1 Part One- The Vampire

Two people entered the cave, and the good one would never come out. Dead. Because of me. Of course I wish it hadn't had to happen, but if given the chance to do it all over again, I don't know how I'd - Someone shakes Katherine's arm. Katherine turns away from the window, jerking up right in her chair. "Present!"

Adelaide and Rayna stare at Katherine. "Class is over," Adelaide says. "We're going to the auditorium for a school assembly." Katherine looks around the classroom and sees that most of the students are already out of the door.

"Oh, no," Rayna says, pouting. "Are you off your game, Katherine? Tired? I hope the workload here isn't too much here compared to your old school. You look like it's been doubled."

Thinking how nice it would be if school was the extent of her problems, Katherine stands up, knocking into Rayna's shoulder as she walks by. "What's the assembly for, anyways?" Katherine asks as they walk down the hallway.

Adelaide and Rayna trade a glance.

"Do you know?"

"No. Do you?"

Rayna slowly shakes her head.

The girls sit in the back of the auditorium with the other juniors. A few minutes after the last seats are taken, the lights dim. A short woman with a neat blonde bob walks to the center of the stage. There's a bleak look on her face.

"Under the circumstances," the headmaster says, "We- I thought it better if rather than hearing it misconstrued by the media, you heard the tragedy from me. So the truth isn't misconstrued."

...

Except for the occasional muffled scream, it's quiet until a tall man in a military uniform strides down the hallway. Two reporters follow at his heels, jogging to keep up with the general's fast strides.

"The public wants to know," one of the reporters says, "how... how..." He trails off, staring ahead at a scientist pushing a hospital bed. The scientist spots them approaching and throws a bed sheet over his patient. "Good morning, General Grimson!"

Undisturbed, the general nods at the scientist and continues on his way. Meanwhile, the reporter keeps staring, his feet stuck to the ground. The scientist was quick to cover the patient, but a second was all it took for the image to burn into his mind.

Even now, the bed sheet creates an odd silhouette; it looks human, but the arms and legs are twisted in unnatural positions. Red flowers to the surface of the sheet in several different spots, and the moans that come from it sound like-

"What prompted your visit to the Wellness Institution?" the other reporter asks. The reporter shakes his head and scurries to catch up with them.

However, by the time he reaches them, the general is following a woman in a lab coat into her office, shutting the door behind them.

"Well," the reporter says, staring at the door, "Fu- what are you doing?" he says, watching the other reporter cross the hallway and press her ear against the door. "You're going to get thrown out."

"What's that, Jerry?" the reporter whispers. "I can't hear you over all the life changing national secrets." In an instant, Jerry is by her side, straining to hear the conversation on the other side of the door. "It's a part of their DNA!" the scientist shouts. Suddenly, it isn't so hard to hear.

"No technology this century can change that!" she continues.

"Then take a detour on the way to the cure," the general snaps. "Explore other aspects of a vampire's DNA. What makes them tick, heal, die."

"Are you telling me to abandon my project? What I told the public I'd do?"

"I'm suggesting you make some use of all the time, money, and talent thrown your way. Not spend it on a wild goose chase."

The woman reporter's phone buzzes. She unlocks her phone, and as soon as she sees her screen, her eyes go wide.

"You are not the one who has been deceived here. While I've been upfront from the beginning about the difficulty of my task, my project is slowly being taken over, piece by piece. The people that are supposed to be working for me are ignoring my orders, working on projects that were not what I set out to do. That I don't think, quite frankly, are ethical."

"Miss Chen, this job requires adaptation to the situation-"

"I'm sorry about your son, but-"

"If you cannot handle your job, then hand in a resignation letter."

"Fine," the scientist snaps.

The woman has just enough time and good sense to take a step back before the door opens. Jerry does not.

The scientist and the general stare at the reporter with a big red mark on his chin, sprawled on the floor. The woman clears her throat. "How was the meeting? Informative?"

"Not the word I'd use to describe it," the scientist mutters as she retreats back into her office, slamming the door.

"I expect that room cleared by seven!" Then the general looks down, his lips curling. "Any more questions?"

"One," the woman says, holding out her phone to the general to show him a picture of a story that just broke. The general grits his teeth. He hadn't expected it to leak so fast.

"How do you-" the reporter starts, but the general snaps, "I have a plane to catch." He turns on his heel, storming down the hallway.

...

Murmurs spread throughout the auditorium. The headmaster holds up her hand, and the auditorium once again quiets. "A group of three students were recently sent out on a mission to spend a few days in the mountain range. When they didn't reach their destination, we sent a recovery team to find them. They discovered they were attacked by vampires, leaving behind..."

The headmaster takes a deep breath. "No survivors." The auditorium is silent, as if every person there had freezed. "If anyone has any information that can help us bring the attacker to justice, I urge you to immediately come to me. Everything helps, and every second wasted is another the attacker can escape. For the rest of us, all we can do now is pray for a safe return."

The woman bows her head and walks off the stage. The silence holds for another spilt second, and then hundreds of voices all start talking at once.

"He wasn't-who was on the mission?" Rayna asks.

Adelaide's face is terribly pale.

"Josh," she whispers.

Katherine, meanwhile, is staring straight ahead, her eyes wide, and her heart thundering.

***

"Katherine? You okay?"

Katherine shoots her classmate a tight smile, clenching her fingers into fists to stop them from shaking. It's dark by the time she finally goes.

People spill out of the headmaster's office and into the hallway. So many, in fact, that Katherine has to nudge and step between people to reach the receptionist's desk.

"I need to speak to the headmaster," Katherine says.

"Get in line, please."

"I have information."

"The headmaster has hundreds of people pursuing her right now. She really doesn't have time for-"

"I need to speak to the headmaster," Katherine repeats firmly. The receptionist looks up, her eyes comically wide. There are many different kinds of intimidation at Mabry Academy, and while Katherine doesn't have the my-daddy's-rich card, there's an edge to her one can't attain growing up in the suburbs. Katherine can't help smirking as she strides down the hallway.

The first thing Katherine sees when she walks into the headmaster's office is a tall, bulky man in a military suit. There's two more people in the room, discluding the headmaster: a young woman standing by the general's right, and a young man leaning against the wall, his head tipped down so his pitch black hair covers his eyes...

Katherine's stomach drops to the floor.

Darko.

"I assure you," the headmaster says. "The moment we find the perpetrators, they will be brought to justice."

"Someone has to pay for what happened," General Grimson says, "and if it's not the vampires that finds justice..." The man takes a step closer to the headmaster. At over a foot taller than her, he all but looms over her. "That leaves you."

The headmaster's eyes dart around the room. "Ms. Cruz!" Her gaze fixes on Katherine like she's a lifeboat. "Is there something I can help you with?"

Katherine blinks. "Would you?" she says, her voice soft. The headmaster pauses, her smile stalling. "Kill the vampires," Katherine clarifies. The group goes quiet and all eyes fall on the headmaster.

"They'll be Insitulionized," the headmaster says. "Which is no small thing. They will stay in an institution until a cure is found and be required to assist the researcher in whatever-"

"That's not right." The young woman's pale face is blotchy and red. "They killed my brother." General Grimson puts an arm around her shoulders.

"I know." The headmaster holds up her hands. "I know. But vampires are still considered human by law, and courts won't recognize it as manslaughter since they were not fully in control or aware of their actions, no matter how heinous."

"Humans have control of their actions." Darko leans against the wall, giving the appearance of a casual stance, but his tone is anything but. "So either they're human and murderers, or they're animals, and in that case, they should be treated as such."

"I say kill them either way," his father says.

"Yeah," Katherine pitches in weakly.

"All vampires face a lifetime of captivity, regardless of their crimes," the headmaster says, "and while what happened today is certainly a step in the right direction to sway people, it is not nearly enough to-"

"That's bullshit," Darko interrupts.

Katherine backs out of the office.

"I'm just telling you the facts," the headmaster replies.

"And I'm telling you that's not good enough," Darko says.

Katherine pushes her way through the waiting room full of people and into the hallway. Her footsteps echo down the empty halls as the arguments fade further away.

*****

The receptionist startles and ducks behind her computer as the door swings open. Chewing on the end of her braid, the receptionist peaks out from the side of her computer to see the Grimsons burst out of the headmaster's office.

"She gave us nothing," General Grimson says. "I don't know why we bothered to come."

"I know," Darko mutters. "How dare Josh die and tear you away from your schedule?" The general glares at his son. "I'll deal with you later." The young woman winces as the door slams shut behind the general. Then she turns to face Darko, frowning.

"Are you disappointed that it was him and not me?" Darko drawls.

"I think you're the one who's disappointed."

Darko looks as if he's been slapped. She exhales, tearing a hand through her hair. "I have to find Dad and fix this." And just like that, Darko is alone. He stares at the door, his fists clenching at his sides.

The receptionist pales. "Darko," she whispers. Darko startles, turning around. The receptionist motions for him to come closer. "I'm so sorry about what happened," she says. "If there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it."

"Unless you have information on my brother's case, I don't think you could..." Darko trails off when the receptionist nods. His eyes narrow. "You know something?" he asks.

"Maybe," she says, "but I could get in a lot of trouble if it came out that I told you this."

"I can keep a secret."

"Well... a girl stopped by, claiming to know something."

"Who?"

"I don't remember her name... I know she is one of our scholarship students, very bright. I think her name started with a K. Like... Kira, or-"

"Katherine," Darko finishes for her, his eyes darkening.