I was dreaming again, but as I was waking up, the events faded from my memory into the darkness of my sleep. Only one thing was burned into my mind: blank, dead eyes.

I opened my eyes only to close them back after being met with a blinding light. I covered the light with my hand just enough for some of the light to seep through my fingers. Once I had adjusted, I realized that I was on a bed; my bed. And I wasn't alone.

It was the smell that came first: the scent of old books. While still lying on the bed, I turned my head to see Professor Crown sitting in a chair reading his book. He was wearing the same tux as he did before. Why was he in my house? Did he find me in the woods and bring me here? How did he know where I lived? What mattered was I was safe at home and, if he was a man of his word, there was no need to rush myself to get an answer from him.

"How long....?" I asked as I tried to right myself up.

"Not long. You were just exhausted is all." Said the professor while still reading his book.

My eyes drifted to my arms and-- "The heck! Where did these tattoos come from!?" Sure enough, there were black tattoos that went from my hands up through my arms. On the back of my hands was a design that looked like a circle with five triangles around it and each triangle corresponded to a finger. Connected to the circle were two thick lines that continued up my arm.

My heart rate quickened and I held up my arm so that Crown could see the tattoos. "Did you do this?" I asked him. No way was I waiting any longer to get some answers to what may be the craziest day of my life. "Why? And who are you?"

The professor raised his hand signaling me to stop. He closed his book and said, "Let me make something clear first." He said as he looked me in the eyes. Despite my outburst, he was quite calm and patient with me. He must have had a lot of practice dealing with similar situations, but he was not void of genuine understanding. "I know you have a lot of questions, but I will not be able to answer all of them here. This is not because I'm trying to hide anything, but rather because we are under a time constraint and it wouldn’t be safe for you if I revealed everything. To answer your first question: I had nothing to do with the tattoos on your arms. Those manifested there during your fight with those leatherbacks."

I was going to ask him what a leatherback was, but he continued while answering my unspoken question. "They're a type of monster."

"Monster? Do you mean like an ascended human?" I asked.

"Not humans. Monsters."

I looked down at the tattoos again. "So what does that make me? Am I still human?" If it wasn’t for the professor, I would have thought I experienced an awakening. It would have made more sense than monsters being real. However, whatever happened with Chase was real and that couldn’t be described as “natural”. To think that I could be like them…

Regardless, I had to know.

"No, you are no longer human." He said.

I was breathless for a moment. "Then what does that mean for me?" Thoughts of every monster movie I've seen came to mind. Some monsters were uncontrollable killing machines and some were trying to live a normal life. I remembered how every creature was hunted and feared by everyone. I imagined myself running from some special forces with their special weapons that were used to kill special things like me. Was that my fate?

I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder. I looked up to find Professor Crown with a comforting smile. He told me, "I know that you don't understand what is going on and that scares you. You want answers. You want to know what all of this means. The truth is all of this doesn't have to mean anything. Your life will not be the same, but if you so choose, you can go about your life without having to worry about what has happened today." He took his hand off my shoulder and sat back down in the chair.

I started thinking again, but one question kept surfacing. "What will happen to my family if I accept this?"

"That depends on you and you alone. Just remember that I am not rushing you." He turns to look out my window. It was getting late with the sun just over the horizon. "Well, I best be off. I shouldn't overstay my welcome." The professor made his way to the door. Before he left, I asked him how would I contact him if I had more questions. He said that all the information I would need would be on the brochure I got in the mail. Not sure what he meant since the brochure didn’t seem to account for this development, but no harm in looking again.

Even after he left my site, I continued to look forward. My mind felt blank and empty. I didn't hear him leave the house(actually, I don't even think he used the door). Looking down at my arms again, I saw that the tattoos were still there. It was like I was looking at someone else’s arms.

The sound of the door opening downstairs jolted me back to reality. I put on a long-sleeved shirt and made my way to see who had entered my home. Only two other people could get in, but the thought of someone capable of getting in and out of my house with ease was a new development I had to be aware of. I felt stupid when I saw Mom at the door.

As soon as she saw me, she smiled and said, "Hey Joe. How was your day today?" She then closed the door behind her.

I looked more like my mom than I did my dad. She was taller than either my dad or me, and her hair added to that height. Each black curl on her head was so neatly separated that I could count each one individually. She was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans and black and white low-top shoes. She put her copy of the house keys into her favorite burgundy bag.

Well, Mom, you could say that my day was active. I was called to the office again only this time to inform me that I'm qualified to enroll in a school that believes in monsters. "Uneventful," I said instead.

For a moment, she gave me a look that told me she didn't believe me. "Well, as long as nothing bad happened." She made her way to the kitchen to find something to eat. "So, when did you get home?"

"Not too recently," I replied as I followed her.

"You must have been busy." She opened the cupboard and grabbed a bag of chips. "I got a call from the school," she turned to me, "and, no, it's not bad." I allowed myself to relax. "They told me that you were getting a scholarship for a university called White Castle. I can't say I've heard of it, but it was nice of them."

Almost instinctively, I looked down at my hands. The tattoos were still there, but my mom had not mentioned anything. Sooner or later someone would notice and I was confident the truth wouldn’t be convincing. Even if I lied, the timing would be my biggest hurdle.

"Joe?" I looked up at my mom. "Are you ok? You zoned out for a bit."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Mrs. February told me about it. I just don't believe it."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I guess it is a lot to take in." Too much if you ask me, I thought to myself. My mom continued, "I'm not surprised, though. Your smart, hardworking--"

"Hey, mom."

"Yes."

"One of the professors from the university actually came to tell me about the scholarship to see if I would like to attend himself."

"Really?" She asked, almost not believing what she was just told.

"The university isn't in the state though. I was wondering how you and Dad would feel if I said I wanted to go." I didn't know where the school was located exactly, nor had I decided whether or not I wanted to go to this 'school'. For all I knew, I would be subjected to a dangerous environment filled with dangerous creatures and a bizarre way of life. And yet, somewhere deep in my heart, I felt drawn to say yes to the offer. Was it blatant curiosity or was it something else deep within me? Whatever the reason, I just wanted to make sure that regardless of what I did I would feel no regrets about it.

My mom smiled warmly at me. "Joe, it doesn't matter what you choose to do. Your father and I love you and if going out of state gets you closer to your goal, then we support you." She made her way towards me and rested her free hand on my head. The chip bag was held in the other hand.

When I was younger, my parents liked to ruffle my non-braided hair. I always hated it and I think that's why they kept doing it. As I got older and life got a bit harder, however, what started as a joke soon became a comforting gesture.

We spent the rest of the time talking about the day that had passed. I did my best to dance around the almost-dying part. Every so often, I would look down at my arms. Mom still hadn't pointed them out or even seemed to have noticed that I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt.

By the time we were done talking, my dad was pulling up in the driveway. After I greeted him, I went to my room. I figured I would get started on my homework considering I didn't get a chance to start after I woke up. Plus it was a good way to get my mind off the day's events. I opened my backpack and dug through my papers to find my assigned worksheets. The thing was I couldn't find them at first. It wasn't until the third scan that I found the sheets of paper I was looking for. Turns out they were already finished in what looked to be my handwriting. I was confused at first but then was immediately overcome with annoyance because I knew it was the professor who did it.

Weird, I thought, why am I annoyed that my homework was done? And even if I ignored the question of how I knew the professor was responsible, how did he manage to write all of this in my handwriting? Actually, wasn't my stuff thrown on the ground by Chase and his friends?

At the thought of Chase, a clear image of his monster form popped into my mind. I remembered when he pinned me to the tree and the pain I felt from it. I grabbed the shoulder where I was stabbed fearfully expecting to be met with the same sharp pain and the inside of my shirt getting stained with my blood. I breathed like I was out of breath, my heart stopped beating loudly in my ears, and I braced for the worse. There was no pain and there was no blood. My body slowly calmed down to a normal state, but my mind lingered on what happened.

It was all real. Everything… everything that I saw truly happened and now…

I put everything back into my bag. From there, I was left with my thoughts until I got ready for bed. I need this day to end.

-------------------

Chase hated getting stitches. He hated the fact that his friends needed stitches. This hate didn't come from a fear of needles or pain; both things he could handle. They reminded him that he and his kind--the leatherbacks--could still get hurt by the simple thing. Unlike vampires or werewolves, they didn't have fast healing, the ability to re-attach their limbs or limited ways to die. But they were the expectations compared to other races.

Many other races didn’t have innate power or only had a chosen few that would get something under certain criteria such as through bloodlines, blessings, or a ritual. Leatherbacks all shared the traits of long-distance sprinting, retractable natural weapons in their claws, and the ever-important ability to change appearances from one's true look to a more human look. In a hierarchical view, leatherbacks were respectfully high on the list of danger potential threats.

Then there were humans. Where vampires had a pool of near-limitless potential and leatherbacks had a strong baseline power set, humans could unlock almost any power without rhyme or reason; a lack of a consistent theme. If two people were to unlock a power during a car wreck, one could get invulnerable skin while the other could phase through the car itself. Even in the same example, the results can vary from a 100% chance of getting powers to a 0% chance and it’s not clear why. Even their development ceiling is undefined as no human has ever reached a true point where they couldn’t grow anymore. In comparison, leatherbacks cannot develop past what they can already do.

Of course, this bothered Chase, but it gave him the freedom to use his speed while still passing off as a human. Humans with abilities were still rare to come by, so Chase still felt superior more times than not. That was until he meet Joe.

Joe was a silent loner when Chase first saw him, but as he did with many people, he never gave Joe the time of day. However, while Bre was keeping some other girls in line, Joe was the only student who stood against her which would lead to Chase and Joe fighting for the first time. The fight was in a public setting where there were a lot of student viewers and no teachers to stop them. Chase had to hold back lest someone recorded him using his superior strength and blowing his cover, but Joe was no slacker when it came to fighting. The fight was brought to a draw by Bre as she started to notice Chase was using more of his true power as the fight went on. Since then, interactions between the two were sparse, but their rivalry was the talk of the school.

Chase was furious for days that he was fought to a standstill by an unpowered human, but he eventually submitted that Bre made the right choice. Besides, he was never a true threat. Even with powers, Joe would have needed to get something unbelievably powerful to become a threat to Chase. But the chances of that were next to impossible to get…

So, why? Why did the impossible happen to him of all people? While it is unclear how the power of Silver is passed down, Chase had heard his fair share of crackpot theories. One said that the person must be a werewolf born and is randomly chosen by Claymore's guard to be infused with the power. The big problem with that was Joe was not a werewolf before today. The other most popular theory was that the power was its own entity that would randomly choose who it would bond with and only reveal itself under certain circumstances. While much more believable than the former considering the situation, it left Chase with questions and loopholes to fill. Were there rules and/or restrictions to that? Could he have been chosen? If not, what made Joe qualified?

Chase continued to think as he watched his girlfriend stitch up the last of the cut wounds on Rick. Each time she weaved the thread through flesh, Chase’s blood boiled hotter. They were sitting on some abandoned bleachers overlooking a baseball field. The sun was sinking into the horizon and the stadium lights washed over the field and the group.

Even though he was distracted, Chase noticed from the corner of his vision a dark figure appearing in the middle of the field; a man, maybe. Even looking directly at it, the figure was shrouded in shadow. They were wearing a hood and a long sleeve coat. One hand was in their pocket while the other sleeve didn’t have an arm in it at all.

"Guys," Chase said, his voice reaching everyone's ears. They all turned to him. "Someone is here." He extended his claws followed by the more battle-ready leatherbacks. Chase might have missed the figure approaching them, but there was something about how they stood in the shadows of the setting sun and a menacing arua that made Chase’s skin crawl. Even if they were human, Chase suspected they were too dangerous to be taken likely.

The figure began to move towards Chase's gang while being mindful to stay in the shadows as best they could. Once the figure was close enough, Chase could tell it was a male with pale skin. It was easy to deduce this man was a vampire, which only made Chase feel defeated. The group had the number advantage, so at the very least, all hope wasn’t lost. However, to make matters worse than worse, if this guy really was a vampire, then it was clear this wasn't a random vamp given he only had one arm.

"Greetings." said the vampire in a soothing tone vamps are known for. "I am--"

"We know who you are." Chase interrupted. "I just want to know why you're here." Sequentially, the rest of the gang looked at Chase with concern and dumbfoundedness. On top of the vampire being infamous, the gang could feel the heavy and menacing aura coming from him. Chase had already felt it and it was stronger up close, but he was not going to be scared a second time that day.

The vampire was unfazed. "I am aware that you have come across a less-than-fortunate event. I came to offer you an opportunity you can't refuse." His eyes began to glow red revealing to the leatherback gang that this vampire wasn’t offering an ordinary deal.

Tense and unmoving, Chase asked, "What do you need?"