Weiss's eyes flicked open. She could only see white.
She vaulted up to see her friends around her, and Ozpin.
"You're awake!" Yang exclaimed, her face lighting up.
"Lay down please, Miss Schnee. You were found badly wounded on Beacon's steps. Your throat was nearly torn out," Ozpin remarked.
"Um, Headmaster.. I've seen the Vampire," Weiss said, her head bowed.
The eyes of her teammates widened. There were a thousand questions launched in her direction that died as soon as Ozpin held up his hand.
"We found one other thing."
Ozpin snapped his fingers and pulled up a hologram. The first image, very faint, was a picture of Weiss's parents.
"We ran tests. Your blood doesn't run Schnee anymore. Your Semblance has vanished, replaced by a new one."
The second picture that flashed up on screen was a man looking to be in his twenties.
Alex Kralie, the Vampire of Emerald Forest.
Weiss said nothing, her eyes welling with tears. She remembered how that very monster had torn her neck open and fed her his blood. "He's.. he's the Vampire."
Alex Kralie stalked the woods, lost in a flight of fancy. He'd found Tim Wright.
Looks like Tim had found friends, friends that were just as infected as him.
He wanted to slaughter all of those so-called friends, one by one, watch Tim break. And then, at last, the sick could stay together.
The thought gave him such lust and joy both. A fanged smirk split his face in two as he began to laugh - he was lost in it, lost in the delirium of crazed laughter.
But this Caught - ohhh, he'd make sure that Caught was saved for last, that Caught would die right in front of Tim.
Now that would break him. It only made him laugh even more.
Tim Wright, as Caught and the other 'friends' would soon learn, was his and his alone.
Meanwhile, Noah had convened a meeting in the dorm.
Tim explained it all - the murder urges, the bestial impulses that were slowly taking him over.
Noah and Evan nodded. "We can relate," they said in unison.
Caught put a hand on Tim's shoulder. Tim seemed to be calmed by this action."We'll help you through this, all of us. We're always here to talk if it gets worse, fuck, we'll even have more cookouts if it gets to the tipping point," Caught reassured.
Tim smiled genuinely, for the first time in a long while. "Thank you. I'm glad that I have such good friends."
"Awwwww, fuck, now we have to do a group hug!" Noah exclaimed, pulling all of his friends into the group hug they'd been waiting for.
Author's Note: Reviews encourage me to write! This is gonna go off the rails soon, my friends, strap in. It's gonna be a ride.