for the most part, but Kaname was kind enough to agree when I asked him to join me in my childish pastimes, sometimes. But little did I know at the time that Kaname was a very busy man, and not in the way I had thought. I thought at that time that my big brother was just anxious to get back to his own room, to do whatever it is he did in there to keep his mind from blowing itself up in boredom. I was quite wrong actually, but I had been in that room my entire life, the concept of "gardens", "sky", "Open air", and even "grass" were the imaginings of the storybooks Kaname had written for me to read, or at least that is what he told me. Later I would find out he had written none of them, only replaced the actual author's name with his own.
So when a man with silver hair I had never known before suddenly burst into my room, strange white air that blinded me upon flooding into my room, I thought: This is surely a dream. But much to the shock of my thirteen year old self, she was still very much awake. How did you explain to a prisoner that life is not just a never ending hall of windowless, lightlesss, rooms connected to each other only by doors? And how did you explain to her that food came from more places than just your older brother, and that he had been getting it from some thing called "The store" all this time? Well you explain as best you can really, by exposing her to it slowly over a time period of years. You take that child into your family which at the time is nothing but your wife and yourself, and then that child, but in reality you yourself are children. Eighteen year old vampires fresh out of their graduation ceremony that had only found out this child existed by being nosy bitches.
Needless to say my life had been quite a roller coaster, and still is in every aspect, the only difference now is the ride is familiar. The twists and turns are expected, anticipated even, the feeling of being held upside down in mid air still frightening, but thrilling all at the same time. But I am never alone on this ride, not anymore, and some of the passengers are, and always will be, unwanted. Even though I had been at the mercy of my brother for thirteen years, he had still been gentle and kind, until I came out of that room. Then he suddenly became something I had never seen on him before, his voice turned cruel and harsh, and his grip on me akin to that of iron talons as he screamed at the man with silver hair that I was: "Mine! You have had your taste of Kuran blood, Kiryu. But Kami is mine, the last born daughter of the Kuran name, my baby sister, and my future wife".
I had grown up being told that when I was old enough I would marry my brother, and had never been told it was wrong, so I had always dreamt of the day that I would call Kaname my husband. Suddenly this man my brother called "Kiryu", and the man that was also called "Zero" by his smaller woman companion was telling me that I had been fed lies as well as blood by Kaname. The brother who I had always known I would one day marry, steadily faded away until the only thing left of him was an outer shell, but underneath that shell he was not my brother. He was the monster who had fed me blood and lies, who had braided my long brown hair while he sang cradle songs, the only person I had known my entire life was a monster, and more then that too.
He was my kidnapper.
A kidnapper, a monster, an incestuous bastard, and the many other rude names that stood in place for his name when Zero refused to utter "Kuran" aloud. And as the years went on, I too began to understand that Zero's insults were the truth I had been unwilling to face at first, and soon I too forgot his name until I was forced to utter "Kuran" aloud. Even under all of those insults I knew he was still my brother, and if anything it infuriated me more. That my brother, my own blood, would keep me from these beautiful things Zero and his woman "Yuki" called "Sun", "Sky", "Open air", and even something as simple as "grass". Yes over time I began to hate my brother, and I still do to this day, I do not ever plan to forgive him for what he did. He does not deserve so much from me, in fact he deserves nothing but a stake through the heart, and that is what I plan to give him...one day.
Zero and Yuki were very kind to me, which means they were patient, which I would later find out to be extremely out of character for the silver haired vampire. But I would never believe it until he was around someone besides Yuki and myself, then I would laugh at reality and thank him for discovering what patience was around us. To which he would respond with a hair pat and some kind of sarcastic remark that earned him a playful smack from Yuki. Technically speaking they were my uncle and aunt, but I looked to them as "mom" and "dad", two words that had been almost out of my vocabulary until I met them. And they responded to those words in turn, affectionately calling me their "daughter", "little girl", and other such pet names. I thanked my lucky stars that they had been as wonderful as they were, and that they had not been some other people cruel enough to call me their "house guest".
And when I was sixteen I gained two baby brothers, twins called Akihiko and Hisoka, at first Zero thought they were a bad omen. Apparently he had a twin brother once, and that ended very badly. But it seems the curse had stopped with them, and my brothers grew up to be fine little vampire devils that loved to chase our big white dog "Kaien" around the enormous back yard with tall black fences. I grew up in a manor that apparently had a name, but I always forgot it and simply called it "home". It was a lovely place that humans found positively frightening, tall black fences surrounding a construct of red bricks suspiciously the color of blood. A big brown door led into the main hall, long and with a million doors, which led to more doors, and more doors, and more doors.
It was actually a very nice place to call home, which I did and still do.
But unfortunately for me, Kaname had other ideas. Ideas that led to him threatening the life of someone very precious to me, unless I came back to the place I call "prison" and he calls "Cross Academy" of which he is the Headmaster of the Night Class. Which I would be joining upon my arrival.
Damn him.