"Jane, let's go to lunch!"
Amelia's voice traveled through the living room, through the plywood door, and finally reached Jane, whose ears were buried under the blanket, leaving only a small gap to breathe through.
She rolled over, a few strands of hair falling across her face, the rest tangled behind her back.
11:50 a.m
It had to be a curse to toss and turn all night, only to fall asleep the moment morning came.
"5 more minutes," she shouted.
Amelia removed her shoes and dropped onto the sofa. Normally, Jane would be the one sitting there, waiting. It wouldn't be so bad if, once in a while, their roles were reversed.
Water ran from the tap. The toilet flushed. Human routines weren't so different, after all.
Clack
The lock twisted.
"Already?"
Amelia turned around.
"Yeah, let's go."
Jane walked toward the cabinet and bent down. They shared a shoe rack, Amelia's on the upper shelves, Jane's at the bottom. She groped for the shoes and stepped straight onto the heels. Walking would make them fit eventually.
Together, they headed towards the cafeteria, housed in one of the castle's longest wings. Wide and imposing from the outside, but like other places, the inside had been cleverly renovated, leaving only a small touch of history.
The second floor belonged to red pins and third-rank vampires who were there to accompany their food, or lovers. Jane hadn't quite figured out all the different kinds of relationships here yet. She hoped she never had to.
Behind the glass counters, dishes gleamed under the sconces: steak, balsamic lamb, spinach,...
Choosing a meal had become a small daily challenge for Jane, one she absolutely enjoyed.
"Over here," Alice waved. Her hair was half-up, half-down, secured with a black bow. One easy way to tell Alice and Alina apart: the hair.
"You're up this early?" Jane put her tray down and pulled out a chải, bracing it with one leg to keep it from screeching.
"What? You think I sleep in a coffin?"
"No," Jane denied, then raised an eyebrow: "But do you?"
"Of course not!" Alice laughed. "Sleeping for us is like flipping a. I get bored, so I turn it on."
"Speaking of sleep," Amelia leaned closer, concern softening her voice. "You look pale, Jane. Did you use the concealer I gave you?"
Amelia loved caring for her look. Makeup and outfit were armor of the modern world, she claimed.
Couldn't say Jane disagreed with that.
"Right, I forgot," Jane admitted. "I was in a hurry."
"You could have said something. I would've waited," Amelia said. Though her tone sounded bossy, with a heavy pitch at the end of the sentence, the intent was gentle.
Jane reached into her pocket and pulled something out. "I brought lipstick."
She uncapped it and dabbed color onto the center of her lips, then pressed them together to spread it evenly.
Amelia's eyes went wild. The tiny mirror slipped back into her pocket. "Use a mirror next time, Jane."
"Sorry. Force of habit." Jane smiled awkwardly. The skill had been honed through years of secretly using makeup behind her mom's back.
Across the table, Alice sat in silence, watching their exchange. She didn't have a say in this, as the only thing she could think of was how lucky she was to be a vampire.
"Let's eat!"
The steam rising from the dishes under her nose made her stomach growl.
"Oh Jane, have you thought about which club to join?"
"What?" She pulled in a string of noodles, her mind running fast to think of anything relating to this topic.
"So that's what all the tents are for!"
One day, Jane looked down from the window and saw the campus covered in burgundy canvas. She had thought there was going to be a fair, but this, this was just as fun.
"Yeah, we are in the theatre club," Alice's face lit up. "You should join us. Alina's there too, though she is more of a manager," she added.
"What about Rose?"
"She's in the art club. Not very active, but you can't expect too much from Rose," Alice said casually as they walked out of the cafeteria. She opened her umbrella before stepping into the sun.
"Right. I'll think about it. See you at the field later."
Jane had already slipped away, careful and quiet, like a sneaky crab moving in the other direction.
"What? You're not going with us?"
They turned around almost in sync, with Amelia missing a beat to dodge Alice's umbrella as it swung around.
"I need to go to the lab."
"For what?" Amelia asked, confused about what business anyone could have there.
"Health checked. I have some serious health problems," Jane said, nodding as she spoke. She didn't blink, not because blinking meant lying, but because she didn't want to miss even the smallest change on their faces.
She could have lied. But she had already used up all her good deeds. Half a lie might cut her karma in half, too. She had no choice but to believe that.
"Bye."
Jane ran off before anyone could ask further. Next time, she would choose either lunch or the lab.
Changing the check-up time was out of the question. Jane knew her place, especially after realizing that, out of all the humans, she was the least cared for.
Had they done it on purpose? Assigning her the pin that marked her as accessible to the vampires. To see which factor would accelerate the process, perhaps.
Jane couldn't stop thinking for two days straight. By the third day, she decided to stop answering the questions that weren't meant for her in the first place.
She kicked a small rock in frustration. It flew a short distance, then landed directly in her path again. With the way she'd been walking with her neck bent toward the sky, it was a miracle she hadn't tripped.
The lab was here.
A heavy wooden door stood before her, a sign shining above it: "RESEARCH CENTER."
Jane opened it.
The other time she visited this place, there was no one. Now, in full daylight, every table was filled, each with at least one person in a white coat.
"Hi, Elly."
Elly was part of Ms.Kelsey's team, a young human who took care of Jane whenever Ms.Kelsey wasn't around.
But don't be fooled by her round face and soft eyes, Elly had only slipped once.
"I'm having trouble sleeping," Jane said. "Days and nights."
"Already?"
Elly's voice lifted. A few of her peers turned their heads around, then continued with their tasks.
A simple reaction, but for a rat digging every piece of information, it was a confirmation. Jane hadn't meant to set a sprat, but the mackerel found its way into her net.
Her face remained normal. Neither of them acknowledged the slip.
"I mean, don't worry. It's fine. You're just in mid-transformation," Elly continued. Her steady hand slid the needle into Jane's vein, no trace of panic in her movements.
Luckily, Jane had been eating well. Otherwise, she would have been fainting every two weeks.
"I will give you some medicine," Elly said while walking over to the drawers. She returned with two small glass bottles, the same packaging as the iron pills.
"The blue one is for sleeping. The white one is for your blood's taste."
"My blood's taste?"
"Ms. Kelsey said you might need it."
And how did she know I needed it?
The question stuck in Jane's throat, tangled with a quiet, unsettling satisfaction. She wasn't crazy: they set her up.
A bitter victory, leaving an unpleasant taste in the mouth.
"Thank you, Elly," Jane said, smiling as she took the bottles. Her fingers tightened around the glass without her noticing.
Whatever she said now wouldn't change anything. Her accelerated process had already proven their stupid arrangement a success.
She stepped outside and stopped.
Two bottles of pills. One with a label. One without, bearing only a brief instruction: one per day.
So they knew everything, down to the fact that her blood could drive vampires mad. Someone must have been watching her. Or maybe Ms.Kelsey learned it from another testing subject.
Her head began to spin. Thoughts piled over one another, knotting into a tangled ball of thread, to the point that the best solution would be to cut it all.
At least she no longer had to worry about the whole type-S blood problem. The care would have felt comforting if it had arrived at the right moment.
Jane stared into the distance. Her chest rose and fell as the pills rattled slowly in her grip.
A dark, heavy cloud settled over her vision, draining the last traces of rationality.
Anger burned hot and fast, flaring through the mind, but this stuck to her chest. Suppression. The bitter awareness that this was what she had signed up for, but the unfairness…
She hadn't even wanted to become a vampire, not that fast. They should have picked Jim!
Jane stopped herself before it turned uglier.
Her foot came down hard against the ground. Dry leaves cracked under her heel, and for a moment, that sharp sound was the only thing left in the world.
A few students nearby glanced over, then looked away just as quickly.
She lowered her head.
Yeah… it was definitely time to go to the field.