Author's Note: This one is for my oldest and dearest friend, who is and always will be like a brother to me :). The kind of brother that lives to take the piss out of you, and who got to do everything before you did. It's all okay, because what are sisters here for? (real ones, I'm not talking about cute lolis here). It's only fair that I take the piss out of him too, why do you think I wrote this? Merry Christmas Nicky, and hoping you have a happy new year (even if you are freezing your bollocks off in Canada).
"You finally came," she said as she smiled and held her teddy bear close to her chest. I looked around at the mannequins surrounding me, all wearing crisp white suits which shone with brilliance in the light. "See Teddy? I told you he wouldn't be able to refuse", Kanato whispered into the toy's head. She began to dance around the mannequins, marveling at their deadpan facial expressions as she twirled and weaved her way through them. Her long, violet hair billowing in the wind and the light highlighting her amethyst eyes and the deep shadows beneath them. To anyone else, this was an ordinary girl who loved to dance and sing, and play with cuddly toys and dolls. I knew that there was something darker beneath the surface, a girl who wouldn't hesitate to drink every drop of my blood if she wanted to. A girl who would appear outside my room at the drop of a hat, demanding to be let in. "You would be a fine addition to my collection, Teddy seems to think so too", she giggled. I looked around at the wax dolls, not entirely sure what she meant. "Teddy, wouldn't you agree that he would make a handsome doll?" she asked the one eyed bear. What happened next made my blood turned cold, a good reminder that I still had blood in my body. "Yes it would be perfect, we would drink every last drop of his blood, not a single drop left for my greedy sisters. Then we will sow his mouth shut and give him beautiful, shinning glass eyes." She told the teddy bear, who would only stared into space as a response. "What colour would you like? Green? Blue" she asked me, far too cheerfully for my liking. How did my life get to this point? That's a story I will tell while I still have the chance.
The story began with my arrival at Ryoutei Academy, I have no idea why my parents decided to send me to a night school, but they did so anyways. A school for the rich and wealthy, and where there were rumours about some of the students. In particular, the Sakamaki sisters, as striking as they were mysterious. From the eldest sister, a slacker who monopolised the music room and almost never attended classes, to the youngest sister, a bad-tempered first year whom everyone both admired and feared. The one that stood out to me the most was the middle child, Kanato. Perhaps it was the fact that she carried a teddy bear wherever she went. Perhaps it was because she looked and acted much younger than her seventeen years. Perhaps it was because her sister Raito would make fun of me whenever she caught me staring at her. Her other sister, Ayato would insist that she herself was a more suitable choice. While she wasn't exactly ugly, Kanato seemed to be more quiet and innocent compared to her other sisters…or so I thought.
I was certain that this girl was what she seemed, but I would soon discover how wrong I was. I set my bag down about to call home, when I jumped bag in surprise. Kanato was standing before me, staring me down with her doll-like eyes, it was only now that I noticed the shadows underneath them. As I held my hand to my chest in shock, she spoke to her teddy bear with a slight giggle "teddy, it seems we have startled this mortal". I wasn't going to ask why she was talking to the teddy bear as I tried to steady myself. Clearly there was something in my facial expression she didn't like, as she asked "(your name), do you hate me?".
What kind of a question was that? I hardly knew her, did she just walk up to random strangers asking them if they hated her? "No, I don't hate you" I told her, I suppose there was no harm in giving a straightforward answer.
"Teddy, do you think he's lying to me?" she asked the one eyed stuffed toy, something about her was making my heart pound in my chest, I couldn't tell if that was good or bad or simply normal. No, this felt everything except normal as she began to take a few steps closer to me. We were alone in the hallway, and anything could have happened right there. I expected many things, but this wasn't one of them. Within an instant she was right in front of me, there was no one else around and I was sure that my heartbeat was echoing throughout the hallways. She pulled me close to her, I didn't dare flinch at her as she began to trace the side of my neck with her tongue. "I just want one little bite human, that is all", she whispered. I couldn't stop her as I felt a sharp pain in my neck and I winced, squeezing my eyes shut and looking away. I felt something being drained from me, when I looked down she was pulling away from me, a rich red liquid dripping from the side of her lip. "Perhaps you will allow me to sample you again sometime" she said, I was too stunned to response. My body felt cold, I felt as if my body had been turned to stone by this girl's Medusa stare. Before I could say anything, she was gone. She seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving me confused as to what happened.
That night at home, I looked at the mark on my neck in the mirror. I placed a plaster over it, hoping that would make me forget it. But it did not, I still remember the pain of her fangs piercing into my skin, the way my head felt empty as she began to drink, the weird numb feeling that I felt afterwards. I tried to shake myself, insisting that it wouldn't happen again. Of course, it wasn't everyday that you got bitten by a girl, it wasn't everyday that you had someone drink your blood. I went to sleep that night, unprepared for the visions that would plague my mind that night.
All through the night, visions of her plagued my waking and non-waking moments. Her violet eyes dancing before me, tantalising me and taunting me. I awoke in cold sweat in the darkness of my room, the rain was falling heavily outside my bedroom window, splattering onto the balcony. I was about to go back to sleep when I heard a beautiful yet haunting melody "are you going to scarborough fair, Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, Remember me to one who lives there, She once was a true love of mine". The sound was coming from my window, I bolted out of bed and pulled the curtains open. Perched on the balcony with her teddy in her arms, was Kanato. A part of me wanted to hold her in my arms and shield her from the rain, another part was terrified that she found me to begin with. She was standing on the railing, pacing across it with graceful steps and I was worried that she would fall. Before I knew it, she did exactly that, right before my very eyes. With the ease of someone falling on to their bed, she fell from my balcony. I stared in horror at what I saw, my apartment was 20 stories up and there was no way she would survive that fall. This had to be a bad dream, all of it. I would wake up with no fang marks on my neck and no stalkers on my balcony.
Of course if this wasn't a dream, I wouldn't be rushing out of the apartment to aid my fallen stalker. I dashed out into the cold pouring rain, her tiny body sprawled out on the floor. Her purple dress was soaked through and her soggy teddy bear still limply held in her arm. I ran to her, ready to scoop her up into my arms and carry her inside. Her eyes flared open in a furiously glare, "do not touch me!' she screeched and I stepped away as she hoisted herself up. Never before had I seen that anger in her eyes, a far cry from her usual innocent, childlike demeanor. I could only stare in shock as I watched her get up from the cold concrete floor. My mouth tried to find words, something to explain what I just saw, but she simply said "I only wish I could die that easily". My heart sank at the words, my mind didn't quite understand what she was saying ether.
She spent that night lying on my bed, I was pretty certain that she would cut off my hand if it went anywhere near her teddy bear. "I'm thirsty" she suddenly said, she looked to me and I foolishly thought she would want something warm to drink. Her body felt cold as I carried her back to my apartment. I went into the kitchen to fetch her a warm drink, thinking that a warm cup of coffee would sustain her. I was foolishly mistaken, when I came back and presented her with the coffee, the furious look in her eyes return. She smacked the mug out of my hand with ease, the dark liquid inside scalding my hand as the mug fell crashing to the floor. "I don't like bitter things!" she screamed, I was nursing my hand and bent down to pick up the broken pieces of the mug on the floor. As quickly as her anger came, it went away as I cut my finger on the broken porcelain. "That looks like it hurts" she said in her quieter, more timid voice. I found it difficult to tell who was the real Kanato, as she came closer to me. I was scared but I didn't stop her as she sucked the blood from my cut finger. I couldn't tell if she was going to smile at me or bite me or kill me, all I knew was that I didn't dare pull away from her.
At school she would always follow close behind me, glaring furiously at anyone who so much as glanced at me. I was powerless to stop her, I was wrapped tightly around her cold, pale, little finger. I was terrified of her, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I ran away from her that day. "She would have snapped your neck without a second thought" A voice in my mind snapped at me whenever I asked myself the question.
When I was at home she would be at the edge of my bed, getting crumbs all over it as she ate her treats. She would also sing me to sleep, which was one of the few things I enjoyed about having her with me. It was odd how someone so unpredictable, so childish, so selfish, could bring me calm and solace with a few notes from her lips. I was terrified of her, numerous times she nearly killed me. If she didn't nearly kill me, one of her sisters would try to bite me and claim me as their own. She would scream at them and then me, thinking that I wanted to share my blood with them. Yelling at me and telling me that it was hers for the taking, shortly afterwards her own fangs would be pierced into my neck, drinking my blood as though it was her last meal. In those moments I didn't pull away, it hurt more to pry my flesh away from her lips. When she had her fill, I would see my own blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. Most people would be frightened of a sight such as this one, whereas I would simply give her a tissue to wipe her lip. Just as she didn't leave my side, strangely enough I didn't want to leave hers.