After being escorted through the entire castle and several security systems, the men guide me to a small basement. It definitely has to be the smallest room in the entire castle, so it must have just been built solely for this purpose. For... me.
"Open the door and follow the tunnel to the very end. It is completely straight the entire way. The journey will take you about thirty minutes. At the end you will encounter a security system... all you will need to do is place your hand on the monitors, and you will be granted access. Good luck." One of the men instructs.
Before I know it, they both disappear back up the stairs, and I am left alone in the small basement.
Okay, okay... I've got this. I haven't been at the top of my class my entire life for nothing. I was born for this. Even King Dexter said that only I could do this.
My hand shakes as I reach for the door in front of me, and I eventually somehow gather up the courage to turn the handle. My eyes widen as the tunnel is revealed to me. Wow.
I guess in my mind I had been picturing some small, dark tunnel that would be a pain to navigate through. Unlike the majority of King Dexter's castle, the tunnel is extremely cavernous, and almost too bright. There are lights lining both of the sides to the very end of what I can see so far. I tighten the straps on the backpack they provided for me, and begin my journey.
I quickly find my mind wandering off to dark places, and where this could all go wrong. You grow up hearing about how dangerous Vampires are and how we should be elated that we are separated from them by The Great Divide, and yet here I am taking a tunnel under the wall to sneak into the territory. I don't know what to think.
Sneak into the territory. Find the castle. Walk around the castle. Make your way back around six.
Sneak into the territory. Find the castle. Walk around the castle. Make your way back around six.
Sneak into the territory. Find the castle. Walk around the castle. Make your way back around six.
I repeat the words to myself almost enough to drive myself crazy, and before I know it, I see a large, metal door that looks like the opening to a vault. Sure enough, there is a small monitor to the right of it. I place my hand onto it, and the door slowly opens. As soon as I step onto the other side of it, it closes shut.
About fifty feet away, there is yet another vault-looking metal door. This time, I am required to place both of my hands onto two monitors next to each other.
I must go through about ten vaults until one of them opens and the sky is finally revealed to me. I am taken aback when I finally reach the end. I... did it. I am in the Vampire's territory.
Oh god... I am in the Vampire's territory.
I look behind me to see the last vault-looking door camouflage itself to look like the grassy hill behind it that it lies upon. There is no way anyone would notice that there is a door there... In fact, I will probably have to contact King Dexter on my way back in order to find this tunnel again.
I don't think I have ever been this close to The Great Divide before... it is so huge. I look off into the distance to see a whole lot of nothing, but finally notice tall buildings in the distance to my left. Here goes nothing.
I shake off my coat and shove it into the back of my backpack. I feel naked in only these clothes, and these fishnets on my legs feel beyond odd, but I try my best not to think about it.
I begin making my way towards the center of the territory.
It's only about ten minutes before I am right next to one of the large buildings that seemed miles away a little bit ago. The first major difference I notice in this territory is how massive the buildings are. The only building this big in the human territory is King Dexter's castle.
I make my way towards a sidewalk, and that is when I see my first Vampire.
It's a tall man, with spiked black hair. He has black markings all over his arms, from his shoulders to his wrists. I think we learned in a history class long ago that superior Vampires have tattoos, but I cannot remember for sure.
He wears clothes similar to mine in the way that they are all black and different, but his are torn and ragged, almost as if he has just gotten into a fight. I notice his three rings on his fingers almost instantly. His all have a large, shining emerald stone. I glance down at my imposters to see that they are red. I wonder what the significance of the colors are.
Soon enough, vampires fill my vision left and right. They are all so creepy looking, yet... enticing. I have this involuntary craving to go up and talk to every single one of them.
I feel as if there are much less Vampires than Humans. If you were to walk in the center of the human territory, you would find hundreds, possibly even thousands of people. I am almost to the center, I think, and the Vampires so far are very sparse.
It's interesting to look down at everyone's rings. They're so captivating...
I realize that I am closer to the castle than I thought as it already appears in close proximity. The Vampire's territory is also much smaller than the Human's.
Their castle is surprisingly much more inviting than ours. It is all white, and a decent height, but not too tall. It doesn't look nearly as big as King Dexter's castle from the outside. Keeping what King Dexter said about Vampires being welcome in their castle in mind, I begin to make my way towards the entrance.
It is going to be so odd to just casually walk into a ruler's castle... I hadn't ever been into King Dexter's until yesterday.
And now I apparently live in it... I will never get used to this.
As I approach the castle, I am greeted by what I am assuming to be the castle guard. He wears a specific uniform that is different from everyone else's attire.
"Um, hi," I wave.
He smiles at me, but still remains in front of the castle doors.
"Can I go in?" I ask him.
"What's the password?" He asks.
Panic running through my body immediately, I try to hide my blank expression and begin to stutter.
"U-uh, um..." I sound pathetic.
I begin to turn around. The guard simply laughs.
"I'm kidding! Of course you can go in, you don't have to ask!"
My heart rate returns to normal. Not funny, dude.
I push past him and enter the castle, looking around slightly. It's almost identical to King Dexter's in the inside... dark, ominous... I thought it would be different considering the outside of it.
There seems to be more Vampires walking around in the castle than there were out on the streets. There must be a lot of jobs associated with the castle. Every single one of them look daring but also friendly, if that's even possible.
King Dexter told me my only job for today was to "learn my way around the castle," so I guess that's exactly what I'll do.
I decide to follow this one girl who seems to be friendly. Her welcoming smile when talking to someone else is what made me decide to follow her. She unknowingly leads me down a long, dark hallway and into a large dining room. I almost gasp at the size of the dining table... it is unnecessarily long. Fifty families could probably sit down and eat there all at one time.
I accidentally lose the girl I was following, so I take it upon myself to walk into a room located behind the enormous dining room. The room is completely red, and there are several desks and computers scattered about. This much be an office of some sort? Perhaps further down the line I could look onto one of these computers to get information about the decline of our population.
There are so, so many different rooms that I could go in and explore. All of the choices are somewhat overwhelming.
I find myself walking up a flight of stairs, and then down yet another long hallway.
My heart jumps out of my chest when a door is suddenly revealed to my right. Confused, I take a step back, and watch as the door disappears. Then, I take another step forward, and, just like that, it appears to me once again. What the...
Curious, I reach for the door handle when it is visible to me, and slowly open the door. I am led into a small, dark room with security monitors all over the place.
"ACCESS GRANTED!" A computer voice shouts from somewhere in the room, and I cower in fear.
Yet another door is revealed to the right of me, and I decide that I haven't come this far for nothing. What in the world could these be leading to? Do they somehow know that I am a human, and this is a trap? Can only humans see these hidden doors?
I open the next door, and enter a room that looks like a large office. It looks very similar to King Dexter's office.
Oh God.
I turn around immediately to leave, but the door has since disappeared. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to understand what I have just done.
What do I do!?
I look around the office for an exit, and huff with relief when I see a door across the room. Making sure nobody is around to see me, I run over to the other side of the room and grab the door handle. When I creak it open, several different people gathered around a large table are discussing something. They seem to be having a conference of some sort. Realizing that I obviously can't walk through this way, I close the door quietly and turn around to try and find another exit.
As soon as I do so, I bump right into someone and am forced to take a step back. I keep my gaze onto the floor, too terrified to look up at who it might be.
This is it, I failed, they're going to know everything...
"Oh, I'm sorry" A man's soothing voice fills the air around me.
I glance up and lock eyes with the most charming, sea-green eyes I have ever seen. I am speechless as I take in the man in front of me. He is tall and slim, almost to the point where he cowers over me. His dark-brown hair is curly, yet perfectly pushed back on from the top of his forehead. My initial impression of him is that I have never seen anyone like him before.
He is so incredibly... alluring.
"U-um, no, I'm sorry..." I stutter, not knowing what to say.
His prominent eyebrows furrow at me as I still take time to get used to his attractive features.
"I've never seen you in the royal division of the castle before," he states, and my mind goes in circles.
I have no idea what to say. I am not only speechless, but motionless. I look like a statue standing in front of this insanely handsome man. He glances down at my hand, and grabs it with one of his large ones. I am confused at first, but soon realize that he is looking at my rings. He examines them carefully, squinting his eyes a bit to do so.
"How did you get in here?" He asks.
"I... I don't know," my mouth says the truth before my mind can agree.
"Your rings... they let you in, yeah?"
Oh.
So, the rings are what allow you into certain rooms? What type of rings did King Dexter give to me? Does he know that they granted me access into the royal section of the Vampire castle?!
"Uh... yes." I say.
He looks just as confused as I am as he finally releases my hand from his warm grip. I let out a breath I didn't even realize I had been holding.
"So, why are you here?" He asks.
My mind runs wild with possible explanations that I could give him. I don't know what to say. I feel like I am shaking, and I can tell that he notices my uncomfortableness.
Just as I open my mouth to come up with some false reason, the door that leads into the conference-looking room bursts open, and an angry man rushes through.
"Fuck... I cannot believe this! I just cannot believe this." He yells, waving his hands through the air.
Absolutely petrified, I watch as he runs over and takes a seat at the large desk. The desk that looks almost identical to King Dexter's...
"What can I do to help?" The green-eyed man makes his way over to him, looking as if he is worried sick.
"Nothing. You cannot do anything, you only ever make things worse!" The angry man yells at him.
The attractive boy recoils, taking a couple steps back from the desk.
The angry man shuffles through several papers on his desk, throwing many onto the floor. The attractive boy rushes over to pick them up for him. I stand, frozen in place.
"Who the fuck are you?!" I tremble as the words escape the angry man's mouth.