Yay! Next Chapter! I know it takes me too long...

WARNING: It does get... kind of graphically disgusting in this chapter for a little while . ; I hope I did okay writing something like that... Anyway, anyone who is squemish will be fine until after this tiny paragraph:

"I opened my eyes, slowly. I didn't want to. I swore right then I'd do whatever he wanted if he let me out now; if he didn't make me look. He didn't care."

After that, just skip to the end and I'll make a short, non-graphic summary, so you don't miss what happens.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Christmas

December's snow barricaded us into Yukio's house, but it locked others out. Many of Yukio's childer, who he had come to call my siblings, were locked out, barricaded elsewhere by the snow. He told me they were strong and we'd see them again when the snow melted. Christmas Eve proved him wrong, on one account at least.

I knew one of the isolated childer because Yukio made me watch him sire the boy. His pale green hair tumbled down over his unnecessarily pretty face and enormous blue eyes. He could barely hunt and knew nothing of his new abilities, but Yukio had sent him out to "play" shortly before the snow started. He didn't come back.

Yukio sat me on his crimson bed and locked the door. Then he gritted his teeth and sat beside me. His grey eyes looked cloudy and strained. I had never seen him like this before, not once.

"He's dead." His voice surprised me; it was so small. "Hiro-kun is dead." I only found out later that Hiro was the pretty green-haired boy. Later, Yukio told me it was violent painful, but he never revealed how he knew. Now Yukio just put his head on my shoulder and sat in his dusky room. If I had been anyone else, I think he might have cried. He never even mentioned the pink sweater I had already burned.

The next morning, everything returned to normal. Shouting more enthusiastically than coherently, Yukio pulled me forcibly out of bed. I slammed into the hardwood floor, but he didn't seem to notice. I stumbled to my feet as he dragged me down the hall. He didn't even let me grab a robe, so I reached the oversized living room in nothing but a pair of indigo boxers. A huge Christmas tree stood right in front of the doorway, blocking it as much as the snow outside. Baubles from balls to angels to toothbrushes covered the tree. With a wave of his hand, he signaled someone to plug the tree in, and everything lit and up, played music, and cried out in "Christmas cheer."

I glared at him, yawned, and said I was going back to bed. Yukio just laughed and pulled me closer to the tree. "Look!" He pointed. "We've got presents!" He grinned from ear to ear, like a little kid on a real Christmas morning with his parents. But Yukio put every gift under that tree, and no one left one for him. I don't think anyone cared.

Excitedly, Yukio ushered everyone to the tree and handed out the presents himself. Mine read "To: Sasuke. From: Santa." When I opened it, a pendant and matching earring tumbled out of a slightly worn cardboard box. They both seemed circular at first, but they actually had twenty-four short edges and rounded corners where they met. Intricate carvings circled and crossed each other on its front, but the back was cool, smooth silver.

"Put it on!" Yukio grinned excitedly as he hovered over my shoulder.

I clasped the pendant's chain around my neck. "My ear isn't pierced," I grumbled, holding up the silver earring.

"No problem." He took it from me but didn't turn away.

The floor slammed against my back before I realized Yukio had moved. I couldn't get up and I couldn't get him off. One of his hands pressed against my face to hold my head still. The other rammed the earring through my left ear lobe. I screamed and thrashed until I finally shoved him off of me. Blood leaked over my hand when I pressed it against my tender ear.

"What the fu—"

"It's pierced now." He held out his hand to help me up. Instead of accepting it, I shoved his hand away and stormed, bleeding, to my room.

That was Christmas.

I left the earring in because I knew he'd just shove it back in if I took it out. Stubbornness made me shove the pendant under my bed though. My ear hurt. I refused to hide from Yukio, so I remained in my room and glared at the window that wouldn't open any more. I decided to hate Christmas then.

He didn't come until long after noon.

"I guess you're not stupid, Sasuke." I knew he meant the earring. "But," he grinned, "You have to wear the pendant too."

I scowled and lay down, trying to ignore him. He knelt down and reached under the bed. When he stood again, the pendant dangled from his hand. "Why do you care?" I grumbled, and I knew it was childish.

"Because it's a gift." He grabbed my hair and yanked me forward. The pendant already hung around my neck by the time I shouted. "Now. I have something to show you because I know how strong you are, and I know you want to get out." I didn't deny it. "Jiro tried. Yesterday." Why would he bother when he couldn't leave the house? And when? Yesterday was boring and monotonous; nothing happened. "Come on." Yukio grabbed me by the collar and dragged me from my room.

He led me to a door we all knew. It loomed at the end of a largely unused hallway, infected with spiders and webs. The black paint cracked and the lock looked rusted in place. It smelled of death. No one could open that door; every one of Yukio's childer had tried at some point, but none of us could open it.

His eyes glowed red to light the hall. He waved his hand. The door opened. It creaked, burdened with time, pain, and rust. When it stood open, a stale, unnatural stench wafted out alongside cobwebs and flies.

"Come." The word echoed as Yukio led me down the dirty stairs.

I screamed and turned to run out of the basement, but Yukio caught me. "Let me go!" I hated the panic in my voice, but I couldn't... I couldn't stand to look at the shapes in the cells.

He turned me almost effortlessly and I realized how much stronger than me he was. I was strong; he was monstrous. "Look at them, Sasuke. They're the ones who opposed me, the ones who betrayed me, the ones who hurt me. Do you want to join them, Sasuke?" He waited a moment. "Well?"

"No." I choked, I sobbed, I closed my eyes.

"I said look at them!" Yukio roared. He wasn't smiling.

I opened my eyes, slowly. I didn't want to. I swore right then I'd do whatever he wanted if he let me out now; if he didn't make me look. He didn't care.

They were on the floor, if it could be called that. Great chunks of cement were missing entirely and they lay on dirt. Cracks littered what little cement remained. I saw a cockroach scurry out of a crack. It passed by one of their mouths and he snapped at it; he ate it. I looked away.

Blood coated the walls, layer on layer of stinking, rotting, dried blood. It was caked on the bars of their cells and the ceiling too. Rust joined the blood on the metal bars. It immobilized the hinges of the doors, which all stood open. They wouldn't be able to escape anyway. Only the ceiling looked sturdy.

Yukio grabbed me by the chin and pointed my eyes at the nearest one. He was a man once, a vampire. I'll bet he was strong. So much grime coated his skin that I can't tell what color it was originally. He was still chewing the cockroach. My mouth was dry, but Yukio held me there.

His shoulders ended in stumps, purple and yellow from an infection no one will ever heal. Puss oozed from them and dripped to the floor. One shoulder rested on another prisoner's head, and the puss stuck to her bloody, hairless scalp. I could only see the first one well though. His legs ended in the same way as his arms, infected so they'd never properly heal.

I didn't want to look at his face. I didn't... I didn't think I could. I could feel the bile rising in my throat alongside a scream. It made me feel week, but I didn't care.

"Look."

His eyes were holes, covered and surrounded my scratches where someone had clawed them out. Around the holes everything had bloated and turned red. His lips cracked and bled. When he opened his mouth, I saw his tongue had been cut out carelessly. It looked uneven, like someone hacked at it with a butter knife until it finally came loose.

All he had left were his nose and ears.

I screamed and finally wrenched myself from Yukios grasp. I fell to my knees and puked until there was nothing left in me to lose. "Please..." I wanted to scream at myself as much as at Yukio. I should not have been so disgustingly weak. "Just let me—"

"You can't leave yet, Sasuke. There's more."

I shivered at the thought of more, of something worse. He lifted me in his arms and carried me to the end of the rows of open cells. The he set me down and I looked up. Jiro stood in front of me, struggling against the shackles that held him to the wall and floor. He glared, more at me than at Yukio.

"I was thinking one day: what would be the worst, the absolute worst, most painful thing I could do to anyone? I came up with this." He motioned to the basement around us. "I took care of most of them myself. I have found, however, that sometimes, it would hurt more if it came from someone else."

I realized what he wanted. "No!" I backed away, desperately. "I... I can't."

"The thing is, Sasuke. You can do anything I want you to."

I screamed and ran, but he still controlled me.

"Stop." I did. "Come over here." I walked towards him unsteadily.

"Don't." I begged and wished I could tear him in half. Rip his throat out and run, run until the sun burned my eyes out and my body fell because I couldn't move any more.

But he wouldn't let me.

"You'll do it, Sasuke. The tools are there. Start."

And I did.

END CHAPTER

So, the part some of you may have skipped has people Yukio has horribly tortured. Jiro's at the end of the hall and Yukio forces Sasuke to torture Jiro in the same way (using his say things and his childer do them ability). Sasuke's sickened and terrified by the whole thing and even begs Yukio to just let him out because no one should ever see something like that, much less do it.

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