Chapter 5 - Friends
I already saw the cafeteria during the tour, but the size of this room still doesn’t cease to amaze me
Every first-year class now has their lunchtime, and each class has a table dedicated specifically for them today. I'm on the far left side of the table, with Pierre in front of me and Emile beside me.
“Emile, you mentioned your blessing was Size Manipulation, right?” Pierre says, to start a conversation.
“That’s right, would you like to see it in action?” Emile answers.
“Yes!” I say before thinking, joining the conversation.
Emile reaches for his bag and proceeds to open it. When I glanced inside, it was entirely dark, almost as if there was a tiny black hole hiding inside.
Emile digs into his bag and pulls out a miniature bicycle.
“That’s… a small bicycle!” I say excitingly.
“Haha, I know right.” He answers as he puts the small bicycle on the ground.
Suddenly, the small bicycle grew to the size of an actual bicycle, drawing all eyes at our table to the growing bicycle.
“Woah!” I gasp.
"Isn't that cool? I could make it even bigger, but I don't think the teachers would be pleased." Emile replies as he shrinks the bicycle again and puts it away in his bag.
“That’s pretty neat.” Pierre admits.
“By the way, why didn’t you reveal your blessing during your introduction?” Pierre adds, as he fixes his gaze on me.
Huh? Could he be onto me? Maybe he somehow discovered I don’t have a blessing through his blessing? He didn’t want to tell us what his blessing was after all, so the possibilities are endless.
“I could ask you the same” Léa comes in, who sits next to Emile.
But… you kept your blessing a secret as well…
“Huh? You’re Léa Valentine right? That’s funny, coming from you.” Pierre coldly responds.
Don't go picking a fight on the first day, dude!
“Tsk” Léa clicks her tongue.
“I'm sure we all have our reasons, so let's all be nice, okay?" I try to lighten the mood.
“Tsk.” They both click their tongues and look away.
Huh? Did I offend them? Should I have just kept out of it?
After a brief pause, they both look at me and burst out laughing.
“heh?” I let out, as I scratch my head.
Did I say something funny? Why did they suddenly start laughing?
“Hahaha, I’m sorry you just looked so confused I thought it was funny.” Pierre says.
"Hahaha, don't worry, we're not mad." Léa keeps going, wiping away her tears of laughter.
Pfsht, what’s with them, I got really worried there for a moment… I also start laughing.
“Am I the only one that doesn’t understand what’s going on?” Emile awkwardly says. Resulting in the three of us laughing even lauder. “Sorry Emile, we don’t really get it either.” I answer while still laughing.
“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves, but you should tone it down” Emile says, with an embarrassed look on his face.
I look around and notice that everybody in the cafeteria is looking at us, where we really laughing that loud?
The three of us cover our mouths with our hands, trying to keep in our laugher.
I think the three of us will be really good friends!
I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life." I say while wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Really? Are you actually depressed or what?” Léa answers in a jokingly way.
“Ahww, you’re so gloomy, Blanchey!” Pierre adds to the joke.
“I’m not gloomy! And my name is Blanche!” I let out a frustrated sigh.
“Hahaha, don’t worry we’re just joking, Blanchey!” Pierre states.
Is this Blanchey thing going to turn into an inside joke now? “Tsk” I click my tongue.
The two of them start laughing again. “You’re really cute when you’re angry, Blanchey!” Léa says.
I guess they’re gonna keep calling me Blanchey. Aaargh, Whatever.
“You guys deserve ugly nicknames too!” I say.
“Ah- how dare you call the nickname I gave you ugly!” Pierre says, and starts pouting.
"Pierre, please don't make that face ever again; it's disturbing." Léa says, with a disapproving expression on her face.
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After having a good time having lunch with my new classmates, lunchtime was finally over.
“Back to the classroom!” Pierre says with sarcastic excitement, as he grabs his bag and stands up.
“Yup, let’s go.” Emile answers, while also grabbing his bag.
The whole class walks back to our classroom together. This may seem like a strange thing to say, but I'm feeling very 'normal' right now. I'm just a student having fun with my classmates! I never imagined I'd be able to live a life like this, and I'll never be able to thank Jean enough.
One year ago, I wouldn’t even be able to dream of having a life like this, I’m really, really happy I fought back against Benedict!
His experiments kept getting more brutal everyday, but if I hadn’t killed him that day, who knows what his brutality would’ve made him do to me? That crazy, old bastard… he wanted to pull out my teeth to see if they’d grow back, that was my limit, I finally decided to put an end to it.
Ahh- I remember that day like it was yesterday, that pitch black, cold room I spent 3 years of my life in, knowing nothing about my own life prior to that.
He came into the room with a pair of tongs in his hands. “Your teeth… I need them.” Benedict said. And for the first time of my life, I was scared enough to turn my fear into violence. He always had two bodyguards with him in case I ever fought back. But that day, I very clearly remember thinking “it’s do or die now.”
I leapt towards one of his bodyguard and slit his throat with my nails. He had absolutely no time to react so he died immediately.
I remember seeing Benedict’s face after that, it’s like he knew this would happen one day, yet he still looked surprised. He quickly ran out of the room and left me with the second, much bigger bodyguard, who pulled out a pistol and shot me in my shoulder twice, dislocating it. So I jumped on his back, with my legs around his neck, and snapped it.
I slowly walked towards Benedict after that, the knees of his frail body went weak and he fell on the ground. I asked him “Why? Why did you dedicate these past three years of your life to experimenting on me?”
“Because I was enjoying it! Seeing a once superior being like you being reduced to nothing but a tool! Seeing that gave me a reason to stay alive!" He answered me, were those the final words he chose before his death?
“Do you know anything about my past? Where did you find me? Who are my parents? ANSWER ME!"
“Just kill me, demon. Find all of that shit out yourself.” He said, so I decided to kill him with the pistol lying next to his bodyguards corpse, leaving no evidence of me being a vampire in the world.
“…” Just how much longer will I be able to hide my identity for? Maybe I should make up a blessing, because I don't think I'll be able to keep my 'blessing' hidden forever.
What kind of blessing could I use to convince people I really have a blessing? What do vampires have that could be considered a blessing? I can turn my nails into lethal weapons? No… that doesn’t sound very… blessing-like. Hmmm, maybe I’ll ask Jean when I get home.
That reminds me… I haven't drank blood in over ten months; if I recall correctly, I need to drink at least 50 centiliters of blood every year to survive.
My deadline… it’s nearing.
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For the rest of the day, I was completely out of it. All I kept thinking of was about having to drink 50 centiliters of blood in less than 2 months. Should I just ask Jean if he could give me a small amount of blood everyday until I get enough? No, he’s already done so much for me I can’t ask him to give me his blood now… Could I ask Pierre, or maybe Léa? No, I don’t trust them enough for that yet. What would happen if they spread word of me being a vampire?
I have to take matters into my own hands.
“Blanche, you alright?” Jacques asked.
I was so lost in thought that I forgot I’m on the bus back home. “Y-yea, I was just thinking about some things.”
“How was your first day at school? Did you get along with your classmates?” Jacques asks.
“It went well, somebody already got kicked out of class for asking a stupid question, but our teacher is very nice though! We had a tour around the school which completely overwhelmed me. And then during lunchtime, I even made some friends!” After lunchbreak, I was completely out of it though… thinking about having to drink someone’s blood soon.
“That’s great! I told you you’d be able to make friends.” As if he were a proud older brother, Jacques responds with a proud smile on his face.
“What about you though? How did your first day back in school go?”
"My day? We simply attended our regular classes; nothing special happened. We second-years aren't exactly new to the school, you know. However, I do have one new teacher who is very strict. Jacques reflects on his day.
“Our stop is next up; time really flew by today!” He continues.
Jacques and I step out of the bus and make our way home, it’s only a 5 minute walk to our apartment. “I wonder if Jean’s home already.” I say. “He went out? That’s unusual…” Jacques answers.
“Hmm, yea he went to meet his editor.”
“Oooh, I thought his editor usually came to your place though?” Jacques questions.
He’s right, his editor usually comes to meet Jean at our place. Something doesn’t feel right.
Worried about Jean, I start walking at a faster pace until I arrive at our apartment. I quickly run up the stairs while breathing heavily. After finally reaching the top floor, I rest my hands on my knees and gasp for air.
I immediately notice that there are no lights on when I open the door to our loft. “Jean?” I yell.
Jean, are you home?!” I yell for him once more as I turn on the lights.
A man suddenly leaps out from behind the couch and yells: “Supri- Argh!“ As I interrupt him by punching him in the face out of reflex…
“A-are you alright sir?…” I didn’t kill him did I?
“Wait… JEAN?” The man who jumped from behind the sofa… was Jean.
“JEAN? JEAN ANSWER ME!” I repeatedly slap his cheek while shouting in worry.
“…sur…prise.” With a bloody nose, Jean lets out as he stands up.
“Jean… I’m sorry!” I say, feeling bad about what I did.
"Hehe... I guess that's what I get for surprising a vampire." Jean responds jokingly, scratching the back of his neck.
I run towards the bathroom and grab a towel. “Here, use this to wipe the blood from your face.” I say as I hand Jean the towel.
I suddenly hear footsteps coming up the stairs, that must be Jacques.
“W-what happened here?” He asks, with a confused expression.
“I… beat the shit out of Jean.” I regrettably answer, using words I learned from Jean.
“Excuse me? You did what?” He asks in disbelief.
“It was an accident, I swear!”
“I guess I surprised Blanche a little to hard, ha-ha.” Jean comes in, putting away the bloody towel.
“Ah…” Jacques reacts, at loss for words.
“Anyway, Blanche, congratulations on your first day of school!” Jean celebrates.
I take a look around the room and notice all of the party decorations. Did Jean do all of this for me?
“Didn’t you go meet your editor?” I let out softly.
“Huh? I did, I offered to meet her today because I had to go shopping anyways, for you.” Jean says, as he gets a big cake out of the fridge.
Tears begin to form; I've never felt this emotion before, I'm so happy that I want to cry. I sniff the tears away, trying not to cry. "Thank you..." I say, in a sobby voice.
“Jacques, this is for you too, to celebrate going back to school! Let’s get drunk, eat cake and have fun all night!” Jean cheers.
“Thank you very much, Jean. But I must pass on the alcohol, and so will Blanche. We’re underage, after all. Also we have to go to school tomorrow so no having fun all night!” Jacques explains his frustration.
Jacques is much more mature than Jean, and seeing him get mad at Jean never ceases to amuse me.
All three of us had a great time eating cake together.
“It’s pretty late and Jean drank himself to sleep, so I should get going.” Jacques says, as he gets up from the dinner table.
“Yeah, I had a lot of fun today, thank you for that!” I respond, as I get up as well.
“So did I! I’ll pick you up around the same time tomorrow, okay?” He promises.
“Okay, see you tomorrow!” I say, following Jacques to the door.
“Yep, bye bye!” Jacques says.
I shut the door and look around the flat, thinking of all the memories I made today.
“now, I guess I’ll clean up the place…” I softly say, to not wake Jean up.
After putting the plates in the dishwasher and cleaning the table, I look at Jean who passed himself out because of the alcohol. “I have to protect this new life of mine, no matter what.” I mutter under my breath, as I wrap a blanket around Jean.
Those 50 centiliters of blood… I’ll make sure I drink it before my deadline without involving anyone I care about. That’s all I can do if I want to continue living this normal life.