Until You Will Laugh Again

A fan fiction by Crystalbluefox

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Chapter 7

Flowers in a Heap of Blood

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Condemnation
Tried
Here on the stand
With the book in my hand
And truth on my side

Accusations
Lies
Hand me my sentence
I'll show no repentance
I'll suffer with pride

If for honesty
You want apologies
I don't sympathize
If for kindness
You substitute blindness
Please open your eyes"

Dark heavy clouds were pulling in over the country from the sea, darkening the else so light hours of the evening that the summer are known for gifting this country. "Shit! I don't hope it'll start raining." Sanji groaned as he stared out through the window of his little Ford Fiesta and watched the sky darkening fast. Something was rumbling far away. Thunderclouds? Just great! "And just when we all were about to meet up together."

He pulls in to the side; *Condemnation is playing in the radio. He likes that song, normally, but with the sudden weather change and darkening thunderclouds in the distant, it somehow felt gloomy listening to it.

*Depeche Mode silenced off as soon as he turned off the engine. Hopefully there would be no rain when they would lit the bonfire tonight to the yearly **Sankt Hans Eve festival. The midsummer festival was something each town were celebrating every year, all over the country, with a large bonfire and a doll on top stuffed with hay and dressed in old clothes there looked like a witch sitting on her broom, ready to fly off to Blogsbjerg or Brocken as they called it some places. Some band would normally play, after the major had spoken his words and put fire to the big mass of tree piling up on each other. Then there would be beer and dance, just sitting there in the grass and watching the witch fire off, other places the dolls weren't that lucky and burned up, like they burned the witches in the 1800'th.

Sanji normally came for the company and tonight they had planned to celebrate it at Solrød Beach, since Kamie was living there and wouldn't be able to make it to Copenhagen in time after work. Didn't matter. It was just barely a half an hour drive from where the most of them lived.

Sanji glanced down at the flowers he had bought for the young lady. White daisies. She loved those flowers. He had volunteered immediately to be the one to pick her up; Kamie had shyly said that it wasn't necessary because she could just take her scooter over to the place, but Sanji had insisted to drive her to the place. In the end, she had said "yes".

He let the flowers stay in the car while he headed off down the road, cursing at the long lines of parking cars filling both sides of the street. Honestly. Did the whole town park their cars here and walked down to the bonfire?

It was only five minutes of lazy walk before he got her house in sight, hidden behind a little garden rich with flowers, trees and bushes. He'd like to have such a house, but his monthly earning had yet not allowed him to save up enough money to do just that. Therefore he had to keep a little rundown apartment just outside Copenhagen, since living right in the middle of the capital of Denmark was far more expensive than even buying a house in many other towns around. It was crazy, really. Sure he could take a loan like many others of his fellow students did, but he was a man who didn't want the half of his life being filled with loans to pay. Therefore, he worked late in the evenings at his father's restaurant, who only wanted him there a couple of hours at a certain time at the opening hours and paid him off a lot more than should be right. "You were here, worked your lazy ass off, and stayed here a lot longer than I want ta see ya shitty face, string-bean." Was the old man's constant answer whenever he asked him as to why he was paid as much as one who worked there the most of the day, before his old man kicked him out, literally! Sanji had been irritated at it at first, he always were with his father's shitty attitude –some said that that's where he got his shitty attitude from- before he learned that it was just the way how his father told him to get some time out of his life as well. Therefore, Sanji stopped asking after the fifth kick-out, there seemed to get harder for each time he asked.

He would make sure to drink a hell of a lot tonight and just enjoy his youth, as his father so much wanted him to, though a wasted Sanji was not exactly what the man wished or liked to see, quite the opposite, he knew there would be hell if his father ever found out of it. However, if he were lucky, he would keep his liquor and maybe even would end up with a little kiss tonight and maybe even an appointment for the next weekend.

It was okay to dream.

Sanji walked up the stairs to the front door, humming at some old tune. He was about to knock on the door, but halted midway through it. There was something off. Listening quietly for a moment he could hear loud music blasting muffled through the thick isolated wood. It was normally when he wanted to blast his brain out with noise and music, but Kamie normaly didn't listen to that kind of music, not to say when she did,the radio would be so low, that you had to listen intently to even be able to make out those notes. Either he had a bad hearing or she just had a damn good one. That was why this felt somewhat wrong. Leaning uneasy from one foot to another he finally reached up to test the doorknob, hesitating only for the slightest of moments before pushing it down and opening the door. The music roared in his face like a fiery cold wind, almost knocking him back down the stairs and blasting his eardrums out. Was she holding a party in there or what? He did say that he liked loud music, but, there were limits of the sane music level. Playing like this it sound nothing but loud noise. Not even holding his hands against his ears was enough to block out the painful noise, as he pushed the door fully open with his elbow and stepped inside. He surveyed the little hallway for anything unusual, but the only unusual was the music blasting out through the speakers and, there were no shoes parked out here; no shoes meant no guests, no guests meant no party.

Even so the loud noise felt like burning his ear, it seemed so horrible quiet all along, a silence there did not belong to this house. Something was not right.

Looking around she wasn't anywhere to be seen, he tries to call her name, but the silence swallows his words at once, he calls higher, but the loud music from the radio steals his words. Something was definitely not right. First, it's not even her taste of music, so why does 'Fist of Fire' then echo through her house?

Suddenly he stops dead in his tracks as he spots her, in the kitchen, her name stuck in his throat. Light blonde hair spreads out around her like a fading sun, as it tries to give the last of its warms out. She's lying on the floor, but she's not alone…

Blood. Blood is everywhere. On the counters, on the walls, the floor, even the ceiling is sporting a dusted rain of blood, as if someone wanted to make a sick joke with red paint and a watergun – if only it had been that. The music booms, hiding his sharp intake of breath. Her green eyes stares empty up at him, her mouth open in a long gone scream.

He already feels the world tip to one side at the grotesque sight before him, his balance seems off, he inhales and the air is full with the disgusting rusty smell of blood and death.

However, that is not even the worst.

Around her sat four people, eating of her flesh, no, they were drinking, toasting on her blood. He doesn't know what it was. If it was the sound of him almost tripping over the bend rug on his way out. Or if it was the scream wanting to erupt from his lips that he barely choked down… or even the silent cling of car keys in his trembling hands… no matter what it was, the sound apparently made through the roaring blast from the speakers, as ruby red eyes suddenly turned his way. Blood-colored teethes, fangs, freaking fangs shows his way. Thin lips pulls slowly up into a dangerous snarl. He backs away as some of them moves to stand up. He should run, turn away and run, and he does.

'Yet I stands here and fears the run

Back from the graves and she's haunting me around!

Back off, witch, I didn't even do it!

You were already dead and took your own jump!

Get off me and lull back to sleep…!

Somebody HELP ME, save me from this freak!

She's' hot on my tail, the disgusting face of fate!'

He couldn't agree more with the singer, as the song dies out in a painful jumble of noises. He almost stumbles down the stairs to get away as fast as possible. He almost falls over a drunkard as he runs away from there, runs as fast as his legs can carry him; his followers hot on his tail.'Oh God, help me. Help me!' His lungs stings too much to scream it out, but he's not even sure that anyone ever would have heard him.

So they did exist, those creatures of darkness.

The sky was pitch-black, only the moon shone lonely on the dark ceiling above this world. When had it turned this dark all of a sudden? Thunder was rumbling far off, alerting that it soon would get closer by soon. There was even a strike of lightning.

He had a bad feeling about that he would die this night.

He runs off down the street, back to his car. Suddenly there's not even a single car in sight – where the heck did all those cars disappear to?! Finding the right key he thankfully thrusts the key right into its hole at the first shot and smacks the door shut right after, while getting the car started.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

He had to get away from there!

A loud bang sounds right above him just as the engine roars into life, he never makes it to hit the speeder as one of them suddenly lands heavily on the bonnet, glaring at him with deadly ruby-red eyes. The window on the passenger seat explodes and the keys gets ripped out of the ignition and is tossed far away for anyone to ever get again.

"Well well, flowers for me?" the thing at his side says with a large smile, as he pulls fourth the little pot with daisies. Kamie never liked bouquets; they only shortened a flower's life, she didn't like to have dying flowers in her home, as she used to put it. The thing breathed in the flowers scent, blood colouring some of their white petals "I have though not yet reserved flowers from my own dinner before." Sanji kicks him in the face just as he managed with fumbling fingers to get out of the seatbelt. He takes off down the street, not giving it a thought as to why they weren't chasing him just yet, that was, until he almost ran into one of them. Skidding to a halt he turns around, only to be met by yet another.

He lunches a kick out, but it doesn't hit. He tries again, but hits nothing but air. His heart is hammering inside of his chest, almost is stuck in his throat as a hand lunches out and slaps him in the face. The slap alone was so powerful, that he literally spins around in the air and flies off a ten to twenty feet back, before meeting the concrete, rolling along it till he ends up in a heap of limps with an arching head there almost felt like it was close to get ripped off.

"Fiery little thing," the thing growls deeply as he clenches his fist. Sanji gets up slowly, the world is spinning around him in such a speed, that he barely knows how to place his foot on top of it and stop the spinning. Groaning he finally gets up, his balance is off but he still manage to stumble off, knowing fully well that facing those creatures would be suicide. There was nothing he could do, nothing but run for it… if he ever wanted just the slightest bit of chance to survive.

Stumbling down the street, he runs off, his head pulsating in time with his rushing pulse in his veins. He immediately halts as one of those creatures suddenly rushes to stand right before him. "Fuck off!" he hollers and can't help but kick out in reflex –those judo-classes did him well in street fights whenever he bumped into problems, but problems like these could no self-defence lecture help him out from, no matter how hard he tried to fight the fucking creep off.

Said creep only grinned amused down at him as it grabbed his leg in a fierce grasp. Trying to pull his leg back was of no use and he cursed himself of his own obvious stupidity of attacking instead of running. Heart running miles per hour, he growled at his captor as it laughed at him.

"I think I like your fire-tempered attitude, human." It says, ignoring the useless weak pulls in the leg trying to get out of his grasp "Do your blood taste as good as you look? Is it as spicy as your temper, human?"

"FUCK OFF!" Sanji yells more in panic this time than anything else, as the harsh realisation hits him hard.

He could die. He could seriously die right here and now.

Zoro had told him some stories of these creatures and now understood what danger the man stood before, whenever facing such a thing. Realising this also made him realise how immense strong the man, his friend, must be to be able to take down one of these.

Realising this made him scream for said man in his mind, while he still tried to pull his leg free.

The thing pulled a smile there were inhumanly wide, as its followers now accompanied them. "Rather interesting to watch those emotions battle in your eyes."

"Don't talk with the food," the other grumbled with a bloodied wide grin "let's just eat."

Sanji immensely wished to be able to cut off his own leg and crawl away, their auras or whatever it was, was creeping up along his spine like cold damp hands, slowly trying to take a grasp of his beating heart; it almost hurt as it hammered harder against his ribcage.

"Let's have a little fun at first," one of the others said, freaking sitting at a fence like some other weird frog, already licking his lips hungrily "I like to break such confidence to pieces before feasting at their burning blood, licking it off from their gurgling throat, slowly emptying their veins from any life."

His captor smirked, then grinned." I like that idea. That girl in there were too easy." He pulled his leg, almost sending Sanji out of balance "I like a little fun before enjoying my dessert fully. Let's play the cats after the mouse." It then said to their blond prey, staring joyfully into his blue eyes, as it pulled him closer. Sanji hammered his fists against the other's hand, scratched, ripped, tried to tear it off his leg, but for no use. It grabbed his face to make sure that he was listening. There was blood on the thing's lips, blood there soon were swept away by a just as red a tongue, "We're it…!"

Sanji stumbled to the ground at the sudden los of support grasping his leg. He hurried to get up and away, but stood still as he realised that he was utterly alone in the dark street. Not daring to push his luck he took off down along it, limping just the slightest after the crunching grasp around his shin.

He ran, perplexed of what else to do other than run. A phone. He needed a phone! No, he couldn't bring some other innocent person into this, putting their life in danger just so he could call to someone who with no doubt already had left their apartment a long time ago.

Shit!

He was on his own.

He looked back to make sure that no one were pursuing him. None. Looking ahead of himself, he barely in time made it to stop abruptly before falling off an edge of a very sharp cliff, a scream emitting from his throat as he stumbled away from the life threatening danger.

"What the-?"

Stumbling back, he looked around. Trees, bushes, a dark forest, before him the wide ocean welcomed him with its roaring waters. The sky was pitch black, before emitting in sharp lights as a thunder cracked above his head, spreading out into many branches of more lightning. Where the heck was he? This sure as hell wasn't Kirsebærhaven anymore.

He backed away, looking confused around himself before turning around to run off in some random direction, only to almost get hit by a car in full speed, the side of the car just barely gracing against his abdomen, the wind following it ripping in his hair and clothes. Sanji backed away, grasping at his stomach to make sure that nothing too harmful had happened, and thankfully, he had been hit by nothing but the shock.

He was standing at the side of a road this time, a familiar road though, that he remembered to have driven down at less than fifteen minutes ago –or was it longer? He didn't know.

This was with no doubt their doing in their try to freak the hell shit out of him.

And it was freaking working!

Looking back, he didn't recognise the place again – an illusion upon another illusion, was it how the street at Kirsebærhaven once were filled with cars and suddenly empty for every single soul?

"Scared, human?" Sanji jumped and immediately pulled away from where the voice came from.

Nothing. No one was there.

A chuckle rumbled through the empty street –wait, it changed again? He took a step, a car whooshed past him, taking the surroundings with it, the screech of the angered horn disappearing in the distance. Sanji grabbed his arm in a tight grasp were pain exploded from, thanks to the wing mirror this time had slammed into his arm on its way passing him.

There was heavy traffic, this time Sanji found himself standing in the middle of the road, passing cars honking at him, curses where thrown his way about him being a maniac and to get the hell off the road. "Crazy shit! Watch where you're going!" One yelled as a yellow Hyundai lurched to the side to avoid running him down.

Sanji stared horrified around himself, no idea of where to go or how to get off the suddenly busy street, no idea of which cars were real and which were not.

Hallucinations mixed with reality?

How was that even possible?

Stepping back while digging his fingers into his painful bare arm, he saw a car rushing past him, but didn't feel the wind of it. A hallucination. The next one was definitely not a hallucination as the high speed almost make him tumble.

A new lightning cracked in the distance again, deafening the surrounding sounds around him.

Swallowing hard he took the chance and leapt out. He was almost at the other side of the street, as a truck suddenly appeared, its front lights making everything blurring in a painful light, as it honked warningly at him. Sanji could no way make it to the side in time and stood there, frozen to the place, literally, since it felt like his feet had become one with the concrete. He shielded his eyes for the sharp light as he waited for the many tons heavy metal blasting right into him.

Instead, it blasted right through him. The wind roared around him as it blew the remaing truck and the busy road away. Daring to open his eyes, he found himself standing safely at the verge beside an almost empty road.

He let out a breath he didn't even know that he was holding. Shit, that was scary.

"You can almost dance to the sound of your heartbeat, you know?" Sanji twisted around to face one of the things that slowly emerged from out of nowhere. It clapped in its hands to emphasize his heart speed rating, there was exact in each beat. "Almost make me want to dance tango, you know?"

Sanji stepped back, slowly, then faster to get as far a distance as possible from the, from the…thing.

"Ah, I wouldn't step that far behind if I were you, but I'm not, so I shouldn't care."

The ground suddenly disappeared under his one foot, he lost his balance and felt himself falling, falling and falling. The scream came late, just two seconds before his back slammed into solid ground, successfully hammering all the air out of his lungs. He gasped greedily for the much needed air, but it seemed like that nothing would get consumed by his lungs. He was choking, already felt his lips turning blue. Easy breathing, calm breathing, why couldn't he figure out how to do just that? He wheezed painfully as a gram of air finally found its way down into his lungs, shaken he took a couple of mouthfuls more; finally feeling the lungs being filled with the blessing air. Looking up it was of no wonder that his back almost felt like it was broken. That was a good twenty feet of straight fall that he just had taken. The back crunched painfully as he made to try to move. It hurt, but it was bearable.

"This is getting a bit of boring in the length." A grumping growl said above his head. He stared up in surprise, finding one of those creatures staring boringly down at him in his crouch, arms laying lazily over each knee. "Why not just finish this off and eat him?"

Sanji made to get up, but was soon pushed back down by a strong hand. He tried to move but was locked in place.

"Stay still, kid." The creature mumbled to him, this time not looking at him but at his arriving followers. Sanji didn't listen and of course tried to move to get out, but was still held firmly in place. The fist on his shoulder clenching in on itself as it pressed harder down against his shoulder collar, feeling the bones creaking under the pressure. "I mean it kid!" the thing above him growled silently, as if afraid for the others to hear him.

"Always so brutal, aren't you, Raphael?" One of them spoke, Sanji couldn't see who, not even when he tried to crane his neck back. "You almost speak like we're one of those lousy dirty crawling mongrel."

"It's not far from. Drinking a man's blood till his body is empty is like eating his soul raw."

Another one chuckled.

"So melodramatic, so melodramatic as always, aren't you?"

This so-called Raphael-thing smirked and stood up, pulling the blond man with him up by the shoulder. Sanji groaned in pain and tried to get free as soon as his feet touched the ground "I'm just an impatience character." Raphael said shaking the human "Just like this is." He opened his mouth showing off two fangs, before said fangs embedded through the blonde's neck. Sanji's eyes widened and he gulped in surprise at the sudden attack. He tried to pull free, but two strong hands grabbed both his arms tight, as he suddenly felt a wall slam against his back. He was trapped between that and the heavy body in front of him. He felt dizzy, almost aroused as he felt blood rush through and out his veins, as he felt teethes embed deeper through his skin, those raw lips press softly against his flushed flesh and the mouth sucking his blood greedily.

He panicked.

There were pain but at the same time it somehow felt good in a wrong way, it was hard to explain. It shouldn't feel so good to die like this. It was supposed to be horrible painful.

The body in front of him pressed him fully up against the wall, trapping him successfully as he squirmed to get free. He whined in protest.

There was laugher coming from somewhere.

"Standing like that it almost looks like that you're molesting the human. Should we return back when you're done fucking him as well?"

Raphael groaned and tore away from the bleeding neck as he glared at his three other comrades. Sharp nails dug into Sanji's shoulders, ruby-red where shining in the vampire's eyes, red flowed down from his lips, his blood. Sanji couldn't stop being entranced by it while the creatures argued. Then one of the others where there, panting heavily "You're wasting all the good food." The thing moaned as it leapt out a tongue to lick the running blood away. Sanji jerked, suddenly fully aware of the situation again.

"Let me, let me GO!"

"Oh, it can still speak." A third one said, getting closer. Sanji squirmed in his captor's hold. "Nice," it said as it licked its lips "for a moment I feared that there would be no screaming at all." It came up to them and grabbed his captor's hand, squeezing until the bones where crunching under its hold. Raphael let go in the end when the fingers started to squeeze through his fist, the sound was disgusting listening to. Raphael moaned in pain and choked on his own scream, as they pushed him roughly aside. "Run, human," It said as it leaned in close to his face, licking its lips hungrily "run as fast as you can, before we'll eat you up right here, right now. If you escape us tonight, you're free. If not, your life is ours, deal? Five minutes of free run."

Sanji didn't answer, didn't move before the two creatures stepped back, ensuring that he was free to run. He moved his hand up to his neck, when he took the hand back it was full with blood. The vampire beside him took his hand and licked it clean, moaning by the taste "You better should run now before we'll loose it to your wonderful smell and taste." It said "There's only that much time we can keep us self at bay before ripping you apart."

Sanji didn't spill a second longer, before he ripped his hand away and tore off down the street, running, running as had he the devil hot on is tail.

In addition, it was almost true.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Raphael cursed throwing a hand in the human's direction "We already got him, god damn it!"

"Weird to call his name when you're at his Hate-list," the vampire with ebony hair said as he licked his hand for any traces of blood, almost like some stupid cat.

"Shut up, Kuro! I mean, what the hell? We-"

"Don't worry," Belami chuckled "He's an easy catch. Let him get his stupid pathetic hopes up before we'll tear him apart."

"Mmm, sounds like a delicious plan…!" the third one said as he licked his lips, Raphael didn't bother to even remember the psycho's name, he'd rather tear his head off his shoulders... if only he could.

— «»»««» —

His lungs felt like as if they were burning, from his throat wheezing sounds emitted as he ran as fast as he could, he grabbed his right side as a side stitch grew and spread in an immensely speed. No, not a side stitch. He didn't have time to stop up and let it ease away, but pressing forward only made it worse till the end where he barely could move forward. He had to stop; he was forced to stop by his own body. Leaning against a wall bathed in deep shadows he wheezed for the much needed air, he turned around and planted a fist against the brick wall while the other hand grasped his pained abdomen. It was a long time since he last had suffered from a side stitch and each time he forgot how painful it actually felt.

He only had five minutes of sprint before they would come. Five minutes and at least half of the time had gone; he couldn't afford to waste any more of it.

He gulped, panted as he tried to take slow breath of air. His fingers were trembling, his whole body where shaking and his left arm jerked, exploding in pain every time he tried to move it just the slightest. The wing mirror had cracked right into his elbow, with no doubt not only paralyzed the whole arm but breaking it somewhat.

Slowly calming down the side stitch, he moved slowly up to a full stretch, finding the pain had finally subsided.

Five minutes.

He only had one minute left before they would come after him.

One minute left… before he would die!

He sobbed. The fear, the reality growing in his throat threatened to choke him slowly. Sanji moved at full speed. No matter of what, he couldn't give up like that, he had to live! He wanted to live!

He had to meet up with his friends as he had promised. He had promised it!

He tore down the streets. He had an idea to get rid of them. Apparently they didn't like any kind of disturbance nor witnesses, else they wouldn't have made that hallucination with all those cars filling up the street or turned the radio to the highest of levels so no one, if someone by any chance should pass by, would be able to hear her scre-

His heart wrenched in pain. If just he had come sometime earlier instead, he would gladly had given his life to save her back then, so she could call for help, get away, be alive.

Time ticked away, the seconds slowed down, he almost could feel the clock's second-hand closing in on the last few seconds, until, until it reached the last second and stopped, echoing it's end through the night, echoing his end through the streets. The bells from the church far off in the distance only confirmed the end of his time, the beginning of his doom.

Growls were heard in the night, Sanji did nothing to slow down to look around, quite the opposite. His leg muscles were starting to get sore, but he kept on pressing himself forward.

A thunder stroked across the sky, a fine drizzle of rain started to fall around him, the humid air pulsing in time with his own heart.

And suddenly… they were there. He could hear them; he could see their dark shades jumping above him, from rooftop to freaking rooftop. Sanji almost jumped out of his own skin as one suddenly jumped down to crawl along the walls like some kind of a spider. As it jumped towards him, he ducked in time, skidded to a halt and turned around, choosing another path to follow.

There were chuckles echoing in the air, there were mugging words to one of the creatures for being outsmarted by a simple human. The houses started to change, he were getting closer to the middle of the town were there would be people, were he would be save.

Or so he thought.

"So, you think that you can outsmart me, little human?" Sanji saw the strike coming and managed to step aside just in time before the claws whooshed mere millimetres past his shoulder.

He turned around a corner and then yet another corner, their growls where getting further away, he was getting further away from them. Finally not hearing them anymore, Sanji slowed down to catch his breath, leaning up against a wall for support; his leg muscles were burning and threatened to give up underneath his weight at any moment. His throat burned, lungs were numb, taking in gulps of air felt like it was tearing up his insides, making them bleed.

"Time's up." Sanji threw himself off the wall only to stare horrified at the person standing right beside him. The thing smiled down at him, its comrades jumped down from somewhere above them, landing on their feet like cats, few feet behind their fellow creature. Their eyes were gleaming devilish red in the night. The one before him with tousled blond hair licked its thin lips "We win," it said as it took a step forward, making Sanji step back as well, the ominous smile widening till the sharp long pointy teethes were visible. "You lose!"

And then, they all attacked at once.

Sanji didn't stand a chance against them all at the same time, even though he really tried to fight them off, kick them, even hit them with his precious hands, bite them, nodded them nastily, but nothing worked.

Fangs flashed for his eyes, the hisses, the roars whispering in his ears, deafening his mind. Claws ripped in his flesh, tore his clothes off, ripped it into pieces, and he fought… and he lost.

They were all too strong, they were all too powerful for him to handle and Sanji let out one bloodcurdling scream after another horrifying bloodcurdling scream as teethes embedded his flesh, tore it open, made the blood run down his chest, his neck, they bit, here, there, everywhere. Drank his blood, toasted on his misery body -yet another success. It hurts. It's horrible. He screams, his throat turns raw, bleeding... like the rest of his body.

He falls some when, knocks his head hard down into the concrete, but the pain from where they bites him, sucks his blood into their mouths, drinks it, empties his body for every single drop of life, are more painful than the hit to his head. Nails embedding into the cooling concrete he tries to push away, but the pain are far too much excruciating. They tear his T-shirt fully into pieces, and then lashes out for his shoulders and his arms as well.

He's fading away, dying, he horrified realises. Everything blurs out into that horrible bliss of pain and that other feeling that he can't figure out what is, that other feeling there have become a part of him. Eventually he stops screaming and only listens to their sucking sounds, their satisfied moans as they empties him, drinks him, kills him. He doesn't even know if he's already dead or not. His whole vision his smeared out into one big mess, beside… beside one single dark-green spot there so much reminds him of Zoro. His name is on his lips, a whisper to the wind, a wish to the skies cracking above them, lightning the dark streets up, the same streets there is going to become his grave.

So much… there was so much he wanted to do in life, so many places to see, so many people to meet and make happy.

His name ends on his lips again in a deep sob. The beats of his heart slows down into nothing.

He cries or maybe it's the rain falling upon his face there slides down his chins.

Then there are two pointy teethes embedding his throat again, deeper than all the other bites, takes the last drops, before… before he feels something soft, something warm press against his cold blue lips. Heavy tired eyes moves up to the form before him, looks up at the green lush of hair –so familiar- "…Zo…" he breathes out, he's barely there anymore, barely alive, maybe even dead, he doesn't even know. The softness is pressing insistent against his lips, the taste of something metallic yet sweet drops into his mouth. He's looking up again, like on a demand he stares at the blurred version of Zoro. No, not Zoro, that other guy. That other creature.

That Vampire!

"Drink." He offers quietly, Sanji stares silently at him, he wasn't even sure that he heard right, since the words mostly was heard in his head like a command, rather than hearing the word through his ears. He was already numb from the other creatures biting. "Drink," the green-haired –what was his name again? Ra? Rasmus? Raphie-something? Why was it even important to him?- said urgently again "then we're even."

Sanji slowly opens his mouth, but hesitates. Why was it that he should drink?

"To live." The green-haired vampire answers in a whisper, oh, did he really say that out loud? Apparently he had. Sanji encloses his lips around the bleeding wrist, he couldn't help himself, it was more like he was being told to do it, commanded. He drinks, it tastes horrible, but only in the beginning, then the taste changes and with a little renewed power he grabs the wrist in his own trembling hand and sucks the blood greedily down into his throat. He feels the red liquid run all the way down his throat, all the way into his stomach, his intestines, spreading out through the mucous membranes out into his system, filling it up with new blood. "You're one little greedy thing, aren't you." He doesn't listen, only hums as the warm feeling spreads and he sucks harder, wants more, much more of that taste of life, before… before he feels the world enclosing in on him, darkening "Oh, by the way, now it's gonna hurt like hell." and explodes into a horrible excruciating pain there sends him twisting and screaming his lungs out.

Everything blurs out into nothingness, he sees nor hears anything else but that sharp white light blinding him and filling his ears with a loud white noise, there makes every bone in his body to crackle, every molecule to bristle, every nerve to spasm like in an epileptic attack.

Everything hurts.

Everything burns.

He thought that there would be a chance to live…

But instead… he ended up in a 24-hour long hell of pain and agony.

…Before…

…before he truly died…!

«»»««» —

Something grabs his arms, shakes them violently, but he is too engrossed in the pain enfolding inside of him, burning him up, kills him again and again. The fangs biting him, those ruby red eyes mocking him, those mouths laughing at him. That burning feeling.

"…ji…"

"Sa… ji…!"

"…n…"

Something creeps up into his hair and grabs it tight, grabs him tight, he fights, though he does not put all his strength into it. He's whimpering, he know, he knows that he is crying as well. He's deaf to those voices far away, to that certain voice calling from the distance.

"Sanji!"

Sanji gulps and silences at once at the bellowing command of his name right into his ear. His eyes are wide and flicks unfocused around the place. The first thing he realises is that he does not recognise the place. The second thing he realises is that someone is holding him, someone furry and big. The third thing he realises is his own hands, his own fingers pulling painfully in his own hair, testing its roots to their limit.

The fourth thing he realises, beside being fully naked, is that he does actually know this place.

It was his home.

His bathroom.

Was it all just a nightmare?

"Sanji!"

Snapping his head up the fifth and last thing that he realises is who the calling voice there pulled him out of that dream belongs to. He opens his mouth, but no words comes out. As he sits there staring over the fury shoulder of a wolf, werewolf-thing, there's holding him in place, he stares at the form he thought only existed as a ghost, though he had been told otherwise. The ghost stands unsure on its legs, grasping the doorframe with a wise grip -the forest-green hair is the only thing there stands clearly out for his eyes, for his sanity.

"Zh… Zo… Zoro?" he tests out carefully.

The frame, the ghost sighs in relief and smiles tired at him.

No… not a ghost.

"Thank god that you're back, blondie."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

To be continued

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Authors Note:

A little history lesson from what I've mentioned in this story:

*Depeche mode (source; Wikipedia)

An English Electronic music band there was formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan (lead vocals, occasional songwriter since 2005), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andy Fletcher (keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980–81). Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, Speak & Spell, and was replaced by Alan Wilder, (keyboards, drums, occasional songwriter) with Gore taking over songwriting. Wilder left the band in 1995; Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have since continued as a trio.

Depeche Mode have had 49 songs in the UK Singles Chart and thirteen top 10 albums in the UK charts, two of which debuted at No. 1. According to EMI, Depeche Mode have sold over 100 million albums and singles worldwide, making them the most successful electronic band in music history. Q magazine calls Depeche Mode "The most popular electronic band the world has ever known" and included the band in the list of the "50 Bands That Changed The World!" VH1 ranked the group no. 98 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

**Sankt Hans Aften (Saint Hans Eve)

The evening of June 23 Sankt Hans Aften (St Hans Eve) is the Danish translated saint's name of the holy Johannes Døberen (St John the Baptist (St. John's Eve)). In Nordic traditions, this day is being celebrated the evening before the Feast day of St. John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:36, 56–57) states that St. John was born about six months before Jesus birth at December 24th, therefore the feast of St. Hans (John the Baptist) was fixed on June 24th, six months before Christmas. This feast day is one of the very few saints' days to mark the supposed anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of the saint commemorated. The day is therefore called Sankt Hans Dag (St. Hans Day/St. John's Eve)

Saint Hans Eve has a lot in common with Valborgnatten and is assumingly the Danish version of this tradition. The Feast of St. John (The Feast of St. Hans) also coincides with the June solstice also referred to as Midsummer.

Like Christmas Eve, Saint Hans Eve is a relic of pagan practices, where the years shortest day, winter solstice, and the years longest day, summer solstice, where celebrated. Christian Missionaries and priests got reinterpreted the old customs and traditions, so they could use to spread out the Christianity. In the 7th hundred Saint Eligius warned the capita of new Christians in Flandern against to keep on cultivate pagan rituals;

"No Christian performs at Johannes Døberens feast (Saint John the Baptist feast) or by any other saint's feast solstice rituals, dancing thing, bounce or diabolical songs."

Funny thing to say, when that is somewhat what this evening, there is the most important of the midsummer festivals in the Nordic, is about; music, dancing and drinking.

In the old days they believed that the midsummer eve was full with magical nature powers -both evil and good. All herbs and sources were especially holy, and it was tradition to seek up these holy sources or to pluck healing herbs on this particularly eve. At Sankt Hans Eve were many Holy Sources magical healing powers strongest and people pilgrimages to these in the sources-hours, there started at St. Hans Eve and ended on Frue Dag (The Mam's day; a celebration of Mother Maria, Jesus mother) 2end of July. In some places of the country it was tradition to go to the holy trees at this time and there, like on Lolland-Falster, weave garlands there then should be put up into these holy trees.

On the bonfire it is tradition to put up a doll there looks like a witch. According to tradition the witches were supposed to fly to Bloksbjerg in Harzen, Germany on St. Hans Eve and night. Some thinks that both the bonfire and the witches are a new tradition comming from the German craftsmen, there in the 1860's visited Kalundborg, but in Joachim Junges book he writes that it wasn't that really true. True there had existed burning witches on bonfires in Danish History, but it did not influence any of the midsummer festivities, even so that the farmers there burned these bonfires on this eve, did believed that witches existed. The meaning with the bonfire was to scare away witches and other evil spirits, instead of burning them.

Today St. Hans Eve is being celebrated all over the country, both in public and private parties. Typically such an eve includes a speech from mostly the town's major or a very well-known person in that particular area. Then at 9 o'clock in the evening, they lit the bonfire and while the flames licks up against the midsummer evening, people sing a certain song called "Midsommervise" The Midsummer Lullaby, there comes from Holger Drachmann's musicplay "Der var engang" (Once upon a time). But in 1980's the Danish music group Shu-bi-dua made this song more rhythmic and was then used since then, some places in Denmark they have returned back to Holger Drachmann's original song. After that the people dances, drinks, haves some fun and parties all till midnight where –at some places in Denmark- fireworks lights the sky to mark the end of this special evening.