Good god, I can't believe I haven't updated three months. I am so sorry, but I have been very busy with school. Please don't tar and feather me! Anyway, I'm happy to give you the next chapter, enjoy.

The mansion's indoor swimming pool always felt cold and lifeless. While, like all of the rooms in the Sakamaki household, it was beautifully decorated and the water cast an eerily calm blue glow over the entire room, no one ever went in there on a regular basis, as none of the Sakamaki sons were avid swimmers, especially not Ayato.

Ayato was not completely sure why he had brought her to the indoor pool. He almost never went down there himself, and it was not like he had some sort of plan in mind for her. Honestly, how could he come up with a way to have fun with his new prey when his head was killing him?

Ever since leaving school, the ache in his brain was steadily getting worse and worse, until it felt like something was pounding against his skull like a jack hammer. He had laid the unconscious Yui on the blue couch next to the pool while he took a seat on the cushioned armrest, trying to nurse his migraine. When he could almost see his vision begin to blur, he heard the human on the couch begin to stir.

He turned around to see Yui sitting upright on the blue couch, staring at him with her usual look of indifference.

"You're awake?" he asked, getting up from the armrest to stalk over to his prey. She continued to stare at him with an apathetic look on her face, almost as though she were bored by his attempts to terrorize her. The thought only inflamed Ayato's drive to make her realize how vulnerable she really was. When he was finally in front of her, he bent down to face her, looking at the human girl with sinister determination.

"If you're looking at me like that, then you obviously haven't gotten it through your head." He said before taking her into his arms and lifting her off the couch. He carried her over to the edge of the swimming pool while searching for any trace of emotion on her face, which was met with nothing.

As Ayato stood close to the edge with Yui in his arms, he briefly wondered if she even knew how to swim. This thought was quickly dashed by the fact that if she did not, she would be able to feel her own helplessness in the most intense way imaginable. Nothing could instill fear into someone quite like a near death experience, if you asked him. Either way, he knew that this should get the message across to even the most dimwitted human.

"You are at the mercy of Yours Truly," he began, looking over the almost luminescent pool with determination in his eyes, "It's time to drop the attitude and learn your place!"

In an instant, Ayato flung her out of his arms and into the pool, the bride landing in the water with a large splash. He down to see her sinking to the bottom, a feeling of smug victory building inside of him.

"Now, tell me I'm the best. Tell me that I'm better than anyone else in the word, and that you belong to me." He commanded, watching the human girl reach the bottom of the pool. For a few moments, she merely lingered at the bottom, making Ayato wonder if she was trying to drown herself. Before long, however, she suddenly sprung to life, speeding to the top like a water jet. Well, she could swim after all, he briefly thought to himself.

When her head finally broke through the surface of the water, she had her back turned away from him, obstructing his view of her face. Her long hair brown clung to her face and body, reminding him of how she was when she first arrived at the Sakamaki mansion. She made no move to turn around to face him, instead seeming to take a very keen interest in the wall across from her.

"I've humoured you for long enough." She suddenly said, surprising him with her suddenly angry tone of voice.

Ayato frowned at this. So, she still thought that she was allowed to defy him, did she? Fine then, he would just have to keep on punishing her until it got through her head she was his to toy with. Just as he was about to go in there to turn her around so he could teach her a lesson, she did so of her own accord, and the redhaired vampire physically reeled back in shock at what he saw.

She was glaring at him with what had to be the most intense look of pure hatred he had ever seen on any human. Her lips were pursed into a straight line, contorting her face into a deep frown. However, what truly chilled the vampire to the bone was the fact that her eyes had gone completely black. No pupils, no scleral, nothing but empty, black voids that seemed to burrow into his green eyes. Her entire body seemed to radiate pure malice and hatred, which was currently all directed at him.

The moment Ayato had taken in her now frightening face, his previously forgotten migraine returned with a vengeance, pounding into his skull like a jack hammer and causing him to double over from the pain, forcing him to his knees. He cried out in agony, his hands clutching his head with such force that he came close to ripping his own hair out. He struggled to lift his head back up to face her, his vision beginning to blur and fade in and out. He did not have to out as much effort into finding her, since in the time he had taken his eyes off of her she had managed to swim right to the edge to the pool, her face mere inches away from his. She was staring directly at him with her empty black eyes, her arms resting on the tiled floor in between them.

She no longer looked angry with him, now she simply looked annoyed, as though Ayato was a stain that had blemished her favourite outfit. The vampire was in far too much pain to be able to verbally put her in her place. Even if he was not, Ayato was not sure he would even be able to form a coherent sentence with those obsidian eyes of hers glaring at him.

"Besides," she began to speak once again, her voice now seemed to carry a surreal and almost otherworldly lilt, "Why should I listen to a pathetic little boy who can't even swim?"

As soon as she said that, she pressed her hand against his exposed chest and shoved him backwards. Ayato expected to fall flat on his back against the pool's tiled floor, but instead he felt his entire body being engulphed in… water?

Coming to his senses, the redhaired vampire was completely submerged, momentarily leaving him paralyzed with confusion before coming to his senses and hastily swimming upwards to the surface. While the unbearable pain in his skull had mercifully gone away, he was now in far too great a state of shock to try and process what exactly had just happened. After his head broke through the water, he wasted no time taking in his surroundings, only to find a hauntingly familiar scene in front of him.

It was all there. The forest surrounding him, the grand, imposing castle out in the distance. And her, standing on the edge lake, looking down on him with her cold, green eyes that were so much like his own. Ayato could feel his blood begin to boil as he looked up at her, not having wanted to ever look at her face again. His feelings of loathing towards the woman who brought him into the world were put aside, however, when he felt something slither around his ankle underneath the water of the lake, grabbing onto it with tremendous force. The vampire prince looked down to see if he had had been caught in some form of seaweed, only to be greeted with a ghoulish looking humanoid hand, its fingers unnaturally long and gangly, with nails razor sharp and black as coal.

Ayato struggled to free his leg from the hand, only for another one to rise from the depths and grab on to his other leg. This did not make the redhaired vampire give up, and he brought both of his arms down to release himself manually. Before he could blink, more hands began to surface, latching onto his limbs with a vice grip. Now sufficiently panicked, he tried in vain to free himself as the hands began to slowly drag him down underneath the water.

"Get the hell off of me!" he cried before wrenching in pain as one of the hands raked its long, black fingernails across his cheek, splitting his pale skin. Blood streaming down his face and having no luck freeing himself from the ghastly appendages, he turned his green eyes to the woman staring down at him from the lake's shore, eyes just as cold and unfeeling as he remembered. In a moment of weakness and desperation, he found himself struggling to reach out to her.

Help me, Mother! Save me!

But of course, she simply stood there, looking down on him as the hands began to claw and swipe at him, tearing his flesh off of his bones and exposing red, veiny muscle underneath. As his blood mingled with the water of the lake, Ayato could hear a genderless, airy voice hiss in his ear before the hands dragged him completely underwater,

"You won't have to worry about being the best anymore… not where you're going…"

Ayato could feel himself gasp desperately for air when he woke up, more out of pure shock rather than a need for oxygen. For a few brief moments, he felt completely disoriented. Taking a few seconds to slowly come to his senses and absorb his surroundings, he realized that he was lying on the floor of the mansion's indoor pool. Sitting up, he looked around the area in search of… well, he was not quite sure what. The voice? The ghoulish hands? Her?

"That was… all a dream?" he whispered to himself in astonishment. No, there was no way that was just a dream! It all felt so real, too real! He could feel the white hands tear at his flesh, see the blood run from his wounds. He could still feel that woman staring at him from the side of the lake, looking down on him with her cold green eyes. And… Oddball…

Suddenly remembering their human houseguest, Ayato stood up from the floor and looked over to the loveseat, only to see the human girl sleeping in the same position he had left her. Looking at her with a feeling of dread creeping up on him, he made his way over to her, not taking his eyes off of her sleeping form. When was finally in front of her, he unconsciously reached down to touch her, as if he wanted to know if she was real or not. When he was just about to make physical contact, her eyes snapped open, causing Ayato's non-beating heart to freeze.

Much to the relief of the redhaired vampire, he was greeted with her normal dull hazel eyes, not those terrifying, empty black voids that he could still faintly feel burrow into him. For a few moments the two stared at each other, as if waiting for the other to make a move. And then, to Ayato's surprise, a crooked grin began to form on her face, her eyes lighting up with amusement.

"I see… creatures like you can feel fear…" she said before breaking out into quiet, wispy cackling, finding un-ending amusement in seeing such a high and mighty vampire be reduced to such a state.

Ayato could feel rage begin to build within him again, distracting him from his previous feeling of terror. Damn it, he was a vampire! There was no way he would let a lowly human frighten him! He needed to remind her (as well as himself) that he was the one in control of this situation.

Without saying a word, the redhaired vampire pulled her upper body close to him before craning her neck upwards and sinking his fangs into her skin. Her blood flowed from her puncture wounds and into his waiting mouth. To his smug delight, her laughter stopped dead in her throat as he drank from her. Ayato could feel her blood flowing within him, quenching his thirst. It began to dawn on him that her blood seemed to taste better than before; it had more sweetness, more vigor. While it was still not the best blood he had ever tasted, he was nonetheless impressed; he had never seen a human's taste improve in quality so quickly.

Well, this bride was just full of surprises, wasn't she?

After having drank his fill, he withdrew his fangs from her neck as he let go of her torso, causing her to fall backwards onto the blue couch. Bringing his hand to his face to wipe her blood from his mouth, Ayato continued to eye the girl on the couch who looked more or less fine, given that she had just had her blood sucked by a vampire. She was in such good condition that she sat up on the loveseat with little to no difficulty, apparently not feeling any dizziness.

Ayato acted quickly, roughly grabbing her by the arm to stop her from getting off the couch.

"Hey, I wasn't done with you ye-" he was abruptly cut off by her turning to face him and reach out to him, resting her hand against his cold cheek. Both confused and annoyed by her bold move, he urged his body to move away from her touch, only for a now familiar sense of fear and dread to creep up on him, freezing him in place. Her face was about 10 centimetres from his, her doll-like hazel eyes burrowing into his acid green.

Ayato had come to realize just how much he hated the way she looked at him. Her gaze was intense and accusatory, as if she knew some deep, dark secret of his that she would not tell but would gladly hold against him. Part of him wondered if she actually did know more about him than she let on, but he quickly dashed those thoughts. How could she possibly know anything personal about him when she had only been at the mansion for two nights? Besides, who was she to judge him? He was above her insipid human moral code!

Caught in his thoughts, Ayato almost did not notice her face moving closer towards his. When he did finally snap out of his musings, her mouth was right up to his ear.

"You can still feel them, can't you? The hands… clawing at your flesh…" she whispered to him.

Upon hearing her words, the redhaired vampire could feel his blood turn to ice in his veins. Flashing him one more knowing look, she withdrew from Ayato and sat up, casually walking away from the petrified vampire. He looked back at her with wide eyes as she exited the indoor pool, leaving him all alone.

The arrogant vampire remained in the same position for a while, trying to make sense of what had transpired. For a few moments, he was completely still. But as he began to put his thoughts together, his body started to tremble with suppressed chuckles, which before long turned into a full blown maniacal laughter that echoed throughout the tiled room. Anticipation and exhilaration wildly flowed through his body, and Ayato began to realize that he found himself becoming more excited than he had been in a very long time.

He… had never been challenged like this by a bride before…! All of the ones that had come before Yui were all so submissive and weak-willed. Sure, they would feebly resist, but even before they were inevitably broken they would still bend to vampire's every whim regardless. They were far too fearful to do anything that would make him or his brothers angry, even at their own expense. They constantly lived in fear, which was normally something Ayato liked. But in recent years he had found himself growing bored of same routine.

How old did you have to be before you grew bored of killing humans?

But Yui Komori, Ayato realized, was brazen and disobedient. She never gave away any signs that she was at all afraid of the Sakamakis', even after learning they were vampires. While this most definitely made him doubt her sanity, it was refreshing to finally see a bride that refused to go down without a fight.

'Alright then,' Ayato thought, a sadistic smile forming on his face, 'I'll give her the fight of her life. When she finally submits to me and realizes that I'm her master, it'll be all the more satisfying…'

A loud crash could be heard from the other side of the door, no doubt a vase being thrown to the floor.

"Gone? What do you mean she's gone?!" a man roared, voice dripping with anger and malice.

Sister Noriko stood outside the wooden door, terrified for both herself and for her friend who was already on the other side and had apparently just given the bad news to Father Fujioka. When they had both heard about what happened, they knew that he would be absolutely furious. For a few minutes they had actually argued about who would be the one to go tell him that after all of his meticulous planning, the Elm Witch had managed to escape captivity.

She honestly did not even know how it could have happened. Her cell had been specifically designed so that she would not be about to get out. The bars were made of sturdy steel, the walls were decorated with wards to cancel out her powers, it was isolated and heavily guarded. Noriko had heard that the Witch was clever and sharp enough to avoid capture for so many years, but this time she had thought they finally had her.

Well, she had just proven them all wrong.

Noriko was startled by the door being suddenly flung open, Sister Hoshina stumbling out into the hall. The young nun could only stand there in shock as she heard the enraged Father Fujioka rant and rave, seemingly to himself now that Hoshina was no longer in the office with him.

"Damn it! Damn it all to hell! Thirty-five years of planning; wasted!" his voice rang out. Noriko turned to see that Hoshina had already begun to run down the hall as if the hounds of hell were chasing after her. She was tempted to join her friend when she felt the Father's grey eyes, stormy with rage, lock onto her. Instantly she froze in place, trembling in fear.

"You," he said, pointing at her, "Tell me what happened. Now." Noriko did not waste a moment to obey, lest she suffer the man's wrath.

"At around noon yesterday, sh-she somehow managed to remove the wards in her cell that were blocking out her powers. She got out, killed the guards who tried to stop her, and fled the compound. W-we currently have no idea where she is…" she reported, merely parroting what she had been told about the situation.

Honestly, she thanked the good Lord that she had not been there when the Witch escaped. From what she had heard later, she had left a massacre in her wake. There had been about 40 guards standing between her and freedom; all of them had been brutally slaughtered by the day's end. Their corpses littered the halls, bent and twisted into horrific, unnatural positions with a strange black bile leaking from their mouths and eyes. It was a truly gruesome sight to behold.

As expected of the Elm Witch. She was a creature completely devoid of mercy or remorse, so said the myths.

Father Fujioka, having heard enough, marched back into his office and slammed the door shut, leaving Noriko outside in the hallway. Sitting down at his desk, he put his hands on his head and let out a frustrated sigh.

He almost did not want to believe it. She had escaped right from under his nose. He had put so much thought and effort into making sure she would never be able to get away and continue to pollute the world with her evil. He had exhausted all of his resources in order to obtain magic wards that would be strong enough to depower her, along with top of actually locating her lair.

It had taken him 35 years to capture her. It took her less than a month to escape and make it all for nothing. It was as if she was mocking him.

Father Fujioka looked to the old, sepia photograph that stood framed on his desk. His idiot of a grandfather, strong and powerful in his prime at age 24, stood proud in what looked to be a very elegant drawing room. There at his side was a young girl who looked to be in her teens, with long, stringy hair and piercing eyes that seemed leap out of the photograph and into his very being. On her colourless face was a look of complete indifference, betraying no emotion. The same could not be said for the bearded man next to her with his arm around her shoulders, who practically beamed with pride, looking as though he believed he could conquer the world.

The priest's eyes briefly wandered to the bottom right of the picture, where a few words were hastily written down.

June 5th, 1934

Satoshi Fujioka & Angela

Angela. That had been the name his foolish grandfather had known that vile Witch by, though Father Fujioka knew that that was not her true name. That particular detail was something known only to her.

The priest looked away from the photograph in irritation, feeling more hopeless than ever. But she would not win. She would never humiliate another Fujioka man ever again.

With God as his witness, Taro Fujioka would be the one to put an end to the Elm Witch.

Okay, the chapter's finally done! Again, I'm very sorry it took so long. I really hope you liked it though, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.