Jiahao opened her eyes to a grey brick ceiling, and a splitting pain in her head. After a few minutes of trying to wake herself up, she sat up. It didn't take her long to realise she was sitting on a hard, cold metal bench.
A quick glance around the room, and she's basically convinced she got sent back to the medieval era. She's clearly trapped in a dungeon with a bucket for all her toilet needs, and most importantly big black iron bars trapping her in this drab cube.
It doesn't take long for her to notice the person standing outside the bars. But it's clearly not the girl from before. The person is shorter, but slightly more built. The girl that knocked Jiahao out was slim and tall, this person was short but slightly stocky. With short, white, almost fluffy hair, wearing a black vest with red embroidery around the seams, and of course, black dress pants to match.
After what feels like an eternity of silence Jiahao stood up and walked towards the bars. "So, where am I?" She asked plainly not expecting a straight response.
But the other person doesn't respond at all. "Have you seen my siblings? Do you know the girl who knocked me out? What's your name? Can I go home? I'll return what we took, I swear. Am I stuck here for a certain amount of time? Did she call the police on me? Are you the police?" This barrage of stupid questions continues, Jiahao isn't expecting any sort of real response to any of these questions. She just wants some sort of information.
Luckily for the white haired person outside the bars, Jiahao is eventually cut off by another, familiar voice. "Arden, it's five already, dinner now." The voice is quickly approaching the cell.
'Five already? How long have I been asleep for?' Jiahao thinks to herself, before catching a glimpse of that familiar platinum blonde hair. It's clearly the same girl who choked her earlier.
"Hey! You!" Jiahao calls out but is blatantly ignored. The white haired person, presumably named Arden, glances at Jiahao, and begins to walk away. Of course, now that she's seen their face, their appearance only gets weirder, one orange eye and the other covered by an eyepatch.
'What is wrong with the people in this place?' Jiahao asked herself, blatantly ignoring the dread and worry in her stomach. Distracting herself with stupid thoughts like this.
Before she could slump to the ground and wallow, the blonde haired girl's voice rings through the dungeon. "Actually, Arden, let the girl out, she can come to dinner with us. I'm sure she's hungry." The girl chuckled and continued to walk out of the dungeon.
"Yes, Master Alice." Presumably Arden responds, before coming back to let Jiahao out of her cell.
"The Master of the Manor has requested you join us for dinner, refusal will be met with punishment, so I suggest you come with me with no resistance." Arden said in a monotonous voice, not even making eye contact with Jiahao, just unlocking the cell and turning away for Jiahao to follow.
She considers running, or fighting, but knowing what happened to her last time, she decides it's probably safer to go along with this charade for the time being.
Arden leads her to that same dining room her, and her siblings robbed earlier. She glanced at the cabinet that she took the crystal glasses from, they seem to have been mostly replaced. Before she can inspect the rest of the dining room Arden instructs her to take a seat across from the blonde haired girl.
Jiahao sat down at the other end of the mahogany dining table, everything in here is so prim and proper, you wouldn't even know it was robbed just a day before.
"So, you and your little group, stole my candelabras, my clocks, anything that wasn't nailed down, and my glassware. Despite the fact that I don't use over half of this manor, I do keep a good list of the inventory of items I have here." The woman smiled, those same sharp teeth from before reappearing. Despite what she's saying, she doesn't actually seem all too bothered about the losses.
"And my poor glassware, I could get over the rest of the things, but when I pinned you against the wall most of them shattered in your little rucksack. Oh dear." She brought her palm to her face, and shook her head.
"Whatever will I do about this?"
Before Jiahao can even conjure up a response, Arden returns, a cloth draped over their left arm and two crystal glasses in hand. They place one in front of Alice with a bow, and then one in front of Jiahao. "Thank you, Arden." The lady responded with a small courtesy bow.
Without any hesitation Arden picked up what looked to be a silver knife in a sheath off the dining table, and began to roll up their right sleeve. Unsheathing the knife and slicing straight into the middle of their forearm.
Jiahao winces, as though she was the one who felt the pain of that, but Arden seems unphased. The blood begins to drain into the crystal glass in front of the blonde lady, Jiahao inspects Arden's arm and notices at least a dozen, if not more, scars the same size and length of the cut they just made. Once the glass is full to the brim, Arden places the white cloth they were carrying over it, and begins to make their way to Jiahao's end of the table.
"Um, I'm okay, I don't enjoy the metallic taste of blood all too much." Jiahao said with a small smile, trying to be polite, but she was clearly a bit disturbed by the sight that had just unfolded. Arden looked at the lady seated at the head of the table, "Master Alice?" They said inquisitively.
Alice just waved them off, "She said she doesn't want any, you're free to leave." Without hesitation Arden does as they're told and leaves the dining room. Leaving Alice and Jiahao alone, and somehow, the air feels thicker than before.
Alice raises her glass up in the air, "I would propose a toast, but you have nothing to drink, so just appreciate the sentiment." She immediately took a sip of her drink… Is it a drink? Jiahao doesn't linger on this thought.
"It's such a shame, Arden has great blood. They were bred by vampires for that reason, oh, I'm rambling." Alice chuckled and sipped from her glass once more.
"Back to business, you have some nerve." Her tone changed from lighthearted to serious in an instant.
"Breaking into my manor, stealing my belongings, disrupting me while I'm sleeping, do you have no manners? Were you raised in a barn? Is this normal for you humans? Waltzing into other people's homes? Vampires have a whole culture about not being able to enter people's homes unless invited. You all lack any sense of dignity." She scolded, seeming more disappointed in humans as a concept than angry at Jiahao herself.
"Wait, sorry, vampires?" Jiahao stifled a laugh.
"Vampires." Alice reaffirmed with a straight face, before sipping from her glass once more.
Jiahao was a bit frazzled, and before she could muster a response Alice started again. "Again humans, uneducated, undignified, there are lots more beings in this world than you can fathom. It's not all humans and animals, like your two little friends." She chuckled, but Jiahao was just more confused.
"Who?" Jiahao asked quietly, visibly confused.
"Those little twins," Alice stopped mid-sentence, waiting for a response. Jiahao's confusion only grew.
"Oh, you mustn't know. I'll let you find out for yourself, but those things, aren't human in the slightest." There was a small smirk on her face, as if she enjoyed telling Jiahao these far fetched ideas.
"You can choose not to believe me, that's up to you, but it's often easier to accept the facts than to delude yourself." Alice quickly finished her glass, before standing up.
"You're free to leave, assuming you can find the exit. If not, Arden has prepared an actual bed down in the dungeon for you. You're free to explore, just try not to break things. Anyway the sun is coming up, I'm going to sleep, bother Arden if you need anything." Alice shrugged, and presumably returned to her bedroom leaving Jiahao sitting alone at the dining table in shock.