Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, items, places, etc. mentioned below

Nibelheim

In the small town of Nibelheim, there lived a boy named Cloud. He was estranged from everyone in the town, except his sick mother. Day after day, Cloud suffered neglect; his only escape being that of exploring the mountains near the town.

One day, while exploring a cave, Cloud came across a rusted metal door. Curious, Cloud tried opening the entry, only to find the door immovable. After several attempts at breaking open the door, Could picked up a rock and hit the hinges multiple times till they fell from the door. Finally, the door collapsed when Cloud ran shoulder first into the entry.

Upon entering the space beyond the door, Cloud was surrounded by darkness. Taking preparations was never a strong suit of the twelve year old Cloud, so when faced with this situation, instead of having a match on hand, Cloud felt the side of the cave and shuffled his feet. After a while, his eyes adjusted to the lack of light and Cloud found himself in what looked to be a room filled with coffins.

Now, Cloud may not have had as much knowledge as others due to his upbringing, but he knew that it was not customary to bury people in caves with locked doors. Thus, he felt safe in the assumption that the coffins had to be empty. Testing his theory, Cloud came over to the coffin located in the center of the room and nudged the top off. As he was working off the top, a hand shot out from the opening. Scared to death, all Cloud could do was gape at the appendage that had attached itself to his arm.

Slowly another hand slid out of the opening, only this "hand" was a golden claw like contraption. The hand-thing pushed the coffin lid off entirely causing a loud crash as the lid met the cave floor. Then, a man arose out of the coffin. Cloud knew right then that he was going to die and no one would ever know. For when Cloud looked at the man, he saw a vampire with pale skin, long black hair, glowing red eyes, and a cape soaked in crimson.

At first, the man didn't seem to notice he was clutching someone in his grasp. He seemed distracted by his surroundings. However his attention was soon drawn to Cloud when the boy struggled in hopes of escape. The man turned his solemn, red eyes on the child. Once the situation registered, the man looked as though he was about to let the boy go when suddenly a rumble was heard. With the need of hunger striking the man, an inner battle began causing the man's hand to continue to hold Cloud in place.

Within the man's mind, a demon fought for control. Finally after minutes of empty silence, Cloud noticed that the man's eyes had gone from red to a golden hue. The grip of the man tightened around Cloud's slim wrist, and the man sneered into the child's face.

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

Cloud did not dare to say a reply.

"Silent treatment, is it? That's not very nice, but then again what can be expected of an intruder dumb enough to enter this place."

The man tightened his grip, and Cloud managed a whimper of a reply.

"Please...let me go..."

"No. It's been ages since I've been able to get a snack."

With that said, the man brought the boy close to him and placed his mouth on the boy's throat. In less than a second, the man's hidden fangs dug deep into the tender flesh and he drank the child dry. Though the amount of blood possessed by the child could not quench the thirst completely, the lack of additional prey led to the man to regaining control. As his eyes regained their red glow, the man looked upon the dying boy who had virtually no more blood for survival. Not wanting another sin to add to his long list of regrets, the man bit his finger and placed five drops of blood into the child's mouth.

Next, the man cast a spell with the use of a black materia. All said and done, the man left his coffin to place the boy in it. Night passed into day and day passed into night, till finally, Cloud awoke to find himself in an open coffin with the creepy guy watching him from across the room.

"Hey...What's going on?"

"...Vincent..."

"...What?"

"The name is Vincent, and you have a lot to learn."