Addison Academy

England - Monday 25th October 2010

Blood ran from a body. Her body. Seeing my mother laid there with blood running from her neck and her eyes wide from fear, frightened me. All I could do was scream. She was dead, I knew she was, and there was nothing I could do. I stared, wide eyed with fear; they would come for us next. We would be next. Pulling myself away from the sight of her was hard. I couldn’t believe what was in front of me, I didn’t want to. But she was there, it was as if an animal had pulled her throat out, but I knew what it was that had done this. A vampire. So many of them had known about us and that’s why they had killed her.
I felt a hand touch my shoulder and try to pull me away. Tears ran down my face and I shrugged the hand off of me, slowly making my way to her. I had to touch her.
“Mom?” dropping to my knees beside her stomach and laid my head against her. “Mommy… Please… don’t leave me…” I cried so hard. I never believed that they would get to her. They had though. My mother was gone. Her life had been taken from her. She had been taken from me and my family.

It had only been 2 months ago since that night and she is gone; forever. Now standing in the court room as the council spoke of that night wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to be there. I had been the first to see her dead and my brother stood beside me with his arm around my shoulder, keeping me close to him.

“This has gone too far, Antonio. Over the past 5 years, we have had to move you and your ‘family’ because they had found you. Now it is across the news. Believe it was some kind of an animal attack. We were lucky this time, but next we won’t be.” A man, tall around 6ft, with long blonde hair and light green eyes, spoke towards my father. Nicolas Von-Night. The head of the council.

“Lucky? You think we were lucky. I lost my wife and my children lost their mother. You call that luck.” My father stood only inches in front of us. He was angry at the council, and angrier at Nicolas who had spoken first. “I call it a disaster. They were after my children and they got her. They got Larissa. They killed her,” he yelled.

“And we are truly sorry. But there is nothing we can do about her now. What we must think of is your Halfling offspring. They could have joined Addison Academy. As soon as they were of age to join. They would have been safe, and so would have been your human.” Nicolas stood and walked over to me and my brother. I looked away and just held onto Ambrosius’s shirt. He stood tall and proud like father had always taught him to. “Never the less. I have tried to protect them as well as I could. The Academy would be the safe…”

“The safest?” my father grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from us. He didn’t look happy about the idea. “You’re saying that an Academy that has pure Vampires in, is the safest place for them. I went there. I know what it’s like.”

Guards grabbed my father and held him away from Nicolas. I whimpered as they held him still. My eyes wide with fear as I continued to cling onto Ambrosius shirt.

“There are other Halflings there, Antonio,” said a female voice which seemed to have come from nowhere, but it had come from inside the room. She stood where the council were sat, just behind Nicolas’s chair with her long red hair and heart shape face. She wore a long black dress and was small, around 5 feet. She appeared smaller than my height I would believe but not much smaller though, since I was quite small. She began to make her way round the chair and down the set of steps towards my father, who was still being held. “And they are perfectly fine. The academy has changed much since you were there. That was a very, very long time ago. Anyway… My daughter would keep an eye of them both, and I’m sure…” waving her hand, the guards let my father go and she looked towards us once more. “… my son would look out for them also.” Her eyes drifted to just my brother. “You remember Viktor, Ambrosius?”

Ambrosius gave a sharp nod then looked down at me, holding me tightly against his chest. My eyes shot to my father, who sighed and nodded. “I understand, Victoria.” He looked frightened.
What was so bad about this academy?

“Father, I’m sure we will be fine,” Ambrosius spoke up and he tried to sound as confident as possible, but I could hear the sound of fear. He feared for our lives as much as my father did.

Monday 1st November 2010

The night had come, and so had our new life. Grabbing the last of my bags, I headed down the stairs. My father stood in the living rooms with Nicolas and other members of the council.

“All set?” my father asked as I entered the room.

I nodded slowly and my brother followed in after me.

Nicolas took a step towards us. “There are a few things you must know about the academy. For one, this, as you have been told, is a school for vampires. Two, there are others like you, but you all must blend in. Also, you fellow tutors and peers have been made to believe that you know nothing of your father. On that note, you will need to tell those who ask that you are only there due to the passing of your mother, nothing more, nothing less.” He took a deep breath. “This is to protect you both,” he then looked over to my father and nodded. “We’ll give you a moment,” He said and then left us.

I dropped my bags to the floor and ran over to my father into his arms. “Daddy, I don’t want to go.”

“I know,” He whispered softly in my ear. “But you have to. Not just for me, but also your mother.” Pulling away, my father brushed my fringe away from my eyes. “She won’t want you to be on the run forever.” A tear left his eye.

“Mom would want us to be safe,” Ambrosius said from behind me.

“That’s right,” he kissed my head and looked over my shoulder. “Look out for your sister when you get there. You may think it’s safe and sound, but…” he shook his head “..if I know what my kind are truly like, they will be rude and very, very disrespectful towards you. Because of who you are, my children. Because you are half of me and half of your mother. A Halfling.”

I nodded. “I know, Daddy.” hugging him once more before Nicolas entered the room.

“Let’s go.”

Pulling out of my father’s grip, I began to cry.

“Be strong Ebony. For your brother and me.”

I nodded and grabbed my bags. “Love you, daddy.”

“I love you too, sport.”

Nicolas then left with me and Ambrosius following slowly. Everything I had was put into the back of his car. I shouldn’t have looked back towards the house, but I did. My father stood there at the door.

“Bye!” I whispered, knowing that with his hearing he would hear it.

“Bye, sweet angel.” I could hear his whisper, but not as well. My vampire senses weren’t as good, but they did the job.

What I didn’t get was why Ambro didn’t say anything much to dad. Why didn’t he hug him? Was things that bad that he had to act like this wasn’t the last time we were going to see our dad? By the time I looked at Ambro, he was already in the car. So, I climbed in after him.

**

The ride there was very long and quiet. When I say quiet, I mean all I could hear was breathing and movement. Ambrosius didn’t attempt to talk; he just sat looking out the window. Nicolas had sat up front with the driver. They had even been quiet. There had been a car in front of us with guards and council members, same with the car behind. Did we really need all this just to get the academy?

As the car drove into the academy grounds, the buildings were massive and just breath-taking, the sight of each of them made my stomach knot though. I had to keep telling myself that my mother would want me to do this. It was for her, and my father. Students wandered the grounds outside, standing and talking in their own little groups. Laughing, joking, having a good time. I doubt that it would be like that for us. In a way I had a bad feeling about this, down in my gut.

“Breathe Ebony.” I told myself out loud.

With it being November, at least 2 months of the academic year had past. This meant we were going to be the weird new kids who joined late. Great. That’s all we needed right now.

The car came to a stop outside the main entrance. The doors were tall and looked very ancient, like something from the 1800’s, just like the building. Guess that’s how long this academy had been going, maybe longer. I felt the car shift as someone got out and then my door opened.

“Here you go.”

I climbed out after Nicolas had spoken and looked around. It was dark, like that wasn’t a surprise. Vampires burned in sunlight, unlike us Halflings. Hearing the click of the boot, I looked over to see my brother pulling our bags from the boot. Should I leave him to it? Or should I help? Well, I knew it would piss him off if I helped out. So I did. I headed over to him and grabbed my bags from him.

“We’ll be fine,” he muttered.

“How do you know?” I asked him “You don’t even care.”

He grabbed my wrist to stop me from walking to the doors. “I don’t care? You don’t have a clue what I’m going through. You’re just a child!” he spat at me.

“Yes, I know that.” I got into his face then. “You may look like a man, Ambrosius, but you have only been in this world for 7 years. That makes you still a child.” I pulled my arm out of his grip and headed up to the doors were Nicolas stood, waiting. Ambro may see himself as a man, but he acted more childish than a human 2 year old did.

Anyway, Nicolas and everyone around us could most like hear everything what was said. Great. So, it was going to be hard to have a private conversion here. Too many ears.

I shock it all off. All the anger and pain I felt, and gript tightly on to my bags.

A few students came out of the door and bow to Nicolas before going on there merry way. They took one look at me and laughed.
Don’t rise to it, Ebony.

I looked down at my clothes that must have been what they were laughing at. My black jacket has been done all the way up, and I wore my cream/brown combat trousers with my black converse. What was so funny about that though? Then I looked up to see how girly the girls in the group dressed. Guess that could be the reason. I wasn’t a girly girl though, I was me.
So, I took a deep breath and ignored them.

“Just go in and take a seat.” I finally looked at Nicolas who was still stood at the door.

I nodded and once inside, I took a seat and placed my bags on the floor in front of me. It was shocking at the size of this place, and the style of the building. From the outside it looked so old and it had its own beauty, the inside was a different story. Although it still had the hint of aging, it also has a modern theme to it. It was so different to what I was used to. Living in a house that was only 3/4 bedroom every time was what I was brought up in. I had never been to school either. My aging had stopped that. It had only taken me 5 years to get to the size of a 15 year old. It was weird, and I didn’t really understand why it happened, but it did.

Feeling my brother’s eyes on me as I looked at the floor gave me the heebie jeebies. Was he glaring at me? Had I really pissed him off or had he just let it drop? I didn’t want to look to find out. So I decided keeping my head low was the best idea.

“I’ll take good care of them, Nicolas. You have my word.” I looked up then to see that Nicolas was stood talking to a woman. She didn’t look like she was from here, but who knew her way around. Her skin had a slight tan, she was pretty tall, and her hair was pulled back into a bun. There was something about her that screamed in the back of my head that she was maybe, just maybe Italian. Her accent did sound as though she was trying to be British, or that she had at least been in this county for a few years.
Nicolas smiled slightly and nodded. “I’m sure you will Helen. Have a good day.” Looking towards us for a moment, Nicolas’s eyes hardened then left the building. This was it; this was when hell was going to begin.

“Ebony, Ambrosius. Could you please come here,” Helen asked as she sat down behind the desk and began to type away.
Making our way over to her, another lot of students walked by and smiled at us. So just to be nice, and not seem like a weirdo, I smiled back.

“I’m Helen Lorello, the Academy Secretary. At the moment, the headmaster is unavailable.” Something came from the printer and Helen looked up and smiled at us. “He has to teach a class late. But, you will meet him later after dinner.”

I simply just nodded “Okay.”

She grabbed the pages from the printer and looked over to our bags. “If you leave them there, someone will be here in a moment to take them over to your dorm. I watched as Helen pulled on her glassed and looked down at the papers. “It says here that Ebony, you will be starting in with the first years. And Ambrosius...” there was a pause for a moment “…you will have to start in the second years.” Helen looked up again and pulled off her glasses. “If your mother had only known to enrol you 2 years ago, or even a year ago, you might have been in with others of your age.” Standing up, she made her way around to us. “Both you’re uniforms will be in the rooms you have been assigned to and these…” handing us a piece of paper each. “… are your timetables for your classes. Class times are written on the top and also times of the sun rising and setting are posted around the academy. You will be expected to be in your room before 6am, breakfast is at 7pm till 8pm. Any other questions?” she asked.

Both my brother and I shook our heads.

Helen nodded and looked towards the stairs. “Ah, Lucia, John. Can you come here please?”

They made their way over to us. The girl, Lucia, has tight curly long platinum blonde hair, about the height of about 5`5``, so about the average women. She wore a short pink mini skirt with black legging, a white and pink top that showed of what cleavage she had. It was girls like that that I always thought gave us other girls a bad name. But I guess it’s her stupid choice. I wouldn’t be seen dead in something like that. Over the top of her clothing was a black jacket, on the right hand side there was a symbol that I couldn’t really make out and I wasn’t going to try. There was no point.

John, the guy who walked beside her, short brown spiking hair, his shoulders were quite wide, just like my fathers, but not as wide. He wore blue faded jeans that looked way too tight for a guy. He had a white t-shirt under a black shirt and the same black jacket at Lucia. Guessing that was the only part of the uniform we had to wear then.

“Yes Helen.” Lucia looked at me and my brother for a moment then back to Helen, smiling as best as she could. I knew right then I wasn’t going to like her one bit. She already seemed like a stuck up bitch.

“Lucia, John, this is Ebony and Ambrosius Hale.”

Looking at back us, Lucia tried to put on a better fake smile.

“Hello.” “Hey.”

I said my hello’s, then looked at my brother who was now staring at Lucia. Really? Had he never seen a girl before? I’m sure he use to sneak out last year and the year before to parties.

My eyes widened slightly and I elbowed him “Sorry about that. He has no manners.”

“It’s okay…” Lucia smirked “I know how brothers can be. I have one and he’s an idiot.” she rolling her eyes and chuckled, she looked back at Helen. “Do you want us to show them to their rooms Helen, cause if that’s so. We can go right ahead. She’s with Elizabeth Far in the first years isn’t she? And Ambrosius…” she looked my brother up and down, smiling to herself. What was that all about?

“Is with me?” John asked. “I got told I was with a new guy.” John’s voice was very quiet. Like he didn’t want to overpower Lucia’s voice, like he was scared of her.

Helen nodded. “Yes. Very well.” turning back to us she smiled softly. “Welcome to Addison Academy both of you,” She then headed back to her desk and began to type again.

John turned to Ambro and smiled slightly. “You know Viktor right?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, kind of,” Ambro muttered, like he wasn’t proud of it.

“Cool.”

I’d never met him, but I wasn’t old enough when Ambro went to the Vampire Council to meet them all for the first time. Looking over where Lucia had stood only seconds ago. She had already walked away, heading out the building. I noticed John had only just noticed she’d gone when I did and he’d followed after her, which only left us to do the same.

Walking past several buildings brought us outside a more modern building that looked as if it had only been built maybe 40 years ago. Okay, so it wasn’t that modern, but it was more modern than everything else here.

“This is dorm building 2. There are 3 dorm buildings, which has all of us… erm… mixed.” Lucia didn’t sound like she liked the idea of whatever ‘mixed’ meant. She opened the door anyway, which brought us into a little hallway that had 2 doors at either end. Leading us through, Lucia brought us into a big living area, sofa’s and chairs were placed all around the room. In the middle there was a kitchen area that looked bigger than your everyday family kitchen. It was… well, there weren’t words to describe it.

“Well…” I remembered that we were still in the presents of Lucia and John. I looked back at her as she continued to speak. “… as you can see, this is the living area that we all hang out in. The kitchen is full of healthy food that’s for all of us. On the 2nd floor there’s a computer suite, TV room and games room. Girl’s rooms are on the right, boys on the left. We are not… and I repeat not allowed in each other’s rooms due to Vampires and…” she cleared her throat as if there was something stuck in there. Like hell. It looked like she didn’t want to say what we were. “… Halflings being more ‘hormonal’ at our age, but you’ll learn more about that in class. Other than that, you know everything about this place.” She smirked slightly. “So, Ebony, if you follow me, I’ll show you to your room. And Ambrosius…” her voice became soft as she spoke to him. “John will show you to yours.”

Oh. My. Gosh. I could hit this girl right now. She’d most likely go down with one punch to the nose if I did it right. Cause sure as hell, there was no call for acting like a smug cow at to me and all nicey nice to my brother.

Lucia opened the door and headed in.

I smiled at my brother and followed her “See ya later.”

We walked down the corridors, the walls were all wooden panelled and the floors carpeted with dark red. On the walls there were candles to guide our way. Outside some of the rooms were girls chatting among themselves about god knows what. They stopped and smiled when they saw Lucia coming.

“Hey girls.” Lucia’s voice sounded cheerful. Guess she did have a nice bone in her body.

“Hey Lucia.” after that they all went back to talking.

As soon as we made it to a door that looked as if ivy was climbing up it, Lucia placed an arm in front of me and stopped me from entering. Her smiled had faded and she glared down at me.

“Okay, little princess. I’m it around here. I get what I want when I want at this Academy…” she then smirked. “Everyone looks up to me. As long as you don’t get on my bad side, then everything will run smoothly for you. For a few weeks, you and you cutie of a brother are going to be centre of attention. But if you step out of line with me, your life here will be a living hell for the next 4 years. Got it.”

Oh, so now I got it. Bitch-face here saw me as a threat. WOW. I don’t see why anyone in the world would see me as a threat though. A girl. I was pretty much like a guy anyway. Plus I kept to myself. So, up to now, this wannabe either had something stuck up her arse or she really, really hadn’t had a good shag in a long time. Either way though, she was a bitch at heart.

“Look, Lucia. I don’t care about you or anyone else apart from my brother. I’m only here cause my mother was killed, okay. So, back the fuck off. You can be whatever you want. Be queen of the world for all I care. You don’t have to look down on me for anything, or, give me the 411.”

Lucia glared at me for a second then let it drop. “So, we have an understanding then.” The next thing I knew she had opened the door. “Elizabeth, I have your roommate.” After that she left us to get on with our own thing.