When the sun rose that morning a giant red mist filled the sky, as usual it was never moving as it stayed over the world as if it was a permanent anomaly in the sky. Out of it came fanged winged beasts who devilishly flew in and out without the use of aircraft. The wings they had were enough, they could catch up to a fighter jet in an instant and could kill in a second. In the mist it was the home of vampires.

Several thousand years ago when the sky was first dyed in red, vampires descended down like devil’s mercilessly slaughtering humans and drinking blood from whoever they managed to capture. They continued until human blood dyed the streets red and the air was covered in a thin layer of blood. The great reckoning was what became of it, destruction of homes and war caused by the vampires decimated the hopes of humanity.

After many centuries the history of the event was engraved in schools so that it may pass down from generation to generation and the pain of genocide would never be forgotten. The vampire king eventually decided it would be best if they made peace with the humans in order to prolong their own existence. They needed blood to drink as the vampires starved while the humans were growing plump as human blood became as delicious as apple pie.

And so the rejuvenation occurred and the vampire king made a deal with the leaders of the world. The humans supply them with fresh blood and the Vampires provide them with resources. Without hesitation the humans took the deal offering up many humans to satisfy the vampires

Unfortunately for one boy he had been traded away for resources, yet the reason for his sentence into slavery would be something even he couldn’t process.

***

Somewhere in the vampire territory a room shadowed in darkness and as cold as ice was being illuminated by a red glow coming from outside its only window. The moist air inside the room was something that could only be described as a freezer without the cold. Mold grew on the corners of the walls as the dripping sound of water made a plop sound when hitting the ground.

The room was tiny, almost like a small barely furnished bedroom with only a water bucket in the corner and a stone slab that looked oddly like a bed.

Since the presence of mold grew on the walls the ground harbored little to no dry flooring, it didn’t have a drain so the water just piled up flooding the small room. Fortunately there were some towels but they were already filled to their capacity already. Residing in the middle of the room where a stone pillar protruded from the ground, a boy with long black hair who was stripped to the bone of his clothes and suspended up in the air via a rusty chain looked to have suffered through hell.

The chain had been so tightly wrapped and shortened to the point that if he had wanted to sit down he would find it difficult for his butt to reach the ground because of its length. Despite this, that wasn’t the biggest of all his problems. The boy’s body had been covered in deep almost surgical-like cuts that drained his body like a pig that’s about to be slaughtered. His blood ran onto the ground causing a putrid metallic stench to befell onto the room.

It was likely that without special care the boy would only last a few more hours before he would die an anemic death.

Stubbornly the boy slightly opened his eyes for the first time in what felt like years blinking the dirt away from his eyelashes.

The boy who had been strung up and left to die had simply gotten unlucky. The ones that put him in a situation like this were not the vampires but the humans who sold him out, his own people.

Maybe it was the fact that he was poor in his life or maybe it was the fact he wasn’t as smart as some of his classmates that had gotten prestige and fulfilling titles. But it wasn’t like he was a bum, he had just started to get his life together, still the government had decided he had no worth in society and he was only worth as much as a pig for the vampires.

The boy silently let out a cough as the sudden movement from his head had caused his wounds to open up. The burning feeling of being slashed plagued his mind.

-How did I get here ? There's a hole in my memory.

It wasn’t everyday that the vampires would outright kill a human In a situation like this. Normally the vampires would put the humans in a small town where they live their life like they normally would but with a twist.

Every month instead of paying taxes they would pay a blood fee and harvest the blood of people like they were some sort of animal. Just enough so that the human would live and produce more blood. Yet for some reason this boy had found himself thinking of ways to free himself.

Pulling his arms and twisting them was his first attempt to break free when the sudden movement proved useless as he lost more blood doing it this way. Soon if he kept moving his body erratically he would surely die a cold lonely death.

The boy felt a fiery feeling in his head. He started to pick at his thoughts.

-My name, i-its. Crap I don’t even remember my own name.

Maybe it was just his name ? as he thought once more he then bit his lip in frustration.

-My home is a mystery to me as well. The fact that he had struggled to remember the face of his own mother brought a painful feeling to his chest. In his mind his mother's face only came back as a white void. His mother had been deleted from his memory.

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The life he had lived was a mystery at this point. He racked his brain but nothing came. He had first thought maybe the blood loss was a reason for his memory loss. Then maybe he had hit his head before being bled to death, that would explain the headache. But one suspension lingered in his brain. Maybe one of the vampires erased his memory ?

Each and every vampire had the power to awaken an ability developed from an early age or birth. Most came as easy as summer while some would take years to become known. But most vampires don’t awaken their power in their life and it's left dormant in them. Yet for some who are closely related to the king unlock their power with minimal effort.

The boy was stuck in thought. Elsewhere a clunk was heard as he saw the door slowly open.

Across the room a young red headed girl walked in. He quickly understood that she was a vampire; her pale skin was as white as snow and as smooth as a porcelain doll. Despite being in almost complete darkness he had seen the girl clearly, it was hard not to miss this beauty. She had scarlet red hair with two bat-like hair pins and long elf-like ears. Her crimson eyes were like rubies and her gothic outfit was something you would see in a costume shop.

Underneath her left eye a red triangle like mark on her face caught his attention whilst the wings on her back gave the impression of a bat. It was obvious that she was nobility.

The girl’s smile changed to a sinister one once the boy had filled her view. “I heard a human was captured yet I didn’t think you would look so similar to us he he~.” The girl looked him up and down as if she was sizing up captured prey.

For a vampire it was normal for them not to know what a human would look like. Most of them were advised never to go to the human realm unless that had been permitted too. For worse if the vampire had some form of royal blood then it was likely they would never see the human world.

“Boy what is your name ?” The girl had stopped directly in front of the boy, closing the distance before he could have a chance to blink. He kept his guard up just in case yet he couldn’t understand why she would want his name so he just said what was on his mind.

“M-my name, I don’t know it. I hardly remember.” In a quiet voice the boy managed to get his words out.

The girl looked up to the ceiling. After a minute she looked into the boy’s barely opened eyes.

“Okay then I’ll just call you Rubi then. That’ll be your new name as for me you could call me Scarlet-Lebethonamy the third or just Scarlet for short. I'm one of the princesses that inhabit this castle and I haven’t seen a human up close before so I was so excited to see what type of person a real human was.”

Scarlet seemed to be in high spirits. Rubi hadn’t known a vampire could be so chill. To him the girl in front of him was like any other girl, just with supernatural powers that could kill humans in mere seconds. If it had been anywhere else he would’ve thought this girl was just a genuine innocent girl, yet he kept his barrier up there’s no telling what she could do, she was a vampire after all.

The gleeful expression on Scarlet changed when Scarlet pointed directly at Rubi causing him to remember where he was. She tiptoed towards Rubi placing her hands on his neck. This was a sign. To humans this was nothing but a scare that was meant to install fear into the minds of humans who had forgotten their place. But to vampires this was different, this movement was not only a show of dominance but also a moving saying -You’re mine!

-I knew it, she was nothing more than a filthy vampire.

“Say Rubi what is the human world like ?” The question struck him as her warm hands slithered around his neck, if he didn't answer soon he would definitely be chocked or bitten. She was a vampire so he had to think carefully on what he was going to say unless he desired an even quicker death than what he was experiencing now. He just wanted to be left alone in his final moments.

“The human country. I'm sorry but I don’t remember. Please forgive me.” Rubi said in an apologetic tone scrunching his eyebrows in an attempt to power start his brain.

Scarlet pulled away from his neck.

“So what you’re saying is that you forgot what the human nation is like ? No, that's no good at all.” Scarlet who had been pacing around the room came to a complete stop.

“Well alright then when you go back to the human country will you take me with you ?” Scarlet said as she wrapped her arms behind her back. The question struck Rubi; he couldn't believe what she had said and giggled. The look on her face turned to a look of confusion.

-Does she not see the condition I'm in?

“Hey~hey why’re you laughing ? Did I say something funny ?” Scarlet pushed her fingers to her lips and eyed the ceiling, extending her words like a character would do in an anime. It quickly came to his mind that the vampire infront of him was just an airhead. If she really wanted to she could see the human world without much issue, probably only getting a stern talking to from whoever her guardian was.

Rubi's laughter quietly ended as realization struck him.

“That probably won’t be possible anymore.”

“Is it because of those wounds ? These wounds aren’t a problem when someone like me is here.” Scarlet inched closer to Rubi planting her hands on his torso rubbing his blood onto her hand.

“What are you doing ?”

“Say, do you know how vampires reproduce ?” Rubi had known how vampires reproduced but when it came to a situation like this he could only feel warmth as his face turned red.

-What is this girl talking about ? She’s probably not the smartest one in the family.

Scarlet had dragged her hand to her mouth licking the blood from in between her fingers before talking.

“When a royal vampire bites someone and injects their blood into your neck.” Scarlet softly grabbed Rubi’s chin pulling his head up exposing his tender neck. This was not an act of dominance.

“The person will be affected and soon turn into a vampire… But it could only work if the opposing party consents. If you want to live, throw away your life as a human and become a vampire.” The room was enveloped in silence.

“I have to stop being human.”

Rubi looked at the ground that was covered in crimson red before looking at his badly tattered body.

-My humanity if I want to live I have to give up myself.

What did his humanity mean to him? For someone who had no memories, being human was one of the only things he had left. Was he willing to risk losing himself to live? It didn’t sound far-fetched to an outside party but to him it was everything.

A smile arose on Scarlet’s face.

“F-fine I consent!”

“He~he thank you for the meal” It was like a needle had dug into his skin, but instead of feeling pain it felt good. As the blood poured from his neck she licked up the contents making sure not to waste any bit of the little blood he had left. A sense of euphoria washed over Rubi like waves running over sand. His mind went blank as well as his vision.

“Your blood, it’s rich.” But the response she was waiting for wouldn’t come.

“When you awake you won't be human anymore. If you can still hear me, when you awake you’ll be my servant. “

Yet not noticing a guard who had been quietly watching quickly ran off.