Remilia Scarlet had been having disturbing dreams for a while now. It got to the point where she wasn't just frustrated, but livid. This affected how her conversations would go with her many servants. Upsetting this was for her because she knew she was causing strife with her angry words, words fabricated from her dreams. Try as she may, practically everyone in the Scarlet Mansion was avoiding her a great deal. Even Sakuya, her most trusted servant, would hesitate to enter the same room as her. This behavior among her servants only served to upset Remilia more. But soon she would get a hold of herself and calm her ravaged heart. It was the dreams fault, not her servants, after all.
The dreams themselves were not all that clear to begin with, yet they still managed to move Remilia to anger and frustration. Dreams of fire and death was what brought this powerful vampire to lash out at others, breaking her demeanor of calm and collectiveness. The importance of remaining stoic was vastly important for her stature, but these dreams broke her. The repetition of the dreams had made her thought of the possibility that they were visions of the future, but the dreams, again, were not all that detailed. So, deriving anything useful from them was impossible. This all changed one night when the dream became as clear as the waking world.
Remilia found herself in a black void. She went to move, but quickly realized that her arms and legs were painfully attached to something. Her eyes searching, she found that she had been nailed to a cross. Such a thing would normally not bother her. She had all the strength in the world to pull herself off a measly cross. She attempted to do just that, but the second her muscles twitched, an agonizing pain shot throughout her body. She gasped breathlessly and nearly choked. Her mind was a little rattled, but she quickly recovered from the short ordeal. But this girl was stubborn, and she tried again to free herself from the cross. Another agonizing shot ripped through her body. This one was more painful than the first. This one didn't just touch her body; it reached her very soul. This left her paralyzed for a moment and unable to breath. Once the paralysis lifted, she desperately struggled to get air back into her lungs. Now tired and hesitant to even twitch, her eyes chose to wander. It was then she realized she was not alone in that dark place. In a ring stood many other crosses and on each and every one of them hung a person. Remilia gasped in surprise when she recognized nearly each person. Each of them looked miserable and remained unmoving. It was if they too had tried to break free from their crosses, but to no avail. She went to shout to them, but when she did, only silence came out of her mouth. She tried and tried to shout out to them, but her voice was taken from her. She soon gave up in order to save her strength.
She took notice of there being another cross in the dead center of the ring, yet another person nailed to it. She recognized this poor victim to be Reimu. But strange enough, where her hands and feet were nailed, a white glow glittered in her sight. Reimu had been attached to the cross with gleaming nails. Why they glowed Remilia didn't know at first, but the thought of glowing nails and a cross did lead her to suspect something quite unnerving.
By instinct, Remilia shouted for Reimu, but again silence overcame her. So much she wanted to break free and save the young priestess, but she knew only agony awaited her if she were to move. That's when a dark figure suddenly manifested in front of Reimu. This dark being radiated death, moving the vampire's heart to fear. Once the figure appeared Reimu began to scream in anguish. Her screams pierced Remilia's heart and stung her mind. The dark figure was doing something to her, but she knew not what that something was. That's when the vampire grew desperate and threw away all concern for her own wellbeing. She began to struggle, only for pain and agony to engulf her entire being. But this did not stop her from trying very hard to break free. Someone had to free Reimu and fast. But the agony finally took its toll on the vampire and she soon found herself falling limp on the cross. She breathed heavily and tears began to fall from her eyes as she realized that there was no one there capable of saving the priestess. All hope was lost until a sudden strange moment. Reimu's screams had come to a halt.
Remilia looked to find another person standing in between Reimu and the dark figure. This person seemed to stand in the way of the dark figure. To her shock, the person turned out to be some strange man. She was stunned by the sight, but it didn't end there. This man had wings much like hers on his back. They were spread out as if shielding Reimu from the dark entity. It mattered not that she could not speak for she had no words to describe what she was feeling at that moment. Her mind stirred like a whirlpool of emotions. Only when the name of the man came to her did her mind stop in tranquil peace. Hope returned to her and suddenly she felt that everyone in that dark void was going to be safe. She smiled and went to speak the man's name only to be stopped when he turned his head to face her with his crimson eyes. He was smiling at her. It looked to be a very genuine smile, but the man could not fool her intuition. Behind that smile was sadness and it horrified Remilia. Something terrible was about to happen and it was only then did Remilia find her voice to scream his name.
One night, the vivid dream moved Remilia to action. When she had awakened in a cold sweat, she somehow knew where the man of the dream could be found. She desperately wanted to find this man in one way or another. Why? She wasn't entirely sure. But not willing to take any chances, without letting anyone know where she was going, she set off into the night and left Gensokyo into the Outside World.
Quickly she flew across the night sky. A full, ominously red moon was just on the rise beyond the horizon. So fast she flew that she wondered if she was reaching the well-known speeds of the journalist tengu. It took her a while to fly across the Pacific Ocean. The moon had nearly reached its height in the sky. But she did get to her destination and landed among the trees of a forest. She took a short break to catch her breath and recover her strength from pushing herself so hard. Once she recovered, out she went in search of the strange man of her dreams. She already felt a strange sensation in her heart as if it was telling her that the man was near. She quickly made her way through the forest and once she came to its end, she came upon a road. Definitely not something she saw every day, but she knew to be careful when near roads. There wasn't much around save for a lonely building just across the road. It was a tavern and in the parking lot were cars and motorcycles. There were people outside drinking and smoking, talking among themselves. Laughter was heard from them and from the inside, as well as a lone drunk puking besides the building. The idea that the person she was looking for was inside the disgusting place displeased her. She did not want anything to do with the place, but she felt it in her heart that she needed to go inside and look for the man in her dark dream. Question was what would she do once she found him? She had no idea, to be honest. Was she going to drag him to Gensokyo? Or would she find him to be too despicable to tolerate and just return home empty handed? Anything could happen at this point.
With a heavy sigh, Remilia crossed the road after making sure no vehicles were coming. She got across the road and stopped. That's when a group of three guys noticed her. Each man had a can of beer in their hands. One had a cigarette in his other hand. The three looked to her and laughed.
"Hey, little girl," one said as he tried to contain his laughter. "Where'd you fly in from, eh? Nice get up I may add, but it's not Halloween yet."
The other two men laughed in drunken stupor. Remilia merely clicked her tongue in disgust and ignored them and then made her way towards the tavern's entrance.
"Ahh, don't be like that," the guy said as he stood in her way. "I was just joking around. No need to give me that kind of face." The man took his can of beer and downed the rest of it then tossed the can to the ground. He hiccupped before continuing on to pester Remilia. "Seriously though. A kid like you shouldn't be wandering around in a place like this. There's all kinds of bastards around here."
"And I'm looking at one," Remilia responded.
The guy and his two friends burst into laughter. "She told you off good!" one of the other two said as he held his beer in the air.
The man ceased his laughter then wiped a tear from his eye. "Ah, man. You're a sassy punk. You remind me of my tomboy at home." The guy reached for his pocket and pulled out a cellphone. He handed it to Remilia and she took it. "Give your folks a call and have them pick you up. Like I said, this is no place for a cute kid like you."
Remilia looked at the man then the phone. She looked up back at the man then, with only a mild amount of her strength, shattered the phone within her grip. She opened her hand and tiny pieces of what was left of the cellphone came pouring out onto the ground. The guy who just watched his phone get destroyed with such ease was left speechless while his friends fell to their knees laughing their drunken heads off, unable to believe what they just saw.
The man stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face. "Damn… So, that just happened…" he said.
"Now move out of my way," Remilia demanded and the man obeyed.
Remilia made her way to the tavern entrance, pushing passed people who were leaving the place. She just made it to the doors only to be stopped by yet another annoyance of a man. This guy was tall and built. He must be the bouncer, she thought.
"Let's not kid ourselves here, little lady." The guy said with a smile. "Unless you need me to call the police to take you home, you better just turn your butt around and head back to wince you came."
Remilia wasn't about to waste her time with this man and decided to put some of her vampiric powers to good use. She laid her eyes on the man's own and her eyes began to glow red.
"Let me in now," she demanded.
The bouncer stood no chance and was immediately enticed by Remilia's power. "Yeah… Sure thing. Go on in. But only water for you, you understand?" he said.
Remilia's eyes ceased glowing and she smiled. "Understood," she replied then made her way inside.
The smell of the place alone made her want to pass out. She was no stranger to drinking parties, but they were usually done outside where the smell of booze would be carried off by the wind. In this closed off building, the smell of booze had nowhere to go. It was trapped and so was she. She wanted to walk out immediately, but she sensed a presence like no other somewhere in the tavern. She looked all over the place for this presence. She looked to the bar, seeing it filled with people ordering drinks and food. She looked elsewhere to find almost all the tables filled with people. For a tavern that seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere, it appeared to be quite popular. She ignored that thought and continued on with her search.
She walked around the place, ignoring all the stares she was getting. She worried about being touched, but she was prepared to break any hand that laid on her. But the real problem was finding the man of her dark dream. She felt his presence all around her now. She looked to each man within the tavern, but could not find the right guy. None of them looked remotely like the one in her dream. Though the man of her dream could easily find his home here in the tavern, she could not find him. As her eyes wandered, they finally set upon a door with the word "Bathroom" written on it. Her face met the palm of her hand. Certainly he was in the bathroom if nowhere else, right? With a heavy sigh she walked over to the bathroom door and waited impatiently. Whoever was in there was taking their time coming out and this drew Remilia's ire. She was growing increasingly impatient as her heart beat faster and faster. If the man was in there, what was she going to do? She still didn't know. Her knees grew weak just thinking about it. Suddenly, someone bumped into her and knocked her to the floor. But the touch she felt was electrifying. Her heart went into turbo mode and she could not make it stop. Her labored breathing and heart were both out of synch with each other. What on earth just happened to her? At first she didn't know, but it was just a moment later that she realized that the man she was looking for had just touched her.
The bathroom door opened and a guy walked out. He nearly stumbled over Remilia who was still on the floor. He noticed her and steadily crouched down.
"Hey, sweety, you okay? What on earth you doing here?" he asked.
The sound of the guy's voice snapped her out of her shock and she leapt to her feat. She turned to chase after the man. She took notice of a particular man with unkempt brown hair as he headed for the door of the tavern. She could only see the back of him, but she was certain that was the man she was after. So, with her target in sight, she took off after him.
Out of the tavern she went and she just couldn't shake off the smell of booze. She knew her dress had absorbed the smell, but there were more pressing matters at hand. She looked around the outside of the tavern for the man of her dream, catching sight of him as he walked to the parking lot. He went to a motorcycle, hopped up on it and started it up. That's when Remilia got sight of his face and her heart skipped a painful beat. So painful it was that she went to her knees. She clenched her chest, her face went flushed and her eyes widened up at the sight of the man's face. It was him. The man from that dark and terrible dream. Of course he didn't look exactly the same. Here he looked totally human while in her dream he had vampiric features. What did this mean to Remilia? She still didn't know, but the thought terrified her.
The man didn't waste time and pulled up onto the road and took off. All the while Remilia could not help but watch helplessly as he left her sight. After a minute, she shook her head to clear her mind then smacked herself on the cheek to get herself going. Not carrying about the drunks around her, she jumped up into the air and took off after the man. At first she was afraid she had lost the man somehow as she flew across the sky, looking down at the road for any sight of the man and his motorcycle. But eventually she did catch up to him. She stayed high in the sky and observed him from above. He wasn't driving all that straight. Clearly he had been drinking and she bet he would eventually have an accident, but he kept driving for a good while. She wondered where his next stop would be or even if he had a destination at all.
But then it happened. Out of nowhere he had swerved off the road and crashed into the guard rail, plowing through it and going down a steep hill full of trees and rocks. Remilia panicked. If the man had just killed himself then what? Was that simply the end? What was she supposed to do if the man from her dream was dead and gone? Go home with nothing? It almost seemed like it. Determined to find him, she flew down into the forest and started her search.
She touched down on the ground and immediately saw a broken piece from the man's motorcycle just lying there among some rocks. She shook her head in disappointment. What a jackass, she thought. Did she really want to meet him, assuming he was still alive? Her heart pushed her forward in search of the man. It didn't take too long for her to catch the scent of blood. That scent lead her straight to the man her heart, for whatever reason, desperately wanted to meet.
There he was, lying up against a rock with a large branch stuck through his stomach. Blood gushed from the terrible wound. Remilia couldn't help but shiver in delight from the sight of the blood. The man himself looked like he had just witnessed God himself. She found it cute. But her heart began beating fast again. She could feel her cheeks going red just from looking at this dying man's face.
"Wh-Wha- uhg…" the man tried to speak. Remilia was so fixated on his face that his voice nearly went unheard. But she quickly snapped out of it and spoke.
"Be quiet. Don't say anything. The more you say the quicker you die," she said.
The man looked desperate and tried to move, but he cried out in pain for his actions. Whatever it was he was trying to do, it only lead to more pain for him. Remilia held in a chuckle. Surely he was thinking she was some kind of Angel of Death who had come to take him away. The thought was amusing to her. She took a few steps forward until she was standing over the man. She took another look at the bloody hole in his chest before looking back at his face.
"Don't be scared. Dying is something all humans must do at some point in their life," Remilia said soothingly. She wasn't sure why, but she felt the need to calm the man.
"Who are- Ahg!" the man once again tried to speak. Remilia sighed at his relentlessness despite his current condition.
"Who I am is of no importance to you, young man," she said. She peered deep into his eyes, stunning him still and silent. "You are going to die. That is a fate that is set in stone. Nothing will change that now."
It was clear to her that he would indeed die there this night. She had an idea swirling inside her mind that both scared and excited her. Was this idea something she was meant to do? She didn't know, but it was looking to be increasingly more likely to happen as time passed.
"A-Are you… the Angel of Death?" the man managed to ask.
Remilia's eyes widened before letting out a laugh. It was just as she thought. The poor boy was in such disarray that she honestly felt sorry for him. "Oh my! No, my dear boy. No, that is not what I am. But…" Ideas were popping into her mind like crazy, each one as humorous as the last. "If you want me to be your Angel of Death, I kindly will be. But I was thinking about being something else. Like…" She pressed her pointer finger to the side of her chin and looked off to the side, going off into thought. "Oh, I don't know… Savior, I suppose?"
The man looked so bewildered that Remilia wanted to laugh at him, but she held the laugh in in respect for the dying man. She crouched down, chin on her knees. She studied the man's face more and the more she did the more she blushed. She couldn't help it, the man was handsome. The idea that was roaming her mind came to fruition. She would indeed see if the man would agree to her coming question. The thought of him trying to decide excited her to near ecstasy.
"I am going to ask you a question and all you have to do is answer yes… or no. Simple, yes?" she said. She shuddered at the thought of asking him the question she had never asked anyone before. The man nodded his response and she smiled in turn.
It was then that everything became serious. This was no laughing matter anymore. Remilia had never asked anyone this dire question in all of her immortal life and she was about to ask a drunk of a man that she did not know in anyway. It was her heart that was pushing her to give him the offer. She wondered why she held such feelings for a stranger. She mused the idea that it was love at first sight, but then quickly shut down the thought after feeling embarrassed. It was time to ask him.
"Will you become a vampire and serve me for the rest of your existence?"
Once again the man looked at her in utter shock. Then, to her surprise, the man started to laugh hoarsely at her question. His laughing obviously caused him more pain, but he seemed unable to help it. Remilia was utterly insulted. Here she was, offering the man immortality and what does he do? He goes off and laughs at her.
"You think this is some kind of joke…" Remilia mumbled indignantly then looked away in a pout. "I offer you the opportunity that I have never given someone before and all you do is laugh at it…" She couldn't be any more insulted. She wanted to cut the man's throat and bring on his death faster.
But that would not be needed. The man's laughter came to an end and suddenly he looked much paler than before. His face was losing what life he had as his eyes slowly began to close. Remilia panicked, not wanting the man to die without answering her first. He was losing consciousness and fast. She took both of her hands and grabbed him by the face, a palm to each cheek. She tried to get his eyes to settle on hers, but his gaze wandered.
"Answer my question, young man! Don't you dare leave without answering me!" she said in a loud and demanding tone.
Her voice barely managed to reach the man, but his eyes finally settled on hers. Her heart stopped as she anticipated a coming answer from the young man. She could barely contain herself. What would his answer be? Whatever it was, would that be what fate has dictated? Was she simply meant to witness this man's death? Or would he become one with her and become the vampire of her dark dream? Her heart was about to burst.
And then the answer came. "Yes," the man said before smiling warmly.
With his answer given, Remilia's lips curled into a bright smile. Then she did the unexpected. She closed her eyes, moved in close to the man's face and placed her lips upon his. She kissed him passionately. The man was stunned and so was Remilia. She didn't know what in the world she was doing, but she couldn't help it. His lips were tasty and that only served to make her kiss him more roughly. The man struggled to kiss her back, but he had not the strength to. After some time, she pulled back from his lips with a sigh flowing from her.
"It is time. Your fate… is forever mine," Remilia said.
The time had come. The man had a serene look on his face as all life left him. His eyes then slowly closed, never to open again. Remilia then moved in towards his neck. She opened her mouth to a wide degree, her fangs extending out. She bit down on the man's neck and began to drink what little was left of blood in his body. Once he was drained of blood, Remilia injected some of her own blood into him, sealing his fate. Once she was finished, she pulled back and her fangs retracted. She looked at the dead man's face. It looked as if he was simply sleeping. Once again, a strange desire rippled from her heart and she placed her lips on his once again. It was a small kiss this time. She then stroked his hair. She never felt so incredible in all of her undead life. For the first time ever, she had created her own vampire. But now wasn't the time to admire herself. She needed to get back home and it would now take longer to get there now that she had a body to carry with her.
Remilia lifted the body up into her arms. She looked to the red moon in the night sky and nodded. It was complete. Whatever her dark dream was about, things were now set in motion. Would this man be Gensokyo's savior? Or would darkness consume the world? They were questions that would be answered in time. For now, it was time to go home.