Thirsty.

Minami Kotori is thirsty.

She wakes up from her sleep with a jolt, gasping for air as she clenches her neck tightly in hopes that the pain will somehow eliminate her thirst – she fails. She looks across her room.

A mess.

Her room is in mess – her school uniform is haphazardly scattered across the room. Kotori spots her lingerie; she quickly look down – she huffs in satisfaction as she sees herself decently dressed with her usual sleep attire. Kotori gulps unconsciously.

Thirsty.

Kotori is reminded again of her thirst. She gapes her mouth open, breathing in large gulps of air in hopes that the oxygen in it will somehow eliminate her thirst – she fails yet again. She inhales a large gulp of oxygen and holds it.

Kotori removes herself from the bed – she struggles with the blanket before tumbling down on the floor, accidentally releasing her hold of air. Her eyes catch movements that she should not see in the dark – the flying mosquitoes, the crawling bugs, the floating particles of dust. She latches herself on to the small table beside her bed in surprise of her newfound ability. Her eyes catch the blinking light of her neon lighted clock; 3 a.m., 9th July.

Thirsty!

Once again Kotori is reminded of her thirst – she discards everything she had been thinking about and exits her room towards the kitchen swiftly, staggering. She feels as if her body floats as she dashes across the hallway across the entrance of the living room before arriving at the kitchen.

Eh?

Kotori hastily grabs a clean glass from the dishwasher tray – the tad cracking sound halts Kotori's movement. She slowly upturns the glass so she can see it and indeed she can, in the dark.

The patterned zigzag draws long lines from the main source of its applied source – Kotori's palm. She quickly yet safely places the glass on top of the countertop, retreating in anxious of the occurring incident. Kotori whines. She tries again.

Her eyebrows all scrunches up as she takes another clean glass from the dishwasher tray, slowly and carefully. Seeing that no more cracks are produced from her gripping the glass, Kotori opens the tap water and fills her glass with it.

She gingerly drinks her water. Her throat burns painfully, Kotori had to clench her neck tightly to divert her attention to something else. She licks her dry lips before proceeding to fill her glass with water again.

Kotori tilts her head back as she swallows the glass full of water in one big gulp – it does not quench her thirst, it got worse! Her throat burns even more painful than before.

Kotori puts the glass on the countertop in defeat, her throat pulses whenever she swallows her own saliva. She slumps down on the wooden floor of her kitchen, agonising her inability to quench her increasing thirst. Kotori covers her mouth with both of her hands to stifle the increasing fervor of her miserable sobs.

"What… is this?..." Kotori chokes out the sentence as she starts weeping silently.

(0_0) – Boo.

Mrs. Minami is undoubtedly shocked as she enters the living room – her only daughter sitting on the couch, early in the morning, all alone, on a Sunday. She quickly disperses any thoughts regarding on how to tease her daughter on the notion of waking early on a Sunday as she sees her daughter looking tired and dejected.

"Kotori?" Mrs. Minami calls. Kotori stirs in her position. She tilts her head a tad from her position, her bangs covers her ember eyes.

"Yes?" Her voice comes out croaked, an undeniable evidence that she had been crying. Mrs Minami rushes to her daughter's side, cradles her head and hugs her body. She feels Kotori's figure tenses upon contact.

"No!" Kotori flails as she pushes Mrs Minami away – again Mrs Minami is shocked. Gasping, Kotori stands from the couch, retreating bit by bit before her back bumps onto the creamy coloured wall behind.

"No." She whispers, her eyes reflect fright and… a tinge of swirling red? Before she runs off into her room, the door slamming hard upon closing, the loudness of it reverberates inside the house.

Frozen, Mrs. Minami is unsure of what had happened. She blinks a few times, her mind trying to sort out the event that had occurred. She huffs out loud.

"What's up?" Mr. Minami groggily greets his wife as he rubs his eyes off the sleepiness. He had been having a sweet dream of cute puppies running across the beach before the dream shatters when a loud sound shakes him up. Mrs. Minami tentatively looks towards her husband.

"What's up?" Mr. Minami adapts his serious tone as he notices the shocked feature of his wife. He swiftly moves nearer to his wife, sitting beside her and holds both of her hands, rubbing small circles to calm her nerves down.

Mrs. Minami looks towards the entrance to the living room then towards her husband. She inhales slowly before she recounts everything to her husband.

(-_-) – Miss me?

Click!

Kotori locks herself up in her room. She slides herself down on the floor, her head tilting upwards, gasping for air, gasping for something that can quench her increasing thirst, her hand gripping tight her own neck, unaware of the bruising formed.

Gulp.

"Ghhh!" Every swallow of her saliva burns her throat. She is thinking of not swallowing of her saliva, yet it is an unconscious action of her body, Kotori had to endure it. Kotori lays her body on the carpeted floor, her limbs fall flat on the surface. She focuses her attention towards her ragged breathing and the floating particles of dust her eyes catch.

Gulp.

Kotori's face contorts into discomfort, the sting in her throat is lesser than before.

Ok Kotori. You can do this! She wordlessly encourages herself before a small, appreciative smile adorns her facial expression as she thinks the stupidity of her own thought. Now that she can focus on her own thought and not on her thirst (much), her mind swims back to occasion a few hours before. Kotori blinks.

She remembers she arrives home late evening, wearing her school uniform, sweating as always after the usual dance practice at the school's rooftop for the upcoming Love Live tournament, with Honoka and Umi…

Umi.

Kotori arches her back as she silently screams in torment, both of her hands clutches her neck tight, she starts to feel the slightest pain in her clutching. Her feet kick the carpeted floor, her toes curling, adamant in making her back arch impossibly high of the sheer pain (and pleasure?) coursing through her body.

After what it feels like eternal, Kotori exhales shuddering breaths as her body limps down on the carpeted floor. Her head spins and all that she can think of is Umi. Her eyesight is becoming a bit hazy.

"But… why?..." Kotori voices out her question amidst her mind's haziness.

Gulp.

"Aughhh!" Kotori wrestles with her body as she lifts herself up. She forgot of her own conclusion of thinking about her ragged breathing and the floating particles of dust. She dashes towards her window, her mind forming no incomprehensible thoughts of why she did that. Kotori snaps open her green waves printed curtains off as it pools onto the bed – sunlight fills her room instantly.

Kotori feels her strength weakening; her thirst is suddenly beyond Kotori's explanation. She scrunches her eyebrows. Her mind reels on the contents of a book she had borrowed from Maki.

She slowly crawls off her bed towards a darker side of the room, where sunlight will not reach, tiredly sweeping her haphazardly thrown uniform away. Kotori butts her head on to the creamy coloured wall, her mind forming one single word of her condition as of now, mouthing it out slowly,

"Kyūketsuki."

(m_m) – Ok. I'll stop.

Kotori does not want to move, she does not. She feels like she had been sitting there for hours – probably she did. Kotori glances towards her neon lighted clock; 5 p.m., 9th July.

"Who made me like this anyway?" Kotori questions. "How does this work?" She rolls her head to the left. "How does any of this works?" She rolls her head to the right. Maybe she should find a master, a vampire master, to learn about her condition – where on earth is a vampire master anyway?

Thunk!

Feeling stupid, Kotori butts her head on the creamy coloured wall behind her, pondering on her next action she shall take.

Drinking blood – seems like the best idea, since she had recently known that she is a vampire.

Drinking blood – seems like the grossest idea, before she becomes a vampire.

"Ugh." Kotori wipes her face. She notices something protrudes from inside her mouth. Kotori touches it.

"Shi-" Shocked, she unconsciously hauls herself up from her sitting position. Her heart thumps wildly from the utter revelation of the newfound fact – she had a fu- she had fangs!

"Huff! Huff!" Kotori starts, calming herself down. She touches her fangs again – sharp. Kotori vividly plays the scene of drinking blood from a human.

"Ugh." She slumps down on the carpeted floor again, her limbs splays. She looks up to the ceiling – a lizard crawls towards its prey.

Kotori exhales a long, shaky breath as her mind dazes, her eyesight hazes. All she sees afterwards are blurs of orange coloured fur… or hair.

What is this? Why? Who? When? Where? How?

Minami Kotori wakes up from her sleep with a jolt, gasping for air – a sense of déjà vu envelops her. She wishes for the event before as a dream. Frantic, she looks across her room.

A corpse.

(~.~) – I have exams. Wish me luck! Tata.