WARNING: Please keep in mind that this chapter mentions some blood and some very mild gore in the beginning! I have marked very clearly where it begins and where it ends so you can skip it if it makes you feel uncomfortable!

When Minseok had said it would be a long story, Jongin genuinely did not realize that it would bring him so much pain to himself. He had heard of the attack, of course, everyone of his kind had heard of it. But it seemed that there had been some secrets kept from society that Jongin did not even know about.

“There was a time when I was younger that I wished my life away. I wanted to be bigger like my older brother, because he got to go out with his friends until late and he got to stay up well past my own curfew.” Minseok sighed and leaned back against his chair, “I didn’t know any better, I was only a child.”

“We all wanted the same thing when we were young,” Jongin consoled him to the best of his ability, “WIshing away life is something that we do and when we reach a certain age we want to take all of those wishes back.”

Minseok tried to form a smile, but it was almost useless, “I appreciate the sentiment, Jongin, but it’s hard to feel as though you understand since you’re immortal and all…”

Jongin chewed his lip and nodded slowly, “That’s true but… Even vampires have a time to leave this world. Whether we choose to let go or if someone chooses for us, we have a limit too.”

“You can live for hundreds of years, where I can only live for a handful of decades… It doesn’t seem fair sometimes.” Minseok sighed and clutched his jeans a few times, in an attempt to calm himself.

“It’s not something to be jealous of,” Jongin frowned as he ran his fingers through his hair, “I’ve seen people come and go.” a deep breath and then, “I lost my childhood friend. He and I were very close. I helped him through so much and he helped me as well… We were the best of friends…. You remind me of him,” Jongin laughed sadly, almost bitterly, “His friendship is irreplaceable.”

“I’m sorry,” Minseok frowned, “I didn’t think of that… It’s hard to imagine that vampires can lose people the same way that humans do.”

Jongin forced a smile, “That’s a discussion for another time, I think… Let’s focus on you for now.”

“Ah,” Minseok closed his eyes and sighed again - a habit he had developed since starting the re-telling of this story, “As I had said, it all started with the colour red.”

***

/WARNING: Start/

Minseok was only twelve years old when it happened. It was a cold December night and a knock on the front door of the house had disturbed him from his school books. Not that his parents would trust him to open the door at such a late hour anyway, but it still drew his attention.

Sneaking from the kitchen table, Minseok caught a glimpse of bright, burning red eyes. That was the first time he had ever been met with such hunger in a vampire’s face. The red of his eyes, the red dripping from his fangs as he drank from Minseok’s Mother’s neck, her body gone limp in his arms.

The terror that Minseok felt in that moment was indescribable. No words could begin to piece together the fragments of Minseok’s mind as he came to the slow, horrific realization that his Mother was dead in the doorway of his own home, a stranger the life from her as she lay cold and helpless.

He barely had the time to screech before the stranger had entered his home so fast that Minseok’s hadn’t even seen the man reach the stairs, let alone physically climb them. It was as if Minseok had blinked and the man was gone, as if he had dreamt the whole thing. Only his Mother now lay half outside on the porch, a pool of her own blood beginning to accumulate around her head like a halo.

Before Minseok had even reached his Mother, screams ripping from his throat, tears staining his cheeks and his own body shaking in fear, he heard a scream that redirected his attention. His Mother’s eyes rolled back slightly and he watched in terror as they turned slightly towards the staircase as though his Mother was still alive and showing him which way to go.

Dashing towards the stairs as best that a twelve year old could in such a situation, Minseok found the cold, lifeless body of his baby sister at the top of the stairs. He limbs were mangled in a heap, her skin pale and her neck soaked red, the sickly liquid running down her small frame and ruining the white nightdress that was her favourite.

A stench finally reached Minseok’s senses and he cringed, nearly vomiting as he inhaled the smell of fresh blood. The metallic scent lingered throughout his home as he crawled up the stairs, slowly and unsure of what was happening beyond the door of his Father’s office when he heard the smashing of glass and the thunk of a body hitting the floor hard enough to leave a cracking snap echoing in the house.

Minseok ducked beneath the railing of the staircase and watched with wide, horrified eyes as his Father’s head landed outside of the his office door, his own blood staining the floor in a similar manner that his Mother’s had. Swallowing thickly, Minseok turned about himself and made a run for the kitchen where he knew a landline hung upon the wall, but it was useless. By the time he reached the kitchen, the stranger with the red, red eyes was waiting for him, a familiar body resting in his arms - his elder brother gone limp, blood dripping all over the floor as a tongue traced along the line of his neck, over the drops.

/WARNING: End/

At twelve years old, Minseok had witnessed the murder of his own family.

“Remember this face,” the vampire hissed, though shrouded in shadow, Minseok could only see red - red eyes, red lips, red stains, red blood, “Remember this face as the man who got away with murdering your entire family.”

That was the last thing that Minseok remembered clearly before he woke up on the side of the road in an uncomfortable position - his head pounding and his mind foggy with the events that seemed more like a dream to him than reality. He slowly turned his eyes, searching for something familiar to tell him exactly where he was and was shocked into utter numbness to see that his house was engulfed in flames and that he was outside, safe, while his family’s bodies burned within.

The true horror of that night was not the fire that caused an alarm within the neighborhood, sirens blaring in the background of Minseok’s mind. No it was not even the fact that he had, alone, survived from something so horrid he would not even wish it on his least favourite classmates. It was the fact that he had seen the destruction and terror that vampires could bring to this world, how they could destroy families and homes in one night, how they could kill without remorse.

It was the fact that Minseok now knew of the ability of such demonic creatures and the fact that he had been left to suffer in the knowledge that vampires ruined his life, that nothing good could ever come of vampires.

***

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