First Semester

by Jace Mitchell

  “That there is an infinite number of these creatures,” Lance whispered, not wanting the words to travel to the cops at the end of the alley. “If Dracula was to come over and we killed him, there would be another Dracula, and another, and another. All the ways humanity has imagined that vampire just waiting to suck the blood of sleeping virgins.”

  Remington frowned. “If we get the Adam Sandler one, we don’t have a problem. Can you imagine the cast of Underworld made real?”

  Lance shook his head. “Endless iterations. Each one is different, but they’re infinite. What do you think?”

  Remington shook his head, his eyes widening. “I think that’s a scary fucking thought, and I hope it’s not true. But what do I know? I’m here to recruit.”

  “Yeah. I guess you’re right.” He nodded toward the dumpster. “We need to keep this out of the news. We don’t need a panic.”

  Remington shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. Lance was right. There were people who believed this all to be a hoax, something akin to the crop circles in the nineties. The more things that came up like this, the fewer hoaxers would exist.

  Hoaxers were the people who refused to believe any of this was real. They didn’t believe creatures were crossing from another dimension, nor did they believe in a Veil. In short, they thought it all was some grand conspiracy.

  “We need the hoaxers,” Lance said, clearly thinking down the same path he was. “They’ll help keep this manageable.”

  “For now,” Remington agreed. “Sooner or later, the world’s going to believe. Those kids have to be ready to fight this.”

  “They will be. We picked the right ones. Let’s go see if we can keep this out of the media.” Lance started walking down the alley, and Remington followed.

  The television was small and in the corner of the room. Jack sat in Claire’s chair, while the two girls sat on her bed.

  “No freaking way.” Jack shook his head, grinning like a madman as he stared at the television. “I don’t believe it. No way.”

  Claire looked over to Marissa, who was sitting next to her in their dorm room. They’d gone to Jack’s dorm yesterday, and Claire had quickly decided she wouldn’t be going back there. The place had been a disaster. Claire didn’t understand how anyone could live like that.

  The messiness of Jack’s room didn’t matter right now, though.

  Marissa met Claire’s eyes. She looked scared. “You think?”

  The question trailed off, but Claire didn’t need to hear the rest.

  The writing on the television screen proclaimed Vampires in Boston, while the commentators were railing on and on about the invasion.

  “This is why they changed classes around,” Jack commented. He had a bowl of popcorn in his lap, and he tossed a few pieces into his mouth. He didn’t stop chewing as he spoke. “They knew vampires were coming, so they’re trying to get us ready to fight them. Unbelievable.”

  He shook his head as he dug his hand into the popcorn again.

  “What’s unbelievable about it?” Claire asked. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

  Jack took another bite of popcorn kernels. “Well, yeah. Eventually. But look at the body right there. That thing has freakin’ bite marks on its neck. We’re not ready to fight that yet. I think that’s what they’re about to have us do. Just throw us to the wolves.”

  “No.” Marissa shook her head. “They’re going to teach us about them, but they’re not going to have us fight them. Not yet. They can’t.”

  Claire looked back toward the television. “You think it’s true?”

  Jack pulled his impression of Professor Byron’s most pompous tone. “This isn’t the National Enquirer, Ms. Hinterland.” He picked up a few pieces of popcorn and tossed them lazily at her.

  Claire swatted them off her lap, still staring at the television. “This is freakin’ CBS. Yes, it’s true. Sure, the skeptics will say it’s a lie or a government plot to take away our guns or something else, but it’s real, sweets. We’ve got vampires walking among us.”

  “I...I didn’t sign up to fight vampires.” Marissa sounded scared, more scared than Claire had ever heard her before.

  Claire placed her hand on Marissa’s knee. “Hey, it’s okay. We don’t know what’s going to happen. This is just the news, and they always fluff stuff up to make it sound worse than it is.”

  Jack looked at the two of them with an eyebrow raised.

  Claire met his gaze quickly, knowing he was about to say something insensitive at best, and straight mean at worst. She shook her head hard.

  Jack grinned but looked away. He was an asshole, but he walked the line carefully. Claire was starting to appreciate it. He wasn’t a cruel asshole.

  “Come on, you two,” he said, standing up from the chair and spilling popcorn from his pants to the floor. “We’ve got to get to class. Dr. Byron might feed us to the vampires otherwise.”

  Well, everyone knows about it, Claire thought as she looked down the aisle at the rest of her classmates. Their faces were pale and drawn as if perhaps each one of them had just received news that a person they cared about had died. Do I look like that?

  Marissa certainly did.

  So did everyone else but Jack, who was actually smiling.

  That kid, she thought as she pulled out a pen and paper, setting it on her desk. Does anything get to him?

  Dr. Byron turned around from his table and looked at the class. His face was severe, as always when they began, but he didn’t look scared. “Anything fun going on outside of here?”

  Jack burst out laughing and all eyes fell on him. He doubled over in his chair and clutched his stomach. “Jesus, Dr. Byron! That’s a good one!”

  The rest of the classmates started eyeing each other, unsure of exactly how to react. Claire shook her head, smiling at the outburst, but also glad he’d broken the gloomy atmosphere. This place was tense enough. They didn’t need to make it worse by dwelling on possibilities before they became real.

  “All right, Mr. Teams. All right.” Dr. Byron waved his hands to quiet the class. “Calm yourself before you have an aneurysm. I will most certainly lose my job, and that would be the worst part of the whole incident.” He clapped his hands, bringing the entire class’s attention to him. “You’ve all seen the news. So have I. It has cleared up a few things, I believe. I am a lot like you. Oh, not in intelligence, education, charm, or other things that matter, but when it comes to knowledge about the future. I was surprised we were starting vampires, although I am less so now.”

  Dr. Byron moved in front of the table, revealing more binders behind him.

  “My role here is to prepare you for what might come, and that’s what I intend to do. Here are your new binders for the class. Obviously there aren’t any textbooks on vampires, so I’ve done my best over the past two nights to cobble together all the information we currently have on them. Please come get the binders and return to your seats.”

  Claire got up with Marissa right behind her. The other students followed suit, all walking down to the bottom level to get a new binder. Claire felt the weight of hers, noticing immediately it wasn’t as heavy as the last one.

  Jack raised his hand as he took his seat. “I’ve got a question, Professor.”

  “Of course you do, Mr. Teams,” Dr. Byron shot back. He moved to the front of the class. “Please ask it now so that I can continue your education.”

  “We talked about the Veil, and I understand that, but what are these things made from? I mean, how do they exist? It doesn’t seem possible for two realities to meet this way, regardless of what the news is saying.”

  “That’s the first smart thing you’ve asked, Jack,” Claire said as she turned her head back to the professor. “Maybe there’s some reason they brought you in here besides your ability to make the class laugh when everyone is freaked out.”

  “We were actually going to spend quite a bit of time on that exact question before the powers that be decided we must c
hange course.” Dr. Byron looked at Rebecca’s seat. “I’m sure you’ve read ahead, Ms. Drins. Can you tell the clueless Mr. Teams about how this might all exist?”

  She doesn’t look like she wants to answer one bit, Claire thought. The entire class was frightened. The news of vampires had shaken them to their core.

  Had they all thought they would come here and just get an education but not have to put themselves in danger? Claire wondered. Maybe.

  Right now, it seemed like only she and Jack were holding it together.

  Rebecca opened her mouth to talk, swallowed, and then opened her mouth once more. “They... They think the universe behind the Veil is filled with the physical representations of our beliefs.”

  “Yes, that’s partially true.” Dr. Byron looked at the rest of the class. “Has anyone else read ahead? Ms. Hinterland?”

  “Actually, yes,” Claire answered.

  “How shocking,” Dr. Byron replied with a smirk.

  Claire didn’t resent him for it. She’d met the man behind the barbs, and he wasn’t half as bad as he pretended. “Maybe you can teach Mr. Teams, given that you two are in the same unit. Enlighten us.”

  Claire hadn’t had much time since she got here, from sneaking out with Frank to the changing curriculum. Everything had been a whirlwind. Still, she didn’t come here to flunk out, so she’d buckled down and done her reading at night after everyone else was asleep.

  “The Veil separates our two universes,” she started. “We can’t see into the other universe, so we can’t find out how it exists or what happens inside of it. Rebecca is mostly right, though. Somehow, the things humans have believed in throughout history were born over there. Best we can tell, it’s the ideas that aren’t real that show up on the other side.”

  Dr. Byron nodded. “Is ‘belief’ the right word, though? The one Ms. Drins used. Does, let’s say, a belief like the sun revolves around the Earth show up over there?”

  Claire remembered all this easily. “No. Not those kinds of beliefs. Beliefs in things—creatures, gods, monsters. That’s what is on the other side. Beliefs in systems and structures, as far as we can tell, don’t exist over there. Some say when things are worshipped, they pop into existence. Worship can mean any number of things, like fan art, or comic cons.”

  “And,” Dr. Byron asked, “how confident are we in that?”

  She shook her head. “Not very. We’re not very confident about anything regarding the Veil or the other side, because we can’t cross over. So far, it seems to be a one-way street. Things come this way.”

  Dr. Byron nodded. “Late to class, but perhaps not last, Ms. Hinterland.” He turned to Jack. “Does that answer your question, Mr. Teams?”

  “About the same as everything else,” Jack said, looking nonplussed. “‘We think it’s because of this, although it may not be. Just a load of bull—”

  Dr. Byron’s eyebrows went up, and his face dared Jack to finish the sentence. A sly smile crossed Jack’s lips but he only said, “Bullish. Just a load of bullish.”

  Dr. Byron sighed, his eyebrows dropping. “I suppose that’s the best we can hope for from you, Mr. Teams. Now, let’s move onto the subject at hand, the thing that has all of you looking white as sheets. Vampires. What do you know about them?”

  “They drink blood,” a guy from the middle of the row said. Claire didn’t know his name yet.

  “They’re the undead,” Rebecca commented.

  “They’re immortal,” Jack threw in, “so not sure how we’re supposed to kill them.”

  Dr. Byron raised his hand palm out, requesting the answers to stop. “Yes, that’s all true, except for the last bit that Mr. Teams threw in.”

  “As usual,” Claire whispered so that only Marissa could hear. Marissa finally cracked the tiniest smile.

  Good, Claire thought. That’s something.

  Dr. Byron walked backward until his legs touched the tabletop. He leaned against it. “Today I want you to learn the basics of these creatures. We all need to be on the same page about what they are and what they can do. The news says that they’re crossing the Veil now, and truth be told, I hadn’t actually considered that. When we think of mythology behind the Veil, horror movies don’t really come up, do they? No one thinks Michael Meyers or Freddy Krueger is going to come waltzing down Fifth avenue.”

  “Can they?” Claire asked.

  Dr. Byron shrugged. “Who knows at this point? Perhaps. Perhaps not. If I had to guess, I’d say yes, because people ‘worship’ them, at least in a sense. They might be fictional characters, but every year, we dress up like them by the millions. Now vampires, or witches and werewolves for that matter? You’ll see in your binders that belief in these creatures goes back hundreds of years. So, probably sometime in the seventeen hundreds, vampires began appearing behind the Veil, because that was when we first started believing in them here.”

  He turned around and walked to the whiteboard, picking up a marker. He quickly sketched out a rough outline of Europe and then circled a few places around the Balkans.

  “Most likely, a belief in vampires came about due to racism,” he continued as he turned around. “One group of Europeans hating another group, which doesn’t really matter for our purposes. Now, we have to assume vampires are real, and we have to assume their powers are real too. What can they do?”

  Marissa raised her hand, and Claire nearly groaned. Please don’t chastise her, Dr. Byron. Give her a pass for raising her hand.

  “Ms. Hallor, I would ask why you’re raising your hand like a child, but I know that your friend, Ms. Hinterland, would rake me over the coals.” His eyes briefly flashed to Claire, gave her a quick wink, and went back to Marissa. “Please, tell us.”

  Marissa didn’t look up from her binder as she spoke. Her voice was little more than a whisper. “It depends on what version of a vampire you’re thinking about. The oldest legends say they have super strength, enhanced senses, and shapeshifting abilities. Some were rumored to fly, others had psychic powers. They were all very fast and healed much quicker than humans.”

  Claire’s eyes widened. What is she, some kind of expert?

  “There have been many, many versions,” Marissa continued. “Every new movie or book putting a spin on it—”

  “Sparkles,” Jack interrupted with a disgusted shake of his head.

  Marissa didn’t notice. “Older vampires are represented as more powerful, with younger ones not capable of doing as much. Some myths say they can reproduce like humans.” Red flowers bloomed in Marissa’s cheeks at that. “But, the most popular myths all say that they reproduce through sharing their blood. That means they can either kill you or make you one of them.” She looked up, her face full of the question that had just dawned on her. “Can they make new vampires here, Dr. Byron?”

  Claire couldn’t stop staring at Marissa long enough to even glance at the professor. Her usually meek friend had hit the nail on the head. She was definitely an expert about fictional vampires.

  As if she wrote Dracula, Claire thought.

  Dr. Byron started clapping slowly and loudly. “Well done, Ms. Hallor. Well done. I’m not sure I could have asked it any better, and I know your classmates couldn’t have either.” He stepped away from the table and walked over to the front row. “As to your question, I don’t know. The person on the news this morning didn’t have any real answers, and the agents haven’t been very forthcoming with the Dean, either.”

  Dr. Byron looked at the rest of the class, his eyes sweeping across them. “By tomorrow, I suggest you all be as well versed on these mythological creatures as Ms. Hallor here.”

  Claire leaned over to Marissa as the others began to leave. “What the hell? How do you know all of that off the top of your head?”

  Marissa grinned, staring down at her binder. “I’ve always thought vampires were sexy.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Hannah Townsend watched the creature enter the room, studying him carefully. The room they sat in was
windowless, as were all the rooms down here. Hannah’s “partners” sat next to her. How she hated that term. Partners.

  The vampire looked polished. His suit was tailored, his tie perfectly knotted in a full Windsor. His shirt was crisp, and his shoes shone. His hair was dark and parted to the right. His skin was pale like porcelain, as if it had never seen sunlight.

  Bradley Baker sat to her left. He was a fat man with a bald head. He wasn’t so big that he fell out of the chair, but it was clear anyone sitting next to him on a plane would be a bit uncomfortable. Matthew Lowndes sat to her right. He looked like he might start crying at any moment. He appeared to be in a state of mourning.

  They shouldn’t have been allowed in the same room with her, let alone in the same organization, but the decision hadn’t been hers to make.

  For Hannah’s part, she knew what she looked like to this creature. She was thin almost to the point of frailty, and her eyes were cruel little beads that darted around the room. Hannah was fine with that. She hadn’t invited this creature here to speak kindly to him.

  That wasn’t the plan, because if any of these Mythers thought that they were beneath them...

  We’d have no chance at all, she thought.

  “I was hoping I would never have to return to these catacombs,” the creature said as he closed the door behind him. “When I escaped the underground, I wanted that to be forever.”

  Hannah reached into her pack of cigarettes and withdrew one. She took her lighter from the table and lit it, taking a drag before looking up. “What’s your name?”

  The creature raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been called a lot of names, but I suppose David will suffice for now.”

  Hannah nodded. “David is fine.” They had called quite a few vampires over, but this was the first one they’d summoned to their location. Rather than trying to engage at first, they’d simply been honing their techniques to call over the right ones.

  There were a lot of mistakes before we got to your kind, she thought, eyeing the aristocratic creature.