The girl raised her head to reveal two dead-looking, red-brown eyes and met the gazes of each of the Night Class students in turn, seeming to accuse them of something they could only guess at. More disconcerting than this was the cauldron of seething hatred they saw buried deeply there, a loathing that burned fiercely for each and every one of them.
The girl's skin, pale as chalk – not, in itself, a particularly striking attribute since most vampires tended to have pale skin – had an unhealthy pastel glow to it, like the skin of someone who was chronically ill; ninety percent of the Night Class were increasingly coming to believe that was indeed the case. This anaemic luminosity was not at all helped by the white uniform she donned, proving beyond reasonable doubt that she was the new Night student.
Taking the initiative, mainly because no one else was likely to, Kaname welcomed the new girl with a warm, if distrusting smile. He made no move towards her, some inner sense telling him she would not receive such a gesture well, and instead settled for a pleasant nod and a greeting which was a good deal more respectful than it really had to be. As a pureblood, respect was something he needn't bother with when dealing with lower class vampires such as this girl, but it was a small favour he afforded those loyal enough to his cause to attend Cross Academy. Thus far he'd seen nothing suggesting the girl did not support his vision, so he would treat her with the same regard.
"Welcome to Cross Academy's Night Class," he said amiably, not liking how the girl's eyes seemed to flicker just momentarily with an emotion close to revulsion before becoming static once again.
She didn't reply, but continued to allow her eyes to rove the room, taking in the sight of the other students, the desks, the boards at the front and the windows lining the far wall, through which she could see the moon high in the night sky and the shadowed trees of the school grounds. Then her eyes fell on Shiki Senri and something definitely flashed in those bottomless orbs of hers; something not pleasant. Something that made Rima unconsciously put a small hand on his shoulder and pull him back, further onto her knees, while she prepared to leap over his head and stand between him and the girl at the slightest provocation.
Who is this girl? Rima thought suspiciously, hating the way she looked at Shiki with that heavy murderous intent in her eye.
Rima was well aware that Shiki was plenty able – more so than many she knew – to defend himself and, should this stranger make any move to harm him, he could fight back on even footing at the very least; although given the girl's frail appearance, such a fight would be anything but equal. There never had been and probably never would be a time when Shiki needed her to help him. All the same she felt a flash of protective aggression wash over her, and would need no more than a twitch from the female in his direction to justify frying her with a good dose of electricity.
Shiki felt Rima's quiet hostility and patted the hand she'd placed on his shoulder reassuringly, maintaining that blank, emotionless façade everyone knew so well. No one would know, from his outward appearance, that anything was wrong and in many ways that was just how he liked it. In times like these especially, he found his upbringing as a 'puppet' to be quite useful; it meant no one could see what effect the girl's presence was having on him.
The second he'd seen her walk through the door, the guilt and pain he'd put such extra special care into sealing away hit him like a tsunami. He'd have gasped, if he could. Cried out perhaps. But the time when Shiki Senri had been capable of these outward displays of emotion were long ago and far away, and for his own sake (and more importantly, Rima's) he intended to keep it that way.
The girl averted her gaze and there was the unmistakable choked puff of a derisive snort before she entered the room fully and made her slow, graceful, doll-like way to the far corner of the room – which, through no coincidence, happened to be the corner farthest from the other students. She said nothing, not deigning to pay anyone any further attention – not even Kaname, the pureblood who had actually spoken to her – sitting herself in her chosen spot with her knees tucked firmly up to her chin, where she rested her head weakly. She looked so vulnerable there in that dark corner, even if the overall effect was marred by the twisted contours of a sneer, easily definable on her face.
Shiki wondered – as he attempted to smother the growing sickly feeling in his gut that came whenever he'd dared to so much as think of this girl before now – if this was what humans meant when they used that phrase, 'a blast from the past'. Quite literally, he felt as though he'd been blown up from the inside and – as one would expect – it was not the most pleasant of feelings.
Naturally, Rima sensed his distress and glanced at the back of his head with questioning eyes of ice. He could feel them burning his skull and scouring his soul for an answer – something only she could have any hope of doing. Not wanting to trouble her with things that ought trouble no one but him, he kept his face – and his eyes – turned away from her. She was much too adept at reading him for her own good; this didn't concern Rima and he didn't want it to. It was strictly him and the girl. No one else.
"It's customary to introduce yourself to your peers, new girl." Ruka spat venomously, her already bleak opinion of the girl further soiled by her blatant lack of manners and respect. The girl lifted her head briefly in the fiery blonde vampire's direction, those eyes of hers deep pits of emptiness, shielding a torrent of the purest abhorrence. Ruka, despite her stubborn disposition, flinched from the intensity of that glare as though it had physically burned her.
The girl saw this and a sadistic smirk stretched her pallid features, pulling her skin taut in what could only be described as an expression of unadulterated evil. Even by their standards – and the Night Class had, collectively, seen a lot of scary stuff in their time – it was a frightening look. But if that was bad, the high pitched gurgling sound that most of the class assumed to be the girl giggling manically was downright chilling. Never had any of them heard such a simultaneously pained yet wicked sound before; it was unnatural and, if they were telling the truth, terrifying.
Even Kaname – though outwardly he appeared composed, as was expected of a vampire of his standing – felt a tremor of unease at the strangled laugh emanating from the new student's tiny, folded form. The inexplicable but overriding need to take control of the situation pulsed through him and in a voice full of authority, he addressed the new student once more.
"Ruka is correct; it's courtesy to introduce yourself when entering the midst of new comrades. So, new girl; your name, please."
Now it was the girl's turn to recoil, and recoil she did – she scowled at the pureblood hatefully, looking for all the world as if he'd just slapped her. Then, in a voice soft and sweet which belied her inner wrath, she spoke for the very first time, defiance in her tone and eyes even though she must have known who he was and what he could do to her.
Kaname was stricken, quite suddenly, by the notion that she spoke so belligerently in an insane hope that he would kill her for her insolence: she wanted to die. As soon as the thought occurred he knew it was true. And he vowed to himself silently that he would not be so quick as to give her what she wanted – he may not enjoy ruling by intimidation but he wasn't above exploiting weaknesses.
"Ask him." her feathery reply came, so very quiet and yet echoing through the room more effectively than if she'd shouted it. She jerked her head – a movement that looked painful, her bones cracking loudly like several whips – at Shiki, a small malignant smirk playing around her thin pink lips. "You'll tell the nice pureblood who I am. Won't you... Senri?"
Rima bristled angrily on the inside but outside her only reaction was to narrow her eyes slightly. The way that girl had just said Shiki's name... Rima wasn't sure what it was, or why, but there was something about it she really didn't like. The way her mouth formed the syllables... like his name was a long forgotten secret... or else some password to treasures unknown. Maybe she was just being paranoid, but Rima decided that she did not like this troublemaker one little bit.
Shiki said nothing. He stared deep into the girl's eyes and saw therein that the girl he'd known was dead, buried beneath layers of hurt, betrayal and hatred that had grown in their time apart. Layers that, for all he'd wanted to stop it, he'd put there. It was true, Shiki Senri knew very well who this girl was; or who she had been. And it tore him apart to see her this way.
"You haven't been eating, have you?" he asked casually, ignoring her question in favour of his own. Every pair of eyes was now on him including – most profoundly – Rima's. She squeezed his shoulder, communicating her confusion and worry in a way that he understood perfectly; there was rarely a need for words between them. But for now, at least, he didn't react. Right now his immediate attentions were focused on the new student.
The girl glared furiously, a flash of rage glinting in her red eyes before fading once more to an empty nonchalance. Her lips twisted in an ironic smile and she shrugged her shoulders, the bones jutting horribly as she did, making her look like a skeleton. And in one way she was; she was a skeleton from Shiki's closet, one he would have preferred not to be forced to examine.
"Of course I have." she smirked cruelly, enjoying, it seemed to Shiki, the minuscule spark of hurt in his eyes at her denial. "I eat three meals a day and I always eat my vegetables. Aren't you proud of me, Senri?"
"You know what I meant." he shot back, stoic but starting to grow frustrated. "You haven't been drinking blood; how long has it been since your last?"
"A month. Maybe two. Or three. Who can say?" she dismissed indifferently, watching him carefully. It was almost as if she were daring him... but daring him to do what, he couldn't say. "The days are so continuous to me now... I hardly know where one starts and the other begins."
"If you go without blood much longer you'll die. You know that, right?"
At this the girl's attitude shifted unexpectedly. Instead of the bitter, contemptuous student who'd entered the room, she became abruptly melancholic, her eyes shimmering with sad acceptance for the fate she had chosen for herself. It was obvious to everyone now, with the exchange between her and Shiki out in the open, that ultimately she had every intention of dying; she had somehow come to hate herself, her race, that much.
"Better to die," she whispered, laying her head back on her knees as if she no longer had the strength to hold it up – entirely possible given the revelation that she was slowly starving to death. "than to live on in this deplorable form. Better to die than live as a vampire any longer."
"Was it him?" Shiki pressed, still sounding calm and collected, though Rima knew he was becoming increasingly upset with the results of this conversation. "Is he the one who made you think this way?"
"You know it's not, Senri." the girl muttered. Her voice was getting fainter, like she was drifting into a deep sleep. Her head lolled jerkily on her knees and she struggled to keep it balanced there; it was obvious to all that the lack of blood was making her blackout. The excitement must have put too great a strain on her. "He held no more sway over my decisions than you did."
Still Shiki didn't let up. "So what then? What's made you decide to do this to yourself?"
"That's for... me, Senri. You left me behind... a long... time ago. You have no right... to ask such... things... of me..."
As her sentence dwindled to a barely perceptible sigh, her body slouched to the left, her mind shutting down and fading into the oblivion of fatigue induced sleep.
"Seiren." Kaname commanded, watching the girl's slumped form with a regretful frown. He'd seen this kind of thing happen before – and to vampires far greater than she – whereupon their lifestyle simply became too much and the vampire refused to live anymore. Some killed themselves through the vampire hunters, deliberately breaking the law in order to have their names added to the list; others did the job themselves; some, a very small percentage, starved themselves of blood to the point where they simply withered away. It was not a pleasant way to go; it was exceptionally painful and required herculean willpower to pull off. Kaname had found that these particular vampires were driven by an abnormally strong desire to become human. What troubled him most, however, was what had happened to make a vampire so young choose to die this way – to die at all, even.
"Yes, sir?" Seiren replied promptly, appearing next to him as if she'd been there all along. But for the barely perceptible lift in her short, pale lilac hair, it would appear exactly so. Her features – as usual – were startlingly empty, even for a vampire. She was, perhaps, the only Night Class member who could outdo Shiki when it came to pulling a poker-face. Her eyes, likened in colour to her hair if a smidgen darker, were not so empty as the rest of her face, holding a wealth of subtle cunning and well-hidden observance.
"Take this girl to a spare room in the Moon Dorms, please." he instructed, studying Shiki with quiet scrupulousness, who was still watching the girl thoughtfully. Kaname was no mind reader – for all his wonderful gifts, mind reading wasn't among them – but he had a feeling the girl's deteriorating health hurt his underling in some way. It didn't show; Shiki was a master at hiding things, much like Seiren was. But Kaname had a way with hunches and this time he had a feeling he was right. In whatever manner Shiki and the girl were connected, it was – or had been – a strong bond.
Seiren bowed and bent to pick the girl up, lifting her as easily as if she were little more than a paperweight. Without tarrying, she left, headed for the Moon Dorms as she'd been told, intent on carrying out her orders – as she always did – to the letter.
… Told you they'd be fast. Another one up already!
