The Royals

“Look at yourself. Look at what you’ve become being on the street!” Yelled my father.

I ignored him. He was the same as the rest. He only wanted to create a scene to make it appear as if he cared when he didn’t. None of them did. Ever since the blood suckers took over, all they did was suck up to them, smile and nod their heads whenever they said something. Nobody ever daring to oppose them. That’s what we've become now, just underdogs, servants for people who required our blood to live. And I hated them. I loathed the lot of them, and I hated their King.

“You’ve defied me enough now Thomas, it's time you made yourself useful. ” My father barks atop his voice maybe in hopes to seemingly remaining stern. I can only roll my eyes at his pretense.

“And do what? You want me to kneel before them and sing kumbha ya, like everything's okay!” I screamed I'm equal volume. “Everything is not okay, you’re in here with all your friends drinking expensive wine, laughing and having the best time. You don’t care the hell what happens to the people, you make me sick!”

My father wasn’t the man I knew him to be growing up. Hell he wasn't the man he was a few years ago either. Not even half. He was selfish, I didn’t want to believe it, but he was. All the Ministers cared about was pleasing them, the money and business that those vampires brought in, access to industries outside the country. Everything was so damn sickening. I couldn’t just sit around acting like I was willing to let everything slip by, to give in to this illusion. What kind of coexisting was there when they took our right to freedom? They wanted to know where we lived, wanted to know what we were doing. They took away our rights of speech and opinions. We were living in hell and the godforsaken government we had weren’t worth shit!

My father glared at me from the other side of the room with the liquor in his hand, his expensive suit so stiff you’d think it was made from board or he was a damn puppet. It’d made sense if they all changed them to puppets, Vampires were the ones that pulled their string and called the shot, they were just the face of it all.

“Thomas, ” He says lowly after everyone had left the room. “You shouldn’t talk like that. Now that your home, we can talk and mend things. Look at you, have you even been eating?”

I swiped his hand away from me. Freaking mend things! He’s got to be kidding. Why didn’t he try to mend things with mother?

“Stay the hell away from me! ”

I walked out of the room, heading out. I was held in a detention facility for two weeks before someone finally realized who I was. I prayed they wouldn’t, but fate wasn’t on my side that day. The only good thing about that situation was that no one died. At least not to my knowledge from the time I was there. I hoped no one else died. I was tired of seeing the bloodshed and destruction and more importantly I was tired of just be tired. The only thing that was on my mind leaving, was that maybe I’d get some information about where they’d taken Yuuki. I shouldn’t have told her to run. I knew she wouldn’t be able to make it very far, worse, she’d started to bleed. Having open wounds and vampires were synonymous. It wouldn’t take long before they find you, even if they were playing around.

Yuuki wasn’t placed in the same cells we were, and I hadn’t seen her at any one time whenever they let us out into the open to eat. I hadn’t seen her since the day they took us, and she seemed barely conscious then. I gritted my teeth fisting the wall.

If they ever hurt her!

She was a Chancey. Everyone within these walls knew what the Chancey’s did. If they found out she was one, they’d kill her on spot. That was the only reason I agreed to be taken to my father, to find Yuuki, to keep her safe. She was all I cared about. The Chancey’s also had another daughter, Belle. I’d seen her once. She didn’t interact with the rest of us, they were all very reserved people. Had to be with the tyrant of a father they had. The safest place for Yuuki would be with her sister, which meant I had to find her. Not that getting that information was easy. I sighed. I had to try. Whatever it takes.

I followed behind a group of Ministers a little distance off, curious about what the crowd was about. A group of vampire members entered a little later and I stopped realising it as one of their monthly meetings. Great, that’s what we needed, more of those leeches stuck together in a closed room. However, as much as I was annoyed to see them, the person my eyes narrowed on was the head of them all. Hades. He was decked in complete black, a reflection of his soul maybe, he didn’t wear a smile as the others had and certainly not like the bimbo that stood beside him smiling like an idiot. I snickered and his head tilted a little, until he stared into my direction as if he could tell I was there. I hated him. Hated the bored look he carried. Hated the power that surrounded him. Hated that he was a Pure blood.

∞

I walked away heading down the corridor making haste for the records office. The treaty they made, gave us access to all the data on the humans they took in, both dead and alive and that was exactly what I needed to find Yuuki. I hope they didn’t kill her, though if the bone head had the smallest bit of sense, she’d keep her identity hidden. Then again, if she told anyone she was a Chancey, they probably wouldn’t believe a word she said. Still I hoped she wasn’t that stupid. They already killed her family, the one favour she could grant herself was staying alive; at least until I found her.

Victor sat at his desk oblivious to the meetings that were going on outside his door, he was another of the bored people I hated. But I liked him enough to tolerate that was the way he was, with or without the blood suckers. He looked up over his broad glasses briefly, scribbling something before moving to rest back into his old worn chair; some of the stuffing keeping at the sides. I guess they hadn’t thought that was worth replacing, or maybe it was the fact that no one but him entered this room.

Or still yet, no one cared.

The room smelled old and dusty, as if it had been closed for centries. How the hell he tolerated being in this smoldering place only heaven knew. I had to remind myself to breathe, taking in the scent of cellulose and old rotting paper.

“Thomas, ” He greets as if surprised I was standing there. “You don’t look well”

“I’m just peachy, ” I replied moving over to the desk peering at the old man. “I need some information. ”

He rolled his eyes instantaneously. That was all I ever came here for anyway.

“The last time you mentioned that line, you disappeared”

I shrugged sitting on the edge of the desk. “What can I say, I’m not a fan of these mosquitos we’ve got buzzing around. ”

He sighed heavily but pushed back his chair anyway knowing I wasn’t ever going to give up until I got it.

“What do you need this time?” He enquires. “Your father has been worried about you. ”

I ignored his last statement watching him at a shelf waiting for me to answer.

“Anything that has to do with the last detention.”

He pulled two books from the shelf walking back to the desk. Were there that many of us that day? No, it must have been from the other surrounding areas. I grabbed the books, throwing them open, running my hand through all the names looking for Yuuki’s. I didn’t expect mine to be there, they’d remove it once they heard my last name. I tossed the first and scanned through the other quickly.

“Looking for anything specific?” Victor asked as I tossed the pages back almost violently.

I was starting to get nervous not seeing her name. I didn’t want to check the records for the deceased, but closing the book coming up short I didn’t have a choice.

“Lemme see the death book. ”

He shrugged walking back to the shelf, pulling a large black book dropping it unto the table with a thud. I inhaled deeply, preparing myself for the trying hour. Skipping the pages to the date we were taken to today, I scanned thoroughly, deciding to go much slower this time and exhaled thankfully when I didn’t see her name there either. I was almost panting. Relief washed me like I’d just taken a dive into a river. I didn’t know what I’d do if they killed her.

“Found what you were looking for?” Victor asked as I met his curious green eyes and he settled back into his chair after replacing the books. I shook my head.

Where the hell could they have taken her?

“There are people missing from that list, ” I said ensuring to stay vague. “Where are their records?”

Victors eyes narrowed on me while I stood there. He pursed his lips before looking away.

Was he kidding? He’d hold that information away from me?

“Well?” I asked staring him down. I had a bitter temper, inherited from my father, but I tried my best to keep it at bay always.

“I don’t know everything Thomas, ” He finally stated. “They don’t tell us everything. Whatever is in the book is what we have. ”

"So, you mean, they lie about he numbers that are taken? People are being kidnapped and everyone turns a blind eye? No, technically they wouldn’t know the numbers that they pick up and I doubt anyone goes through those books anyway, so they get a clean break."

It was sickening. The way they treated us. What coexistence? I almost threw up thinking about the eutopia that they kept talking about, kept advertising everywhere we turned in the damn city.

“You don’t know anything at all Victor?” I asked needing some thread of hope. “Anything at all?”

His mouth clenched for a moment before he looked up at me, taking a breath.

“Well, some are taken to live with them, at the vampire houses” He explains finally. “Between me and you some actually get shipped overseas, but that’s all hush hush. Not even sure if its true but…” he shrugged. What do I know? I’m just a clerk. ”

So now they needed human slaves?

What bullshit is this?

"At their house?"

Victor ran a hand through his this silver hair on his scalp. As he did it, I couldn't help wondering why he didn't just retire and get the hell out of here. Then the thought hit me? Where the hell would he go? We couldn't escape these failed human experiments even if we tired. We were all trapped in this disgusting nightmare, your only help of escape was death. And even then, that wasn't even escaping.

"It's a new agreement they've come up with sometime after you went missing. " He peered over the thick prescription lens at me and I rolled my eyes for him to continue. I knew what that meant. "Human's are given first hand experiences with them so they can be ambassadors to humans who do not trust them. " Victor took a deep breath placing his glasses across the table. "There's much more but like I said I don't know much, not everything gets through the cracks around these places. "

I nodded. So, she was taken to one of the vampire houses? Great now everything just got damn messed up. That made her harder to find now. I massaged my temples from the headache I got just thinking about it. I waved Victor goodbye walking out. I took a deep breath walking down the stairs heading to the back door so no one would see me leave. I didn’t have any other choice but to get into one of the houses.

Dammit, this was damn annoying.