Rare (Vampire Knight)

Chapter 45

As a child growing up with the woman who she had been led to believe was her mother, Charlotte was always referred to by her as a 'child one descendant shy of a demon'. She was always referred to as this because of her seemingly 'sinister' personality and wicked words. Charlotte was in no way an easy child, always causing trouble, openly defiant and only did things that she wanted to do and when she wanted to do them. However, there were brief and calm moments when Charlotte was a shining star of a child and that was when she was learning alongside her brother, for she detested her etiquette classes and hated being told what she can and cannot do because she was female. And that was all Hanabusa's mother ever told her, what she can and cannot do as a female.

Because of Charlotte's clear aversion to adhere to most rules and expectations, her 'mother' would often tell her that she was a bad child. In the eyes of an uptight woman, Charlotte was not a good person and would never be one. Despite what Hanabusa and Akatsuki told her, telling her that she wasn't a bad child, Charlotte had begun to believe it. She began to see herself as a bad child, so she never really tried to be a 'good' child anymore, this leading to her father casting her out of the Aido house at the request of his wife.

"You have to leave, Charlotte," her father had told her with no emotion in his voice and his eyes refusing to meet her stunned blue ones. His voice had been dull but thick, "You are a bad little girl and we no longer want you here. Your... mother and I think it's best for you to leave. There is no room in our house for a bad and disobedient child. You'll only taint our family name. So, pack whatever you can carry yourself and I want you out of here by the next night."

'You're a bad little girl and we no longer want you here' were the words that had replayed over and over in her head for the past five years, even when her father had allowed her back in the family. 'You're a bad little girl'.

But the more Charlotte began to think about those words, she realised that she wasn't bad, but she wasn't good either. She knew that she was nothing close to a 'good child', and she knew that she was not a bad one either. She was somewhere in the middle, somewhere between the two where it allowed her to play both sides when need be. She could be a 'bad girl' and she could be a 'good girl', all within reason and when necessary.

So, without necessarily being a bad person, why was Charlotte's life such a complicated and unfair one? What had she done to deserve such a painful betrayal from some whom she thought would never do such a thing? She had known that Kaname would do something unthinkable to her and her brother, but she never imagined that it would be something as horrible as murdering her father. What had she done in her life to deserve such heartache?

What had her father done to deserve to be murdered in cold blood by the person he trusted and admired the most?

Nothing. Neither of them had ever done anything to have gotten what Kaname gave them.

Pulling herself together, choking back her tears and sorrow, Charlotte pulled away from her brother. Her face was wet from her tears and her eyes were slightly red but lacked the puffiness that one would develop from crying. She had to pull herself together, she had to get a grip because she wasn't the one who should have been crying, she was supposed to be the stoic and controlled one; she was the one who was supposed to bottle and shoulder it all, and she was going to stick to it.

She wiped at her face with the back of her hand, sniffling and sitting back on her legs, looking at her brother, "Where's Yuki?" Hanabusa had a blank look on his face, his eyes cast down to their father's ashes. His blue eyes were clouded and dull, tears welling up in his eyes and a couple escaping. He wasn't going to answer her, he realised, he was too busy trying to figure out how to bottle like she does, but also trying to rack his brain for why Kaname would do such a thing.