Life felt unreal.
Blurry and hazy, like a fogged-up filter pressed over the whole room. If only what happened yesterday had been fake too.
Last night, or morning, to be precise, after dragging her broken body back to the dorm and fighting the urge to collapse on the bed, Jane had scrubbed herself clean.
Every trace of blood, every smear of dirt, down to the tips of her nails. Water ran down from the top, mixing with something salty before reaching her toes.
When Jane opened her eyes again, she saw the void. Another restless night, another unnecessary fight.
"Get out! Get out! Get out. You sick thing, stop taking my father's form." Jane collapsed on the floor—no, not a floor—a black surface that couldn't even show her reflection.
"But you call on me."
Jane stared back in silence. She rarely threw tantrums, not for something she considered only a little more real than a dream.
"How could he even be there..." Jane mumbled. She pulled her arms tight across her knees and pressed her head against them. Her eyes kept shifting left and right, her mouth gasped for air as though an invisible string was strangling her.
"Let go and take a rest. You have been through enough already."
Jane sobbed. A small stream of tears ran down from her eyes, soaking the pillow, slipping through reality.
Twenty minutes in dreamworld was four hours in this ongoing nightmare.
Sleep was gone. There were so many things to clear.
This was a vampire nest. That explained the weird schedule perfectly, and the number of attractive people. But there had to be human too, many. They needed food. And then there was her... Jane almost forgot why she came to this school.
And the pins. That vampire had mentioned them. She had seen different colors, different shapes. The meaning was the only thing left.
And Father. How did he end up there? Maybe she imagined it, and he was still safe. He never said what his job was, and she never asked. Could it be a business trip nearby...?
Jane fell back onto her bed. Her body bounced up with the sound of a deflating balloon. She stared at the ceiling, arms and legs spread out, hanging off the edge. Her back stuck to the bed sheet until it started to turn tingling.
Thinking led to nothing. She enjoyed living in her own head — it was easier than doing something, until she couldn't anymore.
****
The campus was filled with students today. Some sat on the benches reading books, some made their way to the cafeteria, while a few wandered around aimlessly.
Jane focused on their pins. It wasn't hard to see that most wore glass ones, similar to hers, except hers was red. Glass stayed with glass; red surrounded themselves with red.
The symbolism was as clear as day. Who else would find red appealing in this school? She was labeled as food. One less mystery, at least.
Suddenly, the ground shook and the sound of something big came from her back.
Jane turned around. From afar, a red dot was growing larger and larger until it revealed itself: all the students in school were running towards her.
They swarmed around, pulling her into the marathon. Their hands grabbed hers, their bodies forminf ablocking wall, forcing her forward. Their face showed no expression, blank as paper, with two black eyes glued onto her, watching her struggle.
Trees rushed by, so fast she could only catch a glimpse of their shadows.
She knew where they were going. The one place she least wanted to be right now.
Jane closed her eyes until she couldn't keep them from shaking.
There was no one left but her and that hole. She straightened her back, raised her head just enough to see that there was...
"Huff...huf...huff." Jane woke up. Sweaty and lost.
She looked at the clock: 8:40 in the morning. Exactly four hours of sleep.
Most of Jane's dreams were direct. If they were too complicated, she wouldn't understand them. This one, however, made no sense, merely a manifestation of her deepest desire and fears.
But again, a dream within a dream was never to be ignored.
Jane quickly got out of bed, made herself presentable, and went straight to the security office.
"Hi, can I borrow the desk phone, please? I need to call my mom. It is kinda urgent."
When she heard about one of the school's most fundamental rules, she wanted to chase after her mother's car. No phones or devices allowed. The only bridge to the outside world would be through this desk telephone, right at the gate where they said goodbye to modern life.
"The line doesn't work today. Must have been the wild animals again," the security man said.
He looked younger than the old guard at Jane's previous school. Had he worn black and hated the sun, she would have thought he was also a vampire.
"...Come back tomorrow," he added. Jane must've been staring for too long.
"Thank you. I will be back." Jane would love to stay, making connections, asking about the bears and the wildlife, but she had a place to go today.
She let out a long sigh. Of course, the easy way never worked. Or worse, had the hole already been dug?
Jane hurried to the forest. Finding the spot would need quite some time. She needed to return before noon, when students poured out. Besides, she didn't want to miss lunch.
No blood. Not even a trace of fighting. In the dark of night, everything was ten times sharper, but now, the leaves lay scattered, as disorganized as ever. The ground was a perfect puzzle, leaving Jane no clue where she had buried her dad.
I guess I did a pretty good job, she thought. No discoloration in sight.
Luckily, she had left a tiny scratch on one tree, in case she wanted to visit his grave one day, though that would make her the typical criminal visiting the crime scene.
Jane started digging again. Deeper…deeper…deeper.
A cold chill ran straight from her back to her toes. If anyone walked into the forest right now, they would've seen a statue.
She could finally see the end of her dream.
Inside the hole she had just dug was nothing.
"Hah...." Her lungs, her chest, her mind dropped. She released a small puff of air. She killed someone to defend herself; she wasn't wrong, right?
She started to laugh, tears coming from her eyes uncontrollably, bitter with joy and something she couldn't name. She took a deep breath and wiped everything off her face.
After digging enough holes for three more persons, Jane could finally know for sure how losing a lot of blood could make her see things. And how it made her hungry.
****
Stepping through the door was an overwhelming experience. Groups of students rushed past in every direction, the smell of hot food hanging in the air, chatter bouncing left and right.
What a zap back to reality. Jane completely forgot how awful it was to be in the school canteen, alone.
Standing at the door any longer would only draw attention.
So she took a plate, got in the line, followed the others. It was easy. All she had to do was peer through the window and pick out the candies she wanted.
The food was freshly cooked, still steaming, and bursting with flavor. The ingredients were nothing out of the ordinary: chicken, beef, tomatoes, ...; cooked like a Sunday meal at home.
Eating without a phone was weird. Her only entertainment was the food in front of her and the students passing by... all while their eyes lingered for longer than normal.
Jane liked it when she was left alone, but why was everyone dodging her like she carried a disease? Was it the sweat from digging? No, not at all.
Or was Mom right and she looked too annoying?
She caught sight of a girl who was walking alone. The girl, like everybody else, glanced at Jane, but she was less fortunate as Jane was ready to make eye contact.
The wind brushing past her face was the answer. From behind her back, she could hear the girl asking a group of students for seat.
Jane looked around again. A light bulb flickered above her head — she was the only one with a red pin here. She'd been too focused on the food to notice something that important.
She was the disturbance here. Jane sighed, dropped her gaze, and looked down.
As much as Jane wanted to be unbothered, eating became more of a chore when there were so many invisible arrows hitting her back. Still, she finished her meal and grabbed a cupcake back for Amelia, whom she assumed hadn't eaten yet.
With everything that had happened, Amelia deserved to be on the watch list. Her kind gesture of lending the dress was appreciated, but the motive behind it was now questionable.
As expected, the sleeping princess had just woken up when the little dwarf returned from a day of grave-digging.
"I brought you cake." Jane stepped through the door with the cake in her hand.
"Really? Which flavor?" She rose up from the sofa, apparently her favorite place besides the bed, and hopped toward the treat.
"Chocolate, I think. They only serve this one." What did she want? Strawberry? Jane's face was spelling the word confused.
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked, one hand on her hip and the other holding the cake.
"Don't tell me you eat on the first floor?"
"Yes…?" Jane hesitated.
"I can't believe it. The first floor is for THEM."
She crossed her arms, clearly judging Jane for making such a mistake. Then, realization hit her.
"Oh no. Don't tell me you are a new one."
"I thought you knew?"
"I knew you were new, but who would have thought you were THAT kind of new. Look at your pin!" Amelia screamed.
She started walking around in circles with her hair tangled and fingertips pressed between her teeth. Her pitch rose with every word: "Oh no... and I brought you to the ball... and introduced you to Ryan—"
She stopped mid-sentence to grab Jane's shoulder. The way her nails dug into Jane's skin said she would rather eat Jane alive right now.
Jane brushed her hands off, picked up the cake, and sat down to meet her at eye level.
"Listen. You've dragged me into a mess I didn't ask for."
Amelia was still sitting on the floor, staring at Jane as if she hadn't almost gotten her roommate killled.
"However, what's done is done," Jane continued. "And you don't want me wandering around, making an even bigger mess, then everyone knows you fed a human to a vampire, do you?"
Amelia nodded.
"Good. Then help me adapt. After all, I am new."
"Your neck"
"What?" Jane took her first bite of the cake. It was good; she should have grabbed two.
"You were bitten."
The sweetness turned to bitterness in her throat — chocolate always did that.
Plans had changed.