Vampires. Perfection for the price of blood. Fast, powerful, they are everything a mundane would ask for.

They had found their place in mundane history and myths ever since time started. Though, what was a myth remained a myth until time welcomed the eighteenth century - the start of what evolved to the modern society.

Humans had finally found the evidence to prove the existence of the being that had only appeared in their stories. But contrary to the stories that had been passed down from century to century, generation to generation, the Vampires did not shine in sunlight; they were not cold blooded; they were not soulless beings that craved merely for blood. They were everything a human was, but with stronger reflexes, special abilities termed by humans as superpowers.

Everything that a human had, they had better, stronger, except for one thing.

That was humanity.

Humanity, such a contradicting word it was. It represented what the Vampires wanted so badly, yet it was something that those who possessed it threw away so simply.

They wanted to care too. They wanted to co-exist with the humans, but they were only shunned away in fear from them.

All because they were different, because they consume blood instead of drinking water like the humans do. But the drinking of blood was nature, given to them the moment they stepped foot on the planet, and was something that could not be prevented. It was like how humans slaughter and consume the other animals.

But the humans, as usual, were foolish people.

Vampires were hunted down by humans and were burned to merely ashes by the time the clans found their people.

The kind, intelligent Vampires did not want conflict still, and believed in coexistence nevertheless. So they fled. They fled all around the world, to every corner their feet could take them, to flee from the places that had human scent.

Each clan had their own leaders, people whom they call the Royals. The Royals were especially special, and they always stood out from within the rest of the Vampires. They were stronger too, gifted with unlimited power and possessed exceptional leadership that commanded everyone else's respect. Though, as a result, they were the ones depended on by their people to solve the problems that came crashing at them.

And they did.

It was those Royals who had led their people to settle in the places they went on to call their home. They formed their own civilisations that only interacted with each other. They exploited their skills and everyone did what they did best. Merchants traded between the clans, providing the people with varied goods; blacksmiths wielded their tools, ensuring that security was taken care of, and so on. Orders from the Royals came, and they began feeding on animal blood, despite it weakening their ability immensely. It was the only way to survive after all.

It did not take long for that generation of Royals to pass away, they were beyond exhausted from the discovery of their kind, the conflict between the two races, to the building of their own homes. The next of the Royals, the children of their precedent, took over to continue the legacy and peace their parents had created for them, for their future. Everything went on as the first generation of Royals wanted, everyone was happy with their lives and did what they did best.

And even after everything the humans did to them, the clans went on to teach their children and grandchildren about the kindness and humanity of the humans.

They still wanted to coexist after all.

But it was not so for everyone. One clan, in particular, started to stray after generations and generations of Vampires. They begun to hate the Humans for their restrictive lives. It did not take long before that clan wanted freedom from their lives, to take control and punish the Humans for their actions.

They wanted the control of their lives. And they will do anything to achieve that...

~~

“Mama, where are we going?” The little girl was hushed by the older woman straight away. The latter continued to pull the girl towards whatever direction that was free of obstacles. Endless sounds of combat rang and faint shoutings could be heard from behind the two. Seconds passed before a man looking about the age of the woman appeared beside the two.

“Daddy!” The little girl whisper screamed this time, taking note of her mother hushing her earlier, “Are you alright?” The man smiled, nodding silently at the girl. He then went on to eye the older lady, to which the latter nodded in acknowledgement. The two adults, with the addition of the young child, moved in an inhuman speed, crossing border after border in just mere hours. They had been at it for a few hours now, with the male leaving the two females once a while to settle the death squad chasing behind them.

They were the targets, it had become obvious the moment the death squad continued chasing them when they had splitted with the rest of the clan. They knew the reason for the pursuit too. But all they could do was to run away, they needed to safeguard the lives of their clan members too. They could only apologise to their innocent daughter for dragging her into this at a mere age of four.

The family of three finally found a small abandoned barn they could take a temporary refuge in by the countryside of one of the European countries, where exactly they were they had forgot. The lady immediately started telling her young daughter about the whole situation while her husband was on guard outside, not caring if the girl was able to understand in ingest everything. It was something her husband and her had decided to do before they had found the barn, having concluded that they should at least let their daughter know about it before they leave her.

The couple was tired of running - they had been running from country to country, border across border and it was getting exhaustive, “might as well put up a fight and make our deaths worth it” was what her husband had said. And she agreed with him totally. They were taught to not run away since young, and she was not going to give up on that morale just because there were people doing everything they could to hunt and kill her family.

“Mummy?” The lady looked at her daughter, the latter pouting “They’re coming again…”

The lady’s eyes widened, “Who?”

“Those people again, mummy…” The girl shrugged, causing the older female to rush outside immediately to inform her husband about it. It did not take long before the lady returned into the barn, ushering her daughter to stand by a corner before unusual pink sparkles that brightened the room emerged from the former’s hands. The sparkles converged together, forming a small but spirited bird that hopped around the small space. The girl giggled, wanting to touch the bird only to be stopped by her mother who added stronger enchantments on the messaging tool, sending the bird off to complete its task and the room return to its natural darkness immediately.

Snarls were starting to be heard from all around the barn. The man who had been standing on guard outside the barn smirked. His daughter was right, they were coming and he was ready for them. He sent a soundless message about the new visitors they had to his wife who was guarding his daughter inside, waiting for the visitors to show themselves. It only took a few seconds for the visitors to make their appearances, each of them snarling with their hunting teeth out at the man.

The man chuckled, his fangs growing until they reached their limit at the same time. His eyes glowed a dangerous pink at his transformation. He eyed every single one of the hunters, “Now before you kill me, who sent you?”

“Does it even matter?” One of them replied, hissing at the same time.

“Of course. Everyone would like to know who got them killed, right?” And the man was met with silence. About a minute passed, and what seemed to be the group’s leader appeared right next to the man, whispering softly into the latter’s ear the name of the person that had caused all this. The man sighed heavily, nodding his head solemnly at the knowledge of who his enemy was. He prepared himself for the endless fight at the same time the hunters launched themselves at the man.

In a blink, hands were on hands, legs kicking against legs and blood were splattered everywhere. A few of the hunters fell dead on the floor, their necks all ripped. Straight away, more individuals dressed like the hunters appeared, joining in the fight against the poor lone man. Barely minutes had passed, the grass plains the barn was on was filled with blood and dead bodies and the man was starting to feel cornered. The amount of people the opposing side had seemed to be endless, but then again, his thoughts returning to the person that had order his family to be killed, it would have made sense if it was him.

The fight continued minute after minute, every single one of the hunters’ attention attached to the man only. No one noticed the faint white hue of glowing coming from within the barn. By the time someone had even noticed the glow, it was gone and the one hunter who had saw it thought he was seeing things instead. However, the group’s attention was caught by the appearance of the lady, who had left the barn to join her husband in combat. She could not leave her husband to die alone, she was taught to be better than that. The only apology she had though, was for her daughter and clan members.

The lady glowered at the hunters, her fangs and eye colour similar to that of her husband’s, just as more hunters showed up in the vicinity. She moved to be by her husband’s side, the two soulmates communicating just by the eye contact they shared. The man nodded almost unnoticeably, his hand moving to hold the lady’s hand as a seemingly blinding glow surrounded the two. The leader from before widened his eyes, recognising the magic that the couple was performing, but before he could warn any of his people, the glow was already surrounding them. The glow grew bigger and wider, right until it almost touched the barn.

Looking back at the couple, both of them each had streaks of blood running down their chins from the mouth and nostrils. They had given everything they had into this magic, and it was working. Their only hope now was for their daughter and clan members to survive through the entire ordeal that they knew was not going to be easy. The couple turned back to face each other, looking at each other’s faces for the last time, sharing eye contact for the last time, kissing for the last time before a light consumed every single one of them within the sphere of glow.

What happened next was a blur. But hours later, when a new group of people appeared by the grass plains, all that was left was the barn and blood. There were no bodies, no one, nothing but a single barn and small pools of blood all around the grass plains.

“Sir.” A man kneeled before another who was dressed in the best clothing available, “We found a girl.” In the former’s arms was the small girl who was hidden by her mother in the barn before her mother disappeared with her father. The girl was shivering, probably from the low temperature, her eyes were wide and afraid as she scanned the group of people surrounding her. The man who was addressed as ‘Sir’ awarded the servant that had brought him the small girl happily, only to turn to the young girl, his expression changing in mere seconds.

“May I know what your name is, my darling?” His voice was unusually soft, gentle and warm. The girl looked up with timid eyes, stuttering, “Jung-Jung Sooyeon.”

The man smiled, putting his hand out to shake the timid girl’s hand softly, “Well, nice to meet you, little Sooyeon. My name is Hwang Chiyeol.”

Author's Note: Hello~~ Welcome to the world of Dolls~ I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^-^ Until next week then~