Companion Song:
Misery Business by Paramore
________________________________________
I waited eight long months,
She finally set him free.
I told him I couldn't lie he was the only one for me.
Two weeks we caught on fire,
She's got it out for me,
But I wear the biggest smile.
________________________________________
The next morning, I wake before the sun is out. I'm still buzzing with excitement over Rex agreeing to join me for the welcome back concert. For a minute, I lose myself in thoughts of his elegant frame and warm smile, the way he leans to the right when he stands, and how cute his meek confidence is.
I check the sand clock on my dresser and realize there's not enough time to fall back asleep before having to get up again, so I stare out the window. The gibbous moon is shining bright, and there is some movement in the hills beyond the forest of trees. I realize it's the creatures getting ready for the start of the day.
A part of me wonders what it would be like to run through the woods and hunt prey to feast on. But a part of me wants nothing to do with the cursed lifestyle of my bloodsucking heritage. I tell myself that I can easily have Reverend Thomas cast a spell today to get rid of that part of me forever like so many of my ancestors, but I can't bring myself to throw away the gifts of a blue vampire. Luckily, I don't have to decide yet. I don't plan on dying anytime soon, and if I don't die, I won't be reborn as a true vampire.
I keep watching the faraway movements on top of the hills while the sunlight begins to creep up. I hear the other students starting to move in their rooms, so I step away and jump into the shower before anyone can steal all the heated water.
I end up taking an extremely long shower, so I don't see anyone around when I get out. I hurry up and get dressed in black jeans and a Ketu white tunic with a large symbol of a four-armed snake-like reptile on the back.
With my uniform on, I quickly brush my dark hair, making sure that the red and purple streaks are positioned perfectly. I grab my bag and rush to breakfast hoping there is still enough food left to get me to lunch.
In the dining hall, I ignore the crowd of Wyvern students being served specially prepared meals and walk towards one of the side walls where the common buffet is set up. A few Harpy Style kids cut in front of me when I bend down to tie my shoe, but I don't say anything. There's enough food left.
With my plate full of cold hash browns and a thick banana crepe, I head over to the middle of the hall farthest from the food where the Ketu students are corralled. Murie and Akuma are laughing while poking their soggy waffles with their fingers.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" I ask.
Akuma keeps digging his fingers into the wells of the breakfast food.
Murie looks up with a sinister smile on her face while licking her finger. "Akuma hexed the waffle so every time we poke it, one of the Wyvern kids' food gets mashed a little."
"You guys are ridiculous," I reprimand them with an amused smile before turning around to see if any of the Wyverns notice something wrong with their food.
"Watch the one in the full green. With the short hair," Akuma says, pointing to a student being served Eggs Benedict. I recognize him as one of the kids in the group that pranked me yesterday.
I keep a close eye on him as Akuma pushes his finger onto the waffle. The boy's Eggs Benedict suddenly develop a huge dent before rolling off the side of the plate right onto his lap. The boy stands up with a shout and tried to wipe off the stain on his pristine uniform, but it's useless. The Hollandaise has left its mark.
I turn back around and laugh with Murie and Akuma. "But how do you know which plate you're getting?"
Akuma gives me a smirk. "It's a grid system. The first poke was tied to my thoughts, but that was too draining, so I made the first one a reference. From there I just hit a different window to control the direction of the next event. And when I have the plate picked, I just poke the middle to make the spell go."
I nod with my mouth open in amazement. Akuma is always lost in his own world, and he is probably the laziest person I've ever met, but the guy is a genius. I guess when your dad is a famous and powerful sorcerer, you pick up a few things. Of course, when your dad is also a high-risk criminal, you pick up a few more interesting things like how to mess with someone's breakfast.
I let Akuma and Murie continue their prank while I pan my eyes across the Ketu tables. Rex isn't there; he must have finished breakfast and left for class early. I sigh, slightly disheartened that I don't get to see his face, but another crash of plates on the Wyvern Style tables brings me back up.
I finish my cold breakfast just as the bells ring for the start of the first class. It's Physical Activities for Third Years, and we practice archery because somehow it's still a productive use of our time in the nuclear age. Maybe if the world does end by an atom bomb, the archery will help in the dystopian post-apocalypse.
I want to use the time to talk to Rex, but Professor Steen is strict about conversations in her class, so I watch him from afar. He sneaks a few jokes with his friend Notre when she's not looking, but I'm too far away to hear anything. Murie is a few spots past him, struggling to hit her target while Akuma is next to me lazily shooting his arrows wherever he wants. After an hour of pulling arrow after arrow through the bowstring, my arms are burning with soreness.
Finally, the bells toll again for the next class. Professor Steen struts away in her knee high boots and leather jacket as another teacher approaches.
"Ah, the first Mythical Beasts lecture of the year!" A burly, cue ball of a man spreads his arms and tries to excite the class.
"Well, you're all third years now, so that means you can finally start getting into the more hands-on stuff." He looks around at the arrows strewn across the grounds. "I see Professor Steen has already gotten you warmed up."
He turns and begins to walk toward the back end of the castle. With a wave of his arm, he beckons us to follow in his deep voice.
We follow him to the edge of Star Lake where the forest begins when he holds up his hands to make us stop.
"There will be so much for you all to see this year, but it's a Pionscor tradition to make the first Mythical Beasts lecture a combined one. The other Styles will be joining us before I reveal exactly what's so special about this first lecture."
I look over to Akuma, but he just shrugs. Murie fills in with her usual knowledge of all things Pionscor. "We're going to get to see an actual Ketu, Harpy, and Wyvern. Aren't you excited?"
My eyes widen. "Isn't that kinda dangerous?"
But Akuma's light up. "Awesome!"
Notre overhears Murie and confirms it with a stomp of his foreleg. "Yeah, my older brother told me when he was a third year."
A murmur begins throughout the class, and the clique of fauns start bickering in their circle.
"Quiet, please!" The deep voice of the man who led us here echoes over the lake. "We have visitors."
I turn to see a group of students in green and gold making their way toward us. Behind them are the third year Harpy Style students in their red and blue uniforms.
"Oh look, we found a whole herd of mythical beasts!" One of the Wyvern students in front points at us.
My blood boils, and I'm ready to give them the finger when a loud roar erupts from one of the centaurs in the back. The sound is so ferocious the hair on my back stands up. But my reaction is nothing compared to the Wyvern students who look like they are ready to cry. We chuckle to ourselves, and the Harpy students join in with laughter.
"Alright, alright. Calm down, everyone," the cue ball professor says. "Welcome to your first lecture of Mythical Beasts. I'm Professor Orec Ogren, and we're going to have an amazing year meeting some fantastic creatures." He eyes the crowd of students before saying anything else. "But first, it's time to learn about your namesakes. Follow me."
He turns and walks into the forest, so we follow him. The trees are packed close together, so very little sunlight gets through. Professor Ogren taps his fist against his chest twice before a flood of bubbles emitting light come flowing out of his mouth. The forest looks as though the sun were shining brightly, and a few owls fly away from the bubbles that follow us on our trek.
About five hundred yards into the woods, the trees begin to recede until an enormous opening gives way. There are a few empty cabins on one side of the clearing, and far on the back end of the place are three cages filled with a beast in each.
Professor Ogren stops us. "Before we go any further, a little learning is in order. Who here can tell me about the creature that represents your Style?"
A few hands shoot up, mostly from Wyvern Style.
"Alright, you. Tell me." Professor Ogren points to a boy in green pants and a gold tunic.
The boy clears his throat before saying anything. "Wyverns are the creature for Wyvern Style."
I can't help but laugh a little at his obvious statement, but he ignores me and keeps going.
"They are a fierce and powerful creature that can breathe fire and fly for three days straight without any food or water. They can grow to the size of four horses and were commonly used in the middle ages as mounts for knights and other warriors alike."
Professor Ogren nods with a smile. "Very good. What about Harpies?" He looks toward the crowd of red and blue, but no one raises a hand. He picks one anyway. "You. Tell me."
The tall girl in red panics and blurts out in ridiculous speed, "They can fly and see amazingly in the day and night, and have a high pitched screech that can disorient their prey. People used to hunt them for their beautiful feathers."
After another nod, Professor Ogren turns to Ketu. "Well?"
A couple hands go up, and he calls on a faun in the front. "Um, yeah. Ketu. A Ketu is like this giant snake-like creature with four arms and glowing eyes. They have venom that can kill you in minutes, and some people say that it was Ketu venom that was used to kill the fourth Vampire King's son during the ancient Color Wars. Uh, they can get as long as thirty feet and almost as big as a grown human. Oh and they like to hatch their babies underwater. Sometimes they climb trees to get away from muddy waters when it rains or the heat in the summer, and sometimes they..."
Professor Ogren stops him from saying anything else. "Thank you, that's more than enough information."
A collective giggle goes off.
"Now that you have all heard a little about these creatures, I hope you understand just how dangerous they are. I'd like you to read the chapters on all three for homework. You might just get a better understanding of why they are Pionscor's chosen representatives of the Styles. Also, I want you to read the history of the Styles in the school's library. You are Wyverns, Harpies, and Ketus for a reason. You should know what that means."
We all groan with the added homework on the second day of school.
"Alright, alright. Don't give me that." He waits for us to quiet again. "Now what do you say we go and see them up close?" He turns and strides to the cages before anyone can object.
We follow him warily, not wanting to get too close to them.
"Come on now." Professor Ogren waves his arm to call us in closer. He goes to the cage on the right first. "This here is a beautiful harpy."
In the cage is a beautiful creature twice as big as him. The feathered legs have long, sharp talons that could cut a horse to shreds with ease. The light, leathery torso extends into a head that looks like a cross between an aye-aye and a baboon, and the enormous wings are covered in feathers that remind me of peacocks and parrots, only much more pretty.
"Cover your ears, please," Professor Ogren warns before tossing a half dead squirrel into the cage.
I quickly cover my ears with my hands as the harpy lets out a deafening sound. The squirrel which was moving earlier seems to have fainted from the loud sound. With an amazingly quick motion, the harpy flies from its spot on the tree branch and scoops up the squirrel with its claws. It rips the immobile animal apart and eats the meat slowly.
"Next," Professor Ogren moves to the second cage. "We have the wyvern."
This creature is even bigger than the harpy. The green and red scales are thick, and the winged dragon is ferociously breathing smoke out of its mouth. The hind legs are massive and the muscles under the skin are evident. The wings are even bigger, but it's the teeth that grab my attention. Bright white like someone just brushed them, they are easily as big as my forearm.
"Stand back," Professor Ogren motions for us to move away before grabbing another half-dead squirrel.
Fire explodes from the creature's mouth before the squirrel even hits the floor. The wyvern jumps over and licks up the whole carcass with a massive tongue before demolishing its meal in one swift bite.
"And finally, the elusive Ketu."
I see a large coil of dark blue scales protruding from an elongated body. There is little more to see.
"Come a little closer. You'll want to be near for this," Professor Ogren calls us in again before throwing in the last squirrel. Except this one is a bit more alive than the other two.
As soon as the squirrel hits the floor, a sharp needle-like scale shoots from the now erect Ketu's head and into the squirrel's back. Less than ten seconds later, the squirrel stops breathing. The Ketu slithers over slowly and picks up the meal. Carefully pulling apart the quickly disintegrating body, it swallows all the flesh and leaves behind perfectly cleaned bones.
"Well, there you have it. A little demonstration to keep you motivated to learn. Now, time to get out of the woods."
We make it back to the castle grounds just as class ends. Everyone is buzzing about the fearsome display we just witnessed, and I can feel chills still running down my spine.
Akuma tries to talk to me about it, but I'm lost in my thoughts of what it would be like to become a deadly predator like them. I wonder if I'd be able to take down one of those creatures on my own as a true vampire, but I decide I really don't want to find out.
The rest of the classes for the day are uneventful, and I barely learn anything since I'm too busy daydreaming about Rex. I finally get an opportunity to talk to him after the last class, but I have no idea what to say, so I pull Murie away with me to the shady walkway around the North Lawn.
"Really? You're going to be this scared to talk to him after asking him out?" Murie rolls her eyes.
I sigh, "I know. But I didn't mean to. It just kinda slipped out."
She shakes her head at me with a patronizing look that I don't appreciate, so I roll my eyes right back at her.
"I mean, at least he said yes." I let my giddy smile return to my face and let the daydreaming start all over again. I squeal with excitement and shout, "I can't believe Rex is going to go on a date with me!"
"Hmph!" I hear someone scoff at my joy.
I bring my focus back to the path and look around to see Harriet Dock standing a few feet away from me with her arms folded and a scowl on her face.
I hate that bitch.
"Just ignore her, Ivy," Murie advises me.
I want to listen to her because I know nothing good will come from a confrontation, especially with her.
"Don't get your hopes up too much. I hear you're a charity case," Harriet taunts me.
"Ivy," Murie warns again.
I listen to her for a second, but my anger gets the best of me. "Shut up! He dumped you last year. It's over, okay. Get. Over. It!" I yell at her.
She walks up to me and pokes a finger into my chest. "What did you say to me?"
"You heard me!" I want to add "bitch" but hold myself back.
"He didn't dump me. We decided it wasn't the best time." She pushes me back with a light shove.
I hate her. She was Rex's girlfriend for over a year, but they broke it off at the end of the previous year because Harriet was about to start her final year. She is only a year older than us, but her early start at Pionscor put her two years ahead of us.
I shove back a little harder.
She returns a push with both hands, and I trip over a bag someone left in the middle of the walkway. I hit the floor, hard.
She walks over to me and stands above me as Murie tries to help me up.
And then it happens.
My eyes roll back into my head and I lose all control over my body. I'm like a rag doll with pretty hair.
And then I see it.
A vision of a shadowed man standing over a bloody body tied to a chair floods my mind. The man has a whip dripping with blood in his hands. It's apparently the weapon he used to torture and interrogate the dark-haired person in the chair.
I feel my lungs fill with a gush of air.
But the vision continues. The guy in the chair looks up, and I see the face. It's Rex, with tears in his eyes, pleading for his life to deaf ears.
"Rex!" I wake up shouting his name, surrounded by a group of students in the common room.
I look around and shake my head to gather my thoughts. A few of the students giggle and walk away while Murie helps me up.
Harriet laughs and leaves after the others.
"Are you okay?" Murie looks concerned.
"Yeah, sorry. I must have just hit my head." I don't tell her about the vision because it seems like such a preposterous thing, and I tell myself that I have to scale back my Rex daydreaming. Stupid hormones.
"Well, you seem okay now." Murie still looks concerned.
"I am, really." I prove it to her with a bit of shadow boxing. "See?"
She gives me both the head shake and eye roll, but let's me win. "Fine, fine. We should be getting to the courtyard anyways. Old Rev. Tom's doing the enchantments today."
"Why does everyone call him that?" Akuma startles us with his sudden presence. "I mean, what about before he got old. Or before he was a reverend?"
Murie pushes him playfully, and I tell him to shut up with a smile.
The courtyard is filled with a long line of students waiting to get shields and negations and enchantments. Some smarter students get protection from vampire bites and thrope scratches while others ask for general protection charms, healing potions, energy boosters, or minor curse removals.
I see Professor Sol at the front of the line covered in his usual garb of sunglasses and dark cloak.
"Reinforcing his daylight charm, isn't he?" Murie asks me.
"Yeah. I'm sure he doesn't want his skin to burn in the sun everyday," I answer.
"Why don't you need one?" Akuma asks.
"Really?" I give him my best incredulous look.
"What?" he questions, still confused.
"You have seen my eyes right?" I try and baby him into the reason.
He looks into my bright ice blue colored eyes. "Yeah..."
I sigh. He's hopeless.
"She's a Blue Vampire..." Murie fills in. "They aren't affected by the sun in the same way."
"Yeah, besides, I haven't died yet. I'm not a True Vampire, dum dum," I add.
"Oh, right..." Akuma responds with a look that reveals he's as confused as ever.
"How do you not know this? It's basic magical knowledge," Murie responds a bit irritated. "We even covered it in Intro to Magic our first year."
"I just don't know. My dad was usually on the run when I was young, so I spent more of my time in the human world. I never even met a vampire until I came to Pionscor, and that class covered a billion other things I didn't pay attention to, too!" He explains.
I sigh and try to explain the vampire basics as quickly as I can. "Okay, well there's two or three kinds of vampires depending on who you ask. Anyways, Professor Sol is a Violet Vampire. That's the type that can create other vampires from humans. They can do a couple other things, but that's the special thing about them."
"But the humans' eyes don't change colors."
"Well, they do actually. But only when they're feeding or using their new abilities. Oh, and they turn red, not purple. That's why some people say they're a different type. Well, that and they're easier to kill. But yeah, they can make more Reds."
"And you're a Blue Vampire?"
"Yep. I can't make any new vampires unless I give birth to them before I'm undead, but I can shapeshift and teleport over small distances and a few other things that Violets can do."
Akuma nods, his expression the same as before. "So... But you're not really a vampire yet..."
I sigh again, a bit exasperated. He is never going to get this. "Yeah, not until I die and get reborn as a True Vampire."
"Oh, okay." His face stays the same.
I give up.
Murie laughs. "Just forget it. We're next, so I hope you know what charms you need."
I follow Murie to the reverend. He's an old man who carries a tall cherry wood cane tipped with a silver griffin ornament. His white hair no longer grows on the top of his head, but he keeps a goatee to make up for it. His back stays bent, but otherwise he is in perfect health.
A master of potions, curses, and charms, both new and ancient, Reverend Thomas joined the clergy after retiring from his job at the International Magical Library. I remember spending my first day at Pionscor listening to his neverending stories, wishing he would stop talking. I was too nice then, and I let him tell me his whole life story. The man loves to talk.
"Ah, Ivy, welcome back. What can I get for you and your friends?" he asks me with a cute old man smile.
Murie and Akuma giggle because they find his interest in me amusing. I roll my eyes at them.
"I just need a focus charm if you have one 'cause um..." I think about telling him about my daydreaming visions, but decide I'd rather keep it to myself. "'Cause classes and studying..."
"Ah, school getting tough now, is it?" He hands me a vial with a green potion in it. "Just drink half before bed tonight, and the rest when you wake up. You'll be set for the whole year."
I pull out my purse to pay him, but he waves his arm to stop me.
"It's on me, dear."
I smile and thank him as Akuma and Murie giggle again.
Once they get their own set of charms and potions, we head to dinner.
* * *
Harriet marched away from the North Lawn with a contemptuous look on her face, straight to the fifth floor of the Ketu dormitories and into her bedroom. It was only the second day of school and already rumors were spreading about how Ivy Wiles had stolen Rex from her.
Harriet had wanted to set the record straight when she heard that Ivy was flaunting it, but her emotions had gotten the best of her. She knew the fight was stupid and childish. But now that it had happened, she had to make it clear that Rex didn't dump her like everyone thought.
Once she was inside her room, she let the smug facade slip as a deep frown took over her mouth. She ran to her bed and collapsed into it as the tears rolled down. Burying her face into the pillow, she let the sobs rack her body.
She hated how everyone said that Rex and she had split a year ago. It was the end previous school year, but it had only been five months. And she wasn't over him.
"Why do I still feel this way!" she screamed at herself. "I'm graduating in another eight months! I have my exit exams! I can't keep thinking about him!"
The sobs didn't stop, though. She punched the pillow trying to control her emotions, but it didn't help.
"I hate that girl!"