AN: Yo! This is my first Fanfiction, so please be patient with any mistakes I make. This story will be a long serialization. The build up to the main story is really slow, so please bear with me :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Vampire Knight or any of the characters except for my OC.

Phantom Flames

Chapter 1

To my perpetually bored and lazy ass self, death came almost like a novelty.

After years of routine on a small island meeting the same people, eating the same meals, doing the same homework, then the same work and getting the same lecture after being late in the mornings for school, then for work, it's safe to say that I did not care much for waking up every morning for a new day. Of course, I had loving parents and occasionally nice, occasionally annoying siblings and normal friends and all. BUT! For a person who was constantly contemplating the possibility for alternate realities due to an overflowing imagination since childhood and all but craving adventure, I was almost happy when I faced the skidding truck that day (I don't remember which day it was).

Yes. Emphasis on the "almost".

And two reasons for that. One was that the good daughter that I was, I was genuinely sad and troubled that I was leaving everyone who was close to me behind to deal with the aftermath of my death. Oh well. That was expected. That was natural. That, I could live with (pun intended).

The real pain in the ass was the minutes which followed my death. When I realised nothing at all was going to move/happen in the darkness that I found myself in. All alone. With nothing to do. Ergo, when I realised that I was going to be static and bored for who knows how long. And that, dear people to whom I am currently delivering this existential ranting, SUCKED HARDCORE!

So after long hours, day, months (I don't know! There was no time in there!) of frustration, crying over my misery and mental pacing, I finally calmed down enough to not care. I entered a sort of Zen state and went over dozens of scenarios and mental stories to pass the time. When I wasn't doing that, I was meditating. Because yes, you can meditate in space that I was in after I died (not going to get into what that is because frankly, I could not care anymore, go Zen Attitude! But for reference's sake, I'll call it the Darkness. Because it was dark.). And because yes, that was in the top ten of the non-existent list of things that I could do at the time. Oh well, at least it passed time. I was also getting the feeling that my existence was "growing" in a sense the longer I meditated, which was a rather peculiar sensation. It was nonetheless a feat, and the most I could do in the Darkness.

After a long, long time, something happened in the Darkness apart from my weird meditation "growth". I started hearing things.

No really, not in the "I'm going crazy due to being stuck in a dark place and I'm hearing things" sense. I started to really hear what sounded like voices. Suffice to say that I was overjoyed and started investigating this new presence with renewed vigor after so many hours of meditation. Turns out the voices weren't within my reach. I searched and searched in the Darkness, granted I couldn't actually move, but I reached out as far as possible with my "grown existence" and still I could not reach them. The voices themselves sounded close, but seemed to be muffled by something.

Anyways, I could do nothing other than listen, so I listened. At least with the voices here, I knew I wasn't alone anymore. It might not seem much now, but the barely hearable voices were an immense comfort and relief to the prisoner that I was back then.

Again, time passed without much happening while I continued to delve in stories and in meditation while keeping track of the voices. I never stopped listening to them. As much as I hoped that if I paid enough attention they would come closer, I feared that if I let go for even a second, the voices would disappear and never come back. That was something I could not risk.

The next thing that happened in the Darkness after the voices was something I could not comprehend. It felt similar to an earthquake, but since there was no apparent ground or floor, it was like the Darkness itself was shaking violently.

In a matter of minutes, I felt the Darkness contract and close in on me, making me aware of the fact that I did seem to have a body, albeit an uncontrollable one. I was scared though. Knowing that the place I'd been in for so long was collapsing was one hell of a panic trigger.

Only one thought crossed my mind at the time: I. Want. To. Get. Out.

So I pushed and try to make sense of the now limited space that the Darkness had shrunk into.

….. Until I finally did make it out of the Darkness.

….. And realized that I'd been in a womb the entire time.

…... I will from now on refrain from thinking back to that particular episode of what seemed to be my second life. The birth process, including the Darkness and the post-birth steps, was very… uncomfortable and traumatizing.

Moving on….

It seems that I have indeed been reborn. With my adult thought process intact. My first thought (apart from yuck, urgh and the countless oh-my-god-what-the-fuck-is-going-on inner ramblings) was this: I hope I don't end up in a worse situation that I was in before.

Hahahaha! LOL! Well yeah, I might have jinxed myself on that, but surprisingly in both a good and bad way!

While I did not want to relive a boring life, I was optimistic enough to will my baby mind into thinking that I was going to myself a better shot this time around! That meant that wherever I was, I was going to get onto adventures, I was going to become rich as fuck and there was going to be ROMANCE! I was so happy and relieved to get out the Darkness that I felt like I could conquer whatever was thrown at me! Come, life, let's forget about the last try and dance hand in hand through the prairie of happiness this time!

So after I was capable of maintaining more than a few minutes and hours of "awake" status, I was constantly raising my chubby arms up and smiling at my new parents. They were really cute and always fawned over me, though I had no idea what they were saying half of the time. But I was quick to grasp the Japanese and some words were starting to somehow make sense. After going "Katsumi! Katsumi!" on me for about a thousand times, I understood that it was really my new name.

Anyways, Mommy was lovely with light blond hair and a warm mommy smile while Daddy was very handsome with light brown hair, weirdly purple eyes and a mischievous smirk (lady killer much?). They were both adorable.

That was until they both died. Barely some months after I was (re)born.

Remember my earlier overflowing optimism and fantasies of romance? All of that got shot down to the gutter after that night. Having to come to terms with the existence of bloodthirsty vampires while your parents were getting murdered made dancing through prairies a bit problematic.

They struck while I was in a blissful dream of sushi in the middle of the night. I was awoken by the bang of Daddy bursting through the door and promptly snatching me from the crib. As he ran out through the window towards the forest behind the house, his heart hammering against where my body was pressed against his torso, I saw Mommy. She had stayed behind and was literally slaughtering human-looking creature with crazy expressions and blood-caked mouths. But she was seriously outnumbered and could not simultaneously dodge a swipe at her neck and a clawed hand through her stomach.

My terrified baby vocal chords could only utter broken "Ma"s as I watched her fall from the stomach wound as her blood splattered everywhere.

Daddy never stopped running.