This next day was… normal. Nothing was in my room. Nothing was trying to break in. Everything was how it was when the week began. The only thing that was different was me. I had already experienced many horrors that any other man would simply die from shock from witnessing, yet I lived on. Why? Why was it me that had to be in this school? Couldn’t it have been someone else that this rotten luck would have befallen onto? Why must I continue walking when I should be resting, underneath the ground. My life has turned from an actual tragedy, and what would be considered genocide a few hundred years ago, to… life? Some sense of normalcy that I never knew could’ve existed? Why did I feel at ease, even though today, I would be in the most danger. Right? Why… Why can’t I remember what happened yesterday? I have no clue what happened or who I talked to, even though I can clearly see a journal entry. Was I visited? Or… Could I just be in another dream, forcing myself to forget and enjoy this day. Before I could answer myself in another question, my dream faded from reality, forcing my vision to slowly return to real life, a dense fog clouding my vision. Rubbing my eyes, the fog slowly went away, giving way to a blindingly bright sun in my door. Almost too bright. Yet it felt just as warm as ever, maybe even more so. I looked my body over to see if anyone had come in the night and attacked me, but I couldn’t find any damage. My skin was safe, and the same rosy hue that I had when I first entered the school. Blood continued to pump through my body. Nothing was out of the ordinary. I was just tired. I got up, out of my bed, walking over to the bathroom, and cleansing myself of yesterday's activities. Food was slower to be made. But it was still as delicious as I could make it. Anything was better than the gruel I had to endure while being a human slave in… Where had I come from? Was I still dreaming? Or was I actually forgetting who I was before this school happened? I’m not sure. But I never knew the name of where I grew up anyway, so I wasn’t that scared? I continued my morning routine until I was about to get dressed. I had reached for my clothing and saw Priscilla’s clothes that she had left. I sighed at the sight and closed the closet, going to one of my dressers to get some normal clothing on. My foggy memory slowly came back to me the more I moved around, and everything was falling back into place. Yesterday was just… annoying. I had recognized something was going on subconsciously, but I had no idea what it actually was. I couldn’t dwell on such thoughts for the entire day… Right? I had no prior obligations other than meeting up with Priscilla. She was quite the enigma to me. She is supposedly a former human, being in the same position that I am now, yet she is an overwhelmingly popular peer among the student body. The more answers I conjured up, the more questions I received. Today was already exhausting, and it hadn’t even been 3 hours yet. Gathering my thoughts into a nice pile in my mind would definitely help, but with so many running rampant, how could I even focus on just grabbing one? It was a near impossible feat, yet I had achieved the impossible. It had only taken ten minutes, not the hour I thought it was going to be, and I started sorting through them categorically. Who my friends are, who my enemies are, protectors, betrayers… lovers. I was scatterbrained not much longer after thinking about that. Composing myself yet again gave me promising results. I started to think about who was who, even with the little amounts of information I had to begin with, but I made progress. Not wanting to disclose who can help me, I won’t write their names or descriptions in this book, but some have already been mentioned countless times. This room is poorly protected from a human’s view point, but considering most of the perpetrators would be vampires, the room made sense. This will give me an advantage when I need to confront one of them, but it will only help so much. I was still, after all, only human. Even hindered by the sun’s rays, they are far stronger than I could dream of being. After finishing this entry, I will hide this journal for safe keeping, not wanting any information about me or my mental state leaking out. These entries so far have just been recountings. I have been vague on many details on purpose, making sure only certain descriptions are known. But now… I’m just not sure what I can do. At least in terms of school life and possibly dying to Mr. Aronov. But with this journal, if anyone finds this, you will know the horrors that I not only had to endure to survive, but the near death experiences I have had so far, with many more to come. That I know is for certain. From now on, I will be as descriptive as I can be to help anyone reading this visualize what’s happening. With hiding this journal, I will describe everyone that is close to me in detail, starting with the dean. He is an extremely foreboding man. Not only does e represent the distant past, but also the torture that happens to me. Even though he has ensured my safety, it is only for after I have been attacked. He wants to see me tortured mentally because he enjoys the torment it brings to me. He stands at a very intimidating six foot nine. Silver white hair lining his head and facial features. He always wears suits, all black including the shirt, wanting to seemingly hide in the darkness, further adding onto the mental torment. Next is Mr. Aronov. I do not know what his objectives are at all, but I can assume what they could be based on our limited interactions. He singles me out, acts intimidating, loves to torment everyone, not just me, and his personality is just as fiery as his hair. He is unpredictable. While shorter than the dean, he is still a very tall man at six foot five. His face seems like it came from an ancient statue from Greece or something, further adding onto his intimidation factor. His face is completely barren of any facial hair, not even so much as peach fuzz. He likes to wear jewelry, especially earrings from the looks of it, having five pieces on one ear. He wears a necklace with an old Roman symbol. I do not know what the symbol actually means, but it looks like a staff with two ovals sitting at the top in the center, in between what look like two sperm cells with baby heads on either of them. I am not well versed in ancient roman symbols or coins, but I had just learned of two twin emperors who were ruthless, bearing the same symbol on the day of their birth. Mr. Aronov could be one of those twins… But they are centuries, millenia dead. I was told about the twin emperors during my common sense class, but they didn’t show any pictures of busts or anything. Only paintings or artists' renditions of the twin emperors. I can’t tell who he is by just examining his looks. I need more information. But how would I find out more about him? I know the dean would do an investigation of his own, but would he tell me what he finds? This first WEEK has been more eventful than my entire time in a human school. Not just the assignments, but also the environment that I was being taught in. The first day was horrible, as expected honestly. But being told that I could let anyone drink my blood was daunting to say the least. I have no idea why the vampires would give such a luxury to a human, even if I was able to find my way into this school. I’m not sure how to handle this school. Many of the people are… “kind,” they treat me as nicely as they’re used to, but… most of them are fake anyways. It’s hard for me to tell if they are being genuine or not. They are the perfect actors. I can’t learn their mannerisms very easily, especially since I am constantly terrified for my life. In this school, people are for themselves first before they help others. They are always calculating the best course of action for when to talk, intervene, or even, to attack. When I was knocked out for scoring in soccer, that didn’t feel calculated. It hurt like hell obviously, but it was much more emotional than smart. I understand why he attacked me, but I don’t understand why the dean expelled him. During the assembly he had to announce my presence, he had mentioned my blood, but harm was a lot less emphasized. Right? Today was already half done as noon rolled around much faster than I had expected it to, and my stomach started to grumble. I made myself some food and walked out of my dorm room, wanting to go for a walk to see if I can find anything that can help me understand this school more, since I obviously am missing several hints and clues. There wasn’t much in the forest unfortunately. I did find an old rotted book though. The only letters I could make out were “-ck.” The forest had taken too much of the book and the bookworms had eaten way too much for me to read, let alone touch, this book. Exiting the forest after about three hours, I went back into my dorm room and found a note from Priscilla. It read “Plans are still open if you want to meet again.” Feeling much better about today, I figured a good time to meet up with her would be sometime near eight in the afternoon. I wanted to look for more clues, if there even were any. Not sure where else to look, I decided to go closer to the school and look for more clues for this building’s history. Other than finding precisely trimmed grass, I didn’t find anything whatsoever. If I were to find anything, it would be in the forest since that seemed to be more wild and untamed than right next to the school. While I was walking past a couple of windows however, I felt a set of eyes peering towards me and then heard something thud onto the ground from behind. I turned around to see a book lying a few paces back, but couldn’t see or feel the eyes. I walked to the book and picked it up. There was nothing on the outside or the spine of the book to tell me what the book was called, but it was thick. Curiosity was rushing through me, but I figured it best to wait to read the book when I returned to my dorm room. I tucked the book into my side, my arm holding it into the right side of my body, periodically switching which sides of my body the book was on. I walked around the school more and finally took in the full majesty of this ancient and magnificent building. It had multiple steeples, stained glass windows depicting what I could only assume were other vampires. One in the center even showed one of them hung up on a cross with his hands and feet nailed into it. Must’ve been extremely ancient considering the clothing the person on the cross was wearing, and the bystanders depicted in the background. They most likely figured out they were a vampire or something similar to have ostracized and tortured him to that extent. The other windows were much more faded than the center window. Only the shapes being noticeable. The colors were completely gone. The state of the other windows made the center window even more curious. He had to have been a very important figure in not only vampire history, but human as well for it to be treated like a precious treasure. But then why would the others not be cared for at all? Were they traitors perhaps? I cannot figure this out in one evening walk so I continued past and walked around to the front entrance. It felt so empty. No students walking around, being a nuisance, or even pestering me. It felt oddly surreal, like this is how life is supposed to be, yet I know it to be different. This school did not feel authentic without people, without students populating its entrance, its courtyard or its windows. This feeling must be something I cherish to dissociate from my everyday life to stay sane. Otherwise, I won’t be long for this world and offer myself up to the closest vampire. That… That won’t happen. I’ll make sure of it. Through the next four hours, I simply walked the campus grounds and searched for any other clues, only finding simple boulders that had words carved into them, now long since etched away by centuries of rainwater eroding the contents of the words. Although, on one that looked to be the oldest, it was closer to the tree line of the forest, it was overgrown with vines and roots. I’d brushed some of the vines and dirt away to see if anything remained of the etched texts, and to my surprise and horror, there were letters… and numbers. The letters indeed spelled out RedCrest Academy, or at least the start of RedCrest. But the numbers couldn’t be right. They were far too ancient to be relevant. The dates that were written were 1927-1928. Millennia before I was even conceived, before my ancestors two hundred years ago were even born. Centuries before the rise of the vampire empire. Something they always teach to humans, no matter what, are dates of important events they deem worthy to teach to us. All the dates they give are recent, such as 3792, the year Elias Edwards came to power. This stone would be nearly two millennia older than Elias Edwards. Why has this school been around for so long, and why has it been left standing with such a name? It is truly hard to believe what this stone has revealed for me, but I can’t stare at this forever. I moved along from the stone and walked along the edge some more, finding a couple more stones with similar writing carved into them like the first, only the dates were getting closer and closer to the present day, winding inwards towards the front of the school. The stones that weren’t covered with vines and dirt being the ones I saw first, almost completely eroded away. But the closer to the entrance I got, the more legible the words and numbers became, eventually stopping at the current year, 4273-4274. How many more stones are there? Why are there so few stones yet such a wide range of years between the last I saw and the next? There were even some separations that ranged from years to centuries. Could they be wars that stopped the school from functioning because they couldn’t have students learn here comfortably? It is impossible to correctly guess why the long gaps between stones, but the only way I could know is if I asked the dean. Surely he would have the records of the school that went as far back as 1927. That should be left for another day as it is getting close to eight pm now. The sun slowly setting in the distant horizon is very calming for what I am about to learn. But I will still bask in the glow of the setting sun, letting the warmth comfort me for the moment. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes for the moment left me vulnerable and it felt… liberating. I could float on a cloud with how much stress had been released. It was a feeling like nothing else. But the feeling quickly ended as I felt that same pair of eyes on me as before when I had found the book. I quickly opened my eyes and whipped around looking for where I was being watched from. Unable to find them, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and cautiously walked to the girl’s dormitory where Priscilla was being housed. After walking to the building or dorm rooms, I asked the building supervisor which room Priscilla was bunking in. She scoffed and said “Careful human, she’s a biter.” Cackling to herself at her ever so hilarious joke. While the joke itself wasn’t terrible, I’d heard it a million times before. Seeing that I was undeterred from her joke, she sighed and said “Room 307. Third floor if you’re stupid.” I rolled my eyes at her and walked away with the information. She went back to whatever she was doing, but before I had started to make my way up the stairs to go to the third floor, I felt the same pair of eyes on me again. This time, the glare was much more intense. And I knew where it was coming from this time. The supervisor had been tailing me, letting their bloodlust be known for a few seconds at a time while I was walking about the campus. I glared down the corridor back to her, flinching as what I saw was a horrifying visage of a person. It was truly a horrible sight. It would be nearly impossible for me to tell you how she looked as I couldn’t see her face clearly, but her eyes had the same reflective glow that Priscilla’s did when I saw her “true” face. A shudder went down my spine as the glow disappeared. I continued up the stairs and eventually walked up to Priscilla’s floor. I knocked on her door and waited a few moments before the door to her room swung open towards the room itself, not out into the hall. She stood there, now barely taller than me, maybe half a head taller now rather than a full head taller. She beamed a smile at me and asked “How was your day pipsqueak?” I gave a shallow laugh to her remark and said “It was fine, but now I have more questions than I know what to do with. Hopefully you can help me with them.” She bit her lip holding in her laugh and said, straining her voice “Sure. I’ll help as much as I can.” She invited me into her room and it was… Completely barren of color or souvenirs. The walls were grey and darker grey, making for a very drab room in comparison to mine which had red walls, and a maroon ceiling. Now that I thought about it, the room coloring was too on the nose. Anyways, I walked into her room and took note of everything around me, mainly what could be used as weapons by either of us if it called for it. She knew what I was doing and said “Hey, Pee-Wee. Do you really feel unsafe around me?” I turned my head back towards her and nodded my head rather confidently. She held a hand up to her chest and said “That hurt. More than you could know.” She smiled softly and said “Alright. Let’s have a seat and get started. What questions do you have?” I took a seat after her and started with asking rapid fire questions such as “What is this school hiding? Why are humans allowed to come here when they are in so much danger? Who is the dean and why is he so gungho about the rules to the point that if I get harmed, the student responsible gets expelled?” She held up a hand for me to stop and said “OK! Calm down. First off, this school has secrets that I do not know. You’d have to ask the dean. For the last two questions, Both are weird. Humans being allowed to go here is only recent history. Like three hundred years ago recently. And the dean… I have no clue. I asked him when I was a human student and he laughed it off rather loudly, expecting that to be my answer. He is so gungho about the rules because he’s the one that implemented them in the first place. He’s the reason for the human students being allowed here. And that is why students that harm you, no matter what, get expelled. What he said during the assembly was mainly a scare tactic to keep students in line, but the senior students know his words are not vague and not empty.” I nodded and took a deep breath. I look towards the book that was now in my lap and lift it asking, “Did you leave this behind me?” Priscilla carefully took it out of my hands and looked through it carefully since nothing could be read on the outside, not even a synopsys. After giving it a once over, she snapped it closed and handed it back rather quickly. “Whatever this book is, I cannot say. But I did not give it to you. I have been in my room all day. Whoever gave that to you is sending a message… One that you will not like.” I nodded slowly and set the book down on my lap once again. I sighed some more and asked “Do you know how old this school is?” Priscilla thought for a moment, closing her amber eyes before looking back towards me and saying “Best I can say is maybe… a millennia? I don’t know. Why? Did you find something to prove or contradict that?” I nodded and said “There are these stones. I thought they all were boulders just buried in the ground, but they’re just slabs. Slabs with the name of the school, and the year. The oldest slab I had found dated back to 1927.” Priscilla was awe struck with that information as she never would’ve imagined the school would be that old. She went deep into thought for a moment and said “Wondered what those stones were. Guess I should’ve looked closer when I found them.” I sighed and got ready for the most important question. “Priscilla… Have you ever looked into the mirror and seen…” Before I finished, Priscilla raised her hand and said “Don’t. I know what you’re talking about and… sort of. I only have seen that face on others. Mainly after I had turned into one of them. But you shouldn’t be turned… right? Or did that attack give you a start in that direction? You shouldn’t be able to see that at all since you’re human. But just so you know, if you see that face anywhere else, just know, that person knows the face you’re seeing, and will see it as an… Acceptance for their true form or something? I don’t know. All I know is that I wasn’t actually accepted into their society until I saw that face. Whatever it is, it’s sacred to them.” I shivered once again and tensed up, looking around the room, feeling the pair of eyes once again. I looked towards the window that pointed to the forest and froze completely still. The face we were just discussing was looking back at me through the window, wings beating in the air, keeping the body afloat. The eyes were a crimson red that reflected the glow of the room back towards us. The hair on top being even more interesting as it was orange hair. The face was even more bat-like, but was from a nightmare. The bat-like being screeched at me before flying away to the forest, disappearing into the distant treeline. Priscilla had apparently not seen this creature or heard the screech, but knew what I was seeing. She was shaking me rather violently before I snapped back to reality, not realizing the torrential downpour of sweat that I was producing. I gasped for air and slumped forward, grasping my head tight, mumbling to myself. “He saw me. He saw me.” Over and over again. After a couple of minutes, I regained my composure and stared at Priscilla, not wanting to go outside to my dorm room at all anymore. I set the book aside, trying to set it onto a side table, but letting it fall to the floor. I put myself into the fetal position and rocked back and forth from the terror of what I saw. Priscilla was talking at me, trying to help me break out of this terrified state I was in. It wasn’t until she asked about the hair color that I snapped out of it. She had asked “What was the hair color? Was it jet black?” I looked at her confused, slowly relaxing my tense body, shaking my head. After several deep sighs, I closed my eyes and rubbed them aggressively. I sighed softly and said “No. Its hair was orange. Like… the brightest orange I had ever seen.” Now Priscilla was even more confused and said “That can’t be right. Jet black was what I saw. Why is yours different?” The more confused she got, the more terrifying the situation became. Then I thought back to the building supervisor. She had the same color hair as the bat being. I looked at Priscilla and said “It had to have been your building supervisor. She had the exact same hair color. There’s no other explanation.” Priscilla shook her head again and said “It can’t be because she’s part human. More human than vampire. She got the everlasting life of a vampire, but the rest of her traits were human. She has been in this school longer than the dean.” I shook my head and said “It had to be her. If it’s not her, then who…” Then it hit me. “Isn’t Mr. Arronov's hair as bright as the supervisor’s hair?” Priscilla nodded and groaned. I covered my eyes and leaned back into the chair. I uncovered my eyes and looked out the window once again. Not seeing anything this time. Then the last little bit of sunlight left the room. Priscilla sighed and said “You should know that we can hide our faces when we want to, but you can’t stay in my room all night. I know what you saw just mortified you beyond your wildest nightmares, but you have to go back to your dorm. I can walk you back to keep you safe. Your dorm is the safest place for you right now. I have no idea how the dean did it, but nothing can enter at night. You’ll be safe.” I groaned rather pathetically, but I took her on her word. Somewhat not believing her. I had to trust her if I wanted to even try to sleep tonight. After some more relaxing, I eventually walked out of her room and building with her, passed the supervisor, and into the forest to my dorm room. Whatever she was saying, I couldn’t hear over the sound of my heart beat. It got louder and faster the closer I got to the forest. I entered my dorm room and said softly “Good night.” before closing the door, and setting the book down onto a night stand. Priscilla walked away and I turned off my lights, and Priscilla seemed to be right about nothing getting in during the night because the only thing I could do was watch the eyes of the bat being walked around my dorm for hours on end, circling me and my belongings, wanting to sink their fangs into my neck. I couldn’t turn on any lights in fear of it knowing for a fact I was awake, even though I knew it could see me as clear as day. It wouldn’t leave until the first light of the next day. I never left my bed. I couldn’t sleep. I’ll sleep all day tomorrow and hope the thing doesn’t get in. While I may be safe at night, I have no idea about the day. As the sunlight grew brighter and stronger, the eyes faded into the forest more and more, sinking away into the inky black, the body seemingly growing smaller. Not because of the perspective I had, but because it physically shrank right before my eyes. A white smile of mostly human teeth greeting me along with the eyes before they fully disappeared. Tonight was the worst night I could’ve had, other than someone being murdered before my eyes. I doubt I’ll write anything for tomorrow, or today I should say, because I plan to sleep, and keep the door locked.

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