Fallen Darkness
Well this one was definitely longer than the last chapter. Is getting intense I must say. If you see any grammars please inform me and I would try to fix it. I have no time to find a permanent editor, so it can't be helped, but anyway I apologize for all my mistakes. I hope you enjoy this chapter; this one is probably the turning point of something new and dangerous (not the ending). So review and wait for the next chapter, which would be next week or whatnot. Questions? Just email me or ask through the R&R.
Chapter 14: Never say Never
"Why did you bring me here?" I questioned calmly before seating myself on one of the park benches. It was bad enough that Natsume had seen my tattoos, but this? Oh, this is on a different level. My ex-mentor seeing me kiss a royal Moroi was beyond words—almost like your parent watching you kiss someone (key word: almost)—but seeing me kiss Ruka twice.
At first it was just a game which he beat me to it. Yeah, Ruka for the first time had switched my role, and I was the one being teased and taunted. But of course it didn't sit well with me; I know they are just excuses…
BUT no matter, I kissed him in order to even our score. Rather childish and I admit it, although it was rather satisfying seeing that blushing face of the blonde god.
Though winning comes with a price, especially when the one that caught you kissing was your ex-mentor. It almost felt like my parent had caught me…yes that kind of feeling.
The feeling that your parent had said 'no dating' yet you ignored it and did it anyway, and what happens after that? Well, to be daring you decided to kiss someone in front of your parent just for good measure. That's what I felt like at first.
I would have paled and widen my eyes at the face of my teacher, but as I said; would have. Which meant I didn't, what I did was show an indifferent face. I'm sure Serio would had thought 'I taught her too well' in fact I'm pretty happy about out smarting my ex-mentor (cough* just like Natsume cough*).
"Well to speak to you since we haven't talked for two years, and about that 'event'." Serio answered once he sat next to me on the bench.
His cold voice which always ringed on my mind was still the same, just like the one he used throughout those hard trainings.
I still hate them, and they still bring back nightmares once in a blue moon.
"You call it an 'event'? Why not just be frank and say is a kiss between students?" I said bitterly with an edge of sarcasm tainted on each and every word. It wasn't easy for me to talk to him, to face him…even with so many years apart it would never change. That's how deep those emotional scars he had given me.
They just won't heal. Not with time, not with love, and not with care.
"A kiss between a Dhamphir and a Moroi is not acceptable Mikan." His voice was the same monotonous tone you hear on those boring speeches, it held no feelings just hardness. The kind of voice which said it had been through death, and survived it.
"Then what do you want to speak about?" I asked instead, conversations with Serio never went easy and breezy. In fact talking with him would be the last thing I would want.
"Come back to the Guardian Academy in Russia." It was an unusual topic but not one I haven't predicted…
"Why do you think I left in the first place?" I said instead, I wasn't going to answer any of his questions until he answered all of mines. A thing I learned from him, something that was taught in that Academy.
"Why is it that you wouldn't stay?" Typical…
Another thing you learn in the Academy, answering with a question. A way to avoid questions and a way to ask what you want to know instead of answering what you don't want to answer.
"You know very well why. It was because of the training, the deaths that comes, the extreme tactics of teaching, and the craziest Dhamphirs that studies there."
"A guardian-in-training that can survive that becomes one of the best, and you could have."
"You never know, living in the depth of darkness, the very core of it, and for too long you never can face the light again. That's how those who survive it can reside with Strogois."
I know, because I have been there. If you live in darkness, you start to understand what the true meaning of Dark means. If you know you survive it, and you won't go crazy from it. Those who did go insane turned into Ex Strogois, they were afraid of darkness and because of that they became Ex in order to live in it.
What happens inside that Academy stays inside that Academy. What the Society knows is that the school produces a lot of great Guardians, and that's all that they see.
But what comes as the price is something they haven't seen.
Those that can't survive those horrible nightmares—a living nightmare—they die or live in an illusion which is worst than going to hell, even more than dying. The illusion they live in comes from the darkness they had seen inside that Academy…
Which means that they dream of their death repeating and repeating like a broken record.
And feeling the pain through those deaths. A terrible way to die…without dying…
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------—Flashback—------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Today you would learn about Understanding Darkness. Our last lesson was What Darkness is. Be ready." Our teacher had said with the usual weary voice of his. Not too excited, not too sad.
In this Academy, everything is base on Darkness because darkness is the thing that creates Ex Strogois. Past years what we learned about was Greed which is what creates the Strogois. People who want power, an eternal life becomes Strogoi, why do they want power? Because they are greedy.
But Darkness is different; you become an Ex because you are afraid, you are lost. What is eating your consciousness is Dark, when that happens you are no longer afraid of anything. Then…
You become a murderous being, one that loves to kill and your favorite color is red, red, and more red.
So when you love such a color, what do you do? Yes, you kill and paint the world in red. That's how Darkness makes you, it makes you insane.
The Academy creates the best Guardians, but what everyone doesn't know is that they are also the ones that create the most Ex Strogois.
The Academy's teachings are extreme. They want the Dhamphirs to understand Dark to not be afraid of it, if you can become that, then you can fight even the strongest Strogois.
Although if you can't you become an Ex Strogoi.
Simple.
To stop the outside world from knowing, the Academy cast an illusion on those that become Ex. But what comes after that is the suffering and the torturing of the illusion that shows you: your deaths without dying.
They say is a punishment.
What everyone doesn't know won't hurt them.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH, Ugh, help…no! STOP! Is—i-ssss—too—much…make it stop…I don't want to die, AH!"
Someone besides me starts to scream, the ugliest and most painful yells that can make anyone pale and shiver. In fact I would have. Others started to stare; they looked between crestfallen and about to puke. I would have too.
Yet I couldn't, the one screaming and yelling and shrieking was a boy who I had talked to. A friend, someone who had helped me and had been nice to me.
That boy who was the same age as me twelve was dying. He was coughing blood, his tears were red as well, and even his ears had started bleed.
He crawled to me asking for help, begging and I couldn't do anything…
He was becoming an Ex Strogoi and there's no stopping it.
The teachers come and take him; I stare at those bloodshot eyes, his skin becoming dark like black. He was taken by Darkness…
They drag him away but before he leaves he screams:
"You didn't save me; I would come back and kill you!"
It was a living nightmare. My only friend in this Academy, the one who I had promised to always be there for had just…just…
I wonder from that day on if I would be like him…would I also be dragged away…and would I just like him be put in a never ending death.
But it never happened.
I had never once encounter Dark like anyone else, those many lessons we had—a room that contains no light, where they test us what we are afraid of and shows us illusions—and those never ending screams I heard from my classmates.
The number of students were lowering and lowering. Until one day it was just me, I would be the first student to graduate early at age fourteen.
But that day I finally met Dark, a meeting no one knew of. It wasn't the usual thing. When students met Dark it was when they were afraid or when they were at the weakest.
It was weird. I met Dark, because it wanted to meet me and not because I was weak or afraid. What it told me that day went unnoticed to my teachers. It was that day that I decided to go back to the Rozhdestvensky family and decided not to graduate from that Academy.
Dark had no physical body; it was just a mist of darkness flowing around me. It showed me death, blood, and what comes after becoming an Ex. Dark gave me many tests, so many it felt like days, but in reality it was just seconds. The world Dark had dragged me into was one that would have turned me into an Ex if I was like any other student.
But Dark said I wasn't. Dark knew I wasn't a Dhamphir but a Moroi, yet that didn't mean I was any different because Moroi can also become Ex.
I knew Dark was wondering the same thing as me, that's why he kept me in the very heart of darkness. Until Dark finally found the answer, the answer which had made me decided not to graduate.
I wasn't immune to Darkness; in fact I could have been Darkness itself.
It told me I was Shadow Kissed, someone who had lived in darkness and had somehow become part of it. That's why I could sense Ex and Strogois.
You can also be Shadow Kissed by dying and coming back to life, but that wasn't my case…
'I would be watching you…'
'…You are a part of me…'
'…So leave this place and come back when everything had been set.'
…Set…?
----------------------------------------------------------------------—End of Flashback—----------------------------------------------------------------
I still don't know what 'set' could mean…
"I know what goes inside, but I know you would have been the first student to graduate at 14." My ex-mentor reasoned instead. Those dark eyes gazing at me, trying to read me but I knew there was nothing that would give away. Nothing about my meeting with Dark.
"You are right I would have, but there's no meaning in talking about it now."
"Well I'm sure there is. Have you met Darkness?"
"No."
"Don't lie; the last test in order for you to graduate was weird."
"Weird, how?"
"There was a dark cloud surrounding you for a second or two, why did you not become an Ex?"
"I wonder." I'm sure it was now suspicious, avoiding a question can also mean that I had met Dark and that this won't go unnoticed by the Elite Moroi.
"What are you not telling me?" His voice was stern for the first time, and rather concern but I ignored it since how could Serio be caring anyway? He wasn't the type to…
"The only thing I can tell you is 'Shadow Kissed'." And to make it final I stood up and said my good-byes without waiting for his further questioning.
"Zou how long have you been there?" I called once I was out of hearing range with my ex-mentor.
"Well, quiet long."
"Is that so…what about Jay?" This question had been roaming around quite a while…
"That kid? It was hard to keep him from following you but enough time so he wouldn't hear you talking with your teach."
"Thanks."
"You never told me about Shadow Kissed…what does it mean?"
"You would find out in time." I lightly taunted, is not good teasing with the master of Sadism. Yes, definitely not a good idea.
Today's the fourth day, and tomorrow would probably be the last day in the villa before going back to the Vampire Academy…sigh…time past too fast.
And why is the hallway so busy? How come things are being move around…wait is that a chocolate cake? Wow those are some very flamboyant dresses…who is that? I haven't seen these people before…huh?
"What are you daydreaming about?" Tsubasa who had been chatting with some of the Dhamphir girls popped out of nowhere—well real fact was I haven't notice him bouncing in front of me but he doesn't have to know.
"Nothing. Why are people coming and going?" I said instead as I eyed at the crowd of Moroi and Dhamphir which doesn't seem to be from our school—
The minute my question rolled out of my tongue Ruka, Hotaru, Li-Ren, Natsume, and Luna snapped their head toward me like I was some kind of idiotic person…well excuuuseeee meee.
Tsubasa which was already facing me had burst into laughter, if Zou knew what the joke was he probably would too…but that's not the problem.
The problem is how come I didn't know what was going on.
"Mikan didn't you hear from the announcement?" Was the answer I received, well practically it doesn't count as an answer since it doesn't answer my question—
"She doesn't know. The school is holding a party and the other students from the other academy came yesterday and stuff so that's why there are so many people around. The party is today at eight o'clock." Finally someone answer's me, well if it wasn't that monotonous voice I would had been excited and maybe if you exclude that bore face of Hotaru's, then yeah 'I am so excited'.
"Do we have to dress like that?" I eyed at those very colorful and very thin fabrics. If it wasn't for my uninterested sense of fashion, I might have thought those dresses were pretty which say 'I cost a lot'.
"Technically no, but female students have to wear a dress." Was the answer I received from the money obsess girl.
I nodded once before walking toward my room.
Maybe not.
"You are going to attend." Natsume commanded which was rather rare since he usually wouldn't attend those fancy parties—and somehow I think there's a reason behind his demand.
Like maybe getting answers from me.
Probably, since we both prove to be bad losers…and never admit lost until the end.
"I don't have a dress." I pointed out calmly, well as calmly as anything could get when your Moroi is holding your wrist with an iron grip. And to add a bonus: with a fiery gaze of his that seem to shine in crimson.
It doesn't seem like it mattered whether I had a dress or not, because the kind of face he was making said 'no exception'.
"I knew you wouldn't have one so I brought you one." I guess Natsume can predict the future, well if you can call that—is more like a scientific method, after all those times seeing that I usually don't wear a dress there shouldn't be a different this time.
"I don't own any dresses I just bought one on the mall last time, knowing you probably don't own any dresses." Oh so now Natsume can read minds—
"Your face says it all. What happen to the usual indifferent mask you are so proud of?" that couldn't be it—I tried schooling my face to a normal aloof expression.
How does he know my size anyway?
"When you got wet on the pool."
Great, he can read minds…
Or I was like an open book like he said. A picture book at that. No, I'm his guardian! He is not supposed to be reading me like Zou does—okay Mikan clear your mind and fix that mask of yours that seem to always slip!
Feeling sure that my mask was intact once again, I decided to go for another tactics. Though I haven't tried it on Natsume I had done it plenty of times with Ruka.
"What did you see?" I asked as innocently as it could go from a stoic face to a virgin maiden (A/N: Hey, hey, that's not possible…)
Well since I was dealing with Natsume, I didn't expect much of an expressive outburst like Ruka. We were at a corner 'talking'—if you can call that a talk (…)—while the others were seating on the sofa chatting. Unbeknownst to them and to my surprise, Natsume's face had a tint of red; too little to notice it with one glance, but enough at a close distance. It looked uncharacteristic of him yet somehow cute, though I wouldn't admit it.
Especially when is directed to a Hyuuga, he would be hunting for my soul if he knew I called him 'cute'.
"So you saw my curves? Did you see my bra? Or did you see—mnft!" I was just teasing, really I was. I didn't expect him to cover my mouth like this information could kill someone. His cheeks were still a faint red, but his ears had lighted up to a crimson color matching those burning eyes.
Might as well tell you that they were like a tornado of feelings, which I couldn't put a finger on what kind of emotions was swirling in those depths.
I think I stared too long, because if it wasn't that I don't see any reason why to cover his eyes with those long raven bangs of his…
It became awkward, this kind of situation I mean. He didn't meet my gaze and his warm big hand still covered my mouth which only made people stared.
I heaved a sigh before trying to remove that hand so I could speak again.
"You bought that dress a week ago which means what you saw a few days ago not count, so how did you know my size?" I asked instead—this question only made the atmosphere worst.
If it wasn't for those long smooth bangs of his covering his face I would have seen those cheeks redden further, a priceless face. But of course, I didn't see it so it went unnoticed to me.
"Natsume?" I tilted my head downward so I could meet his eyes but he only turned sideways. What is it that he is hiding?
"Those gym clothes you wore last time while running tracks they were rather tight so it hugged your body perfectly which made me guess your size." It was barely lower than a whisper, so quiet it almost went unnoticed. Yet after a moment of thought I finally realized what he was talking.
"Oh yeah those clothes,"
"Yeah, they were rather tight I guess one hour in the dryer wasn't a good idea."
(A/N: she is rather oblivious and rather unaware of the raven Moroi which is right now going through turmoil of dirty thoughts lol)
"So what kind of dress did you buy?" I finally asked.
Uh?
When did this happen? I mean when was Natsume so close to my face? Enough that I could feel his warm breath against my cheek. His nose was touching mine and even his hands were taking possession of my waist.
Since when?
How come I didn't notice? This has been happening too often and especially when I'm not even aware of it.
"The dress is already sent to your room," he murmured softly before closing our distance.
"Is a black cocktail dress." He finished his sentence quietly, his voice sounding husky.
"Oh is a cocktail dress." If it was possible to lighten the mood it would have if we weren't so close, I was leaning against the wall—to make space (rather impossible).
But it only left me with no space to spare.
I think I know what would happen next, and I am not prepared for what would come. If it was a fight, I was train for it. Not something related to lips and—
"It would look nice."
And just like that the world crashed.
Literally.
-
-
-
But not the way you expected; definitely not the way I would have thought either.
-
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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Turn on the lights!"
"Help! Kyyaaaaaa! Strogois!"
"Someone hurry up and turn the lights there's an attack. Fast—Aaaaah!"
The moment I felt a nauseous feeling crash through my senses I avoided the kiss and stepped in front of Natsume. But how was I going to save him when I have no weapons with me? This is the worst setting ever. I can already smell the thick blood, hear the wet sound and feel the crawling sensation I once felt.
And I thought nothing could get as worse as the last.
Never say never.
These are no Strogois.
They are the most reckless and most horrible being. The ones we should be afraid of. Yes.
-
The Ex Strogois.
To be continued…
I know is a cliffy, yea, I'm getting the habit of making it like that just for excitement. I know Jay did not appear but after all he is not the main character like a support character. Anyway if you have any question about the Guardian Academy just ask, I tried to explain it to the best of my abilities. Also general questions are welcome I would try to answer them without revealing too much of the plot. But for now wait for the next chap, feedback would be great XD
Oh and soon I would have to get to their past. There are many mysteries between Natsume, Mikan and Zou's past.
BTW-- i have no problem with red, is just a saying...okkie?
~Lots of Luvs~