001.

If it wasn't for the blizzard that day, Mingyu would probably never met him.

Mingyu was hunting that night. It was one of his rare and desperate night where his food supplies were in dire need to be restocked and the piles of paperworks on his desk was so high, he literally had to pull all-nighters for 4 days straight. Along those times, all he did was either the paperworks, shower, or drink. He was so caught up in his work, he failed to pay attention to his food supplies, which were slowly diminishing as each day passed.

And apparently he failed to pay attention to the weather forecast as well, which was ridiculous he thought, since he had his TV on and the volume it was on literally had one of his neighbours, Mr Han if he's not mistaken, came knocking on his door, yelling some incoherent ramblings that sounded like Chinese. Mingyu was a new tenant in this apartment so he reluctantly leave his piles of paperworks while grumbling about life in general before opened the door with the fakest apologetic smile he could muster.

He was only halfway through the paperworks before deciding that it was better to get himself food supplies before he got hungry again. There was none left in his fridge afterall and he didn't want to hunt for his food at times when he's hungry. It had happened before and he didn't intend on making the same mistake twice. He was not that stupid.

The skies were looking fine, he thought at first as he walked out of his apartment, sporting black jacket and black denim. It was the first week of winter and the weather tend to get unpredictable. One moment it was warm and sunny, the next thing you know, the whole town was covered with snow. He crossed his fingers silently and hoped that the weather wouldn't  be much of hassle for his hunt later on.

The town he where he lived was a small town, barely a hundred people live in it. The town was located near the mountains, the place where Mingyu usually did his hunt and he was actually thankful to the fact that it was not a long walk before he had entered the woods.

It was a few hours into the hunt when the blizzard hit the town hard and in moments like this, Mingyu felt like banging his head on the nearest tree for his own stupidity. The hunt today was oddly difficult than the usual days, there weren't many animals present in the woods, which was unusual. If only he paid attention to the weather forecast, he would've realise the reason behind the fruitless hunt. But Of course! he had to ignored the forecast and went on unprepared.

He blamed it on paperworks. Or maybe Jihoon, since he was the one who shoved the humongous piles of workload onto his life and demanded that it should be done before the weekends. Mingyu was usually the one that keen about finishing his work way before the due date, but the piles were huge and there was no way he would be able to finished that off before weekend without pulling any allnighters.

Which resulted in the worst case scenario, stucked in the middle of snow storms and empty-handed at that. He groaned as the millions particles of snowflake slapped in the face, the makeshift shield he created by using his arms did not seem to do much in terms of preventing the snow from assaulting his face.

He was so used to the cold, he could hardly feel it anymore. Its been years since he became the creature of the night and the memories of human warmth was so vague he barely remembered any of it. It was a lonely life and no matter how many decades had passed, he still could not fill that empty gap he felt ever since the day he was turned. It felt like something was missing and everytime he tried to recall back, all he remembered was nothing more than a blurred white and black canvas.

Mingyu wasn't sure how long he had walked in the snow. Since the blizzard has distorted his sense of bearings, he only knew that he need to travel west and hopefully he could find a cave so that he could take refuge from the blasting storm, even if for a little while.

What he didn't expect to found was the silhouette of a building. Mingyu narrowed his sharp eyes as he slowly approached the building. It was weird. Three years he had been hunting around the mountains and not even once he had ever encountered such place, especially the one that located uphill. There was supposed to be a cave around this area, not a mansion.

He could always turned around and find another place but the blizzards were getting really annoying and he did not feel like walking another distance. Besides, this mansion irked his curiosity and he felt some sort of  deja vu, though he couldn't really pin point why exactly. It felt almost familiar to him, which was really odd since this was the first time he ever set foot in this place.

Mingyu watched the mansion silently, still pondering whether he should look for another place to stay or just man up and come inside. To think again, the mansion stood ominously in the dark, unfaltered by the raging storms. The victorian-styled buildings were adorned by two strong pillars that supported each side of the front entrance. Mingyu looked up and noticed the statue of gargoyles that stood proudly on every corner of the mansion. The mansion must be built around the 18th Century, if he's not mistaken, and still stood menacingly, tall and proud.

With one last sigh, Mingyu decided on the second option, as he reached up to the rusty gates and slowly pushed the gate opened. Even under the roaring blizzard, Mingyu could hear the gate creaked loud and clear. It somehow brought him a shiver. 'Right, what could kill you when you're practically the undead?' he muttered silently under his breath.

Now that he stood in front of the main entrance, the twin pillars seemed bigger than he made them out to be. He reached out on the metal brass handle of the door knocker and knocked three times.

A few seconds of waiting and there was no sound at all, save for the storms outside. Mingyu frowned and reached out his hand to knock again before the heavy double wooden door creak opened. He jumped slightly in shock, hand reaching to his chest unconciously, trying to calm his non-existent heartbeat. This mansion was creepy and that's one thing he knew for sure.

Without further ado, he quickly entered and slammed the door shut behind him. He winced slightly at the loud echo that reverberated around the mansion, somehow wished that he did not make the owner mad because he really need a place to stay and the last thing he needed was getting kicked out. He then shook himself a few times so that he could get rid of the snow that latched onto his body in attempt to make himself look presentable.

Mingyu looked up and suddenly, his breath was stucked in his throat. In front of him was the largest displays of porcelain dolls he had ever seen in his life. Dolls on the side tables, dolls on the armchairs, dolls on the either side of the grand stair case, dolls on the side of the doors; dolls everywhere.

'Oh...my...Lord, what did I get myself into.' Mingyu breathed, eyes still wide opened in awe. The dolls, Mingyu noticed, came in variety of height and clothes. Some of them were about 7 inches tall while the others are about a metre tall. The dolls were, to be put simply, gorgeous. Their gleaming eyes were made of colourful beads. He could see pairs of green, blue, and brown eyes stared deeply at him, as if almost glaring at him; and somehow it reminded him of one of those figures he saw in his restless nights. 

He cautiously walked around and entered what it seemed to be a living room, eyes narrowed curiously at the dolls around him. Dolls on the mantelpiece, dolls on the glass case lining up behind the couch, heck even a human sized doll sitting silently in front of the grand piano. This place was the doll mansion, literally and Mingyu could not even think how creepy and unnerving would it be to live and grow up in a place like this.

As he walked further, the dresses and suits was one of a kind too, he noticed. The dresses were 18th Century Victorian style with ribbons, laces and without even touching it, Mingyu was sure it was made out of nothing but pure silk. Their smooth complexion, along with the cherry-painted lips, and soft blush adorned their cheeks; those glimmering orbs that shook people's soul to the core, it was as if they were alive; as if they are, ".......humans."

"I'm delighted to see my guest has taken an interest toward my humble collections."

Mingyu swung his head around just in time to see a young man, dressed in high stand collar dress shirt that covered with black vest and brocade velvet trim tailcoat; black ascot that wrapped elegantly around his neck, along with cotton trouser and black leather boots. His mop of ivory hair was hidden by the top hat he was wearing. He was smiling softly at the astounded Mingyu, but there was something unsettling about that smile and that pretty eyes of his reminded him so much about the dolls he just saw.

"Erm...yeah, they're beautiful." Mingyu stuttered nervously. He watched as the young man slowly took a few steps forward, the sound of his boots were loud in his ears and Mingyu wondered how is it possible for someone to looked so gentle, yet so dangerous at the same time.

"They are my masterpiece," the young man began as he took out one of the the dolls from the glass case, "they are my life. I spend my whole life here, in this mansion. There were many flaws in many of my dolls," Mingyu watched the young man caressed the doll's hair with so much affection that it scared him, "....but I could not throw them away...not when I know how they feel."

If Mingyu wasn't scared back then, now he was sure he was. There were something strange about the young man's aura and Mingyu didn't like it. The air around the mansion were different as well, he realised. It felt like he could barely breathe without feeling something was going to strangle his neck. The mystery behind this mansion irked his curiosity to no end, and as much as he hated it here, he didn't have any choice but to stay.

"May I have the honour to know your name, Sire? After all, we don't seem to have big s." The young man put the doll back to the glass case before looked back at Mingyu with such a gentleman aura.

"Mingyu. Just call me Mingyu."

The young man eyes disappeared as he smiled and Mingyu swore that if its not due to his creepiness, the young man was actually....charming.

"Nice to meet you, Mingyu. My name is Joshua."

To be continued...

***

Aila's note I : Hi, you lovely people! I'm sorry for the long wait. I know that this fic is waaayy overdue but I have my reason. Originally the story is 90% complete. But then my laptop decided to died on me and somehow managed to delete all my data, including my university lecture notes and stuff :( It was frustrating! I mean, I've written like 30k words for this sequel and now I have to start it from a scratch again :(( I was going to give up on this fic. I don't know if anyone still want to read it but either way, here's the first part. I divide this fic into parts so that it'll be easier for me to update. Sorry for the inconvinience /bows deeply and hide in the corner

Aila's note II : Lastly but not least, happy reading <3 any comments, subscribe and upvotes will be forever loved and treasured <333