-XXX-
"Are you the woman he mentioned?" Came from across the room.
"Shikamaru, do you know something about this girl?" Neji asked the boy who was now lying on the brown sofa next to the fireplace.
'Another boy has shown up... This one teleported too?!
"Maybe." The man replied lazily, his eyes still closed.
"Don't "maybe" us. I would like an explanation." Neji impatiently scolded the man who obviously wanted nothing but peace and quiet to sleep.
"Neji is right. Don't give us such a vague answer. Explain the situation properly." Even though Sasuke pretends not to even notice what's going on around him, there's still something about this girl and the situation that doesn't sit right with him. Every now and then a person wanders in, but this church girl? It's suspicious to say the least.
"This guy... contacted me recently." Shikamaru continued slowly. "He said we have a guest coming from the church, so we should treat her with respect."
"Wait a minute… Are you telling me that Sakura-chan here is new sacrificial bride?" The blue-eyed blond asked in surprise. "You're Sakura-chan, right?" He asked Sakura with sweet smile, but she just nodded in confused agreement.
'How does he know my name? Did he hear me when I introduced myself?'
"Oh, is that all?" Shrugged Konohamaru.
"More like a sacrifice than a bride." Gaara clarified, leaning against the cupboard again in a calmer mood, listening to the conversation.
"Oh, right..." Shikamaru seems to have remembered something. "And he also mentioned not to kill her." He said nonchalantly, a yawn following before the boy closed his eyes again and went into dreamland.
"Really?" The blond exclaimed excitedly. "That means we're going to have a very long relationship with you, Sakura-chan!"
'Did I hear wrong, or did they just say not to kill me? Who's joking so freely about killing? I really want out!'
"Seems like no mistake has been made here after all, so let us introduce ourselves." Neji continued.
Introduction? Are we at camp or freshman year of high school? Are they really gonna ignore the weird behavior they've been exhibiting for a while now?
'I'd rather stay quiet and not say anything unless absolutely necessary. I'm afraid of what else might happen today. I'll wait until there's an opportunity to escape and then no one will see me here again.' Sakura steadied her shaky knees to keep her in place for a while longer.
"That is the oldest member of this house, Shikamaru Nara." Neji pointed to the already sleeping boy.
"I'm the second oldest, Neji Hyuga."
"The third oldest is Sasuke Uchiha." Neji nodded his head towards now thoughtful black-haired man, with whom Sakura had already had some interactions today.
"What a waste of time..." Sasuke said bluntly.
"Next is Sobaku no Gaara. " Neji said and the red-haired man just gave Sakura an unpleasant look.
"You won't get away with it next time." Gaara said with a very sinister undertone.
"Naruto Uzumaki." At the mention of his name, the blond man immediately grinned from ear to ear.
"Pleased to meet you, Sakura-chan!" He winked at Sakura.
"And last one, Konohamaru Sarutobi." Neji was thinking if he should introduce his teddy bear as well, hoping Konohamaru wouldn't get mad if he left him out.
"Please let me sample you again sometime." Konohamaru said sweetly, but it just sent shivers down Sakura's spine.
…
After a small pause, she decided that even silence wasn't going to help here. So she'd better speak her mind, shannaro!
"But this has to be a mistake. No one told me anything about bride or whatever..." Sakura was still processing all informations that was being thrown at her from all sides.
"Why would we be lying?" Konohamaru asked in confusion.
"Because... Because it doesn't make any sense! You're talking about some bride, dinner, and your sudden appearances..."
"And besides, you're all... a little weird." She added. 'In my defense, I'm right, right?'
"I don't see the problem." Naruto said and Sasuke smiled to himself as if it was an inside joke. "You usually create the problems, not solve them. So it's obvious you don't get it, usuratonkachi..."
"Is something odd about that?" Konohamaru asked Sakura out of pure curiosity, meanwhile Naruto started barking insults at Sasuke.
"O-Of course it is! After all, you guys are..." Sakura didn't know how to finish the sentence. Plus, she felt warmed and sweaty from how nervous she was. Even though she couldn't see herself, she could tell that her cheeks were definitely red already.
"We are what?" Sakura's unfinished sentence made Gaara curious. But not in a good way. He pushed his back away from the cabinet, looking like he was going to snap this human girl's neck at any moment.
"Well..." Sakura swallowed hard, her heart in her stomach.
"Is it because we are vampires?" Shikamaru muttered in his sleep, softly but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
…
"Eh? V-Vampires?" Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, and despite being aware that this was complete bullshit, her mind immediately went to work.
"There he goes… blowing our cover." Neji rubbed his forehead with a sigh. This is honestly his fault. He should have expected one of those morons to open his mouth. If it had been a random girl, he wouldn't have said a word. But this annoying girl had been sent here on purpose, and as Shikamaru said, killing her was now out of the question.
"Cover? Sasuke-teme tried to eat her 5 minutes after she arrived." Naruto corrected Neji, for which he was given a murderous look from both boys.
'I knew it wasn't just some perverted kink before! Wait... WHAT?!' "What do you mean? I don't understand..." Sakura shook her head in puzzlement.
"We pretty much spelled it out for you. We're vampires, nothing more and nothing less. Right, Teddy?" Said Konohamaru, turning his attention back to his stuffed animal.
"What? Y-You must be kidding me! Vampires? There's no way..." Sakura knows that what she heard and saw is not normal. But come on… Vampires? Maybe they're some weirdos with a mental disorder playing at being vampires. Yeah, that's a rational explanation.
"You've been calling us liars over and over again." Gaara said dangerously, his hand clenched into a fist.
"Calm down." Naruto said and suddenly he was standing by Gaara, holding him back by his wrist. "I'm sure Sakura-chan just doesn't want to acknowledge our existence."
'Vampires, you say? That's simply out of the question. They're just messing with me! There are no such creatures in the world... ' Either way, she has to get into contact with her father.
"I... I need to contact my father." She started reaching into her pockets for her cell phone. "My phone!" Sakura exclaimed when she noticed what Sasuke was paying attention to. "Please, give it back!"
"Why should I do that?" Sasuke said firmly, waiting for a reasoned answer. Her cellphone might come in handy. They might find something on her phone that would help them better identify this girl. That's why he's kept it ever since he took it from Sakura down in the entrance hall.
Sakura walked closer to him and held her palm out to him. "Hey… Don't joke around. Give it back."
Sasuke honestly doesn't care if this little girl calls for help or runs away. But Sasuke doesn't like the feeling that something is going on around him that he hasn't the slightest idea about. And the arrival of this girl… plus the fact that he's the one who ordered them not to kill her, is clearly suspicious.
Sasuke's 'investigation', in other words… going through Sakura's cell phone, didn't last long, however. Gaara suddenly appeared beside them and snached Sakura's cellphone out of Sasuke's hand. "What are you doing?" Sakura asked in a low voice, afraid that he would keep her phone and never return it.
"I'm doing this." It didn't even take him a second to break her phone into several tiny pieces in his hand.
"How could you?!" Sakura cried out in despair.
'Is he crazy?! Does he even know how long I've been saving up for him?!' Inner Sakura really hate this guy so much. But her fear of him is greater than Sakura's will to argue with him any longer.
"Get lost." That were Gaara's last words before he made his way up the staircase, where the bedrooms probably are.
"There, there, Sakura-chan." Naruto said. "You're about to become very good friend with us here, so you don't need your silly old cellphone. Right?"
"Who said I'm about to become very good friend with you guys?" Sakura shook her head in disbelief, this is ridiculous.
"So you're going to leave?" Konohamaru asked.
"Isn't that obvious? You don't even have to ask..." Sakura muttered as she turned on her heel to leave until Naruto appeared right in front of her. Startled, she lost her balance a little, but she kept her footing and backed away from the man.
"From the looks of it, you don't have anywhere else to go, right? Just stay here!" Naruto said excitedly, as if he had a new toy within his reach.
When Naruto noticed that Sakura wasn't responding and that her facial expression didn't show the enthusiasm he expected, he added pleadingly: "This house is such a sausage fest, it gets suffocating at times. Please stay..."
"I-I refuse…" Sakura finally uttered, taking another step back from Naruto. Naruto's shoulders slumped in disappointment and his optimism was immediately dampened.
"I've actually been feeling kind of pekkish." Sakura felt Konohamaru's voice behind her.
"Tell me about it." Naruto told him. "You smell so delicious, Sakura-chan!"
This was the last straw for her.
"That's enough! I'm out!" Sakura shouted in desperation and ran to the staircase that led from the entrance hall here, to the living room.
But Sakura, being a klutz since she was a little girl, tripped on the edge of the carpet and landed hard on her left knee.
"Ow! That hurts..." She carefully rolled over onto her butt and sat up so she could get a good look at the now bloody knee.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly took on a strange feeling. The looks that all guys gave her were each different, yet they had something in common. Hunger.
Sakura felt intimidated and the thought of staying in this room scared her.
'Wait... Their eyes… are red?'
Her breathing had increased so rapidly that even the sweat was now visible on her forehead.
'Are those fangs?'
Sakura couldn't believe her eyes. 'What on earth is going on? Am I dreaming?'
She rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt she was wearing just to be sure. No, that's not possible! This is some kind of trick! It's not like...
"V... Vampires?" An incredible fear of the unknown and what she thought might happen in that moment raced through her mind. She was almost afraid just to breathe, so as not to provoke a single one of them. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Sakura was only now realizing how helpless she really was.
So they didn't lie to her after all, huh? She thought the haunted house was just an old urban legend but it's almost as if it's really… When she thinks of something haunted, ghosts and spirits are the only thing that come to her mind, not freaking vampires!
…
"I've been starving this whole time..." Konohamaru broke the suffocating silence, taking slow steps forward from the couch towards Sakura. "I'll suck you dry to the very last drop, okay?" He asked with a creepy smile, almost within Sakura's reach.
'What should I do?'
'Oh, right! Desperate times call for desperate measures!'
Konohamaru creeped in closer, clutching his stuffed bear to his chest.
"Wait!" She shouted at him, holding her hand out in front of her. A natural gesture for Konohamaru to stop and not come any closer to her.
"What?" Konohamaru asked impatiently, his fangs ready to bite into his pink-haired victim.
"Take this!" Sakura quickly ripped off rosary from her neck, which until now had been hidden under her sweatshirt. She held it out towards 'those creatures' to keep them from approaching her.
…
Shikamaru began to chuckle.
"Eh?" She whispered in confusion, tears ran down her face into her lap.
"Sakura-chan, you're hilarious! You were carrying a rosary with you this whole time?" Naruto asked with a laugh and slight admiration for the girl. He found this girl not only pretty, but also interesting and funny.
'I just blurted that out to stop these people…'
"Honestly." Neji sighed and went to sit down back into his armchair. He was slowly getting tired of this human being. "Did you really believe that fairytales written by a mortals, claiming that vampires are vulnerable to garlic, holy crosses and sunshine... are true?"
"This just goes to show how foolish and arrogant mortals are. That makes me furious..."
Sakura certainly wasn't waiting to see what else Neji would say or do. Just like the others. She got to her feet properly and ran down the staircase to the entrance hall as fast as she could.
"Her manners are deplorable." Neji shook his head in disapproval after Sakura stormed out of the room.
"Get her."
-XXX-
End of Chapter 4