I woke to a dimly lit room, the dark colours blurring as I struggled to focus my eyes.

Where am I?

All there was in the room, I noted as I slowly sat up was a chair. No windows. A tall, thin and grey door stood in the left wall. All of the walls were the same dull grey colour, almost hiding the door in camouflage.

Standing up, I noted with relief that I no longer felt any pain as I moved. I could still remember the fight yesterday - if it was yesterday. What was the time? I didn't even know if it was the morning or night.

And you always wondered how people go mad alone in a locked room.

Crossing the room, I reaches out to the door, twisting the handle. Locked. I hadn't expected anything else.

Sighing, I turned around, wandering around the room before seating myself on the small, wooden chair.

That girl from before and her companion. Number 5, I think. Were they the ones that took me? The last thing that ever happened was me getting hit and knocked out.

Absentmindedly, I scuffed my toes in the floor, feeling it scrape the floor. This had to be a nightmare.

As I continued to kick my legs against the ground aimlessly, I had to face the truth.

You're pretty much screwed.

No, that wasn't it, I silently reprimanded the voice in my mind. It was more like there was no more hiding from everyone. Zero had found me, and unless I had some help, I probably didn't have any chance of escape.

"Where are the keys?" The sudden voice outside the door made me jump. "We're running behind on time."

The jangle of keys and the rattle of a lock made me stand up, preparing to defend myself if necessary.

With a final thump, the door was pushed open and an unruly head popped inside.

"Hmph," the bearded man grunted as he saw me standing there. "Least you're not like the other Nighters. Eat it." He tossed a small jar that rattled with small, white pills. The small, clear jar rolled past my feet, as I glanced at its contents.

Blood tablets. They knew I was a vampire then.

The door slammed shut without warning, and keys rattled once more as the guard locked it.

"Wait," I began to call, my voice hoarse, and barely louder than a squeak. It was too late anyway. The heavy footsteps of the guard shuffling away faded away.

Who knows when you'll ever see a human being again.

I ignored the snide remark and bent down, picking up the jar to survey it. No label or particularly defining feature. It was just a simple, plain, plastic jar. With a white cap.

Unscrewing the top, I tipped a couple of the tablets into my palm, staring at the white pill suspiciously. Were they trying to poison me? Why would they feed me in the first place?

~~~

"Zero!" Kaien welcomed his foster son's entrance. "Where is she? Did you bring her back?"

Heaving a sigh, Zero sat himself down heavily onto the armchair on the side of the warmly lit office.

"No," he replied, not meeting Kaien's eyes.

"No?" Kaien peered at Zero enquiringly. "She didn't want to come back?"

"Sort of," Zero muttered. "She can't anyway." He added under his breath.

"And why not?"

"She-"

"Where is she?" The door crashed open, revealing a frantic looking Shina. "Where's Saki?!" Zero felt a stab of guilt as he saw her eyes welling with tears.

"Shina," Kaien got up worriedly. "You shouldn't be out like this."

"Hey, slow down," Yagari appeared behind Shina placing a hand on her shoulder. "You really can't keep running away from me."

"She's not here," Shina replied numbly. Her shoulders sagged, as she buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

Without a word, Yagari wrapped his arms around her sobbing figure, resting his chin on the top of her head.

Seeing Shina like this, Zero couldn't help feeling even more guilty about Saki's kidnapping. What would she do if he told her that Saki had been kidnapped by some random thugs?

A paperplane landed at Zero's feet. Glancing down, Zero looked back up at Kaien in confusion.

Kaien nodded encouragingly towards the piece pf paper. With a final glance towards his strange foster father, Zero picked up the paper plane, unwrapping it.

We'll talk later

Fair enough, Zero conceded. For the time being, it would probably be best to focus on Shina's hysterics.

~~~

"How's she going?" Kaien asked Yagari quietly. The two of them, along with Zero sat around Kaien's table in his office.

"Better," Yagari responded briefly. "She finally managed to fall asleep after all those weeks."

"That's good," Kaien commented, before glancing at Zero. "Zero has something he needs to share with us."

"About Saki?" Yagari turned to Zero immediately. With a nod, Zero began to talk.

"I found her working at a cafe," he began, pushing forward a sheet of paper. "There's the address. She ran off when I found her, and we ran into two...people in an alleyway."

"What do you mean by people?" Kaien pressed. "You don't sound very certain."

"You'll see," Zero brushed aside his question. "They were taking a small child - a toddler, and Saki tried to stop them. Couldn't fight for her life. She ended up being kidnapped and taken." He stopped, waiting for Kaien and Yagari's reaction.

"They took her," Yagari repeated. "Just like that? You didn't try to stop them?"

"Of course I did," Zero glared at Yagari, his lavender eyes flashing at his former mentor. "I shot the girl and she barely reacted. Her companion felt like he was made of stone, especially when I fought him." He decided not to add that he had completely forgotten about Saki when Number 5 attacked him, only remembering to defend himself.

"You used Bloody Rose to attack one of them," Kaien repeated for confirmation. "And she wasn't harmed. So she wasn't a vampire?"

"Acted like one," Zero retorted. "All full of herself and with an unending vanity." Guilt bit him as he realised he was just like those creatures.

"So they clearly weren't just a pair of kidnappers," Kaien concluded, not noticing Zero's abrupt silence. "Who do you think they could be working for?"

"Who knows," Zero muttered with a shrug.

"This is getting us nowhere," Yagari growled. "Why would a pair of random people just come up and kidnap a girl and a toddler? It makes no sense."

Zero had been wondering about that himself.

"Maybe we should check the library archives," Kaien suggested, referring to the tedious volumes and records that resided in the Association's archives. "If the girl is a vampire as you say, she might be recorded."

~~~

The room was always the same. Always dark, and there was never any movement. Sometimes I thought I heard voices outside, but they faded away as soon as I heard it.

Idly, I picked up the jar of tablets, turning it this way and that, peering through the gloom of the room. Should I eat them?

My stomach grumbled, urging me to unscrew the cap and eat the tablets. My hand hovered uncertainly over the jar lid.

A loud thud jolted me out of my decision making attempts, as I heard a loud voice right outside my door.

"How long will it be?" A high, feminine voice whined. It sounded familiar, but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't place who it was.

Another voice replied, quieter, which I couldn't hear. The first person responded to the second person with a loud huff, before I heard footsteps marching away, fading into nothing.

Were they waiting for me to eat a blood tablet? Or were they waiting for me to go mad in this closed room?

~~~

YEEEEESSSSSSS! The wi-fi works! At last!
Right, just so you guys don't wonder why I'm going all high, my wi-fi died in a storm a couple of weeks ago, so I couldn't update ;-; I'm sorry - no wait, the wi-fi should be sorry .\~/. I'll be back in a minute
~Evil_Incubator