Chapter 9:
As I entered the Academy, I saw chaos before my eyes. Students were everywhere, screaming, and shouting, worried. Some were crying in the corner, others were running around looking for something. What is going on? I saw Stacey across the packed corridor. As soon as she saw me, she came rushing to my side, a look of fear and concern on her face. "Are you ok? Where were you? I was so worried!" she demanded. I tried to calm her down.
"Stacey, I was at work. I was fine. I always come back at this time, remember?" I could see her slowly calming down. "What's going on here anyways?"
A frightened look came upon her face and biting her lips anxiously, she whispered, "There has been a murder."
A cold chill swept through me. "A – a murder? But how? Who? Why?"
"A student was killed. No one knows who or what or how. She was found by James as he was cleaning a classroom. It was one of the seniors, the one in the class of fledglings getting ready for their upcoming initiation. I think her name was Samantha Wright? How she died, no one knows. But it was no ordinary murder. James said that…" here Stacey hesitated. I prodded her on.
"What did he say, Stacey? How did she die?"
"When – when James found her body, he said that she was pale. Pale as if there was no blood in her. And when Gloria came to inspect the body, she found that…that Samantha had been drained of blood!" Stacey burst, crying heavily.
I hugged her, still in shock of the news I was hearing. Someone had DIED. And their blood had been DRAINED. What was going on?!
Then, suddenly, I felt someone's gaze on me. I turned to look and just caught a glimpse of someone – someone with glowing red eyes and protruding fangs. Just as I leaned in to take a closer look, they disappeared. Before I could mention what I saw to Stacey, I saw Gloria appear at the far end of the corridor. A hush fell over the crowd.
"Today, I am sorry to announce that Samantha Wright has died a most unfortunate death. She will be missed terribly. We are still looking into the details of what happened. Until then, I suggest that NO ONE leave the Academy for their own safety." Gloria looked at the crowd before walking away to the office.
Slowly, everyone started heading towards their dorms, stunned and melancholy by the turn of events.
I was still thinking of the strange person staring at me. There was something recognizable about that face. Though I barely had any time to see it clearly, it looked familiar.
Just before I fell asleep, I suddenly remembered who it looked like: it looked like the fledgling I had initiated.
"So you're saying that the fledgling you saw getting initiated was the same one staring at you?" Stacey asked me incredulously, as she got herself ready for dinner.
"Yeah. No mistake about it, it was him."
"Well, from what you were describing, he shows the signs of bloodlust. Which is very unusual." Stacey frowned.
"Why?" I asked curiously.
Stacey reached over to her bag and pulled out her textbook, flipping until she reached a certain page.
"When a fledgling is initiated, all bloodlust signs disappear and they will learn how to feed themselves and take care of themselves. It's almost like the fledgling's brain acquires all this new information right away on how to survive while being discreet. As you know, vampires have stopped feeding on humans and now only feed on animals." I nodded. Rick had made me read that section in the textbook. The last high priestess – meaning, my mother – had deemed it cruel and unnecessary to take the life of mortals and had suggested an alternative, using animals. Ever since then, vampires no longer fed on humans. Even though human blood made a vampire even more powerful than if they were drinking animal blood, the high priestess felt that they didn't need the extra power. The only way to become completely powerful would be to drink the blood of a vampire. But in the book of Ignox, any vampire that did such a deed would be condemned to a merciless fate with a tarnished soul – in short, their soul would burn and they would never find peace.
"Anyways," Stacey continued, "if a fledgling has bloodlust, that means that their initiation wasn't right and that their souls have become corrupted. In that case, they would not be able to follow the ways of Ignox and would continue to ruin themselves until a high vampire priestess comes and undoes the ritual."
I sat down on my bed. Things were starting to make sense. That would explain the bad feeling during the ritual. And maybe, this might give an explanation for Samantha's murder, too.
I quickly explained my thoughts to Stacey.
"I have to find Gloria. If I tell her then she can fix this problem. Stacey, will you help me find her?" I gushed excitedly.
We started searching together before Stacey proposed that we split up. "Whoever finds her first, calls the other. I'll try and get the others to help out, too."
I took off searching but to no avail. I had never ventured so far in the school and I was afraid that I might get lost. I stuck to one path the whole time, just following my gut instinct. The path led me to an indoor garden, one filled with beautiful, exotic flowers, reminding me of the garden my mother used to tend.
"Arisa, flowers need to be taken care of really well. They need food, water, sunlight, soil. But most of all, they need love and care. One day, you'll take care of this garden for me and you have to promise to show the flowers lots of love, ok?" 5- year old me beamed, "Yes, mommy, I promise!" I ran between the flowers, smelling their delightful scent, looking at all the beautiful array of colours while my mother smiled at me and continued planting.
I shook my head to rid myself of the memory and concentrate on what I had set out to do. As I kept moving through the garden, I came to a hedge. Just before I went around it, I heard a voice – Gloria's voice. I opened my mouth to make my presence known but then I heard another voice – a young boy's. Curious, I stayed where I was and listened in.
"You did a good kill but you needn't have placed the body in the classroom. Next time, do only as I ask you, not more, not less. Until I ask for you again, I do not want to see your face. Now that that stupid girl has gotten used to this place, we need to be more careful. Soon, it will be time for you and the others like you to take her."
"Why can't we just take her now?" the boy's voice whined. I looked through a small peephole in the hedge and gasped. The boy was the fledgling from the initiation. He looked even more ghastly in the sunlight now than he had during the ritual. His features seemed to have become warped and left to rot on his face. And the stench emanating from him was enough to make you barf!
"You idiot! The others are not stupid. Surely they will know what is going on if they find out that their future high priestess is dead! Now, get lost, you scum." And with a disgusted sigh, Gloria turned so that she was facing the hedge. The look of pure hatred and cruelty portrayed on her face made me cringe in fear. The fledgling took off in a blur and Gloria turned around and walked back into the Academy.
I slumped to the ground. With trembling hands, I pulled out my cell phone. "Stacey? I – I think you need to come here right now." I stuttered out.
Things had just gone from bad to worse.