The throbbing in my head made everything around me seem like it was trying to kill me. When I opened my eyes, I was lying under a red sky. As feeling started coming back to my fingers, I felt I had my back in the dirt. It took all of my effort to pull myself into a sitting position. Once I was up, though, I regretted ever waking up.
There, across the alleyway in which I laid, was a giant beast. It stood on two legs like a human but was as tall as a single-story house. Every one of its limbs was swollen to sizes unimaginable. One of its arms had to be twice the size of my entire body. And its red eyes were trained on me from the moment I had sat up.
I fumbled around on my body, looking for the staff I always kept on me. It wasn't on me. I scrambled back, looking all around to find it before the beast attacked. My hand landed on something cold. Looking back, I found it was my staff in its folded position. I grabbed it, pressing the button on the side to pop it out to the full length. But, before I could unlock it and unsheathe the swords within it, the monster pounced.
Before I could react, another figure appeared. A human figure slid before me, brandishing a glowing red sword. From what I could tell from the back, it was a young man. His red cloak whipped behind him as he delivered one quick slash to the monster. The thing before us screeched, staggering back a few steps.
The man didn't let up. He dashed forward, slicing at the beast faster than my eyes could keep up with. But still, I watched, fascinated, and slightly terrified. At least he was protecting me and not attacking me. My speed and strength were better than any other human, but this man could chop me into pieces before I had any chance to react.
The man grabbed his sword with both hands, bringing it above his head, and delivered one final blow to the monster. The beast fell back onto the dirt, twitching for a moment, then it went completely still. He turned to me, revealed that he hid under his hood black hair that fell into his chiseled face and red eyes. Red like blood. He smiled, pulling his mask down from his mouth.
"That was close." He said. "Are you alright?" I nodded. He smiled again, showing perfect white teeth. "I'm glad. What are you doing out here, anyway? It's not safe."
"I, um…" I looked around. "I'm not sure where I am. Or how I got here."
His smile softened. "Amnesia's common after turning. Come on. I'll take you somewhere safe." He helped me to my feet. "I'm Akaba, by the way."
"I'm Yuki. It's nice to meet you, Akaba-san."
Akaba laughed. "How long have you been out? We don't use honorifics anymore. Look around you. Society is gone."
I stared at him, then looked around. This was Tokyo, the city in which I was born, but it wasn't the same city anymore. Or a city at all. Every building was covered in red dust and was crumbling. Parking structures were either thoroughly grounded or still half standing. Business buildings looked like something giant had taken bites out of them. The entire city was in ruins. My legs wanted to give out underneath me.
"Wait," Akaba said, drawing closer to me. "That smell. You're… you're not one of us, are you? You didn't change."
I raised my eyebrows. "What? Change? What do you mean?"
"Are you human?" He asked.
I nodded. "Of course. Aren't you?"
He laughed. "No." Then his face darkened. "Wait. I need to get you to safety. Now. Grab my hand."
Abaka reached out and grasped my hand. Then, he took off running, pulling me with him. The world blurred, and suddenly, we were inside a building. It wasn't rundown like the others. It was cleanly polished in tones of whites, blacks, and grays. If I had to guess, it was probably a high-end night club before the supposed end of the world. I stood, gaping, as I had never seen anything like this before in my life. Abaka handed me something that looked like a gas mask.
"What's this?" I asked.
"A ventilator." He answered. "Put it on. Hurry."
I did as he told me to, strapping the mask to my face. It was heavy and bulky and felt strange on my face. Akaba sighed in relief when I had it on. I frowned.
"Why did I have to put this thing on?" I asked.
"So that you could breathe properly." He answered. "Don't you feel better? Was it getting hard to breathe? I have no idea how long you were out there for."
"It wasn't hard to breathe," I told him. "I was breathing just fine. Why are you so worried about it?"
He stepped back, looking me up and down. The frown on his lips told me I had missed something. And that it was something important. My new companion folded his arm, then put his chin between his thumb and index finger. It was like I was his experiment, and he was examining the final results. He shook his head.
"The air is poisonous for humans." Akaba finally told me. "You shouldn't have been able to breathe out there that long."
I unhooked the mask from my face, handing it back to him. "So, what does that make you?"
"A vampire." He answered simply.
I laughed. "Yeah, right."
Suddenly, I was against the wall. Akaba's hand was on my neck, and I felt his teeth lightly graze my skin. His other hand had my hip pinned to the wall. I tried to push him off, but he barely budged. Finally, he pulled away.
Akaba grinned. "Did I scare you?"
I was still breathless. "Yeah, you did. So, you're a vampire? Is everybody else in the world a vampire, too?"
He nodded. "At least, those of us remaining are. Most humans died off awhile ago. Well, the ones in Tokyo did. There could be more outside the barrier, but we have no way of knowing that."
"The barrier?" I asked.
He nodded. "The blood barrier. Put up by the queen to protect us, vampires. She wanted to make sure we didn't go extinct along with the humans."
I stared at him, trying to process all that he'd said. Vampires? Is the air poisonous? A blood barrier? What kind of world was I living in now? And how long had I been gone from the one I had known?
The world felt like it was collapsing out from underneath me. I fell to my knees, leaning back to support myself against the wall. Akaba knelt next to me, but I didn't look at him. I wanted to know what happened to my family, but I was too afraid to ask. Not that it was likely he knew what happened to them. Were they still alive? Were they vampires, or were they dead now? I didn't know what I hoped for more.
"Are you okay, Yuki?" He asked.
I looked up at him. "I'm sorry. How long has it been since things started changing like this?"
Akaba sighed. "It's been five hundred years. I'll tell you everything once you rest. Come on."
He helped me to my feet, and I followed him deeper into the building. There was a set of stairs that went down at the end of the room. I could hear laughter and talking coming from downstairs. Akaba steered me away from the stairs into a hallway. It branched off into three directions. Straight, to the left, and also to the right. We went into the right hall and kept walking until we reached the end. He opened the last door on the left for me.
"You can stay in this room. I'm right across if you need anything." He told me.
Before looking into the room, I turned back to him. "Are there others staying here?"
My companion nodded. "Five others. I'll introduce you to them tomorrow. For now, get some rest, okay?"
I nodded, turning my back to him and walking into the room. He closed the door behind me. There at the door, I took in the place. It was reasonably spacious, comparatively speaking. A twin bed sat in the upper right corner, and a nightstand was right next to it, under the window. A large wardrobe sat on the left wall just before the door to the bathroom. I peaked in finding it was my private bathroom. I went back into the bedroom and opened the wardrobe. It was empty save for a single white nightgown.
I changed into the nightgown, then turned off the lights. Laying in bed, I thought of my family. I had a father and my stepmother here in Japan, and there was also my three sisters and my twin brother, Yukio. Then, worst of all, I thought of the twin boys I had adopted, Touka and Touya. I shut my eyes, trying to force my tears back. I didn't want to cry. I just wanted to find my family. Thinking of them, I fell asleep.