Chapter Text
Charles was lazinly reclining in the taxi, not bothering to look out the window, too busy reading language learning books and algology as it advanced closer and closer to a mysterious mansion.
When the taxi dropped him, he carried himself and his suitcase as quickly as he could to the large wooden doors. He knocked three times with the large knocker, but no one arrived.
It's quite strange? My father told me I was supposed to live here for some reason. Will it be okay if I walk in?
As he waited five minutes out of curtesy, rain started to fall, and soon grew in intensity and the air quickly grew cold.
The weather went from warm and sunny to quite cold rather quickly. I should maybe get in.
The door opened itself to him. He walked in to an empty hallway.
"I'm so sorry for barging in! Is anyone home?"he exclaimed gently.
No, the door couldn't have opened itself, no? How did they manage to make a wooden door automatic?
As he walked in deeper inside the red hallway, he noticed that someone was resting on the couch. As he walked closer to that someone on the couch, he could see the angular features of a boy his age with spikey bordeaux hair. The boys chest and belly were completely motionless, no up and down typical of a normal sleep.
Oh no, he doesn't seem to be breathing.
With a gentle motion, he touched the boy's neck. It was pulseless and exhumed not the slightest heat, but didn't have any signs of rigor mortis.
That person is either dead or in a deep coma.
Yet, there was a chance for this person to live. He placed his hands on his chest and started pressing. "Anyone, please help me ! There is a person...His heart isn't beating...I cannot...Please someone call the ambulence, maybe the morgue !" he kept screeming...Then, suddenly, his arm was gripped with such strength he feared it would break.
No...The living dead, it can't be! There's no way a corpse could have grabbed me like that!
Out of fear and surprise, Charles emitted a loud, sudden cry. It was the primordial and instinctive fear of the unknown. Corpses don't grab the living. Nor did individuals waking up from coma have the strength to grab people this firmly. His mind imidiately into fight or flight response, he tried to break the grip.
"This isn't your house so try and keep it down." said the undead, quite rudely.
Now that his instinctive panic had passed, Charles noticed he reminded him of the highschool bullies that used to mock him when he was still at his old school and looked about as intimating. Someone more worthy of contempt than fear despite their sadistic behavior.
The undead boy pined down the living one.
I need, for my own safety, to check if he feels pain.
"Let go of me immediately. Otherwise, I might have to hurt you!" uttered Charles, trying his best to look intimidatingly, but failed miserably. Despite being six feet tall and pale as a ghost, he was as scary as a newborn baby.
He didn't have to carry out his threat since the second the wine haired undead tried to leap in on him, a young man and a boy arrived in the entrance hall. One had glasses and a blade-shaped face, the other was an albino in ripped clothes.
"Ayato, what is the meaning of all this screaming and commotion?
-I don't know. You didn't tell me anything, puny!"
For some reason, Charles had the impression these individuals are not people one should attempt to argue with, although the one in ripped clothes might be talkable, in a way one might try to approach a delinquent in a peaceful way.
The one with glasses turned his magenta eyes towards the living boy, and asked: "And you are?
-Charles-Henri Sanson. My father said I would be living at this address." answered Charles while showing a paper indicating the address of the Sakamaki mansion.
"Che, I knew there was a human in here!" murmured the albino.
The bespectacled young man adjusted his glasses once more. "I did not heard of it. This isn't an appropriate setting for discussion, so please follow me."
Obediently, Charles followed, dragging his suitcase with him.
"It would be preferable if you would stop dragging your suitcase, young man. The wheels will damage the floor."commented the one with glasses.
"Sorry!" murmured Charles, letting go of it.
The small group arrived at a sort of living room. The white-haired lad wanted to leave, but the bespectacled young man gave him such a glare that made him renonce to this little project.
There was another completely immobile young man on a couch, with hair of blond honey and with ear buds.
"This might just be me, but it doesn't look like he's breathing." murmured Charles...
"Of course he's not, you idiot!" said Subaru.
Without thinking about it, Charles rushed to the breathless blond and placed his hands on his chest. Before he could even start to press, he was dragged back by the bespectacled vampire: "Don't you dare soil yourself!
-Let me go! I must do CPR and check for vital signs! He'll die if I don't do something.
-It is rude to respond like that! retorted the bespectacled one
-Please care to explain the meaning of this." answered Charles, quite coldly and confidently this time.
None of this make sense. Either the inhabitants of this house have really odd medical cases, I am going insane or they have something to do with the paranormal. There is no forth option.
"Shut up!" uttered the blond sleeper, now awakened.
Phew!
Another boy his age appeared, wearing a fedora over auburn hair in a triangular, long out of style haircut. He smiled coyly. "Oh no, It seems like I heard a human arrive. Quite a loud one at that."
Another pretty boy behaving strangely!
Soon, what seemed to be like a lilac-haired child also entered the room, a Teddy bear in his arms.
"He smells delicious...Although, I would prefer to drink from a woman, don't you think, Laito?"
Drink from...I'm not a fountain! This is definitively strange!
The bespectacled young man started the conversation: "Please present yourself, young man and explain your arrival here?
-Well, my father told me I should come and live here because he was sent away on a mission and there is some night school he insists I attend. I don't know why I had to move here, but he was very strict about it. My name is Charles-Henri Sanson.
-Like that infamous French executioner
-Yes..."
Charles blushed. Again with that stupid reminder. Anyways, he hoped he could move on with this day.
The blond sleepy one added: "That guy contacted me, he said we would receive a boy from the hospital, and that we need to treat him with respect. He also forbade us from killing him."
What...Those guys need to be given specific instruction on how to kill people. I need to get out of here, right now.
Forgoing all good manners, Charles slowly started to walk towards the door.
"There is no mistake after all, please all us to introduce ourselves. I am Reiji, the second son. This creature lying on the couch is Shu, the eldest son. Ayato is the third son, Kanato the forth and Laito the fifth. Subaru is the youngest son.
-Well, goodbye gentlemen. I must now take my leave!"
Charles ran as fast as he could towards the door, not bothering to stop and look back. He soon reached the door and tried to open it.
Dear God! It's locked...There must be another one.
After running closer to another corridor, he saw windows.
They seem like guillotine windows. I should probably try and open them!
He managed to open the window and get his upper body out, only to have Laito materialize in front of him.
"Unlike my brothers, I don't mind drinking from a male. You smell so good it's intoxicating, little boy-whore.
-Don't touch me, or I will defend myself.
-Fufufu! You are so funny."
In a swift motion, Laito pushed Charles's long hair out of his way and leaned forward to sink his fangs.
That hurt...He's drinking my blood. How sharp his teeth must be! Ow! He doesn't seem to want to stop either. I'm afraid he'll suck me dry, and no, not in the sexual kind of way.
With all the strengh he could muster, Charles managed to throw a punch.
"What a brave lil' lad we have here!"
The black haired boy managed to actually pull back, only to clumsily hit his head and fall on his bum. The fangs had dragged along his neck, baring his muscles. He was bleeding badly, still dizzy from hitting his head and in quite a clumsy position. He tried to make a few steps, but the faster heart beat only made the bleeding worse.
He turned around the silk ribbon he had around his neck. It was blended with some synthetic, so it won't work as effectively as pure silk, but it did manage.
At this rate, I just might manage to survive. I don't want to die. If I must live as their chew toy, so be it.
"It'll really be a shame to let that blood go to waste, isn't it, boy-whore? murmured the auburn-haired creature
-I can assure that you don't want to drink my blood, who knows what kind of disease I am carrying." murmured Charles, in a desperate attempt to reason with Laito who only smirked. "We vampires do not catch human diseases." he explained.
Vampire...I knew there was something wrong. But vampires don't exist, right. But also people who walk up from comas don't assault the first person they see, and corpses don't grab the living's arms. I must either be hallucinating...But usually, I am able to tell that my hallucinations aren't real. And they never represent fashionable pretty boys with fangs. My reason try to tell me this is not real but...Surely, tomorrow morning I will wake up in a psyche ward, safe and sound, surrounded by nurses and social workers. This has to be a vivid...
Before he could finish his thoughts, his mind went dizzy, his vision began to blur and his consciousness began to fade from blood loss as a cadaverously cold tongue traced his wounded neck.