This fan fiction was something I wrote years ago and never finished. I only ever got two chapters written when I lost steam for some reason. Recently, I suddenly got the urge to finish the story which has been sitting in my head for a long long time so here I am, and here it is.


How long had it been?

The girl stared up at the dark ceiling of the room. Finding nothing interesting to stare at, she tried sitting up, the bed springs under her creaking as she shifted her weight. As she stared out into the shadows, the cracked cement walls stared back at her in silence. As there were no flames nor windows, the darkness engulfed the entirety of the room, but she didn't mind. The little girl huddled in the perpetual twilight had already grown accustomed to it. Her blood-red eyes had adjusted centuries ago.

Like so many other times, she mindlessly fiddled with the frilled hem of her dirty red dress, trying to pass the time in her dreary room. Eventually, she slumped back down on the bed, deciding that sleeping was the most tolerable way to wait for her next meal. Her black and almost skeletal wings, decorated with an arrangement of crystalline shards, folded behind her as she settled in bed, lying on her side. Her red-ribboned hat, originally white but now stained slightly pinkish, had long slipped off her blonde head and fallen onto the floor as she stared at the tiny room and its few furnishings - a table with a stub of a candle sitting in a rusted holder, a chipped and rickety wooden chair, and the tiny creaky bed that she was on.

And, of course, there was the door.

Hardly any sound was ever heard coming from behind that thick iron-wrought door. The quiet, unlike the darkness, wasn't always as tolerable. Every so often, the girl had the urge to shout, to scream, but always managed to control herself, holding conversations with her stuffed bear instead to break the silence. Like the rest of the room, the bear was in poor condition. Its left eye had already fallen off and its right one was attached only by a single loose thread. One of its arms had a large tear, its white stuffing poking out. She picked it up from the side of the bed and held it in front of her face.

"Why can't I fall asleep?" she asked the bear, "I'm not allowed out of my room but there's nothing to do. I want to leave, but I'm a good girl. Remilia told me that I should stay down here because it was safer. What should I do?"

The bear made no reply, instead staring back expressionlessly as if it had heard this story too many times in the past. For another few seconds, the girl regarded the bear as if expecting it to talk back before tossing it aside, sighing, and trying to sleep again.

"Lady Flandre, I've brought your dinner," said a soft voice just outside of the heavy door. With an awful grinding noise, a small gap slid open on the door and a pair of deep blue eyes framed by silver hair could be seen before a slender hand reached through with a plate of what looked like a steak cooked rare. The little girl picked herself up from her bed and took the food. The hand withdrew and Flandre's scarlet eyes met with the azure eyes of the servant.

"Thanks, Sakuya," mumbled Flandre as the gap slid shut again with the same cacophonous sound. The steak was warm yet still bloody, just how she liked it, but it was also somewhat small. However, she had grown accustomed to being hungry as dinner was the only meal that she got every day. She wasn't too sure of the details, but it seemed that Sakuya personally caught and prepared her meals. A difficult job, you see, because Flandre was a vampire. The steak was made of human meat.

As Flandre ate, she wondered just how long she had been living like this. For as far back as she could remember, she had been in this room in the basement of a mansion. Her caretaker hadn't always been Sakuya, but the routine was always the same: sleep and eat, eat and sleep. Occasionally her sister would visit, but it was incredibly rare. The last visit was a year or two ago when Sakuya had failed to show up with a meal. The sliding gap opened like usual but instead of the usual blue eyes, crimson eyes like her own peered through. And then, the lock clicked open, the door slowly swung open, and her elder sister Remilia came in with a smile. The past couple of days back then had been unusually cold, but Remilia reassured Flandre that it would be over soon because Sakuya was out solving the problem. And she was right too - soon afterwards, it started getting warm again. Remilia's visits were always extremely enjoyable as they broke the monotony of her life.

The silverware clinked against the empty plate. Flandre had already finished her steak, but she hardly noticed the persistent gnawing sensation that was still in her stomach. An idea had just come into her mind. Surely her sister wouldn't mind if she returned the favor and visited her, would she? Flandre toyed with the idea as she picked up the empty plate and placed it on the metal tray next to the sliding gap where it would be picked up later. Lying down on the bed again, she imagined how happy Remilia would be to see her little sister visiting. There was a cynical little voice in the back of her head telling her that Remilia might not be happy at all, but she ignored it. She wouldn't know without trying, right?

Flandre was so fired up about this idea that she jumped back out of bed again, grabbed her hat and walked up to the door with the intention of opening it by force. It was too easy. With no effort, she swiped a glowing right hand through the hinges of the door, melting the iron cleanly. With her left hand, she pushed on the now free-standing door and it began to tip over. With a thundering thud that shook the surroundings and cracked the cement floor, the heavy iron door fell to the ground.

"Oops," she said aloud. And just as she was thinking, I hope that didn't wake anyone up, the darkness of the basement was suddenly dispelled by the light of several lanterns coming down the spiral stairwell. Suddenly, what looked like a whole battalion of people turned the corner at the last set of stairs and stopped short at the scene. At the head was a silver-haired girl who gave off an aura of elegance. Her attire was a blue French maid uniform complete with headdress and apron. By the light of the lantern she was holding, Flandre could see that she had blue eyes.

"Mistress Flandre, what are you doing?" Sakuya calmly asked.

The vampire smiled sweetly, revealing her characteristic fangs, as she replied with, "I'm going to see my sister."

"I'm afraid I cannot let you do that," said the maid, "If you wish to see your sister, we can arrange for her to come instead."

"No!" shouted Flandre, and the walls shook slightly as if echoing to her frustration, "You don't understand, Sakuya! Remilia is always the one who comes to see me! For once, I want to go to see her!"

Sakuya hesitated for a moment. Flandre's desire was understandable, but the consequences of giving her freedom were unpredictable. Flandre was too strong and had a very dangerous magical ability. She had only been out of the basement under Sakuya's employment once before and the result that time had been devastating. Upon learning of the defeat of Remilia in a battle, she had gone berserk and rampaged her way out of the basement, demanding to see who had hurt her beloved sister. The resident elemenalist had cast a rainstorm spell, taking advantage of a vampire's inability to cross flowing water and containing the mayhem, but it had taken the very same person who had defeated the older vampire, a certain shrine maiden by the name of Reimu, to tire her out in the longest battle Sakuya had ever seen. In the end, the repairs for the mansion had taken well over a month even with the hired help of nearly tireless fairies and youkai.

"Very well, I will escort you to Lady Remilia," Sakuya relented. As long as Flandre wasn't upset, she wouldn't rampage like last time, she reasoned. Something as innocent as a sisterly visit wasn't going to destroy a whole section of the house again. Flandre's eyes lit up and the tension level of the group of people behind the maid dropped tangibly. She took a few steps out of the room onto the collapsed door before running up to Sakuya, who flinched slightly, and hugging her.

"Thank you, Sakuya!" she exclaimed. This was the very first time she had actually been given permission to go out of the basement in a very long time. It had been so long since she had been able to climb the spiral staircase without fear of getting caught and forced back. The whole climb up, Flandre was tingling with excitement. She was going to see her big sister again! Finally they reached the top and with a wordless wave of the hand from Sakuya, the group of people accompanying her quickly dispersed themselves. Flandre was surprised to see that all of them were, in fact, wearing the same type of maid's dress that Sakuya was wearing - it had been hard to see while her eyes were adjusting to the light.

"This way, Mistress Flandre," beckoned Sakuya, pointing down a long windowless hallway. The two of them passed many doors both open and shut, leading to storerooms, sitting rooms, tearooms, maid quarters, and many other rooms whose functions Flandre could only guess. They also passed many other maids tidying up the huge mansion who paused in their work just long enough to stare at who was walking next to the head maid.

Up another staircase and halfway down another long corridor, they reached their destination - the observatory. As the head maid, Sakuya knew her mistress' habitual schedule by heart. Tonight was the full moon - Remilia would, without a doubt, be gazing at it, watching its journey across the dark skies. Pulling open the double wooden doors, they saw that the elder vampire was indeed sitting in the middle of the glass dome of a room. The creaking hinges from the doors, however, caused her to turn her attention to the unexpected interruption.

"Oh, Sakuya," she said before her scarlet eyes fell on the other girl. They widened slightly. "And Flan."

"Remi!" exclaimed the little sister as she ran up for a hug.

"Forgive me, mistress, but she-" started Sakuya, but Remilia cut her off with an idle wave.

"It's fine, Sakuya. I trust your judgment," she said as she returned her sister's affectionate hug. "And since you're here, would mind making some tea? For Flandre too, I think."

"Of course, my lady."

Flandre looked back to thank Sakuya again, but where the silver-haired maid had been, there was already nothing but a sliver of moonlight. Even the doors had been shut again without having made the slightest noise. Before Flandre could wonder about this strange phenomenon, however, Remilia drew her attention again by nudging her slightly. It was only then that she realized that her arms were still wrapped tightly around her sister.

Flandre let go quickly embarrassedly and settled with gazing at her beloved sister. She was still exactly as she last remembered. Though she looked as young as a thirteen-year-old child, Remilia's eyes seemed to reflect her real age and the wisdom and intelligence that came with the centuries. Unlike Flandre's blonde hair, Remilia's hair was a purple-ish blue. She wore an off-white dress, tinted slightly pink, similar in style to Flandre's, but longer and noticeably better taken care of. Her wings, too, differed from Flandre's. Instead of strange skeletal wings, hers were like a giant bat's, the full wingspan of which was definitely longer than she was tall. The only identical thing between the two sisters were their headwear.

"So why did you have Sakuya bring you all the way up here?" inquired Remilia, smiling warmly at her little sister.

"I wanted to see you!" Flandre answered, "Since we haven't seen each other in so long..."

"Yes, you're right. I'm sorry for not visiting as often as I should, but if you wanted to see me, why didn't you just have Sakuya come fetch me?"

"That's what she said too! But you're always the one visiting me. I wanted to come visit you instead, but-" Flandre stopped. She would have gone on, but stopped as a new thought occurred to her. Now that she had actually acted on her idea, it seemed like such a stupid reason. She only wanted to see Remilia so what difference did it make on who was visited who? "But I guess I should've just stayed in the basement..." she finished dejectedly.

"I suppose so." It was only three words, but those three words struck Flandre with much weight. To her, it meant that she had messed up, that her reason to visit really was just a silly excuse, that she had caused so much trouble for everyone for no reason. It also meant that her sister hadn't even wanted to see her.

"But since you're out here already, you might as well stay out for a while longer. At least, until Sakuya brings us the tea," Remilia continued, oblivious to the storm that was building up in Flandre.

There was a brief moment of silence as neither girl could think of anything to say before Flandre broke the quiet with a question, "Hey, Remi? Why do I have to stay in my room anyway?"

"Because it's safest that way for everyone," Remilia replied automatically.

"But why is it safest?" persisted the younger vampire.

Remilia hesitated. She had never been asked that question before so she didn't have an answer ready. Should she tell the truth? Making up a story to prevent a disaster would have been best but there was no time to be creative.

"Everyone in this world has a unique magical inclination," she started, "I'm sure you've noticed this a long time ago, but your magic leans heavily towards destruction."

"Yeah...?"

"Have you noticed that when you feel a rush of emotions, even positive ones like joy, you tend to use your ability by accident? You have almost no control over your magic at those times, but if you stay in your room, there isn't anything to make you lose control. That's why it's the safest."

"But I can control it now!" Flandre insisted, "I promise I won't hurt anyone!"

"It's too risky. I'm sorry"

"Don't you trust me?" demanded Flandre, "I'm your sister!"

Remilia hesistated. She was now acutely aware of Flandre's imminent explosion, but was there anything she could do anymore?

"Yes, I do."

Flandre's eyes narrowed.

"Liar."

The next moment, there was a flash of light and a deafening roar as the observatory's wall behind Flandre exploded, causing shards to spray in all directions. Remilia shielded her face with her arms from the rubble, dust, and fragments of glass that flew at her. When her vision cleared and the dust settled, she saw that there was now a gaping hole where one of the walls of the observatory had once been. The silhouette of a bat flashed across the full moon.

"Mistress, what happened?" Sakuya was already at Remilia's side, mere moments after the explosion.

"Flandre ran away! We need to find her!"

"Understood," the maid answered, "I'll assemble a search party immediately."

"Get the shrine maiden too. Flandre will need to be forced and she's the only one who can do it."

"Yes, mistress."

Sakuya vanished immediately, leaving Remilia alone with her thoughts. Even if they managed to get her home, there was no telling what would happen next. Flandre no longer felt like she had a reason to stay isolated and, even worse, no longer trusted her sister. Of course, there was always the last resort that Remilia hoped she never had to use. There didn't seem to be any other choice, however.

Flandre would have to die.