Diabolik Lovers Fanfic: All In One Moment

Prologue

"Today's the day."
"Yeah, it is."
He gave her the smile she had always known... and hated. The hollow one. The one filled with expectations for her. The one that didn't care about her. She wondered if he knew she could tell it was fake. This is what you were raised for, it said. Today proves your purpose.

"So," the father continued, "what is your purpose?"
She adjusted the neck bow of her school uniform, or her future one rather. Her former school would be nothing but a wisp of memory starting today. Not that it mattered to her at all.

"To keep the vampires in line," she answered, "to satisfy them. Nothing more."
"What have you done up to this day?"
"I've been raised perfectly. The quality of my blood, my offering, perfected," she responded instantly, mechanically. She pulled the overcoat of the school uniform over herself. She hadn't thought of it until now, as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was instructed to say she'd been raised perfectly, not that she'd worked hard towards perfection. It was slightly amusing.

"What are you?"
"A bloodwell, nothing more than a bride for the sons of the queen," she replied. He had taken quite care when he'd crafted that line for her. To call the woman he once loved "a queen."

He looked her over as she turned around in full uniform, belongings packed. Not as a father would look at a daughter whom he loved; with care, concern, and faith in her capabilities, as she'd seen many parents do to the other students who attended her school. No, the gaze was cold. Expectant. More like a master, looking over a prized lamb that he would enter in a contest. One that would cost or win him everything.
But she was used to it, and she took it as a compliment. It is all she had known for 15 years. From the moment she was born, he gifted her with that same look, the same expectancy. What more could she want from her own father than pride? She couldn't answer with "love." She had no idea what that was like.

"You'll make the perfect gift to her," he nodded, "and what is your name, my child?" her father asked. He was a good actor, sounding as if he truly had no idea who she was. Then again, maybe he didn't need to act.

She blinked, indifferent to the question. She often asked it herself.

"Kirasaki Chiera."

~

Chiera waited in the foyer of the mansion she'd lived in her whole life. Regardless, now it was so unfamiliar. It wasn't a home, really, it was more of a training ground; a temporary confinement. Her mother sat across from her on the opposite couch, sipping her Earl Grey.
"You will not mess up. You will please her and her sons. Then maybe you will be allowed to live," was the only advice she gave her. Chiera nodded, slightly neutral on the whole idea of pleasing the vampires. Chiera's mother just wanted Cordelia to be satisfied, to leave her alone. To leave her husband alone.
He had been in love with Cordelia, the vampire "queen," he called her, first, but she had not returned the feelings. Still in love with Cordelia, even after he married Chiera's mother, he promised her his first born daughter, as a final statement for his desire to please her.
Though Chiera was her legitimate daughter, her mother never rose her as such. If her mother was ever capable of loving something, she only ever showed it to her own husband. Why would her daughter deserve something so foolish, after all? All Chiera was to the woman was a nuisance, a bargain, the last tie her husband had with the vampires, with the Sakamaki family. Because of it, she wanted her gone as soon as possible.

Well, Chiera thought, she won't have to wait much longer.

A black car pulled into view through the window.

~

The car ride was long and silent, with Chiera in the backseat and an unfamiliar driver not uttering a word to each other. When they finally pulled up in front of the Sakamaki mansion, she was more than relieved to step out of the car. Forever, she hoped.
Chiera admired the large courtyard in the front of the mansion. It was spacious, and she liked the way the heels of her shoes echoed off the bricks. It was quiet here, serene. The water from the fountain in the center of the clearing made a pleasant fall, almost like white noise. Ravens perched on trees surrounding the courtyard eyed her, curious. It was ominous, but interesting. Especially as a new home. Befitting of vampires.
She knocked on the mahogany doors, emitting an eerie echo. Before anyone could have humanly come to the door to answer, it creaked open, revealing a slice of darkness on the inside.

With a last glance at the car as it pulled away out of view, she took a breath, not out of hesitancy but out of preparation for her new life, and stepped inside.