It's the 18th century. Times are hard and food is scarce. Only the strong survive and the weak perish. For one girl the world gets thrown into chaos. Everything that she was and knew gets questioned and those she thought dear to her turn out to be something else instead. She struggles to adapt and eventually finds herself losing her humanity as well. Why? Because this is False pretence.
Chapter 1
False pretence
She felt warm all over her body. A sensation she had yet to feel in quite a long time. Her throat burned and the scorching reaction stretched all the way into the depths of her stomach. Everything felt on fire and kept on burning. She struggled down the unlit hall and stumbled when another surged of pain wrecked her body. The blonde stretched out a shaking hand and pulled herself up by a windows curtain that hung next to her. She didn't understand what was wrong with her and why it was that she felt the way she did. The blonde turned at a familiar door and pushed it open with the last bit of strength that she had left in her. She stumbled into the household's kitchen and scared half the staff that was still hard at work this time of hour. The Kitchen maid quickly came forward and caught her before she hit her head on one of the surrounding tables.
"Miss. Yula!" The maid exclaimed. "Are you alright? What happened?" She held the blonde in her arms and saw that her eyes were dilated and sweat was pouring down her forehead. Surprisingly the warmth of the maids embrace on made matters worse; even to a point where she felt it suffocated her. The blonde felt her mind slowly becoming disorientated and something stirred in the pits of her stomach. The burning sensation became worse, to a point where she whimpered and started to cry out loud.
"P-please. Please make it stop." She held onto the maid as if her life was at its end and then threw her hands around the woman's shoulders. Her head rested at the nape of the maids neck, slightly surprising the woman at what she did.
A servant was never to touch their master so intimately. Something was wrong. The woman slowly raised her hands to stroke the girl's head; if anything to calm her and get a reasonable response from her.
"Get me some water," she instructed a Parlour maid who stood nearby. The blonde kept on whimpering and sniffed her nose occasionally.
"Miss. Yula, is it stomach aches? Does your head hurt," the woman asked again. She only got an agonizing moan in response. The girl didn't know what it was. She didn't know if it was hunger pains or her head hurting. The pain. It was everywhere.
A few seconds later water was handed to the woman and she held it out to the blonde.
"Take this it will make you feel better." The woman pushed the glass into the girls shaking hand and watched as she took one big, greedy gulp. The liquid only scorched her throat, increasing the need for normality inside her body. The blonde plucked the glass away from her mouth, screamed and threw it across the room.
"No! It won't stop! Make it stop!" A few of the staff choked at their breath when the glass shattered and one of them quickly started the task of cleaning up all the broken shards. Their master was barefooted and they couldn't risk the chance of her cutting herself. The blonde pushed up and away from the worried woman. Water wasn't what she needed and for reasons unbeknownst to her- it only made it worse. Tears streamed down her face.
That's when she caught the smell.
She turned her head to the side and saw the servant from earlier nursing her finger. Blood seeped through a freshly wrapped bandage and without knowing it; the girl walked forward and grabbed her arm. Her pulse quickened. Her hands stopped shaking and the sweat on her forehead all but dried in an instant. Her stomached churned for what was beneath the servants skin; she had no more control over her body. The girl they all knew and served no longer existed and in her place was a starved monster who bit down on the captured arm, all but electing a chorus of screams around her.
DDD
"How is she, Uzumi?" A man in his mid forties turned away from a sleeping girl when he heard his name being called. He followed the movements of his wife, Maria, and only spoke when she finished closing the door behind her.
"She's sleeping for now, but she'll probably wake up soon. I find myself looking at her and can't help but wonder what brought this on." Maria clasped her hands together and exhaled slightly. She went and stood next to her husband. They both had their backs turned to the sleeping girl and both of them seemed troubled. Maria, Uzumi noticed, had her brown locks pulled back into a neat bun. A few grey locks stood out between her head of hair; the slight wrinkles on her face also giving her years away. She wore a plain, brown dress yet she was still as beautiful as ever to him. Her eyes searched for his and a cold hand got placed over his own.
"We knew the day that we took it upon ourselves to raise this child as our own, that things would never be just right." A small smiled worked its way onto her face and it took Maria a lot of willpower to keep it there. "She's of age. And we may not have know her origin a few years back-"
"But now we do," Uzumi finished for his wife.
"You realize what this means don't you?" he stressed with a few age lines forming on his forehead. The years weren't as kind to Uzumi as they were to Maria . He had taken it upon himself to protect the child that now lay on that bed. It was a small vow that he made a few years back in his pursuit to initiate peace in this world. The very pressure of keeping the girl safe slowly ate at him and soon he found himself covered in grey hairs. Uzumi saw pain flash through her eyes and with time they watered a bit. She shook her head and wiped a wandering tear away.
"Yes, I am aware of what must happen. As discussed, when the time comes and she is not of human blood, then she must be sent away." When they had discovered her under a pile of rubble from a burnt down house, they weren't sure what to make of the girl. She was only a young toddler then and couldn't possible remember what had happened. They themselves took a great risk in taking her into their home and nursing her back to health. There were three rules that the entire world followed in harmony.
One. Humans are to keep to themselves and protect their own.
Two. Nosferatu's-also more generally known as Vampires-are to stay disciplined and keep to themselves.
And three. Nosferatu's are not to indulge on humans and will be killed if any suspicion arises against them.
"I had hoped that she would have been of human blood. It would have made things a lot easier for us," Maria said.
"Even if she turned out to be human all this time, the outcome would still have been the same."Maria turned her head away and closed her eyes.
"And what outcome would that be?" she asked.
"We took in a child from a family that caused an uproar at the beginning of all of this. A family that crossed a very fragile line. You know Cross breading isn't frowned upon for nothing. The people were against it and always will be."
"Yes-I know." Her voice came out worn and she had resorted to rubbing her forehead now.
"Our views are so different from the world it scares me sometimes." There was a slight creak of the bed that gave the girls presence away. Alarmed Maria and Uzumi turned around and laid their eyes on the blonde girl who stared back at them. Her eyes couldn't have been any wider than they were and they were also starting to fill up with tears. Her face was pale and every feature seemed dull; that only drew more attention to her watering amber eyes.
"Cagalli," Maria spoke softly. "How long have you been awake?" She came forward and got a slight fright when the blonde screamed and fell off the bed to the side. She grabbed her head and pushed it in between her two legs.
"Stay away from me!" Her shoulders trembled and slight sobs filled the air.
"Cagalli we need to talk to you," was all Maria said. She still came closer and reached her hand out to place it on the girl. The blond recoiled and slapped it away.
"Liars! All of you!"She glared up at Maria and pushed away as much as the wall behind her would allow.
"I-I thought, all this time-everything- it was all just a-it was all just a lie." The blonde's words came out in snippets, her mind steaming ahead and working over time. What she had heard, it couldn't be true.
"What am I?!" she screamed again and this time turned her gaze on a quiet Uzumi. Maria grabbed her attention when she took hold of her elbows and proceeded to pull the blonde up. Cagalli only pulled back in spite and kept her knees firmly on the ground.
"Let go of me and don't touch me!" She kept on thrashing at Maria, her hands prying off Maria's fingers.
"I can't believe you people! How could you have kept-"
"Enough of this!" Maria drew her one hand back and slapped the girl across her cheek. "You're not a child anymore so stop acting like one and just let me talk to you!" The thrashing immediately stopped and all Cagalli did was stare at Maria in shock. She placed a quivering hand on her face and turned her head away. She couldn't hold Maria's gaze or that of Uzumi's. Cagalli got pulled back to the bed and Maria knelt in front of her while she sat on it. The woman reached out and turned the blondes face towards her when she wasn't willing to meet her gaze.
"I ask again. What did you hear, Cagalli?" There was a slight pause.
"Everything," came her soft whisper. "I'm not your daughter."
"You will always be my daughter", Maria quickly replied. "I don't care what you are. Nosferatu or not, I brought you up as my own and I will keep on referring to you as my own." A moment passed where no-one spoke and Cagalli was given a chance to gather some of her thoughts.
"I-I don't know what happened." Maria frowned and blinked her eyes a bit.
"The other night," Cagalli choked out. "I was hurting everywhere and I didn't know what to do. There was the kitchen and then …" Uzumi took a few steps closer and sat down on the bed next to the blonde. He spoke up and his voice came out stern.
"What you did was unexpected. Your vampirism senses – as we'd put it- awoke because you're a young lady now. You're predominant genes took over your current DNA." He sighed heavily. "As of now you can –and will be classified as a fully fledged Nosferatu." Cagalli allowed her head to drop into her hands.
All this information.
She felt numb to the bone. There was also one other thing that she still wanted to ask them but struggled to get the question out. She only came about halfway before she gave up. The blonde didn't even know why she bothered when she knew what the answer would be.
"Are-are you going to send-" Maria stood up from the ground and sat on the other side of Cagalli. She looked down on the girls frame and barely held herself together.
"We sent a letter out ahead," Maria continued. The blonde shook her head back and forth; her hands still plastered to her face. She didn't want to hear what they had to say.
"There is a family up north that can take care of you."
"No."
"It's too dangerous to keep you here with us Cagalli. You've only recently turned and Uzumi and I don't know the first thing about looking after you-"
"No." This time Cagalli looked up and pleaded with her eyes. She looked at them both while saying desperately.
"Please. I won't do anything again, I promise. What happened was a mistake."
"A mistake that can't happen again," Uzumi added. The blondes lip quivered.
"And it won't. I'll work hard and discipline myself, just don't send me away." Maria drew Cagalli into her arms and rested her head onto the blonde's.
"We live in a cruel world," she started soothing the girl. For the most part the next words she spoke were for herself as well.
"We'll see each other sooner than you think. And on that day it will be in front of humans and Vampires; in the open where it will not be scorned. But for now we must be careful."
The blondes false life was all but shattered in mere minutes; everything she knew and thought she was, a lie, false pretence, not only from Maria and Uzumi's side but theoretically from hers as well. The more Maria spoke the louder Cagalli began to sob and in return she drew her hands around the woman's body.
"Sending you away will not only keep you safe, but us as well."
Hi there! I have finally come around to posting the new and rewritten chapter of "Don't I belong anywhere?" Please keep in mind that the main plot will differ from the previous story, in fact I think a lot. As you can see from the first chapter things have been done differently, and I don't know I think it's a lot better than my first attempt :)
I almost want to say that this story should not be associated with the previous one at all. Everything will be different.
In this story I'm going to focus on character development/try and improve it. Here's hoping that this story will turn out okay.
Let me know what you think and if there's any grammar errors!
R&R
*DevilGirl101*