BLOOD STAINED ROSES

Blood Stained Roses

Chapter 1

Deep amethyst eyes penetrated the skin to look deep into his mind. This was the only way Atsuhiko Chuu could describe the sensation he felt under that gaze.

A cool autumn wind blew on that dark night. He had been walking home from his part-time job when he had felt a jolt. It was not a jolt as in being struck by lightning, but more of a strange 'being watched feeling' that felt like static electricity, making his hair stand on end. It made him jump before freezing right in the middle of the busy sidewalk. He had turned around to see a man -- if you could call it a man -- staring at him.

He was leaning against a tree, just down the street. He seemed far too beautiful to be a man. It was not exactly a feminine beauty... more of an unrealistic beauty -- and inhuman beauty. His violet eyes had the look of a predator closing in on its prey, but they also held intelligence far beyond that of a normal animal. These were the eyes that now held him in a trance.

A person, obviously in a rush, ran into Chuu, knocking him to the ground and broke his eye contact with the man. As soon as he lost the connection, he found himself scanning the crowd frantically. He had to find the man again. It was not a very hard task, though he had moved to the other side of the street. His pale skin seemed to glow in the dark of night, a sharp contrast to his dark hair and blood red shirt. Chuu took in this face, memorizing it to the best of his ability and noticed a smirk playing on his lips. A faint blush appeared across Chuu's cheeks, becoming more and more noticeable until he was bright red. He dropped his head, hoping that the stranger had not noticed. When he raised his head again, the man was gone.

He sighed and continued his walk home. He was only causing problems standing in the middle of the sidewalk anyway.

***

Dramatic, strong-scented candles dimly lighted the circular room. They sat on shelves built into the walls along with vases of beautiful red and white roses. Stairs led up to unoccupied guest rooms, a rarely used kitchen and dining room, a library, and a large sort of living room right at the top, all of which overlooked this very room.

In its center, he appeared. He was the strange beauty Chuu had seen only moments earlier: Katsuki Ryou. Dramatically, he turned in one fluid motion around in a full circle.

"Ah, Kisaki, you should see him!" he called as he did this. "He's absolutely beautiful as always! I actually let him see me today! The look on his face was great!" he yelled pointlessly; Kisaki could hear him if he whispered.

His announcement made, Ryou headed to the top of the stairs. There, was a room with a giant fireplace on its left wall, home to an overwhelming fire and right in front of it was his favorite armchair. He fell back into the squishy armchair and gazed into the fire.

"Why do you enjoy toying with people so much?" a velvety voice asked from just outside the door.

Seconds later a man, just as beautiful as the other, entered the room. He had the same ivory skin, though his hair was a silvery white, hanging in his pale blue eyes. He wore a short-sleeved black shirt that zipped up with plain black pants. Disapproval radiated from him, but Ryou just brushed it off with a laugh.

"Kisaki, you're always like this. This is just the way I am. You act as though I'm so horrible, but you aren't exactly clean, are you?" he asked.

"Don't compare me to you. I'm not the one adding to our number or torturing innocent people," Kisaki pointed out.

Ryou just smiled and turned to the other man, "Not yet... but believe me, one day you'll find someone so irresistible that you'll do it without even realizing it... or maybe it won't even be for that reason. There are many reasons for changing people. Believe me, though, when I say that you will do it."

"Never."

Ryou just continued smiling his knowing smile. Kisaki, becoming more and more irritated by this, left the room to take refuge elsewhere. Ryou chuckled to himself. Kisaki was well over a hundred years old, yet there was still so much that he did not understand. But he would. One day, maybe not too far off, he would understand that Ryou was right when he said that Kisaki would change someone.

***

Chuu studied himself in a mirror, trying to figure out why someone like him would stare at him. It was true that he was cute -- in a very girlish way-- but it did not compare. He looked at his hair, dyed blonde and dark brown, framing his face and at his turquoise eyes, then at his slender body. He could not find anything truly unusual. There was nothing about him that would make him stand out.

He sighed; there was no comparison. It had to be something other than looks... but what? Had he done something to insult him and just forgot about it? Chuu was sure he would remember seeing someone like that before then. He tapped his head lightly against the mirror. Why couldn't he just forget about him?

After awhile, he moved away from the mirror and sat at the computer. He had a lot of homework to finish. Realizing that he was missing some much-needed materials -- for instance, his textbook -- he got up again and began looking around his room for them. Nothing was very hard to find. His room was spotless. It was almost never dirty since he was a neat freak. He stopped and looked out the only window in his room, right next to his bed. He noticed that someone was wandering down the street... probably a drunk. It was not very uncommon to see.

He returned to the computer desk. Chuu turned on the computer only to stare blankly at the screen. This was pointless. He could not concentrate on anything. That face kept clouding his vision... that beautiful, unnatural face...

It took about two hours for him to complete his homework -- much longer than it should have-- afterward he changed and went to bed. He had a feeling that he would not get much sleep.

***

Mornings did not really change much for Chuu. He woke up, took a shower soon after though he was still half-dead, put on his uniform, brushed his teeth, and left. Nothing ever really caused a difference in the routine. Some days he ate breakfast or fell asleep in the shower, but that was the only variation.

School was not much different. He would talk to his friends before school, go to his classes, learn things that he did not believe he would ever really need to know, and talk to his friends some more during breaks. That was basically it. Sure, the subjects that they talked about changed as well as what the monotone teachers droned about, but it all still felt the same.

The day after seeing Ryou, Chuu's day went more or less the same as normal. However, instead of meeting his friends, he went straight to his seat and sat down with his head resting on the desk. He had not gotten nearly enough sleep the night before. Usually he was awake by now, but he kept drifting in and out of the real world. That man kept reappearing, driving Chuu insane.

"Helloooo, Chuu-kun, are you alive?" asked one of his friends, his best friend, a tall boy named Keisuke. It seemed that since Chuu had neglected to meet them at their usual spot, they had decided to come to his desk.

"Mmm," groaned Chuu.

"What's up, Atsuhiko-kun? You're acting funny. You're usually such a morning person." asked a girl with died platinum blonde hair.

"Am not," replied Chuu. "I'm just usually more awake by now."

"Well, you better wake up soon. The teacher's coming now."

He tried to heed Keisuke's words, he really did. Chuu looked up and managed to dully say "Here," when his name was called for attendance, but that seemed to be his limit. He fell asleep three times that day and day dreamed the rest of the time. He knew that this was not like him; he was usually a perfect student. He took good notes, did well on tests, did all of his homework... but now it was as if he was a completely different person.

After school, Chuu went to his part-time job at a small restaurant that was near his house. He could not wait for it to end. By this time, he was wide-awake and very excited. He knew it was probably just wishful thinking, but he hoped that he might get to see that man again. If he did, Chuu planned to approach him and find out why he had been watching him.

Finally, on his way home again, Chuu purposefully scanned the crowd. He knew that he would recognize the strange man if he appeared again. He knew he would see him if he was in this crowd of people. And to Chuu's disappointment, he was not there. This made him wonder. Had it just been his imagination? Maybe he had thought the man had been staring at him... but that did not seem right. The man had definitely looked straight at him. He had seemed to know him.

Chuu sighed and opened to door to his house. He could not help but feel stupid and unsure of himself. Maybe he had been a hallucination after all.

***

"I wonder if he missed me...," said the alleged hallucination, mostly to himself.

He was practically skipping down a staircase that was in a corner of the room with the fireplace and out the door. In the entrance hall was Kisaki. He looked up at Ryou and frowned slightly.

"I can only hope that he has forgotten all about you and that you do the same for him," he said.

"How can you say that?" asked Ryou. "After all, tonight is the night that I have planned to allow him to join our little family!"

"Ha! As if he will have a chance to 'join our little family'. He will be here for maybe a year, if you really like him, before you decide that he is boring and kill him."

"How do you know that I do not plan to make him one of us?"

"He'd be better off dead."

A smirk appeared on Ryou's face. Kisaki's self-loathing never really did get old. It was so ridiculous. You would think that after over a hundred years of existence, he would just accept what he was and get on with it.

"Whatever. Do what you will. It's not like I can stop you," said Kisaki.

"Oh, how nice to have your permission," said Ryou sarcastically with a tiny bow.

Rolling his eyes, Kisaki left, most likely for his own room. Ryou absently glanced at the clock at the wall. His smile broadened.

"Well, well..." he said cheerfully, "I think it's time."

He went down the stairs, back to the entrance hall and disappeared.

***

At his computer desk, Chuu sat with his head resting on his hand as he typed random letters with the other. He should be working on his homework. Actually, he had been, but at the moment, he seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish. He wondered how long it would take for this stupidity to wear off. It could not last forever.

There was a soft knock on his door, breaking through his thoughts.

"Come in!" he yelled.

"Hi!" Chuu's older sister Mimiko said, smiling cheerfully.

He faltered for a moment. It was not as if it was out of the ordinary for her to come in his room. It was just the huge smile and overly perky voice that made it known that she was about to talk about something like how she was worried about him. That probably meant that she had figured out that something had happened recently.

"Hey, what's up?" Chuu asked.

"Not much... you just looked a little out of it during dinner... well, since yesterday, actually. Is something wrong?"

Chuu sighed. He had been right. Older sisters suck. He thought.

"I'm fine," he lied with a bright fake smile.

It was obvious that Mimiko was not about to fall for that.

"Come on, I can tell when something's bugging you... Did a guy hit on you again? You know it's that girly face. They can't help but mistake you for one," she said.

"That's not it!" Chuu said defensively.

Mimiko looked even more suspicious. Chuu threw up his hands to show that he admitted defeat.

"Some guy was staring at me on my way home yesterday and I just can't stop thinking about him. He was... strange and looked at me like I was dinner or something," he explained.

"Uh-huh... I think you like him," Mimiko said.

Chuu glared at her, "I'm not gay! He was just...strange."

"Sure, whatever you say..."

"Onee-chan!"

"Chuu!"

Mimiko smiled, "Don't worry... unless he turns out to be some kind of weird stalker person... then I suggest you run."

"Gee, thanks for the advice."

Chuu slumped in his chair and glared at the floor. This was exactly why he had not wanted to say anything. Damn Mimiko, how did she always know when something was wrong?

"No problem!" Mimiko said, "And like I said: don't worry about it! I'm sure you'll find your love again!"

She closed the door just in time to miss the textbook Chuu had thrown toward her head. Instead, it hit the door and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"Chuu, what's going on up there?" yelled his mother from the floor below.

"Nothing, mom, everything's okay," Chuu yelled back.

"Damn it!" he hissed getting out of his chair to pick up his book.

"It's good to see I made such an impression on you," said a silky voice behind Chuu.

He jumped out of his seat and spun around to see the man from the day before leaning against the wall closest to the window. He was exactly how he had looked earlier... but somehow more beautiful than how Chuu remembered.

"W - What are you doing here?" Chuu sputtered.

"I came to see you, Chuu-chan," Ryou said with a smirk.

"Who are you... and how do you know my name?" Chuu asked, backing away from the intruder.

A nagging voice in the back of his head told him to scream, to run, to do something to get away from this person, but he ignored it. A chill went down his spine as he saw that eerie predator's smile; the weird static seemed to make his hair stand on end... it was the same 'jolt' from before. He felt his legs stop their backward motion. His blue eyes looked up into the same stunning amethyst ones he had stared into what seemed to be only hours ago... he was under his spell again. Chuu was in such a daze that he almost did not notice the man speak.

"My name is Katsuki Ryou. I've been... keeping an eye on you, so to speak."

"Keeping an eye on me..." Chuu echoed.

"Yes, and now I've come to take you home with me!" Ryou said cheerfully.

"Home with... you?" Those words seemed to make something snap in Chuu's head, "Hey, I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know you! What would my parents do if they noticed I wasn't here!?"

Ryou sighed, "They're always fine until I say 'come home with me.' I wonder why that is..." he muttered. "No matter. I always get my way in the end."

"Wha-?" Chuu started, but instantly his legs began to weaken and his eyelids felt heavy.

"Yes, that's right, Chuu-chan, just go to sleep," Ryou cooed in his ear.

How did he get here so fast? Chuu wondered, feeling strong arms catch him. A dull fear swam through his head as he lost consciousness.