Diabolik Lovers: Shattered Masks

01 ; a second and a half

there's a poll at the end of the chapter which allows you to choose what happens next. if at all possible, please vote!

You spend what's left of the day sleeping.

In reality, it's all you can do is wait until someone comes for you. There's no point in trying to find your way around a house so big, with so many unknown dangers lurking in its corners. Instead, you alternate between dozing off and staring at the ceiling, watching as the sun rises and sets behind your bedroom window.

Your stomach churns twice during these long periods, and you caress underneath your shirt in an attempt to console it, turning and tossing on the duvet in the hopes that it'll distract you from the fact that you haven't eaten in hours.

Despite the fuss, you know for a fact that they, your hosts rather, won't let you starve. They haven't killed you yet - they've even gone as far as to place you in this pretty little room - so they must want you alive and in good health, for reasons unbeknownst to yourself.

However, you're not going to pry; you're almost too certain that the truth behind your stay is something horrible, so you make the most of your blissful ignorance while you still can.

Just as you think that, the corner of your bed dips and you tense at the abrupt feeling of being watched. Your pupils blow wide, alarm working itself into every nerve in your body. You sit up too quickly, suddenly feeling a little too exposed in the room that is now your own. When you turn, one of the red-haired brothers sitting at the edge of your bed, one leg crossed at the knee.

"No need to get up in my expense, Bitch-chan," He snickers, and the hairs across the back of your neck arch despite yourself. "Oh, but you do look so fragile when you're relaxed - you have no idea how it gets my juices flowing, ah~"

"Laito," You choke out after a second of hesitation, shoulders braced in case you've already shot yourself in the foot. When he smiles at you like he's waiting to hear what else you've got to say, you tread onwards in an even more careful tone. "Can I help you?"

"Dinner is ready," He starts, and something in his posture shifts in the fraction of a moment it takes for you to squint at him. His features adopt a look of concern so genuine that if you hadn't seen how he was earlier, you would have gone as far as to say that he looks almost human. "I figured I'd tell you, since you must be oh so hungry from the journey here, you poor thing."

Even though you're taken aback by how well his words are delivered, you can't find it within yourself to believe a thing he says. But you don't want to poke at something that could get you hurt so soon, so you settle for smiling tersely despite wanting to call him out on his bullshit. "Thanks for telling me,"

"It's my pleasure," He purrs, fingers drifting forward to play with the mess of hair atop your head, too casual. You barely reign in the urge to pull away, remaining stiff despite the alarm bells going off in your head. You don't know what he is, and the fear of the unknown makes you wary, more so than Laito himself.

His attempts of intimidating you are laughable at best and remind you uncannily of a stubborn child. Yet as you about the girls that must have had to go through this before you, terrified out of their minds, you find yourself seething with silent fury.

You're brought back to the present when Laito's grin widens, seemingly delighted by whatever expression you had failed to suppress in a split moment of weakness. "Say, Bitch-chan, you're very pretty, you know? And you've got such lovely eyes - such lovely, furious eyes. I could stare at the for hours and hours."

"Wouldn't our food get cold if you did that?" You prompt, and you don't know whether to be put off or grateful that Laito laughs in your face. Because if he hadn't, then you wouldn't have seen his teeth. Teeth that are sharp at the tips and look like they've been designed to tear through skin. Carnivore teeth, monster teeth woven into a gimmick of human flesh.