Ingrid watched as her father poured more blood on the scroll to reveal the next Grand High Vampire. Odd that she'd experienced it twice within the same hour.
Chieftain McDonald had been chosen previously, a petty excuse of a vampire if you asked Ingrid. But rather fittingly, as soon as the crown of power had touched his head, he'd disintegrated before her very eyes. The weak idiot. Of course if she was chosen, she'd never disintegrate.
"Jiang Shi" The Count declared.
The vampire sped to the front and knelt before the Count.
"Keen, I like it. Do you solemnly swea- ugh" The Count cut himself short as Jiang Shi nodded eagerly, realizing he'd already asked McDonald the same set of questions.
He placed the crown on the vampiress' head, only for her to disintegrate as well with a powerful blast of light emerging from the crown and her body. The castle hall was in shock.
Whispers arose amongst the vampires, concerning a prophecy about 'The Chosen One'. A vampire of immense power that would one day lead vampires everywhere to glory. A kids' bedtime story in Ingrid's opinion, but it slowly became apparent that it might not just be a silly story.
"We'll try this once more."
The Count tapped the bottom of the vial containing the blood for the third time. The red liquid dribbled onto the scroll, and swirled around scribing an unfamiliar name. However, the Count recognised it. Well, only the surname, not that Ingrid would know that.
The Count declared the third name that night. He announced evidently nervous and confused that the next Grand High Vampire would be...
———
"Adam Giles. He said his name was Adam Giles dad! That can't be possible! He's a breather! He's going to a breather school!"
Ingrid couldn't quite believe it. A name of a breather had appeared on the blood scrolls three years ago. That hadn't happened since... Since EVER! It didn't help that her father wouldn't say a word.
"It can't be..." The count finally uttered, but he didn't seem to be talking about the blood scrolls. Not that Ingrid picked up on that.
"I'm pretty sure it can, because it just happened. I met him. He was by the blood mirror."
The count stared into the dark void underneath the dining table as his daughter paraded around the room, questioning him on what he knew of the blood scrolls and how this could happen. But he knew what was happening. What had happened in Whitby all those years ago.
"Did he say or do anything to the mirror?"
"Well he wasn't thrown across the basement like Erin was when she ended up next to it. But I didn't hear anything either. Guess the guardians didn't see him as a threat."
"Interesting."
He didn't think it was appropriate given the situation, but the count couldn't help but smile. After centuries upon centuries of waiting. An eternity even.
He finally had a son.
———
Adam had been sitting in the corridor, watching raindrops fall on the window for quarter of an hour when the bell rang. A dozen year sevens rushed past him, some students in his year, but in a different registration class came out of a French lesson looking bored as ever. The corridor had gone from deserted to packed in a span of a few minutes, and the noise was louder than Adam remembered it to be. Realizing he probably looked a bit weird sat on the floor, Adam picked himself up along with his bag and made his way to maths class with the dreaded Mr. Anderson.
He was a lanky man, Mr. Anderson. Always wore the same three shirts to school. Adam was pretty sure the only characteristic the man had was the fact that he taught maths, but he could barely do that either.
The bell rang again and the crowd that had formed outside the maths classroom filed in. Adam went to sit in his designated seat that was unsurprisingly in the back and took out his unfinished homework and maths book. The whole class erupted into conversation as the students waited for Mr. Anderson to give the class some kind of explanation on what to do.
Of course, the only explanation the class got was to start working on problem 23 on page 6.
Naturally, Adam didn't start working on the problem. Instead, his mind had trailed off to the series of abnormal occurrences that had happened in the last few days. The mirror, the voices. The unexplainable hunger, and disgust at the sight of food.
There was something clearly wrong with him. That became even more apparent when he caught a glimpse of Becky and Erin walking into the lesson late with a few other girls. Or more specifically, their necks.
His stomach started begging him for food. The damn hunger again! Everything was repeating itself. Adam would feel better if there was just an explanation, no matter how stupid or unbelievable it was. But of course, there wasn't!
He just wanted to go home, watch a film, eat popcorn even! Not that he could stomach it right now, but... He just wanted this to be over. Stop having freakish things happen to him. To be norm-
"A- Ow..!" He grunted out of pain as quietly as he could whilst a sharp pain penetrated his mouth. Adam's hands shot up to cover it as his classmates turned to look at him, forgetting the scene Mr. Anderson had created with the group of girls that were late.
Everyone looked horrified.
Dark red blood started to splatter on the floor as it dripped out of Adam's mouth. His gums were in agony. It was as if something was tearing its way out of his skull, and pushing out his teeth.
"Uh, sir? Adam's bleeding! Like, a lot..." The girl that was sitting in front of Adam yelled at the preoccupied teacher.
Mr. Anderson finally decided to wrap up lecturing Erin, Becky and the others on the importance of mathematics, and got up from his desk. He pushed his way through the students who'd gathered around Adam, only to be horrified by the sight in front of him.
The poor man's heart must've stopped at the sight of the blood on the floor that was closer to black than it was red.
"Go to the school office Adam, a- and take your bag with you. Get yourself cleaned up. Ugh, disgusting!"
Adam did as he was told without hesitation. He took his bag with him out of the classroom and thankfully escaped his classmates and the embarrassment, but he didn't go to the school office.
He walked haphazardly into the boys toilets, trying to sling his bag back on his shoulders whilst grabbing a dozen paper towels out of the dispenser. Adam turned on the water and cleaned all the blood off of his face and attempted to clean off his clothes to an extent. He didn't even try to look in a mirror. He didn't want to see the blood all over him. He must look as if he'd killed somebody.
Confident that he could hide the rest of the blood stains with a black hoodie he kept in his bag, Adam tried to figure out what to do next. He didn't want to go to the office. They would call his mother, and she would get all worked up about him. Worried that there was something severely wrong. Of course there was, but Adam didn't want to make a fuss.
He could always go home. After all, it was the last lesson, and it wasn't like he wanted to go back to the classroom he bleeded all over. But then again he could always go and explore that creepy basement.
He knew it was wrong, but he felt like he should. It was intriguing. The place was weird. Cool weird. But the girl he'd met earlier would probably call the police if he went down there again.
Home would have to do.
———
"So you're telling me that- that this Adam is my brother?!"
Maybe telling Ingrid about his situation was a little dim of the Count, but what more could he do? It wasn't as if he could just tell the boy himself that he was possibly his son!
"Ingrid, do be quiet. And no, it's a maybe."
"So the person that was chosen to be the next grand high vampire is a dimidius?! You're a father of a dimidius?! He is that dimidius?! My supposed brother is a dimidius?!"
"Ingrid..."
———
As Adam walked up his house's drive way, he fumbled around in his pockets and found the spare keys he'd picked up that morning. He opened the door, expecting an empty house. What he didn't expect was his mother unpacking a box of balloons, and his stepfather putting a chocolate cake in a mini fridge Adam didn't know they had.
"Adam!" Sally announced so her husband would also know that Adam had arrived home early. "I did say four didn't I?"
"Before you say anything else, I was let out early. And no, you said 'by four'." Adam said as he awkwardly tried to cover the blood on his tie, zipping the hoodie all the way up. However, his attempts failed since his mother had already spotted the blood.
"Adam, what happened?" She asked as her eyes widened in shock.
"Uh, nose bleed." Adam lied again as he struggled to keep his mother from opening his hoodie which he also failed at. "Big nose bleed."
She stared at the massive blood stain that was slightly faded on Adam's chest, aghast. Adam zipped the hoodie back up as quickly as he could.
"I tried to wash it out..?"
"Look, just put everything that has blood on it in the washing basket. Whoever does the laundry next can take it from there." Sally tried to say comfortingly, since both Adam and her were quite clearly shaken.
"Alright, and balloons, really?" Adam joked light heatedly, trying to steer the conversation away from the blood on his shirt.
"It was meant to be a surprise, but you'll like the chocolate cake, won't you?" Sally joked light heartedly, also trying to steer the conversation away from Adam complaining about being too old.
"Uh, yeah. I'm sure I will like it. hopefully."
Adam rushed to his room to take off the bloody uniform and change into his pajamas. Then, he rushed down stairs, clothes in hand, ready to go into the laundry.