A/N: So when I originally published this story 3 weeks ago, I had already written up to chapter 6, and since I planned to update every week I figured that I'd never have to worry about missing an update because I'd always be ahead. The only problem is that I've gotten out of my writing rhythm. Long story short I'm still writing chapter 6... The good thing is that I have an outline for it, so with any luck I'll get it together and write it so that this story never hitches or slows!

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"I've never met a girl like you, Bitch-chan~"

Yui walks quickly through the vast halls of the Sakamaki mansion, making sure not to let her anxiety and excitement show in her steps.

She's on her way to Subaru's room to get the bolt cutters. When she has the bolt cutters, she can unlock the casket. Once the casket is unlocked, then Chouko-san will be freed. And when Chouko-san is freed then...so is Yui.

Then she can go home and see her father again, maybe even find out the truth to what really happened! Because there was no way, there's no way that he gave her up! He would never do that! He loves her! He couldn't!

"You're truly such a fool~ You don't even know when you've been deceived," Laito cooed in my ear and I jumped back, startled. The ropes dug even deeper into my wrists.

"But that's just a part of the fun~" He got even closer to my ear, his breath sending shivers through me and rocking my spine. His lips brushed the shell of the helix with the softest caress, like we were lovers. As if he had tied me to the bed in an act of passion and not sadistic aggression. He had me precisely where he wanted me. We were right up against each other.

"That's how you'll know I've broken you," he whispered it like it was a tender secret that only I could know. "I'll be the lie that you believe in despite knowing all the while, I'll break you and you'll love me for it," and then the whispers turned sinister.

"And when your pathetic human heart gives out and your weak body finally has nothing left to give me, I will hold you just like this," he demonstrated with a caress down my body.

He took ahold of my jaw.

"Look you in the eyes and let you know that it was I that destroyed you, and you that let me. You will be both accomplice and victim. And then you will have given me all the power and I will have truly made you nothing as you were always meant to be." Serrated green eyes tore through the barriers concealing my soul and left me completely bare to his gaze. I felt naked as his breath left a trail as it wrapped around my neck like a noose and he was preaching sins into my ear.

"And then, you will be less than nothing, because I will have drained your life-blood completely and you will be dead." And he punctuated that by biting sharply into my ear, piercing it with his fangs.

There was a sickly SQUISH sound.

I screamed and thrashed. But I couldn't move. There was nothing I could do. There was no mercy, I was sure I now had gaping, bloody holes going through my ear.

"But until that glorious time comes, we shall just have to settle for reenactments. Here, see; just like this~"

His face traveled down from my ear to my neck, fangs dragging, carving an agonizing trail of red and ripping my skin open all the while, before he stopped at my clavicle.

My heart rammed against the cage of my ribs. It wanted to escape my chest and be free from this torment. But my green-eyed jailer wouldn't let that happen on his watch, not until he was through. Not until he could rip it from my chest and crush it in his own bare hands.

"Do you know why vampires always go for the neck? Because blood can be most efficiently be drawn out from there. It's faster, easier, and yields a larger blood flow. It's a classic. But I don't like it. Too easy...too predictable."

My heart stopped in my chest. It knew better than my foolish mind that there was no escape.

"I want to have to really suck to get my prize, and I want you to see it, to watch while I take it from you. No, there's no pain and no true pleasure in letting either of us take the easy way out. Something as intimate as this should be prolonged, savored." He said this before backing away from my neck and grabbing my hand lightly.

He lifted it parallel to my watery eyes, pressing a gentle kiss on the back, fiendish green irises stalking me all through the motion, imitating the gentleman that I knew he could never be. He easily pried my fingers apart and threaded them together with his in what would appear to any bystander as affection. But I felt the malicious way his hands squeezed mine like a vice, caging me from escape. Just like I felt the hollow perversion when he sucked my fingers, trailing his tongue over them with empty eroticism aimed to unnerve me. After all that was his only goal.

"The beauty of the hand never fails to arouse me. Vampires would never go for such a place to extract blood because it holds so very little and is so full of bone. It would make no sense to anyone else. But it serves our purpose perfectly," he smiled. "For one thing it's so frail and rank with nerves," he stroked the surface of my hand. "For another it hurts like hell when pierced."

His incisors seized upon my hand with the speed of a shark and the force of a bear-trap. I screamed with primitive animalia. I cried out with the desperation of a prey. I would be scarred until the end of time.

'Lord, make me so mighty in my hardness against bitterness that tenderness of heart is not destroyed by wounds (Hosea 11:8; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Peter 3:8).'

Lord, save me!

I was shaking and sobbing and whimpering even after his fangs disengaged around my hand. My vision was turning white and I knew he would never forgive me if I passed out on him, but if I looked at the remains of my mutilated limb I would never remove them from my memory. As horrible as it was, I focused on his devilish eyes looking up at me. Spiteful and virescent.

"Did you like that? They say that the opening act always pales in comparison to the main event, but I know what you're wondering: how can this possibly get more exciting? More stimulating? Worry not," his eyes were completely cold. "There's still so much left for us to explore~"

His breath suddenly shadowed my collarbone and I could just imagine his fangs wrapped right around it. The precious white light of respite was being chased away by the deep, sobering black of anxiety. No, no, no, NO!

"Wait...no…" He stopped. "No, how could I forget? My darling brother Kanato! He was so looking forward to playing with you..! Now I'm afraid we've made him jealous… Hmm… You see, he's not so like me; never again will he sit back and play quietly with his Teddy while the woman of his attentions is entertained by another man~"

(The older boy recalled talking with Teddy in his room after singing for his mother, while the woman herself "played" with his Uncle Richter scarcely 20 feet away.

Never again.)

Light footsteps cut a path in my mind's eye, the fact that they were audible spoke the true rage of the boy, as generally a vampire's steps were soundless. Closer, closer they came, until I could faintly see the piercing crimson eyes shine in the dark above me. Angry eyes matching the ones now glowing in place of the green ones.

"I don't mind," the childlike voice said. "After all, you did say you would join me."

The recovery from that escapade took considerably longer: 2 weeks later and countless bottles of Cranberry Juice. And now Yui has angry holes in her ears that will only close slowly and other holes in her hand to complement the scars on the back where the keys ripped into her skin.

And she can't help but to think back every time she sees them from the corner of her eye.

At least the ones on the rest of her body will fade with time.

She opens the door. It's in shambles. Dents litter the wall like the work of an aggressive abstract artist in a fit of passionate rage and inspiration. All around furniture is upturned, shattered objects lie in fragments on the floor, on the wall a painting hangs, crooked. A coffin serves as centerpiece to the disorderly room, the only unperturbed spot of peace in the field of chaos.

Subaru's room.

The whole conversation with the sleeping violette girl was bizarre yet structured and somehow despite coming up with a plan of action the woman never said where to find the bolt cutters that were supposedly in Subaru's possession. Of course, Yui figured there would be some measure of searching involved, but staring around at the hazardous bedroom before her she only now takes into account how daunting the task she's been assigned really is.

Where to start…?

The petite blonde takes a few delicate and tentative steps into the forest of destruction. Slam!

Yui jumps out of her skin as the coffin door nearly swings off its handle and the albino appears in front of her.

"What do you think you're doing here?!" His red eyes narrow down at her small height, his explosive voice bringing her back to earth.

"I- um-" the female stutters trying to think of something quick.

"You c-!" The teen with the white hair is cut off by a soft yawn interrupting the fury of his sentence. His red eyes soften as his face gently contorts. Yui freezes at the sight.

Kawaii~

"Oh just shut up!" Yui startles wondering minorly if he had telepathic powers, but panicking as the boy grabs her by the wrist in a strong grip and drags her over to the opened coffin. "Any other time I might've let you go, but if you're gonna interrupt my sleep, then you have no choice!" He says strongly, more to himself than to her.

But seeing the small, claustrophobic casket and the strong hinges holding it together, the blonde lets out a whimper and digs her heels into the ground like a stubborn mule.

"No!" She cries out weakly, face flushing bright pink as she pulls back with all her might. He's too strong!

He doesn't look back at her as her feeble protests against his pull don't break his stride or strength for even a second.

They reach the foot of the case. He picks her up by her waist like she weighs a feather, lowering her down into the box. "You're gonna sit in here quietly and stop making so much noise!"

He pushed me roughly into the huge iron casing, but didn't close the door immediately. Instead he stood in the gap tantalizingly, closing off the exit yet leaving just enough space that I might have entertained a fast break. But his cold, green eyes froze me in my place, stopped the breath right in my throat.

"A vampire like myself has no need to fear an Iron Maiden. We can sleep in cases much smaller than this, sometimes for millennia without ever taking a single breath of fresh air… Tch! Weak mortals like you are not so impressive. You probably couldn't go 5 days without food or water," I looked horrified at the red-haired male. "But we'll see."

And then all the light disappeared from the world and the darkness closed in. I pounded at the door with both fists hammering as hard as I could, deep down I knew it was a futile effort, but my heart couldn't accept defeat so easily. My breaths came out faster and harder with every beat until I was hyperventilating and on the verge of tears. It was as if with every second the coffin drained the life and energy from me and if I stayed too long my fight, my will to live would run dry and my life would be forfeit.

"Please, Ayato! I'm sorry! Let me out!"

A deep chuckle stopped my erratic thudding against the door as I strained to hear the deep, malicious voice speaking to me:

"Yes, like that. Beg and plead until your throat bleeds in the hopes that I'll be merciful enough to forgive you. Yes; beg until it pleases Ore-sama enough to let you out."

I didn't want to, but a certain point my life took priority over my pride.

So I begged...I pleaded...until my lips were cracked and bloody and painful. Until my thin legs felt like they had gotten thinner, so much thinner that they would snap like twigs under the complete exhaustion that I felt. That was if I would ever get out. I was a sad, broken doll trapped standing upright in a cold, solid box. If I ever got out my legs would break. My throat had grown so dry that my pleas could barely drag themselves out of the barren desert of my throat and meet the stale, thinning air in the constricting, metal death-trap I was imprisoned in. And my stomach...if my throat was a desert then my stomach was a pack of coyotes or wolves so starved and emaciated they had begun to turn on themselves for want of food.

"P-p- ...lea...se... " I was too weak to even say the words anymore. Too weak to beg.

And if the physical torture wasn't enough, the mental more than made up for that. In one sentence: if I'd had enough room to successfully throw my head against the iron door and knock myself into a coma or even death, I might've. The loss of time-perception made me feel utterly hopeless and cut off from the world, as if I was in some form of purgatory for my sins.

But no; they were the demons. I would not sin. God would forever be with me:

'Lord, make me so mightily unmoved by the sting and deceits of injustice against me that I may feel and show the miracle of undeserved compassion (Luke 10:33; 15:20; Hebrews 10:34; 1 Peter 3:8).'

I spent my first hours on the fine edge between life and death, salvation and suffocation, before I steadied myself and got used to the very little air coming in.

But just when I acclimated, water came filtering through the gap in the door. Then I was drowning.

"No! No! NO!" Yui scratches like a wild cat at the face of the red-eyed Sakamaki as he holds her up like a sacrifice over the coffin. She squirms, she thrashes, she scratches with sharp and finely-manicured nails in his iron-tight grip.

"O-oi! What the hell are you doing-!" The albino vampire shouts out, overwhelmed. "Just get in!" He looks at her with a strange expression and then holds her with two unbearably strong yet lithe arms out over the coffin like she really is a small, feral animal that he doesn't know how to deal with. He begins lowering her down again.

But then the wild kitten turns into an unwieldy human baby and the little blonde teenager bursts into tears in his arms.

And Subaru nearly drops her.

"H-hey-!" He sets her in a rare show of delicacy on the ground next to the coffin. The blonde is put on her feet, but her legs tremble and the world turns watery and unrecognizable as she covers her crying face with dainty hands. "Listen you-! Why are you crying-?" And if the blonde would have looked up, she would have seen a strange sight of Subaru simultaneously flustered, fascinated, and befuddled.

But he gets no answers and the shorter creature continues to choke on sobs and cries, hands in front of her all the while. Her cries rising in pitch every time, shoulders shaking profusely, and face blushing uncontrollably like a peach.

"I- you- ...fuck!" He just wants to punch a damn wall or something! Subaru grabs the pink-eyed human by the shoulders again and shouts: "Hey! Stop crying!"

That gets her attention. The woman uncovers her face and reveals two doe-like, rose-tinted eyes wide and innocent, inundated with tears, tracks painting silver streaks down flushed cheeks. For a moment the silver-haired vampire is speechless too, oddly not even stopping to think of how easily he could shake her again with his hands like a silly pink rattle. For a second he is spellbound...

But then he feels the tremors beneath his fingers latching like hooks into her soft body. He sees the splinters of fear stinging her eyes and keeping them wide and trapped in his. Like deer in the headlights...like prey.

Tch.

"This is too troublesome. Do whatever the hell you want!" And he releases her, whipping his hands away like any longer and he might catch something infectious from her. Perhaps her weakness...yes, that's what he'll tell himself. He can't stand being around weaklings.

Idiot!

With one last heated glare her way, the youngest Sakamaki storms out of the room as if she hadn't been the intruder in his own bedroom.

Yui is left without words alone in the room. Sniffling, she wipes her teardrops on her sleeves at the realization: he's gone.

She has his room to herself.

Time to get looking for that bolt-cutter!

And she doesn't look at the coffin in the middle of the floor again.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap.

Ba-bump… Ba-bump… Ba-bump…

Inhale, exhale~

Inhale~

"Hahh~!" The only female human in the Sakamaki house breathes out in a quick huff of air as she rushes up the stairs to the vampire sister's tower, heart racing her all the way up.

After this I'll be free! I can go home! I can get away from these people, finally!

The blonde woman smiles throughout the exertion, the first real smile she's had since arriving at the mansion.

If I can escape, then the torture, the pain, the humiliation, everything will all have been worth it…

She swings the tower door open with a light motion; no one is supposed to know about this, after all.

Striding over to the queen-draped bed, Yui begins to feel the ghost of anticipation and fear underneath her joy, causing her hands to shake as she ligns the cutters up against the lock on the coffin. Breathe in, breathe out.

"Calm down, Yui," a sweet voice that she only knows too well at this point speaks out to her.

She jumps and almost drops the tool on the ground in fright. It's not them, it's just Chouko-san and she's here to help you. She's gonna get you out of here, Yui. Just breathe..

"Chouko-san," she breathes out in relief.

Inhale, exhale.

"Yui-chan, you have the bolt cutters I asked you to bring?"

"Yes," the girl holds them up in a show to demonstrate, but realizes that's silly as the other woman cannot see her. She clears her throat; "I'm just gonna break the lock open now."

What did I even say that for? Duh!

Focusing, the seventeen-year-old pries the handles apart, fixing the metal widget around the lock, before trying to clamp the handles together. "Urgh!" The female grunts out.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes," the human lets out a huff of air feeling a bit of perspiration beginning to collect on her forehead. "Yes, it's just a little tough!" She squints at the durable heavy lock.

Not even a dent.

"As to be expected of a mortal," comes the smooth reply of the sleeping woman. "Do not worry, Yui, take all the time that you need."

Thanks.

The blonde gets it in position again, feeling like she's trying to put a dent into a mountain, but still optimistically bearing down on it with all her strength. When all of a sudden: chink, thud!

The lock, broken, hits the floor with a resounding bump. And the platinum blonde stares at it with wonder and suspicion.

What...but I wasn't anywhere close to breaking it…?

How can that be?

"I broke the lock!" Yui says with the slightest bit of hesitation.

How did I break the lock?

...

But what does it matter anyway? I'm gonna be out of here soon!

"Excellent job!" Chouko says exuberantly, probably the happiest tone that Yui has ever heard her use.

"Okay," Yui sits on the plush covers of the bed. Though staring at the woman is completely entrancing, it's also horrifying knowing that the woman is unconscious yet can still speak with her as normally as any other person. It's a bit unnerving, really, so she just gazes at the floral bed-spread instead. "So, now how do we wake you up?"

"I need some of your blood."

"What...!?" For a moment Yui cannot feel the sheets beneath her fingertips as she's caught in the dreaded grips of deja-vu. How many times has she tried to help the Sakamaki brothers, only to have them ask for her blood as repayment? The room seems to lose focus in her eyes and everything blurs away and falls into the deep recesses of her mind.

Is this what it's like when you realize you've been betrayed?

"Calm down, Yui-" a voice tries to reach out to her and grasp at the dissolving remains of her trust.

But then, the hurt is wiped out and her eyes lose their complacency and give way to red. She jumps from the bed like she's been shocked. All she sees is red: "You didn't say this before!"

"Because I knew you'd freak out-"

"No!" She doesn't believe for a second. How can she believe anymore? "This is a trick, isn't it? You're just like your brothers, you'll do anything to get my blood-!" She's unamused, unenthused now.

But a sharp voice cuts her off.

"I am not like my brothers. I need your blood because for some reason it has special properties that can wake me up."

Sounds like- God forgive my language- complete bullshit..!

The blonde is furious. Does the vampire really believe she'll fall for that pathetic excuse?!

"You have special properties, that's why only you can hear my voice, that's why you heard my crying in the first place."

"I don't believe you," God, is this the end for her escape hopes? "I'm not sure if I can even trust you at this point," she's through with the lies and the liars, done with the games and their players. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't go out that door and leave you alone in here again!"

"Well, it's either take the risk and trust me, or get killed by my brothers."

The room comes back into sharp focus and the red dies down. But she can't focus on anything except the words she has just heard.

'Take the risk and trust me, or get killed by my brothers…'

When the blonde finally comes to, she mutters in a toneless voice: "...What are you talking about?"

"I know they punished you for coming in here last time. And with those bolt cutters in your hands, and you being in here again despite how they warned you; I think they'll be furious. You disobeyed them. They'll kill you."

Betrayed and betrayed again. A double-blind.

All her fire and her determination destroyed so swiftly. So cruelly.

Her voice is only a whisper when she speaks:"That can't be-"

"It can, and it will. There's no way they didn't hear the lock hitting the floor. No way that they won't figure out that you entered this room. They'll be here any minute and you will die. Unless, you help me get out like you promised you would, and I get us both out of here."

"W-wait-"

Perhaps she was always planning this.

"Decide. Quickly."

Grrrhh! The blonde feels like she can just burst into tears and scream! How could this happen to me? I'm just as trapped as I've always been, only this time I've let myself believe that I was free, that my warden cared about me! "Fine!"

"Good, now I need you to open my casket, quickly because we are running out of time."

"Okay," the blonde says, hands doing just that. The coffin's door swings open slowly, creaking faintly like it hasn't been opened in decades. The human thinks she doesn't imagine the aroma of vanilla and death exhaling into the air as if it was joyously ready to breathe life in again.

How cold she looks with her white skin in her white nightgown against a thousand white roses...

How close she looks despite the fact that she comes from a different world and though her body is here her mind is a million miles away…

How angelic she looks, when really…

She won't finish that thought. She doesn't care who this woman really is if it gets her out of here. Stop overthinking, Yui. Concentrate on the now.

"Then, you will need to locate the Intravenous Tube that feeds blood to my body," the purple-haired woman directs, snapping Yui out of her thoughts abruptly. "It should be a red tube inserted into the Intermediate Basilic Vein of my left arm."

"The what-?"

"It's on the inward side of my left arm towards the crook of my elbow. Have you found it?" The lady speaks impatiently.

That's right, we're running out of time.

Yui quickly grabs the woman's left arm, absently noticing how cold her skin is, and locates the aforementioned tube inserted into her arm.

"Okay, what do I do when I find it? Pull it out?"

"No! Not unless you want me to die a slow death, nevermind the fact that you would die with me anyway once the brothers found you," that shuts Yui's train of thought right down. "Follow the chord of the tube out through a hole in the glass lid and to the side of the casket. There should be another hole which it leads to. Do you follow?"

The blonde carefully listens to the instructions and sees what the comatose woman speaks of. "Yes."

"Reaching your hand under the the hole that the IV goes through, your palm should be against the underside face of the coffin where there should be a ridge. Pull the ridge out towards you, it should slide."

Feeling the rivet under the side of the deep black case, Yui pulls outward. A drawer opens filled with needles, nozzles, a blood bag, the red tube, and a small machine with a big button on the face with the word 'Pump' inscribed.

"You should be looking at a small machine, do you see it?"

"Yes."

"On one side of the machine is the IV tubing that leads to me. On the other side the tubing leads to a bag of blood. Take that tube and detach it from the bag."

Yui grabs the half-filled pint of red liquid in one hand, shivering grossly at the disturbing feel of it in her palm, and grasps it hard to separate it from the IV. She pulls, but drops the bag with a sick plop! when the IV disengages and the pint spurts thick blood on her face from her tight grasp.

Eww!

She feels the liquid that the brothers so enjoy creep across her face slowly and resists the urge to claw her skin off. She shivers harder now.

"Something wrong, Yui?"

"Nothing, I just got blood on me."

"Nevermind that!" The tone of the woman's voice is irritated as she shakes off the blonde's concerns as if she's a petty child with superficial worries. "The brothers will be here any minute."

And even though the woman spoke as if the whole thing was very urgent, indeed, Yui can't help but remember all the times the brothers have caught her unaware. They have teleportation powers and inhuman, supernatural speed. If they knew she was up here, wouldn't they be here already? But as Yui thinks this, she holds herself back from saying anything because she knows no matter if it's true or not, eventually they would catch up with her and her only hope of surviving that encounter rests peacefully before her eyes.

The detached IV drips from her fingers.

"Now, take the tube and attach a nozzle onto it, followed by a needle into the nozzle. It does not matter which you choose."

Okay. Nozzle onto tube. Needle into nozzle.

"Then find a vein on the inside of your arm and insert the needle. After you've done so, press 'Pump'."

But the blonde human is still hung-up on the whole needle ordeal. She glances between the long, thin, silver needle and the network of veins running in blue rivers across her pinkish skin. She hesitates and her breath becomes bated for a reason unknown to her.

After being bitten so many times, giving my blood to the brothers, after all this time how can a needle still fill me with anxiety?

Just breathe in and breathe out.

After another long breath the blonde steels herself and allows the needle to break the surface of her skin and dive into the red streams in her veins. Pump.

"Okay, I've done it," she looks with interest as her blood runs down the tube and mixes with the other blood before disappearing into the little machine.

At first she doesn't feel much, but soon the familiar sensation that she gets when the brothers suck her blood appears, albeit much softer. And when the feeling mellows out into a steady pull, her mind wanders…

I wonder how Father is? Does he miss me? Did he really give me away? Will he tell them if I return?

Can I even go back to him?

And if I can't… then am I not alone in the world…?

She doesn't notice how draining it begins to feel.

Alone, apart from everyone except… this girl…

Would she even let me stay with her? Would I want to stay with her after all I know about her and all she's said to me?

She doesn't notice how numb and tingly the nerves in her arm start to feel, nor how the thrumming of her heart ricochets all the way down into her arm. Pulsing, beating, driving.

Would freedom really taste as sweet if I had no one in the world?

Who's to say the brothers won't go looking for me? Who's to say they wouldn't find me and drag me back angrier than ever? ...Or kill me?

Am I really better off leaving? What if it's all just one big mistake?

...

No! How can I talk myself out of something before I've even tried it? Let what may be my only chance escape from me? Then they win, then they'll have truly broken me.

I won't let fear rule me anymore.

But by the time she does notice, her breathing is heavy, labored, and deep. Her head feels too heavy for her neck like a bulbous flower on a thin stem. Her skin has gotten to be as pale as the vampire before her, but as she clutches the sheets weakly and the life drains right out of her, it flows into the adjacent woman with a wave of revitalization. Thin, blonde lashes stubbornly hang but steadily sweep to a swift close, while purple ones open to their first sight in 20 or so years.

And as the blonde, human girl fades away on the bed underneath her, she feels velvety fingertips stroke her face and an equally silky, feminine voice whisper in her ear;

"Would you like to take up my place in this coffin, Miss Komori?"

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

A/N: So what do you guys think is happening with/is going to happen to Yui? To Chouko? The boys? What kinds of theories/predictions are going through your minds?

Review if you please!