Drip. Drip. Drip.

That's the only sound there every has or ever will be, besides my breathing.

Oh, and the tray of food passed through a slot, three times a day, every day, being scraped along the concrete ground. Occasionally, I'm passed books, because I once screamed for days without stopping. The excruciating boredom of those days still haunted me, at least now I had a small selection of books. I don't remember learning to read... I just knew how to.

All my memories are of these four walls - the bed that gets replaced every few years pushed against the wall, with the door to the small bathroom on the wall opposite. The small, leaking pipe is at the end of my bed - luckily it doesn't drip onto my bed though. Extra luckily, the water flows out of a small hole in that corner, so the floor stays relatively clean except for over there. And, my books remain dry.

There is one tiny window, with two bars making it even smaller. I couldn't see out of it for years, but eventually, if I stood on my bed, I could see out into... a brick wall. About a foot away from my room. It just let in some light, and that was it.

My life is exceptionally simple - to the point I had to wonder if maybe I was some kind of prisoner? How long was my sentence though? What was my crime? I'd read a little bit about prisons, and this seemed almost identical to one. Maybe I was just crazy though - no, paranoid. That's the correct word!

Two sets of clothes are abruptly shoved through the slot in my door, the slot being shut before I can see more than the blinding light. I change into one set and put the other on top of my pile of books, then take both sets that I'd just started to grow out of and placed them by the door.

Taking four steps back, I count to ten. When I reach ten, the clothes are swapped for two new books - I don't remember when this became a thing that I did with whomever provided me with these books but... well, it made me a little happy. Made me think there was someone with fairness behind the big metal door that kept the world from me. Made me rationalise that, maybe it's fair that I'm being kept here.

A few days later, there was a knock on the door - two to be exact.

Placing down my algebra books - girl with loads of time gotta have a time consuming hobby - I stood in front of the door, but stayed two steps back from it.

"Hello?" My voice was very small, and very unused. A book on psychology had taught me that talking aloud was normal, but that many considered it a sign of something mentally wrong and so it was not highly advised to do.

A high pitched creaking sound pierced my ears, making me clutch at one ear and curl inwards a little. Then, bright light filled the room with a magnitude my darkness-adjusted eyes just could not handle.

My ass hurt bad as I fell down upon it, one hand up in the air trying to block the light while my other continued a vain attempt to protect my ear. Voices surrounded me, but I couldn't hear or see anything.

Pain flooded my arms as I was roughly hauled to my feet by a grip so tight my bones almost creaked, and I was dragged from my room, my only home, without any words to me that I could make out.

In a rush, I'm taken through several well lit corridors and tunnels. Eventually, we come to a stop before two elaborately decorated doors which are shut tight before us. Then I'm being released, and the doors slowly open. Distantly, I hear excited chatter behind me but ignore it once the doors open enough to reveal a vampire girl with bright red eyes smiling at me.

Oh yeah, I knew what I was. Like being able to read, I always knew I was a half vampire. Just like how I knew my name. Other than that, the only clear memories I had were of a giggling voice - I always presumed my own - around me as I ran through a forest somewhere.

The girl unnecessarily clears her throat, the strides forward and gently takes my hand - as though I were the child and not five inches taller than her. "Come along with me, please."

Sweet, like sugar, but with a sour undercoating of sewage water.

Behind the elaborate doors was another corridor (much wider than the others), covered end to end with painting after painting - with the occasional statue or head busk.

Honestly, it was rather daunting and I was awestruck - likely, if not for the small hand rather gently pulling me along, I could have stayed happily in that corridor for days just to enjoy the art fully.

At the end of the corridor are doors even bigger and more ornate than the previous - and they're gently opened by some invisible force as we near them. Three thrones on a pedestal, with three steps leading up to them, was revealed slowly to me as the doors opened soundlessly. Maybe they had some kind of buffer to keep them silent?

As we approach, I realise that the thrones actually have a man in each of them - a vampire to be exact. They look old, and I recognise them from the old paintings in the corridor I had just been nearly dragged through. The clothes were of a very old style - I idly wondered if they had turned a tailor into a vampire hundreds of years ago just so as to keep his mastery of those clothes alive.

The one in the middle greets me with a smile, and waves his arm. The others stare around, appearing to be rather bored.

The girl that lead me through releases my hand gently, and walks steadily over to a rather short and foreboding vampire. They were very similar - perhaps siblings?

"Greetings to you, Renesmee." The voice snapped my attention to one of the bored looking pair - the one with the darker, messed up hair. My name being said aloud felt strange, and almost seemed to stir up some memories within me - but they were gone before I could get them within my grasp.

Not knowing what to say in these situations - what do you say to royals? - I simply inclined my head a little.

"We trust you have been taken well care of." The middle king spoke. "Ten years is but a blink of an eye for us - we apologise if it seemed a rather long wait to you. Together we agreed we'd prefer our first meeting with you to be when you're full grown, and able to understand."

Looking down, I considered this. It seemed... quite logical. As a child, I had been scatterbrained, prone to trying to run away and really rather feral. Growing up really does change you.

Nodding, I looked back up to meet his dulling red eyes. "I understand."

A sweet grin stretched across his face. "Lovely, now I do believe it is time for dinner. I hope any questions you may have can wait until after." The voices of many human admiring the artwork outside reached my ears then. So, my hearing is inferior to a full vampires. Intriguing.

Nodding again, I moved to the side just in time to see a large group of humans being herded gently into the room, excited chatter the only noise in the room. They were lambs being guided to the slaughter - completely unwitting.

The middle king clapped his hands loudly, and the chatter ceased. "Welcome!"

A sweet grin crossed his features again, and then he seemed to fly towards a human and begin to eat.

Pandemonium ensued, and I allowed my instinct to join in.

One thing banged at the back of my mind though - he grinned the same grin just before getting his meal, as he had just after I agreed to hear out my captors.

This is a complete re-write of my old story, Forever alone. If you'd like to read that and compare, I'd love to hear opinions on the differences.

There will be one big change - the addition of my adaptions of the characters Nettie and Lucy from my story, 'Together We Stand, Apart They Burn'. You don't need to read this story but it will help to better understand the two characters. They are the only carry over from that story. The plot will also change, probably. I don't want two identical stories - that would be breaking the rules, if I remember correctly.

Til next time ;)