Ok, you guys better be happy that I put this out as I feel like I have been hit by a steam roller and then repeatedly flattened. I have spent the majority of the day on my bed feeling too weak to so much as lift a phone and I'm really not sure what I'm looking for with this rant. Probably best to ignore it; delirious sick talk.

Chapter Ten – Newborn

Vlad glanced around his room, his eyes cataloguing every detail. He felt like a new person, and now he was trying to find out who he had become.

He now found he couldn't understand his past self. When looking at a picture of him and Robin he couldn't find the happiness that had always filled his past self. He didn't want to become his old self again though as his old self's life was full of pain in every breath he didn't need to take yet he took and he didn't want that. But he couldn't find pleasure either; he couldn't find a single emotion that had belonged to his past self or any emotion what so ever.

Maja-Keht had made him feel something, lust. She'd handed him her address and given him the assurance of pleasure. Then he'd been left in his room by Robin and Jonno to become reacquainted with reality as Robin had helpfully put it. He was glad they'd left him alone. They'd been irritating him with their endless stares and chatters. If they hadn't then he would've made them. His old self wouldn't have liked the thought of doing that, he would've felt guilty. Vlad didn't feel guilty now however.

He glanced at the clear jar containing his soul and squinted into the ribbons. "So who am I then?" As he expected it didn't answer but he continued to talk at it. "I don't understand you. I know why you would feel those emotions but I don't know why you did." He stared at the jar.

"I think it's about to speak." He slowly turned at the voice, cautiously as so not to dispel emotion of irritancy.

His sister was stood in the doorway wearing a smirk as she normally did. The Vlad of old would've felt sad looking at her, or concerned. He didn't feel anything except slightly annoyed.

He didn't say anything except regard her coldly so she continued talking, crossing the threshold of his room.

"Is this your soul then?" She flicked the glass, possibly expecting a reaction from the soul inside but was greeted with none. She glanced up at Vlad whose expression hadn't altered in the slightest. "Ugly thing, wouldn't want that messing up my head."

As he said nothing she became slightly irked by his silence. "Doesn't seem to have fixed you however." Vlad was instantly filled with interest as he observed the expression on her face; the tightening of the lips; the narrowing of the eye brows and the way her nose was wrinkled. This seemed to infuriate his sister further and her lips curled downwards in an ugly expression. "What are you staring at, brother? God." She sighed theatrically. "You're still the same breather-loving loser I sent off in the first place."

Her words caused a reaction in him and it took a few moments for him to identify it. He felt angry, which was not unusual around his sister and as always he felt the temptation to act on it, to show her just how weak she was in comparison to him. Something had always stopped his old self before, stifled the urge to scratch that incredibly vexing itch.

That something wasn't stopping him now.

His lips curled up in a smile and Ingrid's expression turned to confusion. His lips parted and a sound emerged powered by the new sensation in him. "Are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done this before." Then he acted on the desire to get his sister to get out of his room.

Time suddenly went very fast for Ingrid.

Vlad thrust his hand towards his sister and a green light burst from his palm hitting Ingrid in the chest. She shrank and crystallised into an angry purple gem. With a casual flick of his palm the rock landed in Vlad's hand and he held the jewel close to his face.

He could see his sister in there, so helpless and terrified, hands pressed over her ears to ignore the endless silence in her new prison.

Then, Vlad experienced pleasure. He suddenly felt like a god; as the nasty, yet empowering sensation of conquering another set in and unlike before where his old self would've felt horribly guilty he felt none of that. There was only room for pleasure in this new soulless Vlad.

"Now," He said to the rock and the feeling of invulnerability grew as Ingrid suddenly ducked fearfully away from his voice booming in his prison. "Get the hell out of my room."

He hurled the rock into the corridor outside of his room and watched it shatter into a thousand pieces, leaving his sister shaking on the floor. "And don't bother me again." He slammed the door shut and took a deep breath.

He couldn't understand what he was feeling; of all his memories of his past self he'd never felt power such as this, never felt like such a god before. His past self would never found pleasure in such cruel activities yet Vlad found himself shaking with euphoric laughter. He realised that his old self would be feeling painfully remorseful in this instance and that he should really care about that but he found he didn't and really didn't want to experience that guilty ache.

His eyes darted over to the container of his soul and he smiled at it. "Why did I ever think I needed you?" Then he began to laugh, almost giggle. Peals of sadistic laughter forcing their way out of his unused lungs and he wasn't about to stop it.

Vlad had never felt this terrific before, not caring was the best thing in the world.

I know Vlad seems a bit meek at the start of the chapter but try and think about how you would feel if you had your soul removed for the first time.

I feel like a psychopath writing this as that is what I'm basing Vlad's new composure on and believe me, it's not fun trying to work out how a psychopath would think.