[Sera]

I had no control over my movements.

When my eyes finally ‘saw’, I found myself on a long bridge that seemed to connect the boys’ mansion to a much larger building situated almost next to it. Waltzing through the guards whose confusion levels spiked when I entered their fields of vision but somehow realising my identity, they got out of my way and I soon arrived at large antique-looking door.

I could feel her.

Pushing open the heavy door, my eyes fell on the only two beings in the room. I stood rooted at the doorway, orbs glistening with tears as they registered their identities. A large wave of familiarity washed over me when the lady lit up and the man choked on the tears that spilled from his eyes.

“Appa! Omma!”

Unable to control my vampiric ability, I ran over and threw myself at my father. The King caught me, all tall and lanky, in his muscular arms and I could feel his strength at work as it pulsed throughout his body. His arms wrapped around me as I rested my cheek on his shoulder and I just revelled in his warmth.

“Stop hogging her, you selfish excuse of a husband.”

The Queen’s aegyo voice echoed within the large room and I couldn’t help but grin. My father’s arms released their grip on me and I flitted over to my mother almost immediately. Before throwing myself into her open arms, my eyes glazed over her and my chest constricted.

Her skin, once as white as snow, was now a translucent-looking white; her pouty lips were cracking badly and blood seeped out from the lines, causing her lips to look very bloody as though she had just gorged herself on raw meat. The only consolation I got from her was the condition of her long chestnut-brown locks that glistened in the sunlight that streamed in through the half-drawn blinds down the windows and her eyes that darted all over me, taking every detail in.

“Sera… My Sera…”

I eased into her embrace, careful to not aggravate whatever injuries or illness she has given how weak and frail she had become through the years. Nuzzling my face softly into the crook of her neck, she giggled and her hand patted my head.

I was too enveloped in my mother’s warmth that I didn’t hear the boys approaching until a voice called out.

“Hun… Since when have you become so loud?” My father clucked his tongue disapprovingly, though his soft chuckle seemed to suggest that he was only joking.

“I-I do apologise, appa.”

“Dear, you’re terrible. It’s good that our son’s opening up; goodness knows how long he’s been so cold and icy since Sera went missi-”

The atmosphere in the room darkened and I could clearly hear the breaths of fifteen vampires in the overcrowded bedroom of the Rulers.

“I’m sorry, that was… uncalled for.” My mother softly chided herself and I pulled away from her, hands cupping her gaunt face.

"Om-m-ma..."

"Ei, Sera why are you crying…?" Her long yet thin and bony fingers reached up to my eyes and wiped the tears away before they fell.

"Om-ma, I-I am s-sorry, I have been l-living thinking that my p-parents a-abandoned me.” The tears spilled and I couldn’t stop. “Why did you d-do that? W-Why did you erase my memories...?"

I had so much more to ask, so much more words to say but the hiccups and suffocated gasps prevented me from doing so.

"It was inevitable. In that moment, I only had two choices before me.” Her orbs, also welling up with tears, gazed at me and the love swimming within pierced my heart and warmed it. “And I chose to let you go.”

"Bu- b-but, if you didn't use your p-powers on me then you wouldn’t be l-like this…” I gestured to the whole of her, from her gaunt face to her thin limbs. “I-I am t-the cause of this. Y-Your deteriorating health."

I shut my eyes and let the tears fall.

"Silly girl, you are not the cause of my pain. I chose to do that because that was the only way to protect you and,” Her voice overwhelmed my senses and like a pair of arms, they enveloped me in their gentleness and warmth. “I am your mother, it is my responsibility to protect you.”

Her fingers trailed the bottom of my eyes and a good shiver ran down my spine. “So stop blaming yourself, my precious daughter.”

I could feel her love in every single word that she spoke but something nagged at me. There’s something she’s not telling me, I just know it.

In a daze, it was only when a loud sob from the boys did I snap out of it and my eyes formed crescents as they landed on a sobbing Tao-oppa, whose head was buried in the crook of a very irritated Kris-oppa. The elder’s face could give Sehun-oppa’s scowl a run for his money.

“Your Maj- Uncle Jaehoon, Aunt Lia. We’ll be taking our leave.” Suho-oppa coughed and thumped Tao-oppa on the back, causing the latter to choke on his sobs and Kris-oppa smirked. “Sehun, stay here. We’ll see you later.”

With that, Suho-oppa bowed respectfully and walked out of the room. The others followed suit and within moments, the once-overcrowded room became glaringly empty. Sehun-oppa stood awkwardly beside the door, his hand rubbing the back of his neck and his eyes fixated on the carpeted floor.

“Sehun ah, c’mere.” At the call of our mother, the boy smiled and traipsed towards us.

That afternoon, the Oh family finally reunited after years. We talked about everything and anything under the sun and the bedroom was never silent, for the parents kept bombarding us with fruitful and hilarious happenings in our childhood and kept us amused with their own history. My mother carefully approached the events of that tragic night and I thought that I would be very affected when I heard her describing it. But I wasn’t and I was glad. Does that mean that I have finally, or we have finally let go of that harrowing past?

I hadn’t noticed that the sky had gradually turned dark and the moon was casting its silvery moonlight on things in the room until my father yelped at the time and he pushed at us to return to our mansion. “Your mother needs rest.” He shooed us out of the room and before I could bid them goodnight, the door closed.

“Geez, appa is quite a twit isn’t he?” I fumed but the anger was short-lived when I heard my father’s reply. “Sera, I heard that.”

I jumped in place, afraid of the repercussions and Sehun-oppa laughed.

With our arms linked, we walked back to our mansion and our eyes simultaneously lit up when we stepped onto the long bridge and saw the beautiful scenery. The moon had bathed the trees and everything on our lands in its silvery light, resulting the view to be that of a magical wonderland.

I glanced at my brother from the corners of my eyes as a small smile formed on his chiseled face, his orbs continuing to marvel at the beauty before us.

"So you do smile.” My tone turned cheeky as his smile dropped almost immediately after my tease. “Oppa, why did your personality change so much? From what appa and omma have said, you are an ice prince. And I can vouch for that, seeing how I’ve seen that side of you when I was Do Sera." I playfully nudged him in his side and earned myself a glare.

"See see! They were right!” I jumped up and down, finger pointing at him. “You have turned into a cold and icy prince."

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