Prologue

Every time I close my eyes, I see a beautiful scene, a little girl running around unfazed by what's happening around her. She is happy and carefree. She runs, giggles, jumps around...honestly, I envy her. How I wish, I was this little girl.

Up until now, I never realised how precious my life was. I always wished to die, and several failed suicide attempts had been conducted, but for some reason now, WHEN I'M ACTUALLY IN THE VERGE OF DEATH, I feel lost, I feel... I don't want to die!

Even in this situation, the only light passing through my eyes is his heart-warming smile. The smile of the person whom I loved the most, he who brought colours to my dark world, he who I gave my heart to, he who I failed to protect.

In these many years, I lived, married, had 4 adorable kids and had quite a decent life I suppose, but the most precious memory of my life was my teenage years which I spent alongside my boyfriend who unfortunately was murdered by the species I once admired, but not anymore, Vampires.

It all started 20 years ago, I was only 15 when the destruction arose.

3 years earlier a deadly virus named corona or covid 19 had turned the world upside down. The world had just begun to see light from the pandemic when this new fire burnt the forest.

A bunch of human-like creatures with sharp fangs had attacked the areas of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in India, sucking people's blood. Not only India but many countries in the world were fighting against these blood-sucking monsters.

I was not surprised though. I knew this would happen one day or another, to be honest, I knew this would happen a long time ago. I had a secret which I'd been hiding for quite a long time. Aoi is her name.

Yes, as her name says, Aoi is Japanese, but she is not a human. She is not a vampire either, she is something the Japanese call 'Akuma', in simple English terms, a demon. She is a beautiful demon with pitch-black hair, pale skin and golden eyes.

Aoi is the daughter of the ruler of the Yokai, in simple terms, 'Monsters'. Although the term, 'Monster' is kind of insulting to the Yokai, they don't like being called that; Aoi is the princess and the 9th in line for the throne of the Yokai realm. Her life story is very tragic, at least that's what she says.

From breaking up with her EXEROSIST BOYFRIEND to being betrayed by her own younger siblings. As I said very tragic indeed, at least up to some extent. I mean the breakup part was the least upsetting. Nobody asked her to date someone who she isn't even allowed to date.

Well the betrayal of siblings part was sad though, but she's not upset by that fact. Infact she's glad that happened cause because of that she met her soul sister, me.

Well, she was cursed by Kuru and Kurai on the exact day and time I was born, due to which she entered my body. She always jokes about how glad she is that I'm not a boy.

Well before getting stuck with me, Aoi had seen the future. She had taken a glimpse of our lives in the magic bowl of truth and when she was cursed, a piece of the bowl injured her due to which she was able to tell the future, that is until she broke through the curse.

The Vampire Apocalypse story was already told to me by Aoi. She used to joke by telling me that I'm the chosen one or something like that.

When I was a kid I used to take it seriously but when I reached my teens I started to think of it as a funny joke. But now 18th September 2023, I realised that the Joke tale was the real deal.

My dad was home early that day. He sat down on the couch and stretched himself out as he grabbed the remote on the table beside him.

I was in my bedroom revising for my upcoming term exam. " Baby, for the past 3 years you have been doing average in your tests but this year is no joke. You are in 10th now and your boards are about to start! " Said Aoi.

" Yea yea, I know, I've heard it like a zillion times. " I said sarcastically.

" Aria sweety, you know that 10th is one of the most important years of a student's life, if you don't score above 90 this year you won't be able to join your dream university. " She said.

Before I could say anything to what she just said my dad yelled my name. I was a bit scared as I thought I had something wrong, I always do. I am the most mischievous teen in my family. Sometimes I never know if I did something wrong. I'd go to my parents hear the lecture from one ear and release it from the next. An everyday thing for me but this would make Aoi pretty sad, the next lecture I would get would be from her.

Bracing myself for what's gonna happen, I walked into the den of the lion, ' FEARLESSLY'.

"Whatsup Appa," I said.

"Aria on the T.V," he said.

Now this is the part I hated the most about my life. The switch to the TV was right there in a walkable distance. It was very close to the couch. He called me all the way from my room where I was STUDYING to on the fricking TV which was so close to him! The worst part was, the switch was already on, he just had to press THE RED BUTTON IN THE REMOTE!

Enraged, though I didn't show it outside, I asked him to press the button on the remote. I was too lazy to walk back to my room so I decided to sit next to him and watch whatever he was watching.

When he switched on the TV I realized the biggest threat to my life had finally arisen.

I did not have many facial expressions but Aoi looked like she was about to cry. One important thing, I was the only one who could see Aoi, kinda part of her curse but anyway, she was crying.

" NO, BABY NO, MY POOR ARIA NO! " she cried.

" Chill bruh, I'm still alive. " I joked. That moment I earned myself a slap, well I deserved that though.

" Breaking news weird humans with sharp teeth have been sucking everyone's blood dry, be safe and stay in your homes! " Said the reporter on TV.

" Stay home and invite a vampire for dinner, which is you! " I joked again.

" Shut up sweetie! I'm here worried because you can't even run 1 metre and you, on the other hand, joking like the idiot that you are! " She yelled.

I smiled.

You know, sometimes I feel that I'm the exact copy of my dad. Even after hearing the news of such a disaster, his face was expressionless. He was unfazed by what was happening, he didn't even care. Even then he was laying on the couch and ordering my mom to serve him food.

I too didn't really care but I heard the news guy mention that Kerala was attacked too. Normally I wouldn't care but turns out that my boyfriend Arvind lived in Kerala.

Now now, I love Arvind very much so I wouldn't want him to die. I quickly grabbed the remote from my dad's hand and changed it from Kannada TV to some random TV channel in Kerala. My dad was obviously mad at me and would foolishly face my death any second now so...

At that very moment, the doorbell rang which saved my life from my dad, he ordered me to open the door.

But there was something only I and Aoi knew. We knew who was at the door.

Aoi was terrified, tears were dripping down her eyes as she was thinking about what would happen next. I acted calm and chilled, but to be truthful, I was scared too.

I went to my bedroom and took out the long sharp knife which is used to cut coconut and is known as the madal in Malayalam.

Just a few days ago I had sneaked this baby into my room and did some rituals praying to God with it. If that thing were alive it would for sure spit out the words 'FOOLISH' at my face.

With a brave face, I took the madal and walked towards the entrance door. I took a deep breath in as I opened the door which would decide my fate.