0.4
Relena looked at the wall that separated the lands in the east from the lands in the west. It seemed so aged. Ever since she was born her eyes had fallen on the gray stones caked with dust and forested by green moss. She could never understand why they had built that structure so huge and seemingly endless. What were they trying to keep out? Or trying to keep in.
"Did you have a good day sister?" she jumped suddenly taken out of her contemplation of the wall beside her.
"Fine." She whispered not looking at the owner of the voice. He dismounted and looked around.
"Where is Quatre?"
"Asleep by the pond." She said finally looking up at her older brother.
"Hmmm." Milliardo said searching for his youngest sibling. "Did father not tell you to keep away from the wall?" he said looking back at her. She nodded.
"What are you doing here?" he asked leading his horse to the pond and motioning for Relena to follow him.
"I was…we were just out playing." She said keeping her head bowed.
"Did you meet anyone from the other side?" he asked.
"No." she lied. She wasn't afraid of her older brother; on the contrary she despised him. But she knew that she had done something wrong and went against her own father's decree. A fact that Milliardo will milk for all it's worth. She hated being wrong and Milliardo hated her always being right in the eyes of their father. This time he had her.
"Pity, I heard the people on the other side were beautiful." He said looking at her and expecting the blush that colored her cheeks. Yep, he did have her this time.
"I promise brother I will not come near the towers again, please don't tell father!" she looked at his smiling face.
"Perhaps." He chuckled looking away.
I hate you.
He reached the little boy lying curled up on the grassy bank of the river. Picking him up gently so as not to waken him. He handed Relena the reign of his steed and began to walk.
I am not your stable hand! She wanted to scream at his tall back.
"Relena do you know what time it is?" he said not turning to look at her fuming sister.
"Almost sundown I should think." She said sarcastically "Oh my…"
"Yes it is almost sundown and Quatre is still miles from the castle." Milliardo reveled at his sister's error. "May I remind you Quatre is in his Coming year. If the moon had seen him not inside his clan's grounds, he would have perished." He finished. Relena stood frozen, she had almost forgotten.
Milliardo looked back at her. "Move! Or did you really plan on killing Quatre?" he said clicking his tongue in irritation. He took the reins from her and mounted the horse. Relena held out her hand but Milliardo just looked at her.
"Are you going to leave me behind?"
"Leave you behind? Well you said so." He laughed and galloped away.
"Milliardoooo! I'll kill you! Father will have your head for this!" she screamed.
"Do you think I care witch?" he called.
She huffed in her frustration and crossed her arms. When it was evident that he would not return she began to walk toward the castle muttering curses and plotting how to murder her brother.
She had gone a couple of miles and the woods were beginning to grow dim when she heard the hooves of horses approach her. It was her stable hand and he brought an extra steed for her. She smiled relieved. Her brother hated her as much as she did him but he was not cruel. She knew he would send someone for her.
As they neared the castle gates, she sighed and looked back at the direction of the decaying wall. The people on the other side were indeed beautiful.
***
The humans were brought in, each trembling with fear. Their barely clad bodies and barely human smell told them that these corpses defecated and slept in the same place. The sickly paleness of their skin and the hands brought up to shield their eyes from the light they had grown used to not seeing. A last remnant of humanity.
"God they stink, couldn't they at least wash them first?" Dorothy said covering her nose. The King motioned to the guards to do as their mistress wanted and they brought in buckets and drenched the already shivering animals huddled on the floor.
"That was an improvement, instead of smelly waif-like things we get wet smelly waif-like things." Relena snickered.
"Hold your tongue Relena, I have no need for your sarcasm." Dorothy spat out at her only daughter Milliardo snickered. "Go ahead Quatre, you need to feed the most."
The three-year old boy came close to a female, the guards dragging her away from the others. She began screaming in an indistinguishable tongue and tried to break away from their grip but all it did was aggravate the others in the room and earn her a blow to the head.
Quatre looked at her, smoothing her dirty hair away from her face. He looked at the naked inhabitants of the room and waited for his mother to nod her consent. He then took her neck in his hand and drew her lolling neck to one side. Then before you could even blink, he had positioned himself to gain access to her neck, bit down and tore it off amid a crimson spray. The other humans began to whimper and some actually tried to run away. But this was the ruling family of a vampire clan; you don't escape from the highborn of the body takers.
A moment later and the floor was carpeted with their blood, half-eaten bodies left where they were attacked. Milliardo stood up and ripped his prize from the carcass's breast. He moved to the door where his maid waited with a robe to cover his nakedness.
Dorothy was licking her blood stained hands, picking at the flesh caught in her long nails. Her other hand still within the chest of her supper, grasping its heart before ripping it out. Then she too stood up and handed her prize to her maid. All three followed and each left the hall in their own time.
***
An hour later they had converged in the main dinning room, well groomed and fully clothed. They sat around the stone table waiting to be completed. When the whole family had arrived the trays were brought in and inside sat the still beating heart of their benefactor.
It was cruel that they should call their victims as such, nonetheless it was true, for these animals were their lifelines. Allowing them to survive while perishing in their stead. Giving up their right to live so that they can. Almost handing them their own hearts on silver platters. Like they were now. It was a cruel jest of fate but it was how things were.
They sat there having a formal dinner; even their goblets were in their proper place. It was comical to think that even through their feral way of obtaining their meal, they still followed proper decorum as they finish feeding on their supper's very core.
"Father why was the old wall built?" Relena asked as she set aside her macabre feast, wiping the blood from her lips.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Milliardo muttered. Snickering as he cut a portion of the throbbing flesh on his plate.
"To separate the two kingdoms." Her father stated.
"You mean the people on the other side are not like us?" she asked. The King looked at his Queen.
"How old are you Relena?" she asked placing her knife down.
"Nine years mam." She answered.
"Ask me when you have turned eighteen and I will answer." She said returning to her meal.
She looked at her perplexed. And frowned her delicate brow as she contemplated just what her mother said.