I sat hugging my knees to my chest, my head resting on my knees. My breathing was quiet and shallow. Barely even there, I suppose. It felt as if I was suffocating, leading me to believe that if I were still human then I would have been dead hours after being in this hole. But here I was, heart still beating even after all this time trapped in this small, dark space. I don't know how long it has been. A couple weeks maybe and already my mental state was breaking apart. My thirst for something to drink made it even worse by such a huge margin. The only two things I could think about was getting out of this hole then chugging some sort of cold liquid. But I had resigned to the fact that I was really going to spend six months in this prison. Six months was more than enough time to go insane.

I was certain I wouldn't make it through my prison sentence and panicked some. I stood up quickly from my resting position and started gliding my hands all over the stone walls and ceiling in search of any loose areas that I could potentially break through into softer earth and dig my way out. Problem was, I had already searched dozens of times before and found nothing. I was trying the same thing over and over again without achieving anything. A perfect example of insanity.

I hadn't noticed, but my teeth were clenched tightly together in my frantic search. With each second my search turned fruitless, the tighter I clenched my teeth. Soon enough, I snapped and started shouting a multitude of curse words at the walls and at the creature that imprisoned me in here. After using up all the air in my lungs from yelling wildly, I threw a punch at the stone wall in a sudden burst of mindless rage. As you could probably guess, it hurt like hell. I believe I even broke my knuckles with that single punch. But that didn't stop me from punching the wall a second time. Soon, I was alternating between each fist, striking the wall with reckless abandon. My senses to pain quickly went numb. I don't even think I knew what I was doing or what I was trying to accomplish after a while.

A miracle eventually took place once my fists were covered in blood. The stone was crumbling away. In fact, I had punched a good size hole into the wall. Out of breath, I stared at the hole, noticing a very small speck of light. It was that light that gave me just the hope I needed to break out and escape from the enclosed hell.

With the newfound hope as my weapon, I smashed the side of my arm against the wall, numb to the heavy pain that came quickly after. Another blow to the stone wall, and the stone wall crumbled to my feet. Unfortunately though, that was just the first layer of stone. There was another, but that spec of light was shining just a bit more and that was a sign for me to continue onward.

Each blow I delivered seemed to get stronger and stronger. I guess it was the smell of freedom that was growing in intensity with every layer of stone I broke through that was fueling me with unnatural strength. Just minutes before I began digging, I was feeling miserably weak, but not now. I felt like I could keep up the pace for hours.

After some amount of time that whizzed by me without notice, I had finally come to the final layer of stone. The dim light behind it passed through the many cracks already in the wall. There was no hesitation with the final blow. The final blow was my strongest yet, unneededly so. I bit down hard on my teeth then threw my entire weight forward. I blasted through the wall and fell a few feet.

"Oof! Ahhg…"

I had landed face-first onto a stone floor. I took a few seconds to savor the freedom I had obtained and to catch my breath before rising to my feet.

The first thing I did was look at the state of my arms. What I found was unbelievable. No injuries whatsoever could be seen. There was plenty of my blood, but no open wounds from which the blood came from. I was more surprised than I should have been, really. After all, I was chewed to death and spat out by that vampire and somehow lived. I made an educated guess and figured it had something to do with the creature I had become. It was very convenient for sure, but the unnaturalness of it sickened me.

The second thing I did was scan my surroundings, unsurprisingly finding myself to be in a sort of prison block or dungeon. It didn't take me two seconds to figure out where I wasn't going to stay any longer.

I quickly, but stealthily, made my way through the medieval-style prison. I moved stealthily because I had decided that now was the golden opportunity for me to get my ass out of the mansion of hell. If I were caught then I very well could end up right back in a hole somewhere. With that in mind, I kept quiet and my eyes peeled.

I passed by a number of jail cells. Most were empty, but few had some prisoners in them. One tried to talk to me, but I didn't understand the language he used. He didn't seem eager to get out like I was expecting a prisoner of such a place to be, and he seemed to look at me with eyes of contempt. I didn't think he liked me so I didn't like him either and just continued on my way through the dungeon.

I found a flight of cold stone stairs that led up and up I went. I then came to an iron door that I slowly pushed opened, trying to be as quiet as I could be. I peeked out, finding a hallway that confirmed that I was now back on the main floor of the mansion. Seeing no one around, I stepped out and slowly made my way down the hallway, my ears listening for any of those little maids.

I made it to the end of the hallway and stopped right at the corner. Looking around the corner revealed a number of those maid girls at work. I immediately put my mind to work on a plan to get by them without being seen. Unfortunately, it was hard to think. I was still mentally exhausted after spending only God knows how long in that tiny space. I was so exhausted that I didn't even realize the girl standing right behind me until she spoke.

"You've escaped," the girl said.

I jumped up in reaction to the voice, grabbed the body it came from, twirled her around and held her like a hostage with a hand cupped over her mouth. I then realized who it was that I had just grabbed.

"Ah… Boss Maid," I said, my voice coming out awfully dry and shallow.

The Chief Maid, Sakuya, slowly removed my trembling hand from her mouth, calmly stepped away from me and faced me. She coughed in her hand before speaking.

"Hello to you too, sir," she said. She didn't look at all offended with the way I just grabbed her, making the awkward encounter a little less awkward.

"Oh… Um… Miss Izayoi, right? Um…" I jumbled with my words.

I was really hoping not to get caught, having had no plans in case that I did. But I wasn't about to let myself be thrown into a dark hole again. Not this time. If I had to I would throw the girl to the floor and make a full on sprint to the exit.

"Impressive," Sakuya said, looking surprised with my break out. She then formed an unexpected smile. "Lady Remilia will be most pleased to know that you broke free sooner than expected," she said happily.

Wait… Huh…? I stared stupidly at Sakuya for several seconds.

"That vampire… expected me to get out of there?" I asked for much needed clarification.

Sakuya nodded. "At first she had low expectations and had guessed it would be three weeks by the time you broke yourself free. But then she mentioned your stubbornness and how it would pull you through and decided it would be only two weeks before you got out. But you have broken even that high expectation. She will be very happy to hear that it only took you five days," she said.

"Five days…" I uttered quietly to myself.

It would appear that I had only been in that small prison for five days even though it felt like it had been much longer than that. But the weird part was how the Chief Maid was making it sound like it was an accomplishment that I had bailed myself out instead of a crime. Not to mention it sounded as if that blasted vampire had planned on me escaping. But… Why?

"You said that vampire expected me to get out… What do you mean by that exactly?" I asked.

"Milady said she wanted to test you on how quickly you could discover your unnatural strength."

"Test me…" I said, angrily astounded. "Are you telling me that she didn't even intend on leaving me locked up for six months?"

Sakuya shook her head no, and I began to rage inside. "She did not intend to, but if you had, then it would have merely meant that you were weak and unfit to be her servant," she said.

"Shut up," I ordered as I pointed an assertive finger at the maid, my eyes set intensely on hers. "I'm nobody's servant. I'm nobody's anything. Are we clear on that?"

Sakuya just stared back nonchalantly. The girl seemed to not like to show a lot of emotion. Might be part of her job or something.

"Then what will you do?" Sakuya asked me, her expression suddenly serious.

The question caught me off guard. What was I going to do? I was going to get out of the house on haunted hill, but then what? Where would I go? I didn't even know if I was on the same planet anymore let alone the same country. And as hard as it was to accept, I was something that wasn't human. To say that I was a vampire was, at the moment, too much for me. I had yet to fully accept that part. I wondered if I ever would…

I thought long and hard to come up with an answer that was acceptable not just for Sakuya, but for myself also, but I couldn't. All I could do was sigh depressingly before responding.

"I donno…" I said.

"Then let us go see Milady," Sakuya said. "I know you have unfavorable feelings for her, but like it or not, she is the one who sired you and thus is the only one that can give you any kind of direction. So for the time being, why don't you accept your role as her servant and learn what you can from her? You won't survive outside the mansion's walls otherwise," she suggested.

And it was a reasonable suggestion too. I didn't like it, but I was in no place to do anything about it. I hated how right Sakuya was. A part of what she said bugged me though. It left me with a question that I had not thought of before until now.

"Uh, Miss Izayoi?"

"You may call me Sakuya if it is easier for you," Sakuya said.

"Sakuya… You said you worked for that vampire for a while, right?"

"That is correct," she said and looked quite happy to say it.

"Is there by any chance that you may know WHY she made me into this… thing?" I asked.

It was a question that I think I would kill in order to get an answer for. I have this feeling that creating vampires wasn't exactly a hobby or something simple like it. Either that or I was subconsciously trying to search for a more meaningful reason, something that would make sense of all of this madness.

Sakuya said nothing at first, shrugging her shoulders a few seconds afterwards and frowned. "No clue," she answered bluntly.

"Really?" I asked, not sure if she just didn't want to tell me or if she really didn't know.

"The fact that Lady Remilia had sired someone was a complete shock that ran throughout the entire mansion. As far as I know, she has never sired anyone before."

"Really?!" I exclaimed. "Wait a minute… I think I remember her saying that she didn't before…" I mentioned.

It was true. I remembered it clearly from that dream and now I really wanted to know the vampire's reason for changing me. The reality is that I'm just another dude under the vast, blue sky, so why me?

"It just happened so suddenly… One night she did one of her normal disappearances, except this time she was gone for several days and when she finally returned she had a body in her arms… You."

I scratched the back of my head. "What the hell…?" I muttered in confusion under my breath.

"The only one who knows why Lady Remilia decided to sire you is only known by Lady Remilia herself and herself alone. So I'm afraid that if you wish to find out her reasoning behind your embrace then you will have to find out through her," Sakuya stated.

More things that I did not want to hear from the Chief Maid. I did want to know, really I did, but how the hell was I going to get the bitch of all vampires to tell me? I guess simply asking would be a good start, but after the way I've acted towards her I strongly doubted that it was going to be that easy. But regardless, I decided to put my escape from the mansion on hold for the time being and go speak with the wench. And let's be realistic… I wasn't going to get out of the mansion in the current, mentally exhaustive state that I was in. Hell, I would bet that it would only take ten of those little fairy girls to tackle me to the ground if they chose to.

I sighed despondently and said "Alright… take me to the glorious leader…"

And Sakuya smiled brightly with my compliance. "Just follow me."

Another trip through the mansion and we arrived at the vampire's office. She was doing paper work or whatever it is she does behind that desk when we walked in. She looked up and glared the second she laid eyes on me. Sakuya said she would be happy to see that I broke free so soon. I think she was full of shit.

"What took you?" she asked me crossly.

What a bitch…

I wanted to yell at her until I passed out for locking me away in some hole, but I was too tired to even do that so I just kept my mouth closed.

"Step forward," she ordered and, bitterly, I did as I was told.

The vampire got up from her seat, approached me then gave me a quick look over. She had a content expression once she was done. "Now, let us continue where we left off before. There are a few important things we need to do, but first I must name my new servant," she said. I heard a little bit of eagerness in her voice at the end there.

I sneered from being treated like some household pet. "I have a fucking name, thank you very much," I said venomously.

"Oh, do you? Then by all means, fledgling, tell me this name of yours," she said sardonically.

And now I was really in a bind. I still hadn't remembered my name. My own blasted name was gone from me, taken by this blood-sucking wench. But I had to say something. There was no way I could give the bitch the courtesy in giving me whatever name she so desired. I desperately tried to remember my name for the sake of my fragile independence.

Come on, man, remember. Remember who you are…

"Simba," I said and I felt a little part of me die inside.

"Wrong," the vampire said then pulled out a wallet from her pocket – my wallet – and peered into it.

"That's mine! Give it to me!" I shouted and reached for the wallet, but a sudden, painful fire in my heart brought me to my knees in an instant. I gasped strenuously as I clenched at my chest.

The vampire's widened eyes were glowing as she glared at me. "Careful, boy… Reaching out at your master like that is something you may want to avoid doing."

The pain was unbearable. It was as if my heart had suddenly been submerged into molten steel.

"What the- What the fuck are you doing to me…?!" I asked forcefully with a strained voice.

"Oh, nothing. Just using a handy little ability that will help me train you. Think of it as a spray bottle used on disobedient dogs," the vampire wench said indifferently as she rummaged through my wallet.

I tried pushing myself back up to my feet against the burning agony, but it just wasn't happening. "S-Stop! Knock it off!" I yelled and, suddenly, the pain was gone. I took a few deep breaths before I looked up to see that the vampire's eyes weren't glowing anymore then stood up. I scowled at the bitch.

The vampire pulled out a card and looked at it. It was my driver's license. "The name here certainly isn't Simba. I hope you now understand that your memories for when you were human are lost forever. They are meaningless to you in this immortal life so don't think of it as much of a loss," she said.

Without any emotion at all, this vampire dwarf had just told me that all those years of my life were pointless. Repeatedly she was able to find ways to anger me that I wondered if she would ever run out of ways. This vampire was truly a monstrous bitch.

The vampire tucked my driver's license back into my wallet then looked up at me. "I was using the time you were in the dungeon to come up with a good name for you. A noble name fit for a servant of mine."

"This is fucking unbelievable…" I muttered my thoughts out loud as the vampire stood ready to give me a new name, a name I will forever despise, along with the name Remilia Scarlet.

"From this day forward, your name shall be… Isaac."

Isaac… I was going to be forced to wear that name and it was going to be tightly worn around my neck. I could already feel it strangling me…