One Man's Sin

December 19th 1520 (6 years after being turned) - France

Remilia Scarlet sat on the streets of an otherwise busy city, next to her was her sister Flandre Scarlet who had gotten some more acceptable clothes to wear as of late. The two took up work as shoe shiners, and thus had gotten very little écu with their jobs, occasionally getting a few coins per person, though there have been times when people didn't pay at all. They have tried stopping these people, though they wouldn't have wanted to risk the possibility of someone finding them out. They had already gotten weird looks due to their pale skin and red eyes, and have been beaten by numerous amounts of people calling them "abominations". This was furthered by the fact that crosses, holy symbols, and holy water harmed their kin. People have tried to kill them, though it never ended well for both parties, the humans losing their life while the two vampire children run to a new town for safety.

The younger of the two sisters, Flandre, grumbled, bringing her legs up so her nose was between her knees. "I'm hungry…" Remilia turned her head to look at her sister, a solemn look coming across her features. "I am too, Flandre…Please, just hold on for a while longer…I promise that once night falls, we'll get dinner." Her head rising to look at Remi, she sighed and nodded. "I know…it's so hard to resist though…" Scooting closer to Flandre, Remilia wrapped one arm around her younger sister and used her other to ruffle those blonde locks of hair. She understood full well what it was like to resist 'the urge', Remilia struggled with it every day…every time she watched people walk by, and listening to their hearts beat and the blood being pumped. As sickening as it still was, it made her mouth water. It was a necessity however, to which the older of the two sisters begrudgingly gave in every week to find some poor soul to drain him…They never aimed to kill, though unfortunately it happened every now and again, and the two of them always felt guilty.

Once night fell, the two sisters were left alone on the streets save for the few drunken and sorry souls that roamed the dirt roads. Standing up with her sister, Remilia the two began walking about for the time being. Once getting a few yards however, the two were stopped by a man whose breath smelled of alcohol. He eyed the two vampiress', a stumble in his step as he leaned over Remilia in particular. "Such lovely light blue hair, madame…whatz a 'lil lass like yerself doin' wanderin' the streets alone with yer sis?" Remilia's eyes did not meet his as she simply looked down, and tried walking around him with her sister being grasped in one hand. "Hoy, ye 'lil shit. I asked ye a question!" With the girls in front of him, the man reached forwards for the blue haired one, grasping her by the arm and pulling her back, Remi deciding to let go of Flan as to not cause her to trip. The drunken man kept her arm in an iron grip while his free hand reached down for the hems of her dress, beginning to lift it for himself. "Chil'en like yerselves shouldn't be wanderin' around alone. Dangerous people might be around th' corner! Hah!" Her hand that was being grasped balled into a fist, her free hand reaching behind her to claw at his face with her nails that hadn't been trimmed in a week or so. Feeling his eyes slashed by the sharp nails, he pulled back with a cry, hands now covering his face as his sight was hindered. Remilia used this advantage to use her fist to punch him straight in the gut, the punch being powerful enough to rip through his skin, her fist now inside of him. The girl looked slightly scared as he now fell to his knees, coughing. "What…guh… what are you?!" Remilia took a step back from him, there wasn't really anybody out tonight to see this, although she still felt like someone's burning eyes were staring at the two and the mess they would now be in.

"Quite the messy children, aren't we?" Remilia and Flandre heard a voice from behind them, turning around to see a man in a brown cloak, a brimmed hat hiding his hair and his eyes, though he had a black and trimmed beard that was visible with his smirking mouth. "Come now, sir, what did you honestly thing you'd gain by assaulting these children?" The man raised his head to see the cloaked man standing over him, a gloved white hand reaching forwards to grasp the bleeding drunkard's head and snapping his neck with a twist of his wrist, finishing the job. Flandre felt herself being drawn towards the blood spilt on the floors, almost as if it were a waste to just let it run in the streets, although the new man that had appeared stopped her with an outstretched arm.

"Please, do not bother with the body. I'll feed you two; I can sense you are hungry by the way you're acting, and the fact that he was able to overpower you so easily at first." His head turned to Remilia, who turned her head to look away from him. "Do not feel ashamed, you are still learning your powers as you go along, no doubt…I feel bad for you two, having been turned so young." With this, he straightened himself and held his chin high. "Follow me, and I shall give you something to feed upon…as well as a story that I hope you'll both look forwards to." Remilia looked to Flandre, and vise versa. Were they to trust him? It took a moment for Remilia to mull over it before nodding to him. "Alright…" He seemed to understand the two of them, and the fact he is so calm and accepting about it was a plus for them. So they decided to follow.

Taking about an hour to arrive at his house, it was a mansion unlike the two had ever seen, and it was in the outskirts of town, and past a large forest with no road to indicate where you were going. You either stumbled upon it while traveling or you had to know it existed. Opening the front door to let us inside, the man turned around and nodded for us to come in. He had a butler in his late 50s who took the man's cloak and hat from him, revealing that under those clothes he wore a very luxurious black robe that was open, exposing a white tunic and a pendant with a purple jewel in it that hung from his neck. The man nodded to his butler to put the clothes away as he turned to the vampire children. "Now then, who is hungry?" Both Remilia and Flandre nodded eagerly, a smile tracing upon both of their lips, the well dressed man turning to lead them to the dining hall, a large table that could seat up to 120 people was set with plates and tea cups for each of the 120 seats. The well dressed man took his own seat at the end, the largest chair of all seating the largest man in the room of course, and he nodded for both of them to join him at two of the seats right next to his own.

Taking their seats, Remilia wondered aloud, her eyes trailing from both Flandre and the man. "We never got your name, monsieur…" He grinned and decided to finish her sentence. "Vladimir Tepes the fourth, son of Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler. I was turned some 20 years ago now…though; I've managed to keep my appearance as a 28 year old despite this, as will you and your sister keep your child bodies for the rest of your lives…" The butler coming back in to greet his master, Vlad smiled to his butler. "Some tea for the two young ones…Speaking of, I haven't gotten either of your names either, or your age, or your parent's names." He chuckled to himself as the two had tea laced with fresh blood poured for them, the smells causing both of them to grasp for their cups once they were poured and down the drinks as soon as they could. Once done, Remilia spoke up first.

"I am Remilia Scarlet, and this is my sister Flandre Scarlet. We were born to Logre Scarlet and Reia Scarlet. I'm 11, and my sister is 6…and we've been the same age for 6 years." Vlad nodded slowly, stroking his nicely trimmed beard thoughtfully. "Hrm…so you're 17 and 12 as the world turns then…interesting. See, I'm 58 years old, though my body does not show as such. It was the poison that turned us that not only stopped us from living, but also stopped us from aging and decaying…curious, is it not? 30 years later and I expect my body to be a skeleton, yet it is still intact." Taking a sip of his own tea, Vlad thought on this. "It's possibly within the poison that turned us into what we are…though I don't know how exactly it halts our aging AND decaying. It must be some form of black magic, as always." Leaning back into his seat, he watched the two enjoy a second and third cup of the tea, a small smile crossing over his lips as he saw their childish glee. "You two…I must apologize for something I did." The two stopped, Flandre in the middle of sipping her tea, though now she had the cup to her mouth with a confused look. "6 years ago, I met you two when I was lying on the ground, starving nearly to death…6 years ago, I turned you Remilia. And you in turn, turned your sister Flandre. I am deeply sorry for bestowing this curse upon you children." The two of them remained stopped, now putting their tea cups down and getting looks on their faces that were mixed with fear, sadness, and anger. It was Flandre who spoke this time. "Why?" It was at that moment that Vlad got up from his seat, and let out a long and drawn out sigh. "I was hungry, and I did not understand my power at the time. I had ran from home after home, and each time I grew comfortable in the town I was in, something happened that revealed my identity and I was driven out. Eventually I built this place." There was a long moment of silence from Remilia and Flandre as they let the new information sink in. Vlad closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm going to prepare a bath for you two. It'll be upstairs when you're ready." Saying this, Vlad left the room.

Left alone were the vampire children, Remilia and Flandre, both of their cups of tea now cold due to their refusal to drink it. "Remilia?" The younger blonde spoke up, looking rather upset. "Does that mean he attacked you…and bit you?" There was a pause from Remilia before she nodded; remembering the pain like it was yesterday. She couldn't believe this. The man who had ruined their lives told them to their faces, and expected them to be okay with it?! Standing up, Remilia began to walk out of the room before she was stopped by Flandre. "Remi…where are you going?" Taking in a deep breath, she turned her head to the blonde and smiled. "I'm going to take care of him…then we'll leave and live by ourselves, and be happy…" Turning around to keep walking, her wrist was tugged on by Flandre this time, pulling her back. "But…I'm happy here. There's food, and nobody is giving us weird looks, and nobody is being hurt. Besides, we can play together with a place this big! Right, Remi?" Remilia looked at Flandre and reconsidered her actions for a brief moment. She was right about the food and the fact they weren't social outcasts now, and especially right about nobody being hurt, at least, not yet. Looking down, then lifting her head, staring into her sister's scarlet eyes and nodded. "Alright…then, shall we take a bath together? I think we owe Vlad to stay for the night at the least."

Coming upstairs to a large bathroom (in comparison to theirs at home), Remilia and Flandre looked around in amazement, though their eyes were mostly drawn to the heated bath that rest at the front of the room. Stripping down and sinking into it, the two were small enough to fit into the adult sized bath together, doing their routine washing and scrubbing and once they were done, they relaxed in the heated water for a while. Once the water felt like it was getting cold, the two got out and began drying off. They always remembered that when bathing when their parents were still alive, the baths would always be murky and had stray hairs and had flecks floating about. The water they were just in was warm and not cold, despite the temperature it was also clean. It was probably because they were guests, and he didn't need to bathe at this very time. Looking around to grab their clothes that they had discarded, they noticed a pair of new clothes set out for both of them to wear. One had a note "F" scribbled on and placed upon the clothes, and the other pair had a note with "R".

Remilia grabbed the one with the R on it, and began getting dressed into it with Flandre doing the same. While dressing, the two of them noticed pairs of bat-like wings were attached to their backs. It took Remilia a moment to figure out that this was most likely a symptom of the vampirism, though she'd bring it up to Vlad and ask if he has anything similar. Once in the clothes, the two looked at eachother, and at themselves. Remilia was now within a light pink mob cap and dress, both having red bright red trimmings. Flandre on the other hand was now wearing a red skirt and vest with a yellow neckerchief and a pink shirt underneath and of course a pink mob cap with a red ribbon attached to it. Flandre twirled around once, letting her new skirt fly about before coming to a stop, looking at Remilia. "It looks really pretty on you, Remi!" This caused a smile to form on Remilia's lips, nodding to Flandre. "As does your own clothes look good on you, Flan…shall we show Vlad?"

Once the two walked out from the bathroom, now fully dressed in their host's clothes he gave them, Vlad walked out from his room to the right and clasped his hands together. "Hrm? I see you've tried on the clothes I set out for you. I figured they would be more comfortable than the ones you had been wearing…do you like them?" The two nodded, and he smiled. "Excellent. Those were intended for my kids, though the woman I was married to…" He closed his eyes, coughing and shaking his head. "She was killed by the villagefolk who drove me out, claiming she was a witch who slept with Satan's advocate. The clothes are yours now, for I have no need of them anymore, other than as cruel reminders." Remilia felt a bit upset for him, and nodded to his story. "I'm sorry…it sounds like your life was just as rough as ours…" He nodded to himself, rubbing his chin for a moment and just shrugging his shoulders. Speaking up again, she turned around and pointed to her back. "Are vampires supposed to grow bat-like wings? Because…Flandre and I found pairs of bat-like wings on our own backs." Vlad took this information in, and nodded slowly to himself. "I see...I've heard of this happening, though it was said to be rare, that only certain vampires gain bat-like wings along with their fangs and enhanced physical attributes. The wings take up to 10 years to fully grow, and can be used for flight and gliding afterwards. That is my knowledge on them, at least." The two nodded to his words, with Remilia smiling to him finally. "Thank you for taking us in, Vlad." Waving a hand dismissively, Vlad simply chuckled to her words. "Oh, no, you needn't thank me for this, it's the least I can do to make up for my sins. Now…I have an offer for you; I can give you enough money so you can get your own mansion and food, along with maybe a servant or two and you two can live together…or, you could live here with me and I can take you as my daughters." The two looked at each other and nodded, smiling to him. "We want to stay here, with you." Vlad could not help but smile, joy filling him as the spot where his two daughters would have been was now filled by two young ones who had lost their home, and everything along with it.

Two months later – With Remilia and Flandre being adopted by Vladimir Tepes IV, their lives had been much better than they had ever been, receiving food, shelter, and a kind and loving father on top of all of that. One night when their father went out for some late night sight-seeing, he had never been heard of afterwards and never returned to the mansion. Remilia used some of the money that Vlad had and hired a search party, and what the search had found was his traveling hat and cloak in a town a couple miles out from his own mansion. Two more months passed, and the two gave up on the search for their now lost and possibly dead father. Remilia understood that she had to take care of her younger sister, and dedicated her time to protecting her for years to come.

To be continued in "Wings of Glass"