Back when she first began living with the Sakamaki brothers, Yui used to dream of her father. He'd race in and explain it was all a misunderstanding—she wasn't the prospective bride, she simply had the wrong address! When she was safe, she'd show him the empty diary and the photo and he'd declare everything about them a lie. Something those vampires came up with just to break her—she didn't believe any of it, did she? Of course he was her real father!

Other dreams were more idyllic — dreams where nothing ever disrupted their happy life together. In their modest kitchen, Yui would cook french toast for her father in a familiar old pan and her favorite apron. He would smile indulgently while reading his morning scriptures and tell her she was a blessing.

After being abducted by the Mukami brothers, however, most of her dreams were about that misty room with the apple tree. It sprouted and grew. It flowered. It withered.

Tonight, her father stood in her bedroom. The putrid bedroom walls were cast with deep green shadows that resembled mold. Even her father's skintone was sallow in the green light, and he had no expression on his face.

Yui stretched out her hands, feeling herself about to cry. "Father, you came back..."

"Yes, Yui. But I was too late…" He shook his head. "You let them take you."

Yui gasped.

The shadows danced across the room, obscuring the edges of her vision as she gazed into her father's face, twisted with hate. "You let them sully you and drag you down into sin."

"No!" She screamed.

The saints and martyrs she'd grown up cherishing would've died before allowing vampires to treat them this way.

She should've fought back and let them kill her.

She should've run and let them kill her.

"You're a monster wearing my daughter's skin!"

No, no...

She awoke from her nightmare and stumbled out of bed, panting.

The Bible had been torn apart. The fangs that pierced her. Wasn't this an evil place? She needed to get out, get out, get out-

She could run. She could get dressed, run down the stairs and through the hallways she knew by heart now. She knew the gardens and the surrounding area well enough to walk home from school. She could find her way into the city, hide somewhere...

Instead, Yui fell to her knees, the carpet rough with the reality that burned her.

If she ran at all... it would be to a room with turquoise walls and blue roses on the bedding, to a soft, sleepy voice and gentle arms to hold her tight.

On uneasy, wobbling legs, Yui made her way down the spiral staircase, thumping step after step.

She drifted through the empty halls with their tortured layout and the lights dimmed for night but never turned off. She wondered why that was, when vampires didn't seem to need the light to see… maybe the light shared the same symbolic role as their meals, or their beds. None of the Mukami brothers slept in coffins or iron maidens, after all.

It wasn't necessary, but it was important… these little things made being alive more than just existence and survival.

Feeling lightheaded, she leaned against a wall. Yuma had drained her pretty bad. She wanted Azusa's cool mouth against her wounds again, soothing the red skin like a soft ice pack, and murmurs of I'll make it better, I'll erase it… everything you don't like...

"You."

"Ruki-kun?" She lifted her head and met Ruki's wide eyes.

He stood in the middle of the hall, looking almost… frightened?

Then his face twisted with rage.

She stumbled back, but it was too late—he grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her forward.

He snarled. "Come."

Ruki dragged her through the dim halls and a door she'd never noticed before.

The lighting in the basement was not as warm as upstairs. Orbs of pale blue lit the area dimly and reflected off of polished cement walls. They hurried under identical arches and blue lamps, and the effect was disorienting, like an optical illusion. The basement was a labyrinth of turns, and Ruki pulled her around each corner as if he'd rip her arm out.

"Ruki-kun, wait! Where are we going…?"

The hall stopped abruptly with a single door.

Ruki threw her inside, pushing her past him.

Yui's back crashed against the wall, and the sudden stop made her feel sick. Her back felt bruised, and her chin was pulled up and pinned by Ruki's unforgiving hand.

He glared down at her. "Stay here."

This room was darker than the hallway and very cramped. It had a bed and a desk and nothing else… like a cell? "Here?" Her brows drew together. "Why? What's going on, Ruki-kun?"

Ruki's expression twitched with another surge of rage. He looked both frightened and frightening…

Yui opened her mouth again, but a pair of fangs bit the words from her throat.

Ruki's jaw held her pinned at the neck, like a prey animal. The cold arms crushed her to him and her feet barely touched the ground, skittering against the smooth floor as he sucked her blood. Her scalp tingled with warning pain as her hair was held back by a tight grip that threatened to rip it out if she moved.

Her eyes opened wide as his fangs dug deeper and deeper into her neck. Ruki sucked her blood like he wanted to tear her apart.

The fade of blood loss began to pull her under. The dim room grew darker, the dull blue lamp above them blurring and spreading out copies of itself. Her body drooped, limp and heavy.

Ruki dropped her and stood by silently as she curled up on the floor.

Even without his fangs, she felt trapped and pinned down.

Like livestock in a pen, Yui was imprisoned in a dark room.

The chandelier overhead was dim. Nothing to do and not much to look at. Gray walls. Small bed. A chair and a desk that held a bronze bowl and a towel-to refresh herself, she supposed, but she had no water to clean herself with.

No way to tell time, either.

In the far corner, this room had chamber pot with a porcelain toilet seat and a lid. Yui's brows drew together as she gazed at it, and wondered how long Ruki planned to keep her in here.

She couldn't tell if time was passing slowly or quickly-the seconds felt elusive to her, like a broken hourglass pouring sand between her fingers. She couldn't catch the grains with her dull, heavy hands.

Being bitten and drained into a swoon twice in fairly quick succession had left Yui with an aching body and a stomach that felt dried and twisted, like she might puke or faint at any moment.

Worse than her flesh were her thoughts: Why did Ruki tear away the last remnants of her freedom?

What was happening?

Where was Azusa-kun?

When he returned, Ruki brought a bottle of water, a change of clothes, and a meal on a tray. He set both on the desk and faced her. His elegant face was not the remote iceberg she remembered. He looked as though he were the one being caged as she begged him to tell her what was happening and explain himself.

In vain, Yui searched for explanations: "Is...something going on outside?"

Was he hiding her for a reason?

Ruki remained silent. Perhaps he knew the truth: Yui might be able to forgive him if there were a reason, and he refused to give her that small comfort.

Still feeling ill, Yui couldn't stand up to face him. She'd pulled on the blanket spread across the cell's bed - a thin, brown, scratchy thing that Azusa wouldn't have liked, surely - and made her foggy mind concentrate. She couldn't let distress take over her.

"Alright…" If he wouldn't respond to her questions about her imprisonment, she could try another tactic. Frowning and doing her best to glare, she tried: "Why did you destroy my Bible?"

She didn't even have time to read it!

He didn't deny it. "Azusa told me you stole a book from my library."

"I didn't steal-"

"Therefore, as your master, it was essential to check over your collection of trash for any other stolen objects and dispose of anything unnecessary."

She stiffened.

"In fact, I have determined that the freedom you enjoyed previously is also unnecessary. Livestock doesn't need to roam, or sit at the master's table."

The rebuke in his words surprised her; he sounded condescending, but… strange. Who was that frostbite for?

Ruki cut off her next question with a hand on each wrist, forcing her down onto the bed and climbed over her.

She read his intentions clearly and felt a chill. "Wait, not so soon-I haven't recovered yet!" She twisted futilely in his grip.

"Be still and silent. As livestock, you can only submit to be used. We are going to be taking much more of your blood from now on."

More blood…? Yui's eyes widened. But, but the taste would go thin and weak if they took too much, too often-that was what the Sakamaki brothers said, why they paced themselves even as they passed her around… Surely Ruki knew that?

"You have no choice, so accept your fate with dignity." Ruki spoke as if he were choking down blood, and his hands were cold iron as he held her down.

No. No, she couldn't-the pain would consume her!

Ruki didn't care. He tore open the buttons on her nightgown and pierced her chest just below the collar.

The crown of Ruki's head lie just below her chin, and her terrified mind brought forth another image, just for a second: Azusa wrapping his arms around her, and stroking his hair in reply. Azusa's grip had been very tight, too, but...

The pain radiating from the wound dissolved the memory quickly.

Ruki had always been cold to her, a man of ice, but now it seemed as if Ruki was melting down, his grip slipping wet on his icy control. Even as he held her down and drank her blood, he hissed, "Why, why…"

"Stop this…" She tried to say, but Ruki gave no sign if he heard her.

.

.

.

Kou came after Ruki.

Yuma came after Kou.

Azusa came after Yuma.