Sanctuaire, Twenty three years after the Second Vampire Wars.
Snow had covered most of the vast garden of Sanctuiare. Branches of the rose bushes that blooms in summer lay empty and dry. Trees bowed down, thick branches bending downward towards the earth, heavy with load of snow that came the night before. Grasses now covered by glistening blanket of pure white and grey.
It's all barren. Empty. And cold.
He sighed. He shouldn't had come here. He wasn't even welcome.
Sanctuaire had been his home for years, before the King and the Queen granted their mercy. Instead of condemning him to death, they exiled him.
He hasn't broken any of their laws, nor committed any grave offenses. He had a been dutiful son, a reputable member of their Coven.
He was punished for all the sins that he commited before he was born.
Five years ago, when he was eighteen. On the night of his awakening. He fully remembered who he was.
He was a monster. He created a war that killed most of his kind.
It was unfornate that he was born again. And that he retained his memories in his past life. No one knew why. Or how. But he was sentenced to die all at once.
He sighed.
He remembered clearly how his mother, her poor beautiful soul, kneeled and begged in front of the Queen for her son's life.
His mother was a royalty in her own right. A princess that came from a long line of pure blooded kings and queens that established this dynasty. It was mortifying that she did it for him.
Her fealty saved him. He was not worth it.
Or maybe this was his real punishment. He wasn't meant to die swifly. He was meant to remember everything. Eternally.
Each faces person he has killed and destroyed was deeply embedded in his memory after his first taste of blood. Their pleads, their screams. And every night, they come for him in his sleep, suffocating him in his nightmares.
"Oy, psst! sino ka?"
It startled him. For the first time, he thought. He didn't sense any presence near him.
"Sino ka nga? Ba't ka nandito?"
He looked behind. It was a young girl with a flame red hair. She was holding a heavy bounded book that was too big for her size. Cheeks flushed and pinkish lips slighty parted.
He blinked.
Am I dreaming, he thought.
"Vampire ka rin ba?" The girl asked. She was using the language his mother used to taught him when he was younger.
He nodded and smiled.
The girl's small mouth formed an "o". Eyes wide and amused.
"Naiintindihan mo ko?!"
He nodded again.
The girl smiled widely and unceremoniously sat beside him. She fixed her lime green coat and pink scarf.
She smell of summer and wildflowers. She doesn't fit in this this chilling hell, he thought.
She dropped the book between them. It's from the main library, he recognized it. No one was allowed to take a book from that place.
"Wow, salamat naman! Lahat nalang sila puro French ang salita. Kahit mag-English ako, di parin nila ako maintindihan. Wala na akong makausap nang maayos."
