Black Despondency
by blackSMILES
My end–of-year examinations are over:)
Sorry for updating for 3 months. That's a loooong time. Hee. I got only 9 reviews for the last chapter… How sad. BUT, I love this story too much to be discouraged! Vampires are so cool!!!
Recap from Chapter 1
The elderly man and the young man rushed to look at Hinako who was still lying on her bloodstained clothes.
Yuna said Sakura in a voice both of them could not hear. "Sorry, Sakura-chan. I knew you were afraid of vampires. But I…"
Sakura cut off Yuna and said, "It's okay, Mother. I don't want to fear them anymore. I want to hate them."
End of recap
Chapter 2: Fallen Angel
Angels were once rulers of the kingdom, worshipped by all… until the appearance of vampires from a faraway land robbed everything that belonged to the angels away. The angels had sweet blood that vampires loved most, so in a single night, they turned from proud beings into prey for the ruthless predators. To save themselves, they exchanged their kingdom with a condition that no vampire is to ever attack any angel again. Thus, hell began.
The chilly resonance of boots scraping the rough gritty ground drew closer. The girl whimpered and cowered deeper into the corner of her cold wet cell- if only she could just disappear...Tousled midnight blue hair covered her dirt-covered face like a moldy and holey curtain- as if she was hiding from her captors by trying to blend into the walls of the dungeon.
The knob of a door turned and the door was opened abruptly, sending a sharp squeak of un-oiled hinges into the girl's ears. She gasped and jumped a little, turning her head to the source of sound. Light barely streamed into her blindfolded eyes. She was more scared than relieved by its presence.
"Who...who is it?" She asked uncertainly, her voice quivering like a scared prey to be devoured.
The intruder did not deign to answer. He smirked at her trembling form, hidden in the damp sticky corner of the unlit cell. If she had known that her supposed sanctuary was warm and dank from the spilt blood of the previous prisoner...
"Please let me go," the girl pleaded softly when she did not hear a reply. Perhaps a merciful prison guard brought her food?
A light snicker erupted from her visitor, doing nothing to calm her heightened nerves.
"Let you go, Angel?" A deep voice drawled, causing the girl to stiffen.
"What are you talking about?" The girl spoke more calmly and feigned ignorance.
She could hear the man walking closer to her, until she could feel his warm breath fanning onto her face through her curtain of blue hair when he bent down to her sitting position.
The disgusting stench of a vile creature drove the contents of her breakfast to her stomach. She flinched away from the creature abruptly and screamed the word she also hated and feared, "Vampire!" She cringed with distaste.
The man glared at the blindfolded girl, annoyed by her sudden outburst even though he knew her kind could smell death emanating from under his skin more easily than anything else. She did not even smell the drying blood on her, yet she smelled him. He seized the girl roughly by her arm and pulled her to him, keeping her still as he spoke to her, as if coaxing a child.
"Little Angel, do you know that an angel's skin glows faintly in the dark? You look so beautiful, that I want to touch you…" He said, too innocently, and buried his face into the crook of her neck.
The girl shuddered and struggled to get away from the man clutching her. "Let me go, you vampire! You monster! The law says you cannot touch me" She screamed and thrashed her limbs with all her might.
All was futile. Her hands and legs were bounded by a coarse cloth which scraped her skin.
However, the man did stop at the last thing she said. He removed his face from the girl's neck. "The law?" He sneered.
"Yes, you cannot touch me as long as you filthy pure-blooded vampires are ruling," the angel said breathlessly, her breath uneven from the struggling. Her limbs hurt from the bounds.
"You mean that one hundred year old law? The law that was made in exchange for this country? The law that you pathetic angels suggested to keep yourselves alive during the old world war?" The man said mockingly.
The angel sat on the floor, quiet, refusing to say 'yes'.
The man continued, "You pathetic angels. Are you weaklings dreaming of regaining the kingdom again? How amusing. Imagine your favourite food fighting back even though it is sending itself to you on a silver platter."
The girl looked up suddenly, a scowl visible on her beautiful face. Her eyes were blazing with fury under the black blindfold. "Don't insult us!" She screamed and lunged forward to the man, trying to attack by biting on any flesh she felt with her straight pearly whites.
Her blindfold slipped down her face as both of them rolled onto the floor, with the man pining her to the ground. The girl's moon white eyes finally looked into the face of the vampire with her. He was like an untamed monster, with crimson eyes like a devil and long fangs glinting in the dark. She noticed the ends of his fangs were sharp.
She recognized him. "Uchiha Itachi…" She murmured softly, her eyes swimming with fear, flinching whenever inky strands of his hair brushed the sides of her face.
Like a prey, Itachi thought and smirked when he felt her shivering under him. "When you want to attack someone with your teeth, you should do this." After he finished speaking, he swooped down suddenly and sank his fangs into the unsuspecting angel's neck, drawing blood as his teeth pierced her smooth skin.
The angel screamed from the pain and began to struggle again. Itachi did not let go. He held the girl's arms tighter, bruising her. He loved the blood surging from her veins into his mouth. It was heavenly, better than how ambrosia tasted to an angel.
The girl was reduced to a crying heap of blue hair and tattered linen clothing under Itachi. The slurping sounds of her blood draining away from her body scared her. Everyone told her that she would be protected by the law. She believed them, yet there is a vampire attacking her now! What should she do?
"Neji-nii-san!" The angel screamed, wishing for her most trusted guardian to save her. However, there was no one who answered her. Neji was missing. She was not even sure he was still alive. It was all her fault…
Itachi drew away from her neck. She looked at her assaulter's face and regretted it immediately. His face was a picture of satisfaction and mockery, graced with her blood, gripping down onto her face from his chin. He wiped her blood away from her face with a large cold hand, rough with calluses. He then wiped away her tears with the same hand.
She was still, stunned but yet afraid at the cruel monster's sudden gentleness. Itachi then leaned down to the girl's ear and whispered, "I kept you alive so that I can eat you again, Hyuuga Hinata-hime."
The girl did not blink. He knew who she was and he still attacked her. He was blatantly breaking the law and wanted her to lose her pride as an angel intentionally.
The girl remained lying down, a fresh stream of tears running down her cheeks again when she heard the door being locked up again with her alone in the cell. The wound on the neck hurt, even though she had stopped bleeding.
I want to escape.
Sakura looked out at the window while lying on her bed, thinking of her encounter with the vampire she met that day and Yuna's reaction.
"Why?" Sakura mumbled as she gazed at the night stars, as if searching for an answer. She looked at the healed arm which the vampire had scratched and touched the skin lightly.
She had blood. But why? She was not supposed to be like this. Would that vampire come back and seek her out if he found out? Would he be like a relentless predator chasing after her till she is sucked dry of her blood? She shivered slightly. Was it because the night was particularly chilly or was it out of fear?
Sakura could not sleep for the whole night. Tossing and turning on her bed, she kept opening her eyes whenever they closed. The images under her dark eyelids scared her.
Sasuke remembered the scent of the water nymph's blood. It was unlike what he had smelt before, somewhat aromatic and floral. It was nothing like a human's blood. He sniffed his hand for the remnants of her blood. There was nothing since the maids had fussed over him and dragged him to the bathroom when he returned with bloodstained clothes.
And there was the body. The soft wrist he had grabbed onto, not so tightly that it would bruise. The slender waist that twisted and turned in a struggle to escape, the long slender legs which kicked him with such vulnerability, the perfect proportions of her hips and firm breasts… made him want her to be pinned under him, writhing in pain, and perhaps pleasure.
He wanted to know what it was, the blood that flowed in her. After he was done with his curiosity, he would drink her blood… all of it. Carefully, he picked up the fragile wineglass on the lacquered mahogany table and downed the thick crimson blood in it. Blood was the best.
A hard knock resounded on the heavy wooden door which shut his room away from the rest of his insufferable family members, pulling him away from his thoughts about the water nymph.
"Come in," Sasuke said coldly. He did not even bother to stand up from the burgundy velvet couch he was resting on. There was no need to give any form of respect to whoever who was entering.
"Little Brother," a deep voice Sasuke detested so much echoed in the room when the door opened, giving light rays a pathway to brighten his darkened room.
"Aniue(1)," Sasuke acknowledged Itachi with a curt nod when he wanted nothing else but to throw the wine glass he was holding at his brother's smug face.
"I've heard from the servants that you ran away from the carriage I so painstakingly prepared for you," Itachi said regrettably, but Sasuke was not gullible enough to feel guilt.
"No one could sit still with noisy trumpets blaring into their ears every second. That floral carriage is also unfit for a prince, Aniue. It's for a princess," Sasuke argued slowly, as though he was composed and calm.
"Really? I did not prepare for a floral carriage. I remembered sending the finest steed," Itachi replied, apologetic.
"You don't have to apologise to your younger brother," Sasuke mocked.
"I am not, Sasuke. I am merely sorry for the fact that your coming back to the palace in blood-drenched clothes has reached His and Her Majesty's ears. I am afraid that they are terribly unpleased with your conduct," Itachi said smugly. Sasuke knew he was not feeling sorry at all.
Sympathetic was not a word that connected with Uchiha Itachi.
"I see. Is that all you have to say to me?" Sasuke asked, indifferent.
"I will leave soon. Rest well. You look haggard," Itachi said coolly before retreating and slamming the door behind him.
Sasuke stared at the wooden door and hurled the wine glass he was holding onto the door. The glass shattered into smithereens. The sound of breaking glass resounded in the room. Sasuke was still not appeased.
"Wake up!" A callused hand shook Hinata up roughly, rousing her from the light sleep she needed so much.
Hinata was tired mentally and physically. She fell asleep crying. Her eyes hurt from the sudden brightness in the room as her eyes opened for the first time in a few hours. She could barely see anything.
She could only feel a hand moving up her neck and sharp fangs poking into her soft skin, breaking them. A new wound was made and blood was drained from her body again. She could feel the prickling pain, intensifying any second.
Her assaulter this time was more aggressive and greedier, slurping her blood hungrily like a thirsty animal. Her pearly eyes finally got used to her surroundings. Her eyes widened when she saw her attacker.
Uchiha Itachi, again. This time, he was pissed off. She could feel it in her body, tingling in pain.
She whimpered and stayed still. Because she knew struggling more would be futile.
(1): Aniue is a formal way of saying 'elder brother' or 'nii-san'.
I hope you guys like this chapter. I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING FOR AGES.
I Will be updating my other stories soon 3