HD: This is terrible. Only three reviews for this chapter.

Tifa: What's wrong now?

Guy: He's upset over the lack of reviews.

Tifa: Oh . . . What are you doing in a cage?

Guy: Haru was so upset he shrunk me to half a foot. Then he stuck me in this cage and gave me a harmonica.

Tifa: That's rough.

Guy: First a bottle of water and now this . . . What did I ever do to you St. Elimine?

Tifa: Who?

Guy: No one . . .

Chapter 8

It was a nice Saturday morning. Mia woke up, took a shower, and dressed quickly. All without the help, or intrusion, of Isaac. Without Isaac . . . The thought rang through Mia's head.

"I wonder where Isaac is. It's been awfully quiet." Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud clang coming from the kitchen. "Don't tell me." She ran down the stairs and was greeted with the sight of Isaac slicing bread and Alex lying in a pool of blood.

"Isaac, what did you do?"

"Good morning Master. I was making you breakfast then Alex came and interrupted me."

"And then you killed him?"

"No. I threw a bottle of ketchup at him." Mia sighed and kicked Alex's body

"Wake up lazy. I don't want you sleeping on the middle of the floor. It's a fire hazard." Alex turned over and opened one of his eyes.

"You know Mary, I can see up your dress." Mia responded by stepping on his face.

"My name is Mia, not Mary. Now get up and do the gardening."

"Why do I have to do the gardening?"

"Because my family owns the house, because you are a freeloader, because I said so. Want more reasons?"

"Fine, fine. I'll go." Alex turned and walked toward the back door. Along the way, he muttered to himself. After seeing him exit the house, Mia turned her attention to Isaac.

"As for you, make my breakfast first. You can leave the cleaning to Alex."

"Yes, Master." Mia gave a small sigh as she watched Isaac turn on the stove. The memory of Monday night still wouldn't leave her. "Hey Isaac, who are you really?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean, all I know about you is your real name is Robin and you're a vampire. But that's all I know."

"So basically, you wish to know my life story."

"Yeah."

"...My real name is Robin Schultz. I was born in Germany to a farming couple in 1915. It was during the first World War, so my father was forced to fight. He died before I turned three so I didn't get the chance to know him. My mom was able to get over the loss of my dad and we spent the following years peacefully. After the war, Germany was in deep debt so food was hard to come by. Like I said, I live on a small farm so we were able to eat fine. I would hunt and my mom would harvest the crops. That changed when Hitler came to power. The SS would do whatever to keep Hitler in power so eventually they came to my home. I was forced to recruit in the Nazi army. At that time I was 20. A year later I was sent to Russia. I'm not sure what was worse, the fighting or winter. Either way, I met Alex there. I took a bullet to the shoulder and got left behind by my 'fellow' troops. He promised that I could survive and leave the war under one condition. I accepted, of course. I don't remember much after that other than I was now a vampire. The first thing I did was see my mom. I didn't know till later that she died of illness so I was left with Alex."

"So what was your relationship with Alex?"

"He was my first master. At the same time he wanted to be my lover." Mia spat out her orange juice when she heard that.

"Your lover? Does that mean . . . you two . . . did . . . you know . . . "

"No, I never got too close to him. Occasionally, he'd kiss if he got the chance." Mia blushed a bright pink. "Is something wrong Master?"

"No. Nothing's wrong. So tell me about this Mary person."

"Mary. Mary was probably the kindest person I ever met other than my mother. She lived by herself. Both her parents died of illness and her brother died in the war. We were very close until Alex found out. Toward the end of the war, Alex wanted to leave Germany but I stayed to bury Mary. We got attacked by people of the church and I drank Alex's blood. That's when I stopped being his underling. In the end I was captured and the rest is just a blur." Mia nodded and finished her breakfast.

"So that's it? ...Oh," Mia stood abruptly and ran to her room. Isaac followed her and watched Mia dig through her desk. She pulled up a package and turned to Isaac. "Look! Maybe this will tell us about you!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know. The old Hydros dude gave it to me." She tore the packaging off to reveal a cassette, a box and a single earring. "Cassette? That's so '95." Mia raced down the stairs to look for a cassette player. "I wonder if we still have one." A loud knocking on the door got her attention. It was Jenna. With her were Felix, Garet and Sheba.

"Hey Mia, hope I'm not bothering y-," Jenna was cut off when Mia grabbed her.

"You people help us find a cassette player." Garet spoke up.

"What for?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, stupid." Garet hung his head.

"I'm not stupid." Sheba sighed and patted Garet on the back. For her, this was a monumental task.

(A few hours later . . . )

Everyone, except Alex, was seated around a TV. Outside, Alex was getting chased by a swarm of angry wasps. Why? He was randomly throwing rocks at passing birds and one managed to hit the nest. However, everyone inside was more interested in the tape to care about Alex. To break the tension, Felix spoke.

"Mia, what's this all about?"

"Well, you know that Isaac is . . . you know . . . " Mia pulled Isaac's mouth open and flicked his tooth.

"Aah . . . that." Sheba glanced around curiously.

"What are you people talking about?" Garet spoke up.

"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Jenna sighed.

"Garet, I told you last week. Isaac is a vampire."

"Oh yeah. Now I remember." A few minutes passed in silence. "Wait, he's a vampire. AAH! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Garet rose and rushed outside and knocked over Alex (still being chased by the wasps). After a minute of searching, he ran back inside, straight for the kitchen. After a few more minutes, Garet rushed back toward Isaac with a badly made cross and a clove of garlic. "Heh, I dare you to suck my blood now." Everyone except Isaac sighed at Garet's usual lack of common sense. Isaac stepped forward grabbed the cross, opened the window and threw it at Alex. He then grabbed the clove and returned it to its rightful place in the kitchen.

"What's all this about?"

"Sheba . . . I forgot you were here."

"No short jokes, please. But really, what's this about Isaac being a vampire." Felix spoke.

"Simple. ISAAC, BRING ME A DANISH! He is a night-walking, blood-sucking, bat-transforming, red-eyed, fanged, honest-to-goodness vampire." Isaac returned to the room and threw a pastry at Felix.

"I'll let it slide this one time. Master is the only one who orders me around."

"Hey Mia, why does he call you master?"

"No clue. I've been trying to get him to call me Mia."

"Why don't you just order him to call you Mia?"

"That's a good idea. Isaac, I order you to call me Mia from now on."

"Yes, Mas- . . . Mia."

"Um, people. What about the tape?"

"Just put it in." And so Jenna did.

(The tape . . . )

A dark figure appeared on the screen.

"Hello Mia. It's been a long time. If you have received this tape, then I am no longer in this world. Just kidding. Truly, if you got this tape, then you must have made contact with experiment number 15880 or Isaac. If you look closely on his earring, you'll notice the bottom line of the 8's are filled in, as well as the right line for the 0. See, isn't your dad smart? More importantly, the earring is a seal for his added powers. Without it on, he is capable of destroying whole cities in minutes. Where he got his extra powers? Well . . . our experimenting may have changed him a little. You know . . . large black wings, enhanced strength, ability to pull an oversized sword from the earth . . . that sort of thing. But, as long as he has that earring on, you don't have to worry. Now, it's almost 9 o'clock. Here in Germany, it's happy hour at the local taverns so I'll have to end here. Finally, the tape has an explosive device set to go off at the five minute point of this tape. Have fun."

(Mia's house)

"RUN!" Everyone scrambled toward the door except Isaac. He grabbed Mia and dove behind the couch a second before the tape exploded. When the smoke cleared, Mia found herself lying on the floor with Isaac on top of her.

"Isaac, get off before I drown you in the kitchen sink."

"I apologize Master," he said getting off her, "but I must say, your father is a quack."

"Yep, the quakiest quack there is." Outside the scorched room, Jenna called out.

"Oy Mia, you okay?"

"Yeah, but more importantly," Mia turned to Isaac and poked him in the nose, "you are getting your ear pierced."

(END)

HD: Yes, I know I took a long time to update but I have a series of excuses.

1. My teachers are giving too much homework.

2. Finals are coming up.

3. My internet connection was down for a few days.

4. Too little space in my laptop's memory (anime and other things).

5. Project to work on in my Japanese class. We had to make a movie, all in Japanese.

6. Lack of reviews!

7. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

Reviews . . . just three reviews:

The Big Rocky Eye: Stop crying. What are you, a man or a broken faucet? And at my school, there are people that go nuts over the mere presence of a "B."

raitei: Don't worry, Mia now has Alex to take her anger out on.

GoldenSunGeek: Everything has been explained above. And yes, I do treat my muses well.

Guy: Lies, all lies.

HD: Silence underling! New muse next chapter as well as the introduction of Feizhi.