1 Unusual hair

Either choice he made he would still act as nothing mattered.

Everyone in the city whispered about him behind his back. They mentioned his parents and where he comes from, unaware that his ears heard every word they said. He was someone who lost his loved ones because of the rules and he intended to change them as it suits his preferences.

People were repulsed by his existence. They treated him as if he didn't exist, as if he was a deadly disease that would wipe out the whole kingdom. No one dared to talk to him, but behind closed doors, they scared their children and used his parents' names to make an example of what would happen if the rules were broken again.

Children laughed at him as they knew nothing and were punished by their parents. However, instead of apologizing for the rude behavior, they just glared and moved away. Even a single word wasn't shared with him. Humans were pathetic in his eyes; they didn't even dare voice out the injustice some faced and hid behind their doors, while others had to face the consequences of their parents' crime.

"Do you want to end up like him?" parents used these simple words to scare their children and make them obey the rules. No one wanted to be like him; he was an outcast by rules.

He had a chamber in the building made for the ones who broke the rules indirectly. However, he didn't live there. He had another space where he lived. More immense and more luxurious than the square meter he was given by the authorities. He had a dark castle no one saw or visited; a castle that was given to him by the Empress herself.

Everyone knew the stories told about him were false. He wasn't the one who broke the rules. It was his parents' faults. They were the ones who brought forbidden books inside the country and thought children what the Empress forbid. Everyone who caught a glimpse of that knowledge was moved to the house of the condemned. It was called that way and stayed that way.

The condemned attended school like everyone else but they were treated like they didn't exist. It was the rules. The rules mattered for the safety of everyone as they said, because no one knew it was just a way to keep humans oblivious over the fact that vampires ruled over them.

"It's perfect!" he examined the report he had to give to the queen intently. He didn't intend to do it, but what to do? The queen was a crazy woman and he had to cope with it until he reached his goal. His hand moved to the bottom of the page and wrote in an elegant a refined writing the name Duncan. It was his name and he liked it because his mother gave it to him.

He put his seal on top of the envelope and sent it with his crow to the fortress; he didn't need to go in person as he had a long day to act like a high schooler. He put a spell on his ring so no one would use or see it and walked to the only school available in the capital.

Revampirina wasn't a huge kingdom. Vampires don't give birth to children a lot and humans were controlled. It didn't matter. As long as they had servants, they were free to do whatever they wanted.

On the other side, someone was standing at the edge of the roof, looking far ahead. Her tousled curly ginger hair was all over her face as the wind played with its strips. 'How unpleasant!' she thought with a face devoid of all emotions. It was always that way.

She hated her existence and there was nothing she could do about it besides freeing the world from someone like her. She considered herself a surplus, someone who took the oxygen someone else needed. She wanted to disappear for her parents to live life their own ways. She was the one who bound oil and water.

"I am fine," she whispered to herself, more like an affirmation for her mind than a fact.

The words repeated in her mind like a chant, making her life more miserable than it is and transforming her passion into layers of dust. The sound of her dark thoughts kept ringing in her head over and over again, giving her headaches.

She got used to the headaches she experienced and they became part of her life, like it felt weird living without them. Even sleep has become distant from her. It didn't want her too. She had to take countless pills to sleep and every dream was a torture in her mind.

There was something that happened in the past that caused all her current misery. It wasn't her parents' arguments; it wasn't because she gave up on her dreams and ideals; it was simply because of someone who died because of her. She dreamt every single night about her teacher, feeling the same pain all over again.

She looked around her and took a step forward while Duncan observed her from the school's gate. He had never seen someone with ginger head. The whole kingdom was in layers of white and black, shading with grey. No one had colourful hair as she had. Yet, she was attempting something he hated.

Ending her life with her own hands.

He wanted to understand why she had an unusual hair colour and why she wanted to leave this life. It was a sacrilege. It was intolerable. He watched people begging for their lives and here she was wasting it away. His parents begged to spare their lives and they weren't even given the chance to say goodbye. Everything happened so suddenly.

With his strong legs and speed, he just disappeared from the school gate and appeared behind the roof door. It was closed but he knew she was still there. He wanted to just know why she had a hair like that and let her die as she wanted. He would even help her do it but the correct way.

She heard a cracking and the door opened ajar. A dark shadow loomed behind the door that she closed tightly a moment ago. She tripped and almost fell but her hand grasped tightly the sturdy metal fence. She cursed realizing she missed another suicide attempt.

Duncan pushed the door widely and stared at her grimacing. He forgot for a moment he was an outcast.

"Ammm…" he scratched his head in disbelief. "Keep going. I will turn back," he turned his back at her and attempted to leave.

"How unpleasant!"

She was always like that, acting like she is completely fine on the outside, but on the inside, she had a war raging. When she was alone, closing her eyes before the horizon that spread in front of her, she felt as if in an arena. Different versions of herself throwing every kind of thoughts, all clashing against each other like in a bloody battle. Sometimes her parents appeared, reminding her of the rules. But the rules only caused misery for the likes of her. She suffered and acted like she was fine.

Her words made him stop as it was the first time a human addressed him, the first time a human spoke to him. He told himself she didn't know who he was and consoled his inside beating organ with the words she was talking to herself. However, she kept staring at him with those dull eyes, piercing the depth of his soul. Who was she?

He was a vampire, a half-vampire to be precise, a hybrid and hybrids weren't welcome between vampires. All vampires saw human as food and it was strange seeing a hybrid between their ranks. It was a fact that they couldn't decide on whether to see him as food or as one of their own. He was a mixed-breed in their eyes and because the Empress herself was interested in him; they couldn't kill him. Therefore, he had no choice but to join the ranks of the vampires, working for them.

He worked under the ones who killed his parents. He had to see them every day and work the job he despised. He was an executor, forced to kill anyone who broke the rules. The executors were the lowest rank between vampires; they belonged to the sixth rank.

"Hey! I don't think it is a good idea to do what you want to do. Listen to me and come back here…" she kept staring at him making the vampire blood inside his veins rush. "There are still many things in this world that you need to see or experience… Do you know how many constellations are in the sky? How many books haven't we read? Especially with your ginger hair, do you know the benefits of ginger? They are healthy for the mind and soul…"