Location: My Dorm, Bedroom
Time: 9:17 AM, 11/11/2103
There’s never been much in my life that I’ve taken pride in, but one of the few things I would always brag about was never missing a day of work at any of my part time jobs. Every day I would start work at Kathy’s Bakery at 5:00 AM. On school days I’d work until 7:00 AM, and on days without school, I’d work until noon. Then at night, I’d work at the Flying Pig butcher shop from 6:45 PM to 11:00 PM.
That’s why I couldn’t understand why my phone was boldly displaying 9:17 AM. I had just woken up and my phone was already displaying such an unreasonable time without any regard to my feelings.
On any other day I’d have started running to work immediately, but I wasn’t idealistic enough to pretend everything that happened the night prior was a dream. The fact that I could see everything clearly in my pitch black room was proof enough that it was all real. Not to mention the number of times I bit the inside of my mouth by mistake with my canines. Rushing wouldn’t help. I decided to take a moment to think things over.
Sorry, that was a lie. I was rushing. Absolutely frantic. Sure, I was turned into a vampire, but in the face of not showing up to work, potentially even getting fired, becoming a vampire was a minor detail I was willing to overlook. As I was furiously pulling up the first pair of pants I could find I grabbed my phone, planning on calling Kathy and letting her know I was on my way.
Eight unread messages. Hey, hey, hey, what’s that about? I don’t make enough to afford those kinds of messaging rates. If I knew I was going to be that popular I’d have sprung for a different phone plan.
* 8:53 AM, sender: Lucy Lupine.
* I mean, things were a little bit my fault, so I’ll understand if that’s your only way of explaining things. I could learn to deal with it.
* 8:44 AM, sender: Lucy Lupine.
* Have you woken up yet? Ellie said you’d be fine, but I’m still a little worried. And make sure you don’t say anything weird about me. I wouldn’t forgive you if weird rumors start spreading about us. I definitely don’t want people to start thinking we’re in any kind of relationship.
* 6:14 AM, sender: Kathy.
* I just got a call from your roommate. He let me know you weren’t feeling well. I know you wouldn’t miss work without a good reason, so don’t push yourself. We can handle a few days without you.
* 6:01 AM, sender: Josh.
* I’m not sure what’s going on, but I called that bakery you work at and gave some excuse about you being sick. Don’t rush out as soon as you wake up.
* 5:23 AM, sender: Kathy.
* You didn’t take today off, did you? I don’t think you’ve ever been late before. Is everything alright?
* 12:17 AM, sender: Lucy Lupine.
* And sorry about going through your phone and entering our contact information. But it’s partially your fault for not having a passcode.
* 12:15 AM, sender: Master.
* This is Elodie. Congratulations, you’ve successfully become my minion. I’m sure you're curious about all this, but leave it for now. Just keep a low profile. I’ll contact you again when the time is right. Turning a normal human into an aberration isn’t exactly legal, so try to keep quiet about it.
* 12:11 AM, sender: Lucy Lupine.
* Ellie says we should keep away from you, but since we go to the same school that will seem even more unnatural. Just make sure to act natural around me.
Seriously? I can understand the need for discretion, but wasn’t that too much? They went beyond throwing me to the wolves, as even Lucy didn’t plan on helping. I suppose being a vampire isn’t that big of a deal. I exited my room with an open mindset.
Based on the text messages I’d received, heading to work at that point would have just caused more problems. I’d just have to give the apology of the century the next day.
The dorm I lived in was far beyond what most would expect from any high school. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. Each room was fully furnished and the appliances were all less than five years old.
I couldn’t help thinking that it was overly extravagant, but it was the cheapest dorm layout available at the private school I went to. What was I doing at such a swanky school? Forget about paying for the fancy dorm room, obviously there’s no way someone like me could even afford tuition.
That’s where connections come in. The school was run by someone you might consider a family friend, and he was willing to let me in for a fraction of the price. After already deciding to abandon my family I was hesitant to so quickly rely on someone connected to them, but it was my best option.
After graduating from such a nice school I could go to any university in the empire. And then my future would be secure. I could probably even get an exemption from military service.
Typically serving in the military would have been a boon for someone in my position, but for me, that wasn’t an option. No way. Even thinking about what would happen if I served in any kind of official capacity scared me too much to consider it. I’m sure it would end with a massive statue of me constructed in some freshly conquered territory.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Either way, those were issues for future Henry to deal with.
After leaving my bedroom I made a quick stop at the bathroom.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it seemed like something was missing as I looked into the mirror.
Sorry, that was a bad joke. Everything was missing. Despite already expecting it, staring into a mirror that was only reflecting the wall behind me was oddly annoying.
Oh well. No point in worrying about something like that. It’s not like I was someone who spent any time using makeup or styling my hair anyway.
A pleasant smell was coming from the kitchen. After finishing up in the bathroom I decided to head that way.
“Something smells good, what’re the two jays cooking today?” I was directing my questions toward my roommate and his girlfriend: Josh and Jess. They were sitting together at the table in the kitchen area.
“Stop.” Jess looked at me with scornful eyes.
“Stop what?”
“Calling us the two jays. As much as I love couple nicknames, I don’t want one from you.”
“Fair enough.” I thought it was pretty good though.
“And stop trying to look cool. What’s up with that hair color? And are you wearing colored contacts?”
Hair color? Contacts? What was she talking about? I picked up the metallic toaster and tried to check my reflection.
Obviously, yeah, there was nothing there.
“Hey, what color does my hair look to you guys? And for good measure, my contacts too. I’m not sure how it turned out.”
“Reddish pink and golden.” Josh gave me a quick answer.
“Honestly, it doesn’t look good on you.” Jess made sure to give her input as well.
Reddish pink and golden. That description matched a certain vampire I met the day before. Well, I would have probably just described her hair as pink, but Josh was probably being generous.
I already knew there was no standard for hair and eye color among aberrations, so it must have just been a special characteristic of Elodie’s form of vampirism.
“Well, I’m not too worried about it. Besides, there are more important issues on the table. What’s that good smell? Whatever you guys made smells great. Was it meat? Were you guys cooking meat without me?”
“Sorry, but there’s no meat. I was going to cook breakfast for Jess and myself, but I ended up cutting my back with the knife. As for the smell, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
His back?
“Oi, Jess, what were you thinking, letting your boyfriend here use a knife?”
“I know, he grabbed it without me knowing.”
If I were to list my roommate’s top 10 flaws, 1-9 would be his clumsiness, while 10 would be his complete ignorance of his clumsiness.
“Why is it that you two only agree on things like that? I can handle a knife.”
Josh started reaching for the wooden block on the counter which housed the knives. I moved with an unnatural speed to block him off.
“We believe you, so there’s no need to prove it.”
“I’m not an idiot, I can tell you don’t believe me.”
“Well, there’s still no need to prove it.”
“Honey, can we leave already? Your roommate is so cheap that he can smell a free meal before you even start cooking it. Let’s just go out to eat privately at a restaurant he couldn’t afford.”
“That last part wasn’t necessary. If you left at a time like this, clearly I wouldn’t be invited. You didn’t need to bring up my finances.” Besides, any restaurant is one I couldn’t afford.
“Go out? It’s rare for Henry to be off work, so let’s eat together.”
Abhorrence, revulsion, disgust. If you somehow managed to combine those three words it would still end up coming short of the look on Jess’s face after hearing Josh’s suggestion.
“Honey, I love you and everything, but can you avoid saying such repugnant things on a Sunday?”
“Why point out that it’s Sunday? In your eyes has my existence become an affront to the church?”
It had, but Jess had no way of knowing that.
“If it makes you feel any better, in the face of my feelings toward you the day of the week is irrelevant.”
“Surprisingly, I don’t feel much better about that.”
“Good. I couldn’t live with myself if I ended up making you feel better.”
“Hey, Josh, your girlfriend’s personality has never been great, but it seems a little harsher than usual.”
“Ahaha.” Josh started laughing awkwardly. “It’s probably about what happened last night.”
“Last night? What happened last night?”
A lot happened to me, but I didn’t know what I could have done to Jess.
“What happened? That’s what I’d like to know. Care to explain why your shirtless, unconscious body was carried back here by one of our classmates and some girl I’d never seen before?”
“Shirtless? It was damaged, but did they actually throw it out? It was only a bit of a hole, I could have fixed it.”
“That’s hardly the point!”
“So you know Lucy then? Small world.”
“That’s even less important!”
“Well, you know, as for why all that happened. . .”
I thought about what kind of excuse I could make. Bike accident, sudden illness, aliens. There were plenty of options, I just had to make sure whatever I said matched up with the excuse Lucy and Elodie gave them.
“Basically, it’s like this: that girl turned me into a vampire.”
Lying would just be more trouble. What’s wrong with admitting the truth? Most stories like this could be resolved in half the time if people didn’t bother trying to hide things.
In the face of my honesty, it’s safe to say the two jays had the reaction that I should have had the night before. Obviously they knew about augmentations and aberrations, but they weren’t expecting to find one in the kitchen. I feel like most people involved with that kind of stuff forget that normal people like Josh and Jess live in a completely separate world from us. I don’t think either of them even knew I was an augmented.
Safe to say they didn’t believe me until I managed to lift the refrigerator with one hand.