“The dead will leave the earth once they have let go of their mortal lives, but the ones that stay never let go, or are forced to stay. They rise as the undeath; zombies, ghouls, wraiths, and specters are just a few of the undeath that we have cataloged. There are still many unknown undeath wandering the world, each one could be more dangerous than the last. Most undeath will usually retain their rational thought and personality from their life and as such are not always malevolent like most stories say, just lost. Any questions?”
Several hands rose into the air, shaking with the anticipation that they will get called upon. The old man smiled at the response of so many eager children wanting to know more about the world. He called out to the first person that caught his eye: a young man with buck teeth and freckles adorning his face, “You, one with the freckles and buckteeth”
The boy was positively excited at being called upon and couldn’t help but let a wide smile spread across his face. “Is it true that vampires hate garlic and cat pee?” He asked.
“Hehe” The old man chuckled at the huff of vexation behind him. “Unfortunately, no, if you use either garlic or cat urine it will only serve to make them angrier than they already are. The same can be said for a cross and running water, it does nothing to them. A stake in the heart though won’t kill them but it will paralyze until removed, decapitation or destruction of the head is fatal, and then there’s fire and sunlight which will turn almost any bloodsucker to dust!”
An almost manic smile started to form on the old man's face before an impact hit him in the shins causing him to quickly revert to his kind smile in front of the children. “Ahem. Next question, please”
More hands rose in the air, less than before but still quite the amount. The old man called on the next kid that caught his eye: a girl with pigtails and sapphire-colored eyes, “Alright. You, the girl with the pigtails”
She was just as excited to be called upon by the old man, “When you said any vampire will turn to dust what did you mean when you said “almost” any?”
His lips curved into a smile. “Glad you asked!” He clapped, “You see most of those vampires you hear about and are told by those wannabe hunters used to be regular people—and things depending on what species of a vampire you encounter—that were turned into vampires” The old man raised an eyebrow at the gasp from both the children and the Teacher. What are they teaching citizens this decade? This should be common knowledge “Yeah, those are people have been turned into bloodsuckers”
“By whom, Sir?” The pigtail girl asked.
“True Bloods” He answered, “Naturally born Vampires that hold authority over all turned vampires. Their stronger, faster and better than any turned vampire as well as possessing none of the weaknesses of a turned vampire. Sunlight? Just a light tan on the skin. Fire? Like bathing in warm water. Stake in the heart? Pull it right out. Decapitation? They can grow a new one. The only sure way to kill a True Blood is by using Divine power and Sacred objects as they can nullify the regenerative power of a True Blood, but even then, they can take hits like a tank. They are a One-Man-Army that can rip apart the Hunters nowadays even with those fancy improvements.” He emphasized ‘fancy’, “Fortunately, the only good thing about the True Bloods is that they don’t like getting involved with Human affairs nor the affairs with the people they have turned”
“Then why turn them at all, Sir?” One of the children asked. The person behind him opened their mouth and looked like they wanted to answer but the old man answered before they could get anything, “Because they have nothing better to do. Based on their age and experiences, their immortality takes the fun out of anything, so they're trying to create new experiences for themselves. Turned vampires are just one of the many forms of new experiences they have”. The person behind him just glared at the back of his head in irritation but he ignored it, “So, next question?”
*BEEP* *BEEP*
But before any of the kids could raise their hands, a beeping sounded off. The old man lifted his arm to look at his watch, his eyes narrowing before he looked back up to the children with a quick change of expression to all smiles, “Welp! It looks like it's our time to leave” The kids gave moans of disappointment, “Sorry, kids, but Old Hunters like me have to still go work in modern society. Can’t have us being broke on the ground after all, hehe. But I promise that I and my assistant here will visit again soon” And with that they left the small school, giving their goodbyes to the kids and Teacher.
Once they were gone, the Teacher, a nice woman, said to the kids, “Now, kids, I'm sure we had a good time with the nice old hunter” They all cheered in response, but soon deflated by what was said next, “But now it means we have to get back to your education” She smirked at the sight of her annoyed students. They may show distaste for the work they have to do, but she knew that they liked being taught by her. She’s heard the enjoyment of getting to be in her class, always unknowingly expressed happiness when entering her classroom.
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And it only made them happier when she managed to convince a Hunter to come to her class. But it wasn’t just any Hunter she invited, but an Old Hunter!
Although Old Hunters weren’t much around in this decade, they were still very much respected for the work they did in the past, and her managing to find one willing to present in themselves in front of her class was an honor. The knowledge he shared was interesting for the kids and her too, surprisingly—some things even she didn’t know about like the True Bloods.
She never knew that vampires used to be regular people. It was obvious that they looked human except for differences in appearance, contrasting that of a human. Their eyes were discolored with black sclera and crimson irises, hands and feet had sharp-clawed, mouth contained a pointed tongue and rows of sharp fangs, and then there’s their skin; their actual skin was not that different from a human, but the regenerative abilities of a vampire caused an outer layer of skin to form. This outer layer then hardens around them like a sort of dermal armor, allowing them to take damage that would kill a normal person.
If they were just turned into what they are by the True Bloods, she could only imagine how dangerous the True Bloods must be. It sent a shiver down her spine.
*Knock* *Knock*
“Hm?” Just then, as she was in her thoughts, someone knocked on the classroom door, “Come in!” she called out.
The classroom door opened, revealing a young man in the entrance of the doorway. A 6’1 male with short dark brown hair, bright near-glowing amber eyes, and pale skin. He’s clothed in a white t-shirt, black jeans, sneakers, and a black jacket with a western dragon on the back.
“Oh, Damien!” She greeted, “How nice of you to drop by! I wasn’t expecting you to be here”
Damien Blair was the last person she expected to see today. He was an old student of hers back in her earlier years; a model student that got the highest grades with only a bare minimum of B grades in anything. He, like every other child, always had this dream of being a Hunter that would go after the monsters that threaten humanity, and planned to take the Hunter assessment after he graduated. But last she heard; Damien got into an accident that made him unable to take the Hunter assessment for unknown reasons.
Damien gave a friendly smile as he came into the classroom, “Hey, Mrs. Davidson. How have you been?” He asked.
“I’ve been fine, Damien, but what about you? Last you visited me was well over seven months ago” She was rightfully concerned as Damien is an appreciative boy, he usually visited her at the school at least once a month to just show appreciation to all his old Teachers. “Is everything alright with you?”
As soon as she asked, Damien had this look on his face like he had come to a realization and trying to find reasoning. “Uh, ya know, I’ve been pretty busy over these past 6 months doing...stuff...” He trailed off.
Mrs. Davidson’s half-lidded eyes looked at him, not at all buying his lie, but he didn’t seem hurt or dangerously bothered with it so she just let it. “...Ok, well at least you are fine. May I ask what you came here for? Because I doubt it’s to only grace me with your presence”
Damien held up two fingers, “Two things. 1. I did come by to say hello, and 2. I came to find something that I left behind here”
“Something you left behind?” She wondered “If you left something behind then it would most likely be in the storage area down in the schools' basement where all the other lost and found are kept, but you need to ask the Principal or Vice-Principal as they are the only ones with the key”
“Alright, I guess I’ll be heading to the main office” He sighed “Thanks for the information, Mrs. Davidson. Hope to see you again sometime” Mrs. Davidson gave a small wave goodbye as he turned around and made off into the school hallway. Once he was out of sight, Mrs. Davidson went about teaching her class again in a happier mood with the Old Hunter and her old student, Damien.
“Now, kids.” She began “I want you to take out your textbooks then begin reading from where left off yesterday. For those that don’t remember or weren’t here, it was from page 234 to page 256”. The kids followed her instructions as each one took out red textbooks from their bookbags.
“EWWW!!”
But their attention was caught by a cry of disgust that sounded within the room. The same pigtailed girl that had asked the Old Hunter a question was looking at her opened book in absolute disgust to the point she backed away from it.
Mrs. Davidson approached the girl in concern, “Penny is something wrong?”
The pigtailed girl, Penny, pointed towards the opened pages of her book, “Ew ew ew! Something slimy and gross is inside my book!”
‘Slimy and gross?’ Mrs. Davidson looked inside her students' book to see that something was indeed inside her book. It looked like a glob of gel; it was opaque with various air bubbles moving around inside, the pages were soaking up the liquid consistency where the glob of gel was, spreading out across the paper until it leaked off the edges of the book.
Penny was right but where did it come from? It couldn’t have been there this whole time, most of the pages would have already soaked it up. Mrs. Davidson got her answer when she looked up towards the ceiling of her classroom, and her eyes widened when only being met with the grinning maw of yellow teeth.
…. She didn’t even get to scream