"Yawn! Huh? Where the heck?" I slowly opened my eyes, only to find myself bound to a sofa in a luxurious, gothic-looking living room.
It couldn’t be one of Liliana’s kinks, right? I tried to rationalize the situation, but I knew something was wrong
A feeling of dread crept into my stomach.
Then, the sound of footsteps echoed through the room.
A woman with long white hair and wearing a maid outfit emerged, not from a doorway, but as if bending space itself to walk through the air.
At that moment I knew I was completely and utterly fucked.
"So who might you be, fair lady?" I asked politely, my voice calm despite the panic rising inside me.
I felt that a single wrong word could end my life.
"Please don’t be so formal, Lord Valerian. I am but just a simple maid of this household," she introduced herself with a graceful curtsy.
"My name is Claire, just a humble maid." She smiled slightly at the end, a charming expression that would have captured any man’s heart.
But something felt off to me.
Her gaze was too knowing, too calm for a simple maid.
"So where am I? Can you answer that?" I questioned, wanting to know the most pressing information.
"My lord, please do not be anxious. I am aware of your waning time," she said, her voice soft as she somehow knew my most pressing problem.
My limited time.
Then does that mean...
"Then this house is?" I asked, already knowing the answer but still wanting confirmation.
"Yes, this is the household of the ’Duchess of Vampires’ and head of the ’Carmilla’ faction," she said, confirming my suspicions.
"Welcome to the house of Karnstein, Lord Valerian."
Fuck, it’s finally here.
I had hoped I would never have to meet her again.
....................................
10 years ago
The forest was a haven of tranquility, a stark contrast to the chaos that would soon erupt.
This was a place known locally as the Couturie Forest, a pocket of ancient, gnarled oak trees deep within the urban sprawl of New Orleans.
The air, thick with the scent of damp earth and pine needles, was filled with the gentle gurgle of the stream and the lazy buzz of cicadas.
It was here, under the sheltering branches of a grand oak, that I, a younger, more naive version of myself, tried to find peace.
My reading was interrupted by a voice, a shrill, insistent whine that grated on my nerves. "Hey, Valerian! Become my servant already!" a young girl with hair the color of a raging inferno demanded.
She was a constant bother, a persistent distraction.
"Ugh, you again! Don’t bother me, go somewhere else," I sighed, my patience worn thin.
"Why do you keep refusing me, you ungrateful hmph!" she harrumphed, her fiery hair a bright, jarring contrast to the calm green of the forest.
She sat beside me, her small body inched closer, a blatant disregard for my personal space.
"I already told you to go somewhere else.
I’m too busy to deal with you," I angrily glared at her.
She just smiled, her teeth glinting in the sunlight.
"Hmph. Why are you refusing? Just a single bite, it won’t hurt," she pouted, her crimson eyes holding an unnerving intensity.
"You’re still talking about that weird stuff? I already told you I don’t want to roleplay as a vampire or anything. Stop bothering me," I said, a deep-seated denial in my voice.
The younger me never believed her absurd words. I only regarded her as a weirdo, nothing more, nothing less.
But for some reason, she never stopped bothering me.
No, I knew the reason. It was my face, or more specifically, my eyes. Ever since the day I mistakenly showed my face to her
She stuck to me like glue, disturbing me every day at my favorite spot under the oak tree.
As time passed, I got used to her presence and opted to ignore her entirely, hoping one day she would stop coming.
But somewhere in my heart, a tiny, foolish part of me enjoyed my time with her.
"Hey, what kind of fish is this?" she asked, pointing towards one in the flowing, crystal-clear stream.
I answered calmly " a common freshwater fish you can find in any stream".
Occasionally, I would walk along the stream to cool my head, but even there, this girl followed me, a constant shadow in my life.
The forest was alive that day. The trees, their bark rough and gnarled, stood like silent sentinels.
The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and pine needles.
The stream gurgled, its water a cool melody as it danced over the smooth, moss-covered stones.
It was a perfect, peaceful moment.
But on that day, by some kind of misfortune, I slipped. My foot hit a patch of slick moss, and I tumbled into the stream.
"Ah! My clothes!" I exclaimed in worry, as my clothes were now completely wet.
I combed back my hair in annoyance.
But I forgot I was not alone.
I noticed that annoying girl’s expression.
Her eyes were wide, a crazy, starved look in them.
She was panting weirdly. "Ah~ ah~ Val... he looks so defenseless, so weak, so cute ah...I feel thirsty," she said, her voice a low, raspy whisper that was terrifyingly alarming to the younger me.
I realized my mistake and tried to hide my face again, but I was already pinned by surprising strength from her small, petite body.
"Wha—" Before I could say anything, my lips were stolen by hers. A shocking, unexpected moment.
"Mhmmfff!" I couldn’t utter a single syllable as her lips utterly dominated mine.
Then I felt her tongue invading my mouth, a violation that left me breathless.
I couldn’t resist.
Until after about a minute, she released me, a string of saliva connecting us.
"Ah~, darling, as expected, we are meant to be! Let’s be together! Become mine, Valerian!" she uttered like a maniac, her eyes glowing with a feral hunger.
But I had enough of it.
"ENOUGH! I Hate You! I hope you disappear from this world!" I shouted in a fit of rage, my chest heaving heavily.
My outburst stunned her. The hunger in her eyes was replaced with a blank, empty stare.
"But why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why are you rejecting me? Why?" she muttered with a blank expression, like a broken recorder.
Then an unexpected scene happened that turned my view of the world upside down.
"I know Yes you just don’t believe me! Yes! As long as I show you my true self, you won’t reject me!" she concluded, and countless bats gathered around us, their wings a rustling symphony of darkness.
They caged us inside, and the world went dark.
When they dispersed, the girl’s eyes glowed a deep, malevolent crimson, and her fangs elongated, sharp and white.
"How about now? You want to become a vampire, right, my dear?" she asked, her voice a chilling promise of a nightmare.
I was utterly clueless as to what was happening.
But I knew something from that moment on: this world is not normal.
No, I knew it wasn’t normal because of an annoying being, but that moment made it clear that I wasn’t hallucinating anything.
After that, I blanked out from sheer shock and fear. My younger mind couldn’t handle all that.
But the next time I woke up, I fortunately wasn’t chained in a basement.
I was in my bed, in my house.
I rationalized that it was all a dream, but I knew it through my very core.
It was all real.
From that day on, I avoided contact with any girl and stopped going to that place.
And if it weren’t for my mother, I would have developed a phobia towards women.
...........................
present Day
"As expected, remembering that day still makes me unsettled," I muttered as I soaked my body in the hot water the maid prepared for me,
Since apparently I stunk of sex and would drive her lady mad.
"Well, let’s hope she has reflected on her annoying personality a little." I had a last hope as I got up from the bath