*Author's Note: So, this is the chapter where I start to more follow the story line of the anime and manga. There will still be extra scenes that I have written, but part of what I'm trying to do is be able to empathize and put thoughts into words on paper, so there are going to be plenty of familiar scenes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I love writing it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Knight.
Later that week, I was sleeping in my dorm room. It was early in the morning. I was rudely awakened by a knock at the door. I ignored it, hoping whoever it was would just leave. They didn't.
"Zero?" I heard. It was the voice of Yuki. Even though I was always happy to see Yuki, I was not happy that it was so early in the morning.
"Zero you need to get up," she said, right beside my bed now. When I didn't move, she tousled my hair a little and laughed lightly, saying, "Come on Zero, if you don't get up now you'll sleep through the whole day like a vampire!" she said, much too cheerful for this time in the morning. I groaned at her terrible joke that hit too close to home for me. Taking my groan as a refusal to get out of my bed, she looked insulted, and instead resorted to extreme measures to get me up.
Before I could act, the covers were ripped mercilessly from my body, causing me to groan again. She then grabbed my bare shoulder with her hand and shook me violently. "Get UP Zero!" she was shouting now. It was almost funny.
"Fine, fine, I'm coming. What's the rush anyway?" I asked, slowly sitting up in bed and stretching.
"The headmaster asked us to come to his house this morning," she said, sounding a little less thrilled than before. Yet again, I groaned. This was not going to be fun.
"I'll meet you there," I said, knowing I couldn't allow her to see me take a blood tablet.
"It's ok, I'll stay and wait for you," she said, smiling at me. I had to come up with something.
"Unless you want to see me naked when I have to change into my clothes I suggest you get a move on," I said, smirking at her shocked face and bright red cheeks.
"So…I'll see you there!" she said, and quickly made her exit.
After sitting through the painfully long breakfast the headmaster had made for us, he had told us that it was time for us to do dorm inspections of both the sun and the moon dorm. Later, we had checked the day class students' rooms, only to find countless pictures, artifacts and other things reminiscent of the night class students. We were forced to confiscate them all. It was tedious work, but I was comforted by the fact that the moon dormitory would no doubt be much easier to search, as they would almost certainly not have anything belonging to the day class students. Vampires didn't have much need for humans, besides for their blood.
While I was waiting for Yuki to find me so we could do the moon dorm inspection, I went to sit under a large tree next to the school building. I was tired from being woken up so early, so I closed my eyes, attempting to rest. I must have dozed off, because I woke up to the sound of some birds chirping above me. As I got my bearings, I realized I needed to take a blood tablet. I took the tablet out and was about to put one of the disgusting pills into my hand when I heard Yuki's voice not far away from my spot under the tree.
"Zero! Are you skipping out on work again?" she asked me, the sound of her voice getting closer. As quickly as I could, I slipped the blood tablet back into a small pocket that was on the inside of the front of my jacket. I was pretty sure she hadn't seen.
"I'm already finished with it," I stated, putting my hands in my pockets and walking away. She just stood there, not moving. I didn't know what was wrong with me, but I did know if I didn't get away from her right now I would end up sucking her blood. I quickened my pace, intending to get out of there, but she caught my arm, so I was forced to relax my muscles once again. "Have you forgotten about searching the moon dorm?" she asked me. I cursed, remembering that we still needed to do that. Without a word, I turned and let her pull me along towards the moon dorm. We walked in silence until we were at the gates before the moon dormitory.
"We've never been inside the moon dorm before…I'm a little nervous. Are you?" she asked me. I ignored her. I didn't want her to know that I was. This search meant that I would be in close proximity to the vampires, and lately I had been very unstable and pugnacious around the night class students.
As we walked through the gates, a rather creepy old man looked up at us from his seat at the gate, most likely guarding it.
"Um…hi there…we just—" Yuki started to say, but she was interrupted by the man's gruff voice.
"You're from the disciplinary committee. Go ahead," he stated in a gravelly voice. We started walking again in silence towards the building.
As we started on the stairs up to the doorway, Yuki ran ahead of me a few steps, turning around so she was at the same height as me. "Oh. Hold on," she said, evidently just remembering something.
"Before we go inside, I wanna see what it is you shoved in your pocket earlier," she said, hands on her hips as if she knew she had caught me in the act. For a moment I didn't know what she was talking about, and then I remembered the tablets I had tried to hide from her. I tried to keep the shock from showing on my face, but I don't think it worked. She stared hard at me, waiting for my answer. I guiltily looked away. This was not good. If she found out what I had in my pocket, she could easily piece together the story and realize what I was.
"You're hiding something aren't you?" she asked me accusingly. "As part of the disciplinary committee there's a moral code that—" she was stopped mid-sentence as she somehow lost her balance, her foot slipping and her fragile body heading straight towards the ground.
I rushed to catch her and succeeded, landing on the ground with her on top of me. I was so annoyed that I didn't realize she had reached her tiny fingers into the front of my jacket, taking the container of pills out for examination. My eyes widened as I realized it was too late.
She giggled. "Guess I've got it now!" she chirped. Looking at the package, the smile melted off her face. "What is this? Medicine?" she asked me quietly. I did the only thing I could think to do and snatched the pills from her hand. I was so angry at myself for letting her see them.
"It's none of your business, ok?" I said threateningly. The only thing I could do for her now was drive her away. It was in her best interest to have nothing to do with me anymore. I walked away.
From behind me, I heard her calling, but I ignored it. I needed to leave. This was too close to her finding out. I made a snap decision to go into town. She wouldn't think to look for me there. She would be safe from me.
As I walked into town, I saw a small, family owned restaurant. I suddenly realized that I hadn't eaten since that morning and decided to treat myself. I walked in and sat down at the high seats near the front of the restaurant. I ordered the first thing I saw off the menu and waited for it to be made.
After a short time, the cook pushed a large bowl towards me. "Here you go," he said cheerfully. "You look a little down and out, so I threw in a boiled egg, on the house," he stated, a trace of pity in his voice. I didn't mind it though; this random act of kindness had helped to lift my mood ever so slightly.
I ate my dinner in silence, trying not to think of what had just happened, and if Yuki suspected anything. It hurt too much to think of it.
Out of nowhere, I felt, rather than heard, Yuki scream. I couldn't explain it, but in that moment, I knew beyond any doubt that she was in serious trouble, and that I needed to go to her. Not caring that I had yet to pay for my food, I ran out, ignoring the man's questions and accusations. None of that mattered right now.
I ran, faster than I think I had ever run before, and I stopped on a stone walkway in town. Waiting for some clue to where Yuki had gone, I sniffed the air and smelled her blood. I found the tiny pool of red on the ground close by and brought the liquid to my nose on my fingers just to make sure it really was Yuki's blood, though I had no doubt. I would know her scent anywhere.
Just as I was examining the blood and trying very hard to stop myself from licking my fingers like an animal, something dropped on me from above. With my unparalleled reflexes, I pushed it off of me before its full weight crashed onto me. It was thrown all the way back against the wall ten feet away. As it slowly looked up, I realized what it was and tried to keep my disgust from showing.
"I see," I said, pointing the Bloody Rose, my vampire hunting gun, at the creature. "You've already lost your link to humanity, haven't you?" I asked it, though I doubted it could understand me. I would have bet my life that this thing was what Yuki had run into. That only increased my anger.
As the crazed vampire ran towards me, I put my finger on the trigger, ready to shoot, but at the last minute, I pulled my gun up, making the creature stop in its tracks. It looked at me hungrily for a second until understanding seemed to flash across its eyes.
"You…one of us…one of us…" it said in a gravelly, half-insane voice. I covered up my surprise that it had spoken to me as I registered what it had said. It had called me one of them. One of the level E's that devoured humans, like Yuki, without a thought. My anger boiled over. I couldn't contain myself anymore.
"Shut up!" I shouted furiously at the level E, shooting the gun at it and simultaneously knocking me back a step from the force of the gun going off. When I regained my balance, the level E had fallen to the ground, no more than a pile of dust. But standing in its place was another, this one only a boy. I had a sudden flash of memory of my twin brother Ichiru. I whispered his name, my eyes wide.
The boy let out a crazed cackle and bounded up the side of the building in front of me before I could shoot him. He jumped into a window at the top of the building. That was when I heard the scream. Yuki's scream.
"Yuki!" I yelled, hoping that by some small chance she would hear me and know that I was coming to save her. I ran around the building, which I now realized was an old bell tower, and tried to find the entrance.
I could see the entrance right around the corner, but as I was nearing it, the bell started ringing. To my highly sensitive ears, the sound reverberated around in my head, causing me to cover my ears and kneel down in pain. I opened my eyes just in time to see Kaname calmly walking into the tower's entrance. Just before he did, he looked right at me, a look of pity in his cold eyes as he smiled the slightest smile I had ever seen. My blood boiled.
He was going to save Yuki. I was glad that at least someone was going to help her, but why did it have to be him? And shouldn't he be running or something? Yuki could die at any moment and he had the audacity to calmly walk up the numerous flights of stairs to her. Not to mention, how had he found out she was in trouble? And if he knew, why had he not gotten here sooner? The only reason I hadn't was because I only sensed it when I was in the restaurant. I hated him with every fiber of my being. There was something about him that I just didn't like at all.
As the bell's chimes died down, I was able to compose myself and start to run up the stairs. Although I had no doubt Kaname would get to her first, I needed to make sure Yuki was ok. She had to be ok. If she died now, after our fight thinking that I hated her—
I mentally yelled at myself. Yuki was not going to die. I wouldn't let her. I was almost to the top of the last flight of stairs when I heard Kaname's voice.
"…the person you've chosen to hurt is someone very dear to me," he said emotionlessly. Suddenly there was a powerful blast and I heard the level E boy scream as he was thrown down a hole in the floor that went all the way to the bottom of the clock tower.
"Kaname…what just…" Yuki said breathlessly, clearly in awe at the vampire's power. It was disgusting.
"It's over now," he stated.
"That boy…he was…" she said timidly, a question in her voice.
"Level E," Kaname said, a hint of disgust in his voice.
"Level E? So does that mean he wasn't a vampire then?" Yuki asked hopefully. I laughed humorlessly from my place on the stairs below them. She had thought that vampires were all beautiful, controlled beings. Well, at least this may teach her that she needed to be more careful.
"No. They are vampires as well," Kaname stated, answering her question.
"Yeah, but he—" she was cut off most likely by Kaname touching her in some way, as her heart began to beat very rapidly and her breath hitched slightly.
"You're a bad girl. What were you thinking, coming to a dangerous place like this all by yourself?" he asked. I hated the way he said it. Yuki's breath caught again, probably as a result of him touching her again.
"I came here because I was trying to find Zero," she said softly, making my heart stop. She had come after me? Then this whole thing could have been avoided if I hadn't run away from her? I couldn't believe how stupid she'd been, coming into town alone just to look for me.
"Well I'm afraid he isn't here, he's back at the dorm," he said, and I bristled at the outright lie he was telling to her. Something about his tone made me sense that he knew I had been listening the whole time, and that I was still there. "I'll walk you back. With the scent of your blood, it's too risky for you to be out alone," he said, but his voice implied that it was too risky for her to be out with me.
Although this made my temper flare yet again, I knew deep down he was right. I was already struggling to control myself with the tiny bit of residue of her blood that was left on my fingers from earlier. It would be very dangerous for her to be with me now. I silently got up and ran down the stairs and out of the clock tower, heading back to the campus and my dorm room to be alone.
*Ugh. So the first time I watched the anime, I utterly hated Kaname. I guess with the multiple times I've watched it now and everything, I understand him better and I don't hate him as much…but something about him still bugs me. But anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you ever so much for reading! Let me know your thoughts!