About a Certain Transfer Student – Part 5

5:59 AM.

I finally got my eyesight back. Partially at least. But my pride was destroyed beyond repair. Not that I had a lot of it to begin with.

I was lying on a bed in the infirmary. That boy, Galeotto, the upperclassman, he brought me there, hardly repressing a laugh. I almost felt like crying, truly. Thankfully, he left me there and the school nurse – whose name I didn't know unsurprisingly – took care of me and then, allowed me to lay on a bed until I felt better. I just needed to close behind me and give the keys to Miss Tru'nembra.

Well, it was a good occasion to do a bit of introspection. Taking time to think about myself, my failings, and why a vampire was sitting on my bed.

"*Sigh* Why are you here?" I said, sitting on the bed.

"I heard that you were hurt while trying to reach me. Naturally, I had to visit you."

The red-headed vampire girl – who incidentally didn't throw herself from the roof – sat on my bed before turning to me, her head supported by her hand.

"Now that I take a good look at you, I have to admit you are not bad-looking yourself, human," she said, her sharp green eyes scrutinizing my face, looking for something she didn't seem to find.

"... You are opening your eyes now?"

The red-headed vampire girl only shook her head as if to say that my question was irrelevant.

"First, I will apologize for what happened up until now," she said.

"You sure are apologizing a lot… Where is the catch?"

Again, she gently shook her head, "There is no trap to speak of. All I ask of you is to listen carefully to what I am about to say. Whether or not you believe me is…"

She stopped for a second and exhaled loudly.

"Excuse me," she said, shaking her head for the third time. "As I was saying, you will decide whether or not you believe me afterward."

"..."

I couldn't pinpoint exactly why, but all of this was extremely fishy to me.

As someone who grew up in a town near the ocean, I know from experience that there's no one more suspicious than a fish seller. They always have "fresh" fishes regardless of the moment yet those same fishes made us sick many times.

At that moment, Iovanna somehow made me feel the same way as they did. No. She was somewhat even more fishy even though she wasn't trying to sell me anything else than a story.

I started asking myself many questions. What was this truly about? Why did Iovanna truly come? I asked myself all these questions at once but no answer came to my mind. All I knew was that Iovanna suddenly became serious and looked me in the eyes.

Or was she?

The longer I looked at her, the more I felt like she wasn't staring at my face at all, but rather… at my neck.

"As I thought…" suddenly said Iovanna. "I do not smell many students on school grounds anymore. It seems we are alone."

Alone.

The fact that she mentioned that while staring intensely at my neck made me shiver. I got so used to vampires in the past weeks that I forgot one thing about them – they drink blood. Human blood. My blood.

Could it be that Iovanna did everything she did in order to suck me dry? She appeared at my door out of nowhere pretending to be the sister of the vampire I knew but how probable was that? They weren't from the same species and didn't have the same hair color. I am bad with faces, so maybe the fact that I found a few resemblances between them was just my imagination?

Wait, now that I think about it, didn't she use the rain as a way to make me take care of her? She could have forced me to invite her inside my house so that I could not escape her! Maybe she knew I was welcoming a vampire into my house every night? Maybe she watched us from afar and devised a plan in order to suck me dry whenever she wished?

She used my newfound nonchalance about vampires against me in order to trap me. Maybe she was the one who asked Io to come to the roof and gas me. I mean, the Io I knew would never get anywhere near a menacing group of upperclassmen unless forced by someone. Actually, why were those upperclassmen posted there? Was it on Iovanna's orders too? But of course! She called them and orchestrated all this scene to push me to act and asked Io to gas me! This way, she knew I would end up in the infirmary, without any protection!!!

It all made sense now! Iovanna, if that was even her name, aimed to kill me from the very beginning! But why wait until now? She could have sucked me dry that day after I saved her, why did she wait so long?

Maybe… maybe she wanted the other vampire out of the picture? Maybe she killed the vampire girl I knew! That… That was it! That was why she suddenly disappeared!!! She was killed by… Iovanna?!!

"Given your expression, I suppose you arrived at the 'logical' conclusion of your train of thought? Will you lend me your ear now?"

"..."

I stayed silent, not sure of how or even if I should have answered. Maybe it was another one of her traps and—

"My eyes induce fear into those who look at them."

Breaking my train of thought, Iovanna threw in some explosive pieces of information. Apparently, her eyes would cause anyone who looked at them to be struck with fear. But it made no sense – it wasn't as if I was looking at her eyes that much in the first place. For me, this was probably a bad attempt to make me drop my guard.

"... You do not believe me, do you? As expected you are—"

"First-year student Dawn Riftwalker! You are still at school, aren't you? Come to my office, now! Ah, and come with first-year student Iovanna Domenica Cassini A-Lua! I am waiting!"

"!"

Iovanna suddenly interrupted by an announcement of Miss Tru'nembra though rather than coming from the speakers, the sound came from under the bed.

"So, they can do things like that," I heard Iovanna say as she turned towards the door. "Do not worry, I am going first."

She opened the door and left the infirmary without even a single look back.

***

I didn't follow Iovanna out of the infirmary right away. I waited for a bit and then made my way as carefully as possible. I was convinced that she was waiting for me around a corner and that, as soon as she would see me, she would jump on my neck and suck me dry.

But if I was so afraid, why didn't I run away you might ask? Well, there were two reasons. Firstly, I knew she couldn't physically assault me at school unless under specific circumstances which meant the school was safer than the streets. Secondly, I felt a need to stop her, a need to put her down. It was a bit like having a big spider on your wall and not being able to make it run away – in such a case, you might prefer squashing it over running away yourself. It is a pretty loose example, but the idea is here: I wanted to take measures against her and I needed Miss Tru'nembra for that.

Surprisingly, Iovanna wasn't waiting for me anywhere. I reached the corridor safely and, for the second time of the day, I entered Miss Tru'nembra's Antechamber.

However, things were different this time.

Rather than having only one chair, the mostly empty room now had two. And sitting on one of them was a certain pale girl.

"It took you quite a while," she commented, her face slightly to me.

I froze for reasons I couldn't exactly pinpoint. My mind was screaming that this was dangerous and that I should leave. But as I tried to leave the room, I noticed that behind me was the exact same room I was trying to escape. That's when I remembered – there was no escape to the Antechamber.

"Now, now, first-year student Dawn Riftwalker. Calm down and take a seat. There's something I need to discuss with you," I heard Miss Tru'nembra say behind her door. "You remember, don't you? I said that you would receive a punishment for your absence last Friday. Well, I found the perfect one!"

Miss Tru'nembra seemed more composed now. Paradoxically, she seemed more coherent and reasonable when there were only a few students left at school, which is why this was often the moment she chose for her punishment – most likely, she would have called me if I already left for home.

That being said, I had a bad feeling about this. Calling me and Iovanna together and then saying she found the perfect punishment for me. This couldn't end well.

"What… do I have to do?" I dared ask nonetheless. Maybe she wasn't about to ask me to give Iovanna a tour of the school?

"Very well. I would like you to serve as first-year student Iovanna Domenica Cassini A-Lua's assistant for about a month."

She was.

"Huh, about that… She is trying to drink my blood."

"... Hm? Is that true, first-year student Iovanna?" Miss Tru'nembra asked after a short pause.

The red-headed girl shook her head in silence without even turning to me.

"See? You have nothing to worry about, first-year student Dawn Riftwalker."

What was I supposed to see?

"Excuse me, but this girl is stalking me. I met her a few days ago as she pretended to be the sister of one of my friends. She was… hurt by the bullet rain so I helped her but then, she started saying things about me being her husband and whatnot. After that day, I never saw my friend again and today she transferred here to follow me. Listen, I am not sure whether or not she is a murderer, but she definitely isn't right in the head! You know about it right? She went on the roof this afternoon and feigned suicide just so I would feel bad and try to save her! Then—"

"About that, the vice-dean was the one who asked her to do it."

"Eh…?"

"I think it is about time we cleared that misunderstanding," Iovanna said getting up. "That is what I tried to explain to you earlier."

She turned to me.

"I am one of this school's field-on-examinators or FOE. An employee of a sort."

"Eh…???"