Eponine didn't feel attatched to this world. She somehow lingered between the real world and some other warped setting that would whisper her name. It set her apart from the crowd and labelled her as the 'spacey' kid that was most likely smoking marijuana by her classmates as surely no one could sit for five hours just staring out a window without being under some kind of substance. Rumours had even begun to circle that she starved herself to spare money for said drugs.
Eponine frowned at the thought, disliking how she had only attended this school for a week and already people had assumed the worst and, even for a moment, was thankful she was unlike the other humans in the room. That thought immediately diminished as another staggering figure passed by, clutching at her bloody throat and crying out a name in hoarse cry for attention, but she and everyone else went on about their days remaining ignorant to the diabolical happenings taking place in this school setting.
Ryoutei Academy seemed to have a high percentage of attacks and even deaths with school girls being the prime target that were covered up, Eponine briefly speculated what motivated parents to still send their children to such a place. Maybe a big ring of rich money knowingly spectated as a psychopathic serial killer was set loose in the school that would take down innocent students? Even better, the murders were actually caused by the design of the school, an elaborate murder house that acted similar to a gas chamber!
Eponine could practically hear Lady Evelyn scolding her for speaking so ill of the dead but there was honestly nothing else to do. The deaths were nothing to sneeze at and occurred monthly, similar to period she let out a quiet giggle.
Could the murders sync up with hers like a red heron?
Her laughter grew louder which made some of her classmates look up in alarm. This was the first time they had seen an expression other than a blank stare.
Her smile quickly faded and she looked out the window with distaste, now they must truly think she is on drugs. After all her tone and face was always carefully indifferent as she didn't know who was real or not.
So far the only real person she knew was her seatmate and partner, Yui Komori. A pretty girl who always seemed to be running low on energy and did a poor job of hiding it. Whenever she stood she would sway slightly and get light headed and the morbid curiosity made Eponine tempted to give her a shove just to see if she would fall.
Every single time though Eponine would simply ask about her well being just because it was that obvious it was quite the opposite of the answer Yui always gave her, and making sure never to touch her as she really didn't want Yui to begin relying on her for support. There were many reasons she didn't want to assist Yui but the main being how obvious it was there were more problems going on in Yui's life and the snowball of stopping her from fainting in class would turn into the avalanche of heavier stuff that she did not want to involve herself in.
However, just because Yui couldn't rely on her didn't mean she couldn't rely on Yui since the girl was the selfless and giving type that was easy to take advantage of due to her naïve nature. For example, cuisine advice.
Yeah, not as evil as it sounded.
Eponine baked lots of sweets and cooked lots of meat, because she needed the pounds.
Before coming to the place she now calls home she was malnourished due to starvation, she looked a lot worse a week ago but she can still catch Phoebe cringe every time she shows any skin. Eponine wasn't offended but she wanted to be back to a healthier weight so people would stop fussing over it. Or starting rumours about being a deprived crack head she couldn't help but add, eyeing the popular clique huddled across the classroom.
Myah, had also commented that she had the "potential" to be beautiful, and that coming from her exotic housemate gave her hope that all this strain would be worth it.
With pale lemon coloured eyes, pale sickly skin and arctic blue hair which faded to white she had an unique aesthetic which added to her feeling of detachment from her setting but also made room for little girls to call her pretty things like "Ah, an ice princess!" and things similar.
Or the nasty little snots-nosed brats, "Eh? Whaddya mean? It's a shrivelled up old lady!"
'It' had a name thank you very much.
As the day dragged on the lunch bell released students from the stuffy classrooms.
Slowly gathering her things, Eponine, stood and turned to her swaying seatmate.
"Are you feeling alright, Yui-san?" Her indifferent drawl didn't feel like a question to her ears, more like a courtesy.
Despite that Yui smiled as if she had offered her a five star cruise across the seven seas.
"Yes, thank you for asking, Perri-san." She gave a full smile in her regular caring tone.
It however, caused Eponine to frown, "Yui-san, please call me Eponine, I know we're not close," For some reason her timid eyes seemed hurt at that statement, "But I have siblings attending this school and it gets confusing otherwise."
"Of course, sorry Eponine-san," her head was bent like a kicked puppy. If Eponine cared enough she would be concerned about Yui's home life right now. "Anyway, I cooked chicken and noodles and want your opinion since this is my third attempt at cooking meat."
She handed the blonde haired girl the bento and she opened it curiously, in spite of Eponine's issues with Yui a small part of her couldn't deny how cute it was how she put all her attention into something as simple as opening a box.
"Wow, Eponine-san! It looks delicious!" She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent.
"Hm, don't say that until you've tried the food," She took out her own bento, "And I know it's a weird food to eat at lunch but if I gave it to my- uh- family and it tasted like crap, they wouldn't let me live it down." Her eyes widened in realisation, "Oh! sorry for essentially admitting you're a guinea pig."
Yui simply smiled eating the food with amusement in her voice, "You must love them to go this far."
"Huh?"
"To spend all your time practising cooking to make them happy you must really cherish them..."
Eponine detected sadness and longing in her voice and Eponine needed to avoid being Yui's shoulder to cry on. Yui also seemed to think her quest to cook was an undying need to show her housemates affection.
"How does it taste?"
"Good but a bit bland maybe you should look into seasoning it? But it's not under cooked this time, or charred like the first time."
She could honestly care less about seasoning, her housemates could do it themselves. Knowing that Yui hadn't been food poisoned she dug into her own serving of food.
"Thanks for the advice, it helps." As soon as the words passed her lips Eponine grimaced, she couldn't have sounded less grateful.
Yui gave a small smile that showed she understood.
After twenty minutes of eating and the empty boxes were put away Yui seemed more...fidgety.
"Do you need the bathroom or something?" She blurted.
Yui flushed pink in embarrassment.
"N-no..." Her voice seemed scared.
Yui opened her mouth to say more but Eponine was quick to stop her spilling her problems.
"I made desserts for us to eat!" She was already on her feet, "I left it in the cooking classroom I'll fetch it!" And now she was leaving the classroom and pretended not hear Yui desperate cry to wait.
If she respected any of Lady Evelyn's rules it was not get involved in others dilemmas but to simply exist and live for our own selfish desire. It wasn't as bad as it sounded it was just to simply live for themselves and not feel obligated to care for others.
When she entered the classroom her eyes landed a girl's hunched over figure as she clutched her eye in agony. She was wearing the same uniform although the collar of the shirt seemed ripped and her brown hair was dishevelled. Eponine hesitated at the door and cautiously eyed the girl and cringed when she saw her baked goods on the counter top beside the girl.
She began to make her way over and the figure groaned again.
Ignore her. Take the sweets and go.
The girl seemed to hear the sound and turned around and it took all her will power not to flinch and keep a steady pace. She was careful to act as if she had never seen the girl with her canary yellow eyes trained on the container.
That didn't stop the unknown student from trying to gain her attention.
"Please! Help me, help me! I only wanted to make him sweets but- but- Can you at least look as me! Please!" Her jittering fingers even tried grabbing her blazer but Eponine walked on making her fingers pass through like smoke.
Picking the box up she turned and had to resist sprinting out the room.
"You! Stop! I need your help! Why does no one ever do anything!" The girls voice had gone from sadness and turned in to a temper tantrum directed at the closest oven giving Eponine the perfect window to escape.
Eponine felt the cold beads of sweat down her forehead and had to remind herself that she wasn't obligated to help anyone, heck, that girl could be a one of the murderer's victims. She could become a target if she tried to help.
Swallowing, she noticed that her throat was dry and she felt as light headed as Yui. A smack on the back brought her back to the real world and made her stumble forward.
"What ya got there, Ghost girl?" Only one person she knew said that nickname with the warmth and familiarity that Tana did, despite the fact they hadn't known each other very long.
"Lizard Breath?"
"Yo!" The girl said loudly, a voice the brimmed with confidence and tone demanding attention. Her grin stretched across her face showing her huge canines, bigger than any Cullen.
Tana had a sharp face and high cheek bones, matted tangled ombre hair that was truly and eye sore, at their first meeting Eponine had wondered if she had a late morning but it turns out Tana was just a slob. Her confidence was also brimming in her piercing arched cobalt eyes and curvaceous body that attracted a lot of male students.
She stood legs apart in an intimidating posture, or so Eponine thought, and dressed very scruffy. Her blazer was tied around her waist, ribbons looking to be torn from the shirt and the first few buttons undone. Her skirt was short and she wore clunky boots for school shoes and no stockings in sight, Eponine prayed that Evelyn wouldn't give her another lecture on the ride home.
"You don't usually approach me at school." Tana surprisingly kept to herself up in the science labs.
"I could practically smell the fear and figured you needed a 'real' person around." Tana's grin never faded as she gave the blue haired girl a one armed hug.
"Thanks..." Eponine's voice laced with suspicion.
"So, as a reward I reckon you should share them goodies." Her predotary gave landed on the container of treats in her arms.
"Something tells me the scent of fear and the scent of sugar are jumbled up on you." Eponine's apathetic drawl had no effect on the brunette as she helped herself to a small sweet.
Tana's pleased face etched into disgust as she, in a very unladylike manner, spat out the treat onto the floor.
"That's too sweet! Fucking hell! How much sugar is in that?! Tastes like shit!"
As the brunette ranted on Eponine felt relief that Tana's creepy façade of being a do-gooder had finally dropped. It was starting to get uncomfortable.
"I truly don't care for your opinion since you only care for spicy things." With an impatient huff and walked back to her classroom to a probably overly-worried Yui.
With Tana's hollers now just an echo Eponine was surprised to walk back into a Yui-less classroom.
Yui didn't strike as a ditcher so she assumed it must have been important. Then again she did run out on Yui when she seemed incredibly distressed.
Still that didn't fix her problem, she wanted a second opinion and, no, an impulsive idiot like Tana didn't count.
Looking around the empty classroom she saw that kid.
The purple haired boy with a teddy bear that seemed just as disconnected with this world as she was. At first when she saw him he was so unique in aesthetic and personality she almost thought he wasn't real but she would be a hypocrite to question his existence based on how his colouring is unnatural to humans. She was curious about him but respected his aura of not wanting company.
However, today was different as he was looking straight at her and she stared back with the same unreadable gaze.
What was his name again?
She searched her brain but came up short. Did she even bother to hear it in the first place? She only ever acknowledged him because he looked so jarring in such a mundane setting. His fashion and teddy bear are in leagues of their own in attention drawing but she realised she was thinking too hard about someone she doesn't know.
"Do you like sweets?"
She needed a second opinion and decided the universe was telling her this was who it was meant to be.
"What a stupid question, neh Teddy?"
So he talks to the bear? She always assumed he was muttering to a classmate.
She wouldn't be deterred and made her way so she stood beside his desk, "I baked these sweets and would like an opinion of them, could I ask you to try one?"
He stared again with those cold eyes and she felt a chill run up her spine. His eyes fell to the box and suddenly snatched it out of her hands.
Rude.
But the curiosity was too strong as she watched fascinated as he delicately plucked a sweet and placed it in his mouth. His teeth lined with...fangs. Somehow she felt she had solved the big murder mystery.
Why was she so calm about this?
Her thoughts drifted back to the girl in the cooking rooms and her chest tightened.
She then realised she may have fucked up.
Training her eyes on his face his eyes were lit up in pleasure, "It's so sweet..." he murmured, he took another one just as quickly as he snatched the container.
When he took a pause to swallow she quickly chimed in before he could eat another, "What do you think?"
He froze and frowned like he didn't want to be reminded of her presence.
"You smell foul."
"I showered this morning." She honestly didn't know why she was defending herself to him.
"How can I enjoy this treat with you filthy smell so close to me!" He lashed out somehow was immediately standing in front of her screeching in a pitch that made her ears hurt.
Her mind raced with various scenarios of how this wouldn't end in her death.
"So you liked it?" She had said it trying to make him focus elsewhere but immediately regretted it.
"Don't ignore me!" His free hand, that wasn't clutching the bear, shot out and clutched her throat giving a vigorous shake.
He wasn't human like she was. He had large canines like Tana but was too cold to be like her.
"...Vampire?"
Her mouth, mind and body seemed to have a minds of their own. Her body trying to remove him with no success and her mouth giving away her thought process and she never felt so helpless.
"So you're not as stupid as the bride?" His voice had returned to a steady and calm tone that unnerved her when he was strangling her. His eyes were dead and like glass marbles holding an array of cold colours like they were designed to be unreadable just for the purpose of terrifying people.
Before her traitorous mouth could piss him off even more he loosened his grip and ducked his head and she let out a soundless scream as his fangs ripped into her throat and arched his neck in a more comfortable position tearing the skin apart further. Tears were rolling down her face and dripping from her chin and her ears rang every time she heard and a sucking sound or a sickening squelch,
Eponine's body froze, surely only a few seconds ago she just asked his opinion of her food? Now she was being bitten by a twisted vampire and didn't stand a chance.
Unless...
She closed her eyes and lifted her hand to softly press against his back her fingers glowed and she could sense his corrupted dark soul and hesitated sensing his familiarity with torturing souls and soul transferal. With her life on the line she pressed on ebbing away the distress and anger in his heart by mentally plucking the knots and tangles and sending a soothing sensation over his body like a mother coddling an upset infant. The girl held in a sigh of release when she felt his body grow less tense.
She began to feel light headed from blood loss when he pulled away, seemingly unaware of her, quite literal, emotional manipulation.
"You taste so sweet..." He spoke more to himself, eyelids drooping slightly and his eyes never changing.
"You can keep the sweets, I'm glad you seem to like them." She already planned to tell Evelyn and have the brat expelled. She hoped he choked on them sweets.
"Make me more, tomorrow." He clutched the bear to his chest and looked anxious. She didn't need to see his soul to see through his false act.
She agreed none the less, never expecting to see the boy again.
She froze when he spoke to the bear, "Neh Teddy, won't this be fun? She can't run and she and if she tells she'll die!" He finished with a delighted giggle. Suddenly he paused and looked at Eponine again with disgust, "You look pathetic, clean yourself up." He was mostly eyeing his bite mark and grabbed her collar, "Don't cover that up, it shows everyone you belong to me, you hear?!"
Who couldn't hear? Her mind quipped as she's shocked no one has come to check up on all the shouting.
Nodding fearfully, Eponine slowly draws back her hand that was now covered in sticky blood. Calmly walking to her bag, praying that she had tamed his emotions enough to not lash out again, she used her clean hand to rummage for a packet of ladybug tissues and began wiping her hand and cleaning her neck.
Eponine was determined to ignore the eyes that burned into her back making her feel branded, as she was about to pack her bag and go home- cause she was not spending another moment in this school- that same cold hand that had wrapped around her neck, was now twisting her wrist.
"I SAID DON'T IGNORE ME!"
His eyes stared at her with a cold intensity but what shocked her most was that his soul was flickering with such rage it as if she had never tampered with it. Was this the true strength of a vampire?
How could she respond? But he spoke before she could formulate a plan of action.
"You covered up my bite after I JUST told you that it shows you're mine!" His voice shook with anger but she couldn't help but feel like she was being shouted at by a possessive five-year old which didn't feel appropriate.
"I didn't want an infection...and we wear collared shirts, so how would-"
"SHUT UP!"
Eponine winced at the pitch of his bratty voice, sure she was scared but she was pissed too.
"Do you hate me?" His voice was now timid and he looked to be on the verge of tears...
She felt her eyes widen in surprise and took the risk of checking his soul and discovered that he was baiting her yet his anxiety was desperate for an honest answer. She closed her eyes and deduced that she was in fact dealing with a snotty brat trapped in a teenager's body. Brilliant.
Ignoring the vice grip on her wrist she spoke, "Honestly, I wouldn't have shared my food with you if I don't think you were cool." She made sure to look in his eyes, trying to appeal to his insecurities and try to charm him. After all it was the truth. It's what she HAD thought of him, now though... he better hope she doesn't poison her next batch of sweets.
She doesn't smile and her eyes stay hooded and uninterested but she feels he wouldn't appreciate her trying to smile for him. She knew he would see straight through her.
He stared at he before bursting out into psychotic laughter and she half expected a bolt of lighting to crack behind him like a crazy cartoon villain but even her humour didn't mask the fact that the air in the room seemed to drop and the air got thicker.
She looked down at his small hand on her wrist and frowned noting that it was only slightly bigger than hers, she looked up and noticed they were the same height! He seemed so much bigger earlier but now she wasn't as intimidated. Her pride would be the death of her. His grip dropped from her wrist to clutch his side and she subconsciously began wiping the side of her neck and could and only wonder what a state she must look.
The purple haired boy stopped laughing and before she knew it he was pulling away her hand that had been dabbing the drying blood and his head neared her neck, tongue lapping up the excess blood like a thirsty dog.
His tongue was warmer than the rest of his body but still cold and she tried to not squirm as the wet muscle glided across her skin.
When she told Lady Evelyn this kid will be dead! Then she would never see Mister...She realised she didn't know his name! Evelyn would think she was lying if she didn't even have a name! Was it worth asking?
She was so lost in thought she didn't notice the kid step back to admire his work, his thumb caressing the two puncture holes.
"You sit next to Yui-san." He stated and she snapped out of her thoughts, her blank stare hopefully hiding the fact she had 'ignored' him again.
"Oh, yes. I'm Perri Eponine, but since I have siblings going here it's best you call me Eponine." Her voice droned the rehearsed lines from the hours Evelyn had made her spend repeating the same speech which made her introduction lack much energy or warmth. However, she feel the boy standing in front of her doesn't care all that much.
"I knew that, do you think I'm as dumb as you?" He used both arms to clutch his bear, "What a stupid human neh, Teddy? How insulting."
Irritation built up and she tried to channel her inner anger and let out a long pent up sigh trying not to shout.
"Sorry, I don't know you're name and I stupidly assumed that you didn't know mine..." She picked up bag and placed it on her shoulder.
"Sakamaki Kanato."
His tone was dead, ominous and honestly quite terrifying.
"Okay, well class starts soon so I'll bring you some sweets tomorrow Sakamaki-san." She was already shuffling backwards ready to make a break for the school gates but paused when his voice spoke again.
"It's Kanato, don't lump me with the rest of them." His voice sounded irritated.
She pieced together that he must have siblings in this school that he mustn't be too fond of, whoever had to go home with him she felt sorry for.
She nodded trying to sound relatable, "Uh, yeah I get that. I won't make that mistake again Kanato-san."
Eponine pretended she didn't hear his next words.
"I'll enjoy watching your expression when I make you into my doll..."
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Hello any readers that made it till the end, I truly appreciate you taking the time to read it!
I hope you don't mind following the character of Eponine, she has her faults but I hope it's not off-putting. In case anyone is having trouble pronouncing her name it's pronounced Ep-Oh-Neen. It's strange name for a strange girl.
Please feel free to leave a review/follow/favourite I'd really appreciate it. I'll link to art of these OCs in future chapters for now I hope you can get a vague idea of what the protagonist looks like.