by C T Rhames
My footsteps echoed in the ancient corridor, lit by electric torches. It felt like a creepy movie set. And I had yet to see a single student.
The dining hall was much further than I’d realized. What looked like a short distance on the map was actually quite a ways in the actual corridors.
As I reached the double doors, two guys walked by and gave me a disdainful look. They walked by and I heard one of them mutter, “More fresh meat?”
Pushing the doors open, I stepped into the dining hall and stopped dead.
It was tiny. There were six tables set up and a buffet table at the back of the room. No one was serving, it was a help yourself sort of affair. There were only two other students in the room, already eating. One was a guy who looked to be my age, with floppy, dark hair that covered half his face. The other was a girl who looked a bit older than me, with golden hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was reading a book as she ate her pasta.
I walked slowly to the buffet and took in the options. Pasta, buttered toast, and salad. It wasn’t a huge spread, but it did look delicious. I scooped up some pasta onto my plate and grabbed a couple pieces of toast and a glass of orange juice before going to sit at one of the empty tables.
“You don’t have to sit all the way over there, you know,” the girl said, looking up from her book.
“Thanks.” I moved my plate over to the table the other two students sat at. “I’m M-Lyric.”
“I’m Karen.” She smiled at me, her bright blue eyes sparkling. “Welcome to Bloodborne Academy.”
“I’m Jack.” The guy nodded at me. “Nice to see some new blood in here.”
“Thanks?” I started to eat my toast, painfully aware of the crumbs tumbling from it. “Is it always this dead in here?”
“Oh, there are still some classes going on. The others will be here soon,” Karen assured me.
She was right. About five minutes later, students poured into the dining hall and started loading up. The empty space hummed with energy and noise as all the students started chatting and eating.
“Where are you from?” Karen asked, over the hubbub.”
“California. You?”
“Michigan.” She grinned again. “You must be freezing your butt off up here.”
“It is kind of chilly,” I admitted and she broke out into a laugh.
“You’ll get used to it,” Jack said. “Sort of.”
“That’s why he still wears long johns to bed,” Karen said.
“How long have you been studying here?” I asked.
“I started in September,” Jack said.
“This is my second year,” Karen rolled her eyes. “Of all the places our parents could have sent us, this is pretty much at the bottom of the list.”
I finished my meal and followed Jack to the garbage to scrape my food into the bin. Karen came up beside me and asked what room I was in as I scraped the remaining pasta off my plate.
When I told her, she broke out into a big grin again. “We’re practically neighbors. I have the room two doors down from you in the same corridor.”
“Maybe you can help me make sense of this place,” I said. “It looks like a maze on the map.”
“It’s actually designed to confuse the enemy,” Jack said. “It’s a castle, so everything about it is meant to be a fortress, yeah?”
“I hadn’t thought about that,” I admitted.
“Yeah, it’s really cool. I’ve been studying the history of castles and this place is absolutely full of defense features. I’ll show you sometime.”
“Cool.” I found my face stretching into an unnatural smile. Acting like a normal person, as Anderson had insisted. Even though my heart broke as I thought about how Brett would have loved this castle.
I managed to keep my face and voice bright as we finished our meal and then Karen took me on a whirlwind tour of the castle. By the time we’d found our corridor again, I was thoroughly confused.
“I’m never going to remember all of this!”
“You’ll get used to it,” she chuckled. “It’s like one of those video games where you get lost all the time at the beginning and by the last level, you know exactly where you’re going.”
“I don’t really play video games,” I said honestly.
“Oh. Bad example, then. I just mean you will get to the point where it’s second nature.” She pointed at a heavy oak door. “That’s your room. I’m just down there.”
“Do you have a roomie?” I asked curiously.
“Nope, this whole corridor is single rooms, but I think we’re the only ones at this end. There aren’t a lot of students with singles.”
“I guess the shared rooms are more expensive.” I pulled out my key and fitted it into the lock. “Thanks for showing me around.”
“No problem. Hey, can I see your schedule? Maybe we’re in some of the same classes.”
She came into my room and perched on the bed while I rummaged through the sheaf of papers that the school had given me. I found my schedule and passed it to her and she scanned it quickly.
“Awesome, we’re in two classes together tomorrow. I’ll take you to the first one after lunch, so you don’t get lost.”
“Thank you.” I felt some relief knowing I wasn’t going to be totally alone in this strange place.
My room had warmed up considerably and I was able to curl up comfortably in my bed when Karen left. I took one of the pain pills Anderson had left me, to ease up the ache in my back and to help me sleep. He’d said I shouldn’t take them constantly, but I needed to sleep. Surely it wouldn’t hurt just once.
Chapter Five
I woke late. Looking at my clock, I realized it was already past eleven. The lack of windows in the castle meant there was no sign of day or night. It was kind of eerie.
After a quick shower, I pulled on some of the clothes that Agent Angel had bought and ventured out to explore before lunch.
There weren’t many people out and about at this hour. It was eerily silent in the castle and I tried to remember what Karen had shown me last night. To start, I wanted to get the hang of the first level of the castle, where my room was. She’d told me that the first level was mostly dorms and the dining hall and kitchen. The second level was for classes and some classes were in the basement. And the upper level was where the teachers stayed.
Every corridor in the place seemed to branch out into more corridors. It was like a bizarre kind of maze, with doors everywhere. In minutes, I was thoroughly lost.
“Whatever is a tasty little thing like you doing in the East Wing?” a male voice spoke behind me, heavy on the accent.
I spun around to find myself facing a tall young man with piercing black eyes. He was also the most handsome man I’d even met in my life. Full, red lips, glossy dark hair swept back from his face, revealing almost perfect bone structure. My mouth went dry and I blinked quickly, trying not to stare.
“Are you ill?” He tilted his head slightly, his lips pursed.
“Uh, no. I just . . . I’m kinda lost.”
“Kinda.” He repeated slowly, as if he were trying the word out for the first time. “I presume you reside in the West Wing?”
“I’m not really sure.”
He smirked then and looked me up and down. “You’re new meat then.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You ought to be more careful, slinking about in the dark. There are things that would have you for lunch about these parts.”
“Um, that’s kinda creepy.”
“Kinda, yes.” He stepped forward and stared down at me, a slight smirk on his face. “Tell me, young one, do you fear mortality?”
“Um . . .” I tried to puzzle out what he meant and looked up at him in confusion. His eyes were mesmerizing, so dark, I felt I could fall right into them and finally be at peace.
What the hell was wrong with me? I forced my thoughts away from peace and dark eyes and frowned at the man. “Who are you?”
He looked startled and
blinked, staring down at me with a scowl. “I am Melatiah of the Moor.”
“Okay . . . Melatiah of the Moor, can you help me find my way back to the dining hall? Please?”
I could feel my heart pounding. This guy had a bizarre effect on me and I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. But I also needed help returning to my part of the castle.
“I am hardly a tour guide,” he sniffed, lifting his chin.
“I didn’t ask for a tour,” I pointed out.
He studied me for a moment. Then he rolled his eyes at me, turned and led me so quickly through the corridors and taking abrupt turns that I had to trot to keep up with his long legs.
When we were in an area that I finally recognized, he stopped and whirled on me. “I have done you a great favor and I shall not forget it.”
Then he was gone, leaving a whisper of wind and an exotic scent behind. I frowned. That was the strangest meeting I’d ever had with anyone. But he’d done as I’d asked and I was in front of the dining hall, so I pushed through the doors and found Karen and Jack waiting for me.
After a lunch of sub sandwiches and soda, Karen took me to the first class, Modern English 202. I hadn’t really looked at the name of the course before, but it seemed a bit odd.
“Why modern and not just English?” I wondered aloud.
Karen shrugged. “Classes have weird names here. The whole school is some kind of weird experiment to see if students learn better under certain circumstances. I guess that’s why they do the late class start. Supposedly it helps our brains wake up before we go to class.”
“Weird.” I followed her into the classroom, which looked like every class I’d ever been in before, with rows of desks and a whiteboard at the front of the class. There were posters all over the walls, covering the rules of English and punctuation.
“Watch out for those girls,” Karen whispered, her eyes on a group of three girls sitting at the back of the class. As soon as she spoke, all three turned to look at us.
“Oh, look, the little mouse has a new friend.” One of the girls, a petite blonde who had been rather impressively blessed in the bosom department, rose and sauntered toward us. “Who’s your friend, little mouse?”
Karen shrunk back, so I decided to start things off on the right foot. “I’m Lyric.” I stretched out a hand. The girl looked at it in disgust.
“Well, Lyric, you and your kind are not welcome here. You stay away from us and we might leave you alone.” She giggled and the other girls behind her giggled too.
Then she was back at her desk, moving so quickly that I barely realized she’d moved before she was sitting back at the desk.
Before I could question anything, the teacher walked in. He was a middle aged man who looked bored before the class even started. I followed Karen to the front of the class, as far away as possible from the gaggle of girls.
The teacher, Mr. Bracken, was possibly the most boring teacher ever. He droned on about modern slang and wrote examples on the board. He never tried to engage the class and I found myself drifting.
I couldn’t stop thinking about my brother and sister. The look on Sara’s face when Steve stabbed her. The light fading from Brett’s eyes. If only I’d forced Mom to leave before things went so far. I’d known Steve was dangerous, but I never thought he would actually kill anyone. Much less his own children.
“Are you okay?” Karen’s voice pulled me out of my nightmarish thoughts and I looked up at her.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” she said doubtfully.
I could feel tears in my eyes and I wiped them away quickly. The teacher was still droning on.
“I’m just bored to tears,” I whispered back. Behind us, several students giggled and the teacher paused, confused.
I was confused, too and turned painfully in my seat to look at the source. The girls at the back had giggled, for sure, but there was a guy sitting two seats over and back who was smirking at me, his pale blue eyes amused. Even though he wasn’t that far away, I wasn’t sure how he’d managed to hear me.
The long haired guy with pale eyes was in my next class, too, which was regular old Math. I’d never enjoyed math much, but this class seemed far below my actual grade level, so it wasn’t much of a challenge. The pale eyed guy seemed to really be focusing on what the teacher was explaining, though. He took notes and glanced over at me a few times, a little smirk on his face.
When we finished the class, I headed for the door, trying to figure out where my next class was. Biology was in some kind of special lab, Karen had told me. I stopped in the corridor to pull out my map, too embarrassed to look for anyone.
“Hey, crybaby!” The blonde girl from earlier appeared with her minions, two dark haired girls who had giggled at me. “Sorry you’re so bored here. Maybe you’d like to go for a long walk in the cold.”
“What are you talking about?”
They laughed and she leaned in close to me, inhaling. “You don’t belong here, you sniveling little blood bag. Go home before things get really bad for you.”
“No thanks. But you might want to,” I warned her, glaring at her. Those crystalline blue eyes narrowed and she tilted her face up to meet mine. I felt the same odd pull that I’d felt with Melatiah in the hallway earlier. I mentally pulled back and glared at her. “Don’t even think about bullying me. I don’t do bullies.”
The girl looked surprised and she stared at me in shock. Her friends were looking at me oddly, too.
“Jeanine, let’s go,” one of them called.
“Run along,” I told her, waving her away with my hand.
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” she hissed, her face a twisted mask of rage. She looked like she was about to attack me, but her friends grabbed her.
Suddenly, the guy from my previous classes was there beside me. He looked oddly at Jeanine and then at me. He was taller than I was, but not by much. His dirty blond hair was tucked behind his ears, highlighting sharp cheekbones and delicately formed lips.
I shook myself mentally. Here I was again, falling for some random guy’s looks. What was wrong with me today?
“You should be more careful about mixing it up with the likes of those girls,” he said.
“So I’ve noticed, but I wasn’t doing any mixing.”
He stepped even closer, inhaling deeply. “Hmm, I see why they’re tempted by you.”
“Excuse me?” I took a step backward and his eyes lit up with a predatory look as he stalked after me. I kept backing up until I was against the wall, looking up at him. A shiver of fear went through me and it was like he felt it, the way his eyes practically sparked. He leaned in, placing a hand on the wall on either side of my head.
“Look at me, little one.” He tipped his head down, eyes penetrating.
“I’m not that little,” I retorted, but my eyes were drawn to his. They were like shards of ice, drawing me into them. I frowned. This kept happening. I must be going insane or something.
“I’ve got to get to class,” I managed to say and ducked under his outstretched arm. Even though I had no idea where the lab was, I wasn’t about to stick around to find out what this strange guy wanted from me.
When I glanced back at the end of the corridor, he was staring after me with a puzzled look on his handsome face.
Chapter Six
Biology was a disaster. First, I arrived late and everyone turned to look at me as I opened the door. The teacher, Ms. Bastille, was less than impressed and made me sit at a table up front. It wasn’t until I slid onto the stool that I realized my table mate was none other than Melatiah.
“We meet again,” he said, his smooth accent making my heart flutter.
“I didn’t expect you to be in my grade,” I said, confused. He looked older than I was. “How old are you?”
He snorted. Ms. Bastille whirled on us. “Young lady, if you cannot refrain from causing disruption in class, you will be sent to the headmaster!”
> “I-I’m sorry.”
The next thing that happened was even worse. Ms. Bastille instructed us to open the crates on the lab tables.
Melatiah cracked the top off the crate and the sides fell down. I gasped in horror. There was a baby pig laying on the table, vacuum sealed in plastic.
“Problem, girl?” Ms. Bastille asked, her contempt obvious in her voice.
“No,” I squeaked out. “It just surprised me.”
“Please take out your instruments and open the package.”
Melatiah pushed a leather wrapped bundle toward me and I opened it, determined not to show my stupidity again. Scalpels and clamps and tweezers lay in the bundle that I’d unrolled.
“Go ahead,” Melatiah smirked. “Open the bag.”
I looked at the assortment of tools and finally selected a scalpel. Gingerly, I sliced into the end of the vacuum wrap. The packaging released with a hiss and air seeped in. A strong chemical odor came from the package, but I tried to breathe through my mouth and continued to slice.
Liquid spilled over my hands and onto the table, making me shudder.
“You might have put on some gloves before beginning,” my lab partner said, entirely too late.
I looked around. Sure enough, everyone else was wearing gloves. I looked at Melatiah and he held up a pair of latex gloves and winked.
“Thanks.” I put down the scalpel and walked over to the lab sink to wash up. By the time I got back, Melatiah had the pig laying on top of the packaging, tiny hooves stretched out.
“Cute, isn’t it?”
“Cute is not the word I’d use,” I muttered, wrinkling my nose. “What happened to frogs?”
“Frogs? Aren’t they still a thing?” He looked at me strangely.
“I meant frogs for dissection. Who gives students a pig?”
“Pigs very closely resemble humans, I’m told.” He ran a finger over the pig’s snout and looked between the pig and myself. “I believe I see the resemblance.”
