1.RETURN OF THE UNDEAD?

BLOOD IS EVERYTHING WE NEED! ONLY IN BLOOD SHALL WE FIND THE TRUTH THAT WE ALL PERCEIVE!

The book that was down on the ground which I happened to pick up had this quote. It was a book about the tales of Medival Europe's supernatural sightings documented in great detail within it. It read:

HE IS THE MONSTER! HE IS THE DEVIL HIMSELF THAT SHONE UPON US!

But one of the lines that stuck out the most was;

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS...

The book just ended abruptly which put all the time I'd invested in to waste.

I put the book back in the rack I believed it belonged to and headed out of the library.

The weather today was rather murky.

I felt a sudden and strong stroke to my back. There was only one person who could get away by doing that.

"The day's pretty gloomy eh, Axel?" I knew it was this bastard the moment he just decided to land a blow on me. Marcus! The blonde handsome bloke that's next to me. That's his name. 6 ft tall, fair complexion, and roughly around 60-65 in mass, which sounds about right.

"It's just what it is Marcus. Just deal with it. If you have a problem with it, just go to a church or something and complain." This guy has this weird obsession with getting on my nerves every single day. At this point, I'm just going to kill him. Surely, someday. Just not today.

"Boy, you're in some mood today." Obviously, I am! Isn't that clear from the moment you've met me? And yet you have the audacity to ask me such a question. The urge to drop you into a casket, drop you deep under, and then put a tombstone over that spot is real!... Is what I suppose I would say or am expected to feel had we shared such a relationship amongst us, or had I just been a regular student.

"Indeed. So, how come you're at this part of the campus?" It was rather amusing to see him at this part of college. For the uneducated, Marcus is a young and upcoming college athlete by day and a playboy by night. That's how he is! Don't ponder on how we ended up together or why was I hanging out with such a person or vice-versa, though the opposite always baffles me. Just why?

"Well, I'm not in the mood to work out today, so I decided to check up on how you happen to spend your time on the campus. I mean, it is still a mystery to me. How the most famous bloke on the campus happens to have very little information or source about his whereabouts on campus intrigued me."

"So basically, in other words, just so I get this clear, on the pretense that you didn't want to attend your practice today because of this gloomy weather out here, just so that you could kill your time and avoid the boredom, you just happen to go around campus and ask of the whereabouts of the one guy who's despised by all in the campus, even though he's still in his Sophmore year? That's about it, right? Feel free to fill in the details if there happened to be any misunderstandings from my end."

"Man, you really are something else. Just like the rumors say. You indeed are an ..."; No sooner had those words escaped his mouth, I grabbed him by the collar and glared at him. He received the memo and shut his mouth up.

We happened to gather some unnecessary audience during that mishap. Some were rather terrified of me, and some worried about what would happen to Marcus. I slowly let go of his collar and just turned away. Since most of them were from the opposite gender, they just stared at me while remaining fearful, all while mumbling behind my back.

I just went ahead. From the corner of my eye, just for a brief moment, I just looked behind and saw that the hoard of girls gathered around him. Well, that was a given. Unlike me, he was pretty popular for all the right reasons. With that being said, I noticed a sour expression on his face for a moment, and right at that moment he turned towards me and stared at me, for a moment that is, as a silhouette moved right past me in the flash of a moment and walked past both of us.

I didn't even bother to check who it was, as that was a foolish thing to do. This university was the epitome of a Great University in an unknown place, or in simple terms, a hidden treasure. Because of that, three students were at the peak of their popularity phase on this campus. I happened to share the room with two of them just in a matter of seconds. How do I know this? Well, I'll probably explain it another time.

After a brief moment, Marcus decided to ditch his cheerleaders and walked right beside me, much to the disappointment of the fellow ladies.

"You didn't bat an eye to look at her even though she's of the same department and in the junior year which relatively makes her our senior. Pretty bold of you, I must say."

"Look. Just so you know, I never met her in person, and nor do I under any reason or circumstance in the foreseeable future have the interest in meeting her. So, in that regard, I don't see why should I care about her?" An all but honest declaration. It'd be a lie if I said I wasn't interested in her. But relatively speaking, it's all strictly down to her as a person. Nothing romantic by any means.

"I would like to see the look on your face when those words come to haunt you back."; Marcus chuckled. I just let out a deep sigh! Without the hindsight of what the future held for me, for that moment, I just had to along with his delusions.

But that was all soon to change just as the window panes rattled to the strong winds outside...Just an instant is all it needed.