Author's Note

Hey everyone!! This is entitled When Darkness Falls – its nothing too dark or should I say…emo? Hehe. This was inspired by the movie 'Interview with the Vampire'. Oh yeah, defrosted chicken is back!! But don't worry, I won't put too much defrosted chickens. Hope you enjoy! Oh yes, like my other fan fic – My Favorite Loser, Mikan studies in Junkuji High School in Nagoya.

Disclaimer

I don't own Gakuen Alice

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When Darkness Falls

By Keiko Oda

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SLAP

"I…I look like a defrosted chicken?!?!"

"Defrosted chickens are cute…you should be flattered!"

"Be flattered because I look like frozen poultry?"

"You don't…you don't understand!!"

"Oh, I understand very well! We're OFF Kaito!"

He sat on the kitchen floor, crying his eyes out. The one he loved the most has just walked out of his life. He stood up and took out his prized possession from the freezer and smiled weakly.

"I guess it's just you and me, Chicken" he said and stroked his beloved cold, dead and uncooked bird.

"You and me…forever" he whispered and stared into the abyss.

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"GOOD MORNING!!!"

Hi. I'm Mikan Sakura – sixteen year old pig-tailed brunette junior at Junkuji High School. I live with my grandpa since my parents died a long time ago, so my grandpa took me in to take care of me. But it's okay, I don't remember them that much since they died when I was an infant.

"Good morning" my classmates said in unison as I walked to my seat. I opened my bag as I took out my books and pencil case as I hummed a song that I heard this morning on the radio.

"Good morning, Mikan-chan" a familiar voice whispered. I looked up, it was my good friend Ruka Nogi. Blond, starry-eyed…charming Ruka… he sits in front of me during class and he's very much interested in the paranormal world.

"Good morning, Ruka-pyon" I said, and stared at the book he was clutching.

"I see you have borrowed another book from the library" I said, pointing to the book.

"Oh yeah…I did just the other day" he said and showed me the book.

ALL ABOUT VAMPIRES

Getting to know these bloodsucking creatures

"They are native to Transylvania and Scandinavia…and northern parts of Europe" he said, opening a page that had a collage of different vampires. I shuddered as I saw their bloody fangs, oily-looking hair and yellowish eyes. I was extremely scared of them…the fear started when I was five-years old during Halloween… I don't want to remember that terrible memory.

Before I could even reply, Mr. Narumi entered the classroom and all of us took our seats.

"Good morning, class" he said and we replied a 'good morning' to him as well.

"We have lots to cover this term, but before that…" he said and scribbled something on the board.

IMAI HOTARU

"You have a new classmate to join us, Imai Hotaru" he continued and walked to the door and slid it open.

A dark-haired girl with emotionless violet eyes slowly 'glided' into the classroom, her pale skin blending in with the white wall as she passed it and faced the class. She scanned the classroom with those dead looking eyes and finally introduced herself.

"Good morning. I'm Hotaru from Kyoto, nice to meet you all." Her voice sounded like a dying kitten's cry. She faced Ruka and I and seemed to examine us carefully, then she turned to Mr. Narumi again.

"Hotaru, please find a seat. There's one there," he told her, and pointed to the vacant seat beside Ruka which once belonged to a transfer student a term ago.

Hotaru nodded slowly and glided to the seat. She sat down there and took out her things from her bag. Aside from school supplies, she took out a black stuffed toy bunny with green buttons for eyes and conspicuous stitches that held the legs, head and tail together. There were pins on its back – the pinheads had faces (which really made me have a strange feeling because pinheads don't usually have faces). And there was a blue thing stitched to its chest that roughly took the shape of a heart. It looked more of a voodoo doll than a stuffed toy to me.

"Mikan Sakura" I said, extending my hand.

Hotaru just looked at it and looked at me again. "You know who I am already" she said coldly and turned to the board.

"Ruka Nogi," Ruka said. "Your new seatmate." he smiled.

She nodded and glanced at Ruka's book.

"Is that a book about vampires?" she asked softly.

"Yeah! It is!! Are you interested in them as well? Aren't they fascinating? The way they suck blood and stuff…"

"I find them horrible!" I blurted out. "They're hideous!"

Hotaru just nodded and looked at her bunny.

"Is that stuffed toy for Home Economics? Because it looks like a pin cushion." I said, pointing to the bunny.

She looked insulted.

"No." she said flatly.

Ruka's POV

I noticed as she took out more things out of her bag, she had several black stitches sewed onto her fingers…well…at least they looked like stitches.

When she put down her arm, I took it and examined her arm carefully. It was pale like the rest of her appearance, but her hand really looked like it was stitched together. It was amazing.

"Don't touch me" she hissed and removed her arm out of my grasp.

"I…I'm sorry…it's just that I thought I saw stitches on your fingers…did you get into an accident or something?"

"None of your business" she muttered and didn't speak to me after that.

Mikan's POV

"Hotaru-chan, you want to eat with us?" I offered, when recess arrived. I pointed to my group which consisted of my friends: Ruka, Koko, Yuu, Anna and Nonoko.

"I mean, because you're a new student and…"

"We'd love to have you eat with us" Anna smiled…and the rest of my group nodded.

"No, thank you. I'd rather go on by myself" Hotaru replied plainly and picked up her 'Voodoo Bunny'.

"Are you attached to the bunny?" Ruka asked.

Hotaru looked at Ruka, with a sad expression pasted on her face. Then she turned around again.

"See you after lunch" she said softly and glided out of the classroom. She then disappeared out of sight as we followed her out of classroom.

"She freaks me out" Ruka laughed nervously.

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After school, I went to the supermarket to buy some dinner for grandpa and I. I happened to run into Hotaru.

"Oh, hey Hotaru" I said, as I met her in the Poultry section.

She was putting in several chickens inside her basket.

"You're really fond of chicken, are you?" I said, watching her chuck down lots of chicken down the basket.

She still didn't reply.

"Don't you eat anything else?"

"I don't…I don't eat that much" she replied softly.

Before I could say anything else, she turned to me – still with that sad expression plastered on her face.

"Now, if you excuse me – I'm going to the check-out counter" she said and disappeared into the supermarket crowd. She looks sad. It looks like those purple eyes cry all the time.

I reached home after doing the shopping.

"I'M HOME!" I yelled, removing my school shoes and putting on my slippers.

Grandpa was in the dining room watching a talk show.

"Hi grandpa" I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Ssh…" he said, putting his finger on his lips. "I'm watching a talk show on this person who had a deathly encounter with a vampire"

"God, grandpa. You know those things don't exist" I said, rolling my eyes as I put the food in the refrigerator.

"I've always believed that there were others beside us, humans"

I laughed and brought him some tea. I watched the talk show with him.

"So the vampire swoops down on me, I feel all cold as his nails dig down my neck. Then I scramble helplessly on the floor and switch on the lamp. The vampire screeches and lets go of my neck. I watch the creature fly out of the window as he took the shape of a bat."

"It's obviously fake." I commented, as the guest finished speaking.

"Ssh" grandpa said.

"There have been many reported cases of different paranormal creatures appearing in Kyoto – which is known to have lots of ghosts and creatures inhabiting it."

Wasn't Hotaru-chan from Kyoto?

Grandpa switched off the television. "Let's have dinner."

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After washing the plates, grandpa went to his room to sleep. Thoughts of vampires and all those creatures raced across my head as I took a shower up to the time I switched on my lamp to do my homework. I was beginning to get scared, my heart raced as I tried desperately to get engrossed in my Trigonometry. But I couldn't…I was too scared.

After hours of trying to get into my Math problem, I checked my bedside alarm clock – it read in big green digital numbers: 1:45 am

I rubbed my eyes and decided to do my homework at school. I stretched and opened my blanket to sleep. I put myself in my comfortable position and readied myself to greet the sandman.

I was already half asleep when I heard my curtains softly flutter. I sat up and checked my alarm clock: 2:00 am.

I opened my window. There was no wind at all. I closed the window again and covered it with my curtains once more, then I heard something creak in the hallway. This was getting very scary. Had a robber broken into the house? I wanted to cry. But if a robber had entered, I must protect my house.

I took out a baseball bat from my drawer. I was in the Baseball Club when I was grade six so it was a good thing I kept my bat. I took out my flashlight as well and put in fresh batteries. I opened my door and searched around my house. There was no burglar. But I had an intense feeling that my house wasn't safe at all.

As I neared my room, I heard a noise coming from grandpa's room. Was the burglar in there? I touched the door and slowly opened it, what I saw made my heart stop beating and my eyes shoot open.

A dark figure was hovering over my grandpa. I could hear its breathing. Oh my god. What was happening?

I tip toed inside my grandpa's room, the dark figure now covering half of grandpa's body. If it was a serial killer, I couldn't let my grandpa get killed – especially in front of me!

My fear suddenly vanished as I felt strength and courage rise. I lunged toward the creature which now looked up at me with ruby colored eyes. I hit it several times on what I think was its head.

"GET OFF GRANDPA!!" I screeched as I felt the creature slowly crawl toward the window. I hit it more as it gave up and collapsed on the floor.

"Mikan…what's going on?" grandpa asked, sitting up half-awake. I looked at grandpa and locked the door.

"There's…there's a killer in the room" I said shakily and switched on the lights.

I was expecting a thug with several tattoos with a gun or a knife sprawled on the floor. But no...

What I saw was much out-of-the-ordinary. What was lying sprawled on the floor was a boy that looked about my age with jet black hair unconscious. He was wearing black with a black cape on his back. Oh my…did I just beat up an innocent person?

I looked closely, his mouth fell open. There were two fangs in his mouth – and his skin was as white as a sheet.

Oh my God.

It's a vampire.

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End of Prologue