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Viktor Prigov

Lidiya holds my hand tightly as the airplane begins to shake mid-flight, as we had been experiencing on-and-off turbulence.

“It will not crash?” she asks, her English slightly effected by her nerves. She clutches my arm and begins to tremble.

I pat her hand affectionately. “No, dear. It will not crash,” I promise her.

It was two months ago that Lidiya and I both received our acceptance letters to Cambridge University in London, England. Only recently did the school begin to allow vampire-students, a feat that was brought on by the increase in tensions between humans and vampires. In the world we live in now, humans have tried to segregate our kind from theirs out of pure fear. But recently, my kind has been given a new opportunity. Now is the time for this gap to close, and for our races to coexist. I am proud to be alive during such times.

Lidiya brushes her hair in front of her face as the stewardess makes her way through the isle. Lidiya and I are both Lower Class vampires, who aren’t normally allowed to travel first class like we are today. But ever since the gap began to slowly close, we’ve been sitting in the front of buses and taking cabs. I guess she is worried that someone will change their mind and wish to banish us to coach.

“Would you like something to eat?” I ask, trying to distract her from her anxious thoughts.

“No,” she tries to smile. “But thank you, Viktor.”

“I’m a little hungry,” I muse, and tap the shoulder of the stewardess softly. “Excuse me, madam?” She turns to face me, no tattoo on her face—a human girl. She smiles, her cat-like face trying to appear pleasant.

“Can I help you?” she asks brightly.

“Could I get a menu, please?”

“Of course,” she answers. “I’ll be right back.” She walks away and disappears behind a curtain that leads to coach, where I’m sure the food is kept.

“She’s going to tell on us,” Lidiya whispers.

“We’ve done nothing wrong,” I sigh. “Stop worrying so much, okay?”

The stewardess steps through the curtains again and hurries to my seat. “Excuse me?”
I glance up to see her and two men behind her. Middle Class vampires—their tattoos made of various sized lines to form a cross. I try to keep a clear countenance. “Yes?”

“These gentlemen…uh… They want your seats,” she tries to say politely.

I smile sarcastically. “There’s no way we’re moving.”

Lidiya tenses up next to me. “Viktor….”

One of the vampires clears his throat. He stands a head taller than me, with white hair trailing down his back. His tight leather gloves clench around a cane made of ivory, decorated to match his tattoo. He looks down at me, his sharp nose held high, and his gold eyes met with mine. “I demand that you and your mate revoke your seats and go to the back where you belong.”

I stand up, keeping my face clear of any emotions. Don’t lose your temper, Viktor. Handle this like a gentleman would. “I’m sorry, sir, but these seats are rightfully ours, and we’re not going to move.”

“I don’t know what part of Russia you’re from,” he sneers, “but it’s common practice for Lower Class vampires like you and that girl to respect your superiors.” He pokes my chest with his cane, and my fist clench. With two fingers, I push away the end of his cane from my torso.

“Sir, these seats are ours. We’re not moving.”

The second man, dressed identically to the first, but with short gray hair, tries to step in. His face wrinkles in anger. “Look, we did not board this plan to get stuck in coach. We are your superiors, and you should learn to respect that fact, you fucking rogue! You and that girl need to get out of our seats and go to the back where you belong!”

A fucking rogue, am I?

“Gentlemen, please,” the stewardess says, trying to prevent further backlash. But the gray-haired vampire pushes her aside and approaches me quickly, pointing a finger in my face.

“I know exactly what you are. You’re a fucking rogue who thinks that this society will change. You think you deserve opportunities, you think you deserve equality, but you don’t. The world has been peaceful with our way of life for hundreds of years before you rogues thought it would be nice to enact change. It won’t work, and you’ll all be punished.”

I try to chuckle. “You may have me mistaken—I am no rogue. I’m merely a passenger on this airplane whose tickets were paid for. My father—Pyotr Pirogov—bought these tickets so that my mate and I could enjoy our first plane ride. These seats belong to us, and there’s nothing you can do to change that fact.”

“Excuse me,” a man a few rows ahead of us interrupts. A young human stares at us coldly, a fussing baby in his arms. “I’m trying to lull her to sleep. Take your shouting match somewhere else.”

Shouting? I wasn’t aware that I was shouting. But now that it has been mentioned, I can feel where primal screams had ripped at the back of my throat. I unclench my fists and sit back down next to Lidiya.

His face turns red. “May the gods curse you, rogue!” Then he storms off, his confused companion not far behind.

“You shouldn’t lose your temper like that, Viktor,” she whimpers, wrapping her small arms around mine and shaking.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” I admit sincerely. “I didn’t know I was yelling so loudly.”
“Will they banish us from this plane?”

I grin. “Most likely. But that’s okay. We’ll be in England soon. And we’ll have a new life to start—just you and me.”

“Is England dangerous, Viktor? You watch the news reports more often than I do.”

I sigh contently as I wrap my arm around her. “It’s not as dangerous as Moscow, so I hear. I hear there is more equality for vampires there, and that humans are more accepting of our kind.”

“That’s good!” she smiles. “We will be safe then!”

“Very safe,” I promise her. “You will always be safe as long as you’re with me.”

She flushes, and finally stops trembling. “I love you, Viktor.”

“I love you, too,” I smile softly.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking,” a voice proclaims over the intercom. “We’ll be making our landing in London, England, in the next fifteen minutes.” He repeats this mandatory speech in Russian.

“We made it!” Lidiya beams as she fastens her seatbelt for the descent. I follow her lead and try to relax, as I can almost feel the nose of the aircraft pointing directly towards the ground.'

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Lidiya holds my hand tightly as we weave through the crowd, trying to find our luggage.

“I hope no one stole it,” Lidiya muses severely.

“You always think the worst of people,” I smirk.

She shrugs, taking the comment light heartedly. We eventually make our way through the thick crowd and quickly retrieve our luggage—everything seemed to be in order. I helped Lidiya with her luggage as we entered the lobby to head for the outside world.

“Is it as beautiful as it is in our school books?” Lidiya chimes, almost rushing our pace to get a good first-view of London. We step outside of the building, and Lidiya drops her bags. I stand beside her in awe.

The street is full of people, jumping up and down and shouting in a terrifying uproar. Their picket-signs scribbled with profanity and insults to vampires, reminding us of our destiny for Hell and calling for banishment from the city. Lidiya begins to panic. “Viktor? Where do we go?”

I stand there, gapping. The faces morph and twist demonically in their anger and I lose my mindset.

Where can we go? Obviously, we cannot go through that crowd. But how the hell are we supposed to leave—we’re expected at Cambridge within the hour!

“Viktor?” she repeats.

The two Middle Class vampires stroll passed us, showing off their ivory canes and expensive clothes. Eventually, they become surrounded by a group of Lower Class vampires who act as their shield as they exit the building. I fume silently.

“Viktor?!” Her voice becomes panicked. “What are we to do?!”

“I’m thinking,” I respond sternly.

This was not what I was expecting. Both Mother and Father told me things would be easier here, that persecution wouldn’t be a problem. Now they are protesting out existence in the streets. If Lidiya and I walk out of this building alone, we will be killed.

“We’ll go out the back door, and look for a taxi,” I finally answer.

I lead her away from the chaotic scene and we search for an emergency exit. We find one by the restrooms, and trigger the fire alarm mistakenly as we scurry out of the building. The street outside is empty, save the traffic of cars that have been redirected around the protest. Frantically, I flail my arms around yelling “Taxi! Taxi!”

Thankfully, one pulls aside and allows us transport—the driver sporting the same tattoo as Lidiya and me. I stuff as many of the suitcases as I can into the trunk.

“Good afternoon, sir, madam,” he says politely as we step into the car. “Where to?”

“Cambridge University,” I answer. He nods his head and we enter the flow of traffic. “Thank you so much, sir. We had no idea where to go—“

“Yeah, the protesting has been getting terrible these past few days,” he interrupts. “Makes it hard for decent-folks like ourselves to go about life. Lucky I found ya, eh?”

“Yes, very lucky,” I laugh.

“You don’t sound like you’re from around here,” he points out. “Where are you and your mate from?”

“Russia!” Lidiya answers enthusiastically.

“Russia, eh?” he answers in the same tone. “That’s very interesting. So you two here for school, yeah? Cambridge is a great school—I’d go myself, but I’m just too busy drivin’ this thing around.”

Lidiya giggles behind her hand. “Он так смешно.”

“My name’s Linus. Linus Carter. Yours?
“I’m Viktor Pirogov. And this is Lidiya Bebnev.”

“Vik and Lidi. It’s great to meet you two. If you ever need a friend in London, just call the taxi service and ask for Linny.”

“Thank you!” Lidiya chimes.

“We’ll get ya to Cambridge soon,” Linny promises. “You two enjoy the view—I’m taking the scenic route, free of charge.”

“Thank you, Linny,” I smile.

Aster Fuchs

The airport is absolutely filthy. Tara and I scrunch our noses and begin walking to the exit. As we approach the doors, I can hear a commotion outside and can only sigh as humans protest the damnation of our kind.

“Look Aster, lower class. They won’t stand a chance if they leave through the front. Should we help or do you think they’ll be fine on their own,” Tara points out.

Looking over, I see a handsome man and equally beautiful girl with the lower class tattoo underneath their left eyes. The girl looks about ready to have a panic attack, but the man holds a calculating glean in his eyes. I smile. “No, they’ll make it to where ever it is they need. The girl seems stupid but the man has some of a mind to him.”

Tara laughs before our security catches up with us, holding our bags and bringing a car around. Before heading out the door, I watch as the two lower-classes turn and head toward the back exit. Smart. Most of the vermin out front wouldn’t think to go looking out the back door.

As we stroll to the open car door, some of the humans stop and stare at us. They glare, but are careful not to approach. Being high-class vampires, we were born with privileges others of our kind could not even fathom, and humans are also aware of this.

“You there, lower class. Come and help put our bags away, would you?” Tara asks. Suddenly lower-levels surround us, busying themselves by placing our luggage carefully into the car; screaming erupted from where they had been. Two middle-class men are getting beaten and broken by some of the more daring humans. I can’t help but to smile over at them for using those weaker than them as shields. It was justice of a sick kind.

“Tara, you’re too kind sometimes. Letting those at nearly our level be ripped apart in such a fashion. Really, don’t you have class? If it were me, I would have degraded them by having them put our things away and let the others run.” I say.

She laughs light-heartedly. We get in the car and drive off as soon as the door was firmly shut.

“So, what do you think this year will bring for us?” Tara asks.

“I don’t know. I have to double major in two separate things since father wishes for me to at least have some say when he decides to finally retire. So, business plus music and violin practices mean that I’ll be busy most of the time.” I reply.

“Boring! We’re finally away from our stuffy families, and you plan on being a good girl. I thought I taught you better than that, Aster,” Tara huffs in a heavy German accent.

I just smile and shake my head. Tara has always been this way, wanting to do then what was allowed for people of our stature—though I see her point in finally having freedom from our families, and all the problems that came with them. My step mother has finally shown her true colors and father and she were filing for divorce which must be hard for my younger-siblings. The twins are taking everything that is happening the wrong way, I’m sure. I will miss them while away at college, though the thought of father receiving full custody was a nice though.

“Ash, you’re thinking too hard again. Stop worrying about your brother and sister; they’ll be fine. Your old nannies are going to be looking after them,” Tara states.

I just smile again and sit as the car stops at a light.

The rest of the ride is silent, and before either of us knew it we are stopping in front of Cambridge University.

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Orientation cannot be any more boring than it is right now. The head of security begins talking about a curfew for vampires, and how dorm leaders are responsible for keeping us in check, and making sure that we are in our rooms at twelve o’clock.

My seat is on the left of the auditorium along with all the other new freshman vampires. There are many of us, but we were all heralded at the front with the humans on our right and in two rows behind us. It is a lot better than what it could have been and what I was expecting. This will be the second year that vampires are permitted into the university—and those that made it are both overjoyed and have the right to be here. Some can say it is because they had their parent’s money but I had earned my right and so had Tara. Sure father would have paid if I said this was the place I intended, but I studied hard and took the test and passed it with flying colors.

Both the music and business ends of this school are beyond what I could have gotten at other places, and I wish to excel at both. The violin may be my passion but father and even grandmother expected me to do my best.

I tune back in to what is happening in front of me and see another human has taken the stage. He is quite handsome, if a little of skinny size. Tall with blonde hair cut short and beautiful warm blue eyes. He holds that million-dollar-smile and was looking around the entire audience. He winks at some of

the people when recognition registers in his mind before moving on.

“Hello,” he begins. “As you've been told my name is Todd Collins. I’m the class president and would like to greet all of you to our wonderful establishment. We've decided to do something different this year for freshmen students and we hope that everything turns out for the better. Everyone within a certain department will be given a mentor that is a senior and they shall help you with any questions you might have. For those of you with more than one major you will be given two mentors. One for each major you are in. This of course will be difficult, but we have already spoken to those who will be doing this. After we are done here, I would ask all of you go the café and meet with your mentors.” Todd flashes another one of those smiles before speaking again. “Vampires, I know this may be difficult for you, but we've tried our best to get mentors for you that aren't hateful or have a problem with your kind. I, myself, will help any that come to me about a problem. To the rest of you, please be considerate that your mentor has their own life and may not always be helpful to you.

“This university is one of the best and we expect nothing but the best from all those that attend, and you won’t have it any different. Classes are not easy and your mentor is taking time out of their busy schedule to meet and see you.”

He gives us all a level stare before smiling again. It seems it was his trademark sale for winning people over to his side and ideas.

“You should all have your class times table with you, and if you look at the top you will find the name of your mentor and where your dorm room is. A tour of the school will be given to you by your mentor and will only happen once. So please listen and memorize where everything is. I know this is quite a load of information to take in at once, but it’s important for you all to know. Now, I believe our headmaster would like to speak with the lot of you again before dismissing you.” Todd gives one more smile and a wave before taking his seat again on one of the chairs behind the podium.
An old man takes his place. He was one of the first people to speak when we entered an hour or so ago, and it seems he’ll send us off as well.

“Thank you Mr. Collins. I would just like to remind you all that this school does not appreciate slacking and those caught doing so will be punished. We have an image to uphold and none of you are an exception to that. I do not care whether you’re human or vampire or how much money your parents have—this school tolerates nothing but the best from each of you. Please enjoy your first day.” With that, he turns and retakes his seat behind the podium.

As if a switch had been flipped everyone gets up and starts heading for the doors. I stayed in my seat along with Tara. No use rushing to the door like insects to a light. Instead I take out my schedule and look at who my mentors are. One is a girl by the name of Elise Walkermen—she is my business mentor. The other is a boy whose name is Wolfram Alistair. The name sounds familiar but I cannot remember why. He is my music mentor.

Looking up I find that many of the people who had been in there were gone and stand up to leave as well. Tara is already up and talking to some of the others that had lingered with us. She nods at me and bids farewell to the person whom she was talking with.

“I digress to say that I may not be seeing much of you other than when we are in our dorm together. Since we've decided on different majors I’ll have to be around those in psychology. You my dear will be surrounded by all the boys going into business to take over for their families and the music nerds that I could care less about,” Tara chuckles as she looped her arm through mine and begins walking away.

“I’m one of those music nerds you detest so much.”

“I know, and I still can’t fathom why. However, your violin is the most beautiful I've ever heard.”
We share a laugh before I bump into something. Looking up I find that it is the lower class vampire that was at the airport. “Excuse me; I wasn't looking where it was my feet carried me.” I apologize in a soft voice. I’m always this way when events such as this happened.”

“No it’s my fault.” His voice is deep and melodic.

“Yes it was; now please move.” Tara demands. I glare over at her and see a sneer on her face. I can only sigh and pull her through the door.

I turn my head and give an apologetic smile as he gave a shake of his head. The girl beside him seems upset, and he whispers something my ears couldn't hear.

“You didn't have to do that. It was my fault for running into him.”

“Remember Ash, this is new territory and we are the minority. All we have to help us from being considered like the other vampires here is our status. You are a level 7 and I am as well. We can’t forget that. Showing our superiority to lower class proves our noble blood.” Tara explains to me but I can’t wrap the idea in my head. I know I am a bit snotty towards those of lower status than me, but proving it was never something I out right exploited unless I was in a devilish mood. Like earlier, I wouldn't have had any problem having fun at those two middle classes expense. I may have the blood but I was raised in a high class home, and I make others remember that.

When I was younger, sure, I needed Tara’s wild personality. But as she said, we are in a new playing field and I have to become my own person.