Chapter Text
Kay, August 16th
“Vampires. The Unholy, undead, creatures of the night, the charming blood drinkers of twilight, all of these, and more. These beings are thought to have been created when a man wanted immortality and made a deal with the devil. In turn, the devil granted the man this wish but cursed him to never be able to eat or drink anything except for human blood. The devil, still not fully satisfied with the punishment, also cursed the man to never be able to set foot in the light of the sun ever again.
In all actuality, none of this information is properly grounded in reality. In a world where the supernatural has been proven to exist with governments going as far as to put laws and regulations to protect these people and creatures, there is surprisingly little education on vampires and their kin. In this chapter, we will be going over the basics of the history, physiology, and culture that we know of vampires up to this point.”
Thoroughly bored, as I already knew the contents of the chapter by heart, I closed the textbook for my supernatural studies class. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the class, it was just that I had been researching vampires since I was 7 years old.
“Kay Mitchell, could you please come up here.”
I turned my head towards whoever was speaking to find that the professor, her name was Mrs. Taylor, was beckoning me to the front of the room. I obliged, of course, and made my way to the front, bowing once I had arrived.
Once I had stood back up, the professor turned to the class again. “Miss Mitchell here is the daughter of the founder of the Vampiric Research Foundation, Mrs. Vivian Mitchell. Once we get to our unit on vampires, I plan to have Kay help me in teaching you all about them.”
When she said that I was the daughter of Vivian Mitchell, whispers started going around the lecture hall. Truth be told, my mother was a rather influential person here in Hillside as she had a rather impressive list of accomplishments, with her founding of the Vampiric Research Foundation just being one of many on that list.
I then headed back to my seat as Mrs. Taylor quieted the class down.
“I understand that Mrs. Vivian Mitchell’s very own daughter being in this class is a big deal, but that is no excuse to talk during class.”
This finally got the class to quiet down so the professor could get her parting words in.
“I hope that you all will have an enjoyable time in my class. With that, class is dismissed.”
The students all got up to go to their next destinations, chatting as they did so. It was quite loud which made my head hurt the smallest amount. Not wanting to deal with people, I got ready to leave for my college club when Mrs. Taylor came up to me.
“Kay, it is okay if you help with that unit, right? I want to make sure that I can actually get your cooperation before I go ahead and do anything.”
“Hmm? Oh, yes. It is quite alright if I help you teach the unit on vampires. But, I will say, shouldn’t you have asked me about this before going ahead and declaring your intentions to the class? That seems rather irresponsible as a professor.” The fact that I was reprimanding Mrs. Taylor was proof enough that her actions were not well thought out.
“Hehe, I guess you’re right. Sorry for not asking earlier.” The professor of all people was wearing a cheeky smile as she said that.
“Just be glad that I’m agreeing to your suggestion.” Since we were in the middle of a conversation, I figured I’d move on to a different topic since I didn’t have any more classes that day. “Mrs. Taylor, you said that this was your first year teaching college, right?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“In that case, what made you want to teach college? And why Fundamental Supernatural Studies of all classes?”
We sat there in silence for a bit as Mrs. Taylor tilted her head and thought. “Well, I’ve actually always wanted to teach college, and I was once a high school teacher, but I eventually started working as a research assistant to the Culture Wing of the VRF because the pay was better. However, during the summer, I was told that Plainsland needed a professor for Fundamental Supernatural Studies, and so I resigned from there and started here.” Once she finished saying that, she finally stood up. “I would love to talk more, but I have a class to get ready for. Thank you for agreeing to my idea, Kay.”
“Thank you for giving me the chance.” I stood up and left the lecture hall, heading to the room where the club signed up for would be taking place. Today was just an introductory day for it, so I didn’t have to rush.
“Greetings my fellow club members, my name is Kay Mitchell. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”
As I bowed, the four other people in the room applauded my introduction. It was rather short, but it got the job done. Satisfied, I headed to take a seat. With the room we were in being rather miniscule, my choices were quite limited. As such, I took a seat near the back so I could take measure of my fellow club members.
The Supernatural Research Club that I was a part of was an organization that was founded to…well, research the supernatural in their off time. In all reality though, it was closer to the student specter complaint department as one of the jobs the club undertook was to allow students to file complaints on low level supernatural activity so that we could deal with it accordingly.
One thing that separated our club from other Supernatural enthusiast clubs was location. The town of Hillside was a haven for all manner of supernatural entities. There were quite a few different species and people that you could find here, but really, only two stood out with quantities, and one of the more numerous ones were ghosts.
Ghosts, or more often referred to as Specters, were almost exactly like the legends. They were the souls of the dead tethered to the mortal plane due to something that they held onto. Usually, it was some regret, other times it was that they were waiting for another to pass on to join them. Specters were usually harmless, but possession was possible, albeit rare. More often than not, the kinds of complaints the club was given were about specters, other minor supernatural entities, or some baseless rumor that could easily be proven to be foolish.
By far the most numerous supernatural residents that joined us here in the city of Hillside were vampires. Vampires, as the name suggested, drank blood. However, there were a lot of intricacies regarding these fanged residents that most people didn’t know about, and that is why I planned to research them. Sadly, the foundations of my work were already done for me since the VRF had been researching vampires for almost 17 years with my mother researching them for even longer. As such, I was mostly stuck with reading for my research, which could prove to be rather monotonous.
As I sat there contemplating the plight of my rather mundane research, the next person got up to give their introduction. She was a girl that looked to be just barely shorter than me, wore a cream colored blouse paired with a light blue, ankle length skirt, and she walked with a certain grace that only practice could achieve. Perhaps she was taking ballroom classes?
Stopping in the front she bowed. “Hello, my name is Rose Thorn. It is a pleasure to meet you.” She then bowed again after concluding her introduction. She seemed to be rather polite which apparently intrigued me as I tried to memorize every little detail of her exterior.
Rose Thorn was, as I had previously mentioned, just barely shorter than me by about three to four inches. She had light brown hair that was cut slightly longer than shoulder length and kept in a wavy style that was parted down one side and pushed out of her face behind the ear on the other, her skin was almost abnormally pale, but I figured it might just be a family thing, and her face was… I guess most would call it a cute face, but I wasn’t one for that sort of thing. She had a smaller nose with the proportions of her face complementing her in every way, but one thing was off. On her face sat a pair of round, violet tinted sunglasses that blocked her brown colored eyes. She looked conventionally cute in almost every way, but those ‘shades’ ruined her entire look. If even I could see that, then it was a problem.
Being the last one to give an introduction, she went back to her seat as another person stood up. I was still in awe about how sunglasses could completely ruin how a person looked when our club president, Robert Johnson was his name, started speaking.
“Thank you all for coming. I hope we can have a great year as a club. I will talk to each of you directly about goals and such, so feel free to do whatever while you’re waiting.” With that he sat down next to one of the last members of the club. She had black hair with a pink streak in it and was wearing a t-shirt with a pair of jeans. Her name was Coral Mason and she was on the chubbier side, wore a face mask, and had said something about using ‘they/them pronouns’, but I honestly wasn’t sure what that was all about. After all, they and them were only used for groups of people, right?
Robert was the founder and president of the Supernatural Research Club, having founded the organization during his Freshman year of college. He was a bit taller than the average person with brown skin and short, curly hair. He was also in the tennis club for the school, so he was wearing one of their shirts with a pair of jeans.
As I observed the two conversing, I felt a pair of eyes on me. Turning to where I felt the look coming from, I saw Rose staring at me. I briefly met her eyes behind her sunglasses causing her to turn away and work on homework. What a strange girl, first she was so polite, but now she was just staring at me? And on top of that, she couldn’t hold my gaze longer than I could hold hers. I believe that was the first staring contest I had ever won.
While I was still thinking, Robert walked up and sat at the desk next to mine. “So, you’re Kay? Nice to meet you.”
It must have been my turn to talk with him. “It’s nice to meet you too, Robert.”
“So, what made you want to join the club, is what I would ask if I hadn’t heard about your mom being The Vivian Mitchell. I assume that you’re planning to possibly take over as head of the VRF one day?” He leaned his elbows on his knees, setting his head in his hands.
“That is a possibility, yes, but I prefer to do things on my own.” I didn’t really want to tell him that I wasn’t a fan of paperwork.
He raised his eyebrows. “Well, then you’ve come to the perfect place. As a club, we believe in individual commitment, so we actually prefer for people to go and do their own thing.”
I did a long nod as if bowing with only my head. “I appreciate that.” I looked back into his dark brown eyes for a brief moment before having to look at his nose and just keep him in my peripheral vision. I really wasn’t the best at making eye contact. “May I ask what is on the agenda for this year?”
He leaned back in his chair. “Oh, not much. What we have planned is a year-long research project, although I can already guess what yours is going to be on, and a ghost hunt in March. We’re going to be asking other students if they want to join us for that one.” He looked back at me. “For the research project, we’re going to choose who had the best one and then have a special after school presentation where that person gets to present to a larger group of students. I have no doubt that yours will win, but I expect an academic level presentation.” He winked at me as he said that. “Anyway, enough of that boring stuff. I want to know a bit about you since you’re new to the school. You’re in your second year, right?”
I gave a curt nod, not wanting to take too long answering the question by speaking.
“So, what are you planning to major in?”
One of the nice things about this school was that one of the degrees they offered was in, “Supernatural Studies with a focus on anthropology. I also plan to minor in German.”
“I should have guessed your major, but German is unexpected. Well, we probably won’t see each other very often anyway since I’m majoring in Sports Training.”
We went silent for a bit after that, so I turned to the chapter that I was reading in my textbook believing the conversation to be over.
“Hmm.” Robert stood up and walked over to Rose to talk to her next.
I finished up the last few problems that I had left on my assignment and decided to watch the conversation as I had nothing else to do. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and talked for quite a while. At some point, Rose turned to look at me and I met her with a steady gaze. This caused her to turn back quickly. I may not quite understand why she kept looking at me, but thank goodness I didn’t have to look into her eyes for too long. I was not a fan of that weird feeling I get in my stomach when I do that.
Suddenly, someone next to me started speaking in a slow, singsong voice, as if they were falling asleep. “Hmm, I think she’s blushing.” Not startled, I turned to see that there was a girl with long black hair that flowed behind her seat and sky blue eyes that was sitting next to me. When did she get there? “Tell me, what do you think of Rose, Kay?”
I was unsure as to why she was asking me, but I found I had an answer prepared in my mind. “She’s quite peculiar. She speaks almost too politely, she wears sunglasses indoors despite the fact that they completely ruin her ensemble, she’s rather pale, and she moves with grace. I just can’t put my finger on it, but she somehow intrigues me.” I looked back to Robert and Rose’s conversation.
“Hmm, I think she's rather cute, but I feel she's hiding something, but then again, aren’t we all?” The girl I was talking to was Chloe Baumgartner, my neighbor, or at least she was at one point. Despite the fact that she had lived right next to me, she actually moved into the college dorms at the start of her freshman year. “So, did you say you were researching vampires, Kay? Could I become your assistant at all?”
Did I say that? And an assistant? I didn't really need one, but having a helper didn't sound too bad, especially since I needed someone to do the paperwork for me if I was ever to get really serious. “What do you know about vampires?”
Chloe slowly looked off into the ceiling before finally answering. “Well, they drink blood, they burn in sunlight, they're immortal, and they hate garlic and religious symbols.”
It looked like it was time for a lesson, so I pulled my notebook of mine and my mother's research along with my textbook for my Fundamental Supernatural Studies class. “Well, not quite. You got the blood drinking right, but even that's a debatable subject. So, let's start at the beginning: Vampires are humans that just happen to need to drink blood for whatever reason, we still don’t have a proper understanding of why. They aren't immortal, they don't hate religious symbols or garlic just because they are vampires, and they don't burn in sunlight. However, most vampires do get sunburned more easily than other people, so there is that.”
Chloe seemed intrigued by this conversation. “What did you mean by blood drinking being a debatable subject? I'm curious about that.”
“Well what I mean by that is vampires actually usually only drink animal blood and you may have noticed that convenience and grocery stores here actually carry blood bags. But, it has been noted that they only do this until at a certain point where they just stop. There are theories as to why this is, with one being that they only need blood while they are growing, but my personal theory has something to do with marriage for vampires.”
While absorbing this information, Chloe nodded slowly. “I see. So how do you find a vampire? Is there a specific way?”
I turned through the notebook. “There is. The easiest way to tell if someone is a vampire is by their eyes. A vampire will have red irises while an Imisiy, a half human half vampire, will have purple ones.”
“Oh, so all of those people I see in school and in the city with red eyes are actually vampires? Aren't they worried about vampire hunters?”
Ah yes, vampire hunters. “Vampire hunting is actually illegal in most countries, including here, so there are actually policies in place to protect them. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention, vampires usually look identical to one of their parents, so that's where the immortality myth came from.”
Chloe's eyes widened. “Wow. How do you know all of this, Kay?”
“Reading, a lot of reading. Don’t worry if you don’t get everything right away and don’t compare your knowledge to mine. I’ve been researching vampires since I was a child.”
“What a young age to start studying. So, is this you taking me in as an assistant?”
I nodded. “Yes, it is. I hope to see you excel.”
Chloe smiled, still not looking fully awake. “Thank you.”
Rose and Robert finally finished their conversation, leaving Robert to give some final words for the day. “Again, thank you all for coming to the club today. We will meet in this same room every Friday after school. Please try to attend if you can, but I can understand if you can’t. Next week, we will be setting up our requests box, so make sure your phones are charged. That is all, thank you.”
Once he finished, we all got ready to leave. Slinging my letterman satchel around my shoulder, I exited the room, leaving before anyone could delay my departure. I walked through the well lit halls of the Plainsland College Supernatural Studies building thinking about one thing: Why did that girl keep looking at me? Little did I know, for Rose would make this school year one of the strangest years of my life.