Vampire Academy

Mikey’s P.O.V.

Adrenaline pulsing and pushing the blood through my veins. Breathing difficult. Heart pounding. Limbs shaking.

I was pleading, screaming for the voices to stop. I was pounding my fists on the solid black floors, then I was crying and plugging my ears; anything to drown out the dull roar of a thousand whispers that came together so well that they sounded like a waterfall.

I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing there. I was shrouded in pure darkness that seemed to stretch out for miles and miles around. All I knew is that one minute I had been running down the snow covered streets, letting ice collect in the narrow passageways of my lungs and hoping that they would eventually freeze and burst and bleed, and the next I was here, in a world of pain and hurt and endless, endless torture.

And then the darkness began to close in.

My eyes shot open and I slowly sat up, alarmed by the sudden vibrations and movement. I waited, anticipation washing away every other feeling inside of me. Sure enough, what I could only describe as black water came crashing in on me. I thrashed and kicked and screamed as I was being dragged under and tossed about like a flimsy piece of cardboard, fear seeping into every fiber of my being, and gripping at my soul. After several long, painful minutes I made it to the top where I burst from beneath the liquid and took a triumphant deep breath. Before I even opened my eyes I could tell that it was significantly brighter, and the air smelled like burning flesh. When I finally was able to rub the liquid from my eyes, which no longer were covered with my glasses, and open them, I gasped. The sky was yellow and orange and black as if it had been charred and burned and streaked with yellow paint, and the sun was an enormous, red, burning mass that took up more than half of the sky.

After my moment of shock I realized that I had a different problem. I was being carried by the liquid through burning valley after burning valley. The craziest thing about it was that I wasn’t hot at all, no, I was freezing ass cold. And, of course, as if being dragged along by a raging black river through burning mounds of flesh, as I had recognized, I felt something tugging at my pant leg from underneath the liquid. At first I thought it was my imagination, as this place was really fucking with my head, but then the tugging became harder and harder, and soon I was being pulled underwater. I kicked out at whatever was pulling at me, that feeling of fear bubbling back up and threatening to swallow me whole, but then I felt icy hands wrap around my upper and lower torso and then eventually grab at my face and neck and pull me completely down. I cried out as I was being pulled down farther and farther, and now I was getting the liquid into my eyes and mouth and throat and it was burning. And as I choked and screamed and came to the realization that I was dying, a great white light flashed and filled my entire vision.
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Bright lights surrounded me, along with the sounds of several beeping machines. My eyes snapped open. Everything around me was covered in sheets of paper or plastic, for sanitary reasons. Slowly, very, very, slowly, and to my utmost relief, I came to the realization that I was in the hospital. In the corner of the room were my parents and a doctor or two, or three for all I knew, and my mother was crying hysterically.

“Now, he might not wake up for a while…” At this my feeling of security vanished, and it hit me that I was in the hospital. “We’ve removed most of the metal from his abdomen, but we still have yet to see if there is more we need to do. You have to understand, we’re doing everything we can…” I looked down. Due to layers of blankets I couldn’t see, or feel, the rest of my body, but I could tell that something was horribly, horribly wrong. I couldn’t move my muscles. I could blink, but from the neck down I was completely useless.

Like a frightened child, I called out for my mom. She gasped and ran over, smothering me with hugs and kisses, petting me and saying how afraid she was that I wouldn’t wake up, that I was dead. My dad just stood in the corner of the room, eyes fixated on me, his expression unreadable.

“W-what happened to me?” My voice was cracking and shaking and my throat was sore, and I honestly wasn’t sure that I wanted to know the answer. My mom’s emerald eyes widened as if she was petrified to say it aloud.

“Wh…y-you…you were hit by a car.”

Gerard’s P.O.V.

“...I traveled the world for years and years. I've met every Vampire in existence, heard every myth, legend, and common misconception ever created, seen all seven human wonders and all ten Vampiric wonders, swam in every ocean and sea, and learned everything you could possibly know about Vampiric as well as human nature. So, if there is ever a time that you doubt my abilities as a teacher or as a vampire, which I’m certain there will be, think about what I have just told you.”

Ms. Aridella Dennison, the Vampire Myths and Legends teacher, was writing notes on an enormous square chalkboard that had to be at least thirty feet across. Judging by the way that she hadn't spoken a word since we got in the dingy cave-room, she was a mute. A very plump mute with a shaved head and one lazy, piercingly violet eye. The other eye was covered with a ratty grey eye patch, that had some sort of insignia embroidered on its front. She wore tattered, purple and gold and blue rags, and so much dangling, outlandish jewelry that she reminded me of some sort of gypsy. “Any questions?” The boy sitting next to me leaned forward in his chair as, anxiously, his pale, bony, glove covered hand shot in the air. She pointed her waning stick of chalk at him.

“Yeah, how'd you lose your eye?” His voice was strange. It sounded like either an unusually high male’s voice or an unusually low female’s voice. It was sort of nasally and yet clear at the same time, and part of me wondered if he was only doing it because he was excited to know the answer. Ms. Aridella, as she'd “told” us to call her at the beginning of class, heaved herself around and began to write once again.

“It was many, many years ago when I was traveling through the southern most tip of Antarctica, searching for...well, I don’t quite remember, actually… There was a fierce blizzard blowing, and my fellow searchers and I could barely see an inch in front of our own faces. So, unless we wanted to freeze for eternity, we had no choice but to make a shelter out of the snow. After four hours of hard labor and near frostbite, we were nice and snug in the makeshift den we had dug in the ground. Or so we thought.

“At around 1 in the morning we heard a sort of howling. It was quiet at first but then it got louder and louder. Before I knew it a pack of dogs were upon us, but these were no ordinary dogs of the arctic. They were hunting dogs, used by Vampire Hunters to seek out Vampires. They weren't our problem at all, no; it was the Humans that we had to worry about. I remember hearing them shout things at us in a foreign language. Then, without warning, one of them charged at my good friend Micah’s little boy. Well, this human unleashed the beast in all of us, forcing us to fight. I had to kill a couple of them and, truth be told, the first three were the easiest kills I had ever made. It was the last one that I had to fight that would change my life forever. The man and I circled around and around for a good minute or two before he pulled out a sharp wooden object and came barreling towards me. He had been aiming at my heart but in an attempt to kill him I had ducked and headed for his chest. Well, he'd already brought the stake down and it went straight into my eye socket, blinding me. I bit into his chest, ripping out his heart in pure hatred and now, revenge.

“I pulled the stake out, along with my eye, and threw it on the ground. The two hunters that we hadn’t managed to kill ran off into the night.

“This brings me to our very first lesson, the prime example of a Vampiric myth- Vampires cannot be killed by stakes, no matter where they are stabbed.” She turned around and smiled a very toothless smile- rather, a five-toothed smile- beaming at the looks on our faces. The boy next to me had his jaw wide open, in the most comical way, along with several other kids. Some of the boys had gasped, others were grinning like it was the coolest thing they'd ever heard, and were chatting to one another excitedly, like an anxious group of girls. As for me, I couldn’t have been happier. Aridella’s story had really put everything in perspective. This was no joke. This wasn’t some sort of RPG game or some stupid movie. This was real life, my life, and there was no going back.

Dinner, like lunch and breakfast, was horrendous. The food was served to us in crusty, food covered, metal bins that were strewn across the rows of wooden tables as if someone just didn't really give a fuck where they went. The actual food in the bins were stacks of meat or stacks of corn or stacks of potatoes that you just had to reach in and grab with your filthy hands and throw on your plate, since I guess that they didn't feel that utensils were necessary. Even the gravy and mashed potatoes had to be scooped up. Luckily, the water could be shoveled up with your wooden cup, but it was murky and tasted like dirt. In fact, I was sure I could feel the little grains of dirt on my tongue.

“Eh, it's no worse than cafeteria food!” Frank said, shrugging. I watched in disgust as he knocked back his third glass of cave water and shoveled handfuls of mashed potatoes and gravy into his gaping maw.

“Yes, it is.” Bobby mumbled, picking up bits of corn and putting them in his mouth one at a time.

“So, does anyone know when we’re gonna be Vampires?” Frank tried to say through a mouthful of undercooked steak.

“I, er, thought I remembered the Clans teacher saying that we would have to take a test in a month to see if we were ready to-” Elliot began explaining nervously.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s right.” Frank cut him off and started eating some more, leaving Elliot red-cheeked and brooding.

“Excuse me,” Cheech, Frank, Bobby, Elliot, and I turned to see the boy that had sat next to me in Myths and Legends standing next to our table, plate in hand. “Can I sit here?” We glanced at each other and nodded slowly, Elliot scooting over so the boy could sit down. He flashed us the brightest, most attractive, smile and sat down, his long silver hair flowing behind him, contrasting his dark robes perfectly. “My name’s Raine,” He said confidently, pulling his black gloves off and reaching into the steak bin. He pulled out the chunks of meat with the utmost grace, and piled them on his plate. Before I could introduce myself, Frank commandeered and practically molested him with dialogue.

Truth be told, I was a little pissed off.