SerVamp OneShots

Sleep Well, My Child

》Lily and Misono《

The scream echoed loudly in the large room, resonating for a few moments after it had left the little child's lungs. It was as if the scream was physically hurting Lily - tearing his heart apart.

He leaned over the small bed in the middle of the dark room, his gaze focusing on the sobbing child buried under a heap of blankets.

"Hush... It's okay. I'm here, alright? Everything's okay now... Come here," he whispered as he picked the crying child up into his arms. The vampire sat down onto the bed, cradling the little girl and slowly stroking over her hair.

"It was just a bad dream. Everything is alright, I'm going to protect you... Don't worry..."

The crying got gradually more quiet until the child was only sobbing silently and after a few more minutes of Lily whispering sweet nothings into her ear and rocking her softly back and forth, she fell asleep again. Carefully he got up and laid the child down without disturbing her sleep or waking her up.

When the vampire straightened up again, he already missed he warmth the gir's body was radiating. It felt as if something was missing in his arms and chest now. With one last look at the sleeping girl, he turned away and and checked if any other children in the room had woken up from the screaming.

A wave of relief washed over him when he looked at their serene faces, sleeping without any nightmares disturbing them - at least for the moment.
Every single night in which a child woke up from a bad dream was like torture for him. If he couldn't get them to feel better and go back to sleep, he would make them a hot chocolate and hold them in his arms.
And the children would start telling him about the dream they were having.

Most of the dreams were nightmares in which the child died or was heavily injured.
Lily was able to see the fear in their eyes and feel how their bodies were trembling and it felt almost like someone was jabbing a knife through his heart.

He knew that those weren't only dreams, but in fact the actual memories shortly before Lily had turned the child into his subclass.
He didn't know how he could still do this.

Every time he "saved" a child something inside of them changed. They were a lot quieter, and more withdrawn than children of their age should be and even though they were all alive, Lily felt as if he hadn't been able to truly save them.

He just didn't know what he was supposed to do anymore. He couldn't stop saving children, he absolutely couldn't let them die if he had the ability to save them.
But the children that he saved had horrible nightmares and couldn't leave the mansion during the day.
And they needed blood.
Lily wasn't so sure if the children wanted to continue living like that.

He thought about this every day, but he had never once found a solution and today wasn't an exception.
He didn't know how he could keep doing it.

With one last glance at the sleeping girl in her bed, he quietly left the room. He walked through the doorway and closed the big oak doors quietly before he leaned back against them, eyes closed.
He slid down the wooden surface of the doors until he sat on the ground and buried his face in his arms.

For Lily, it felt as if only seconds had passed before he heard someone clear his throat in front of him followed by a light touch to his arm.
His head immediately shot up and he could make out Misono's face in the dim light of the candle he was holding.

"Misono, why are you here?" He asked, confused about why his Eve would be at this place in the middle of the night. "And why are you holding a candle?"