By the time Shiki arrived at his next class, he was a nervous wreck. Had he actually just killed a fellow student? There hadn't been any blood on the ground when he sliced the poor student to pieces. Did that mean he had hallucinated it all? He had never hallucinated before, but there was a first time for everything. Some time during class he surreptitiously snuck his knife out of his pocket and inspected it for blood. There was none.
Somehow, that scared Shiki more than any bloodied blade could have.
If you sliced a human being into pieces, shouldn't there be lots of blood?
If he wasn't hallucinating, what did that mean? For that matter, if he was hallucinating, what did that mean? The two thoughts chased each other around Shiki's head, and by the time lunch rolled around, he was no closer to coming to a conclusion.
Shiki stood in line, picked up his lunch, and paid the lunch lady. As he stood at the register, looking around, he noticed a group of unnaturally pale-skinned students at one table. The males had toned bodies, the females had perfect curves, and every single one of them had attractive features.
Upon seeing them, Shiki's pulse began to race. Again, the bloodlust emerged. "Kill them. I will kill them all. Die. DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE."
They were all the way on the far side of the cafeteria from Shiki, but one of them quickly looked up at Shiki with alarm in her eyes. Shiki recognized this, viewing it as nothing more than the split-second of surprise on a predator's face when a helpless meal turns out to be a terrible threat. Walking towards the table, Shiki raised his hand to take off his glasses.
"Hey! Don't forget your food!"
Startled, Shiki turned around. He had accidentally left his tray of food on the checkout counter.
Shiki turned back to the table with the unnatural beauties, but they had somehow disappeared in the few seconds he had his back turned. That, or they had never been there in the first place.
Disoriented, Shiki took his tray and slowly walked to the table they had been sitting at.
He put two fingers on the seat one of them had been using.
Cold. Nobody had been sitting there recently.
His head spinning, Shiki sat down and started eating.