Perditus Cantio

Setting Notes: Okay, so this is an AU (alternate universe). In this AU, Vlad's powers are different, the characters are different, and a lot of things are different. So I'll give a little background. Vlad is about 10 years old here, (for the first part) and his family died when he was like, 7. He doesn't really remember them that well, all he knows is that there was a fire. The orphanage he lived in until 2 months ago moved him to the new one, which is an orphanage for "troubled children", because one of the children who made fun of him ended up in the hospital with severe injuries. Because Vlad was already considered an unnerving child by the caretakers, they thought Vlad was the one who attacked the child and sent him to the other orphanage. Vlad actually was responsible, but he didn't know that. All he did was tell the kid to go jump out of the window. The child was injured jumping out of a window. Vlad's looks in this one are a little different than the cannon looks. In this he's younger, 10 years old, and he has pitch black hair and paper white skin like in the books, but he also has permanently iridescent violet eyes and his fangs are always visible. His personality is also a little darker than in the books. His powers differ as well. He has the Pravus ability to order someone to do something if he puts enough feeling behind it, (for instance, if he was really mad at someone and told them to go play in traffic, that person would drop everything and run to the nearest highway for playtime.) but he doesn't know that he can do this. He also has the ability to kill someone by just channeling his hatred strongly enough, but he hasn't mastered this yet. An example of this is if he were truly furious with someone, just by imagining their head exploding, he could make their head explode. Glory like that. The characters are also all the same age as Vlad, there are no important adults in this thing. That is all I have to say for now. On to the story.

CHAPTER 1:

VLAD'S POV

The dreams came again tonight. Or would it be more proper to call them nightmares? They certainly seemed more like the latter. They weren't ever exactly the same, but similar nonetheless. Usually they consisted of burning cities with screaming people running through them, except the people should not have been able to scream at all, considering they were headless and dripping gore everywhere. The images would change from one frightening thing to the next. A girl with gouged out eyes, a beaten-to-death corpse rising and then falling and then rising and then falling in a desperate attempt to move away, a headless child holding his own laughing, bloody head, a burning woman dancing as her skin turned to ash, and several other horrifying flashes until it changed to the final image. The final image was always the same, and it's quite honestly the one that scares me most. The final image is myself, wrapped in shadow, stained in blood that is not my own, and laughing. Laughing like a maniac as fresh gore drips from my figure, and seeming happier than a child on Christmas. Half of the figure's face is wrapped in the shadows, revealing only one, all-to-familiar eye. The figure turns to me, grinning, before opening its fanged mouth as if to say something. This is the point when I wake up, terrified, shuddering, and gasping for breath. I don't know what these things mean, but I do know that there's no way I'm telling anyone of this. They already find me disturbed.

I lay panting in my bed, staring at the empty bunk above me. Empty because no other child wanted to be anywhere near me. Unless of course, they were making fun of me. I was considering going back to sleep, before I heard one of the caretaker ladies' voice outside my door. They were probably complaining about one of the children again. I listened in upon instinct, only to flinch when I heard what they were saying.

"I don't like this. He's not child-like at all, just disturbing! The other children can't bear to be in the same room as him. He's scary."

I felt really sorry for whoever they were talking about. At least I did, until I heard the second lady talk.

"I know! And what is he anyway? Those freaky purple eyes, those fangs! No normal child looks like that. What kind of demon is that Vladimir boy? And more importantly, how come we got saddled with him?"

Ouch. Of course they were talking about me. Even though I should have been used to it by now, it still stung to hear people talk about me like that. Just because of my…. Somewhat unusual attributes, I had been ostracized for as long as I can remember.

The only time I can ever remember truly being loved… the last time I felt cared for….. was 3 years ago. And that had all gone up in flames.

The caretaker women were still talking, but I tuned them out, instead focusing my hearing on the whirring of the fans in the room. I had contracted a fever not that long ago, probably due to the extreme heat we were suffering this summer, and the fans were there in an attempt to keep me cool. They weren't doing much though.

My subconscious picked up the fact that the caretaker women had left, and I switched my hearing focus to their retreating footsteps. Eventually the steady beat of their retreating feet mixed with the whirring of the fans and the cries of the cicadas outside lulled me back to sleep.

THE NEXT DAY

My wakeup call came in the rude form of another child kicking my door loudly. I groaned, not wanting to leave my room. The kick came again, this time followed by a shout.

"Hey! Fangs! Get your ass out here, freak!"

I recognized that voice. None other than Tom. He, Bill, and D'Ablo were the three kids who seemed determined to make my life a living hell. Of course, I knew full well that this meant they were miserable. When someone is miserable, they always need someone even more miserable than themselves. And they'd do anything to achieve that. In this case, I was the one they chose to make more miserable, singled out because of my differences.

The kick came again, louder this time, followed with a shout of;

"GET UP FREAKAZOID!"

I sighed, hauling myself out of my warm bed, and shuffled over to the door, dragging my feet. I was still dressed in my baggy black pajamas, which hung off of my skinny frame and made it look less like I was wearing pajamas and more like I was wrapped in a black sail, but I didn't care enough to change clothes.

I exited my room and headed for the kitchen, prying the door open with ease even though this particular door is notorious for getting stuck. Though I was thin, I've been known to posses a bit of an unnatural strength. Nothing that impressive though.

The kitchen was the usual chaotic mess of chattering students, but everything went silent for a moment when I walked in. I could feel their glaring eyes focused upon me, as if they thought that glaring hard enough would make me just disappear. Sadly, it did not.

The talking started back up again, but this time I heard words like; Freak, demon, devil-child, and inhuman. Normally this would make a kid my age very upset to be called things like this, but I am not like most kids my age. I'm more mature, and sadly I'm sort of used to this by now.

As I walked towards the breakfast buffet most of the kids darted away from me, looks of disgust on their faces, except for Bill, who took the liberty of shoving me. Tom sniggered at this, I did my best to ignore him. D'Ablo didn't seem to be around, but I knew that if he were here he'd just scowl at Bill and shove me again himself. That boy seemed to have something against me personally.

Wordlessly, I grabbed some breakfast and went to sit down at the table farthest from everyone else. The one kid who was within 2 meters of me, (what was his name? Evan? Ethan? Eddie? Oh that's right, Eddie) blanched and bolted away, sitting in the corner on the other end of the room from me.

I tried to pay the other kids no mind as I ate with haste. I didn't want to stay here for long. If I did…

THUNK

Oh crap. It would seem that once again, I wasn't fast enough. Bill and Tom were sitting on either side of me, Joss sitting across from me, snarling. I didn't say anything, just took another bite of my food. Angered at being ignored, Tom gave me a hard shove, which bumped me into Bill, who pushed me off the bench.

I still said nothing, kept my face emotionless, and hauled myself to my feet. D'Ablo was the first of them to speak.

"What the hell is wrong with you? You never cry, you never laugh, you hardly even speak! Did your dad drop you on your head or something?"

Bill sniggered and added;

"Well that would certainly explain the level of retarded!"

Ha! Well isn't that something, coming from him.

Silently, I turned and headed towards the exit, back towards my room. Kids weren't allowed to enter other children's rooms, unless they were roommates.

Furious at my lack of response, Bill kicked me, hard. I landed face first on the ground, wincing in pain, but I still didn't make a sound. Instead I just got up, and continued walking. I heard D'Ablo's enraged growl behind me.

"I swear Vladimir, I'm going to make you react one of these days, you freak!"

I did nothing but walk out the door. Yeah right. What could he possibly do? All three of those losers had beaten me black and blue, yet I still refused to break for them. What on earth could they possibly do that could make me break like they wanted me to? Nothing I could readily think of.

On my way back down the hall to my room, (last door on the left) I was distracted by what I saw outside.

It was my favorite kind of day. The overly bight sun was hidden behind hazy grey clouds, but with just enough sunlight peaking through to look like laser beams of a sort. To me it looked more like the sky had opened up, and little bits of heaven had been released.

Giving in to temptation, I stepped outside. A cold, yet welcoming wind greeted me, making my soft black hair and way-to-large clothing whip around my pale frame.

I spread my arms out, as if to embrace the wind, and closed my eyes, sighing in content. I don't know how long I stood there, but I do know that I was snapped out of it by a yapping sound off to my left.

I opened my eyes and turned, curious, only to feel a surge of delight when I saw what it was. The yapping creature was a puppy dog, with gold, healthy looking fur and oddly blue eyes. The dog was fairly large, yet I could still tell it, no, he, was young.

His tail wagged and he trotted over to me, staring straight up at me. I smiled and pet his soft fur. This was the first creature that had showed me kindness since the death of my parents.

Little did I know just how much I would come to regret befriending him.

(A/N: Ta da! Here is le chapter one. I will need reviews, because I just have to know what people think. Constructive criticism is allowed. Please. You want to read good stuff, I want to write good stuff. Also, reviews make me so happy I can't even describe it. So please review. Dankeschon.

P.S: Yes Henry is in this fic. No he isn't human. Yes you've already met him. Cookies to who can guess who Henry is! [It should be pretty easy] )