I didn’t do anything strenuous today. Walked around when I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t bring myself to go to sleep with such a monster near me in the woods. I couldn’t go back into the woods because I never know what could be lurking behind a tree. With such a nightmare trying to hunt me, I don’t know how long I can survive. Such little sleep too, I don’t know when I will pass out. I hope it was a one off, but knowing this school and world, it most likely will happen more often than I would care for. I searched for more clues, but came up empty on multiple avenues. The only thing I haven’t searched is the book that appeared behind me. It was completely empty on both cover and spine. The title when I opened the book was Moby Dick. An ancient story of a whaler named Captain Ahab obsessing over a giant sperm whale given the name Moby Dick. It is a large and heavy book that would take months for me to read in between school days and school work. I am not sure why this book had just appeared, but I am more curious as to who had left it behind me, and why. Could they be telling me that someone is obsessing over something to the point that they are hurting others? Could they mean that I am obsessing over something that in the long term is benign? Or could I be the proverbial whale of the story and someone is trying to kill me? All of these are very real possibilities in my mind. Especially with last night's happenings. But without this story, I have nothing else to go on for clues. This is a big clue for me, hopefully, but for figuring out this school, it does little to tell me anything. It has only been a week, but I feel like I have aged decades just from the stress. This school was difficult to get into, even if the dean wants me to believe he let me in on purpose. What could the dean possibly be planning? Is he even planning something? Or has he gone senile? It’s hard to get a read on him because he’s just so… unpredictable. Not unlike the students here. Like I have said before, they are actors, trying to trick me into giving them my blood. But then why wouldn’t they take the chances of getting it forcefully? There have to be other schools. Or could this be the only one? I have no idea or context to make a firm belief in this being the only school, especially since this school is centuries upon centuries old. This can’t be the only school. It just doesn’t make sense for it to be. Ok. Gotta think of something else other than theories. And whales apparently. Why did that group of vampires decide to make me their friend? Could Priscilla be the only genuine one since she and I have something in common? Or is she making that up to get on my good side so I could let her have my blood? Is she even telling the truth about her once being a human? Does she feel the same way about me? Can she even feel… love? Nevermind. Theories are better than this train of thought. But what should I do when there is this… monster outside my home? Can I even walk around outside anymore, except for school? Who is that monster supposed to be? Why did priscilla know of the monster but not the correct hair color? Could Priscilla be a former human and that monster was the one that turned her all those years ago? Could Priscilla be that monster? Can she turn into one of them and then just turn me at her whim? Is she even after my blood? Could Mr. Arronov be the monster and just wants to get rid of me? Why does he want me dead if that is the case? How can they even turn into that monster? Are only some of them able to turn into it? Does it have to be a specific night for them to turn into it? Does it connect to the blood frenzy my previous Biology teacher spoke about? So many questions. No answers. Why does it have to be a giant flying bat of all things? I can’t look for answers with that thing flying around. It’d make me too easy of a target. Considering it went into the forest, it can probably climb the trees too, or at least walk around normally with no hindrance at all. I want answers. No. I NEED answers. Why can’t they teach this in a human specific class? It’s their fault I know nothing of their world. They teach nothing of the sort in human schools. Why? Do they want to tell us of our ancestors' failures to notice their rise to power and keep us subservient? To teach us of their hubris? Why why WHY CAN”T I GET ANY OF THE ANSWERS I WANT?!!?!?! This school is supposed to teach us about the workings of the vampire world. NOT ABOUT HOW THEY CAN KILL HUMANS IN COUNTLESS WAYS!!! The only class I learned anything important in was BIOLOGY! Then the teacher had to go and get fired because… why was he fired? I gave him permission to have my blood, even if I felt pressured for it. I still gave verbal consent. I wasn’t influenced by any other means. I mainly agreed because… I wanted to see what would happen. Yet he was still fired. The dean is up to something. I need to understand what he is up to. I’ll go see him. Now. The walk to the dean’s office was unexpectedly uneventful. Inside the school was expectedly empty seeing as everyone was gone for a while longer. I didn’t bother looking at the clock right now, just wanting to get some answers. When I stood in front of the doors, I shoved them open. The office had the same grandeur as when I first entered this room. Neat piles of books to the side of his desk, an antique looking lamp, currently turned off, sunlight blocking curtains opened for the windows to give natural light, a rather large desk and chair. Empty chair. The dean wasn’t here. He must’ve been somewhere else for the weekend. But why? What could be more important than running the best vampire school there is? Family is the first thing to come to mind, but the dean is old. VERY old. Does he have any living family members that he can visit? Children maybe? But he doesn’t keep any pictures of them anywhere in his office. Where is the dean? Feeling defeated, I left the office, closing the doors, realizing something. I remembered when my music teacher had mentioned how she had taught the dean’s kids music. He has to be with his family. Even for the short while that is the weekend. While leaving, I rubbed my eyes, exhausted at this point, wanting to either take a nap, or talk to Priscilla some more. Before I chose what to do for the rest of the day, I decided to get some food to try and give me some more energy to finish off this day… even though I still had hours upon hours left before going back to sleep… or finally go to sleep. I was still so scared of whatever that thing was, wondering if it would come back or not, hoping it wouldn’t and just disappeared, but knowing my luck at this school, I figured it would come back and be gone for the week to repeat the process for the next weekend. I made it back to my dorm without incident and made myself something called “Grilled Cheese.” I have no idea why my ancestors had decided to grill a sandwich with nothing but cheese, but believed it to be a good meal since they had eaten it for an extremely long time after it was invented. It was relatively simple to make, but I had burned a couple sides of the sandwiches themselves, causing a char taste to overtake some of my bites. The meal was still good for me to do, but I wanted to read some more books on my ancestor’s history to find out if there was a way to either not burn the bread, or mask the char flavor I would no doubt make again. I would leave that research for another day however, and had made my decision to go and talk to Priscilla some more, wanting to get as many answers as I could from her before the year would abruptly end and she was gone. The same lady was there like yesterday, writing me down into a chart that I hadn’t noticed before. Most likely to keep tabs on who is in and out of the building, kicking out any rowdy students that overstay their welcome. I walked up the stairs to Priscilla’s room like yesterday, politely knocking, hoping she was awake. During the week, vampires of any background are expected to be awake for school, to be alert. But on the weekends, that's when the students needed their “sleep.” After I had knocked on her door, I heard an overwhelmingly loud growl from the otherside of it, taking a step back. Not wanting to be skewered by teeth when the door opens, I got closer to the door and said “Priscilla? It’s Simon. Would it be fine if we talked some more-...” I had wanted to say what I wanted to talk about, but the door snapped open and I was yanked inside. Priscilla slammed the door shut and said “If you want to talk, especially on the weekend, just don’t. What do you want?” I was beet red from the sudden yanking and how tight her grip was. It was horrifying to say the least, but I was able to regain some of my composure. Not enough to where I wasn’t a stuttering mess. “P-Priscilla. Sorry for w-waking you. I just w-wanted to know if y-you had gone to school w-with the dean’s c-children.” She sighed and grabbed a chair, spinning it around and sitting down like a proper lady. She waited for me to finish speaking my question and slid another chair towards me and said “Yeah. They were complete dicks because they got away with everything. Except of course turning me. And before you eventually stutter out your surprise, yes. One of the dean’s kids turned me and was disowned for breaking their father’s rule. No, that does not make me apart of his family. No, I do not remember the name of the jackwad that turned me. Anything else? Or can I go to sleep?” Understanding her tiredness, I shook my head and pushed the chair back to where it was, some sweat still dripping down my face. Priscilla sighed and said “Don’t wake me on the weekend, unless I tell you it’s fine, alright?” I nodded and then promptly left, wondering if I need to get some sleep before I do something as stupid as that again. Needless to say, the lady that wrote me into the building was not expecting me down from Priscilla’s room so soon since we had spent a while talking with each other yesterday, but she didn’t ask what happened. She just signed me out and went back to being bored. I assume she lives for the rowdy students, wanting to reprimand them rather than be here on the weekends. The benefits have to be good for her to stay here. I don’t even know how long she has worked here. I mean I can’t know because the first week has only just ended. But with the rest of the year to look forward to, I think she could get used to me enough to talk. I hope she doesn’t. Walking back out onto the school grounds, I just sat in the front courtyard, waiting for something or someone to walk pass, or for the dean to return. After about 10 minutes, I had done the absolutely idiotic thing and passed out. Either the trauma of last night finally withered, or the exhaustion had caught up, but before I knew it, 6 hours had passed. I was now fully rested enough to have some energy, and saw the cause for my awakening. A bus… had pulled up to the courtyard. A bright yellow bus was right in front of me. It seemed to have just arrived by the doors swinging open and letting students out. I checked my cheap watch to look at the time and found that it was nearly 7:32 pm. Students filtered out rather quickly, the pure bloods getting off first and sprinting to get inside. I just noticed that all of the windows were tinted. So tinted that I couldn’t even see how many students were showing up to go back to school. I’d hoped this was the first bus to come back, but when I looked around, there were 6 others parked next to the school. My face had gone white as all of the blood left my face. The fact that I could still use my skin as a factor to tell if I was bitten or not did help, but it didn’t help my anxiety. I felt around my neck for any puncture wounds or any dried blood, finally, relief filling my body to find I was safe. I leaned back into my seat and saw the other vampires getting off in a more organised fashion. Clearly being mixed blood since they weren’t rushing to get inside. Only jogging. I had seen some familiar faces walk out of the school. The group of vampires that had made me a part of their group. They walked over to me and asked how my weekend alone on campus was. I gave a shaky sigh and just shrugged. They sat down next to me and the new de facto leader of the group said “Well, from the look of you after we came back, ya know, being passed out and all, we thought you just partied too hard. Then we all got to talking. You saw it, didn’t you?” I tilted my head and asked “Saw… what?” They all lit up and said “You DID see it!” They started talking all at once, sharing ghost stories and old wives tales about a giant bat, every detail being the same, the only difference being the hair. After the stories were finished being told, the new leader looked at everyone in disbelief saying “Seriously? Everyone knows the bat’s hair is blonde.” Then arguments started, some even saying the bat had ginger hair. I sat up straight and said “Hey! Instead of arguing, shouldn’t you be asking me what it looked like?” They all simmered down but then agreed. Someone else speaking, this time a girl with dyed purple hair and lip piercings asked “So, Mr. Knowitall, what did it look like?” I sighed and rubbed my head. After some moments of silence, I gave the exact same description, going into more specifics about the size since that was what mattered to me when I was trying to go to sleep, but when I got to the hair, I was even more descriptive, like a victim from a gruesome catastrophe in old human stories, talking about how it was curly, shimmered in the moonlight, or whatever light there was to shine off of it, how long it was, and finally, the hair color. I was talking so much that one of the other students, A tall guy with the same curly and ginger hair as the bat monster, said, “OH MY GOD! Just tell us the hair color!” I Groaned in annoyance and said “It was ginger hair. EXACTLY like yours.” His face went to an even paler shade of white. He didn’t know what to say. Everyone turned to him and couldn’t find the words to say. I stood up and confronted him about it and asked “Did you… terrorize me throughout the night?” He choked on his words and said “N-... no… I swear I didn’t. You can ask everyone here, my hair color has changed throughout the decades we’ve known each other. Right?” Everyone else stood behind me and the purple haired girl said “Answer the question dipstick. He said it looked EXACTLY like your hair right now. Your previous hair colors don’t matter. Was it you?” The now exposed fake ginger student stuttered his life away, trying time and time again to make an excuse, but falling just short of giving a straight answer. I piped up and asked everyone who could answer “What other hair colors did the bat monster have?” Everyone answered, one after the other, the student's face got paler, and paler, until he looked like a piece of paper. He stopped trying to talk and just took a seat and said very loudly “YES! FINE! I did.” The leader walked around me and decked him. He wanted to punch some more but one of the other students stopped him. The fake ginger stood up holding his face and said “And I’d do it again. Just like those other human students who think they belong here.” He tried to spit on my shoes but was shoved away. He choked back the spit he had tried to expel, but groaned, walking away, standing tall like he didn’t do anything wrong. I sighed and sat back down, my body shaking. I rubbed my eyes and just walked away, the other students trying to talk to me, but didn’t pursue me. I rubbed my eyes some more and had found my way back to my dorm. I walked in and slammed the door shut, a panic attack resurfacing. This school isn’t healthy for me. I was asking to be killed simply by existing. But this panic attack… wasn’t a panic attack. It was something far simpler, and worse. It was a rush of adrenaline. It was the sense of confronting the impossible and overcoming the odds. A victory so small that it wasn’t even considered a battle by the other students. I uncovered my face and walked to the bathroom to splash my face with water. After splashing myself I stared at my face, a wicked smile of defiance and ecstasy looking back. I was freaking myself out. “What is wrong with me?” I thought “Shouldn’t I be trembling in fear? Not revelling in the joy of something like this?” I asked myself. But I didn’t give an answer. All I did was smile, slowly coming back to reality, walking into the kitchen, and passing out.

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