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...Alexander hurried down the stairs behind the pair in the dim lamplight, being sure to keep Anna's trailing skirt in sight. The last thing he wanted to do was lose them and become trapped in this dank labyrinth. The very thought of being alone in the dark between these slimy, lime-encrusted walls sent an extra burst of speed in the youth. He rushed to catch up, nearly colliding with Anna as she suddenly halted. "Uurf!" He rather comically skidded to a stop, doing a little hop to catch his stumble and flushed deeply in embarrassment. No one noticed, thankfully.

He peered over Anna's shoulder, wondering why Victor had stopped their tour in front of a rather nondescript dark oak door. He spoke a few words to his manservant then turned to Anna with that smile that one again caused the hairs to rise on the back of Alex's neck. He wished Victor wouldn't smile at her like that.

"Anna, darling...do you know what the living death is to our kind?" Victor smiled at the young woman, a slight twinkle in his eye, as if he expect some sort of amusement from her answer.

Annaliese looked up at him with wide eyes, then frowned, pursing her lips thoughtfully and staring at the door, thinking quiet seriously about his question. "I...would assume...that it is the very concept that makes us what we are. To be dead, yet have breathe and heat and...soul, still," she replied, hesitantly. "Perhaps it's a subjective ideal, what is living to one man may not be living to another...if there can be such a thing for us at a--"

She was interrupted by a delighted, bemused laugh from the tall silver-haired male. "That's my girl...always thinking, always pondering." He laid a finger upon her cheek, gliding it over the smooth curves in a way that made Alexander bite his tongue quite painfully and look away. Of course, this was noticed by Victor, but he only smirked, eyes keeping upon the girl. "Thank the Heavens for women like you." He fluttered a kiss over her cheek that made her blush deeply and chuckled. "But it wasn't a philosophical question, my love..." and he waved at the manservant, who opened the door with a loud creaking. "It was an actual one."

The door groaned open to reveal a room. A small, dark box of a room with cracked, mold-ridden walls and a single window high above that let just little enough moonlight to be absolutely useless. Alex took a step forward, frowning a bit, expecting -- well, he didn't know what he was expecting, but this certainly wasn't it. What was so special about a room?

Victor's servant flared a lamp to life, and suddenly, the light spilled over a figure chained to the wall. Alex stared at it in shock. Bony arms, ribs jutting out, skin pale and crackling...tangled hair hanging in tufts from the peeling scalp, it hung limply there, a rotted, dead thing. His lip curled in disgust and he took a step back. "Sir, I...must say, I am disappointed," he said, shooting Victor a look. "You brought us to the depths of Hell for a corpse? This is hardly fitting for--"

"GGhhahhh...!"

Alexander jumped nearly three feet, whirling around at the sudden noise coming from the room, eyes agape in fear. The corpse...moved, head rising upward with a creak. It's eyes were milky-white, it's lips shrunken and curled back over the bones of it's teeth -- it shivered, a living skeleton dressed in yellowed, crackling paper. Groaning. The sight was horrifying and Alexander gagged, turning away. "What...manner of thing is it?" he whispered hoarsely, staring up at Victor, but the elder paid him no mind; he was watching Anna.

She had gasped in fright and turned her head, the same as her brother; but instead of keeping her eyes averted, she looked back. Brows furrowing slightly, the girl took a couple of hesitant steps towards the door, hand subconsciously raising, watching the monstrosity with pure curiosity and...wonder, all fear evaporated. Alex's eyes widened and he stepped to her, taking her wrist and pulling it back. "Anna, do not get close to that...that creature, it might--"

"Oh, hush Alex!" she whispered impatiently, shaking him off. "If you would swallow your fear and look, you could see it cannot get free of it's bindings - the chains are heavy and thick, and it's much too weak to break them. Now do be quiet!" Her eyes narrowed as he peered at it. "I wish to hear if it has breath."

The boy flushed darkly and turned with a sullen jerk, walking away from his sister. Victor smirked at this -- he rather enjoyed seeing Alexander put in his place -- and walked up to the girl, wrapping his hands around her shoulders in a faint embrace, leaning low to murmur in her ear. "He does not," he said, watching her more than the body in the room. "He no longer has breath, or a heartbeat, or even the strength to carry his own weight; if we removed the chains, he would crumple to the floor like a rag doll."

Anna nodded slowly, taking this in. Something about the creature seemed familiar to her. And then it clicked. Her eyes widened. "Sir..." she spoked hesitantly, words barely a whisper. "You...spoke earlier...of the 'living death'..." she turned her head. "...for our kind. Is...is this..."

A triumphant smile spread over the elder's handsome face, warming it for a moment; but it was a false warmth, calculating and dangerous. "Yes!" he laughed, squeezing her shoulders. "You guessed exactly. I'm so proud of you, my girl." He glanced over his shoulder, tone turning sardonic. "If only your brother were blessed with as quick a wit. At least you are there to do the thinking for you both."

Alexander positively glowered at this, but said nothing; merely glared at Victor when his head was turned and shot him a rude gesture. Which, of course, the elder vampire noticed; but he cared too little to comment. There was plenty of time for...reproachments later. "As you deduced, this is the 'living death' of which I spoke; this man was once as we are. He had strength and speed and grace of the highest caliber, far above that of mere mortals." The last word was spat with severe disgust. "But look at him now; feeble in body and mind, barely able to form words. He does not even register our presence."

Anna watched the shivering thing for a moment, then turned to Victor, her beautiful azure orbs wide and trembling. "How?"

Victor smiled and nodded. "I shall tell you. And you as well, boy," he said, addressing the sullen redhead behind them. "Stop pouting and listen in."

Victor told them of the secrets of their singularly special kind of 'life', the secrets of blood and spirit and power. He told them of the horrors of fire, and of daylight. He regaled them with the history of their kind, the history that had been passed down to him from his sire, and to his sire from his, and so on and so on, back to the dawn days of Man's history.

It was all shite, of course. But it served it's purpose -- his children were throughly awed, his own power and legend grown in their minds. He was like a god now, sharing the secrets of the gods so they, too, would become gods in their own right. However, one thing he did speak of was the truth, and a dangerous, hard-learned truth at that.

"The blood, my dear Anna," he murmured from behind her, his hands lovingly, and possessively, upon her shoulders. "The blood not only quenches our thirst and calms our hunger, but it is our life. It's our energy. It is, perhaps, the only thing in all the material world that our kind truly, and honestly, needs."

He glanced at Alexander, who was staring at the chained creature, a dazed look upon his face. Victor smirked; he was used to seeing such a look on the more...delicate of his children after his speech. It would be interesting to see how the child fared in the upcoming weeks. He might make it a month or two; pity. He was quite lovely to look upon.

"I am one of the oldest of my kind," he purred, stepping forward into the cell, and standing next to the dried husk of man, as a professor might stand next to his blackboard. "My hunger could go unabated for months, years - perhaps even decades. But eventually, it would become too much."

They were listening quite raptly, now. "The hunger would grow and grow until the ache consumed me." He pointed to his head. "Consumed my mind, and my will. I would no longer be able to function rationally. I would only seek out what would fill that void, hunt wildly like a starving animal. Mortals, mammals, vermin...other vampires. It matters not." A pause to let that sink in, his hands folding in front of him, the captive groaning softly in the background. "That condition is termed 'the frenzy', and it is a dangerous thing." His cold eyes flicked to Alexander. "Imagine having no reason, no sense of self. All you know is the interminable hunger...and then, happening upon your sister."

Alexander's face paled and his shook his head, a denial, mouth open to speak, but Victor raised a pale, veined hand and silenced him. "You may say no, but believe me young one. You would kill her, and you would eat her, without a second's hesitation."

It was all so practiced. He paused, allowing that to sink in, turning his eyes upon the hollow form of the vampire next to him. A slight smirk quirked at the corner of his lip, but it lasted only a second, so faint it would be hard pressed to say his expression had changed at all.

"S-sir..." Anna stepped forward hesitantly, her face drawn, troubled. Apparently she was envisioning his warning quite clearly. "I hear, and understand, your warnings. But...that's not all there is, is it?" Her bright clear eyes flickered to the chained vampire. "There is...something beyond the frenzy, is there not?"

Victor smiled broadly, a teacher pleased with his best student. "Yes, my dear. I was hoping you would come to the conclusion eventually." He swept an arm towards the yellowed, crumbling skeleton beside him. Alive, but not...and in any and all ways that matter, quite dead.

"Beyond the frenzy," he murmured, indicating the creature. "The body growing so weak it no longer functions, the skin yellows and peels back, the hair grays, falls out in clumps. The body is dying." His eyes gleamed. "But we are immortal," he exclaimed. "We do not die, excepting rare occasions. And so we fall into stasis. Life and death in constant battle, and ourselves the poor innocents, trapped in the middle. Wanting to die. Wishing to die. Begging to die. But unable to do so!"

His children stared, trembling, frightened. Alexander turned away, unable to look any longer. Anna took a hesitant step forward. "If we give him blood, will he recover?" she asked tremulously, forgetting politeness in her sadness and fear. "Oh please, let's give him a little?"

Her sire's face softened somewhat, though his clear orbs were still hard as stone. "You are a wonder, my love," he murmured, and shook his head, as if in sorrow. "But it's much too far gone with this soul. When the living death first sets in, it is possible to turn away the tide, but now..." He raised a hand, pressing it to the shaking vampire's temple. The thing gave a rattled cry, tried to turn away. "Now, it would do no good. Simply drain out at his feet...it may even possibly kill him."

"So why don't you?" Alexander suddenly spat out, turning, his fists balled up angrily. "Why do you let him stay like this? It's torturous!! Kill him and let him be at peace!"

For a moment, the boy thought he had gone too far -- the dark look Victor shot him sent him trembling down to his very boot-heels, but it lasted only a moment, and the Master's expression calmed again, his usual genteel, patient smile gracing his lips. "But, if I were to do that, dear boy," he said, "I would have no 'corpse' to show to fledglings like yourself, correct?" He chuckled. "His pain is worth the important lesson he teaches. Do you not agree?" He smirked and walked from the cell, gesturing imperiously over his shoulder for his manservant to slide the door shut once more.

Alex's eyes widened. "Y-you!" he gasped, hoarsely. "You did that to him! Set him in chains...starved him purposefully, for--for your own...disgusting desires--" "Sir!" his sister interrupted, stepping in front of her brother and shooting him an anxious look that said 'be still!' Hopefully she could distract the Ancient, keep him from wringing her stupid brother's neck.

"I-It is obviously that man is your prisoner...that you set him to his crue--to his fate yourself," she stammered. Victor, who had indeed been about to hurt the boy quite severely for his offense, paused, staring expressionlessly down at the girl. "...Yeees," he said after a moment, drawing the word out. "Go on."

"W-well...I, I have to say, I am curious." She gave him a weak smile. "What offense did he commit to deserve such a sentence?"

Victor stared at her for long minutes silently, his expression thoughtful...and then a grin (a rather frightening one, at that) curled over his lips and he leaned forward, tapping Anna on her nose like a delighted grandpa. "Why...none, my dear," he winked. "None whatsoever! But now..." And he rose, smile dropping, face like stone, old...cold. "No one else shall, either."

"Come," he said, turning abruptly. "There is still so much to see." The two fledglings stared at one another, their expressions twinned in their horror and fear. Anna swallowed hard, and turned, trotting quickly after her sire, her Master. Alex started to follow, then paused. He looked at the heavy cell door for a moment and crept up to it, standing on tiptoe to gaze into the tiny barred window at the figure in back hidden in shadow. The vampire groaned, shivering, and raised his head...staring back at the boy with milky, sightless eyes.

Alex shivered and backed away, hurrying after his sister, those eyes trapped in his mind...haunting him.

Warning him.

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