002.

After the brief introduction, Joshua lead him to his room, which was located on the east wing of the mansion. Mingyu literally had to memorise every single turns and doors for safety precautions. It wasn't that Mingyu was completely freaked out; if there were anything dangerous, it would be easier to escape by memorising the mansion inside out.

The mansion consisted of four floors and the basement. His room was on the second floor and it was the fourth room down after the first left turn. Joshua had said that the first floor consisted of kitchen, staffs' bedroom, dining room, the main living room, the grand hall, recreational room, music room and sports hall. The second floor would be where the bedrooms were, twenty six of them in total, thirteen on each wing. Joshua's bedroom were somewhere around the west wing, a place where the owner adamantly said 'the off limits'. The third floor was where the rest of the bedrooms goes and the meeting hall. The fourth floor and the basement were both off limits as well, Joshua had emphasised, and Mingyu nodded in understanding, pretended to be oblivious toward the latter's firm look.

"So, I hope you enjoy our tour." Joshua said cheerfully by the end of their walk to Mingyu's room. "I will send one of our staff to bring dinner to your room and you can ask him to do anything you need."

"Oh no, it's too much, Josh! Didn't want to trouble you, really." Mingyu declined politely.

"....Josh...?"

Seeing the confused look the male gave him, Mingyu widened his eyes as he realised what he did. "Ah! I'm sorry. Is it okay if call you that?...I mean...you aren't mad, are you?"

The gentle boy laughed and the way his eyes twinkled remind him so much of gleaming stars in the middle of the night. "Of course, i'm not mad! I'm just....happy, I supposed. It's been a while since anyone address me with such nicknames. Everyone here address me with either Sir or young master."

"Must be lonely." Mingyu mumbled, "don't you get lonely or something? Well the house is pretty huge for only one guy and the staffs."

"It was lonely, I supposed." Joshua sighed, his gloved hands were disappeared behind his coat pockets. "That's what the dolls are for. They become my company."

That sentence alone had Mingyu wondered about the latter's childhood and what had happened by then. Why he was living alone in the middle of nowhere? Where were his parents? How did he even survive living alone for so many years? Did he have any friends? Why did he decide to make dolls? How do you make them anyway? Why there were off limits area?

The last question slapped Mingyu harder than he thought it would. 'Yeah, what's the off limits area are for?' he wondered. Maybe there were secrets that Joshua was trying to hide from him, or... maybe it was just because the fact that Mingyu was just a mere stranger to Joshua, hence he didn't find the need to expose every single thing the house has to offer.

After Joshua bid him good night and retreated back to his chamber, Mingyu let out a huge sigh and threw himself on the four poster bed. The room smelled of dust and it did not bother Mingyu as much as it should be. The mansion was old anyway, that's probably why it smelled that way.

A certain short boy with pink hair appeared on his mind suddenly and Mingyu shuddered at the thought. Maybe he should've finish all his paperworks before the hunt because now, there was no way those paperworks will finished in time, especially adding the unfortunate fact that he was stuck in this creepy mansion. Judging from the window on the right side of the room, there was no guarantee that the storm would abate by tomorrow, hence the probability of him staying in this damn place were even longer than how he intended to be.

'Jihoon is going to kill me for this.' he muttered, silently praying that the storm would calm down by morning so that he could resume his unfinished hunting session before headed back home.

A soft knocking on the wooden door snapped him out of his trance and Mingyu mumbled a soft 'come in' before the doorknob turned, revealing a skinny boy in butler uniform with a tray of what-it-seemed-to-be the dinner that Joshua had mentioned earlier. "Good evening, sir. Here is your dinner. Where would you like me to put it?"

"Anywhere is fine, really." Mingyu said casually, eyes following the butler every move as he set the tray down to the nearest side table.

"Is there any other service that I can help you with, sir?" the butler soft, yet deep voice set him on the edge. He couldn't point exactly why, but there was some sense of familiarity that lingered in his dead heart; like a forgotten page in his memories, a page that he has been trying hard to retrieve. It has been almost a century ever since that damned day, but the chance of him on getting back his memories was close to none and that frustrated him even more.

There was something odd about the scrawny butler though other than his deathly pale complexion, now that the taller male noticed. His eyes, it was the most beautiful shades of onyx he had ever encountered. Those onyx orbs looked like glass beads, so pretty but mysterious it reflected nothing more than shadows and somehow Mingyu could felt that there were something behind those orbs, he wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was there.

"Your name." Mingyu uttered before he could stop himself. The shorter boy seemed taken aback and Mingyu could swear he saw a glint of emotions in the butler's eyes before it was gone and replaced by his usual stoic manner.

"It's Wonwoo, sir." Mingyu heard the boy answered.

Wonwoo. Even the name felt familiar on his tongue and the taller male couldn't shake off the feeling that this was not the first time they met. Maybe all these deja vu was caused by the gaps in his memories and maybe, they have met before, sometime back then, when Mingyu was alive and breathing.

"Would that be all, sir?" The pale butler, Wonwoo, asked as he bow politely, his eyes glued to the ground and Mingyu wondered why the boy had been avoiding his gaze altogether but decided not to ask anymore questions. The rest could wait.

"Yes, that would be all, thank you."Mingyu concluded.

"Very well. If you ever need our assistance, the staff chamber is next to the kitchen, second hallway and third door down. The breakfast will be served at 7 in the morning and young master had specifically asked you to join him tomorrow." The butler explained briefly.

Mingyu nodded. "Third door down, i see. Okay, thanks."

The pale boy gave out one last bow before exited the room, leaving the taller male alone with his thoughts. The vampire let out a frustrated groan as he ran his hands to his damp, cold hair. He hadn't imagined that a simple hunting session ended up with so much more than what he bargained for. All he wanted was just get some supplies and go home so he could finish his piles of nightmares, because really, he did not feel like getting an hour long lecture from Jihoon about his tardiness.

His eyes landed at the side table where the pale butler had placed his dinner at and Mingyu could feel his stomach grumbled.

'Shut up, you useless thing.' he muttered and slowly get up and reached for the plain toast.

The vampire slowly chewed on the plain toast. It was tasteless, as usual. It didn't not matter what kind of food he ate, everything would taste bland on his taste bud. It seemed that the damned day didn't only took his memories away, but it took his ability to taste food as well.

He was used to it though. There were days when his depression got the best of him and he had to stop himself from jumping at the first person he saw before them dry; and on days like these, he would starve himself and only survived by eating plain toast. It was torturing, those monsterous feeling in his gut were screaming for blood but he would not let it take what left of human in him.

It has been years and that side of him had gone somehow. It was not like he embraced the idea of being a monster completely, but he already accepted the fact that he was not a human years ago. It took him almost two decades to realise that he couldn't just ignore his thirst for blood and finally surrender to his bloodlust. He was actually thankful to the fact that his first bloodlust appeared when he was out in the woods. He spotted his first prey, a baby deer and he had been living of the animal blood ever since.

Hence that's probably why the sight of food didn't tempt him as much, but he still ate it anyway. Plain toast had managed to held off his hunger before, so it would do for now.

After he was done with his toast, he grabbed the bathroom kit that was placed nicely on the edge of the bed and paused when he realised something. His room was big but unfortunately the bathroom was located outside. He briefly remembered Joshua said something about the bathroom located just down the hallway and instantly, he groaned.

It wasn't that he was afraid of the dark, since he was the creature of the night himself; but there was something unnerving about walking down that creepy hallway. The dolls. Mingyu was never the one to scared of dolls, but this mansion literally has hundreds of it, thousands even. And he had seen the perfectly symmetrical rows of built-in bulletproof, transparent glass cases where the dolls were and he was not pleased with the idea of having to walk down that hallway again in the dark.

Its either that or not going to the bathroom at all and as much as he wasn't a human anymore, he wasn't gross enough to do that. He took a deep breath and gathered his courage before turned the doorknob and opened his door. The vampire could hear the door creaked as he slipped out of his room and his view was welcomed by the eerie, dark hallway and he wondered why so little lightings in such a massive and long hallway.

Mingyu contemplated for a moment to go back to his room and grab a flashlight that he saw somewhere on the bed-side table because the hallway was as dark and creepy as and that's became his major problem because he thought that the moment his humanity disappeared, so would his fear of anything dark; however that did not seem the case now and he almost chuckled at the irony.

He dismissed the idea of flashlight as quickly as it came; he would have no use of it anyway since he could see better in the dark. Taking another deep breath, he slowly made his way down the hallway. The dolls were there, of course, sat obediently in their cases, their bright, colourful and lifelike eyes stared nothing and those eternal smiles on their lips couldn't help but intimidated him.

Mingyu took a gulp of air as he fastened his pace. It might be of his childish thinking but he could literally feel the stares of those of colourful beads on his back as if drilling holes into him. Maybe he should've listen to Jihoon everytime the shorter male nagged about his ignorance of supernatural world. Jihoon was one of his very few friends that knew about his real identity and he has been nagging at him about not having another supernatural friend. And now he regreted it.

The floorboards creaked as Mingyu made his way quickly though the hall and never he felt so relief when he saw the bathroom door before as it was now. Without further ado, he pushed the bathroom door open and quickly slipped in before slamming the door shut. He reached for the light switch and was grateful when he saw no dolls in the bathroom.

He let out a shaky breath he had unconsciously been holding. He was a vampire, for Godsake! And what kind of vampire afraid of creepy immobile dolls? Maybe Jihoon was right. He really needed to get laid.

Mingyu took his time in the bathroom; taking a long shower, washed his hair, and brushed his teeth. His sharp eyes scanned around the room, every once in often and sometimes, he would peak on the mirror, ensuring that there was nothing there. Well, there should be nothing there.

After he was done with his business, he gathered his bathroom kit and stopped abruptly before he could grab the doorknob. Even without turning his head around, he could clearly see something was sitting on the stool near the bathtub from his peripheral view and he knew exactly what it was. It was that same doll he saw in one of the cases in the hallway, with the same pearl blue eyes and the same peach-coloured Victorian dress. Mingyu stood there unmoving, calculating his next move. That wretched dolls, he was so sure that there was nothing in the bathroom, but that damn thing just had to messed up with his mind.

Mingyu spun around and eyed the now empty stool with a glare. 'ing got the nerve to scare me.'  The vampire muttered grumpily. He looked around the bathroom in attempt to catch the culprit then clicked his tongue when he saw nothing. The bathroom was innocently cleared from any dolls. Good; because seriously, he wouldn't hesitate to decapitate them if he had to, in which he'd rather not do because as much as he hated the dolls, the owner of this mansion loved them so much; so much that they wouldn't mind killing a vampire for messing up with his dolls. Creepy dude with his ing creepy dolls.

After checking one last time, Mingyu opened the bathroom door and slipped outside. 'Here comes nothing.' he grumbled silently as he started walking down the hallway, eyes scrutinising the dolls in their cases cautiously. The dolls in the hallway were the actual children-size and there were so many of them. fifty of them on each side, he counted, which means a hundred in total. A hundred human-size dolls in one hallway. God knows how many hallway this mansion had! That fact alone made his stomach churned a little. Joshua must have had a scary childhood.

When his bedroom door came into view, the vampire wasted no time and quickly dashed inside, slammed the door shut with his back. He literally couldn't imagined himself living in a place like this, especially with thousands of dolls roaming around in the middle of the night.

Mingyu ran a hand on his wet locks; he could feel a headache coming. He placed his bathroom kit on the side table before hopping onto the bed, hoping that a good night sleep would keep his headache away because he knew, far too aware, that this kind of headache only appeared when he was hungry.

And it seemed that the plain toast did not manage to fend off his hunger like how it used to.

Mingyu groaned into the pillow, slightly muffling curse words. He hoped that sleep would overcome him soon enough so that he wouldn't have to deal with the thirst, because really, he wasn't going to risk getting caught, especially by the people that live in this mansion. That thought alone had screamed trouble.

With that last thought, he drifted off into dreamless sleep.

To be continued . . .

***

Aila's note I : Hi guys! I know its seems odd that I update twice in a week, but I guess I just had to post this chapter now since you guys are being awesome and all that <3 Thank you so much for the comments, subscribe and upvotes ^^ You guys are the best /hugsandkisses

Aila's note II : I know that this chapter is boring and to be honest I had trouble writing it as well. It didn't go as planned and the flow of the story is just. meh :/ Sorry if its a fail D; But look at the bright side, at least Meanie had their first encounter, even if its not much of an interaction :D

Aila's note III : Last but not least, Happy reading ^^ Any comments, subscribes or upvotes will brighten my day and motivate me to update faster <3