Kyuketsuki Jigoku
(Vampire Hell)
Prologue: Hitotsu no Korosu
(A Lone Killing)

She met him in class one day. He was new to the area. Everyone had immediately become fascinated by him, with his long braid and violet-gray eyes that were always hidden behind reflective sunglasses. He was so strange. Pale, fine skin and perfect body, perfect smile with shiny white teeth. He was always smiling. He had a cool, playful smile, as if he always knew just what you were thinking. He walked with smooth, fluid movements, like floating. He had a strange aura about him. People knew he was strange, but no one was ever able to quite figure out why.

She knew she was in love with him the first time she saw him fall asleep in math class. It was like he had merely flipped a switch and passed out. No one could wake him up. People nudged him, the teacher even slammed a book down on his desk, right in front of his face, but he didn't even move. He was like the dead. He didn't even seem to be breathing. But when the bell at the end of class rang, he sat up, stretched, and left the room as if nothing had happened.

Raelin watched him drift from the classroom, down the hall, and out the front doors of the school. She saw him squint up at the sun painfully and pull his sunglasses out of his shirt pocket to place over his eyes. She followed him from the school, walking close behind, but not so close that he would notice. She couldn't stop staring at his braid, the way it seemed to beckon for her to follow.

He took a short cut through a thick, wooded area and Raelin followed. He moved so stealthily, like a leopard in a jungle, never hindered by the twigs and torny bushes that jutted out into his path. He was untouchable as he flowed and writhed through the thick vines. Raelin was left behind, having snagged her white blouse on a large thorn. She lost sight of him in the brush, and after freeing herself, she ran to catch up. Coming to a clearing, she stopped. The hot afternoon sun shown down in pillars through the canopy overhead and the heavy humidity made her lip bead with sweat. A lone bird cried out into the air, then there was silence, and Raelin was alone.

She sat down on a decaying, fallen tree, wiped her face with a small yellow handkerchief, and sighed. Where could the boy have gone? A hand slowly sat on her shoulder and she turned around, startled. The pale features of the boy stared down at her coyly. He removed his sunglasses and smiled. Those violet-gray eyes were so cold. They were lacking of something.

"Raelin," he whispered and it sounded as if the wind itself had whispered into her ear. Raelin's lips parted silently and she stared up at the boy. "You followed me here, Raelin," he whispered again. The girl lowered her head and her dark hair fell around her face. The mysterious boy's left hand came to rest on her other shoulder, and she looked up and sucked in her breath quickly. It was as if she had been shocked. The boy still smiled down at her. His face was lowering closer to hers and she closed her eyes. Her heart began to beat quickly and she could feel her face flush from the heat. His lips lowered onto hers for one sweet, silent kiss and they were so cold against hers, like ice. She closed her eyes and tasted him on her mouth, feeling as if she may faint. Cold kisses traveled down her cheek to the side of her neck, where the boy began to suck lightly.

Raelin placed a hand on the boy's neck, behind his thick hair. His skin was cold, as well. She felt a chain on his neck. A necklace. With her other hand, she followed the chain down his chest, into his shirt, and pulled it out. Willing her eyes to open, she looked at the charm that hung from the beaded necklace. A silver cross, intricately designed, with a small red, sparkling jewel in the center. It looks ancient, she thought to herself. That shine in the jewel. It wasn't the sparkle of a brilliant ruby or sapphire. It was a glow. A pulsing glow... which pulsed in rhythm with her very own heartbeat.

Panicking, Raelin tried to push the boy away, but his grip was like iron and each time she struggled, the tighter his grip on her shoulders became. She felt a sharp pain in her throat, where the boy had been sucking, and felt something warm begin to flow down her neck, onto her shoulder, into her shirt, and down her cleavage. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She sat frozen, unable to move, as the boy continued to suck on her neck.

A lone bird cried out into the air, then there was silence and the boy was gone. Raelin's body lay dead on the earthen floor in the clearing, a single withered, red rose in her shrunken hand.

No one saw the boy after that day. It was as if he had simply disappeared. After finding Raelin's decaying body a few days later, the police feared that he, too, had become a victim of the murderer of Raelin.









Kyuketsuki Jigoku
(Vampire Hell)
Chapter One: Watashitachi no Korosu
(Our Death)

"Vampires, huh?" The large, plump man looked down at the young lady standing in front of him. She looked very mature for a girl of only sixteen. Long, blonde hair tied up and twisted into a tight bun, a knee-length, brown pleated skirt underneath an untucked white blouse. A pair of gold stud earrings on her tiny lobes were the only jewelry she wore, and no make-up. Not that she needed it. The girl was a bit plain, but pleasing to the eye, nonetheless. And she had a lovely smile, which she was using right now to show she was very serious.

"Yes, sir," she answered pleasantly. "I was just wondering if you have any of the newer books on vampires?"

"Well," the man said, resting his hands on top of his large stomach, "I did just get a shipment in. I haven't unpacked it yet, but let's go see what's inside." He gestured for the lady to follow him, and she did, repositioning her backpack on her shoulders so that its contents were distributed evenly. The man led her past the counter and through a small, dimly lit hallway. He unlocked a door and pushed it open. Reaching up blindly, he felt for the pull string for the light.

After a moment, the small storage closet became filled with light. Boxes were everywhere. Some were stacked on shelves, others were stacked on top of one another, but they were all covered in layers of dust and cobwebs, as if they had never been touched. The girl waited patiently, clasping her hands together in front of her, as the man kicked a few boxes aside with his foot. He grabbed a small stepping stool and hefted his weight up onto it.

The girl bent down and opened a small box sitting next to her feet. Dust flew up in her face, threatening to make her sneeze, but she held it back and picked up a book from inside. The cover was as covered with dust as the box had been, and she cleared it away with her hand. The title, "Vampire Legends and Facts," stared up at her in golden letters.

The man next to her grunted as he lowered the heavy box from the top of the shelves onto the floor with a loud crash. "There we go," he said, gesturing to the box with one hand as the other went to his back. He straightened up, cracking his spine, then sat down on the stool and opened the box.

The girl bent down and began running her finger along the sleeves of the books, searching for something that might be helpful. There was nothing. Most of the titles were cheesy romance novels that would in no way offer her any help. She held the old, dusty book out to the man. "How much for this?" she asked.

The man took a pair of spectacles from his sweaty shirt pocket and placed them on the tip of his nose. He took the book in his hands, examined the cover, flipped through the pages, sneezing from the dust, then closed the book. "Eh... I've had that one for years and years."

The girl raised her eyebrows. "So... how much?" she asked pleasantly.

The man shrugged his husky shoulders. "You can have it, I suppose. I doubt I could sell it in that condition, anyway."

The girl grasped the book tightly to her chest. "Thank you very much, sir!"

"Is that all you'll be needing today, young lady?" he asked, still sweating from the exertion of having to move the box. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at the sweat beading on his balding forehead.

"Yes sir," she said, backing out of the closet and nodding. "Thank you again. Have a good day!" she said, waving over her shoulder as she walked down the long hallway and back out the front door.

The man waved back, too tired to get up and go back to his seat at the front desk. He wiped his forehead again, leaned back against a shelf, and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun still shone brightly as the girl exited the book store. She spotted a park bench across the street and jogged over to have a seat. She placed her backpack next to her and crossed her ankles, resting the book on her lap. She flipped to the index of the book and began scanning down the chapter titles. A boy sat down next to her on the bench, unfolding a newspaper to read. The girl didn't pay him any mind. She was busy right now.

"Nice day, huh?" the boy asked her. His voice was soft and melodic. It had an airy feel to it, as if he were whispering, though she could hear him clearly, even over the clamor of children playing in the park right behind her.

"Yes, it is," the girl answered pleasantly, still not removing her eyes from the book.

"Reading about vampires?" the boy asked. The girl stopped reading and stared at him. His face was blocked by the newspaper. There was no way he could have seen the book, so how did he...? "You won't find anything of any significance in there." The boy folded up the newspaper and placed it in his lap. The girl continued to stare. A pair of reflective sunglasses shielded his eyes as he stared back. "The only way to know anything real about a vampire, is to know a real vampire," the boy said smoothly, pushing the sunglasses higher up on his nose. The girl could not find words to answer. There was something so strange about the boy. He was so pale, with such fine skin, a long braid, and a perfect smile. He smiled crookedly at her, as if he were playing some sort of joke.

The girl became annoyed. "What do you want, anyway?" she snapped, closing the book quickly.

The boy put up his hands defensively. "I just saw a pretty girl sitting here all alone, reading a vampire book, and I wondered what she was thinking about. Is there any harm in that?" he asked, looking as innocent as possible while still wearing the sunglasses.

The girl lowered her head shamefully. She had just been very rude to this boy for no reason. "No," she answered, playing with the edges of the hardcover book in her lap. "I'm sorry."

The boy smiled again. "That's all right," he said, standing up. "Would you like some ice cream?"

The girl looked up at the boy standing over her and smiled. "Sure!" she said, standing up.

"Oh, there's a stand right over there. Let me guess. Vanilla?"

The girl raised her eyebrows. "Yes, please."

"Be right back," the boy said, and jogged across the busy street to the ice cream stand. The girl watched him as he ran. He seemed to run so fluidly, his feet barely touching the ground. He came running back across the street with two ice cream cones, one vanilla, one chocolate, and handed the vanilla to the girl as he sat back down.

"Do you mind if I ask...?" the girl began.

"Duo."

"What?" the girl asked, a very confused look on her face.

The boy smiled at her. "You wanted to know my name, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Well, my name's Duo."

The girl licked her vanilla ice cream and smacked her lips. She held out her hand for him to shake. "Nice to meet you, Duo. I'm..."

"Relena?"

The girl's outstretched hand fell and her face became very serious. "How did you know that?"

The boy smirked and licked his ice cream. "You don't wanna know," he answered off-handedly.

"Yes, I do," she corrected, sternly.

"Trust me, Relena," the boy said, leaning in closer to her face. She could feel his cold breath as he whispered, "you don't want to know."

The girl's eyes grew slightly larger with fear and she stood up, dropping her ice cream onto the hot sidewalk at her feet. "You're strange!" she nearly screamed with terror.

"Aren't we all a little strange?" the boy asked, tossing an arm behind the park bench.

"I'm not! You're just weird! And you're scaring me! You... you stay away from me!" she said as she hastenedly picked up her book and backpack and began walking backwards down the sidewalk.

"Relena," he mouthed. The girl stopped in her tracks and stared at him. "You don't really want to leave, do you?" She could do nothing but stare. "You know why I know who you are. You know what I am. Don't act as if you are anything different than me. You and I, we're the only ones left."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" the girl screamed in rage, stomping her foot on the pavement.

"I've been looking for you for years, Relena."

"Shut up!" the girl screamed, but the boy persisted.

"And now that I've found you, you aren't going to leave me."

The girl backed up a few more steps, nearly tripping on a crack in the sidewalk. "You stay away from me, Duo!"

"I haven't moved," the boy answered with a nonchalant shrug.

Relena turned around, prepared to run, but the boy was immediately in front of her, as if he had appeared suddenly. She took a step back, frightened, but the boy remained inches from her face, still breathing his cold breath on her cheek. "Don't try to run away from me, Relena, dear."

"Stay away!" she screamed in his face, her breath just as cold as his.

"You've killed our kind. You've nearly eradicated our race! We are the only ones left!"

"You're crazy!" she screamed in his face. "I don't know what you're talking about! You've got the wrong person! I haven't killed anyone!"

The boy grabbed her shoulder tightly and ripped his sunglasses off with his free hand. His eyes were blazing with rage, glaring into her frightened face. "You look me in the eye, Relena, and you tell me that you haven't killed your maker!"

The girl stared into the boy's eyes. The violet-gray bored into her soul and she sobbed and shook with fear. She clenched her fist at her side. "Yes," she whispered, looking away.

The boy grabbed her face and forced her to look into his eyes. "What was that? I couldn't hear you, Relena!"

"Yes!" she screamed in his face. "I killed my maker! I killed him! I want us all to die! We're evil! We should all die!"

The boy smiled at her and pushed her back onto the ground. "That's what I thought."

The girl sat on the sidewalk, still clutching the book to her chest. She sobbed and cried, not knowing what to do. "What are you going to do to me, Duo? Kill me?"

The boy leaned down and laughed in her face. "Ha! You think it's that easy, don't you!? You want to die! Why would I kill you?"

"That's the punishment for killing one of your own!" she yelled back.

"Get up!" Duo yelled down at her. She stared up at him, confused. He grabbed her arm tightly and pulled her to her feet. "I said, get up!" She stood and brushed off her skirt. "Get your things," the boy ordered, and she complied, picking up her backpack from the sidewalk. "Now, follow me," he instructed, leading her down the street.

Relena watched him as he walked. He still seemed to float along the ground, not really walking. And somehow, he'd still been able to keep his chocolate ice cream cone intact. He still held it in his hand, licking it as he walked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where are we going?" Relena asked tentatively as Duo led her through tight alleys to some unknown destination.

"Someplace where we can be alone," the boy answered over his shoulder. He led her down a small alley that appeared to be a dead end. The girl looked around, still confused, for someplace to go, some way to escape.

"I know what you're thinking, Relena," he said, turning around to face her. "And you know you can't escape." The girl looked away, embarrassed. She'd forgotten that the older vampires could read minds, and Duo seemed to be extremely old.

The boy moved a large piece of scrap metal leaning against a brick wall. He pushed it out of the way with one hand as it made a sharp scratching sound that sent chills up the girl's spine. A rusted, green metal door was revealed behind it, and he pulled it open. There was light and sound coming from inside, though the sound was unintelligible. Duo pushed her inside ahead of him and closed the door behind.

He led her through a tight corridor of concrete, rancidly decorated with cheap spray-paint graffiti and chain link fence. The sound she'd heard earlier began to clarify itself, and was recognized as loud music with heavy bass that made her stomach clench. They finally came to a turn in the corridor, and a room that seemed to open into an eternity. It was dark, lit only by trash burning in large metal barrels, no windows, but she could see clearly enough to identify large groups of people standing around. Many of them were standing next to the barrels, warming their hands. Some people were dancing in front of the large stereo system that was blaring the hard rock music, and others were sitting off in the dark corners, smoking pot and dropping acid. There were two people having sex next to her feet, and she stared at them warily. She couldn't tell if either of the two were male or female.

Duo waved for her to follow as he cruised through the trash covered floor. Some of the people waved to him, patted him on the back, or gave him a slap on the hand. Duo didn't seem to care. He just kept walking. A large rat crossed in front of Relena's feet as she followed him, and she shrieked in terror. A nasty-looking, scruffy man bent down and picked it up, holding it as if it were his pet. "That's Feces," he said to Relena. His hair was matted and plastered down to his forehead underneath the dirty wool cap he wore. "Don't be afraid," he said, reaching out to her with a smudged, gloved hand. "He's our friend."

Relena smiled back warily before walking away quickly and catching up to Duo. She held onto his shoulder tightly. It was a shameful thing to do, but somehow she knew that Duo would not let anyone here hurt her. He stopped at a door in the wall and held out his hand, gesturing for her to enter. She pulled on the handle, and it slowly opened with a loud creaking sound. It was dark inside, but Relena gathered her courage and entered.

Duo followed behind her, closing the door and shrouding them in pitch black. Relena tripped over various items on the floor, searching for some sort of light. "Duo?" she asked, panicked. She could feel him somewhere close to her. She sensed his presence and searched for something with her arms outstretched. She knew he could see clearly in the dark, and was toying with her.

Relena felt a hand on her shoulder and she grabbed it. "Duo!?" she shrieked. Her answer was a light laugh next to her ear. Another hand rubbed her cheek. It was like ice against her skin. Cold and smooth. She could feel his body inches from hers and she folded her arms tightly at her chest, hoping for some sort of protection.

"You've been a bad girl, Relena," Duo whispered in her ear. She shivered from the icy breath blowing down her neck and shied away from the sound.

"What did you bring me here for, Duo?" she asked, her voice shaking with fear.

He laughed in her ear again. "I brought you here," Duo said, caressing her cheek with his thumb, "because I needed to tell you what your maker never did."

Relena blinked away tears in the darkness. "What he never told me?" she asked, unsure.

"He lied to you, Relena. He sent you on a killing spree, because he was too much of a pussy to do it himself." A light clicked on overhead and flooded the room with light. The girl stared at the room. It was small and plain. Concrete walls, cement floor covered in trash and empty beer bottles, and a large, worn down mattress with nothing but a mangled gray comforter and two bare pillows. Other than that, there was nothing. Duo sat down on the mattress and gestured for her to sit next to him.

"I'd rather stand," she said tentatively.

"Are you sure?" he asked, gesturing at her feet. She looked down. Her shiny black shoes were covered in shiny black flying cockroaches. They crawled up her knee socks and all over her feet. Relena screamed in terror and began to kick her feet, jumping towards the mattress. Duo leaned back laughing at her as she shrieked and kicked at the roaches that didn't seem to be coming off. They continued to crawl around on her knee socks.

Duo grabbed her shoulders and held her to his chest, still laughing. "Calm down..." he said soothingly, rubbing her blonde hair. "Look."

Relena looked down at her feet again. The roaches had all disappeared. She sat up and looked over the edge of the bed. There was nothing there, other than the trash and beer bottles. She sat back up, sobbing. "When are you going to stop toying with me!?" she shrieked and pulled her knees up to her chest.

"Calm down, fledgling!" he ordered.

Relena lifted her head and stared at him angrily. "Don't call me that."

Duo laughed out loud. "That's what you are, isn't it? A fledgling? A novice? An apprentice vampire. You're not even old enough to control peoples' minds yet. The sun doesn't bother you. You don't have to feed every week to survive. You still haven't even lost that fleshy, living look about you," he said, rubbing her cheek with the back of his hand. She jerked away from his touch and he laughed venomously.

"It's funny," he said, gazing up at the ceiling. "You don't want to be called a fledgling, as if you're ashamed you've not matured yet. Yet, you kill all of the elders."

"You're wrong!" Relena growled at him. "I don't want to be called a fledgling, because I don't want to be a vampire."

"But you are."

"But I don't want to be!"

"But it's who you are," he said, returning his eyes to her.

"But I don't want it! I didn't ask to become one! I don't want to live forever," she ended in a whisper.

"Then die," he said, shrugging.

"It's not that simple for me..."

"Why not?" Duo asked, laying back on the bed, his arms stretched over his head.

"I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"Hell."

"Hell?"

"I'm afraid I'll go to Hell. There's no way Heaven would ever accept me. I've killed so many people. People who didn't deserve to die."

Duo shrugged his shoulders. "Survival of the fittest," he said, rubbing his temples.

"How can you be so cruel?" Relena whispered, lifting her head from the knees at her chest.

Duo snorted with a short laugh and glared at the girl angrily. "You don't get it, do you?"

Relena stared at him, not really knowing what to say.

"We're mother nature's way of destroying a primitive species, Relena." Duo sat up on the bed and grabbed a beer bottle from the floor next to his bed. He pulled the metal cap off with his hand and tossed it to the floor. It made a clattering sound on the cement that shattered the silence. Duo took a long drink from the bottle, then held it out as an offering to Relena. She shook her head seriously, so Duo shrugged and took another drink. "If there weren't people like you out there, who destroyed your own kind, we'd all live forever, with humans as our food source."

"You're evil," Relena said, shaking. "You're pure evil. How can you be so cruel and vicious? Those people we have to kill to go on living, those people have families and friends that cry at the funerals. They hold each other close and say wonderful things about the persons we killed. Those people all led lives of their own that are precious to..."

"Shut up!" Duo interrupted, throwing his bottle to shatter against the cement wall. Relena jumped at the sound. Duo pushed the girl onto her back on the bed and crawled on top of her, pinning her wrists down to the mattress with his hands. He breathed a sickening smell of beer into her face and grinned down at her maniacally.

Relena tried to move her hands, but the boy's grip was far too strong. She kicked her feet underneath his weight on her hips and closed her eyes, crying with fear.

"Relena," he whispered soothingly into her ear, letting his cheek rest against hers. "Everything in nature kills to survive. Vampires, humans, tigers, even insects. They're no different. Vampires feed on humans, humans feed on domesticated animals. It's a food chain, and we are at the top. We are a superior race." Duo loosened his grip and sat up, still straddling her lower half. "We should be respected. We are the only species intelligent enough to feed on humans."

Relena let the tears flow down her cheeks as she watched the boy talk. She couldn't believe what she was hearing, for the boy actually made sense. He had a good point. But that would never sway her from her belief that vampires were all evil, and should all be killed.

"Still not going to stop trying to kill us all?" he asked, leaning down to tug gently against a loose strand of blonde hair.

Relena could do nothing more than look away and shake her head. She knew all vampires must die. They didn't have the right to feed on the precious lives of humans.

"Well," Duo said, standing up above her and placing his hands defiantly against his hips, "you and I are the only ones left. If you want to eradicate our race, you'll have to kill me, first. Then, kill yourself. But I must warn you: Don't think it will be as easy to kill me as it was the others. You killed vampires older than me, and for that, you have my attention."

"But I..." Relena began, staring up at the boy hovering above her.

"I don't know how you did it, but you did," the boy continued, unhindered by her talking. "I must warn you, Relena, I'm older than you think." The girl shook her head in disbelief. "I have a lot more power than you think. I will defend myself." Relena continued to stare. "And you will die if you fight me."

With those last words, the boy disappeared from above her. He seemed to simply fade away, and Relena was left alone in the bare room, shivering on the bed. She curled up into a fetal position on her side, hugging her knees to her chest again. What was she going to do now?