Vampire University (Book One in the Vampire University Series)

by VJ Erickson

CHAPTER THREE

  Taylor woke up to a pitch-black room. For a brief moment, she couldn’t remember where she was or why the surroundings seemed so foreign. Then she remembered her new home, her new roommate, and the new people she had met yesterday.

  Recalling Eric, Taylor pulled out her cellphone. The light burned her eyes, so she held it back and squinted. No messages. She opened up her contact list and pulled up his name. Just Eric, no last name. She considered sending him a text, but it was 5:45 AM. She cut off the phone and stared up at the ceiling, the lingering light from the cellphone still dancing across her vision.

  She tried to fall asleep again, but the unfamiliarity of the surroundings combined with all of the new things she had experienced in the last 24 hours kept her mind active. After attempting to sleep for what she was convinced was at least an hour, she looked at her phone again. 5:52. Not even ten minutes had passed.

  At 5:58, she gave up trying to sleep and shoved her phone into the pockets of her pajama bottom pants, grabbed the tank top she had tossed next to the bed, managed to orient it correctly after a few moments of fumbling in the dark, and then stepped gingerly onto the carpet. She inched along, slowly dragging her feet until she found a pair of tennis shoes and slid them on.

  She stepped out of the room, careful to close the door quietly behind her. Though she was not violating any rules that she was aware of, she still had a feeling that she shouldn’t be caught walking around this early. Taylor reminded herself that this was her home. Besides, she told herself, 6:00 AM wasn’t going to seem quite as early when classes started and everyone didn't have the luxury of sleeping in.

  She proceeded to the end of the hall and pushed through the exit doors to an open air stairwell. She stepped up to the railing of the third-floor landing and looked out over campus. The view from the landing was mostly alleyway and brick, but she could make out the tops of a few buildings, and she gazed at them trying to imagine what classes would be like in those buildings.

  Taylor was so absorbed in her thoughts of the future that when she felt a hand tap on her shoulder she lost her balance for a moment and nearly fell. The hand lingered on her shoulder and steadied her. She turned around to see Joseph, dressed as he was yesterday, standing on the landing with her.

  Taylor had not heard him climb the stairs and this made her even more uneasy about being approached alone in the dark.

  “How did you get up here?” Taylor asked, backing up to the edge of the rail as far as she could go.

  Joseph looked down to the ground below and then back up to Taylor.

  “I walked,” he said.

  “Then why didn’t I hear you?”

  “I walked quietly,” he replied, without any indication that he was anything but serious.

  “Okay... Well, I gotta head in,” Taylor said, turning towards the door.

  “Wait,” Joseph said and stepped between her and the door.

  His demeanor was nonthreatening, but the suddenness and unusual circumstances of the meeting kept Taylor on edge.

  Taylor made note of her position relative to the stairs and moved slightly closer to them in case she needed to escape.

  “Okay...” Taylor responded hesitantly.

  “I just wanted to talk to you,” Joseph said, not moving from his spot by the door.

  “Well here we are. What do you want?”

  She tried to control her voice so that she sounded relaxed, as if this was routine for her, like she was commonly surprised into conversations with stealthy young men on third-story fire escapes. The effect, she decided, was probably not entirely convincing.

  “To talk. I just said that,” Joseph replied, sounding annoyed.

  The hint of a belligerent tone in his voice made Taylor even more nervous. She scanned for another way out of this confrontation, but there were only the door behind Joseph and the stairs leading down below her.

  “Look, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

  Taylor’s eyes widened, and Joseph seemed to realize that this was probably not the right thing to say.

  “Hurt me?” she said. "I didn’t realize that was on the table.”

  Joseph’s expression softened.

  “It’s not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything. You just... you look terrified. I didn’t mean to do that. I guess I’m not used to people responding to me this way.”

  “Well how do girls normally respond when you sneak up on them in the dark?” Taylor asked.

  “Depends on the girl,” he said without a hint of humor.

  “Okay, I’ve really got to go now. Hannah is probably wondering about me,” Taylor said, inching closer to the stairs.

  Joseph looked disappointed.

  “Okay,” he said, looking down at his feet. “I just thought this would go differently.”

  “This?”

  “Yeah, look, I just wanted to warn you about Eric.”

  The mention of Eric caused Taylor to momentarily forget her escape plan.

  “Oh yeah?” she asked, trying to sound indifferent. “What about him?”

  “He’s dangerous. Just stay away."

  “Dangerous how? Is he in a gang or something?”

  “Something like that. Just take my word for it, okay? You don't want to get involved with him."

  Taylor looked away from Joseph over her shoulder towards Harris Hall.

  "What does that even mean? What is something like being in a gang?" she asked, again focusing her attention on a way to get away from him.

  Joseph didn’t respond.

  Taylor turned back towards him, but he was no longer there. She looked all around her, over the edge of the stairwell, and into the hallway. There was no sight or sound of him anywhere.

  Shaken, Taylor hurried inside and back towards her room. She could see from the strip of light at the bottom of the door that Hannah was awake.

  “Oh. Hi there,” Hannah said cheerfully as Taylor opened the door.

  “Hey.”

  “So you’re a morning person, huh?” Hannah asked.

  “Not really. I guess I just don’t sleep well in new places.”

  “Well, that just means that we can make the morning tour!”

  Hannah paused a moment for a reaction but Taylor was quiet.

  “You still haven’t looked at the schedule yet, have you?" Hannah continued. "There’s two campus tours today: one at 9:00 and one at 2:00. We’ve got plenty of time to catch the first one!”

  Taylor wondered if neither was an option, but didn't feel like arguing.

  “We can do 9:00,” Taylor agreed.

  “Great! I’m going to go take a shower! Need anything?”

  “From the shower?”

  Hannah laughed.

  “Fair enough! If you need anything from the shower, you’re on your own. See you in a minute,” Hannah said and then left to get ready.

  When Hannah returned from the shower fifteen minutes later, she was already fully dressed with her hair done and her make-up in place. She wore a crisp white blouse with a sweater over it, this time bright blue, and traded her khaki slacks for a blue and green plaid pleated skirt. The outfit already looked like a grade school uniform, and Hannah contributed to this by wearing knee-high white stockings. Whereas her outfit the prior day had made her look older, this had the opposite effect.

  When Taylor and Hannah left the dormitory to meet for the campus tour they were greeted at the door by Addison who was carrying a clipboard and wearing a scowl. Unfazed by Addison’s prickly demeanor, Hannah walked directly up to Addison and smiled warmly.

  “Hi, I’m Hannah Cohen,” she said, hand outstretched.

  Addison did not look up from her clipboard.

  “Room number?”

  “304,” Hannah answered.

  Addison silently made a mark on her clipboard and then lifted her head and looked past Hannah to Taylor.

  “Next,” she said.

  Hannah, beginning to realize that Addison had no intention of returni
ng her handshake, slowly lowered her hand.

  “Same,” Taylor replied softly.

  “Do you have a name, Same?” Addison asked with a smirk.

  “Oh, sorry. Taylor Bain.”

  Addison made another mark on her clipboard and then moved on to the next student without another word.

  As soon as they were out of Addison's earshot, Hannah leaned over to Taylor and whispered, “Well, she’s pleasant, isn’t she?”

  Taylor shrugged.

  “I guess you can be that way when you’re leggy and blonde,” Hannah continued. “Good thing we’re not like that!”

  “I dunno. I could deal with being leggy and blonde.”

  “Too bad. Guess you’ll have to settle for being leggy and brunette!”

  “Well, you got brunette right.”

  “Well, he doesn’t seem to mind looking at you,” Hannah replied, pointing behind her.

  Taylor turned and saw that Hannah was pointing at Eric, about ten yards behind them. Their eyes met immediately, and he waved enthusiastically at her. Taylor quickly turned back to look at Hannah.

  “He’s coming over here, isn’t he?” asked Taylor.

  “Yup.”

  “How’s my hair?”

  “Your hair? Fine. Still brunette.”

  “Funny. I was worried about that,” Taylor said, pushing a few strands behind her ears.

  “What are you worried about?” Eric asked, as he approached the two.

  “We were worried,” Hannah said, stepping in front of Taylor, “that you would not be in our tour group.”

  Hannah said this in a tone that suggested the opposite.

  Eric responded as if he had not noticed her apparent disdain.

  “Aw, that’s sweet. Worry no more, ladies.”

  Eric’s obliviousness amused Taylor as much as it seemed to irritate Hannah. Taylor liked Hannah for being friendly, outgoing, and easy to talk to, but Taylor was worried about this apparently antagonistic attitude towards male attention and what it might mean for future relationships. She hoped that Hannah wasn’t this way with all boys.

  Taylor wanted to ask where Joseph was, not because she wanted to see him, but for precisely the opposite reason. Joseph appeared from Harris Hall’s lobby entrance and walked straight towards them before she had time to ask, however. He did not make eye contact with Taylor, and she made no attempt to do so either. Meanwhile, Hannah was glaring at both of them.

  “Good morning,” Joseph said to no one in particular.

  No one answered.

  Joseph came to stand right next to Eric, and nobody spoke for a moment. It was clear that the two were related when they stood side by side, but only when you compared faces. Their demeanor, dress, expressions, and even body language were all practically opposite of each other. Eric was casually dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, used his hands expressively, and smiled. Joseph wore a thin crimson sweater and dark long pants, had his hands shoved in his pockets, and did not, so far as Taylor could tell, know how to smile.

  Eric looked like he was about to break the silence when Addison broke it for them.

  “All right boys and girls, pack ‘em up, and move ‘em out,” Addison yelled.

  “This should be fun,” Eric said cheerfully and turned towards Addison, leaving Hannah and Taylor to stand with Joseph.

  “Yeah, c’mon Taylor!” Hannah said, grabbing Taylor’s hand and leading her eagerly away from Joseph towards the crowd.

  Taylor was grateful to be pulled away without having to speak to him. After a few minutes, Taylor looked back to where they were standing, and Joseph was still where they left him, staring directly at her. Taylor felt a shiver crawl down her spine. She leaned towards Hannah.

  “Does that guy Joseph creep you out?” Taylor whispered.

  Hannah answered without hesitation.

  “Yeah, totally. I’m steering clear.”

  “Yeah, me too, I think," said Taylor.

  As they joined the rest of the group, Addison yelled behind them towards Joseph, “You too, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding!”

  Joseph looked up, scowled, and turned to walk back towards the dorms.