Chapter 2: AN EPISTLE

"Ah, what a diegesis." Yue snaps the laptop shut and stretches her arms in the breezy air of her damp little room as she falls back onto her lushy, soft mattress, flat on her back.

She had been planning on finishing this erotic romance book, her lovely companion Lucy had gifted her on her birthday, which was months back.

And after such long span of time, Yue had at last been able to produce some space in her hectic schedule to begin with at least, if not finish it. Despite wanting to discover what happened next in the novel, Yue was worn out through her tough work that she couldn't manage to flip through any more pages without her eyelids constantly flapping close.

"No wonder she ought for me to read it, she's got some startlingly resplendent taste in these." Yue appraises of the content she had read by far.

"It has abundant steamy scenes…mmmh" She mumbles to herself as she heats up on pondering about the hot main lead, his description was so top-notch, voluminous hair, ash-gray, silver locks falling on his fair-complexioned forehead.

His eyes, fathomless, dark onyx orbs, which flickered shades of numerous colors to represent his emotions.

His jaw, sharp and short, deemed in high regard by the girls. Physique being not too muscular, but not too skinny at the same time, the absolute perfect proportions as desired, defined abs, vesicular arms and neck.

"And he'd definitely be taller than me, not saying I am short, I am of the average height but he…." She sighs as she ponders over the man she read of, "He is just what I could ever dream of as my ideal type."

Even though he never revealed his face, at the annual royal ball, he'd always appear, if he did, with a mask concealing his features partially, if not in totality....

But still how Yue wished she was Li Mei instead, in Jinghang's warm embrace, the dearth of intimacy and romance in her life was practically appalling.

The plot of the novel titled, "My prince is a Vampire.", wasn't as unadorned as Yue thought it to be, after all she wasn't much a bookworm. But going through a few pages, for Yue, a girl with no vitality and romance in life it was rather a roller coaster of emotions.

"Oh, the cliffhangers were top-notch, they had me on the edge the entire time." Yue gleams as she revises in her mind what she had read by now, the mere pages had managed to cover a vast part of the story.

The story inaugurated on a plain end though, it was a prepossessing night, each lady in the town had never once, been so exhilarated for the nightfall as they were then.

It was the night of the royal ball, the accustomed dance, where the prince himself, made an appearance among the crowd.

And at times, even indulged in the animated, vibrant dancing majority.

It was that night when it all commenced, when Li Mei's beloved sister Li Hua, had met with an unprecedented event, of uncertain death, as her carriage had rolled along the land-slide down the steep hill.

Mei's despondency that night at the ball, had caught Prince Jinghang's eyes. And then the story involving the royal romance between Mei and Jinghang commenced.

Yue being inquisitive by nature had surfed up the internet and read a review of the book, it was so arousing!! Li Mei discovering about Jinghang being a vampire, her giving into his urges, losing her virginity, the ecstatic moments seemed oh-so sterling....

Yue rolled over and across the length of her bed out of her carnal thoughts as she giggled simultaneously and ended up accidentally kicking off the laptop down the floor.

But she didn't bother picking it back up as she was already in a state of half-consciousness.

"Ouaaa.." She yawns a yawn of fatigue and covers herself with her fluffy blanket. Despite residing in a not so admirable abode she had spent enough on her mattress and duvet.

"I am definitely gonna have dreams about it tonight." No later than needed the veil of her eyelids enclosed, straying her off to the majestic world of dreams.

Yet, if only her life had been destined to be so composed and harmonious.

"NOW WHAT!?" Yue with only as much a few minutes of napping, springs up in her bed agitated upon hearing a mechanical spark-like sounds emerging from somewhere beside her bed. She wriggled on her elbows to the edge of the mattress to find her laptop being the cause of the ruckus.

"What a waste!" She got off her bed grabbed it harshly and placed it on the nightstand right beside the head board. For a few concise minutes, the technical device had ebbed it's unpleasant ringing and buzzing.

On the nightstand, her eyes caught sight of a small piece of paper which apparently seemed akin to a note or even a letter. With a crease of confusion on her forehead she extended her hand to pick up the epistle.

"Dear Yue,

We want you to know how much we love you. And we hope you would condone us for what we are to disclose further in this letter might not be music to your ears. We've done some bad things Yue. And over time we realized how erroneous we were in what we were blindly undertaking. We used to work for the biggest drug lord in Shanghai, Hou Jingguo. After we had you, we had decided to bow out of that atrocious world but as you might know, 'Once you step into the mafia, there's no backing out.' We agreed to working for him again only to protect you dear. But all these years we have worked upon gathering information of his business and we are on our way to expose him and destroy him tonight so that we can finally be free. But in case we don't come back tonight, we need you to always remember that we love you, Yue. You are the brightest light of our life, and even without us you must live on, lead on the life with a smile. Live your own life Yue, live a life we couldn't have. We want you to find your own love and have a colorful life.

Yours lovingly,

Mom & Dad"

Yue's hand trembled against the paper in her hand. Her mind could not begin to process the inconceivable disclosure. This was a source of utter distress for her. It was a rude awakening for her and panic seized her entire self.

"D-drug Lord?" Yue subconsciously stepped away from the desk and accidentally stepped on the fallen remote of the television, that switched it on instantly.

"A couple found dead in a gruesome condition on the Pubei Road in the Xuhui District of Shanghai. The main suspect at the moment is allegedly Hou Jingguo, the nefarious cold blooded drug lord....." The voice of the news anchor seemed to fade away as Yue gaped at the screen, her eyes wide open, her mouth agape, and her mind numb to the fact that her parents were in fact dead. She stared at the two faces, two familiar smiling faces....

"Mom? Dad?" Her voice was shaking as much was her hand. The next face she witnessed was of that hienous man, Jingguo and a sudden rage overlapped her despondency. Her blend of emotions for growing in its intensity, she wasn't sure if she should sob at the fact that her parents were murdered or that she should go after that murderer sinful man.

The mechanical sound was back again and wasn't nearly subduing.

Rather it was only intensifying by the second. The lights in the room went on to brighten until it was almost blinding to the eye and Yue had to forcibly squeeze her eyes shut.

When she regained her vision, her eyes widened in trepidation on a much more momentous matter.

A sense of panic begins to accumulate as she discerns that she was not in her room anymore.

"Wait a minute…." Yue's eyes scrutinize, every minute detail of the room, and without any vacillation she could affirm with certitude, that this was not her room.

Her hands, forthwith, instinctively roam, and cast around the novelty of the mattress she now lay upon.

The sheets are satiny, pearl colored. "Yep, not my bed either."

Yue was in another room, a contrasting room, this seemed familiar to her somehow.

No, she hadn't been here prior to, however, it was entirely analogous to the description of Li Mei's room.

Her hands find their way to her own eyes, rubbing across the skin, in incredulity. She withdraws her hands and her vision regains it's vivid view, anticipating an eyesight of her own, old, dilapidated room.

But to her disillusionment, she was still in the un-ascertained environment.

Yue shook her head in disbelief and got off the anonymous mattress, that she lay upon. "This definitely is not my room" her eyes gaze at the peculiar structure, taking in every nanoscopic detail of it.

The room is rather ravishing, there are pastel, flamingo and rouge pink colored curtains swaying from a distance, the ceiling is taller than the normal average height of a room.

The room itself is quite spacious, the walls are a mix of a scarlet and crème shade, smooth on the surface of the walls. The entire room is carpeted with a velvety, quality fabric mat.

'Where am I?'