All of Them People

"Heyy kid, drink this," Cian's vision was so blurry, he could hardly tell that there was a person crouching in front of him. He felt a cup held to his lips and turned his head away stubbornly.

"Uggh," The voice sounded like it was getting angrier. "Open your damn mouth you stubborn piece of..." There was a frustrated sigh and then the voice sounded calm again. "If you don't drink this, you are going to die. This will 'cure' you. It's your call."

The liquid was thick and tasted sweet, but after swallowing it, Cian almost instantly started to feel better.

"Are you feeling better now Cian?" A woman's voice asked as it came closer to where he was sitting.

Cian blinked his eyes back into focus and realized he was sitting up leaning against a cement wall. He looked around the room and seen a woman standing not far away waiting for an answer. Eye height a few feet away was a man just standing up, he seemed mostly ordinary minus his very tall height and pitch black eyes. His eyes were completely black. No whites even. just black. Cian rubbed his eyes but when he looked up again, still black. "Wholly fuck! What the fuck are you?" Cian jumped up to feet, feeling completely rejuvenated, if anything a little sore. The man just grinned and tilted his head at him. "They're all... black." Still nothing. "What?" Cian said, all defensively.

"Logan, can you get some water for me?" The woman turned to Cian, "Are you feeling okay now?"

The man smiled at Cian and left.

"Waay, better," Cian said. He looked up at the woman and recognized her from the school. Wasn't she a teacher or something? That would explain why she knew his name. He touched his shoulder where Minhoe had bitten him and found that it was nearly healed. "It doesn't hurt any more. What was that stuff?"

"That's good... but before I tell you that can you tell me what happened?" She asked "How you got those bites and you who got them from?"

Cian turned his head, recapping the events. "Uhh... Why?"

"Cian. Don't play this game with me. I need to know who it is so other students don't get hurt."

"It was... at a party. A girl from the school bit me. But... I think she's dead now..." Cian's eyes widened at the realization. "Did she have some kind of disease or something?" He asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well something like that." She paused not quite wanting to tell him the truth, not yet. But her death was suspicious, people like her don't just die like that. "Why do you think she's dead?"

"Hey, if you give me half assed answers like that, you aren't going to get any better," he crossed his arms. "Because she probably stopped breathing," he half-answered.

She sighed heavily, mumbling about how she should have expected this.

"You wont believe me if I tell you." They never did. At least not at first.

"You'll have to convince me, then."

"You're such a..." She coughed. "Fine. You've been turned into a vampire and we gave you blood to drink so you wouldn't feel so terrible."

Cian opened his mouth but couldn't think of how to respond. He put his hands on his head and and walked in a small circle trying to make scene of that. He looked up at the woman through a raised eyebrow, but her expression remained serious. Come to think of it, there was a lot of hints throughout the day that backed up that statement. But was that even possible? "Sooo, what? A... Am I super strong now? Super fast?" He asked dodging back and forth. "Can I see in the dark?" He asked excitedly. "Is that why he's such a freak?" Cian asked, pointing to Logan with his thumbs who was just re-emerging from the next room over.

"Uncalled for!" Logan hissed.

"I suppose you are also a vampire? Ha!" Cian pause for a moment. "Are you actually for real?"

He's taking this better than I expected she thought, standing up. She walked over to Logan and took the glass of water from his hands and drank it. She was going to offer it to Cian but this kid ticked her off.

"Yes I am, but unlike you I'm able to go out in the sun. If you try a few days from now you'll die." Though it'd be less of a hassle for her if he did. "And unfortunately we don't get a lot of perks, that's for the werewolves."

"Wow. That explains a lot about the people in my school."

"Hey Gaia," Logan said in a sarcastically excited voice. "Did you get to the part about the psychotic psychos that will be hunting him down now for as long as he lives? Cause that's the funnest part," he said, turning to Cian. "And once you start craving blood again, you should probably stay away from all friends and family for their safety, and yours." He ended that with a smile and a thumbs up. "Goodbye social life!"

"But, I wouldn't... Hurt anyone."

"Uh-huh."

"I wouldn't!"

"Sure thing kid."

"He's not lying. Its like. Its like a cocaine addiction. Once your addicted there is no going back and if you don't feed, innocent people get hurt." She stepped toward him then stopped. "You wouldn't want to harm your sister would you?"

Cian glared up at her, meeting her eyes. "No," he grumbled and looked away. "So... I probably shouldn't go to school?" He asked, with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.

"Its not like you shouldn't go to school. Its you can't. BUT that does not mean you can get up to mischief!" She scolded him. "You're too much like Logan" she said quietly.

Logan narrowed his eyes at Gaia and shook his head. He looked back to Cian. "You can't do anything in the sunlight. Not nothing. Nada! You will die instantaneously. So that is not something you should forget about. And you know what? Gaia can home school you if you miss school so much."

Cian almost looked scared at that. "No way! I'm done with that bullshit!"

"Oh come on, I doubt it would be a problem."

She wasn't quite sure if she could handle Cian, in a one to one learning environment. He was already a handful when he begrudgingly came to her office for 'counselling' but it felt very strained on her part to keep his attention.

"Well, now you know the truth." She stated to Cian, "So tell me. Us, what happened at the party? why do you think this girl is dead?"

"Okay, okay. Let me think," he said, cracking his knuckles as memories of the night became more and more clear. "So I went upstairs, right? I was in this room... I think I was bleeding. And she... uh, Minhoe, was there. And we were on the bed, and then she fuckin' bites me right in the shoulder. So then everything's really fuzzy but she looks up... I think someone said something but I don't know what. And then she goes and jumps out the fucking window, and what's more messed up is someone jumps out after her like, no hesitation, no nothing. Just goes. And there might have been another person, but they fuckered off. So I got outside and was following the creek, and there was a gunshot.... And I seen her in the water..."

Gaia took in all the information quietly, listening to Cian talk. Occasionally glancing at Logan. Whoever jumped out the window right after her must have been a hunter, but she recalled talk of Minhoe. A transfer student from south-east Asia, she was probably a good student because Gaia never saw her in her office. But if another person was at the scene maybe they'd be able to tell her more details.

"Do you remember what the person who jumped out the window looked like? Or even the other person, who they were or their appearance?" She asked him, "Any little detail might help."

"Nope. Didn't see anyone or anything. But!" Cian paused for dramatic effect, "One of the guys you're looking for is Sean... uh, Sean the rugby guy. 'Cause he came up to me after and was asking all these questions, but I told him to fuck off. And after that... I don't really know... Then you guys."

"Sean Brinkerhoff," She placed the name immediately, lots of the staff liked to talk about the rugby team. And she thought he was dating... Minhoe. This could be a little complicated. Especially since they couldn't just tell him that his girlfriend was a vampire and was probably killed by someone else at their school. "Do you think you could talk to him for us. Or at least convince him to come talk to me."

"Wait. Pause. You work at the school?"

"Yes, you've come into my office a few times. I'm the counsellor." Shaking her head slightly, she turn to Logan. "and you, I hope you were listening because I wont explain it to you later."

"Yep," Logan said, "been taking notes and everything."

"Okay," Cian looked from Logan back to Gaia, "So why can't you just call him to your office or something?"

"I can't just call students down to my office. It'll be suspicious. Plus there's a hunter in your school. If they're sharp they'll pick up on it."

"I'm sure he's got lots of issues to talk about," Cian replied.

"Alright, listen up," Logan sighed. "We could stand here all night arguing with you about this. Or I could remind you that we saved your life by taking you in, and are prepared to teach you about this new life, or to make it your own personal hell, hm?" Logan tilted his head and smiled nicely.

Cian cast down his eyes, then glanced back up, “So… you’re saying I owe you one.”

"You owe us a ton more than one," Logan said, "but this is a start."