Note that this entire story has been rewritten, and the previous chapters have been removed. This story will be on both and Archive of Our Own (please see my profile for the link to my AO3 profile, where you will find several stories, some of which are exclusive to that site).
In biology class, we were learning about something called the Change. They did not teach about anything like that in middle school, but apparently it was a major part of the curriculum in high schools, especially exclusive ones like this. I had tried to look up information about it in the library, but apparently either all of the books about it were checked out, or the school had no books about it whatsoever. It didn't help that I had somehow caught a really bad cold; I had thought about going home, but Kyoya would probably just add onto my debt. Besides, the nurse may not even send me home; I wasn't feverish, and I would probably be accused of faking sick to get out of schoolwork.
I had tried to ask some of the other members of the Host Club, and even some of my clients, about it, about the Change, but whenever I brought it up they would either make up an excuse to leave (Kaoru), ignore the question completely (Hikaru, Mori, and most of my customers), or apparently know nothing more about it than I did even though they were older than me (Hunny and some of the customers).
Finally, I asked Tamaki (if he didn't answer my question, I'd have to go to Kyoya, which I was kind of nervous about). He looked very sad for a moment before answering, "The Change is what some people go through, usually during adolescence but occasionally later on, that changes them into a vampyre."
I blinked a couple of times. "Um … Tamaki, you do realize that there are no such things as vampires, don't you?"
Tamaki pursed his lips. "Tell that to my mother. Just before I came here to Japan, my mother was Marked as a vampyre fledgling and was sent away to the House of Night in Paris. I couldn't stay with her at the school because I was, and still am, a normal human, so the high priestess there called my father and told him to take me in, even though I am illegitimate. This is why I am stowed away at the second house, all alone, and that is why my grandmother hates me."
A teacup crashed to the ground; apparently, even though club services had already ended for the day, someone had been drinking tea and had dropped their cup. We both looked up to see Hikaru, with an unreadable expression on his face. Suddenly it twisted into something ugly, and he got up and ran out of the room.
"Hikaru!" we all (except for Mori and Kyoya) called after him, but he wouldn't listen to us. Kaoru looked nervously from me to Tamaki and apologized for his brother's behavior before running after him.
Hunny piped up from where he was sitting with his cake. "Tama-chan, your mother's a vampire?! That's kind of scary. Is she nice? Does she like cake? Can she come visit you? Are you gonna live with her?"
Tamaki smiled at Hunny's childlike innocence. "My mother is still a fledgling. If she completes the Change, she will be able to come to Japan to live with me and my father and Antoinette. She is very nice, yes, and she loves cake. She could, theoretically, come visit me, but I don't think my grandmother would like that very much… It's safer for her to stay where she is, at least until she's completed the Change."
I was somewhat confused. You keep saying 'if she completes the Change'. If she's already 4 years into it, wouldn't she be almost guaranteed to complete it?"
Tamaki shook his head. "Sometimes fledglings die days before they would have completed the Change. She still has a few months left, but she's very close. She can barely go out during the daytime, and she must be very careful about drinking blood – "
Hunny gasped. "I don't like blood. It's mean to drink blood."
Tamaki glared at the older Host Club member. "Yes, Hunny, but without blood vampyres will weaken and eventually die. As I was saying, if she drinks blood from a person she had a connection to before she Changed, the human could Imprint on her. That means that the person would be unable to eat or sleep without her. It can be quite debilitating. However, two Imprints cannot be sustained at the same time; losing an Imprint can kill you, and the ways to break an Imprint, especially if it's a particularly strong one, are extremely painful."
I gulped. "H-how do you know so much about vampyres, Tamaki? I mean, I know it's taught here at school, and I know your mom's a fledging and everything, but there's hardly any information about it at all in the library, and the textbook only mentions the basics of the physiology of vampyres and the Change itself."
Tamaki smiled sadly again. "Around the same time that my mother was Marked, my cousin in Oklahoma was Marked, too. The two of us more or less grew up together, and we kept in touch after she went to the House of Night in Tulsa – that's a city in Oklahoma. She's a sixth former – that's what they call students in their final year, and you remain at the school from the time you are Marked until you become a vampyre. Many actors, authors, and other celebrities are vampyres; it's not as uncommon a condition as some people would like to believe."
I nodded. "I think I know what you're saying. Like, some people just can't handle when people aren't exactly like them."
Tamaki smiled. "Exactly. One group that's particularly prominent in the United States is the People of Faith, a Christian church that is firmly against vampyres, thinking that they're soulless and evil creatures, but it's not true at all.
Suddenly, a man with a dark blue crescent-moon on his forehead walked into the room. He looked from one of us to another; Hunny looked really nervous, and Mori pulled his smaller cousin closer to him. Kyoya even looked up from his clipboard, pursing his lips at the sudden silence; Tamaki had his mouth set as if daring the man to come closer. Finally, he walked forward, towards me and Tamaki.
I looked nervously up at Tamaki, but the man's next words threw me off. "Haruhi Fujioka, Night has chosen thee; thy death will be thy birth. Night calls to thee; hearken to Her sweet voice. Your destiny awaits you at the House of Night." Just as quickly as he had appeared, he was gone.
I had a sudden, sharp pain in my forehead. I gasped in pain and brought a hand up to it. When the pain had subsided somewhat, I looked up to see the other hosts staring at me, especially Hunny. I blinked a couple times. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Tamaki stepped forward. "You've been Marked, Haruhi. This means that you have to leave Ouran Academy and go to one of the Houses of Night." Apparently changing topic, he continued, "My cousin Aphrodite is really quite kind, at least to family members, and I can't help feeling sorry for her – her roommate, Venus, just died, and her parents, my aunt and uncle, disapproved of her being Marked."
I blinked. "Wait – your cousin's name is Aphrodite?"
Tamaki smiled slightly. "Yeah. One of the things that usually happens when you get Marked is you become legally emancipated and you can change your name to whatever you'd like. She changed her name to Aphrodite, but she kept her former last name. I'm actually pretty worried about her; she's changed since she became leader of the Dark Daughters at her school and started hanging out with those new friends of hers. Their names are Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo."
I really wasn't sure what to do with all of this new information. "Um, that's great, but why are you telling me all this?"
Tamaki blinked a couple times. "Isn't it obvious? I would feel much better about you leaving if it was to the same House of Night as my favorite cousin. She's a sixth-former, but she'll look out for you. I'll even be able to see you on Family Nights – she always invites me, and I go whenever I can. If we speak to Neferet, you may even get to be her roommate, though it would be weird for a third-former to room with a sixth-former…"
Ooh, cliffhanger. Anywho, next chapter Haruhi will head off to the House of Night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As always, please review to let me know how I did with the rewrite.