My father was Count of this area in Transylvania. He had become pretty powerful by defeating the Turks in the battlefield a couple of times and getting more land in return. I was around ten years old back then. The successful wars brought us wealth and wealth brought us respect. When I turned sixteen years old by father passed away out of tuberculosis and so everything he had passed onto me, including his title, his lands and his subjects. Even if I was so young, I had already become one of the most famous rulers in the Carpathians and even my father's enemies wouldn't dare to come against me.

Half a year after I inherited my father, came her… Lady Sylvia Stregoica. She belonged to a very old bloodline of the Wallach nations of the Carpathians, those who is said to be descendants of the Dacians. Our marriage was pre-arranged even before she was born. Her father, lord Ivan, had made an agreement with my father the day I was born that if his wife ever gave him a daughter, that daughter to be married with me. The girl was 12 years old when brought to me and she was beautiful like a rosebud. She had already "bloomed" as a woman a few days back so she was ready to become my bride. Our marriage took place the spring of the same year. She was the most beautiful maiden that day. And I, Seto Valerious Kaiba fell in love with a woman for the first time.

In the beginning our relationship was almost typical. I could tell she cared about herself and her appearance a lot. She never woke up before it became one o' clock and she asked for her breakfast to be brought to her bed. She had brought with her, her nanny and a couple of servant girls who took care of her in the morning while she breakfasted. She sometimes joined me for a walk in the gardens or for evening tea or brandy by the fire where we would talk about our dreams and interest. I couldn't imagine how it was possible but I continued falling for her more and more. I held her precious, as precious as I haven't hold anything in my life…

I offered her everything, anything she would ask for; a chamber in the West Wing of my castle, so the rays of the sun wouldn't touch her white epidermis in the room, maids, the best cooks in the Carpathians, jewelry, gems, diamonds, gold, expensive dresses… I offered her everything only to see her smile, only to see her happy. As she was growing up she was becoming all the more beautiful and her voice was like coming from heaven. She loved music and dancing. I would play the organ for her and she would sing for me… She loved walking outside in the gardens, especially to the rose bunches, which she particularly loved… Back then I thought I had everything; wealth, fame and now a beautiful wife that offered me so much happiness…

However, it was written by fate my happiness turn into ashes in my mouth…my love turn into repulse and deprivation…my world to become unbearable… Sylvia was soon proved to be like all, powerful and of noble blood people, especially when blessed with such a beauty like she was. I soon realized she was spoilt, selfish and arrogant. She always wanted to have celebrations, balls, people surrounding her all the time so she could always show her beauty and skills off.

In the beginning I was willing to satisfy her requests but soon I stopped, knowing that our vaults didn't contain never-ending gold and I had also my lands to rule and take care of. I had subjects to rule and lands to protect and keep fertile and ready for the next year's crops. She wouldn't understand, or better, she never cared about it. All she cared for was herself, her fame and her good time. The problems of the area was hardly her concern, the amount of money getting into our vaults barely passed her mind. She always cared for what she showed and not for what we should do…

We got to fights really often till one day…we got in a fight.

Seto Kaiba and Sylvia were fighting and yelling at each other at the head of the stairway. The fight seemed to be very intense. Suddenly Seto Kaiba made a sudden move that surprised the Lady who stumbled backwards and her heel got dangerously outside the small step. Her arms flew at the sides, waving desperately, in a despairing attempt to re-gain balance but eventually gravity won and after remaining there, hovering to the end of the step for a couple of seconds, she fell backwards.

Seto Kaiba's eyes widened in pure fear and rushed forward, attempting reaching her, catching her before she fell but it was too late. His fingers close around thin air and Lady Sylvia fell, releasing an eardrum-breaking shriek. She stumbled over the steps and hit again and again before rolling to the base of the staircase, where she landed on her back and she remained completely still, her eyes wide open in the last, terrified expression and her lips half-open, an illusion of her last, desperate scream.

Seto Kaiba was left speechless and completely frozen at the top of the stairs, his eyes widened in shock. No, this wasn't what he wanted! He didn't mean to do this to her! Surpassing his first shock he ran down the stairs, running at her, to see if she was still alive, if there was the slightest devilish chance that she was alive…

When he reached her, blood had already started to pool around her, staining her beautiful, crème gown and her silky hair. Her eyes were incredibly still and dead. Her chest wasn't moving up and down with her breath any longer. He kneeled down next to her, for his legs could not hold him any longer and held her in his arms for a second. He looked at his palm. It was red by blood. His clothes were also soaked with it. No, he didn't mean to do this. He didn't mean becoming a murderer… He didn't mean killing the woman he had once loved… Still completely ruined by what he had done, and scared for some reason he couldn't put his finger on, he ran away from her dead body, upstairs. He wasn't sure what he was afraid of…perhaps of the Divine Punishment, or perhaps his gut that was sending him a bad feeling about this…

But I didn't know back then…that someone had seen me…someone from the outside… Velkan Gardner was on duty to my gardens that day and he just happened to work from a spot that he could see through the window…and he saw the whole thing…

A man was working at the gardens. This afternoon he was taking care of the roses. He loved this job. He loved the scarlet red flowers like they were his children. His master, even though cold and sometimes cruel, he had an impressive collection of flowers and the particular roses were the gardener's favorite ones. By pure chance he raised his head from his work for a second and saw through the large window. Figures. His master and mistress were fighting once more. However suddenly his eyes widened when he saw the master actually pushing the mistress from the stairs! Then he ran after her and leaned over her… What on Earth?! What in the Devil's name had he done! He had just killed his own wife and then…what did he do! He was now leaning over her and drinking her blood! This man was into dark magic and the worst type of it! Terrified he fled towards the village without even stopping to take a breath.

The night instantly was lit by the flaming torches. The villagers grabbed anything they could use as weapon (from tools to spoons from the kitchen) and they started climbing the uphill path up like a moving serpent, like a human river made of fire, iron and pure anger. They were thinking they were off to save their village, they thought they were saving their children by a monster. They were all following Velkan Gardner, who was now drunk by his success to persuade them all and he was walking first, as the head of the mob, holding his torch high and screaming at the top of his lungs

"Come! Come with me, brothers! To the monster's lair!"

Meanwhile Seto Kaiba was downing a brandy bottle as if it were water. He wanted something to stop himself from shaking like a leaf and put his mind at ease, though in vain knowing that the body of his wife was still lieing at the base of the stairs in a pool of blood. Suddenly he heard screams. He rushed at the window and looked over towards the central gate. What he saw, even from up there and through the thick walls of his castle filled him with terror. It was a human river and they were holding torches and they seemed armed! And somehow he knew, they were coming for him! They had reached the gate now, holding a thick tree branch and a few sturdy men were now striking the metal gate with it while Velkan Gardner was encouraging them at the best his voice could make it.

"Come on! With feel! Strike!"

His eyes looked up and then their gazes met. They both knew they did even if hundreds of feet were separating them.

"There he is!" Velkan Gardner roared, "More! Faster!"

Seto Kaiba panicked. The mob was the most terrifying thing indeed. Maybe it was the alcohol inside him that made him totally panic so instead of running downstairs towards the stables to grab the first horse he would see and run for his life, he ran upstairs towards the castle's towers of the West Wing. He was running and climbing the stairs blindly, almost not knowing where he was going, with the constant rumbling of the rhythmical strikes to the gate thumping into his ears and in his raging heart.

A huge rumble echoed. The gate had fallen and the raging river of berserk peasants rushed into the castle grounds like a tide, like a torrent, going for the door. Soon in his frenzy of absolute fear, the aristocrat heard gasps and blasphemous screams. Obviously they had found her body lieing there in a pool of blood and he knew…he knew that his clothes were soaked by it as well!

Seto Kaiba ran and ran, hearing the mob behind him. His heart was hammering against his throat, his legs were suffering and his breath was rasping but he kept on half-staggering, half-running.

"There he is!" raging voices were after him making him run even faster than before, "Catch him! Don't let him get away!"

Despite his exhausted body, Seto Kaiba pressured himself to run faster and faster in his panic till he locked himself into a small room. It was somehow an attic. He ran to the tiny window and he saw…chaos. The ground should be hundreds of feet below at an endless chasm with no bottom. He was trapped like a mouse! The mob was hitting, destroying everything they could on their way and to Seto Kaiba's great desperation, the large banging reached the attic door. Soon, even this tiny last hope he had had fallen into a sea of splinters and pieces of broken wood. The mob rushed at him and grabbed him.

"No!" screamed the once proud man, "No!"

No one paid mind to his pleading. They were holding him tightly, occasionally striking him with their fists. He was struggling uncontrollably to their hands, causing their broken nails, tear his clothes and dig into his skin but he paid no mind. Right now he wasn't a human, he was a desperate animal, struggling in the arms of the hunters, in a vain chance to be set free to run away as fast as its feet would allow it.

"No! No please! Please for God's sake! No! It wasn't me! I didn't do it!"

He was begging, screaming, pride long lost to thin air as the men were carrying him through the destroyed, now, West Wing. He was struggling with countless granite statues and he knew it, but he was struggling anyway.

"For God's sake! For God's sake mercy!"

His pleading voice was trembling, his eyes were tearful and all blood seemed drained from his face in fear. Velkan Gardner was standing there, looking at him as he was brought to him. He was brought there to him, dirty, full of bruises, with his clothes torn, his characteristics distorted by fear and desperation, his eyes tearful. He was brought to that peasant, who was now arrogantly standing before him, like a prisoner, forced to kneel! Who! He who was the lord of everyone. Velkan Gardner's blue eyes were glaring at him with disgust. His large arms crossed over an even larger stomach.

"A monster like him deserves death for what he did! But hanging is a sweet death for him!"

And Seto Kaiba's eyes widened in horror as he heard his 'judge's' decision.

"Burry him alive!"

"No! No! Don't! Let me go! Let go!" Seto Kaiba was screaming.

The angry people wouldn't listen to a word of what he was saying. Four people with broad shoulders were holding the arms and legs of the poor man that was struggling to be set free by their grip. The man had chocolate hair and icy-blue eyes… Those eyes though were now full with despair and fear! The once proud and arrogant man was now struggling to get away from them…to live!

"No! Take my head off! Cut my head off but not that!"

The mob was not listening to him. The man was struggling to get free but on the other hand what could he do? He was alone and he was facing hundreds of people that were all looking at him with deadly hatred and disgust.

"This is the only death you deserve, monster! For what you did, you'll pay!"

"It wasn't me! No! Don't!"

The man's once royal-like clothes were now torn and dirty. How could this happen! How!

"I didn't kill her! I swear! It was not me!"

He was a lord, in a castle. He had lived a life that would fit to a king. He was fair to people even if he was a bit arrogant and over self-confident. He later on had obtained a wonderful and beautiful wife… Lady Sylvia and he had something more to be proud about… But then one day everything changed. The only thing he could remember was…his wife in a pool of her own blood…dead… Then the mob was already out of his castle doors, breaking the doors and rushing in like a pack of famished wolves! When all of them rushed upon him, grabbing him, all his pride flew to thin air and the only thing he wanted was to live… His punishment would be the most slow and awful death… They wanted to burry him alive…

"No!" he was screaming in their hands, "No! Pull my head out! Slash my chest and pull my heart out! But not this! No! Let me go! Let go!"

"Shut up you monster! For what you did this is the death you deserve!"

He was struggling in their hands but in vein! They were dragging him…straight to a black, open coffin! The sight of it made his eyes grow big with pure terror! It was like a big mouth that was ready to swallow him! The eyes of the people around him were shining with hatred…pure hatred like the eyes of the jackals in the middle of the night! He was alone…they were many…he was struggling…but in vein!

"No! No! Let me go! Anything but that! Anything but that!"

They mercilessly threw him in the coffin and then they shut it close!

"No! No! Please!" he heard himself pleading for the very first time in his life!

His fists were hitting the coffin! He wanted to get out! The death would be slow…slow and tormenting! And the only thing he could hear was their laughter! Their sadistic laughter! And also…he could hear the soil that was covering the coffin… He was now desperate…the air was running out! His life was running out!

"No! Please! No! Noooooooo!"

No one heard his pleading…no one heard his screams…and then…the last scream came out of his mouth…full of rage and disappointment…hate…desperation…

"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHHH!"

And then…nothing…he fell silent…forever…

Inside his coffin, Seto Kaiba was in deep darkness. His spirit seemed unable to rest, unable to leave his body. How could this have happened! How! He was always proper! How? Why had God abandoned him? Why had he suffer so much? Why should he suffer suffocation without even a proper burial?

Rage was rushing through his body. God! He was the one who made him suffer so much! God had taken away his life, his years! He had abandoned him! He had thrown him away like the hair from the dough! All he needed was one chance! One chance to pay them back for what they did to him! He raised his hand to the infinity in the absolute darkness.

He wanted to live!

And suddenly his eyes opened wide, glowing pure red. Dirt moved from the ground and the coffin came to surface once more. Its nailed cover opened slowly…and Seto Kaiba sat up into it, looking around. He drew a deep breath of the chilly air of the chapel, taking in the smells of wet soil and humidity as his non-functioning heart was still like ice in his chest. The air was traveling in his lungs though and also a strange but the same strong urge.

Thirst. Anger. Hunger and Thirst again.

Seto Kaiba stepped out of his coffin, walking out of the chapel door. The castle seemed half-dark. It was a lovely moonlit night. Seto Kaiba's coal-like eyes were glowing in its silver-ness. As he walked out he found out his castle was taken up by peasants. They were all sitting to the living room, laughing and drinking. Seto Kaiba approached behind one of them and sank his fangs into his neck. The others shrieked in pure terror and tried to run but Seto Kaiba grabbed one of them by the neck and clenched it once, but this was enough for the bones to break. Another one had his heart pulled out and another was sent flying onto a wall, by Seto Kaiba's uncanny strength. Only one of two ran outside. Seto Kaiba was left alone in a room full of dead bodies. He too was soaked in blood. He looked at his hand but he felt no guilt this time. No fear. Only a sweet emptiness. He looked at the moon as if telling her 'I'm back'…and he remained silent with his coal-like eyes glowing blood red like the blood that was overflowing onto the carpets.

He had become the monster they feared he was while he was alive…

Finally the next chapter! Guess what! One to go!

Here is what happened in the past from Seto Kaiba's point of view. I tend to change from first person to third but it is still mostly Seto Kaiba's point of view. Poor guy, don't you think?

First of all Lady Sylvia's surname I chose was "Stregoica". It was actuall inspired by Dracula book by Bram Stoker and it means "Witch" in some Romanian dialect.
I know I have put in the entire prologue but I found it fair to open and close Seto Kaiba's story with the same words

I hope you liked it!