Euphoria Is Painful

i. Beauty

Life had been harsh on her for far too long. She sighed. She was born mute. She couldn't speak. The only sounds that left her mouth were the sighs when she was tired and the painful gasps when she was punished. So the most she could do while placing a flower in front of her mother's portrait was sigh.

Lily, wanted to cry badly but unfortunately, work awaited her and if she went to greet the visitors with a swollen face then she would be whipped again for being out of line. The wounds she had sustained hadn't even healed properly yet and every time she went to serve the Lords, their eyes would look her up and down as if she was a piece of meat.

Humans had initially assumed that vampires were weak to the Sun and holy objects but they couldn't have been more mistaken. Though they followed him not, God was the one to create vampires as well. They were not manifestations of evil. They were the natural predators of humans that were created to keep them in check. They too possessed flesh and blood. And the ones with the most strength remained immortal. So when they taunted the vampires to fight in the Sun, they didn't expect the heads of the perpetrators to be sent to them in a well embellished box.

Lily carried herself out of the room, about to go to the kitchen to prepare the wine, when she heard the head maid speak. "You will not be expecting visitors. Seems like they had disagreements with the King. You may return to your personal tasks."

This wasn't odd at all. The King was known to be both reasonable yet merciless at the same time. It was quite common for people to get personally executed for suggesting preposterous things. The people simply took the King for a hot blooded boy instead of the man who led a little over 100 vampire soldiers into battle against over 10,000 human warriors and returned with no casualties.

Lily prayed silently for a moment, hoping that she would never have to meet him lest he takes her head as a trophy.

She would've returned to her room but this was a good opportunity. Though they were relieved from their duties, it was rare for the head maid to allow them the freedom to do 'personal tasks' as she called it. Lily regarded this as quite the perfect opportunity to have a moment for herself.

She waltzed down the corridor to the garden, her silver hair flowing behind. Her deep purple eyes wandered the path that she took.

Her hair and eyes weren't all that uncommon as before they were defeated by vampires, the people of the land all had light hair and vivid eyes. But later on, most of those people were either dead in the heat of the battle or traded their bodies for wealth and were never to be seen again. She wondered if she was the only one of her race sometimes, as the castle was filled with people from all the different lands the vampires had conquered yet she had yet to see the bright hair of the people of her land.

The vampires were also different from what she was told. She heard that as they were 'evil entities' they lacked human-like organs and blood. That their skin was always pale while their eyes were a bloody red. But now that she was seeing them daily as a part of her job, they looked like regular people, except that they were extremely beautiful in some cases. You wouldn't be able to distinguish a vampire from a noble man unless they opened their mouth.

She had seen all sorts of vampires. Tan to Pale, Dark Haired to Light Haired, Red eyes to Black ones too. 'How could a being look so human but be so far from it?' she thought.

She shook her head, not wanting to have her mind wander too much.

The walk down to the garden was taking longer than usual, an eerie silence replacing the comfortable one from before. 'Has it always been this quiet... Should I not go?'

Her steps slowed down as she contemplated but she still proceeded to walk.

"Fuck....."

"....?!"