Who: Chiyu (Narrative) What: The cracks are starting to show When: 9/25 just after sunrise Where: Her room at Connie's house Warning: Small mental break
The house was always way too quiet after sunrise. Lonely. Kind of like a crypt. Because vampires slept like the dead.
Literally.
It had started slowly. Maybe not slowly, but it was definitely not an instant thing. Everything was more vibrant now. Chiyu was pretty sure all of her senses were sharper now. She was stronger, faster, and tougher than she had ever been. She felt like she could run for days without stopping.
But in her dreams there were whispers. Faint and easy to ignore at first, but they'd gotten gradually louder every day since then. She could still barely make them out, but the tone was creepy beyond belief. She thought Julian was playing a prank on her at first, but even when he wasn't in the house it happened.
It wasn't just that. Now that she had eagle eyes, she saw every little imperfection like it was lit in neon. It took her twice as long to get dressed because she wasn't happy until she looked absolutely perfect. One hair out of place and she had to start all over. Usually because she burst into tears and messed up her makeup. She'd broken a hairbrush the other day because her hair wasn't cooperating at all. Just snapped it in half like it was a twig.
It wasn't just stupid vanity things or the fact she couldn't stand anything a fraction of an inch out of place. She'd done her best to rearrange stuff so it was easy to keep where it belonged without messing with the flow of the house. Her beloved Madmen regularly disturbed things, but didn't seem to be bothered by her constantly adjusting everything in their wake.
It was also needing to balance everything. She'd paced out the yard on all sides, so when she planted her garden this spring, everything could be balanced and organized and right. Even though that was months away and she hadn't done any gardening since she was little kid. But Connie had started giving her flowers and now flowers had become a thing that had to be there.
She couldn't stop thinking about things. Anything. Especially what that salty bitch Tristian had said. That she was meat. A talking cow. Not that she thought Connie thought like that. He loved her. Julian and Cian didn't either. But how many of them did? She just couldn't let it go, even though she knew Tristian was a sad drama queen who was mad nobody liked him.
Because nobody had told him he was wrong. Just to shut up.
Connie had said she couldn't go anywhere without a Kindred to protect her. Ghouls had gone missing. Kindred were being attacked by other vampires at random. So she'd stayed in the house. And worried when Cian or Julian didn't come home because what if something happened to them? Connie really didn't leave much, but when he'd gone out the other night for a thing and didn't come home until nearly dawn she'd gotten so worried she got sick.
Maybe she just had cabin fever from being in the house so much. Chiyu stared at her reflection in the vanity. She'd washed off all of her makeup because she was getting ready for bed. Her skin had never looked better, she had to admit. A smile crept across her face as she looked at the vase full of purple pansies on her vanity. Connie had kind of gone overboard on the flowers, but it just showed how much he cared.
That's when she saw it. One of the flower stems hadn't quite been in the water and the flower had wilted. It looked like an angry little wrinkled face. Making fun her of her.
Since she was just a talking cow...
It took all of her willpower not to knock the vase over as she scrambled away. She needed to get rid of that face judging her. Yanking the offending flower out, the whole vase toppled and spilled all over the floor. Chiyu screamed as the vase shattered and glass and flowers flew everywhere. Dropping the flower, she immediately started trying to clean up the mess. Glass cut into her fingers but she didn't notice more than now the water was red and might stain the floor...
Why couldn't she do anything right? Why was she just a talking cow?
The tears wouldn't stop even as she managed to get all of the flowers and glass gathered up. She couldn't fail at this. If she did, her life was over. Even if they wouldn't have to kill her for what she knew, what could she do after this? There was no going back.
Why was she crying? She had everything she ever wanted. Connie would just buy her more flowers and a new vase and fuss over her cuts. He loved her. She was his girl. His darling. He'd said he didn't want a slave. So why couldn't she let go of that stupid sad bitch's words?
Deep down, she knew. Because sometimes, when she was just waking up, she swore she heard those words. If you had a talking cow, would you let it apply for a job in a slaughterhouse?
Maybe she didn't need to sleep that badly today. Once she'd cleaned up this mess, she could...do anything but sleep. Right?