The Rosen Vampire Knight Series

Rose~n~Thorn Vampire: Chapter 8

Emma

Kaito returned the very next night with a pass for one in hand. It had been the only one he had been able to get and I thanked him repeatedly. With permision from the headmaster, I was allowed to leave school grounds to visit Zero. He seemed that he was eager for me to go and see how his adoptive son was doing. I hadn't told him the exact punishment that Zero had been sentanced to. I didn't want to be the one to deliever the news nor see the man break down.

The jail was surprisingly in the small town near Cross Academy. It was located underneath the police station. To get to it, you took the elevator. The bell-hop for the elevator was a vampire, so he could tell where his guests wanted to go. To the humans, the police station only had two floors. To vampires, it had the regular building floors and the underground jail for those vampires convicted of crimes.

The vampire man pressed a secret button on the elevator's choices and the doors closed and we went down.

On the secret sub-level floor there was an office where I had to show my pass to continue. The guard waved me through and gave me dirrection to Zero's cell. In the dungeon-like jail, there were many vampires locked up. Most of them I only saw red eyes in corners. Others that I could see wore ragged clothing from being in the jail for a long time. Those who wore new clothes were either rich, had vampires visit them often, or had just been locked up.

Vampire guards were at every corner and cross section of the underground hallways. I followed my instructions carefully, walking at a fast pace to avoid the gaze of the vampires who were imprisioned. When I reached the wing where Zero was, I asked a guard to come with me so that he could unlock the cell if I wanted to go inside.

"We don't allow in-cell visitations for this wing." He grumbled and remained stationed at the corner.

I wondered why this wing was the only exception. Upon entering, the reason was obvious. All the vampires in this wing had either turned mad or were on the edge of becoming insane. I passed a cell where one was mubbling to himself. Another had one that was laughing softly. Many more had just collapsed on the ground or were trying to shake the bars of their cage. 

They lived in the unheathiest of conditions. The floor was dirty, leaks from pipes made the walls grow mold. All of the inhabitants were skin and bones as no one gave them food. The only reason they were alive were because of the rats who sometimes wandered into their cells. I shuddered as one of the insane vampires grabbed a brown rat that had been scurrying just outside his cell.

I ripped my gaze from the tortured souls and walked faster towards Zero's cell near the end of the hallway. If it hadn't been for his silver hair, I would have never of recognized him. 

He had been changed into an entire different outfit that consisted of a light brown shirt and dark brown pants. Hunger had not taken him yet---he still looked whole---but he breathed with a sudden unease. Taking in big breaths and breathing them out jagged. It could only mean that they were starving him from the precious blood all vampires needed to survive.

His hair was greasy from sweat and his skin was caked in dirt and blood. The light brown shirt hung on him in rags from the whippings he had. It was covered from various flows of blood from different beatings. If I remembered correctly, he should have only gone through two of his seven whippings he was suppose to get throughout the week. However, it looked like he had been getting whippings ever hour on the hour.