[Sera]

“Run, children, run.”

Appa?

I automatically let my eyes dart to him, pupils landing on them for the first time since the battle started, and despite my brother’s barrier slightly blurring my image of him, it is crystal clear in my eyes that my father was kneeling.

Kneeling with a foreign pair of hands wrapped around his neck.

His face was bloody, an eye shut as the hated liquid red flowed steadily downwards from a deep gash across his forehead. Many questions shot through my head at that moment; the many answers that I would require from that man who is the most powerful vampire on Earth, the Vampire King, my father.

The scream lodged in my throat, my hands clawing at the barrier still erected around me. My eyes flitted to my brother. He, too, was frozen, his widened eyes fixated on our father. Around me, the rest of our allies were statues too. Yet, while the rest of us were still reeling from the scene, the adults regained their shock much quicker, with snarls breaking the silence as the fathers daringly inched forward towards their ruler, their friend.

“I said, run!”

My father’s voice resounded in my head once again, his tone much more urgent than before. Yet, it was as though he never spoke, his words not registering within me as I continued to be rooted to the floor, my eyes never leaving his countenance that is now completely dyed a crimson red.

It would have frightened me, it should have. But I’ve seen the colour on my mother, I’ve seen the colour on my brothers, I’ve seen it on me. Somehow, this wetness doesn’t send me scurrying away anymore. I was no longer afraid.

I am no longer afraid of blood. Just like how a true Vampire should be.

“Oh Sehun, grab your sister and get out of here!”

My father yelled, effectively snapping me out of my daze and my eyes immediately darted to the boy in question. They widened to find an empty space where he used to be, and fear washed over me. Where on earth–

“I’m here.”

An arm wrapped around my waist and I was pulled into a familiar nestle, warm breath fanning the side of my face. I lifted my face, relief flooding me and the corners of my lips tugged upwards slightly.

“I wasn’t worried about you, you narcissistic wad.”

Yixing-oppa pouted, clearly displeased with my lack of affection towards him. His arm, however, never relaxed; his grip only got tighter.

“She was worried about me, brother-in-law.”

Another arm made its way across my shoulders, the index on the hand wiggling playfully as the elder boy scowled.

The moment would have been just like any other, mischievous yet it highlights how tight-knit the boys and I are and always will be, yet a sarcastic snigger pulled this happy moment straight into the hell category.

“How… cute.”

His wretched voice reignited the anger that had subsided within me, my eyes flying to my father in an instance and red filled my sight once again.

His eyes were completely shut now, for the blood wouldn’t stop flowing; and if it wouldn’t stop flowing, that horrific wound on his forehead isn’t normal. This is bad.

This is ing bad.

“Stop playing around, son! Hurry up and get Sera out of here!”

Sehun-oppa’s arm tensed on my shoulder, and I could feel his hesitation. It must be hard, he must be in a terrible dilemma — to escape and save his sister, or to stay and rescue his father.

Either way, chances of successfully completing any of the task is seemingly impossible for a split second later, I found myself staring cross-eyed at the tip of a glinting arrow. I didn’t know what came over me, but as though I was hypnotised, my finger reached towards it and the metallic material would have come into contact with my skin if not for someone who had shouted and the arrow was metres away from me in the next instance.

“Don’t touch it! Don’t even go near those arrows!” A voice that seemed to be Kris-oppa’s resounded in the Room, and the sarcastic snigger followed shortly after.

“Looks like you’ve been taught well, son of Junhao.” His hands were still around my father’s neck and I noticed how relaxed he looked, as though the fact that he was surrounded by an overwhelming number of hostiles didn’t terrify him. “You really shouldn’t touch them, young Vampires.”

“The nerve of you to even bring them here,” Uncle Junhao snarled, his words so laced with hatred that it made me wonder why the sudden appearance of the arrows had set almost everyone on edge, especially the adults. “You monster!”

He chuckled, his lips curling into a sickening smile. In a moment of insanity, that smile resembled that of my father’s whenever happiness washes over him but fortunately, my sanity returned and I banished that forbidden thought out of my head.

They are different, Sera. They may be blood-related but appa is nothing like him.

And he never will be.

“Me? A monster?” Mock surprise defined his facial features, and a hand released itself from its grip on my father’s neck to be placed on his chest. “You must be referring to those silver arrows instead, Junhao.”

And as quickly his surprised demeanour came, it disappeared just as fast. A slow smirk soon crept onto his face, throwing him into pure evil.

“After all, just a single touch is enough to send you to the depths of hell with no return.”

[Yixing]

“It will penetrate, it will spread, it will contaminate, it will crush and it will destroy.”

“What are you saying, papa? I don’t quite understand you,” I glanced up from my twiddling thumbs to find myself looking at a man whose face was buried within a thick book. “It’s like you’re speaking in a foreign language.”

My father looked up, his reading spectacles loosely hanging onto the tip of his nose as a small frown spread across his face. “Zhang Yixing… What have I been telling you about paying attention–”

“–as you recite information off those books you love more than mama.” I stared straight at him, the corners of my lips tugging downwards into a frown of my own. We glared at each other for a few moments before bursting out into laughter, the animosity forgotten.

“Silly boy,